The UK has broken its temperature record for June while France has recorded its hottest day ever for the second day running, reports the Guardian. The newspaper notes that temperatures “bolstered by climate breakdown” hit 36.1C in the southern English town of Gosport, amid a wider heatwave affecting more than 90 million people across parts of Europe. The Press Association explains that the UK temperature beats a previous record that had stood since 1976. BBC News reports that the UK Health Security Agency has extended a “red heat health” warning from Thursday through to Friday. Inside Climate News looks at how climate change is driving this extreme heat. The Economist cites an assessment by scientist consortium ClimaMeter concluding climate change has made the heat “2-4C worse”. The New York Times explains “why Europe is the fastest-warming continent”.

The Financial Times reports on Britain’s grid operator calling for more electricity supplies as “extreme heat pushes up demand for power and reduces the efficiency of solar panels and gas-fired power stations”. The Times has an article titled: “From trains to hospitals, how the heatwave is crippling the UK.” ITV News says a “critical incident” has been declared at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth after extreme heat caused some of their cooling units to fail. The Guardian says a failure to plan for heatwaves “has left UK’s schools sweltering”. The Times reports on record-breaking heat in Scotland. Another Times article considers potential “heatwave health dangers”. The Daily Telegraph reports that heatwaves could trigger blackouts this summer as the “rising numbers of wildfires damage power lines”. The Guardian reports on new research showing how “one in every six babies” in England are living in overheated homes.

BBC News reports on new analysis showing that one million homes, more than 1,300 schools, 60 hospitals and 350 care homes in London are at risk of overheating. London mayor Sadiq Khan tells LBC that he thinks there should be “maximum temperatures” for classrooms and workplaces, before they close. Khan has also told bus drivers to stop working if they feel their buses are too hot, according to the Daily Express. Temperatures on the London tube have reached around 40C, reports the Independent. Meanwhile, Wired reports on how London Climate Action Week has been “foiled by climate change”, with many events moved online to avoid the heat. 

The Associated Press reports that in some locations across France, including Paris, temperatures surpassed 40C. The news outlet notes that the “heat dome” affecting western Europe “could endanger lives across countries, many of which have limited air conditioning”. French newspaper Libération says that temperatures have reached as high as 44.3C in the south-western commune of Pissos. BBC News reports on political debate in France around the use of air conditioning (AC), with “Marine Le Pen on the populist right urging a mass subsidised roll-out” while “traditionally hostile” Greens concede some AC may be necessary. Le Pen’s “far-right Rassemblement National” has touted a “major” AC plan, while planning to “cut budgets” for measures to cut emissions, according to Le Monde. Left-wing candidates for next year’s French presidential election have “seized on” the heatwave to put forward energy and climate proposals, reports E&E News.

Sky News covers the growing death toll linked to drowning amid the heatwave in France, which has now reached “at least 48” people. Le Monde says the heat has led to a “worrying rise in emergency hospital visits”. Libération reports on the dangers facing people in French prisons during the heatwave. Reuters says extreme heat in France has killed hundreds ‌of thousands of poultry. CNBC says parts of the country have suffered a major power outage due to the heat. Le Monde reports that France is now “on track for a severe summer drought”. 

MORE ON HEAT

• A group of leading UK climate scientists have written a letter to broadcast editors from the BBC, ITV and others to express “concern” about the lack of references to climate change in UK heatwave coverage. The letter is printed in full in the Press Gazette.
• The current heatwave in Germany is the “longest ever recorded in June since the beginning of weather records” – and is costing the economy billions, according to Deutsche Welle.
• Spain’s state meteorological agency says Monday and Tuesday were the hottest June days on record in mainland Spain since at least 1950, reports Euronews.
• Temperatures ​are forecast to exceed 40C in several parts of ​Vietnam on Thursday and the state utility has called on firms and households to conserve electricity, according to Reuters.
• New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has signed an executive order to protect the city’s 1.4 million outdoor workers from extreme heat, reports E&E News.
• Irish housing minister James Browne has requested a delay to “elective” water works, to avoid water being cut off amid “extreme heat”, reports the Press Association.
• The Financial Times reports on how investors have been “piling into stocks of air conditioning companies”, amid successive heatwaves and the “spread of vast data centres drives demand for industrial cooling systems”.

