A temperature of 34.8C was recorded at Kew gardens in London yesterday, marking the UK’s hottest May day on record, reports the Times. According to the newspaper, the previous record for May was 32.8C, which was recorded in 1922 and again in 1944. It adds: “A spokesperson for the Met Office said that ‘this heat would be exceptional in the UK even in midsummer, let alone in May’, adding that ‘records are usually only broken by tenths of a degree’.” It continues: “The day’s unprecedented heat followed the warmest May night on record, with the minimum temperature on Sunday night falling only to 19.4C, beating the previous record of 18.9C set in Folkestone in 1947.” BBC News says: “This week’s weather means more than half of the monthly record highs – seven out of 12 – have been set since 2003, according to the Met Office.” The Guardian notes that scientists say the record-breaking heat is a “reminder of how climate crisis is affecting lives”. It adds that “the heat is expected to persist through the week, with a 35C peak expected again on Tuesday”. The Press Association adds that “it is also 10C to 15C hotter than average for much of the UK”. The Independent reports that parts of the UK recorded their hottest May night on record last night. The heatwave is widely covered in other outlets, including Reuters and the Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that climate campaigners say the government “urgently” needs to start installing air conditioning units in schools and care homes. Separately, the newspaper says that 4m homes in the UK now have air conditioning, doubling the figure from three years ago.

MORE ON UK

• The Times covers Carbon Brief analysis, which finds that “floods have forced more than 60 NHS hospitals to close facilities since 2021”. 
• “The government is betting on private investors to fill the gap in the UK’s provision of climate aid and support after last year’s sweeping cuts reduced the UK contribution”, development minister Jenny Chapman tells the Independent.
• The Guardian covers a new report by Queen Mary University of London which finds that “Britain has created a new breed of political prisoners through the systematic incarceration of people acting to prevent climate breakdown and the annihilation of Gaza”.
• The Daily Telegraph says the RAF is switching to sustainable jet fuel, claiming that the government’s net-zero aviation mandate will “cost the British military £100m each year by 2040”.
• The Daily Express carries a warning from scientists that a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation would “spell trouble for Britain’s food security”.

Countries in western Europe “are bracing for extreme heat this week”, reports Politico. The outlet says: “Spain and Portugal are set to experience the most extreme heat this week, with parts of Portugal expected to register temperatures of nearly 40C and areas of southern Spain forecast to hit 38C.” It adds that the extreme heat is caused by a “heat dome”, in which “warm air moving up from Northern Africa has become trapped under a high-pressure system over Western Europe”. It continues: “Météo-France noted the phenomenon is becoming more common as a result of climate change.” The Guardian reports that more than 20 towns in France have recorded their highest-ever May temperatures. Agence France Presse reports that, on Saturday, temperatures in Paris hit 31.9C, marking the hottest temperature of the year. Separately, the Financial Times says: “Temperatures in countries including the UK, Ireland, France and Belgium are forecast to jump more than 15C in a little over a week as ‘climate whiplash’ hits Europe.”

MORE ON EUROPE

• Euronews reports that climate change and habitat destruction are increasing the risk of hantavirus in Europe. 
• Euronews: “Spain’s government on Monday unveiled its proposed social climate plan, which provides for almost 9bn euros in public aid focused on mobility and housing.”
• According to the Associated Press, European Union officials have said that “Europeans can expect oil and gas prices to remain above what they were before the Iran war for at least until the end of 2027”. 
• The Wall Street Journal reports that the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism is “a growing source of tension for Ukraine”, whose steel exports to the bloc have already “sharply reduced” as a result of the policy.
• The Financial Times: “Britain has had to cut back on its practice of trading power with Europe to prevent blackouts at home, after the size and speed of its electricity trading put strain on the supplies of its neighbours.”
• “France wants incoming ESG fund rules to be adjusted so that sustainable investors don’t need to exclude key energy producers,” according to a draft proposal seen by Bloomberg.

