There is widespread media coverage of the extreme heat affecting large areas of North America. The Guardian reports that “at least about two dozen people have died amid the perilous climate crisis-driven heatwave that has scorched swaths of the US with record temperatures”. It continues: “As a huge heat dome sits over the county’s eastern half, extreme heat gripped millions of people in the days leading up to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday – and beyond it. More than 20 states have reported stifling temperatures of more than 100F (38C), marring celebrations. And more than 140 million people remained under active heat alerts across the US on Sunday.”

The New York Times says: “Heat and humidity as severe, prolonged and far-reaching as this week’s would have been ‘virtually impossible’ in the north-east and eastern Canada before humans began warming the planet, a team of scientists said on Friday.” The Associated Press states that “storms and a heatwave that marred the 4 July holiday, leaving hundreds of thousands of utility customers without power”. The Boston Globe says that a “power grid strain from Massachusetts heatwave causes [utility bill] price spike”. The Financial Times has an article under the headline: “‘Heat dome’ and storms over eastern US send power prices soaring.” Agence France-Presse reports that “crowds braved record heat to attend US president Donald Trump’s grand 4 July celebrations in Washington on Saturday, until sharp winds, thunder and lightning prompted evacuations and the scene descended into chaos, anger and confusion”.

MORE ON US

• Inside Climate News reports that “California’s first carbon capture project is up and running, [but] environmentalists are still trying to stop it”.
• The New York Times covers Trump’s latest pardons of criminals, this time people convicted under the Clean Air Act. The newspaper says it is the “latest move by the Trump administration to undermine laws intended to fight climate change”. 
• Financial Times: “US clean power prices set to soar as AI demand coincides with subsidy cuts.”
• Tina Casey in CleanTechnica: “The balcony solar movement will fry Trump’s brain.”
• Futurism: “Google admits it missed its climate goals – again.”

Many European outlets continue to report on the extreme heat that has been affecting large parts of the continent over recent weeks. Le Monde says “hundreds of firefighters battled infernos that burnt thousands of hectares in France, Spain and Portugal, three countries where, in some places, temperatures were predicted to reach 40C on Sunday”. The Guardian reports that Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. The newspaper adds: “The new and still incomplete figures doubled the preliminary estimate of at least 1,000 additional deaths given by the authority last Sunday. That earlier estimate covered just three of the hottest days of extreme heat.”

Reuters reports that “Portugal has asked the EU, Spain and Morocco to have extra firefighting aircraft ready ​in case wildfires worsen during the current heatwave”. Separately, the newswire says that “regional officials will be allowed to cancel Tour de France stages if a red heatwave alert ​is issued, according to a French Interior Ministry ‌document seen by Reuters”. Euronews reports that, over the weekend, “Spain’s weather service extended a special heatwave alert, the summer’s second, with orange warnings and highs near 42C in Andalucía, Extremadura and the Tagus valley”. Le Monde says “early heatwaves are devastating French agriculture and leaving farmers helpless.”

MORE ON EUROPE

• Ajit Niranjan in the Guardian reports from Germany on how “Europe’s air conditioning culture wars heat up”.
• BBC News: “’Hotter and hotter and hotter’ – Europe’s new climate in seven charts.”
• Le Monde: “Four graphs to visualise the unprecedented scale of France’s June 2026 heatwave.”
• Christophe Rodriguez, the director of the French Institute for Building Energy Performance, explains in an interview with Le Monde the urgent need to adapt institutions in order to carry out the “project of the century” – the renovation of France’s building stock.
• The Times: “Marine heatwave in the sea around UK coasts.”