Two of the nation’s biggest trade unions are increasing pressure on likely incoming UK prime minister Andy Burnham not to pick energy secretary Ed Miliband as the next finance minister, “arguing that his North Sea oil policy has damaged jobs in the sector”, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper says Miliband has faced pushback from Unite the Union and the GMB, both major Labour donors. It says the priority for the unions is to choose another candidate other than Miliband “because of his relentless focus on the net-zero agenda”. The Times reports that Miliband is “playing an integral role in developing economic policies for Burnham’s government as part of his transition to No 10”, despite criticism of his opposition to new drilling in the North Sea. The newspaper says Burnham himself is “open to” new drilling. The Daily Mail reports that “senior fig­ures from the world of busi­ness joined forces with even Burnham-back­ing Labour MPs to warn that the energy sec­ret­ary would wreak havoc if he was put in charge of the eco­nomy”. The Daily Telegraph claims: “Burnham cools on Miliband as chancellor.”

The Guardian reports that the director of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Shevaun Haviland, has said Burnham should be ready to drill for more North Sea oil and gas to avoid “mass job losses in Scotland and the north-east”.

MORE ON UK

• BusinessGreen reports on MPs preparing to vote on the seventh carbon budget, which would commit the UK to reducing its emissions by 87% by 2040. [They have since passed the budget, committing the UK to the target.]
• The Press Association reports on a new government “roadmap” for farming in England that “sets out how farmers can cope with climate change-driven extremes and cut reliance on expensive fertilisers”.
• Under new plans submitted to the government, four mini nuclear plants would be built at the site of a former coal power station in Nottinghamshire, reports the Daily Telegraph.
• There has been a “significant” cut to Wales’ emissions, mainly due to the closure of the blast furnaces at Port Talbot steelworks, according to BBC News.
• The Independent asks if the hard-right Reform UK is “heading for its own climate crisis”, as the climate-sceptic party faces rising climate impacts.

The US, Qatar and other major energy exporters have urged the EU to “rewrite planned methane emissions” rules for oil and gas imports, ‌warning that the policy could disrupt fuel supplies to Europe, according to Reuters. The newswire says the EU’s new rules, which aim to curb leaks of the potent greenhouse gas, have “drawn strong opposition from industry and overseas ​suppliers”. The article quotes an open letter to EU leaders from the energy ministers of the US, Qatar, Nigeria and Algeria calling on the EU to introduce “targeted amendments” to the law. US energy secretary Chris Wright tells Bloomberg that US gas supplies will “head elsewhere” if the bloc keeps its rules.

MORE ON FOSSIL FUELS

• The price of Brent crude oil has fallen back to below its pre-Iran war level as “a wave of pent-up oil started to flow from the Gulf, leading traders to shrug off the risk of any aftershocks from the crisis”, according to the Financial Times.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that US president Donald Trump has instructed the Justice Department to look into major oil companies, accusing them of “gouging” customers by not lowering pump prices in line with falling oil costs.
• The head of Brazil’s state-run oil giant Petrobras has said the country must decide between transitioning away from fossil fuels and preserving tax revenue, according to the Associated Press.
• Colombia and the Netherlands, which co-hosted the first conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels this year, say they have held “constructive” discussions on bringing those outcomes to the COP31 climate summit, according to Climate Home News.

Dozens of governments, led by the EU and the UK, have committed to throwing “their political weight” behind a rapid electrification of the world’s economy, according to Climate Home News. The high-level summit in London’s Mansion House saw energy ministers and business leaders joined by UN secretary-general António Guterres in “calling for faster action to curb demand for oil, coal and gas by powering homes, industry and transport with clean electricity”.

In a separate event at London Climate Action Week, Guterres said climate adaptation must be treated as a core priority for governments and properly valued by the financial system, according to Reuters. The newswire said Guterres told attendees: “Finance ministers, central ⁠banks, planning ministries and public investment authorities must treat climate risk as core economic policy ​in order to mobilise greater domestic resources.”

