The Financial Times reports on the ongoing wildfires in Siberia, which have now prompted Russia to declare a state of emergency. Flames have now engulfed an area of forest the size of Belgium as the region experiences record temperatures, the FT reports. “The Russian government’s lacklustre response to tackling the fires, which began weeks ago, has raised concerns over Moscow’s commitment to addressing climate change,” the FT says. “Local authorities have previously dismissed the wildfire as a natural occurrence, saying putting them out was not economically viable.” But the decision to tackle them came after two petitions attracted more than 1m signatures demanding the government take action, the FT reports. “ In addition to the destruction of carbon-absorbing forest, the CO2, smoke and soot released will accelerate temperature increases that are already melting permafrost in northern Russia,” it says. President Trump rang Vladimir Putin to offer him assistance in putting out the fires on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has also declared an emergency over its growing wildfires, Reuters reports. “Indonesia is deploying thousands of military and police to douse forest fires after declaring an emergency in six provinces on the island of Sumatra and in the province of Kalimantan on Borneo,” Reuters says. “Drought has hit large parts of the archipelago as a mild El Niño weather pattern disrupts the dry season, weather officials say, with its peak now expected to run from mid-August to mid-September.” Wildfires are a major driver of greenhouse gases in Indonesia, as Carbon Brief explained in its recent climate and energy profileof the country. Finally, in the Mirror, coverage of flash floods in Yorkshire is accompanied by a column headlined: “Climate change is taking place now, but we can turn it around.”

Several US publications cover the second Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night, in which climate change was a major talking point. “It initially appeared that it would end up being the predictable recitation by all the candidates that climate change is an existential crisis and a repetition of their call to rejoin the Paris climate agreement,” Mother Jones reports. “Then something unusual happened. Jay Inslee went after Joe Biden directly for not being ambitious enough in his proposals to address the problem, and soon other candidates followed suit.” Inslee, the Washington governor who has centred his own campaign around climate change, told Biden that taking the “middle ground” was insufficient to deal with the “crisis at hand”, the Hill reports. “Middle ground solutions like the vice president has proposed, or sort of middling, average-sized things are not going to save us. Too little, too late is not going to save us,” Inslee said, according to the Hill. He continued: “Mr Vice President, your argument is not with me, it’s with science. And your plan is just too late.” Biden defended his plan, saying it calls for “immediate action to be taken”, the Hill says. The Atlantic covers candidate Andrew Yang’s “horrific debate answer” to the climate change question. Vox reports that both Tuesday and Wednesday night’s debates show that “Democrats are getting more confrontational with the fossil fuel industry”.

Capitalism is “very much part of the solution” to tackling climate change, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said, report the Guardian and others. In an interview with Channel 4 News, Carney “gave a strident defence of the economic system predicated on private ownership and growth but said companies that ignored climate change would ‘go bankrupt without question’”. Bloomberg also reports Carney’s comments. “The costs of ignoring climate change are rising. The opportunity of doing something about it, those are rising. That’s what the system does. It shifts money away from where it’s costly, towards where it has opportunity,” he said, according to Bloomberg. Press Association also has the story.

The Guardian reports that a collection of new nature reserves being introduced in England will help to tackle climate change, according to Natural England’s chair. The South London Downs reserve is the first in a series of landscapes that will be designated a national nature reserve this year, chair Tony Juniper told the Guardian. “The South London Downs reserve is only the third national nature reserve to be created in the capital, and protects 417 hectares of flower-rich chalk downland on the border of Croydon and Surrey. It includes Farthing Downs and Happy valley,” the Guardian says.

An editorial in the Guardian addresses the links between climate change and poverty, inequality and migration. “Drought and famine are already forcing families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to attempt to migrate to the United States when they are unable to feed themselves,” the Guardian says. “It is the duty of richer nations to do all they can to hold back the soaring temperatures which they did most to produce, and to take what action they can to mitigate their impact – abroad as well as at home. It is also in their self-interest.”

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Sun writes on what it describes as “eco hysteria”. The editorial reads: “It’s bad enough kids ‘striking’ over climate change without unions joining in…The apocalypse is NOT upon us. The government IS dramatically increasing efforts to limit emissions.” [While the UK government recently set a new, more ambitious target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, it has yet to increase the ambition of its policies for getting there.]

“In ecological terms the royal family is a herd of elephants trashing the forest,” writes environmental journalist John Vidal in the Guardian. He says: “Oh Harry, it’s all a bit complicated isn’t it? From extracts released of a Vogue interview you have done with the great primatologist Jane Goodall, you imply that you plan to have just one more child because of your concerns about the environment. Well, compared with your parents and grandparents, that’s a good start. But the planet is not responding well to your jet-setting lifestyle, and two more little Sussexes adopting Dad and Mum’s ways won’t help.”

Building on earlier studies that link extreme heat to reduced pregnancy terms, new research analyses the impact of high heat during May–September over a five-year period in North Carolina in the US. The findings identified daily minimum temperature as the most significant factor, “indicating high overnight temperatures have the most impact on preterm birth”. “The magnitude of this impact varies across regions from a 1% increase in risk to 6% increase in risk per two-degree increment above established minimum temperature thresholds,” the researchers say.

A new review paper highlights the lack of “thorough understanding” around urban drought and how tackling the challenges it poses “is an integral part of achieving the targets set in at least five different Sustainable Development Goals”. The paper identifies key concepts behind urban drought, including proposing four sub-categories of “precipitation-induced, runoff-induced, pollution-induced, and demand-induced urban droughts”. The authors also suggest five actions to help with urban drought preparedness, including “raising public awareness on water rights and water saving” and “strengthening resilience efforts via international cooperation”.