Daily Briefing: Danube triggers nuclear ‘crisis’ | South Korea’s hottest day | UK ‘could face food shortage’

03.08.26

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Hungary faces energy crisis as drought shuts down Paks nuclear plant, PM says

Elena Giordano, Politico

Hungary has been forced to shut down its only nuclear plant, which generates 40% of the country’s electricity, due to a record-breaking drought in central Europe, says Politico. It says prime minister Péter Magyar announced the closure of the Paks plant on Sunday, citing the “continued drop in water levels in the Danube River, which the plant uses for cooling”. The outlet continues: “A prolonged outage would cripple Hungary’s electricity supply at a time when temperatures are forecast to rise above 40C in Budapest next week amid an ongoing heatwave and drought across Europe.” The Financial Times says the plant has never been forced offline before. It adds: “Hungary has installed about 8GW [gigawatts] of solar capacity in recent years, helping it manage the gradual shutdown of the Paks reactor…Once the sun dims, however, Budapest has had to bring all its fossil-fuel plants online and increase electricity imports from a regional market that is already strained.”

Reuters says the crisis could cost Hungary as much as $632m. It adds: “The shutdown comes as large parts of Europe have been hit by prolonged heat and drought, driving river levels lower and raising concerns about water supplies, shipping and power generation.” The Associated Press says much of central Europe has been in “prolonged drought” in recent months “disrupting tourism, agriculture and industry and confronting residents with the realities of climate change”. Agence France-Presse, Deutsche Welle, Euractiv and Bloomberg all have the story, which features on the frontpage of today’s Daily Telegraph. Another Associated Press article says depth of the Danube was measured at just 23cm in Budapest, far below the previous record-low of 33cm, set in 2018. Bloomberg says heatwaves have “weakened” nuclear and hydro plants.

Bloomberg says Romania has issued a state of alert for its energy sector due to low Danube levels. It says the country has already shut down one of two nuclear reactors and may have to close a second, as a result. Citing a government press conference, it continues: “The Black Sea country will ask for support from neighboring Ukraine with power supply during peak hours and is also speeding up the connection to the grid of new renewable sources and battery storage units.” Reuters says low water levels on the Rhine in Germany are affecting cargo vessels and causing a “heavy rise in [freight] costs”. Another Reuters article says: “Record low water levels in Europe’s major rivers have curtailed the transport of goods, reduced electricity output and shrunk company earnings, stoking fears about the economic impact of searing heat and erratic rainfall.”

Yangsan hits 42.5 C, Korea’s hottest temperature ever recorded

Jung Da-hyun, The Korea Times

Temperatures reached a record-breaking 42.5C on Saturday in the city of Yangsan in South Korea’s South Gyeongsang province, reports the Korea Times. It says this is the highest level reached in the country “since modern weather observation began in 1904”, amid a “record-breaking heatwave grip[ping]”. It continues that the “prolonged” heatwave has resulted in “casualties and disruptions across the country”, including 13 deaths. Agence France-Presse says more than 20 localities were under emergency heatwave alerts. It adds: “KMA [Korea Meteorological Administration] data show the average annual number of heatwave days in the country has more than doubled to 19 over the past five years, from eight in the 1970s.” The Korea Herald says the country had recorded temperatures of more than 40C for a “fourth straight day” on Saturday. The Guardian says another followed on Sunday and adds that authorities warned people to “immediately stop all outdoor activities”. Bloomberg, Reuters and Al Jazeera all have the story.

European wildfire costs this year have already surpassed €3bn

Delphine Strauss, Ian Johnston and Amy Borrett, Financial Times

Wildfires and heatwaves across Europe have “already cost more than €3bn this year”, reports the Financial Times. It says this cost, which will “eventually be far higher”, highlights the “mounting toll of blazes driven by climate change”. The newspaper says the estimate is based on methodology from the European Commission, but “far outstrips [the body’s] estimates of a €2.5bn average annual impact for the whole EU”. It adds that the costs of drought due to disrupted trade and power supplies (see above) have “yet to emerge”. The Guardian reports separate warnings that the “climate emergency and the breakdown of nature poses a dramatically growing risk to the global economy”, according to a “senior policymaker” at the European Central Bank. ABC News reports on Europe’s “dystopian” summer.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports on Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez “speak[ing] plain truth to Spain’s deniers”. It adds: “[Sánchez] has a long history of speaking out on realities of global heating, but political opponents remain unmoved.” The Guardian separately asks if “brutal wildfires [will] force French leaders to take the climate crisis seriously”. Deutsche Welle reports: “Germany: As temperatures rise, so does climate scepticism.” The Economist reports on “how the fires are making air quality more lethal”.

