Many US frontpages report that, under the direction of the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled a plan to revoke the scientific finding that underpins the government’s regulatory authority to combat climate change. The repeal of the “endangerment finding” would end EPA regulations on power station emissions, the control of the release of methane by oil and gas companies and pollution from cars and trucks, the Washington Post says. It continues: “The EPA’s new proposal argues that Congress, in the Clean Air Act, does not give the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. If the rule takes effect, it would immediately reverse the vehicle regulations and spark a legal battle that probably would take years. Should the Trump administration prevail in court, the rule would severely limit the ability of future presidents to curb fossil fuel emissions.” The New York Times says the proposal is the “most consequential step yet to derail federal climate efforts and appears to represent a shift toward outright denial of the scientific consensus”.

CNN reports that the repeal is “based in part on a hastily produced report – authored by five researchers who have spent years sowing doubt in the scientific consensus around climate change – that questions the severity of the impacts of climate change”. The report on “climate change and climate science” calls into question the “seriousness of climate impacts and informed EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding”, CNN says. The broadcaster continues: “[The] Energy Department recently hired three prominent researchers who have questioned and even rejected the overwhelming scientific consensus on human-caused climate change – John Christy and Roy Spencer, both research scientists at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Steven E Koonin of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Christy, Spencer and Koonin are on the byline of the DOE report, along with Canadian economist Ross McKitrick and Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry – also considered to have opinions on climate change that contradict the scientific consensus. The group took around two months to complete the report.”

Climate scientist and Carbon Brief contributor Dr Zeke Hausfather tells CNN he was “surprised” this would be released as an official publication and said it was notable the Trump administration selected “five authors who are well known to have fringe views of climate science” to author it. The outlet quotes Hausfather continuing: “It reads like a blog post – a somewhat scattershot collection of oft-debunked sceptic claims, studies taken out of context or cherry-picked examples that are not representative of broader climate science research findings. The fact that this has been released at the same time that the government has hidden the actual congressionally mandated national climate assessments that accurately reflect the science only further shows how much of a farce this is.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that “a chorus of advocates and experts on Tuesday condemned the administration’s plans to reverse this finding as dangerous and shortsighted”. It adds that experts said that the impact on climate-progressive state California is still “unclear”, but that it could be “uniquely positioned to weather the storm”. It continues: “The state has notoriously struggled with smog and air pollution and has been a leader in adopting aggressive environmental regulations far exceeding national standards. In fact, much of the state’s ambitious work around clean air and climate predates the development of the endangerment finding and even the Clean Air Act.” The Wall Street Journal has an editorial welcoming the end of “climate imperialism”, titled: “Climate regulation liberation day.” There is blanket coverage across the media, in titles including the Financial Times, Guardian, BBC News, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Axios and Vox.  

MORE ON US

• The Trump administration is considering halting all new wind projects on federal lands and waters, with interior secretary Doug Burgum ordering a “comprehensive review” of the agency’s approval process on Tuesday, Bloomberg says.
• The EPA has ordered a member of its drinking water advisory council to “cease all work” for the agency after she signed a letter criticising administrator Lee Zeldin’s policies, E&E News reports.
• The Trump administration “fired the last of the US climate negotiators earlier this month”, leaving the nation with “no official presence” at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November, CNN reports.
• The New York Times has obtained emails showing how 15 coal power plants were exempted from air pollution rules after contacting the EPA.
• The Washington Post reports on how Trump’s AI action plan “chip[s] away at a foundational environmental law”.
• Former Department of Energy staff say Trump is “fumbling” the potential of geothermal power, according to the Guardian.

Extreme rainfall has killed at least 30 people in Beijing after “a year’s worth of rain fell in less than a week”, displacing more than 80,000 people, “damaging roads” and “cutting off power and communications in more than 130 villages”, Reuters reports. The country’s “usually arid north has seen record rains…with some scientists linking it to global warming”, it says. Xuebin Zhang, CEO of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, tells the newswire that the rainfall was amplified by the local topography, which “trapped” the moist air. The state news agency Xinhua reports that President Xi Jinping has “urged all-out efforts” to “fully protect people’s lives and property” in response to the floods. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) says the government has allocated 550m yuan ($77m) in “disaster relief” to flood-hit regions, of which 200m yuan ($28m) is allocated to Beijing. The flooding in Beijing was also covered in the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, BBC, the Associated Press, France 24, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, and LBC News.

Xinhua reports that emergency operations are being undertaken due to “heavy rainfall” and flooding in Beijing’s neighbouring city of Tianjin. Bloomberg says that heavy rainfall has “effectively clos[ed] down” Hong Kong for the second time in a week. Another Bloomberg report says, as Beijing experiences “deadly flooding”, Shanghai is bracing for heavy rain from Typhoon Co-may. Forecasts predict heavy rain and thunderstorms in northern China will continue till Friday, state-run newspaper China Daily reports. 

MORE ON CHINA

• China’s top leadership will “review proposals for the 15th five-year plan” covering 2026-2031 at the “fourth Plenum” in October, Bloomberg reports.
• Research from Global Energy Monitor covered by Reuters finds that while new coal mine “additions slowed” in China in 2024, future Chinese projects “risk oversupply”.
• An SCMP editorial says it “won’t be enough” for China to tell neighbouring countries that there will be “no negative impact” from its new “megadam” in Tibet, adding China “can build confidence through engagement and transparency”.
• Kansas attorney general Kris Kobach has urged the US federal government to “investigate” funding of “environmental lawfare” by Energy Foundation China, which he links to the Chinese Communist Party, Fox News says. 
• The UN Refugee Agency’s Raouf Mazou tells China Daily that Chinese support for development plays a “key role” in addressing “climate change-linked displacement”.
• Local authorities are “clearing long-stalled renewables projects” and “reallocating quotas” to “enhance the efficiency” of such development, says China Energy News.

