There is widespread coverage of the Canyon Fire north of Los Angeles, which forced thousands of people to evacuate at the end of last week. BBC News says the fire’s rapid spread was fuelled by “extreme heat and dry conditions”. It adds: “Wildfires have become more frequent in California, with experts citing climate change as a key factor. Hotter, drier conditions have made fire seasons longer and more destructive.” The Los Angeles Times says the fire was 78% contained as of yesterday evening. Another Los Angeles Times article says California’s fire season “has moved up six weeks since 1990 thanks to climate change”. In Colorado, meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that a prison has been evacuated as the result of another wildfire, “one of the largest in state history”. Bloomberg reports: “Fires, storms and the potential for near-record high temperatures across the western US are in the offing for the coming week.” Another Bloomberg article explains how Canadian wildfire smoke is “jeopardising health across North America”.

MORE ON FIRES

• At least two people have been killed by wildfires in Greece, Turkey and France, Sky News reports. BBC News also has the story.
• The Daily Telegraph reports that wildfires are “loom[ing]” over Naples and Athens. Reuters says wildfires on the edge of Athens have been “contained”.
• High heat is threatening to reignite blazes in the Aude region of southern France after the country’s “largest wildfire in decades”, says the Associated Press.
• Agence France-Presse says southern France is “under heatwave warning”.

Despite a hot summer, spot electricity prices in China’s biggest power-using provinces and energy-hungry industrial hubs “repeatedly fell” in July, business news outlet Caixin reports. The news outlet adds that falling electricity prices come as renewable energy capacity surged, industrial demand softened and regulators “reshape power markets”. However, the outlet says, this has left Beijing with a “dilemma” as it needs to “balance industrial growth without undermining reforms designed to build a greener, more efficient power grid”. Business outlet Jiemian reports that China’s electricity system has “performed steadily” so far this year, making power rationing unlikely, despite national demand once again reaching record highs in early August. The Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that China’s power system is “under the dual pressures of high temperatures and the flood season”, adding that the country is “currently intensifying efforts to ensure energy supply…and safeguard electricity demand”.

Meanwhile, “torrential rainfall” in north-west China’s Gansu province has left 15 people dead and 28 missing, the state-run newspaper China Daily reports. Xinhua says China has allocated 430m yuan ($60m) to aid regions hit by floods. People’s Daily discusses the factors behind “widespread heavy rainfall” in Guangdong. It does not mention climate change. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) says recent flooding in Beijing was “unusual”, also not mentioning climate change. Almost 5,000 cases of the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus have been reported in Guangdong province as of late July, reports SCMP, which notes that climate change is “believed to have contributed to this outbreak”. [See related comment below.]

MORE ON CHINA

• Yicai reports that China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) sales rose 12% in July year-on-year. Reuters says July NEV sales growth slowed from 30% in June, “partly due to weaker demand for hybrids”.
• China will build a number of “national carbon measurement centres” by 2030 to improve its capability to trace and measure carbon, People’s Daily reports.
• China and the EU must “ensure their climate collaboration remains robust and productive”, Erik Solheim, former executive director of the UN environment programme, argues in a China Daily comment article.
• Xiamen University professor Sun Chuanwang tells Securities Daily that virtual power plants can help “distributed energy resources” participate better in power markets.
• Caixin says “few believe a turnaround is imminent” in China’s crowded solar sector.
• Economic Daily reports China’s green loans have grown 14% since the beginning of the year.

A frontpage story for today’s Times reports that firefighters are “battling to contain a huge wildfire” on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. The Guardian, Reuters, Sky News, Sun, Independent and Daily Mail all have the story. Separately, a “major incident” has been declared and 20 homes evacuated in Dorset as a result of two large heath fires, BBC News reports. Sky News says 100 firefighters and 20 fire engines are tackling the blazes. The Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Sun also have the story. [New Carbon Brief analysis shows that wildfires in the UK have already burned a record area in 2025 to date.]