MORE ON EUROPE

Reuters: “Wildfires spread across Greece, conditions worsen in France and Spain.”
BBC News: “Hundreds escape Greek wildfire by sea as blazes continue across Europe.” The outlet also reports “two killed after firefighting helicopters collide in Greece”.
BBC News: “Italy putting nearly all major cities on highest heat alert.”
Bloomberg: “Why Europe’s wildfires are so hard to put out.” Bloomberg: “Europe’s summer of blazes heralds the era of global megafires.” Bloomberg: “The age of unstoppable wildfires has reached Europe.”
The New York Times: “Extreme heat has transformed what summer means.”
The Financial Times: “Greece’s island fires expose risks of tourism boom.”

Britain could face food shortages as drought continues, farmers warn

Helena Horton, The Guardian

The Guardian reports on the frontpage of today’s edition that the country “could face shortages of certain foods after punishing drought in parts of England”, according to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). It continues: “Farms across the country were affected by floods over the winter, making planting extremely difficult, and now in many areas they do not have access to water as irrigation is being restricted due to drought.” BBC News also reports the NFU warning. It says NFU head Tom Bradshaw “told the BBC that high temperatures and drought conditions had placed all areas of farming under increasing pressure”. It adds: “While droughts can occur naturally, climate change is making weather patterns more erratic, and heatwaves more frequent and intense. Scientists say there is a greater risk of droughts happening as a result, and of them being more severe and longer-lasting when they do.”

July is set to have been the driest on record, says another Guardian article, “as extreme heat intensified by the climate crisis continues to grip the UK and Europe this summer”. The Press Association says just 5.6mm of rain fell in England last month, according to provisional Met Office figures, less than half the previous record-low set in 1911. The Daily Telegraph also has the story. The Guardian reports on how the “UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops”. A further Guardian article reports on how the “speed of climate crisis is devastating crops, say farmers”. For Forbes, Ingmar Rentzhog of the We Don’t Have Time coalition writes under the headline: “Why climateflation will drive food prices more than war.”

MORE ON UK

The Guardian: “Solar powers record share of Britain’s electricity mix in July.” The newspaper also reports: “New solar panels in Great Britain at 15-year high as fossil fuel costs soar.”
Financial Times: “‘Total devastation’: Suffolk confronts aftermath of unprecedented wildfire.”
The Daily Telegraph: “As wildfires rage, Britain isn’t ready for its boiling hot future.”
Also in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph, several articles seek to blame fires on a “net-zero crackdown on farming”, “rewilding” and the “emptying countryside”.
The Independent: “Reform council condemned for scrapping green pledges in wildfire-ravaged Suffolk.”
The frontpage of Monday’s Times focuses – in a news article written by a climate-sceptic columnist – on a metering issue that it claims could be costing £100m a year, but which is already being addressed by the National Energy System Operator (Neso).

UN warns record strong El Niño will add fuel to a burning planet

Seth Borenstein and Edith M Lederer, The Associated Press

The current El Niño climate pattern has “already broken records for intensity at its early stages”, reports the Associated Press, following an update from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The newswire continues that the climate system will “likely will spark even more wild weather worldwide as it grows”, according to UN officials.The Guardian picks out findings relating to India’s monsoon, which it says is “in danger”, citing WMO forecasts. It reports the comments of UN secretary general António Guterres: “El Niño is strengthening – adding fuel to a planet already on fire with scorching heat domes, apocalyptic wildfires and record hot seas. Fossil fuels are fanning the flames of this crisis. Expansion must stop.” Agence France-Presse, Al Jazeera, Reuters and Climate Home News also have the story. A second Reuters article explains how El Niño is “likely to bring drought to parts of Asia and heavy rains to parts of South America, threatening harvests and food supplies”.