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has “raised its forecast for ​the rapid emergence of a strong El Niño in the coming months, ‌warning that the phenomenon is likely to drive global temperatures higher”, reports Reuters. It quotes Alvaro Silva, a WMO scientist, saying: “El Niño conditions have emerged ⁠in the Equatorial Pacific and there is a remarkable agreement between forecast models that ​this will be a strong El Niño…[It] will also ​give an extra boost to global temperatures.” Bloomberg reports: “A super El Niño risks straining India’s power grid more than any other electricity network globally and would slow the country’s shift away from coal, according to a new study.” The Conversation has a guest post by two academics headlined: “A Super El Niño is coming: five hard‑won lessons the world can learn from Africa.”

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER

• Reuters: “Typhoon Bavi brings catastrophic winds to western Pacific islands.” CNN describes the storm as “one of the strongest super typhoons on the planet this year”.
• The Guardian: “Sydney records hottest June since 1859 as expert warns new high a ‘signature’ of global warming.”
• Nine Network: “More than one million people on New Zealand’s South Island are in the firing line of a giant storm that is expected to bring heavy rain, gale-force winds and possible blizzards from Monday.”
• Republic (India): “40% rainfall deficit in June: Union minister Amit Shah orders high alert for water and crops amid drought risks.”

China’s State Council has issued the 15th “five-year plan” for building a “Beautiful China”, setting out goals including achieving the carbon peaking target on schedule, establishing “green production and lifestyles”, and enhancing the sustainability of ecosystems, reports state news agency Xinhua. The plan also calls for the country to fulfil its “nationally determined contribution (NDC)” targets and fully implement the “dual control of carbon” system; control coal-fired power generation; build a “climate-resilient society”; expand the coverage of the national carbon market; and improve the carbon emissions accounting and statistical system, according to industry news outlet BJX News. The outlet adds that it also stresses the importance of promoting “greener and cleaner development in energy-intensive industries”, establishing “minimum renewable energy consumption targets” and deepening international cooperation on climate change, while “leading global climate governance”. China will also strengthen “fiscal support” for building a “Beautiful China” and expand “green finance” and “climate finance”, says business outlet 36Kr.

Meanwhile, China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has issued the 15th “five-year plan” for the development of the circular economy, reports Xinhua. The plan calls for improving “recycling systems” for solid waste from the “new three” industries, including “end-of-life EV batteries, wind turbine equipment and solar equipment”, according to the NDRC’s explanatory note carried by BJX News. The outlet says the NDRC also said that China has made “significant progress” in developing the circular economy and that energy consumption per unit of GDP fell “substantially” in 2025.

MORE ON CHINA

• Bloomberg: “How coal is winning a net-zero role in China’s energy transition.”
• China will advance the exploration and development of “deep coalbed methane” to strengthen the foundation of its energy supply, reports International Energy Net.
• China’s sales of NEVs are estimated to rise 22% year-on-year to 1.5m, reports Global Times, citing the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
• China will end the 50% reduction in vehicle and vessel taxes for “energy-efficient vehicles” and the tax exemption for other new-energy commercial vehicles, reports Xinhua.
• China has issued new mandatory energy consumption and efficiency standards for the solar industry, starting next year, in a move to “curb overcapacity”, reports Caixin.
• The NEA is preparing for potential supply shortages in individual provinces during extreme weather to safeguard the power grid’s security, says the Economic Daily.

The Times claims on its frontpage – via unnamed “sources” – that “high-ranking US officials have told their counterparts in Britain, as well as senior Labour figures, that they were concerned about [energy secretary Ed] Miliband’s opposition to new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea”. It adds that, as a result, “senior officials in President Trump’s administration have privately warned that appointing Ed Miliband as chancellor would be a ‘mistake’”. The story is the latest episode in the saga obsessing many media outlets about who Andy Burnham will pick as his chancellor, should he become UK prime minister later this month. In contrast, the Guardian reports that Nicholas Stern, a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury who authored the landmark Stern report in 2006 on the economic impact of climate change, has “called on Andy Burnham to appoint Ed Miliband as chancellor, arguing the energy secretary has a ‘bold’ vision to revive the economy”. Bloomberg claims that “Burnham’s call on Ed Miliband could shape his premiership”. (See Comment below.)