MORE ON UK HEAT

• There is widespread coverage of what BBC News calls the UK’s “fourth heatwave of the summer”, also reported by the Press Association, Sun, Sky News, Daily Express, Independent, i newspaper and Daily Mail.
• The heat arrives with “yellow heat health alerts” that the Daily Telegraph says means “risk of death” for vulnerable people, but which it also derides in a sarcastic editorial.
• BBC News reports on how the UK’s “record warm seas” have driven the appearance of a “remarkable range of species not usually widespread in UK waters”.
• The Guardian reports that air-to-air heat pumps, which offer “heating in the winter but act…like an air conditioner in the summer”, are “set to join” a government grant scheme.
• Under the headline “Why the government doesn’t want you to have aircon”, the Daily Telegraph claims “strict net-zero rules” are deterring people from installing such units.

Another 13 electric vehicle (EV) models will be eligible for new government grants in the UK, the Press Association reports, adding that the £1,500 savings apply to cars from Nissan, Renault and Vauxhall. It adds that some Citroen EVs are already eligible and more models “are expected to be approved”. The newswire quotes the head of policy at motoring group RAC saying it was “yet more welcome news” and also carries supportive responses from Nissan Motor GB and Vauxhall. The Daily Mail leads its coverage with a quote from the shadow Conservatives, calling the policy of offering grants for EVs “deranged”. BusinessGreen also has the story.

MORE ON UK

• A Financial Times article looking ahead to the autumn budget says the government is considering increasing fuel duty, which it says, after more than a decade of freezes, is “normally seen as politically toxic”, but which would “align with the wider Labour narrative about investing in net-zero and electrification”.
• Politico reports: “Minutes from the UK’s AI Energy Council show ministers are being pushed to use gas to fuel the country’s data center buildout.” The Times runs the headline: “UK data centres at risk without faster planning and grid overhaul.”
• The Times reports claims by the hard-right populist Reform party that it has found “£100m in savings” at councils in England, including scrapping plans for EVs and solar, but notes that others have called the claims a “fiction” that will cost more in the long run. The Daily Telegraph reports that Reform has told a meeting of electricity industry executives that it would focus on nuclear and gas power if it wins the next election, as well as threatening to tear up existing renewable contracts.
• A feature in the Times looks at the types of voter that might support hard-right populist party Reform, saying they “differ sharply on issues such as the NHS, climate change and the welfare state”, with some “in favour of climate action” and others “more likely to believe in climate scepticism”.
• The Daily Telegraph continues its campaigning against net-zero, with articles claiming offshore windfarms are “destroying” the fishing industry and that BP is “defying” the government by reopening an oil field that has government consent. It also runs a feature calling the UK’s well-publicised carbon pricing schemes as a “hidden net-zero tax crushing British industry”, as well as an article – trailed on its frontpage this morning – saying the UK’s “biggest chemicals plant [is] at risk of closure”.
• The Daily Mail devotes the frontpage of its Saturday edition to a headline claiming: “Eco-mob to join Gaza protests”. It says “militant eco activists” from Just Stop Oil have “joined forces” with those supporting Palestine Action, which has controversially been banned under terrorism legislation.

Talks aiming to agree a global legally-binding deal on plastic pollution are making slow progress, Agence France-Presse reports, quoting the chair of the meeting saying that negotiators “must deliver” by the deadline of this Thursday. The newswire explains: “The key fracture is between countries that want to focus on waste management and others who want a more ambitious treaty that also cuts production and eliminates use of the most toxic chemicals.” It reports oil-producing nations rejecting limits on plastic production. The Hindu says India has “expressed support” for “oil majors Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, China, and Bahrain” and “says that negotiations must be limited to plastic pollution and not production, which can affect [the] right of development”. The Associated Press reports on why the US is making a “rare international participation under Trump”. It explains: “The US and other powerful oil and gas nations oppose cutting plastic production. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels.” [See the Carbon Brief analysis published last year for more details on why the plastics treaty matters for climate change.]

German economy minister Katherina Reiche has questioned the subsidies for “green” electricity from private photovoltaic (PV) systems as prices for systems and storage units have fallen “significantly”, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. Currently, households generating solar power on their roof and feeding it into the grid receive a fixed payment per kilowatt-hour for 20 years, explains the outlet. However, “new, small PV systems already pay off on the market today and no longer require subsidies”, the politician told the Augsburger Allgemeine. An article from Tagesschau notes that the construction of battery storage “is progressing slowly” in Germany, where, by 2030, 85% of electricity is expected to be generated from renewables.  

