Senate Democrats are aiming to pass a major spending bill this week that includes significant funding for climate change, after a deal was unexpectedly struck last week with the Democrat senator Joe Manchin, who has long resisted president Joe Biden’s climate agenda, NBC News reports. However, it notes that Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, “another [Democrat] centrist who holds a swing vote in the 50-50 Senate”, has been quiet about whether she will vote for the Inflation Reduction Act. According to the article, the potentially controversial element of the legislation for Sinema is not the climate component but the limitation of the carried interest tax break, which benefits investment managers. The Guardian, which describes Sinema as “one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress”, also notes that, while she rarely gives interview, the Arizona senator has “previously expressed reticence to raise taxes on corporations and may look unfavourably at measures in the new bill…that would require large companies to pay a certain level of tax”. However, it says there are hopes that Sinema, who was once a member of the Green party and recently toured the aftermath of a huge wildfire near the city of Flagstaff, will be convinced by the act’s climate provisions.

The New York Times covers analysis by the Princeton-led REPEAT Project that shows the proposed bill’s tax incentives for low-carbon technologies could enable the country to cut its emissions by roughly 40% below 2005 levels by the end of this decade. While this is short of the 50% target set by the US government, “experts said that additional policies like new federal regulations or more aggressive state and local climate action could help close the gap”. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that a deal has been made among US Senate Democrats to provide faster approvals for fossil-fuel projects, in order to secure Manchin’s backing for the climate spending bill. The side deal would also deliver a range of permitting reforms for large infrastructure projects, including limiting the length of environmental reviews and centralising the power to approve projects to just one government agency, it continues. Analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a “congressional nonpartisan scorekeeper for tax legislation”, would not “cement a giant tax increase or result in profligate federal spending”, despite Republican claims, the New York Times reports. A piece in the Washington Post notes that while the $369bn climate package includes extensive support for electric cars and other clean technologies, incentives for traditional and battery-powered bikes are “conspicuously absent” after being included in earlier climate bills.

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, has announced that his party would support the Labor government’s major climate legislation in the Senate, “likely” giving them the numbers to pass the bill through both houses of parliament, Bloomberg reports. Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese won the most recent election with a pledge to strengthen Australia’s climate action, raising its target to a 43% emissions cut by 2030, from a 2005 baseline, an improvement on the previous government’s commitments, of 26-28% reductions. However, as the Bloomberg piece notes, “Australia will still lag behind action pledged by the US, the European Union and the UK”. The Daily Mail says Labor needs the support of all 12 Green senators, plus one crossbencher, to pass the bill in the upper house, and Independent David Pocock has indicated he will support the bill. However, it adds that Bandt has only given his support to the legislation reluctantly, and “has warned he will push Labor to stop opening new coal and gas mines”.

According to the Guardian, the Greens’ leader listed improvements they had negotiated for the bill. These include ensuring that it can be ratcheted up over time, it can’t go backwards, adding more accountability for the Climate Change Authority and making government agencies consider climate targets before funding new projects. The Sydney Morning Herald says that Labor will seek a vote on the climate bill on Wednesday or Thursday, hoping to pass it this week and secure a final vote in the Senate next month. Separately, Katharine Murphy, Guardian Australia’s political editor, criticises the leader of the Australian opposition Coalition, Peter Dutton, for opposing the proposed plans for climate action and instead proposing a review into nuclear energy. “It is beyond ludicrous for the Coalition to decline to support Labor’s new emissions reduction target on the basis that it might drive up energy prices…and in the same breath, hail the breakthrough prospects of nuclear energy,” she writes. (For more on the new Australian government’s climate policies, see this Carbon Brief article from earlier in the year.)

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that New Zealand has released its first national plan to prepare for climate-related extreme events such as floods, fires and rising seas.

Following the news that BP has seen profits soar to the highest levels since 2008, even as typical UK household energy bills have been forecast to hit more than £3,600 a year in the coming winter, the Times reports that the oil major “has rejected calls to offer motorists discounts on fuel”. The newspaper notes that the firm made £6.9bn in the three months to June, three times higher than a year earlier, “as pump prices hit a record and households faced crippling increases in their energy bills”. According to the article, BP chief executive Bernard Looney pointed to the windfall tax that has been imposed on oil-and-gas companies in the UK to help fund the government’s cost-of-living support package, which includes a £400 rebate for every household on bills from October. He told the newspaper that it was up to the UK government to “decide how to allocate [windfall tax] revenues to those most in need”. Bloomberg reports that Looney, whose salary this year is £1.4m, offered to pay his £400 to charity after it emerged in the Times interview that he was not aware of the rebate’s existence. According to the Daily Telegraph, motoring experts say that BP has been “slower than rivals to bring down the costs of fuel at its 300 UK forecourts to reflect a recent fall in crude oil costs”. Looney told the Financial Times that the best way for companies such as BP to help would be to invest in providing secure, affordable, low-carbon forms of energy. The Times also has a piece with a series of charts showing “how fuel and energy companies are surging, while cost of living soars”.

