Portugal has reached a record May temperature of 40.3C in the central town of Mora, amid heat extremes across much of western Europe, according to BBC News. Bloomberg says the “deadly heatwave” is “set to intensify in Spain and France, lifting power demand for cooling and threatening fresh temperature records”. The news outlet says daytime high temperatures of 39C are possible in the south of France.

The northwestern Italian city of Turin suffered repeated blackouts on Thursday that were “blamed on ​the European heatwave, exposing the strain on the local electricity ‌network”, according to Reuters. Italy has issued a “red alert” warning for Rome, reports Agence France-Presse. The newswire says that Italy has “so far been spared” record-breaking May temperatures, but officials have warned people in northern cities to stay out of the sun.

The New York Times notes that “scientists have said the anomalous warmth is almost certainly linked to human-caused global warming”. An article in Deutsche Welle explains “why Europe is the fastest-warming continent”. 

MORE ON HEAT

• BBC News reports that wildfire warnings have been issued in Scotland “as much of the country sees a spell of warm, dry weather”.
• The UK water provider South East Water has told customers to prepare for fresh shortages as its reservoirs start to run dry amid the “very hot weather”, according to the Daily Telegraph.
• Reuters factchecks an incorrect claim circulating online, noting that “a single UK high temperature in May matching a record set in 1944 is not evidence that global warming is a deception”.
• Global warming is exposing millions of Muslims on their hajj pilgrimage to Mecca to “extreme and dangerous heat even in months outside summer”, according to new World Weather Attribution analysis covered by the Guardian.
• BBC News reports from Delhi, India, where “street vendors, fruit sellers, cycle-rickshaw drivers and ice-cream cart operators continue working through temperatures soaring above 40C”.
• Florida scientists and volunteers are expanding coral restoration efforts as ocean temperatures rise ahead of what “could be another record-breaking hot summer”, reports the Independent.

The EU will “broaden the use of its trade defences” and deploy import quotas and tariffs “more systematically” to “shield” its industrial sectors, including clean technology, from Chinese imports, according to Stéphane Séjourné, the bloc’s industry commissioner, reports the Financial Times. Meanwhile, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said that China will invest $1.1bn in Serbia following his visit to Beijing, focusing on projects including the production of auto parts and energy, reports Bloomberg. State-supporting newspaper Global Times carries a “GT Voice” opinion article saying that Europe wants to enjoy the cost advantages of Chinese industrial chains while using “administrative measures to keep Chinese turbines out”, adding that such a strategy will harm Europe’s own green transition “rhythm” and “industrial competitiveness”. China’s market regulator started a campaign on curbing “involution”, covering sectors including the production of “key industrial products”, reports Chinese news outlet Economic Information Daily.

MORE ON CHINA

• The Paper cites a Chinese climate change expert saying that methane governance is among the most cost-effective ways to curb global warming.
• Key grain-producing provinces in China are seeing earlier heavy rains this year, raising risks for agriculture and disaster management, reports Bloomberg.
• International Energy Net says that all but one of China’s 31 provinces have set renewable energy installation targets in their 15th five-year plan outlines. 
• China will “play an important role” in south-east Asia’s green transition plans, according to a senior Singaporean official, reports the South China Morning Post.
• The South China Morning Post: “China unveils auto industry blueprint to set EV, AI vehicle and semiconductor standards.”
• Chinese premier Li Qiang stressed the need for “adequate reserves of essential commodities”, including oil, reports the South China Morning Post. Wang Hongzhi, head of the NEA, said China should actively develop green fuels and coordinate the integration of computing power and electricity, reports International Energy Net.

New figures show that Australia’s emissions fell by 10m tonnes in 2025, representing an annual drop of 2% for the year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. At the same time, the newspaper says that “power bills are coming down on the back of the renewable rollout”. Despite this “significant boost”, the newspaper notes that a “climate-driven clash has sharpened in federal politics” as the right-leaning Coalition aligns with the far-right One Nation on pledging to ditch climate goals if they win the next election. Bloomberg says Australia’s emissions cuts last year were driven by the expansion of renewables and “accelerating adoption of electric vehicles”. The news outlet says the data will help to “ease concerns” that the nation will miss its upcoming climate targets.

A July increase in the energy price cap of 13% means a typical household in England, Scotland and Wales will see annual energy bills increase by £221 – or £18 a month on average, the Independent reports. BBC News explains that the lifting of the cap means “soaring wholesale costs caused by the US-Israel war with Iran hit bills for the first time”. The news outlet notes that energy costs have risen since Iran effectively blocked fossil-fuel supplies moving through the crucial strait of Hormuz shipping route. The Financial Times states that the nation’s wholesale gas prices are therefore around 60% higher than before the conflict. It adds: “However, the energy shock has been cushioned to an extent by the increased use of renewable energy in the UK, such that price rises have been less sharp than in 2022 in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

MORE ON UK

• Responding to recent claims by former prime minister Tony Blair, climate experts tell the Guardian that abandoning net-zero and drilling for more oil and gas in the North Sea “would be a massive setback for the UK and would not help the economy”.
• UK ministers are “in discussions about suspending a carbon tax on fertilisers, due to come into effect early next year, in an effort to curb food inflation”, according to the Guardian.
• Newcastle-under-Lyme council – which was recently taken over by Reform UK – has abandoned plans to reach net-zero by 2030 and proposed to withdraw its climate emergency declaration, according to BBC News. The new Reform council in Essex has announced similar plans, reports another BBC News story.