Some parts of India are “grappling with power cuts as record-breaking heat has pushed electricity demand ​to an all-time high in excess of 270 gigawatts, spurring a ‌government call for consumers to limit use”, reports Reuters. The newswire says that an El Niño weather pattern is contributing to the high summer temperature. The Hindu reports that temperatures in several parts of India reached 44C on Saturday. According to the newspaper, the Indian Meteorological Department has warned that temperatures across Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh are likely to rise further and issued multiple heat warnings. Bloomberg reports that climate change and poor urban planning are leading to “sweltering nights” that put millions of people at risk. The Guardian has an article under the headline: “‘My head spins with the heat’: India’s gig workers battle exhaustion amid soaring temperatures.” Reuters says that “more than 300 suspected cases of heat-related illnesses have been reported in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh from ​the start of March to mid-May”. Bloomberg says: “India’s power ministry on Friday appealed to citizens to be mindful of electricity consumption as harsh summer heat drives demand for cooling.”

MORE ON INDIA

• Bloomberg says: “India’s state-run fuel retailers raised gasoline and diesel prices for the fourth time in 10 days in response to disruptions in global energy markets.”
• Reuters reports that extreme heat has “ruined” India’s “prized Alphonso mango crop”.

“Oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Monday and stock markets rose on hopes that the US and Iran are inching closer to a peace deal,” reports the Guardian. However, the newspaper says that “while a framework has been negotiated, the US and Iran remain at odds over key issues such as Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz”. The New York Times says that, on Sunday, a US official said that the US and Iran have “reached a deal in principle that calls for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz”. However, it adds that “announcement left many questions unanswered, starting with how soon normal shipping through the strait could resume and when oil prices would begin to come down”. The Wall Street Journal says that “investors remain sceptical about the impact of the US-Iran talks”. Reuters adds: “In a lengthy Truth Social post on Monday, ​US president Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going ‘nicely,’ but warned of fresh attacks if they failed.” Meanwhile, Reuters reports that “three liquefied natural gas ​tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, heading to Pakistan, China and India, as ‌well as a supertanker with Iraqi crude for China after being stranded for nearly three months”. France’s finance minister has told the Financial Times that governments cannot decide whether to release more oil reserves until they know how long the Iran war is likely to last.

MORE ON OIL AND GAS

• Le Monde reports that, “in Cuba, an unprecedented health crisis is deepening under US oil blockade”. 
• Bloomberg: “India sees the US as a ‘significant and reliable’ energy partner, foreign minister S Jaishankar said after meeting US counterpart Marco Rubio, who called ties between the two nations ‘one of the most important’ globally”.
• Bloomberg: “Alaska’s oil revival sparks a new energy rush into the Arctic.”
• Ukrainian forces have attacked a Russian oil ​refinery in Yaroslavl, around 700km from the ‌Ukrainian border, reports Reuters.
• Reuters reports that ExxonMobil is seeking environmental approval for a new offshore drilling project in Guyana.

Eighty-two people were ​killed in a gas ​explosion at a coal mine ‌in ⁠China’s Shanxi province on Friday in the country’s deadliest mining accident since at ​least ​2009, reports Reuters. As a result, the newswire says that China’s coking coal futures prices rose by ​nearly 8%. It adds that the accident “sparked a wave ​of stringent safety checks ​across the region that tightened the supply outlook”. Bloomberg says that two thermal coal mines in Qinyuan, with a combined annual capacity of 1.8m tons, have halted operations, while other “major hubs” have launched inspections. The outlet says this “could affect China’s much larger supplies of thermal coal, used in power generation”. It adds: “The country is heading into summer, a time when hotter weather drives up electricity consumption. And top exporter Indonesia has imposed constraints on supply.” There has been widespread coverage of the explosion, in outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, Times, Al Jazeera, Sky News, BBC News and Wall Street Journal. 

MORE ON CHINA

• Bloomberg: “Chinese firms are accelerating the pace at which they propose new coal-fired power plants, even as the government moves to rein in growth after the rapid expansion in recent years.”
• The Financial Times covers new analysis – first published by Carbon Brief – which finds that “China’s revised method for reporting carbon emissions may have erased half of the rise in levels over the past five years”. 
• Bloomberg has an investigation under the headline “dubious Chinese carbon projects expose depth of European market’s flaws”.
• The Times of India reports that “a world record-breaking floating offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 16 megawatts has been installed in China”.
• Bloomberg reports that “China’s new solar installations fell for a fourth straight month in April”.