In other UK news, BBC News reports that the impacts of climate change “will cost London up to £15bn a year by 2050 unless ‘drastic action is taken at all levels of government’, according to a new report by Central London Forward, a partnership of the 12 most central local authorities in the capital”. The Daily Telegraph, Sun and Daily Mail all carry the views of Bill Esterson, chair of the Commons energy security and net-zero committee, who “has opened the door to lifting the party’s ban on new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea” by suggesting that a “change of approach” by the government may be needed.

MORE ON UK

• The Times reports that “new electric vehicle sales reached a record high last month, accounting for 30% of all new car registrations…thanks to the soaring cost of petrol amid hostilities in the Gulf and the increasing breadth of models entering the market and competing on price”.
• The i newspaper: “Reform UK is losing its war on solar farms – and spending thousands in taxpayer cash.”
• BusinessGreen covers a new survey by More in Common that “reveals concern over climate impacts remains at high levels, while a majority want the government to develop [a] more effective extreme heat plan”.
• Financial Times: “UK ministers changed stance on biofuels after officials’ US lobbying tour.”
• Climate change has become an “existential threat to UK aviation”, Heathrow Airport’s own sustainability director has warned, according to the Daily Telegraph.
• Bloomberg: “Talks between the UK and the EU on linking their carbon markets as part of a post-Brexit reset are exposing differences over issues including free permits and the British emissions cap.”

The Guardian, via an editorial, calls for Andy Burnham to make Ed Miliband, the current energy secretary, his chancellor, if he becomes the next UK prime minister, as is widely expected: “The case for Miliband is not merely that he is more progressive than the alternatives. It is that he understands fiscal, industrial and climate policy as well as having the clout to challenge Whitehall’s veto while deftly navigating markets. A government that wants to reshape the country needs a powerful finance minister whose instincts are to repurpose the Treasury, not just reassure it.”

In contrast, an editorial in the Sunday Times argues that Labour “should rethink net-zero targets and explain how Britain can regain its energy security”. In the Daily Express, personal finance editor Harvey Jones leaps on the Times frontpage story (see UK news above) and says: “Donald Trump just skewered Ed Miliband – Burnham surely can’t make him chancellor now.” Meanwhile, an interactive feature in the Guardian asks: “What’s holding back Britain’s green energy revolution?”

The Washington Post uses an editorial to argue that “European hostility toward air conditioning is suicidal”. It continues: “One study estimates more than 20,000 heat-related deaths the week before last. France reports more than 2,000 excess deaths from that week’s heat. Belgium recorded 1,222. The Dutch lost 480…[Washington DC] residents, who have been suffering through a heatwave similar to what’s gripped Europe, would laugh if told to take cover under the city’s abundant tree cover. Trees provide shade and abate the urban heat island effect, but they won’t make 105F [40.5C] bearable. For that, humans need mechanical assistance…Many Europeans believe AC should be discouraged because it contributes to global warming. This is a deadly miscalculation. Excess heat kills, and it’s delusional to try to save some future people by exposing the current population to fatal temperatures.”

MORE COMMENT

• Agnès Poirier in the Times: “Relentless heatwaves have left me all at sea.”
• Sara Herschander in Vox: “The fatal flaw in how America handles heatwaves.”
• Tim Flannery in the Guardian: “Bomb the Arctic, dam the Mediterranean and build a second moon: five outlandish plans to remodel our climate.”
• Writing for Climate Home News, Rich Wilson, the CEO of the Iswe Foundation and co-founder of the Global Citizens’ Assembly, says that, “as food shocks spread, citizens are showing more leadership than governments”.
• An editorial in the Washington Post celebrates that, “slowly but surely, resistance to nuclear energy is melting away”.
• David Fickling in Bloomberg: “Who’s really keeping fossil fuels alive? Taxpayers.”

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

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