Daily Briefing: EU adaptation call | Nepal’s climate-justice push | Borneo blazes

07.09.26

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Spain urges EU to create climate adaptation fund, set binding targets

Benjamín Mejías Valencia, Emma Pinedo and Philip Blenkinsop, Reuters

Spain has urged the European Union to “create a dedicated climate adaptation fund and establish binding adaptation targets as ‌costs mount from accelerating climate change, which this summer triggered record heat and wildfires across the EU”, reports Reuters. The newswire adds: “Madrid calculates that EU countries have accumulated €822bn ($955bn) in losses due to climate change and extreme weather losses since 1980, about a quarter of them between 2021 and 2024, the most recent data point.” Euronews says: “Spain wants Brussels to make climate resilience a binding, funded EU policy and is willing to consider new EU-level charges – including on oil and gas profits – to fund it.”

The Financial Times adds: “The Spanish government made the recommendations in a letter and policy paper, seen by the FT, addressed to EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who will deliver a new strategy on climate adaptation and resilience this autumn…The move follows separate calls for a Europe-wide windfall tax on profits of oil and gas companies from the finance ministers of Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Spain, in a letter last month. The measure will be discussed at an informal gathering of finance ministers in Dublin on 18 and 19 September.”

MORE ON EUROPE

Le Monde: “Summer 2026 becomes, by far, the hottest ever recorded in France: ‘Beating the record by almost 1C in a single season is huge’.”
France 24: “German power grid sabotage attack linked to ‘climate extremism’.”
The Guardian quotes Alexander Julius, the president of Eurometal, saying that “carbon emissions taxes for high-energy sectors” is partly why the “EU faces 300,000 factory job cuts as China ‘colonises’ supply chains”.
Politico: “French government promises €1bn for drought-stricken farmers.”
Bloomberg: “Spain got a head start on renewables – now it needs a battery revolution.”
Politico: “The Norwegian gas plant that could safeguard Europe from Trump.”

Climate justice tops agenda as Nepal PM Balen flies to UN office

Vishant Agarwala, The Times of India

There is continuing coverage of the deadly glacial-collapse floods that killed more than a thousand people on the Nepal-China border last month. The Times of India reports that Nepalese prime minister Balendra Shah will make his first foreign trip later this month to the UN general assembly in New York, where he is expected to “anchor his push for climate justice, reconstruction assistance and stronger international protection for the Himalayan region”. A separate article in the Times of India says that Indian external affairs minister Randhir Jaiswal has called for “developed countries [to] take the lead in reducing emissions and support developing nations through finance and technology transfer, reiterating India’s position that climate action must be guided by the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities”. The Hindu reports an Indian government response to the Nepalese foreign minister Shisir Khanal saying last week that “as the three biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, the US, China and India should bear responsibility for climate change”, and that he is “[seeking] compensation from the three countries”.

Meanwhile, Chinese climate envoy Liu Zhenmin has linked the glacial collapse to global warming, saying that the Earth is “currently in the most severe state of imbalance on record”, reports China Daily. The death toll in Tibet has risen to 43, with 519 missing, says Xinhua. China Daily cites foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun saying, in response to Nepal’s request for compensation, that China is “making active” efforts towards its climate goals and is “expected to make the world’s biggest cut in carbon emission intensity”. The disaster reminds the world that global climate efforts “must not be delayed”, says an unbylined Xinhua commentary.

MORE ON FLOODS

BBC News: “Nepal bet nearly everything on hydropower – the floods show why that’s a problem.”
Bloomberg: “Glacier collapse in Nepal reveals new scale of climate perils.”
The Associated Press: “China exerts tight grip on information after floods.”

China issues allowance allocation plan for national carbon market

Kou Jiangze, The People’s Daily

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) has issued the 2025-2026 plan for allocating carbon-market allowances for the power, steel, cement and aluminium sectors, says the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily. It says allocation methods for the steel, cement and aluminium sectors remain unchanged from last year. For the power sector, allowance benchmarks will be “dynamically adjusted based on a comprehensive assessment of market performance and full consideration of the sector’s actual development conditions”, reports state news agency Xinhua. Industry news outlet BJX News carries the full text of the plan. Chai Qimin, with the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, says emissions accounting for the steel, cement and aluminium smelting sectors is “far more difficult than in the power sector” given their complex production processes, says the state-run newspaper China Environment News.