Reuters reports that German chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit a Nord Stream 1 gas turbine, which has undergone maintenance in Canada, at Muelheim an der Ruhr in northwestern Germany on Wednesday, according to Siemens Energy. Der Spiegel explains that Russian energy company Gazprom has repeatedly accused its contractual partner Siemens Energy “of not having sent the necessary documents and information to repair the machine”. Siemens Energy denied Gazprom’s allegations. The article adds that in a tweet on Tuesday Scholz spoke of a “bluff” by Russian president Vladimir Putin, using the gas turbine as an excuse to stop agreed gas exports, referring to an interview with the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail. German newspaper Bild also has a story noting that the turbine “was not allowed to return to Gazprom because of the [Canadian] sanctions against Russia”. In the interview with the Globe and Mail, when asked about why Germany believed it was necessary for Canada to break its own sanctions against Russia, Scholz said that doing so took away the “pretext” for Russia to cut off gas deliveries. He added that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau made a “strong” decision that strengthened the position of Germany and Europe.

Meanwhile, EurActiv reports that the European Commission has approved the German government’s €3bn (£2.5bn) scheme to support renewable energy and waste heat-based district heating programs, which it said “would help Germany and the EU achieve their climate change targets”. It explains that the German scheme is expected to support the installation of 681 megawatts (MW) of renewable heat generation capacity annually and will cover up to 40% of the eligible investment costs of projects.

Elsewhere, Time magazine carries a story about falling water levels in the river Rhine, “putting the trade of huge quantities of goods at risk”. It says the river at Kaub, Germany – “a key waypoint for the shipment of commodities – is set to drop to 47cm by the weekend. That would take it to within 7cm of being all but impassable”. Josh Folds, a European oil analyst, is quoted saying: “With the Rhine transport disrupted and alternatives such as rail and road looking increasingly expensive, it will be difficult for Germany and Switzerland to build gasoil/diesel stocks before temperatures cool.”

Finally, Deutsche Welle reports that Germany’s national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s biggest consumer of electricity, is offering its employees a one-off bonus of at least €100 (£83) to try to save energy, urging them to find creative solutions of their own.

Liz Truss, the current frontrunner to become the next UK prime minister, has promised to “change the rules” to ensure farming is prioritised over new solar projects, BusinessGreen reports. The comments made at a Conservative leadership husting in Exeter have “fuelled concerns the UK’s onshore renewables sector could face further barriers to development”, the publication notes. The piece points to arguments from the sector that the “impact of onshore renewables development on food production was hugely overstated, with projects rarely located on prime arable land, able to be co-located with livestock grazing, and already covered by stringent planning rules”.

In related news, another BusinessGreen piece reports that, according to the latest data from BloombergNEF, there has been an 11% increase in global renewable energy financing in the first six months of 2022. It quotes Albert Cheung, head of analysis at BloombergNEF, who says “despite the headwinds presented by ongoing cost inflation and supply chain challenges, demand for clean energy sources has never been higher”. On the other hand, Bloomberg reports that wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa has delivered another cut to its earnings forecast in “the latest sign of the headwinds” affecting the industry.

Meanwhile, a government consultation suggests that all new houses in Scotland could be required by law to have more environmentally friendly heating systems than gas- or oil-fired boilers from April 2024, the Independent reports. This would mean the ban on fossil fuel-powered boilers would be introduced ahead of England and Wales, it says.

Four people have died in a forest fire that has raged for five days in northern California near the Oregon border, and is the state’s biggest blaze this year, Reuters reports. The so-called McKinney fire has burned across more than 56,000 acres of “drought-parched timber, tall grass and brush”, amid record-breaking heat the article describes as “in keeping with extreme conditions scientists ascribe to human-induced climate change”. The New York Times repeats this message, noting that the drought conditions have contributed to the intensity of fires by making vegetation drier and more likely to ignite. The fire, which remains uncontained, has destroyed more than 100 homes, sheds and other buildings, the Guardian reports.

In the UK, New Scientist reports that, according to data shared with the magazine, the “unprecedented destruction caused by grass fires in the UK’s recent 40C heatwave was made possible by weather conditions that were the most conducive to wildfires in modern records”. Meanwhile, in Spain, the Guardian reports that the nation’s agriculture minister has warned that heatwaves and a lack of rain are threatening to reduce olive oil production from the world’s top exporter.

Xinhua writes that China’s electricity consumption, a “key barometer” of economic activity, has been “rising” in recent periods, indicating the continuous recovery of enterprises’ production and economic operation. The country’s total power use “increased 2.9%” year-on-year in the January-June period to 4.1tn kilowatt-hours (4,100 terawatts hours), the state news agency notes, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA),the country’s top energy regulator. The article adds that in June alone, power consumption was recorded at 745.1bn kilowatt hours (745.1 terawatts hours), an increase of 4.7% from a year ago. The “recovery” in the growth rate of electricity consumption in June “reflected the positive effects of the current resumption of work and production”, Xinhua notes, quoting Wang Yixuan, an official with the China Electricity Council, a non-profit supervised by the NEA.

