China’s president Xi Jinping has urged “all-out” disaster prevention and relief efforts after deadly storms hit Hubei and Guangxi, killing at least 15 people, reports Bloomberg. Chinese premier Li Qiang also asked authorities to “strengthen risk monitoring and early warning” and make “every effort in emergency rescue”, reports state news agency Xinhua. China said heavy rainfall and flooding could pose further risks as the impact of Typhoon Maysak is expected to persist until tomorrow, says another Xinhua report. It adds that Typhoon Bavi will also make landfall in China, carrying “abundant moisture” and posing a high risk of disasters. Bloomberg says the powerful storm will make landfall in south-eastern China on Friday. Meanwhile, at least five people died after a landslide struck a mountainous area in China’s Gansu province on Tuesday, reports Reuters. China is expected to see two or three typhoons “likely to make landfall or affect China’s coastal areas” in July, higher than the average of 1.8 during the same month in previous years, reports Xinhua.

MORE ON CHINA

• Electricity traded in China’s power market rose 24.8% year-on-year in the first five months of 2026, according to the NEA, reports People’s Daily.
• China has launched its 16th Arctic Ocean expedition to address climate change and its impacts, reports CGTN.
• The South China Morning Post quotes an economist at the state-owned oil and gas company CNPC, saying China’s oil demand will peak over the next five years. Bloomberg publishes an opinion article by columnist Javier Blas, saying that Beijing’s decision to buy oil could determine global oil prices for years.
• A Global Times editorial says Chinese EVs offer a “cost-efficient pathway for the green transformation of the automotive industry in countries around the world”.
• Reuters: “China’s CATL secures safety permit to restart production at flagship lithium mine.” China Energy Net says large-scale deliveries of sodium-ion batteries in China this year will test its market value across the new energy sector.
• An article by conservative outlet National Review says the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) is undermining the US’s energy producers and industrial base by advocating for China.

Germany registered more than 5,000 “excess deaths” during a record heatwave in late June, according to preliminary data from the country’s Federal Statistical Office, reports Bloomberg. It continues: “In the last full week of June, 5,486 more deaths were recorded than the 2022-25 median, according to data from the office…The weekend that closed out the period coincided with the peak of the heatwave, when the temperature reached a national record of 41.7C (107.1F).” The publication says the figures are the “latest evidence of the deadly toll of recent extreme temperatures across Europe”, with “Spain and France also report[ing] heat-related deaths in the thousands”. A Carbon Brief guest post by climate scientists estimates that the June heat in France caused around 2,700 heat-related deaths. Inside Climate News reports on how the heat in both Europe and the US has driven deaths and affected hospitals. E&E News reports on how recent US heat has broken “heat illness records” from “New York to Minnesota”.

MORE ON GLOBAL HEAT

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Europe may face “more deadly weeks” as a new heatwave builds, reports Reuters.
• Extreme heat is set to strike Los Angeles and the south-western US this week, with temperatures of 47C expected, says Bloomberg.
• Europe’s heat is straining power and water grids, says Bloomberg.
• The UK could face an extreme marine heatwave later this, putting marine wildlife at risk, says BBC News and the Times.
• Euractiv: “More than half of WHO Europe countries lack heat-health plans.”
• The Independent: “The cities most at risk from extreme heat, ranked.”
  

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a flash-flood risk warning for several parts of western India, with “widespread rainfall expected over the next 24 hours” in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and coastal Karnataka, Mint reports. Heavy rain and thunderstorms “lashed several parts of the country…triggering” landslides and flash floods, the outlet explains, which “claimed lives, caused extensive damage, submerged homes and other structures, and disrupted air, rail and road transport”. In Kerala’s Wayanad district, “two people died and seven people are missing” after a landslide at a tunnel construction site following heavy rains, the Economic Times reports. Kerala’s agriculture minister is quoted by the Indian Express as saying “[t]his is not a natural disaster but a man-made one”, with government warnings to stop construction in the monsoon ignored and environmentalist petitions against tunneling dismissed. In Gujarat’s Surat, “incessant rain…triggered large-scale rescue operations and left [six] people dead”, the New Indian Express reports.

MORE ON SOUTH ASIA

• Scientists warn that Himalayan communities face “enhanced risks from flash floods” this monsoon due to extreme rainfall, cloudbursts and “accelerated” glacier and snowmelt caused by high temperatures, Down to Earth reports.
• Flash floods and mudslides have hit the town of Thathri in Jammu and Kashmir for the “second day in a row” this week, according to the Indian Express. On Monday, floodwaters “gushed” into the premises of an under-construction dam project, it adds.

Low-cost loans for solar panel installation from the government could help millions of UK households save “hundreds” each year on their energy bills, according to a new analysis covered by the Guardian. The newspaper says that solar panels with batteries currently cost around £6,000 in the UK, but “if the Bank of England were to back a system of low-interest borrowing, they could be installed on about 8m homes at no direct cost to the government”, saving households “about £250 a year on average”. The analysis comes from thinktanks New Economics Foundation and the Finance Innovation Lab, it adds.

Elsewhere, the Times covers a new report from Policy Exchange, a right-leaning thinktank with links to climate scepticism, which claims that the UK’s decision to endorse a landmark climate opinion from the International Court of Justice could leave the country facing an “avalanche of litigation” over North Sea drilling. The newspaper describes the UK’s decision to endorse the opinion two months ago as “highly controversial” and says that it has “led to warnings from senior judges, including the former lord chief justice, that all North Sea drilling could be ruled an illegal act because it puts the UK in breach of its international climate change obligations”. It continues: “This would pave the way for the government to be sued for billions of pounds in reparations by countries most affected by climate change.” The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph also covers the report, claiming in its headline that endorsing the opinion could cost the UK “£4tn”. Edie notes that the “£4tn” figure is not linked to the ICJ opinion and comes from a 2023 Nature Sustainability study, which calculates how much global north countries could owe the global south by 2050 for emitting more than their “fair share”. [See Carbon Brief’s explainer on the non-binding ICJ opinion, including what it means for state’s legal obligations to tackle climate change.]

MORE ON UK

• An SNP MSP has defied his party by calling for the UK government to approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields, reports the Independent.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph reports that shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has claimed to have spoken to a “whistleblower” about the UK’s grid operator “covering up system failures”. The Labour government has described the claims as “scaremongering”. 
  

Four Ugandan farmers filed a case with London’s high court yesterday, aiming to stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) from beginning operations by asking the court to apply Uganda’s laws against the project’s UK-registered company. It continues: “The controversial 1,443km (897-mile) pipeline, majority-owned by French energy company ​TotalEnergies, aims to carry crude from Ugandan fields for export through neighbouring Tanzania. About 80% has been built so far, according to its developers…The claim, filed by London law firm Leigh Day, argues that EACOP Ltd’s role in developing and operating the pipeline breaches Ugandan laws that protect citizens’ right to a clean and healthy environment.”

A long read by Financial Times reporters explores how different European countries are preparing for extreme heat. The article says: “During the extreme June heat, police doused Berliners with water cannons to keep them cool and the Prague fire brigade brought out their hoses. Parisians plunged into the Canal St-Martin. Spaniards sheltered in libraries. There was a brief respite before Europe’s third major heatwave this week brought temperatures again to 40C in Spain and France, stoking wildfires and putting policymakers under pressure to prepare for increasingly deadly conditions on the fastest-warming continent. As the latest science estimates the global average temperature rise is nearing 1.4C in the industrial era, society will need to prepare for an increasingly extreme climate, experts say.”

MORE COMMENT

• A Financial Times Lex opinion says “electric trucks are coming to a highway near you”.
• Nature Climate Change has an editorial on “responsible carbon accounting”.
• Environmentalist Bill McKibben says that oil refineries can act as a country’s “achilles heel” in war, on his Substack, the Crucial Years.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Daisy Dunne, with contributions from Aruna Chandrasekhar, Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

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