The Guardian has published an investigation into Australian mining giant BHP. According to the newspaper, BHP “has halted or delayed projects to cut vast amounts of emissions and has quietly war-gamed options to push major climate investments in its Western Australian iron ore operations into the next two decades”. The newspaper continues: “[BHP] has dumped plans for a facility that could have significantly reduced emissions and has put on ice renewable projects designed to power its iron ore operations in the vast, resource-rich Pilbara region. The cache of leaked internal records, dubbed the “BHP files”, reveals that the company was aware delayed climate action in the Pilbara would pose a ‘reputational risk’ and that ‘urgent decarbonisation in line with BHP’s public commitments’ effectively underpinned its ‘licence to operate’.” The Guardian’s Australia climate and environment editor, Adam Morton, writes that “given the scale of its contribution to global heating, the world’s biggest miner has a duty to invest heavily in solutions that could have a global impact”. In a statement to the Guardian, BHP said it was “still focused on its net-zero goal and its target of 30% emissions reductions by 2030”.

Gas and electricity bills are forecast to rise by £209 to almost £1,900 from this summer under the government’s new price cap, reports the Guardian. It adds: “Rachel Reeves last week announced a package of measures to cut the cost of living but has not so far offered support for domestic energy costs. She told MPs on Thursday that Treasury officials were working up contingency plans ahead of the winter; but that any support scheme for households would be ‘targeted and temporary’.” The Independent says Ofgem will announce the new energy price cap for July to September on Wednesday. The Times says it will mark the largest quarterly increase since 2023.

MORE ON UK

• The Guardian reports that chancellor Rachel Reeves is urging ministers to “buy British” in four key industries – shipbuilding, steel-making, energy and artificial intelligence.
• The Guardian: “Government officials considered cutting the VAT charged on electricity used at public EV chargers from 20% to 5% at the last budget, but the Treasury under Reeves rejected the proposal amid disagreement between departments.”
• The Daily Express reports on a government initiative, which will see “more than 100,000 new public [EV] chargepoints installed across England…with the biggest focus on households unable to charge at home”.
• The Financial Times: “Second-hand electric vehicle prices in the UK have declined at the sharpest rate in Europe this year, despite a boom in new EV sales sparked by rising fuel costs as a result of the Middle East war.”
• The Guardian: “A Scottish government policy designed to encourage datacentres to build in Scotland could lead to a massive volume of carbon emissions being ignored, according to an analysis by a Scottish charity.”
• The Daily Telegraph says: “Kemi Badenoch has urged voters to turn a by-election in Aberdeen into a ‘referendum’ on the future of the North Sea oil and gas industry.

The energy storage industry in the US “installed a record amount of capacity in the first quarter as utilities seek greater grid stability and lower costs amid rising demand for electricity”, reports the Wall Street Journal. It adds: “The industry installed 9.7 gigawatt-hours of new capacity between January and March, 32% more than in the year-earlier period and the most on record for a first quarter, according to a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence…The SEIA is concerned that the Trump administration is putting obstacles in the way of solar and storage expansion by complicating the permitting process.” The Los Angeles Times has a feature under the headline: “Defying Trump, California continues to bet big on offshore wind.” Bloomberg reports that “about $50bn in wind investments and 150,000 jobs are imperiled by the Trump administration’s effective halt to approvals for new onshore projects…according to a document prepared by the American Clean Power Association”.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the “number of rigs drilling in the US shale patch rose by the most in more than four years, the latest sign of a resurgence in domestic activity as the war in Iran drives up oil prices”. Reuters reports that “oil operators in North Dakota ‌are moving cautiously on ramping up drilling despite a sharp rise in oil prices driven by the Iran war, as companies wait to see if higher prices will last long enough to justify new investment”. The Washington Post says “military officials are worried about Trump’s oil drilling plan”. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Senate has confirmed Trump’s pick to lead federal land agency “as drilling and mining expand”.

MORE ON US

• The Guardian: “Why Michigan is emerging as one of America’s worst-hit climate states.”
• Inside Climate News: “As wildfire grows near ex-nuclear site, California county sets up radiation air monitors.”
• Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland who visited the Danish territory last week, has claimed it “could be exporting 2m barrels of oil a day right now”, reports the Hill.
• Bloomberg carries comments by Casey Mace, US senior official to APEC, who told Bloomberg TV last week that the Asia-Pacific region has “huge potential” to absorb more US oil and gas exports.
• Politico: “Florida emergency chief hopes FEMA funding delays in past heading into hurricane season.”
• The Guardian reports that “an immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists”. 

