The Financial Times reports that US president Joe Biden has pledged $1bn in new funding to “help developing countries cope with climate change and urged development banks to step up their lending, at a virtual gathering of leaders of the world’s biggest industrialised nations that included China’s climate envoy”. The newspaper continues: “At the [virtual] meeting of the Major Economies Forum on energy and climate on Thursday, Biden announced the plan to contribute the money to the UN-led Green Climate Fund, which finances clean energy and climate resilience projects in developing countries. Separately, he promised $500m over five years for a fund to tackle deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, watched by Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The financial pledge for the Amazon Fund would require approval from the US Congress, however.” (The White House has published a factsheet.) Climate Home News highlights how “this is the first time since 2017 the US has pledged cash to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which supports developing countries to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts”. It continues: “‘It’s a really big deal,’ Joe Thwaites, a climate finance campaigner at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Climate Home News…’Over the last few years, the fund has been right off against the limits of its resources. It has been approving money to projects as soon as it is receiving it from donors and has had to hold back projects because of a lack of money,’ Thwaites explained.

‘This $1bn is significant because it will allow the GCF to unlock more money for communities in need,’ he added.” Reuters quotes Biden saying: “We’re at a moment of great peril, but also great possibilities, serious possibilities. With the right commitment and follow-through from every nation…on this call, the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C can stay within reach.” The newswire adds: “European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a new European Union-led initiative to develop new global targets for energy efficiency and renewable energy alongside the International Energy Agency, in time for a global summit on climate change in November [COP28].” E&E News quotes an unnamed “senior” US administration official: “We think it’s extremely important for major economies to be playing a role in holding the high bar for ambition, but also demonstrating extremely concrete ways that we’re meeting those objectives.”

Meanwhile, Politico notes that Biden still faces a “harsh reality: Republicans stand in the way of the promises he’s making to nations most vulnerable to rising temperatures”. It adds: “The announcements came just a day after House speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an all-out assault on the heart of Biden’s domestic climate agenda – a sign of the divisions at home that continue to bedevil the US’s efforts to lead the world in combating the planet’s warming.” It continues: “McCarthy proposed legislation Wednesday that would strip billions of dollars of domestic clean energy incentives in return for raising the US borrowing limits to avoid an economically crippling debt default. McCarthy’s negotiating tactics signal that Republicans are unlikely to back increased climate funding of any sort, especially given his party has historically opposed international climate spending. Republican positioning imperils Biden’s goal of increasing international climate finance to $11bn annually by 2024 and threatens to throttle whatever goodwill rich nations earned at last year’s UN climate talks, in which delegates agreed to create a ‘loss and damage’ fund to pay poorer nations for irreparable climate damage. That fund is not yet operational, and Republicans criticised its creation at last November’s talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.” In contrast, the Hill runs this headline about a counter-move by Democrats: “Ocasio-Cortez, Markey reintroduce Green New Deal resolution: ‘We need bold big climate action’.”

There is continuing media focus on the extreme temperatures affecting many areas across Asia. The Independent says that “one in three people on earth are suffering under a ‘monster Asian heatwave’ with temperature records broken across a dozen countries”. It adds: “The searing heat has spread across large parts of south and southeast Asia in recent weeks, and impacted more than a dozen countries including India, China, Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Japan and Korea. The temperature hit a scorching 44.6C Celsius in the western province of Tak, Thailand this week, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country…Bangladesh recorded 40.6C, its highest temperature in six decades. The country was forced to cut power to millions of people even as demand soared due to Ramadan festivities. Turkmenistan set a new April monthly heat record with 42.2C. Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian, described the event as a ‘monster Asian heat wave like none before’. Japan and Koreas are also experiencing temperatures above 30C, unusually high for the season, he noted. Meanwhile, hundreds of weather stations across China have seen their warmest April temperatures on record, according to the Capital Weather Gang.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Express notes that scientists have warned in a new report that the increase in hot weather in Europe should be a “wake up call” to cut emissions. Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, says: “We are really moving into an uncharted territory.” Bloomberg also covers the Copernicus report: “Drought conditions not seen in some places since the Renaissance are becoming the continent’s new normal, with perilous knock-on effects for food security and supply chains in the European Union, the world’s third-biggest economy. Water levels on European rivers have been shrinking now for six years, with farmland drying up and Alpine glaciers in retreat. Taken together, they’re creating climate feedback loops. Hotter temperatures mean more glacial melting and evaporation; less rainfall and Alpine runoff reduce river flows; dried-out water basins and shrivelled vegetation create fuel for wildfire.While heat and drought are also afflicting regions from Asia to East Africa, Europe is a climate change front-runner, warming at twice the rate as other inhabited continents, according to Copernicus.”

