Nordic countries are being affected by “truly unprecedented” heat, as “hot weather strengthened and lengthened by carbon pollution continues to roast northern Europe”, reports the Guardian, adding: “A weather station in the Norwegian part of the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 30C (86F) on 13 days in July, while Finland has had three straight weeks with 30C heat. Scientists say it is the longest streak in records going back to 1961, and 50% longer than the previous record.” The Independent also covers the story.

Meanwhile, in other coverage of extreme weather across Europe, the Financial Times says “Europe’s electricity system tested by heatwaves as air-conditioning use soars”. A separate article in the Financial Times says British tourists are “ditching European summer breaks to avoid heatwaves and wildfires”. Euronews reports that 2025 wildfire emissions data has hit “record highs across Europe”. Reuters says that “farmers in southern Hungary’s key agricultural area are grappling with increasingly severe drought as climate change cuts crop yields and reduces groundwater levels, with some considering relocating or alternative employment”. An “unusually high number of jellyfish have arrived in the UK’s seas this summer” reports the Guardian, which explains that “warm sea surface temperatures, which are exacerbated by global heating, create favourable conditions for jellyfish”. BBC News asks: “Melting glaciers threaten to wipe out European villages – is the steep cost to protect them worth it?” And Politico says that “confused politics” is “fanning the flames of southern Europe’s wildfires”.

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER

• Taiwan News says that “torrential rain in central and southern Taiwan over several days has left three dead, four missing, 49 injured and prompted 85 rescues”. In China’s south-west, temperatures topping 40C have “broiled Chongqing”, according to Reuters.
• CNN reports that “smoke from Canadian wildfires hovered over several midwestern [US] states [on] Saturday, bringing warnings of unhealthy air for at least the third day”. The Guardian says: “Two wildfires burning in the western US – including one that has become a ‘mega-fire’ on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon – are so hot that they are spurring the formation of ‘fire clouds’ that can create their own erratic weather systems.”
• In eastern Australia, Reuters reports that several towns have been “blanketed with their thickest layer of snow in decades as wild weather swept the area…causing floods, stranding vehicles and cutting power to thousands of homes”. The Sydney Morning Herald says that a “woman [is] missing in floodwaters as wild weather rips across New South Wales”.
• Bloomberg reports that “South Africa is studying whether some of its largest cities should take out flood insurance after a series of disasters in recent years led to bailouts from the government”.
• Dunya News says Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif is visiting the Gilgit Baltistan region today to “review the flood situation and the damages caused by the recent torrential rains”. It adds that the nation’s National Disaster Management Authority reported yesterday that the death toll “from monsoon-related incidents across Pakistan [since June] has climbed to 299, up from a previously reported 234”.
• Vox: “The surprising reason fewer people are dying from extreme weather.”

The Associated Press reports that the “group of countries that are part of the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries has agreed to boost oil production, a move some believe could lower oil and gasoline prices, citing a steady global economic outlook and low oil inventories”. The newswire adds: “The group met virtually on Sunday and announced that eight of its member countries would increase oil production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. The countries boosting output, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman, had been participating in voluntary production cuts, initially made in November 2023, which were scheduled to be phased out by September 2026. The announcement means the voluntary production cuts will end ahead of schedule.”

The Financial Times carries the story on its frontpage: “The decision marks the end of an agreement that began in January 2024 under which eight members, led by Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, voluntarily cut their daily output by 2.2m barrels aimed concerns about the rise of electric vehicles and sluggish oil demand growth in China.” Reuters says “oil prices edged higher on Monday, paring earlier losses, as traders expect the market to absorb another large output hike by OPEC+ in September, while worries about disruptions to Russian oil shipments to major importer India also provided support”. The New York Times has a story under the headline: “Exxon chief says demand for oil remains ‘very, very strong’.” Finally, the Financial Times has a breaking story: “BP has made its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years after drilling a successful well in a field off the coast of Brazil, in a boost to the energy giant as it refocuses on fossil fuels.”

The “true cost” of the planned Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk could be “tens of billions of pounds higher than official government estimates once financing costs are factored in”, according to official modelling seen by the Financial Times. The newspaper adds: “The UK government last week said the mostly debt-funded project would cost an estimated £38bn in real 2024 prices to build. Under the financial structure of the deal, investors will be rewarded if the project is built for less than £40bn, and not obliged to put in further funds if costs rise above £47.7bn – which is considered unlikely. But financial modelling – prepared as part of the wider fundraising process and seen by the Financial Times – gives a range of roughly £80bn-£100bn in nominal terms over the period of construction for the two scenarios, once debt interest and payments to shareholders are factored in.”