A Financial Times editorial says the US and Iran “seemed to be making progress” yesterday towards a deal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but adds that, “even if the strait reopens, energy flows will take months to normalise”. It continues: “What is the best approach for governments to conserve energy? The most efficient is, as far as practicable, to let market forces run their course. High fuel prices encourage consumers to use less energy and switch sources. In Europe, for example, electric vehicle sales surged to a record high in March.” However, it notes that politicians are “under pressure” to provide cost of living support”, adding that price caps and reductions in energy taxes are the most common government responses. It also outlines the use of “awareness campaigns” to encourage people to use less fuel. It concludes: “High energy prices and initiatives to slash fuel use are not popular. But until supplies normalise, the risk of shortages leaves governments with few painless options. It is in many cases, after all, the price of failing to invest adequately in energy security and the green transition in the first place.”

MORE COMMENT

• Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas argues that, if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for months or years longer, the price of oil will rise further, with consequences that are “so economically ruinous to contemplate that hardly anyone dares consider it”.
• Adeline Rochet, a programme manager for the Corporate Leaders Group Europe, writes in Climate Home News that “nature cannot be ignored by Europe’s next big budget”.
• Dr Kevin Trenberth, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, writes in the Conversation that the global ocean observing system is “at risk – just when the world needs it most”.
• Four scientists write in the Conversation under the headline: ”Rice feeds billions of people – but its role in fueling climate change is growing.”
• Sheetal Khedkar Rao, opinion contributor for the Hill, argues that following the repeal of the EPA’s endangerment finding in the US, “we can expect chronic disease rates to worsen as greenhouse gas emissions trend upward”.
• Le Monde’s environmental journalist Audrey Garric explains why “dropping the worst-case climate scenario does not undermine the reality of global warming”, while a feature in the National Observer says that the “culture war” has come for climate models. [For context, see Carbon Brief’s factcheck: “Trump’s false claims about the IPCC and ‘RCP8.5’ climate scenario.”]

The Guardian argues in an editorial that the UK’s vulnerability to the “coming energy shock” will demand “deeper state intervention and a faster transition” to clean power. It continues: “Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, is right that the safest long-term buffer is reducing fossil-fuel exposure itself rather than deepening gas dependence through new storage systems. But electrification takes years; Britain’s energy system still faces winter usage spikes; and even in a green power future the UK would still have to import some materials and technology. Can Britain move away fast enough from carbon sources before the next series of external shocks – including that caused by the war in Iran – in the coming months? The jury remains out on that question.” 

In other energy-related comment, the Guardian’s financial editor Nils Pratley writes: “Ofgem should tell it straight: electricity prices are set to stay high for years.” Tony Lodge, a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, a right-leaning lobby group with a history of climate denial, claims in the Daily Telegraph that “Britain’s inability to fall back on coal power then is the painful consequence of following EU rules on power plant closures and choosing to take a lead on climate and energy policy, even as key competitors chose to largely ignore it”. A Sunday Times editorial says Aberdeen’s by-election “will centre on our North Sea decline”. Separately, the Sunday Times and Sunday Express have comment pieces calling for more North Sea drilling. [See Carbon Brief’s factcheck: “Nine false or misleading myths about North Sea oil and gas.”]

MORE UK COMMENT

• Bloomberg columnist Lara Williams writes that a Nigel Farage government, if ever elected, “poses a real threat to the UK”, because it is “staunchly against green policy and willfully illiterate about science and economics”. 
• Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, writes in the Guardian that “heatwaves are becoming the norm”. 
• Oliver Duff, the editor in chief of the i newspaper, writes that British homes are susceptible to the heat and journalist Kat Brown asks in the Independent: “How long must we swelter before politicians take heatwaves seriously?”
• The Daily Mail’s climate-sceptic columnist Richard Littlejohn writes in an error-strewn article: “However did we survive summer without amber UV alerts and Nanny ordering us to stay indoors, keep hydrated and wear sunscreen?” 
• Climate-sceptic commentator Matt Ridley claims in the Daily Mail that the latest report from the UK’s Climate Change Committee is based on “flawed and discredited data”. [See what the CCC actually says in Carbon Brief’s in-depth summary.]
• Jan Rosenow, a professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Oxford, has a new post on his Bright Spots substack under the headline: “From Russian pipelines to American tankers – how Europe swapped one dependency for another.”

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

Subscribe for free.