Bloomberg says that expanding coal-fired power is China’s “only real option in the short term” to accommodate its increasing need for electricity, “including from new energy [electric] vehicles”, according to a report by banking and financing company ANZ Group. The power market in China is experiencing difficulties due to the reduced hydropower generation in southern provinces caused by “extremely low water levels”, the outlet adds. It says electric vehicles (EVs), which are “ostensibly a solution to the climate crisis”, are posing a challenge to the grid. (Nearly 80% of electricity demand growth in China last year was met by low-carbon sources.) The world’s passenger EV fleet is expected to reduce fossil fuel demand of “as much as 600,000 barrels a day” this year, the outlet adds. China, which is at the forefront of EV sales worldwide, is responsible for up to 60% of this displacement, the report says.

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post writes that Chinese vice-premier Ding Xuexiang may assume the role of “top decision maker on climate change policy” of the country after Ding had recent talks with the president of COP28, Sultan al-Jaber, in Beijing. During their meeting, Ding reiterated China’s climate targets and said the country would work “actively and prudently” towards its “dual carbon” goals, the outlet adds. China hopes that COP28 would “signal cooperation on climate change through the international community and comprehensively and effectively promote the application of the Paris Agreement”, the outlet quotes Ding saying. Elsewhere, China Dialogue reports that China’s central government requires all Chinese local and provincial governments and enterprises to provide a “carbon impact analysis” for “all new investment projects”. The analysis should “predict and calculate the total annual carbon emissions of the project and the carbon emission intensity of major products, propose a carbon emission control plan, clarify the path and method to be adopted to reduce carbon emissions, and analyse the impact of the project on the realisation of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality target in the region”, the article adds.

Separately, Foreign Policy carries a comment piece by Thom Woodroofe, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. He writes: “Cooperating on climate could help save the planet, and it could also be the strategic guardrail that helps save the broader US-China relationship from careering off the tracks.” Reuters reports that China has called on coal-producing regions and enterprises to accelerate adoption of so-called “smart-mining” technologies, according to a statement released by the National Energy Administration yesterday. And the South China Morning Post runs an article under the headline: “China to help oil-dependent Gabon shift economic gears to greener industry.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and economy minister Robert Habeck have defended plans for a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal to be constructed on the German island of Rügen despite resistance, reports Dir Zeit. The outlet adds that during their speech in Rügen’s Binz, Scholz highlighted that eastern Germany needs import infrastructure “because it’s about the security of supply for East Germany”, while Habeck noted that “further alternatives are being created”. They consider the port of Mukran as a possible location for the terminal’s construction, according to information from the dpa press agency. However, the outlet notes that the plans have been causing “fierce resistance” on the island for months due to environmental and tourism concerns. Tagesschau reports that, when the chancellor arrived, up to 600 demonstrators gathered who “loudly expressed their displeasure” with the plans. But Die Welt quotes Scholz describing the discussion in the community centre as “respectful and friendly”, adding that local concerns should be considered when deciding on a terminal’s location. The outlet quotes Scholz: “Since I’ve already vacationed here myself [on the island of Rügen], I know how beautiful it is…And it should remain so beautiful here and I want to go on vacation here again.”

Meanwhile, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, has approved a law for a faster, nationwide installation of smart meters. This “should help the digitisation of the energy transition to gain momentum”, notes the newspaper. According to the law, private households and small system operators should not have to pay more than €‎20 per year for a smart meter. The outlet continues that 95% of all German consumers should have a smart meter by 2033. Relatedly, Der Spiegel notes that once the German government’s effective ban on new gas and oil heating comes in next year, there could be a lack of specialist staff available to install new heating systems. However, according to the heat pump industry association, no “rocket technology” is required to install a heat pump, and, therefore, it sees no cause for concern. The article continues that the political dispute over the fossil fuel heating “ban” continues, quoting the head of the CSU state group, Alexander Dobrindt: “Nobody knows where the craftsmen, the electricity and the technology are to come from to implement this heating ban. This prohibition madness must be stopped.” Bild adds that the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which is part of the ruling coalition that has just approved the plans, wants to stop the ban via a party congress resolution to be voted on over the weekend.

Elsewhere in German media, FAZ reports that Germany’s largest production facility for “e-fuels” is being built in a Frankfurt industrial park. Furthermore, Hesse economy minister Tarek Al-Wazir says: “[A German federal state] Hesse is becoming a pioneer in climate protection in air transport with Germany’s largest pilot plant for synthetic kerosene.” Finally, Der Spiegel reports that, according to new research, the introduction of a 130km per hour speed limit in Germany would generate “welfare gains” in the order of €950m per year.