MORE ON EU

• The Financial Times reports that French aviation company Dassault Aviation has won a legal claim that private planes should be able to qualify as sustainable under EU rules.
• Politico: “EU countries want oil exploration to be classed as a green investment.”
  

China’s special envoy for climate change, Liu Zhenmin, has said at the World Economic Forum that energy shortages triggered by the Iran war should be a “lesson to countries to accelerate their energy transitions”, reports Bloomberg. Chinese premier Li Qiang said China’s competitiveness is “not a result of state subsidies”, adding that the country maintained “steady growth” amid “energy shortages”, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. Li also said China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) industry was driven by “technological breakthroughs” and China will accelerate the construction of new power grids, according to state news agency Xinhua. Peking University’s Huang Yiping tells the South China Morning Post that the reason behind China’s trade imbalance is that the world is struggling to adjust its “economic structure”. Xinhua says representatives at Summer Davos believe China’s “growing influence” in “green development” could “add impetus to the sluggish world economy”. The South China Morning Post: “China, Kazakhstan target deeper ties in minerals and energy at Summer Davos.”

MORE ON CHINA

• China’s coal power generation is expected to “rebound” this year from its first fall in a decade, according to analysts, reports Reuters.
• China’s new policy to boost consumption of clean energy marks the entry of “mandatory renewable energy integration”, says Jiemian.
• China’s “independent oil refiners have slashed operating rates to a nine-year low” amid high costs and “weak” domestic demand, reports Bloomberg.
• Chinese automakers “continued their rapid expansion” in Europe in May, according to the South China Morning Post. Reuters reports that China’s EV technology is “starting to make inroads” in India, despite New Delhi’s blocks on Chinese brands since 2020.
• A Global Times editorial says that the claim of China’s domestic vehicle sales decline “leading to overseas surge” is wrong because overseas sales are EVs and the domestic drop is due to fuel vehicle sales.
• Alan Beattie has a comment article in the Financial Times arguing that China is “dumping green tech” while the US’s war on Iran is “creating demand” for it.

As France experiences its hottest temperatures on record, an editorial in Le Monde says “politicians still fail to treat the fight against global warming as an absolute priority”. The editorial takes aim at the “lack of resources” directed towards climate measures and the “lack of preparation” for heat in the national education system. It concludes: “Nothing will be solved with one-off measures. The fight against global warming must be seen as a new paradigm, within which a broad range of public policies must be considered. Simply reacting to events is no longer enough.”

Meanwhile, in the UK press, an editorial in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph is titled: “Hot weather alarmism treats the public like children.” It makes no mention of climate change and – as the UK experiences its hottest June temperatures ever – concludes that “Britain cannot close its schools, cancel its trains and shut down its offices every time the sun comes out”. Daily Mail columnist Bryony Gordon questions schools closing “just because it’s a heatwave”. Jemima Lewis in the Daily Telegraph also says schools should stay open. 

Meanwhile, the Independent has columns about the threat that heatwaves pose to women and wheelchair users.

Reuters energy columnist Ron Bousso writes that the “political turmoil in Britain” offers the next prime minister “a chance to rethink the country’s North Sea oil and gas strategy”. He argues that “as fossil fuels remain integral to the ⁠UK economy, the case for prioritising domestic production over imports remains compelling, especially as geopolitical conflicts are becoming more frequent and severe”. He says this, despite the “merit in [the] argument” that “prolonging the life of the North Sea sits uneasily with Britain’s climate targets, and reducing reliance on volatile fossil fuels ​should, over time, make the economy more resilient”.

Meanwhile, an editorial in the climate-sceptic Sun claims energy secretary Ed Miliband should not be the next UK chancellor. “Miliband’s eco zealotry and economic idiocy give us the worst of both worlds. Expensive energy and mass job losses through de-industrialisation,” it says. Andrew Pierce in the Daily Mail takes aim at Miatta Fahnbulleh, “who is the chief disciple of energy secretary Ed Miliband and a champion of net-zero”, and who is the “brains” behind [likely incoming prime minister Andy] “Burnham’s economic agenda”.

Finally, the UK climate envoy Rachel Kyte has a comment article in the Reuters-owned Ethical Corporation Magazine, titled: “Carbon markets have the potential. Governments must now provide the certainty.”

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

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