Bloomberg reports that the European Commission is to unveil a stricter 2030 emissions reduction target next week – “paving the way for fraught negotiations between governments and lawmakers over accelerating a green shift”. The European Union is considering tightening its emissions target for the next decade to a 50%-55% reduction on 1990 levels, with the upper end of the range set to become the new goal, Bloomberg says. Achieving the strengthened target “will demand hundreds of billions euros in investment over the next decade”, Bloomberg says. It adds that the president of the EU’s executive arm, Ursula von der Leyen, plans to announce the more ambitious target in a key policy speech on 15 September.

The Guardian reports that US Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden will “not pull any punches” with allies such as Australia in seeking stronger action to tackle climate change, according to one of his advisors. If elected in November, Biden will hold large emitters, such as China, accountable, “but he’s also going to push our friends to do more as well”, according to Jake Sullivan, who was the national security adviser to Biden when he was vice-president and is now in the candidate’s inner circle, the Guardian says. It adds: “While Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, is likely to welcome the pledge of US coordination with allies on regional security issues, there may be unease in government ranks about the potential for tough conversations about Australia’s climate policies.” Meanwhile, CityAM analyses Biden’s climate plans, which include supporting the Paris Agreement and a target for reducing US emissions to zero by 2050.

There is ongoing coverage on extreme weather around the world and climate change’s role. The Daily Telegraph reports on deadly flash flooding in Charikar, Afghanistan, and Karachi, Pakistan. The Daily Telegraph reports: “Flooding and natural disasters are nothing new to Afghanistan or Pakistan. Yet events like August’s floods may become more frequent officials predict, as climate change alters weather patterns…Moreover they have underlined how ill-prepared towns and cities in the region might be for the changes, with unplanned, sprawling communities unable to cope. Both countries often score highly in rankings of countries most likely to be hard hit by climate change and most ill-prepared to respond.” Laura Rio, section chief of the livelihoods and resilience unit at the United Nations Development, tells the Daily Telegraph: “Afghanistan is extremely vulnerable to climate change. In a country where more than 50% live in poverty and rely on the environment for their livelihoods, the effects of climate-induced disasters such as droughts and floods could be disastrous. Nor is the country equipped to handle these disasters.” Elsewhere, Reuters reports Typhoon Haishen is heading towards South Korea after causing havoc in Japan. And, tropical storm Paulette has just formed over the tropical Atlantic, a second Reuters story says.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that August 2020 was the fourth warmest on record worldwide. Global temperatures for the month spiked around 0.9C above the historical average, according to a new report by Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, Bloomberg says. Sky News reports on a recent record-breaking heatwave in Los Angeles. The LA neighbourhood of Woodland Hills – notable as being home to rapper Dr Dre – reached nearly 50C during the heatwave, Sky News says. Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that at least 300 more people in UK died than average in second week of August, which saw a heatwave strike southern England.

The Guardian reports that the world’s most ambitious reforestation project, the “Great Green Wall” of Africa, has covered only 4% of its target area – despite being more than halfway towards its 2030 completion date, according to a status report. “More funds, greater technical support and tighter oversight will be needed if the plan to plant 100m hectares of trees and other vegetation is to be realised,” the Guardian says. The Great Green Wall was conceived in 2007 by the African Union as a 7,000km (4,350-mile) cross-continental barrier stretching from Senegal to Djibouti that would hold back the deserts of the Sahara and Sahel, it adds. Climate Home News reports that the update came as ministers from 11 African countries in the Sahel region met virtually on Monday to take stock of progress.

MailOnline reports on a study finding switching from a largely meat-based to a largely plant-based diet could remove 16 years’ worth of CO2 emissions by 2050. At present, around 83% of agricultural land is used for meat and dairy production, MailOnline says. Switching to a plant-based diet could free up land – allowing more space for reforestation and other techniques that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere, it adds. The i newspaper also has the story.

The reaction to climate protest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) temporarily blocking newspaper printing presses continues. The i newspaper’s environment correspondent Tom Bawden describes the protest as “confused”: “Announcing the action, XR said that Rupert Murdoch’s papers had ignored climate change to such an extent that even his son, James, had complained – citing an article in The Telegraph as evidence of the family’s climate tension. The problem is that, along with Murdoch’s The Times and The Sun, they blockaded The Telegraph, which had given them ammunition for their cause. And blocking distribution of major newspapers does not look good for a group complaining about the censored coverage of climate change.” Writing in Press Gazette, veteran environment correspondent Geoffrey Lean says: “Journalists and newspapers, rightly, react against outside coercion to take a different line – often by doubling down on their original positions.” The Daily Telegraph carries several comment pieces reacting to the protest. Former Labour MP Tom Harries writes that “Labour needs to stand up to bullying mobs like [XR]”; activist and actor Bianca Jagger, in an article trailed on the frontpage, writes that “freedom of the press is as important as climate change; and parliamentary sketch writer Michael Deacon says that “Corbynites and Nats” have defended XR’s actions. A comment in the Daily Express by head of news Paul Baldwin describes the protesters as “jumped-up little fascists”. The Spectator’s political commentator Nick Tyrone says the protests have “badly backfired”. In the Daily Mail, columnist Richard Littlejohn berates XR and anti-racism group Black Lives Matter. He says: “We all want racial harmony and a cleaner, greener planet. But we don’t recognise the deliberately distorted portrait of our tolerant country as a racist hell-hole. Nor do we believe further shutting down our already Covid-crippled economy and taking us back to a romanticised agrarian age is the best way to save the polar bears.” In the Times, commentator Hugo Rifkind also compares XR’s actions to those from protesters from Black Lives Matter, describing them both as “self-defeating”. Similarly, environment minister George Eustice has said that XR has “undermined their own cause”, according to Press Association. Evening Standard editor-in-chief and former chancellor George Osbourne says of XR: “They just annoy me.”

