On its frontpage, the Guardian reports that scientists say the heatwave in western Europe is the “most severe and widespread ever” and is “only possible due to the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning”. This is according to new analysis from the World Weather Attribution service, the article explains, which finds: “As recently as 2003, a heatwave like the current one in Europe would have been 2C cooler due to the lower level of global heating at the time. In 1976, another famous heatwave year, it would have been 3.5C cooler.” The newspaper adds that the scientists have also found that “almost half of Europe’s 850 largest cities” are also enduring their “worst-ever heat stress”, from a combination of temperature and humidity. CNN reports that the scientists said that the heat would have been “virtually impossible” just a few decades ago and that human-caused climate change is “unequivocally to blame”. The Associated Press, Bloomberg, New York Times, Politico and Reuters also cover the analysis. [See below for more on the heatwave and its impact.]

A French court has ordered oil and gas giant TotalEnergies to account for the emissions from the use of its products by clients, reports Le Monde. The case, brought by climate NGOs and the city of Paris, “fell short” of imposing measures demanded by the plaintiffs, including a halt in new fossil fuel projects and cuts in oil and gas production, it continues. Reuters explains that TotalEnergies has been ordered to “disclose the climate risks” linked to its products and “set about plans to mitigate them”. It continues that the case is a “partial victory” for “climate-change NGOs” seeking to apply France’s 2017 corporate duty of vigilance law to climate change. The Guardian reports that the court determined the company’s vigilance plan was “incomplete” and gave it six months to amend it to include emissions from end users. The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Climate Home News, Euractiv and Financial Times all have the story.

MORE ON LITIGATION

• Datacentres are facing an increase in climate-related legal cases around the world, according to an analysis from the London School of Economics covered by the Guardian.
• Reuters reports that California has sought a court order to block the federal government’s reversal of state vehicle emission rules.
• Utility Dive: “California to sue Trump administration over offshore wind buybacks.”

The UK had its “hottest June day” – again – on Thursday when temperatures of 36.7C were recorded in Somerset, reports the Times. It says the new record for the month “beat the high set on Wednesday”, as well as a record set in 1976. It continues that on Wednesday, the UK experienced its warmest June night on record, with temperatures in Cardiff not falling below 23.5C, exceeding the previous record of 22.7C set in 1976. The BBC News notes on its live blog that, yesterday, England “broke its record twice in one day”, Wales recorded its hottest June day and Scotland and Northern Ireland both recorded their hottest day of the year so far. The i newspaper covers the heat record on its frontpage, where it notes that more than 1,200 schools are shut. 

Meanwhile, BBC News reports that the London Ambulance Service (LAS) saw its “highest ever” number of life-threatening emergencies. Crews responded to a record 642 “category one” calls on Wednesday before the record was broken again yesterday, it says. The Independent quotes LAS chief executive Jason Killens as saying the record had been “driven by the extreme heat”. The Guardian looks at how the extreme heat is affecting hospitals in England, noting that doctors have pointed to “radiotherapy machines and MRI scanners failing, critical IT systems stalling and cooling units that serve entire hospitals breaking down”. The hot weather has also prompted a “surge in admissions and people arriving at A&E, causing severe overcrowding in some places”, it continues, adding that several NHS trusts have “declared critical incidents”.

MORE ON UK HEAT

• The heatwave has been linked to wildfires in the Peak District by the Daily Mail and in a frontpage picture story in the Times, as well as a “grassland blaze” in Worcestershire, according to BBC News.
• The Times: “Restaurants close, cut menus and turn off fryers to beat heatwave.”
• In a frontpage story, the Daily Telegraph says farmers are “scram­bling to sal­vage this year’s pea har­vest” as the heat­wave puts “extreme pres­sure” on crops.
• The Metro covers London mayor Sadiq Khan’s proposals for preparing London for extreme heat on its frontpage.
• The Independent rounds up demands from scientists, MPs and “infrastructure experts” that the government take action to upgrade buildings and transport links in the face of rising temperatures.
• With “several gas-fired power plants” and four of the UK’s 10 nuclear reactors “switched off for summer maintenance”, the UK paid “17 times more” to import energy from Europe for an hour on Wednesday evening, says the Daily Telegraph.

