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Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News
The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine “announced Thursday that it will conduct an independent, fast-track review of the latest climate science”, Inside Climate News reports. It continues: “It will do so with an eye to weighing in on the Trump administration’s planned repeal of the government’s 2009 determination that greenhouse gas emissions harm human health and the environment.” According to the outlet, the group will release its report in September, “in time to inform” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision on the “endangerment finding”.
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The Guardian says: “The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing growing criticism from scientists who say their ‘worst fears’ were realised when Wright revealed that the Trump administration would ‘update’” the US national climate assessment reports. CNN quotes Wright saying: "We’re reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those reports.” Politico reports that the Trump administration “is aiming to replace” the “second in command” at the International Energy Agency, Mary Warlick, who is a former US State Department official. The New York Times says: “The Trump administration has sharply escalated its attacks on wind and solar power in recent days, issuing a barrage of policies that could halt the construction of renewable energy projects on public and private lands across the country.” Bloomberg says Trump is “mounting a rapid-fire campaign that exceeds the industries’ worst fears”. The Associated Press reports that the EPA has “terminated a $7bn grant program intended to help pay for residential solar projects for more than 900,000 lower-income US households”. The news is also covered by Inside Climate News, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, the Hill and Bloomberg. The New York Times says: “The California Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower court to reconsider a state policy that reduced how much utilities have to pay homeowners with rooftop solar panels for the energy that they send to the electric grid.” Semafor says: “Wall Street is falling out of love with fossil fuels, and showing more affection for renewables.”
Agence France-Presse
Torrential rain has “drenched” southern China’s Guangdong province, forcing more than 75,000 people to evacuate, Agence France-Presse reports. Citing reporting by state broadcaster CCTV, the newswire says that China’s top economic planner, the National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC), allocated 100 million yuan ($14m) towards flood relief in Guangdong and issued a statement saying that “continuous rainfall and flooding” in the province has caused “heavy casualties and property losses”. The newswire adds that “natural disasters are common across China”, but climate change has made “extreme weather more frequent and intense”. State news agency Xinhua also covers the news, stating that a landslide triggered by the rainfall killed two people and trapped another 12.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that intense rainstorms experienced in the city may rank among Hong Kong’s “costliest natural disasters for insurers”. SCMP also publishes an opinion article by Climate Finance Asia strategy director Mark Hinnells stating the intense rainstorms, which are worsened by climate change, will put the “valuable assets of Hong Kong” at risk. The Economic Observer, a Chinese newspaper, examines the impact climate change is having on China’s agriculture sector, with the “abnormal weather” over the past five years becoming the “new normal”. Elsewhere, the State Council has issued measures for the “assessment of natural disasters” to enhance “disaster prevention, mitigation and relief capabilities”, Xinhua reports. China Electric Power News reports that power demand has hit record highs for three consecutive days this week.
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The MEE is seeking comments on guidance for “provincial greenhouse gas inventories”, BJX News reports. Global Times publishes an opinion article on the recent ICJ climate opinion by Bao Yinan and Cao Qun, associate researchers from the Hainan Huayang Centre for Ocean Cooperation and Governance and the China Institute of International Studies, respectively, arguing that China must advance its “autonomous emission reduction process” while staying “alert” to global “climate responsibility traps”. A Global Times editorial argues for “cooperation” between the EU and China on clean-energy technologies, rather than “de-risking”. China’s rare-earth exports fell 23% after hitting a record high the previous month, Reuters says. Scientific American reports that China is building a research station in Antarctica powered mostly by renewable energy. An opinion article by People’s Daily commentator Li Haoran says that China’s efforts to counter “involution” and expand domestic demand must “go hand in hand”.
Melina Walling, The Associated Press
The Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina is undergoing its “most substantial retreat in the past century”, according to a study covered in the Associated Press. The newswire says the “iconic” glacier was “long thought one of the few on Earth to be relatively stable”. It continues: “[The glacier] for decades has been wedged securely in a valley. But it’s started losing contact with the bedrock below, causing it to shed more ice as it inches backward. It’s a change, illustrated in dramatic timelapse photos since 2020, that highlights ‘the fragile balance of one of the most well-known glaciers worldwide,’ write the authors of the study…They expect it to retreat several more kilometres in the next few years.” The New York Times says the study shows “a momentous change of fortune for one of the world’s most beloved glaciers”. The MailOnline says the glacier “is on the verge of total collapse due to climate change”. In the Conversation, