Many publications report on the record-breaking heatwave that peaked in Europe yesterday. The heatwave saw temperature records broken in Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands, Reuters reports, “in what scientists said were becoming more frequent events as the planet heats up”. BBC News reports that both Belgium and the Netherlands saw their hottest temperatures on record as towns in each country reached 39.9C and 39.3C, respectively. The UK saw its hottest July day ever recorded as temperatures reached 38.1C, BBC News adds. The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Sun, Metro, Daily Mirror and the Independentmention the heatwave on their front pages. Most of these publications mention the role of climate change in increasing the chances of the heatwave in their front-page stories, though the Daily Mirror does not. The Sun says: “Experts at the Met Office say there is ‘no doubt’ climate change is playing a role in the unprecedented temperature highs.” The Independent carries comments from Jon Shonk, a research scientist at the University of Reading. He says: “There is a clear link between climate change and heatwaves. What we are experiencing today is an extreme, record-breaking heatwave event. But as the climate warms, these extreme events will become even hotter.” Jaise Kuriakose, a lecturer at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, tells the Independent that the UK climate in future years could become more like that of Spain or southern France. He says: “What we can confidently say is average summer temperatures will be around 40C in the south, and 36C or 38C in the north. And that’s not necessarily the peak – just the average.” The BBC’s flagship late-night current affairs programme Newsnight last night aired a segment called: “UK heatwave: Is climate change to blame?”, while a piece in the Economist says that “if your hunch is that this kind of extreme weather is more common today than it was once-upon-a-time, you are correct”. Europe’s heatwave also garnered coverage from US publications, including CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times and CBS News.

More than 70% of the UK public believe that climate change is more important in the long term than Brexit, according a new opinion poll reported on by the Guardian. The ComRes survey, commissioned by Christian Aid, also found six out of 10 adults said the government was not doing enough to prioritise the climate crisis, the Guardian says. “Two-thirds of those surveyed agreed that Johnson should put the issue at the top of his agenda,” it adds.

The Guardian reports on new government data showing that deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has surged above three football fields a minute – “pushing the world’s biggest rainforest closer to a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover”. Deforestation so far in July has hit 1,345 square kilometres, a third higher than the previous monthly record under the current satellite monitoring system, the Guardian reports. The increase “confirms fears that president Jair Bolsonaro has given a green light to illegal land invasion, logging and burning”, the Guardian says. The Hill also has the story.

The Guardian reports that low-carbon sources were used to generate more than half of the electricity used in the UK for the first time last year, according to official data. A steep rise in renewables, combined with electricity from nuclear reactors, made up almost 53% of generation in 2018, according to the government’s annual review of energy statistics. The UK’s use of coal fell by a quarter to a record low of just 5%, the Guardian says.

A feature by DeSmog UK investigates whether the UK’s new cabinet is the “most anti-climate action ever”. The feature takes a look at the climate credentials of each the newly appointed ministers, as well as the prime minister himself. The article reads: “The new prime minister has a patchy grasp of climate science. In December 2015, following the signing of the landmark Paris Agreement, Johnson wrote a column for the Daily Telegraph praising the work of notorious climate science denier and brother of the Labour leader, Piers Corbyn. Johnson’s position has apparently changed since then, though, having recently come out in support of a 2050 ‘net zero’ emissions target, a commitment he reaffirmed in his first address to parliament as prime minister.”

Climate change can trigger long‐term loss in ice sheet mass, which in turn drives global sea level rise. To isolate this signal, short‐term fluctuations in snowfall have to be accounted for in measurements of ice sheet elevation change. This study combines satellite altimetry and a regional climate model to show that the extent of ice sheet dynamical imbalance has grown over the past 25 years to incorporate 24% of the West Antarctic ice sheet. The thinning of Antarctic glaciers reaches 122 metres in places, and their combined ice losses have increased by a factor of five. Altogether, Antarctica has contributed 4.6mm to global sea level rise.

A new paper assesses the effects of potential policy interventions by the Trump administration to reverse the decline in the US coal industry. They find that, with fierce competition from natural gas and renewables, a further decrease of coal consumption is expected. They test whether the tide for the US coal industry could turn as a result of three potential support measures: revoking the Clean Power Plan, facilitating access to the booming Asian market and enhanced support for carbon capture and storage technology. They find that revoking the Clean Power Plan could stop the downward trend of coal consumption in the US, but even allowing for additional exports, will not lead to a return of US coal production to the levels of the 2000s.