MORE ON CHINA

“Torrential rain brought by Typhoon Saudel” has flooded one city in Fujian province, “trapping residents” and “leaving some people missing”, says CGTN. The Paper also covers the impact of the flooding.
Typhoon Saudel has also caused heavy rain in Jiangxi province, leading to a mudslide that has left at least three dead, says the Associated Press.
Chinese vice premier Ding Xuexiang says that China and Russia should maintain the long-term trade of oil and gas, reports Xinhua.
The NDRC’s Xiao Hongwei writes in Economic Daily that coal continues to serve as a “backstop” for energy security while clean-energy substitution is progressing “irreversibly”.

UK: Climate protesters hijack Reform conference stage with banner attacking Farage over opposition to net-zero

David Wilcock and Greg Heffer, The Daily Mail

Reform UK’s autumn conference was “targeted by climate protests on Friday as Nigel Farage was repeatedly heckled as he spoke to supporters”, reports the Daily Mail. The newspaper adds: “Four people from Climate Resistance were ejected from the hall in Birmingham for attempts to disrupt proceedings…It came after Greenpeace climate protesters managed to sneak a banner onto the main stage showing Farage along with the slogan ‘collect £5m, burn the planet’ while deputy leader Richard Tice was speaking.” The Press Association quotes one protester named “Catherine” saying: “We wanted to draw attention to the fact that Reform is backed almost exclusively by shady parties linked to fossil fuels, other extractive industries and essentially that there’s a complete lack of transparency about their funding.” BBC News says: “Police have asked a woman who had her hair and head grabbed at the Reform UK conference to come forward…Footage circulating on social media has shown audience members pulling the protester back.”

MORE ON UK

The Times reports business secretary Jonathan Reynolds saying that there will be “no bailout” for Jaguar Land Rover as it prepares to cut 4,000 jobs and that tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles would “not be a sensible move”.
BBC News carries an interview with Reynolds where he says the UK’s electric vehicle sales target is “not where it needs to be”. Meanwhile, the Times reports “electric car sales reached 30% of UK market in August”.
The Sunday Times: “King Charles hosts Balmoral meeting on wildfires and flooding.”
The Guardian: “UK subsidence claims surge after hottest summer on record.”
The Sunday Telegraph: “Britain braces for crippling food crisis as ‘Godzilla’ El Niño stirs.”
The Daily Telegraph runs an article under the headline “Britain’s gas cliff-edge is drawing dangerously close”, while the Times claims: “Power cuts are only a matter of time, warns grid engineer.”

‘Truly scared’: Blazes outpace firefighters in Indonesian Borneo

Mariëtte Le Roux, Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is among several outlets covering the extreme fires burning across parts of Indonesia: “Toiling around the clock, haggard Indonesian firefighters on Borneo island cannot keep up with the blazes…blamed in part on a stronger-than-usual episode of the El Niño climate phenomenon parching south-east Asia. Experts also blame climate change, decades of forest degradation and slash-and-burn land clearing practices that have changed the naturally fire-resistant landscape.” BBC News says volunteer firefighters are “risking their lives to defuse ‘carbon bombs’”, adding that the volunteers are “up against an inferno that has carbonised some 200,000 hectares of forest and farmland across Indonesian Borneo since early July”. The Financial Times says: “South-east Asia is battling the worst haze in a decade as wildfires in Indonesia have raised health concerns and outrage across the region, where droughts and floods are being worsened by a very strong warming cycle across the Pacific Ocean.”

Australia: Sydney set to hit 33C in warmest start to spring since mid-1800s, while snow forecast in southern NSW

The Guardian

The Guardian reports that “summer heat is due to arrive early across much of eastern Australia with potentially record early September temperatures predicted for Brisbane and Sydney, while snow was expected in southern New South Wales”. It adds: “Maximum temperatures in Sydney during the first days of September were on track to match the city’s midsummer average of 26.4C, warmer than any other start to spring since the city’s Observatory Hill station opened in 1858…The dramatic start to spring comes against the background of a ‘supersized’ El Niño weather phenomenon to Australia’s east, one that is already breaking heat records, and could comfortably surpass previous events.” Reuters reports that “Australia’s most populous city Sydney baked in a burst of sweltering spring heat on Saturday, raising the risk of bushfires and prompting authorities to ‌issue a ban on lighting fires”. The Sydney Morning Herald: “What flash floods and super El Niño will mean for your summer.”

