Daily Briefing: Extreme heat ‘sucking soil dry’ | China’s El Niño concerns | Blackouts in North Africa

23.07.26

News

Climate crisis-driven heat ‘sucking soils dry’ as extreme drought hits Europe

Damian Carrington, The Guardian

A new scientific analysis has found “extreme heat supercharged by the climate crisis is sucking Europe dry in summer and intensifying the drought hitting the continent”, reports the Guardian. It adds that record-breaking heatwaves have led to water evaporating from rivers, lakes, soils and plants under conditions made “80 times more likely by global warming in western Europe and 40 times more likely in eastern Europe”. The Financial Times reports that the continent has suffered from a “flash drought” following recent heatwaves, which drove an “atmospheric thirst”, according to the research by the World Weather Attribution group. Reuters quotes Sarah Kew, a climate scientist at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Service: “Extreme heat is taking over as the primary driver of drought on our continent. We are seeing water supplies evaporate out of our soils and rivers faster than ⁠we would have in a world without climate change, turning what would have been manageable dry spells into severe droughts.”

MORE ON EUROPE

Agence France-Presse reports that yesterday was Greece’s hottest day of the year, with temperatures up to 43C.
There is continuing coverage of wildfires in Europe, including Reuters reporting that 32,000 hectares has been burnt in Guadalajara, Spain and the Associated Press adding that the fire has killed 13 people so far.
Reuters reports that Malta’s capital Valletta has been hit by a wave of power cuts amid a heatwave, which saw temperatures hit a record 43.3C over the weekend.
Politico reports that French president Emmanuel Macron has asked his minister for ecological transition Monique Barbut to stay in her role, after she resigned last week, arguing opposition to the green transition agenda had become “too powerful”.
The Financial Times looks at what new EU rules mean for the aviation industry, following updates in the bloc’s carbon market last week. [See Carbon Brief’s Q&A for the details.]
The Guardian reports that the heatwave in Europe in June is estimated to have cost grain farmers €2bn (£1.7bn) in lost revenue, as well as destroying 9m tonnes of crops.

UK: Andy Burnham raids climate project funds to pay for £2 bus fare cap

Geraldine Scott, The Times

The Times reports that new UK prime minister Andy Burnham is facing “another funding row” after it was announced that he will get the money to pay for a new £2 bus cap policy from turning some international climate grants into loans. It adds that the one-year pledge to cap bus fares will be mostly funded by “raiding lending capacity for climate and energy projects for the rest of the decade”. The Independent covers criticism from green groups and opposition politicians of Burnham’s move. The Guardian quotes Joanne O’Neill, the co-director of advocacy at ActionAid UK: “Delivering international climate finance as loans instead of grants pushes countries deeper into debt and forces them to divert funding away from essential public services such as education, health and social protection – which disproportionately impacts women and girls.” Bloomberg quotes Mohamed Adow, director of the thinktank Power Shift Africa, who says replacing grants with loans “will trap vulnerable countries in even greater debt while asking them to pay for a crisis they did not create”.

MORE ON UK

The Independent covers calls for a sustainable aviation body, saying urgent support is needed for the UK aviation sector to reach net-zero by 2050.
The Guardian: “Carmakers lobbied UK to revoke ban on petrol and diesel cars after 2035.”
The Daily Telegraph covers a new government report, which suggests there’s been an increase in the number of energy generation projects being cancelled.
Sky News reports that the UK’s largest onshore windfarm is planning to double its capacity, as part of a “massive £1.5bn rebuilding project”.
The Times highlights that in a previous role leading the thinktank New Economics Foundation, newly appointed climate and energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh signed a letter opposing drilling at the Rosebank oil field.
BusinessGreen reports that the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero has confirmed that energy minister Michael Shanks will continue in his current role, while climate minister Katie White has been promoted to minister of state at the department.

‘Unprecedented’: France records 5,764 excess deaths during June-July heatwave period

France24

France24 reports that France recorded 5,764 more deaths than the normal rate during a record-breaking heatwave from 17 June to 2 July. It adds that this is the highest excess mortality rate during a heatwave in France since a “devastating episode” in 2003, when 15,000 people died. The Associated Press reports that Public Health France recorded 21,674 deaths from all causes, higher than the 15,910 expected based on statistical modelling. Reuters adds that there was a 36% excess mortality rate during the period, with deaths of people aged 75 and older representing about two-thirds of the excess mortality. The Guardian notes that the deaths are attributed to “all causes”, with none yet clearly linked to heat. [A recent Carbon Brief Q&A explains the “excess deaths” method for calculating heat deaths.]