The Daily Telegraph carries a comment piece by Malawi’s president Lazarus Chakwera in which he says that Malawi and Mozambique were still recovering from last year’s “unprecedented” cyclones and tropical storms when this year’s Cyclone Freddy broke even those records. He continues: “Entire villages were buried or swept away. Here in Malawi, as is the case elsewhere in Africa, drought is alternating with intensified rainfall, leading to the paradox of landslides even as harvests perish for lack of water. Just as critical, especially for the long-term recovery of Malawi, Freddy wrecked many of our health facilities. Some are entirely gone, while others will take months to repair and restock…As we confront these interlocked humanitarian crises, we are faced with this question: how can we secure our future development, and in particular the development of our health system, against ever-threatening climate disasters? Building a resilient and sustainable health system is a painstaking effort, accompanied by many setbacks – but it is the only way we can secure the health of our people. A health system in Africa must be resilient to survive climate disasters and pandemics, and sustainable too; we must be able to run it in the long-term and rely on it at times of great demand. It must coordinate closely with disaster preparedness so that even during humanitarian emergencies, it can fulfil its role.”

Separately, the Economist carries a feature headlined: “Britain needs to embrace road pricing.” And the Wall Street Journal has an editorial about how it believes that the “carbon tariff wars” have “arrived”.

In the Times, Emma Duncan writes about London’s ULEZ scheme which aims to reduce local air pollution from fossil-fuelled vehicles and is facing resistance from some residents: “Britons are, by and large, a greenish bunch – in theory, at least. Half think the government is going too slowly and spending too little on cutting carbon emissions; only a fifth think it is going too fast. But when policies start to hurt people’s pockets, they tend to like them less. To give people a decade or more of warning – as with the phase-out of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 – is reasonable. To give them less than a year, as [London mayor Sadiq] Khan has done, is not.”

Meanwhile, the UK’s right-leaning newspapers continue to be enraged by climate protests. The Daily Mail carries a full-page comment piece by Tom Utley in which he writes: “In my view, the tragedy is that so many young people appear to have fallen for the line promoted by the likes of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. Indeed, a global survey of 10,000 people aged 15 to 25 found as many as 39% say they hesitate to have children because they are frightened of climate change. The implications are truly depressing.” On the page opposite, the Daily Mail gives space to a farming commentator called Jamie Blackett: “The ‘culture wars’ have spilled out of university campuses onto our green and formerly pleasant farmland. Guardian journalist George Monbiot openly advocates the end of farming [he does not] and its replacement with industrially produced laboratory food to achieve ‘Net Zero’. We can’t even turn on the television without being made to feel redundant and guilty by our publicly funded broadcaster. BBC One’s Countryfile seems to portray the traditional farming community as anti-nature, wholly responsible for the climate and biodiversity ‘crises’ and even racist.”

Separately, the Sun carries an “exclusive” under the headline: “Extinction Rebellion leader exposed as eco-hypocrite who has diesel car & buys imported food in non-recyclable packaging.” An accompanying editorial says: “One minute you’re screaming that the world is ablaze and billions are about to starve unless we immediately abandon modern life and subsist like medieval peasants. The next you’re driving the diesel to Waitrose to stock up on pricey out-of-season fruit imported from thousands of miles away in landfill-only packaging. Which must mean Extinction Rebellion’s founder doesn’t believe her own group’s hysterical, unscientific hyperbole. It’s a ruse to justify cruel, anti-social, attention-seeking political stunts and terrify and brainwash more gullible souls.” In the Daily Telegraph, Douglas Murray says “America’s cities have descended into anarchy”, adding: “There are lessons here for our own country, and nowhere should the lessons be clearer than in the case of how Britain now treats eco-nuisances like Just Stop Oil. Personally, I see these end-time cultists as a sort of opportunistic infection on our body politic. The sort of thing that – like a terrible rash – comes along when the body is sick…But what is worst about these end-time cultists is that they, too, very often get away with their crimes. From the country’s roads and motorways to its art galleries and snooker tables, their manner of disruptive and destructive protest seems to have been made effectively legal…I despair of this country.”

A new study finds that sea-turtle nesting grounds are becoming increasingly imperilled by sea-level rise. Researchers combine elevation models of seven known turtle nesting areas, field data on the nesting sites of five different endangered turtle species and projections of sea-level rise to determine how different climate scenarios could impact sea turtle populations. They find that, by 2050, some nesting habitats will be fully flooded and “under an extreme scenario many sea turtle rookeries could vanish”. They conclude that the immediacy of this threat means it is “urgent to reduce anthropogenic emissions to safeguard the future of sea turtle populations against climate change and associated sea-level rise”.