The Financial Times reports on how the heatwave is unfolding across Europe. It notes that temperatures neared 41C in Paris, where “heat-absorbing zinc rooftops” have caused temperatures in apartment buildings to “soar further”. Some areas of France have seen night-time temperatures of 30C, it continues, adding that “tropical nights” that do not fall below 20C make it harder for the human body to recover from heat stress. France’s prime minister Sébastien Lecornu reportedly told mayors yesterday that financing would “double” for building work on hospitals including protecting them from extreme heat, according to the newspaper. It notes that the “heatwave is moving east across Europe” and is expected to peak in Germany at the weekend at 41C, adding that Austria’s weather agency has warned Vienna could hit a record 40C.

Meanwhile, Euronews reports that France’s state-owned energy giant EDF has temporarily shut down two nuclear reactors as a precautionary environmental measure, as the country grapples with a record-breaking heatwave that has “already turned deadly”. Le Monde notes the country is “on track” towards a “severe summer drought”. Politico says the heatwave has “thrust climate change to the forefront of the national debate ahead of next year’s presidential election” and is forcing the far-right National Rally party to “confront its previous efforts to downplay the issue”.

MORE ON EUROPE HEAT

• In a frontpage story, the Financial Times reports that electricity prices are soaring across Europe amid the heatwave.
• Reuters reports on how the European heatwave is driving an air-conditioning sales boom for Asian manufacturers.
• Euractiv: “Record heat tests Europe’s healthcare systems.”
• The Netherlands has issued its first ever “code red” for extreme heat, according to Dutch News, while Reuters reports on “concerns” over milk and meat production in Belgium.
• The Press Association: “Weather warnings for whole island of Ireland as new record temperature possible.”
• The European Green Party has called for an emergency EU leaders summit over extreme heat, says Politico.

The head of the UK’s biggest trade union, Unison, has “endorsed” energy secretary Ed Miliband to be the next chancellor, reports the Financial Times, opening up a “split with at least two other major unions” that are “strongly opposed”. Miliband is currently a “frontrunner for the role” in a potential Andy Burnham government, alongside former health secretary Wes Streeting and current home secretary Shabana Mahmood, it says. The newspaper continues that “some colleagues [within Labour] have misgivings about Miliband’s leftwing views and rapid pursuit of net-zero as energy secretary, with both the GMB and Unite concerned about job losses in the North Sea from his policies”. The Independent notes that “at the heart of the dispute” is Miliband’s “push towards net-zero and what unions argue is the risk to the jobs of workers, particularly in the North Sea”. Sky News reports that current chancellor Rachel Reeves has backed Miliband. The Times has a feature entitled: “Inside the battle to stop Ed Miliband becoming chancellor”.

MORE ON UK POLITICS

• In an interview with the Guardian, Green party leader Zach Polanski urged Burnham not to backslide on climate action, noting that a failure to be bold on climate will “see our country get poorer and his party slip further into obscurity”.
• The Daily Telegraph and Daily Express falsely claim Miliband “derailed a plan to fund Britain’s rearmament by ramping up North Sea drilling”. [The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said on social media that the “story is pure nonsense”, adding that “the Telegraph was repeatedly told these claims are categorically untrue, yet published it anyway”.]
• The Daily Telegraph says that Burnham’s team is “reviewing plans to increase the rate of capital gains tax to fund the removal of all green levies from energy bills”.
• Sunderland City Council, which was taken over by Reform UK in May, repealed a 2019 climate declaration on Wednesday, according to BBC News.
• Reuters: “EU says talks over linking EU and UK emissions trading systems impacted by UK politics.”

China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the National Energy Administration (NEA) have released the country’s 15th five-year plan for building a “new-type energy system”, reports industry news outlet BJX News. The plan sets a range of targets by 2030, including aiming for clean energy to account for 30% of power generation and making wind and solar the “mainstay” of China’s power mix, according to finance news outlet Cailianshe. The outlet also notes targets of installing 300 gigawatts (GW) of new energy storage capacity and 110GW of nuclear power capacity, as well as ensuring the power grid is capable of absorbing 900GW of distributed renewable energy. The plan also calls for the “strengthening” of coal’s role as a “bottom-line guarantee”, promoting the development of “key upstream mineral resources for the renewable energy supply chain” and developing hydrogen energy and “green fuels”, adds the outlet. Reuters also covers the story, saying China will encourage the direct connection of green power to datacentres.