Current El Niño rivals historic 1997/98 event, disaster risks may intensify next year: Chinese forecaster

Li Xundian and Liu Xin, Global Times

Senior Chinese forecaster Jiang Hua says climate change is “increasing the likelihood of extreme El Niño events”, according to the state-supporting Global Times newspaper. Jiang says the “greatest risks” from the event may emerge next year, with southern China expecting “heavier spring rainfall” and the moving summer rain belt raising the risk of flooding, adds the newspaper.

Meanwhile, northern China will “experience 20% to 50% more rainfall than usual” from late July to early August, reports Reuters. The newswire quotes Zhang Xuebin at the University of Victoria, saying that climate change is “no longer a future problem for China – it’s already happening”. The Beijing News says since the start of the flood season, the Chinese government has allocated 1.2bn yuan ($180m) to disaster-affected areas. State-run Economic Daily reports that a meteorological station in northwestern China’s Xinjiang has recorded a temperature of 50C. The Shanghai-based Sixth Tone says garlic from China is becoming mouldy this summer as “global warming brings China’s rain belt to the main production region”. China’s central state-owned enterprises have increased thermal coal inventories to “secure fuel for power generation”, says Securities Daily.

MORE ON CHINA

China will launch a national program to build zero-carbon factories and zero-carbon computing facilities, according to China News Service.
China’s oil and gas production reached a record 420m metric tonnes, significantly boosting “national energy self-sufficiency and security”, reports China Daily. However, the NEA warns that “further expansion is becoming increasingly difficult” with higher costs of “developing new frontiers”, reports the South China Morning Post.
Zou Ji, the head of the Energy Foundation China, says China must promote “technological advancement” rather than “merely shrinking demand” to cut emissions from its industrial sector, says Caixin.
Bloomberg reports that more than a third of new plug-in hybrid sales in Europe are from Chinese brands. An editorial in the Global Times says an “accelerated speed” of launching new EVs does not mean a “shorter safe and reliable service life of vehicles”.
German MEP David McAllister has said in Beijing that the EU is willing to “bolster cooperation” with China in areas such as “green development and climate change response”, reports Xinhua. The Global Times: “China and EU deepen intergovernmental sci-tech cooperation on climate change.”
China’s five-year plan for forestry and grassland conservation aims to increase forest coverage to 25.8% by 2030, reports Xinhua.

Power blackouts sweep North Africa as heat strains aging grids

Souhail Karam, Salma El Wardany and Hatem Mohareb, Bloomberg

Bloomberg covers a string of blackouts that have hit North Africa from Libya through to Tunisia and Algeria, amid “sweltering “ summer heat in excess of 40C. It adds that electricity demand has been surging and the nations’ decades-old facilities have struggled to continue operating. The article details specific challenges for different countries, including transmission line failure in Libya and technical malfunctions in Algeria leading to the “worst blackout in two decades”. It adds that “frequent power outages” in Tunisia last week were due to a combination of a heatwave, surging demand and a plant failure in neighbouring Algeria.

Comment

The world is on fire, and who does Trump blame? The Canadians

Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian

In the Guardian, columnist Arwa Mahdawi argues that, rather than complaining about Canada’s “filthy, polluted and unhealthy air”, US president Donald Trump should “put all that energy into tackling the climate crisis”. On Sunday, the article continues, Trump spoke to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney about the impact of wildfires in Canada on air quality in the US, asking him to “stop these fires from coming in and, you know, poisoning our air”. The article adds that Carney responded by referencing the climate crisis and noting that it is everyone’s responsibility to address it. She concludes: “It turns out that smoke doesn’t recognise border policies. And, as the weather becomes more extreme, things are only going to get worse: the world is literally on fire and the arsonists are fiddling with tariffs as it burns.”

MORE IN COMMENT

Reuters columnist Ron Bousso argues that “Europe’s electrification dream won’t spare a painful decade” following the recent release of the European Commission’s electrification strategy.
In the New York Times, columnist David Wallace says: “Nothing can prevent the new wildfires. We have to adapt.”
An editorial in the Times calls on new UK energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh to allow more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
A fullpage “profile” in the climate-sceptic Daily Mail argues that Fahnbulleh is “even madder than [Ed] Miliband!”, while in the climate-sceptic Daily Express, personal finance editor Harvey Jones dubs Fahnbulleh a “net-zero madwoman”.
In the Scotsman, chief of staff to Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, William Deans, argues that the Conservative party’s “purge of net-zero” will strengthen their rivals.
On the Zeteo substack, writer Richard Seymour explains why “deadly denial on the climate must end” in the City of London, media and unions.

Research

A survey of Syrian and Iraqi refugees reveals the association between war and post-traumatic stress is stronger among those from drought-affected areas | Nature Sustainability
The drying out of soil in summer in Europe has been “largely driven” by atmospheric circulation changes since the 1980s | Nature Geoscience
Waste policies and management are “increasingly shaped by carbon concerns”, whereas carbon dioxide is “increasingly framed as a waste to be managed” | Environmental Communication