At least 293 people have died and over have been 600 injured across Pakistan since late June, “as glacial lake outbursts, cloudbursts and relentless monsoon rains triggered catastrophic floods, from the Himalayas to the south plains”, the Times of India reports. Forecasts of another severe monsoon spell have “rais[ed] fears of fresh flash floods and landslides”, it says, adding that experts “blame successive gov[ernments] for ignoring climate adaptation and disaster preparedness, despite warnings”. The Tribune reports that floodwaters from the Indus and Chenab rivers have “inundated more than a dozen villages” across Pakistan’s Punjab province, with thousands forced to evacuate their homes. In neighbouring India, a “mother-son duo was among three people killed in flash floods triggered by heavy rainfall” in the Himalayan gateway town of Mandi as “gushing” flood waters flowed through the city, the Indian Express reports. State authorities tell the paper that Mandi has become “the epicentre of disasters” in Himachal Pradesh, in a region that has seen “intensifying climate volatility” in recent years. 

MORE ON SOUTH ASIA

• Responding to questions on India’s imports of Russian oil, India’s high commissioner to the UK is quoted by the Times of India as saying: “What would you have us do? Switch off our economy?”
• A comment by Bloomberg columnist David Fickling says that India is likely to “overtake” the US in clean-power deployment, in a “remarkable turnaround for a country whose renewable industry looked like a lost cause” less than two years ago.
• The Press Trust of India reports that India’s environment ministry has set up a “dedicated COP33 cell” to prepare to host the UN climate talks in 2028, although its bid is yet to be officially accepted.
• Down To Earth speaks to experts about the ICJ’s advisory opinion on climate change and its “significant implications” for India. The Indian Express, meanwhile, carries a comment outlining the “public policy challenges” thrown up by the court’s opinion that it describes as “not just a verdict from afar, but a compass”. 
• The Associated Press looks at how climate change is impacting yak herders in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.
• Grist carries a feature on India’s Indigenous and Dalit rappers “spitting bars about climate justice”, often “at great risk to themselves”. 

The Australian government is to “substantially expand a renewable energy underwriting scheme as it aims to capitalise on the falling cost of solar panels and batteries and combat concerns it may struggle to meet its 2030 climate target”, the Guardian says. It continues: “The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the government would increase the size of its main climate and energy programme – known as the capacity investment scheme – by 25%. It means Labor plans to underwrite the construction of 40 gigawatts of large-scale solar, wind and storage by the end of the decade. In capacity terms, this is nearly twice as much energy infrastructure as the country’s existing coal-fired power fleet.” Reuters adds that experts say Australia will “fall far short” of its target for 82% of electricity to come from renewables by 2030, due to “inadequate investment and grid connection delays”.

MORE ON AUSTRALIA

• A report in Bloomberg says that Australia’s hopes to be a “global green hydrogen leader are fast unraveling”, with at least seven big hydrogen production projects delayed, scaled back or cancelled in the last year.
• Bloomberg says that a “new report linking Australia’s liquefied natural gas export boom to surging local energy prices is fuelling fresh pressure to curb shipments”.

For the Guardian, editor and filmmaker John D Boswell says that one of the eight reasons to be hopeful about the future is that the world is “getting a grip on climate change”. He continues: “Just a decade ago or so, it appeared that civilization was on a course to cause a disastrous 4C-5C of warming above pre-industrial levels. But since then, major nations and markets have responded with surprising force and urgency; global carbon dioxide emissions have significantly slowed, and in many countries, per capita emissions are falling even while per capita GDP and energy use are going up. We are still not doing enough – there is a lingering risk of runaway carbon cycle feedback loops that could push us over 4C – but nations are making ambitious net-zero commitments that, if realised, could feasibly keep warming below 2C.” His second reason to be hopeful is that “energy abundance is in reach”, with the “exponential growth in solar” playing a major role.

MORE COMMENT

• Washington Post climate advice columnist Michael J Coren asks: “What if we need spiritual revival, not technology, to address climate change?”
• For the South China Morning Post, Sri Lankan scholar Dr Kalinga Seneviratne says the recent world court opinion on climate change “opens the door wider for climate justice”.
• The Economist writes on the “remarkable rise” of “greenhushing”.
• Former chair of England’s Environment Agency Emma Howard Boyd writes in CityAM that London’s new growth and development plan cannot treat preparing for worse extreme weather as an “optional extra”.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph continues its run of misleading columns attacking concerns about climate, including one titled “Donald Trump is right to stir up the hornets’ nest on North Sea oil and gas”, another, by former Conservative secretary of state John Redwood, with the false headline “our insane net-zero policies are actually increasing carbon emissions” and a third titled “I’m terrified of rabies, my Gen Z daughter fears climate change. Why anxiety is generational”.
• An editorial in the net-zero-sceptic Sun says Donald Trump “nailed it” by urging Keir Starmer to ramp up drilling in the North Sea. Climate-sceptic commentator Tim Newark writes – inaccurately – in the main comment slot for the Daily Express that the “PM should listen to Trump and dump expensive net-zero”.

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

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