US: Farmers turn to perennial grains as one solution to extreme weather

Joshua A Bickel and Alexa St John, The Associated Press

The Associated Press examines the impact of extreme weather in the US on farmers: “A small number [of farmers] are putting perennial grains in rotation to build resilience against extreme weather like drought and intense rainfall. Researchers are working to develop perennial versions of common annual grains like wheat, sorghum and rice, but the work is slow. And widespread adoption by farmers is challenging because perennial crops don’t yield as much, harvesting can be difficult and the market is still developing.” The article focuses on kernza, one of several perennial grains under development at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Meanwhile, Fox News says that a “never-ending heat dome” is affecting nearly “45 million Americans” as heat advisories have been issued across Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi.

MORE ON US

Inside Climate News: “As extreme weather worsens, Black and Hispanic homeowners are paying more for insurance.”
Reuters: “South Korea, US agree on more than $20bn gas plant investment in Texas, media reports.”
The Los Angeles Times: “Global warming is ruining their way of life. These Colorado ranchers demand accountability.”

Comment

It’s not just you. America has gotten much hotter

Editorial, The New York Times

The New York Times has published an editorial featuring an interactive visualisation showing how in every US county “extreme heat is at least as bad as it was 30 years ago” and how “in most counties, it’s much worse”. The editorial adds: “As Americans mourn this change, we hope it will motivate them to take action. The country needs to act both to better live with the new reality of summer and to prevent it from worsening. To do so requires escaping the binary of doom and apathy that too often defines climate conversations…Now that the heat is starting to break, Americans should remember that progress is still possible, and that future summers will be more scorching if we do not act.”

MORE COMMENT

Astrid Schomaker, head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, in the Financial Times: “Protecting nature isn’t charity. It’s economic self-interest.”
Editorial in the Washington Post: “The nuclear energy renaissance is a global phenomenon.”
Editorial in Pakistan’s Dawn: “The age of treating climate disasters as one-off emergencies has ended and [Pakistan] must plan for a harsher reality.”
Editorial in the Hindu: “Rather than ignore the reality of a 1.5C world, India should calibrate its messaging to adapt to it.”
David Wallace-Wells in the New York Times: “In an age of perpetual climate disaster, rebuilding is the wrong goal.”

The Guardian view on extreme heat: its scale should be a wake-up call to us all

Editorial, The Guardian

Looking back at the record-breaking heat of the UK summer, an editorial in the Guardian says: “It would help to better communicate the risks and potential adaptation measures to vulnerable people, but equally good would be fostering a sense of community responsibility…At a society-wide level, a pilot project in Seville, Spain, to name specific heatwaves and give them a categorisation system like hurricanes made early warnings more effective, and also provided an important anchor for news coverage. This simple intervention should be considered in the UK. Changing the way we talk about extreme heat seems a minor thing. But if the public can be helped to recognise heatwaves as the major disasters that they are, lives would be saved and people would be convinced that the difficult work of adapting to the climate crisis is urgent and necessary.”

MORE UK COMMENT

Alan Rusbridger in the Independent – partly in response to the Spectator publishing a misleading comment piece about the Himalayan floods by climate-sceptic Matt Ridley – asks “why are deniers still getting airtime?”
The Times’s environment editor Adam Vaughan writes: “I’ve tried the new plug-in solar panels – are they worth it?” [He concludes they are.]
Sir John Armit, former chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, in the Times: “Britain must stop dithering and build Heathrow’s third runway.”
Eduardo Porter in the Guardian: “Air conditioners are our best bet in the fight against extreme heat – whether we like it or not.”
Fiona Harvey in the Guardian: “Reform continues to cast doubt on climate science. Do its supporters agree?”
Editorial in the Scotsman: “Why North Sea oil and gas exodus will not help fight against global warming.”

Research

“Large-scale wetland restoration” would increase methane emissions, but would also increase soil-carbon storage and prevent emissions from drained soils, leading to an overall reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions | Earth’s Future
Future increases in tree-canopy dieback, driven by increases in drought and heat stress severity under climate change, will add pressure to already declining bird populations that are “affected by habitat loss, changed fire regimes and climate change” | Biological Conservation
Exposure to “compound day-night heat” among Asia’s “elderly population” is greatest in the Ganges Plain, eastern China and south-east Asia | Climate Services

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