Meanwhile, Chinese smart electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio is developing “mass-market cars” to “challenge the likes of Volkswagen and Toyota” amid “growing demand for battery-powered automobiles” in China, the South China Morning Post writes. The Shanghai-based carmaker is designing compact EVs that will be priced between 100,000 yuan (US$14,808) and 200,000 yuan, the outlet adds, according to Chinese technology news site 36kr.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg has an opinion piece by columnist David Fickling, titled: “China’s mortgage strikes will have far-reaching impacts on commodities.“ He writes that China’s property sector could be “entering a five-year slump that would drive a third of steel mills out of business”, quoting one “executive told an industry meeting” in June. He adds that: “That’s an even grimmer picture than the one suggested by the current wave of mortgage strikes by buyers refusing to keep making prepayments on halted developments. The world’s biggest steelmaker, China Baowu Steel Group, warned of ‘great challenges’ and told managers to conserve cash”.

Financial Times columnist Pilita Clark criticises the two candidates to be the next prime minister of the UK, neither of which, she says, seem to be aware of “environmental and geopolitical reality” when it comes to climate change. “Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, seems marginally more aware of what is at stake than the race’s frontrunner, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary,” she writes. Clark notes that both candidates are currently appealing to Conservative party members, and both have signed a Conservative Environment Network pledge to deliver on the party’s net-zero goals. “Once in government, the new prime minister is likely to face bracing electoral logic,” she says, noting that polling suggests net-zero is a key priority for voters. “Regardless of polls, a serious leader will not ignore the climate imperative,” she concludes.

A Guardian editorial about Truss calls her “disingenuous” and compares her to her leadership rival, the former chancellor Rishi Sunak. “To a country facing rampant inflation, possible recession, an accelerating climate crisis and an ever-more threatening energy crunch, Ms Truss and Mr Sunak offer different kinds of wrong answers,” it says. The piece refers to Sunak’s “dry economic instincts” which are “hopelessly inappropriate” for dealing with such challenges, but says Truss’ s”libertarian iconoclasm, and distrust of the state and public sector – at a time when collective solidarity and solutions are required – would sow division and social strife”. The Daily Mail has today come out in formal support of Truss.

Finally, James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation, has a piece in the Times arguing that politicians should get over their fears of being accused of “nannying” and encourage people to turn down their condensing combi boiler, a move that he says shaves “about £200 off a £3,000 annual bill”.

There is plenty of coverage in the comment sections of UK newspapers of what the Guardian’s economics editor Larry Elliott calls the “juxtaposition of massive windfall profits and the hardship facing millions of households” – referring to the large profits announced by oil-and-gas giant BP yesterday. “BP has done well out of the war in Ukraine,” Elliott writes, noting that, while it was only two years ago that oil prices briefly went negative at the start of the pandemic, “the big energy companies can expect little public sympathy”. When the Conservative party has chosen the UK’s new prime minister, he says that a clear priority will be whether to provide a third package of support for households to help with rising energy costs. “This is a no-brainer: it will be one of the first items on the to-do list for either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss,” he says, noting that the big question will be whether energy companies are forced to contribute, either by levying more windfall tax or by removing the loophole that allowed companies a tax break for investment. The Times energy editor Emily Gosden notes that, while BP has “spent the past few months plastering adverts across billboards, newspaper pages and social media sites declaring that it is ‘Backing Britain’”, it is unclear how much it has spent on energy investments in the UK recently, despite its “bumper profits”.

The Evening Standard has a piece by business editor Jonathan Prynn who says politicians “could soon spoil the party for BP”. He writes: “We are about to enter a very ugly period politically when a prime minister instinctively opposed to interventions such as windfall taxes could be replaced by a successor much more concerned about winning their own mandate in 2024. BP should enjoy the moment, the public demand for action is likely to prove hard to resist”. In the Financial Times, columnist Cat Rutter Pooley writes that BP’s promise to invest in UK clean energy and energy security are a “goodish defence against the public calls for windfall taxes”, but adds that “the problem is these are long-term projects”. She says that while BP is in a difficult situation regarding its public image, “goodwill gestures” such as TotalEnergies’ announcement of a cut to prices at the pump in France could be “politically and financially astute”.

Writer Hamilton Nolan has a piece in the Guardian headlined: “The world is ablaze and the oil industry just posted record profits. It’s us or them.” He writes in favour of radical action and protest: “It is folly to assume that a system that has been constructed in part by the corporate power of the energy industry will find a way to rein in that same industry against its wishes. It’s wilfully stupid to imagine that electoral politics will be up to this task.” Actress Emma Thompson also has a piece in the Guardian on the power of protest, specifically criticising fossil fuel companies’ “greenwashing” practices.

Ocean acidification can alter natural selection on offspring size of fish and “is likely to drive contemporary evolution”, a new study says. Researching the coastal fish species California grunion, the study demonstrates that “larval mortality is highly sensitive to ocean acidification and that mortality rates are lower for larger larvae”. These effects “are countered by tradeoffs between offspring size and number”, the author notes. They add the the results “suggest that contemporary evolution may offset the projected decline in reproductive success by about 50%”.