However, some press reaction strikes a different tone. In the Guardian, columnist Polly Toynbee writes: “It is our democratic right to protest – but the government is crushing all opposition.” She continues: “Extinction Rebellion activists face being treated as ‘saboteurs of democracy’ – as organised criminals and terrorists – as the prime minister calls for new laws to protect the freedom of the press. But for one day only these climate breakdown campaigners shone a searchlight on the UK’s dysfunctional press – 80% owned by Rupert Murdoch and a few rightwing press barons, largely arguing against climate-saving policies and with a relentless anti-tax, anti-welfare, small-state agenda.” Toynbee’s comments come as the Independent reports that XR has condemned a government proposal to treat them as an organised crime group, calling the move “ridiculous”. A second Guardian story speaks to protesters from XR about the reasons behind their recent actions. In the Eastern Daily Press, Rupert Read, a Green Party campaigner and a spokesperson for XR, responds to allegations that XR attempted to stifle the press by saying: “That isn’t ‘censorship’. Censorship is what repressive regimes do when they end press freedom permanently. By contrast, we disrupted certain newspapers for just one day, to make a point: The press isn’t free. It’s mostly owned by a handful of foreign billionaires. It’s not very smart to assume they run it in your interest. No: it promotes the world view of those who want to eliminate our environmental protections, and want more roads, more flying – and to hell with the consequences for our climate and countryside.” In BusinessGreen, editor James Murray notes that reaction to XR’s latest actions has focused on implications for press rather than climate change. “It was notable this weekend that while much of the response to XR’s latest stunt focused on the implications for free speech there was relatively little media reflection on the group’s central charge: that responses to the climate crisis remain largely inadequate and the media has generally failed to build sufficiently broad public and political awareness of the escalating environmental threats the world faces.” The i newspaper also reports that XR protests are to continue in London.

For the Guardian, Robin Russell-Jones, chair of Help Rescue the Planet and scientific adviser to the all party parliamentary group on air pollution, wonders if the upcoming UN climate talks in Glasgow – COP26 – will be an embarrassment for the UK. He says: “One likes to imagine that the UK government is taking the climate emergency seriously, but that illusion has been shattered by the appointment of the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott as a UK trade adviser. Abbott has described global heating as ‘absolute crap’.” The upcoming climate conference could be the world’s “last opportunity” to meaningfully boost climate action, he says: “The solutions are clear, but as host nation, Britain is in desperate need of a leader with vision and determination. The question is: can anybody identify anyone in Boris Johnson’s cabinet who might have the political will to carry this forward?”

Elsewhere in the Guardian, Imogen West-Knights argues that politicians still “aren’t listening” when it comes to climate change. In the Times Red Box, Emma Norris, head of research at the Institute for Government, says the UK risks missing its net-zero target if prime minister Boris Johnson does not take the issue seriously. In Conservative Home, Alexander Griffiths, a researcher at the liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, argues that the government’s export credit agency also needs to “clean up its act”.

New research presents the first analysis of future “compound climate extremes” in Africa, where more than one climate-related hazard hits a region at once. Using a collection of climate models, the researchers show that “compared to the present‐day, the exposure of the African population may increase by 12‐ and 47‐fold in the best‐ and worst‐case scenarios, respectively” by the end of this century. West Africa and central and eastern regions of Africa “may be particularly exposed”, the study notes.

The uptake of cars and household appliances in Indian urban areas is being driven, in part, by the perception of status, or “conspicuous consumption”, a new study suggests. Undertaking statistical analysis of household-level data from the 2005 and 2012 India Human Development Surveys, the researchers assess the “impact of social factors in addition to economic, demographic, locational, and housing on ownership levels”. The results “indicate how households identify themselves in society influences their corresponding car and appliance consumption”, the study says.

In a “brief communication” paper, researchers assess the “carbon opportunity cost” of the extensive land use incurred to meet the dietary preferences of the global population. Mapping “the magnitude of this opportunity”, the researchers find that shifting global food production to plant-based diets by 2050 could lead to sequestration of 332–547bn tonnes of CO2. This is “equivalent to 99-163% of the CO2 emissions budget consistent with a 66% chance of limiting warming to 1.5C”, the authors note.