MORE ON CHINA

• BJX News reports China’s total installed power generation capacity reached 4,010GW last month, with the share of coal capacity falling to 32%, while non-fossil energy capacity rose to 62%.
• The South China Morning Post reports that China’s “green energy” could cost as little as 0.3 yuan (US$0.04) per KWh within five years.
• Zimbabwe says it is considering using its “significant mineral resources”, including lithium, to “fund road and railway construction projects with China”, reports Reuters.
• A Chinese expert said BloombergNEF’s prediction of China’s emissions reduction and share of coal in the power mix was “overly optimistic” and “even radical”, according to China Daily.
• China issued an action plan for “public participation” in building a “Beautiful China”, calling for social adoption of “green and low-carbon lifestyles”, reports the Paper.
• Economic Daily says that offshore wind power sits at the intersection of China’s energy transition, marine economy, and high-end manufacturing.

In an editorial, the Independent argues that climate change in the UK must be treated with “the urgency the moment demands”. It says “there is an all too obvious need to increase resilience” in the UK, from “railway tracks to the foundations of buildings and flood defences”. It notes that, a few years ago, “this position was common ground”. But now, it says, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch calls herself a “net-zero sceptic” and there has been a “fracturing of the international consensus by an anti-science elite”. It continues: “Under the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis, strained public finances, and the frankly malign influence of the fossil-fuel lobby on British politics, the public and politicians alike have found more immediate, quotidian matters to fret about. This approach is perfectly understandable, but deeply flawed. Climate change, with its costly consequences for every nation and every human being, is an inconvenient truth, and an issue that should transcend all others.” Even if it is “practically impossible to reverse climate change, we can still limit it”, the newspaper stresses, noting that “imaginative solutions will need to be found”. 

MORE HEATWAVE COMMENT

• In the Guardian, architect Harry Paticas looks at why hot spells turn UK schools into “heat traps”.
• In the Daily Mail, climate-sceptic columnist Richard Littlejohn argues that “climate cultists” want to make the country “hotter and poorer”.
• In a full-page commentary, the Daily Mail’s TV critic Christopher Stevens argues that, during heat in 1957, people “just rolled up their trouser-legs and had an ice-cream”, continuing that “such insouciance is frowned on now”.
• In the Evening Standard, theatre critic Nick Curtis argues the current heatwave is “nothing” compared to the 1976 heatwave. [Scientists’ had said the current heatwave in western Europe is the “most severe and widespread ever”].

The Financial Times chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley says Andy Burnham’s choice of chancellor “will reveal the likely character of the government and the extent of any new radicalism”. He says Miliband “terrifies many who see him as a high-spending climate ideologue”. However, he continues that Miliband’s critics “don’t dispute that he is up to the job”, noting that the energy secretary is the “most effective and strategic of Keir Starmer’s ministers” and “boasts significant Treasury experience and chaired Gordon Brown’s council of economic advisers”. But his effectiveness is what “worries opponents”, according to Shrimsley, who notes that people fear “he would overpower Burnham and become the effective head of government”. He concludes: “Burnham’s choice will help answer a key question. Is this a radical government, fuelled by a decentralising sensibility, ready to go big on a high-risk heterodox green growth strategy?”

In UK newspaper editorials, the Times says Miliband “represents the greatest prospective threat to stability” of the candidates for chancellor. It continues: ‘While his net-zero zeal and more radical spending agenda might endear him to elements of the Labour left, it is unlikely to do the same to jittery bond markets.” Meanwhile, the Financial Times says Burnham must “must be prepared to make unpopular choices”. Among these will be a decision on whether to approve further activities in the North Sea “to support production and jobs in the oil and gas sector, at the risk of upsetting green activists”, it says. The Sun rails against the “hysterical nanny state” telling the public not to go outside in the case of “imminent death”.

In other Miliband commentary, Daily Telegraph assistant editor Jeremy Warner says the energy secretary would be a ”very high risk appointment”. Also in the Daily Telegraph, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat says “Britain can’t afford Ed Miliband”.

MORE UK COMMENT:

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, world economy editor at the Daily Telegraph, writes that Burnham has the “gift of economic timing”, in part because “the UK energy crisis of the past four years is essentially over” and the “UK is over the hump in the switch to more efficient electrotech”.
• Matthew Lynn, the Daily Telegraph’s finance columnist, writes that “Britain’s obsessive drive to net-zero is placing intolerable strains on the grid”. 
• Also in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph, senior feature writer Rosa Silverman says that “critics of the government” claim that “current policy actively discourages the installation and use” of air conditioning.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Cecilia Keating, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

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