The European Commission has “castigated” Turkey for “freezing Cyprus out of preparatory meetings” ahead of the COP31 climate summit, which the Turkish government is hosting at the end of the year, reports Politico. The news outlet explains that Turkey is refusing or ignoring bilateral meeting requests from Cyprus, despite the island nation currently representing all EU governments as the bloc’s rotating council presidency. The article notes that “Turkey maintains no diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cyprus” and “is the only government worldwide to recognise as independent the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north”.

Meanwhile, another Politico story reports that, with France holding the G7 presidency, French officials have told reporters that the US “won’t commit to tackling the tech sector’s environmental impact as part of a joint G7 agreement on tech policy”.

MORE ON EUROPE

• A draft document seen by Reuters suggests the EU plans to ask member states to “waive penalties for three years” for oil and gas companies that breach its methane emissions law, ​in response to the disruption of the Iran war.
• During a gathering of industry ministers in Brussels, several EU countries have argued that planned cuts to free emissions allowances under the EU emissions trading system are “too severe”, reports Euronews.
• The European Commission has announced that the market for jet fuel in the EU “could get tighter if ‌the situation in the Strait of Hormuz does not improve within weeks”, reports Reuters.
• Euractiv reports that oil companies “show little sign” of complying with an EU law on carbon dioxide storage that they are challenging in court.
• An NGO report concludes that energy demand by data centres in Ireland has added hundreds of euros to people’s electricity bills “in a pattern that could be replicated across Europe”, according to the Guardian.
• More German drivers bought an electric vehicle in the first quarter of this year than ever before, after the launch of a major government subsidy programme, according to Bloomberg.
• As the Norwegian government plans to extract fossil fuels for “decades to come”, the nation’s oil and gas ‌companies have raised their projected investments for 2026 and 2027, according to Reuters.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer has written a lengthy riposte to former prime minister Tony Blair’s recent critique of his government, including its call to “remove parts” of the country’s net-zero targets. Writing on his Substack, Starmer says his government’s climate and energy policies are part of a wider effort to “face the economic and geopolitical conditions of the moment”. While Starmer notes that the UK “cannot unilaterally tackle climate change”, he says “we are a leading G7 economy, our voice, our example and our leadership matters”. Responding to Blair’s call to drill for more fossil fuels, Starmer points out that the North Sea is “clearly a depleting source that has no discernible impact on the global price of oil and gas”. He explains that the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels is “the single biggest driver of soaring energy bills” and concludes: “Investing in clean British energy strengthens our agency over those markets. It takes control of our bills on behalf of working people.” There is widespread news coverage of Starmer’s article, for example by BBC News and the Press Association.

MORE UK COMMENT

• Also responding to Blair’s article, Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester and the Labour candidate for the Makerfield by-election, calls for “strong public control and direction” over energy, in an article for the Times.
• An editorial in the Guardian says energy secretary Ed Miliband is “right that Britain needs clean power by 2030”, but notes that the government needs to make more immediate steps to stop higher gas prices raising people’s living costs.

A lengthy essay by Michael Liebreich, chair of Liebreich Associates, for BloombergNEF predicts how the conflict in the Middle East will affect the global energy system. “We are about to see the great clean energy acceleration 2.0 – a discontinuity in energy markets as profound as the oil shocks of the 1970s,” he writes. Liebreich states: “Where the first great clean energy acceleration took renewables to the point where they were absorbing all growth in electricity demand globally, the great clean energy acceleration 2.0 is set to take renewable energy (with a tiny bit of help from nuclear power) to the point where it absorbs all growth in energy demand.” Given this, he predicts that global fossil fuels and emissions are likely to peak “this side of 2030”. Liebrich notes that the US has “unwittingly unleashed another round of acceleration in the world’s long-term shift to clean energy” by attacking Iran.

MORE COMMENT

• An open letter in Le Monde by former members of the French “citizens’ climate convention” warns against the government’s plans to “dismantle” France’s major “climate and resilience law” – and call on citizens to defend “their” law.
• Sabine Mauderer, first deputy governor of the Deutsche Bundesbank, writes in the Financial Times that “it is in the interest of governments, industries and households but also central banks that the transition away from fossil fuels proceeds as smoothly and predictably as possible”.
• Prominent climate scientist Kate Marvel talks to Heated about why she left NASA under the Trump administration.
• Writing in the Wall Street Journal, clinical social worker Alysha Tagert claims climate scientists are “retreating from worst-case scenarios” that have caused “unnecessary climate anxiety”. [This “retreat” has been factchecked by Carbon Brief.]

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Josh Gabbatiss, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Daisy Dunne.

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