China unveils five-year plan for greener industrial development

Xinhua

China has released a “five-year plan” to advance the “green and low-carbon transformation” of its industrial sector, aiming to achieve CO2 peaking in the sector by 2030, reports state news agency Xinhua. The plan encourages regions “rich in green energy resources” to develop industries such as electrolytic aluminium, steel, petrochemicals, solar and batteries, according to energy news outlet International Energy Net. It also calls for expanding the large-scale application of “green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol”, as well promoting the construction of “green industrial microgrids” integrating solar, wind, new energy storage and hydrogen, adds the outlet. China will also strengthen the development of “green industries”, such as new energy vehicles (NEVs) and new energy equipment, according to the document, says industry news outlet BJX News. The use of scrap steel and “green electricity” by electric arc furnace steelmakers and the adoption of low-carbon metallurgical technologies are encouraged, says China Energy Net. The full text of the document is published by BJX News.

State-run newspaper Economic Daily publishes an article on “avoiding labelling in zero-carbon factory construction”, saying that the core of zero-carbon factory is maximising emissions cuts while offsetting emissions that cannot be eliminated through external carbon removal projects or carbon credits. The newspaper says that, previously, most zero-carbon factories were “assessed only once and awarded lifetime certification”, making the label “largely symbolic” and the “one-off assessments” should be shifted to “continuous green transformation”. China should also adopt “differentiated approaches for different industries”, as their “decarbonisation potential” varies significantly due to differences in energy use, production processes and emissions sources, according to the newspaper.

MORE ON CHINA

Bloomberg reports that solar power will surpass coal as China’s largest source of generation capacity at some point in the third quarter of this year.
China News Service reports that China’s total installed power generation capacity is expected to exceed 5,000GW during the 15th “five-year plan” period.
China’s purchasing managers’ index fell back into contraction amid “high temperatures, heavy rainfall and typhoons” in July, reports Yicai.
Global warming has intensified extreme heavy rainfall in northern China, says Xinhua.
Indonesia and China have pledged to deepen climate cooperation, especially around EV, solar and other cleantech supply chains, reports Metro TV.
A Global Times editorial says turning China’s EV sector into a “scapegoat” for the EU is “merely a refusal to confront the real challenges of reform”.

BP puts North Sea business up for sale

Shanaz Musafer and Claire Diamond, BBC News

There is continuing coverage of BP’s decision to sell its North Sea operations, reports BBC News, adding that this would “end 60 years of production in the region by the oil giant”. The broadcaster says the move “follows a review of BP’s operations as it seeks to slim down the group”. It adds that BP owns five production hubs in the North Sea, where it employs 1,100 people. Sky News says the North Sea is an “ageing basin” that has “become less attractive due to windfall taxes and a ban on new drilling”, although it does not cite BP in making this claim. The Times quotes prime minister Andy Burnham saying there are “issues related to the energy profits levy [on North Sea drilling] that people have raised with me” and that he is “looking at” these. Citing “Labour MPs”, the Guardian reports on its Saturday frontpage that Burnham “risks first revolt as PM over apparent support for North Sea drilling”.

Another Times article looks back to the start of BP operations in the North Sea through to the current day. It includes the imposition of the levy by the then-Conservative government as a “windfall tax” in 2022 and the extension of the levy to 2030 by Labour. Bloomberg says the BP sale is “both politically symbolic and financially significant for the future of the area”. Pointing to earlier exits by Shell, Total and others, it notes: “The major international oil companies that pioneered North Sea drilling sixty years ago have long been saying farewell to the area.” The Guardian, New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent and Financial Times all have the story. The Press Association reports calls from Scottish first minister John Swinney, of the SNP, to scrap the windfall tax. The Daily Telegraph reports on its Saturday frontpage “fears [BP] could quit Britain”.