MORE ON UK

• A Times article – titled “Will North Sea drilling make a fortune? Trump’s claims examined” – says “the reality…is more complex”. Relatedly, the Independent reports that UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has “rejected” Trump’s call to halt “unsightly windmills” in the North Sea.
• The i newspaper reports that UK beef and milk are “at risk” as farmers are in a “row with [energy secretary Ed] Miliband over methane cuts”.
• The number of green-energy tariffs available to UK households has “plummeted during the cost of living crisis as bill payers choose affordability over sustainability”, according to industry data covered by the Guardian.
• BBC News: “Billions needed for failing flood defences on Lincolnshire coast.”
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph includes its usual run of news stories seeking to attack net-zero. Topics include “flight tax” raising the cost of family holidays; Network Rail cutting maintenance spending after “net-zero increases electricity costs” [electricity is a tiny part of Network Rail’s costs and is recovered from rail firms] and how “families face losing their land in solar power push”.
• BBC News reports that a “£34bn investment in Scotland’s electricity network is crucial for clean-energy targets despite the increased cost on bills, a transmission operator says”.

A US judge has, reports Reuters, “largely rejected a request by top asset managers including BlackRock to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Texas and 12 other Republican-led states that said the companies violated antitrust law through climate activism that reduced coal production and boosted energy prices”. The newswire adds: “US district judge Jeremy Kernodle in Tyler, Texas agreed to dismiss just three of the 21 counts in the states’ lawsuit, which also names institutional investors State Street and Vanguard. The lawsuit is among the highest-profile cases targeting efforts to promote environmental, social and governance goals. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said the three companies ‘created an investment cartel to illegally control national energy markets and squeeze more money out of hardworking Americans’, and that ‘today’s victory represents a major step in holding them accountable’. The three asset managers said they would continue to defend against the claims, with Vanguard calling the ruling disappointing, and State Street calling the case a risk to investors and energy markets.” The move follows the announcement last week that Florida attorney general James Uthmeier has, reports the Florida Phoenix, opened an investigation against a “climate cartel” for alleged violations of the state’s consumer-protection or antitrust laws, which has involved issuing subpoenas to CDP (formerly the Climate Disclosure Project) and the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).

MORE ON US

• Axios: “Democrats retreat on the Green New Deal.”
• E&E News reports that a “handful of Senate Republicans are escalating their pressure on the Trump administration to back off its efforts to strangle new solar and wind energy projects”.
• A recent Department of Energy order to force a coal plant to operate past its planned retirement date cost the utility $29m over just five weeks, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing covered by E&E News.

China’s biggest solar manufacturers have collectively shed around 87,000 staff in 2024, or 31% of their workforces on average, Reuters reports, citing employment figures in company filings. The number illustrates the impact of “vicious price wars being fought across Chinese industries”, including solar and electric vehicles (EVs), as they “grapple with overcapacity and tepid demand”, the newswire adds. [China’s new solar installations in the first half of 2025 doubled last year’s figure, while EV sales grew 11%.] China’s solar manufacturers built new factories “at a fever pitch between 2020 and 2023” as the government “redirected resources” to favoured clean-energy industries, it continues. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will conduct “energy efficiency inspections” on 41 manufacturers of polysilicon, industry news outlet BJX News reports. An industry insider tells business news outlet Jiemian that a likely motive for the inspections might be to address “projects that consume resources without creating real value”. Business news outlet Yicai reports that “more and more Chinese firms are investing” in solar projects in Africa.

Meanwhile, energy news outlet International Energy Net reports that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning body, emphasised at a meeting on economic policy that it will prevent “involution-style” competition across industries and promote “green and low-carbon development”. Bloomberg reports that the NDRC will “name and shame” companies that exacerbate “competition-related problems” in its latest move to “curb ruinous competition”, according to a recent press conference. The NDRC also told reporters that it will continue improving the “unified national electricity market”, International Energy Net reports. 

MORE ON CHINA

• China Daily publishes an editorial saying China has “step[ped] up to the plate on climate” following the “US’ withdrawal from the global climate agenda”.
• Bloomberg: “Chinese EVs recover in Europe to pre-tariff market share level.”
• Thailand has “adjusted” EV subsidies in the face of “overcapacity” driven by Chinese investment, Caixin reports. BYD has been granted a “short-term tariff break” in Brazil, but may face more aggressive hikes in future, SCMP reports.
• China Daily quotes Jin Ronghua, director-general of the CMA’s National Meteorological Center, saying: “As global warming continues, [weather] forecasters are facing more and more challenges.”
• According to an industry association, China’s steel industry reduced its energy use 1.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, with energy consumption per tonne of steel falling by 0.6%, People’s Daily reports.