MORE ON GERMANY

• Reuters reports that Germany’s imports of Kazakhstan’s oil via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline jumped by 38% year on year for January-July, pipeline company Kaztransoil said on Friday.
• Germany’s federal cabinet has approved the legislation to speed up the development of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure, marking “a major push” to support emissions-heavy industries and meet its 2045 climate neutrality goal, reports Carbon Herald.

In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Chris Stark, former head of the Climate Change Committee and head of mission control for clean power 2030, says that the world is “on the brink of another transformation” that will be “every bit as profound” as the industrial revolution. This shift will be “powered by clean abundant electricity”, Stark writes. He writes: “The global race is on to be among the first ‘electrostates’: nations whose economies run on abundant, affordable, low-carbon power, rapidly reducing their dependency on volatile, insecure oil and gas. And the stakes are clear: last year, $2tn poured into clean energy, double the investment in fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency.” Stark continues: “This isn’t just about cutting emissions. It’s about cold, hard economics. India, Sweden and China and many other countries recognise the future is electric – it’s the blueprint for a more efficient economy and the basis for economic dominance in the decades to come. Britain should be among these new electrostates.” He concludes: “The electrostates have already committed to a future powered by the wind, the sun and nuclear. That is Britain’s path too. We must not watch from the sidelines as others claim the rewards.”

MORE UK COMMENT

• An editorial in the state-supporting Chinese newspaper Global Times responds to Stark’s comment under the headline: “UK’s low-carbon push hinges on pragmatic cooperation.” It cites Carbon Brief analysis on the state of the UK’s electricity sector and says: “China and the UK have complementary strengths in the field of new energy and, from an economic perspective, there is potential and a solid foundation for collaboration in areas like green electricity.”
• An editorial in the Guardian laments the “crumbling” of initiatives such as the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero since Trump’s return to office, which it says “reveals the weaknesses in relying on businesses to do the right thing”.
• In an article trailed on its Saturday frontpage, the Financial Times reviews books by the late UK climate negotiator Pete Betts and Prof Tim Lenton under the headline: “Is there a case for climate optimism?”
• In the Sunday Times, climate-sceptic columnist Dominic Lawson writes under the headline: “We’d rather gush pieties than benefit from oil.”

For Bloomberg, columnist David Fickling writes that oil market “bulls” have a “comforting story” that they tell themselves about how only the “privileged few in Europe and California…have lost their minds over electric vehicles” and that the global south is going to “provide the next wave of petroleum demand”. He continues: “Those who believe this might want to have a look at the cars and two-wheelers that people are actually buying right now. Far from trailing the rich world in their enthusiasm for battery cars, developing nations are surging ahead.” Fickling concludes: “Most of the world is already taking advantage of cleaner, cheaper road transportation. By the time developed countries realise how far they’ve fallen behind, it will be too late to catch up.”

MORE ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A feature in the Times looks at how “Europe’s car industry [can] survive the Chinese EV juggernaut”.
• For the Observer, Tim Leunig, former adviser to former chancellor Rishi Sunak and director of consultancy Public First, says Tesla is losing market power because there are now “lots of good, rival electric cars”.

A feature in the Financial Times looks at how China is tackling an outbreak of Chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne disease that it says has been spreading in Guangdong province. It says: “China’s diligence comes as climate change has heightened the risks of mosquito-born diseases, such as Chikungunya and dengue, by increasing the incidence of heavy rainfall and typhoons, said Joseph Tsang, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong.” The Sun also reports on the outbreak: “Chikungunya, which is rarely deadly but capable of wreaking havoc on organs and causing agonising, months-long pain and disability, is exploding worldwide.” It quotes Prof Will Irving of the University of Nottingham as saying: “There have been equally large, if not larger outbreaks around the world prior to this one…[However] with climate change, the mosquitos are spreading, and there are reports of the mosquito being present in parts of Europe (France, Italy, Spain).”

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Simon Evans, with contributions from Henry Wang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

Subscribe for free.