Comment

Europe’s long hot summer

Editorial, Financial Times

An editorial in the Financial Times says this year’s European heatwaves are “further proof of how ill-advised it is for some countries to be watering down climate change policies”. It continues: “Yet alongside mitigation efforts, this summer has shown that adapting to global warming’s effects – too long a poor relation to mitigation – needs to rise up the agenda, to deal not just with summer wildfires, but winter flooding.” An editorial in the Guardian says “hot, dry conditions make inequality starker”.

MORE COMMENT

An editorial in the climate-sceptic comment pages of the Wall Street Journal seeks to blame Europe’s wildfires on “green policies”.
For the Guardian, researcher Julee Boan writes about: “This summer wildfires came for my home.”
Euractiv’s Nikolaus Kurmayer writes under the headline: “Move over climate action, adaptation is all the rage now.”
The Scotsman carries a comment by Dr Johanna Schoenecker on “why Scotland’s record wildfires are fundamentally different to those in the past”.
Reuters columnist Ron Bousso: “Europe makes trillion-euro bet to revive its battered industry.”
Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett writes that “China is smarter about subsidies than everybody else”, pointing to examples including “green tech”.

As wildfires rage, the right’s denial of the climate crisis has gone up in smoke

Will Hutton, The Observer

For the Observer, columnist Will Hutton writes that the “reality of the climate crisis is now inescapable”. He continues: “Changing weather, escalating in its ferocity, is now a global phenomenon.” Yet, says Hutton, the former cross-party consensus on climate change has been “shattered”: “One of the many unhappy byproducts of Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024 was that it crystallised the mainstreaming of environmental scepticism and climate crisis denial, not only on the American right, but in Britain, too.” He criticises Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch for “palpable nonsense” in trying to “separate the climate crisis from tackling its first-order cause – carbon emissions”. For Prospect, the magazine’s former editor – and former editor of the Guardian – Alan Rusbridger writes under the headline: “Climate change sceptics have lost the plot as Europe burns.”

Meanwhile, the UK’s right-leaning newspapers continue to publish a range of views that somehow seek to downplay climate action. An editorial in the Sunday Times – linked to a feature on the debate over UK climate politics – calls for “common sense” on climate change. It says that “myopic” efforts to mitigate climate change have “arguably failed” and that the “rush to net-zero is creating its own problems”. It says: “Of course, we must continue to decarbonise. Renewables are homegrown, cheap and the market has embraced them. But the pace of net-zero must be proportionate, steady and affordable.” An editorial in the Times says BP’s decision to sell its North Sea assets is a sign of a “misguided approach to net-zero and energy security”. An editorial in Saturday’s Sun claims, without evidence, that BP’s decision is “proof that the mad dash for decarbonisation is leading to rampant deindustrialisation”. An editorial in the Daily Telegraph backs Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who it says is “right on net-zero”, a target it calls “utopian”. [Cutting emissions to net-zero is the only way to stop global warming from getting worse, according to scientists.]

MORE UK COMMENT

The Daily Mail carries comment from columnist Alex Brummer on the BP sale, which he calls a “bleak verdict on our nation’s decline”. Also in the Daily Mail, Robert Hardman says the UK “frittered…away” its North Sea “jackpot”.
For the Times, Iain Macwhirter writes under the headline: “Don’t blame North Sea drilling for wildfires.”
Another Times editorial says data centres are “severely testing the country’s ageing infrastructure and inefficient grid”.
An editorial in the Scotsman calls for the government to “help struggling North Sea industry”.
Writing in the Sun, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch reiterates her pledges to “scrap…the carbon tax” and “back…new drilling in the North Sea”.
In the Daily Express, columnist Carole Malone calls former energy secretary Ed Miliband a “climate loon” and calls for net-zero to be scrapped. Climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph columnist Matthew Lynn claims that BP’s decision “shows Miliband has been a disaster for Britain”.

Research

“Global potential productivity loss” due to humid heat has “increased abruptly” since the mid-1980s, with India alone more than half of this rise | Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
Carbon accumulation in mature forests across the US is “systematically underrepresented” by current satellite observations | Nature Ecology and Evolution
Only 23 of the 198 member states in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change mention “sexual and gender minorities” in their national adaptation plans | npj climate action

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