The Financial Times reports that a “host of businesses and consultants are backing away from the UN climate summit at the city of Belém, known as the gateway to the Amazon, deterred by a difficult political backdrop, up to $2,000-a-night for hotel rooms and lengthy travel”. It adds: “Financial institutions, consultancies and advisers to businesses, which attended the climate talks in previous years, told the Financial Times they instead planned to send a smaller contingent to São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro where adjacent finance and climate conferences are being held.” Brazil’s O Globo says: “One hundred days before COP30, pressure for a change of venue is gaining momentum, which is even being acknowledged by ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, the conference president.” Climate Home News runs its latest COP30 update under the headline: “Amid logistics crunch, UN committee pressures Brazil for urgent COP30 solutions.” [The UN’s official accommodation booking portal for COP30 finally went online on Friday.] Separately, the Financial Times reports: “Brazil’s environment minister is battling recent legislation that could gut national environmental protection rules, three months before the country hosts the world’s most important climate negotiations.”

An editorial in the Guardian argues that “to counter attacks on net-zero, challenges including the need for grid upgrades will have to be grasped”. It continues: “Internationally, and domestically, renewables are the right choice. Colonial rule saw Carbon Brief rank the UK as the world’s fourth-largest historical emitter, behind only the US, China and Russia. To keep UK public support strong for green policies, energy ministers – notably [UK energy secretary] Ed Miliband – must ensure a well-planned green transition to bring down prices. Grids need upgrades to handle wind turbine growth. Supply chain bottlenecks and concerns about human rights in critical minerals mining must be addressed…Ultimately, reforms should cut gas’s sway over electricity prices and couple optimism on renewables with honesty about the challenges.” The Observer carries a comment piece by Rhian Mari-Thomas, CEO of the Green Finance Institute, titled: “The UK is in pole position to clean up on green-energy investment.”

MORE UK COMMENT

• An editorial in the climate-sceptic Sunday Telegraph says: “The British public deserves to know what Miliband discussed with Beijing. There are legitimate concerns over the role of the Chinese state in fulfilling the government’s net-zero ambitions.” The editorial is a response to reporting by the newspaper that begins: “Ed Miliband has refused to publish details of a net-zero cooperation deal signed with China.” The government is quoted saying it is “misleading” to suggest memorandums signed with other countries are made “publicly available”.
• The Mail on Sunday gives a full page to Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right populist Reform UK party, to make a series of unevidenced claims about the costs of net-zero policies. The Financial Times invites Reform chair Zia Yusuf to lunch in which he also also makes false claims about recent Office for Budget Responsibility net-zero cost estimates. [See Carbon Brief’s “OBR: Net-zero is much cheaper than thought for UK – and unchecked global warming far more costly”.]
• John Bolland in the Scotsman: “I worked in [the] oil industry for 30 years, and there’s no future in it. But we can make one for workers.”
• The Daily Telegraph provides a platform for a range of net-zero sceptics to make claims about, for example, the “real costs of net-zero”, “doom-mongering about climate change” and how the “furious Green Blob will try to destroy these Heathrow plans”.
• Europe editor Peter Conradi in the Sunday Times: “Tariffs, net-zero, Russia: no wonder Von der Leyen sleeps at work.”

There is continuing reaction to the Trump administration’s attempt to use a rushed “critical report” written by a small group of contrarian, hand-picked scientists as evidence to end the “endangerment finding” underpinning various climate regulations in the US. Dr Zeke Hausfather, who is Carbon Brief’s science contributor, has written on the Climate Brink substack about how one of his peer-reviewed papers has been misused in the report. Notus has a feature headlined: “‘A serious misuse of my research’: climate scientists say new Trump energy report botches their work.” Agence France-Presse has a factcheck which begins: “Five top scientists told AFP their research cited in a flagship climate report by the US Department of Energy (DoE) was misused to downplay the role of human activity in global warming.” The Guardian says “scientists slam Trump administration climate report as a ‘farce’ full of misinformation”.

MORE ON DOE REPORT

• The Wall Street Journal: “Climate sceptics are tapped by Trump administration to justify regulatory rollback.”
• CNN’s Zachary B Wolf has an analysis piece which claims the US government has “declared war on the very idea of climate change”.
• E&E News says “Trump 2.0 went where Trump 1.0 wouldn’t on climate”.
• Slate says the US government has “just issued its most damaging climate change move ever”.
• The New York Times has a lengthy feature headlined: “Inside the ‘radical transformation’ of America’s environmental role.” It opens: “The EPA said this week it would revoke its own ability to fight climate change. It’s the latest move in an extraordinary pivot away from science-based protections.”

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Leo Hickman, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Simon Evans.

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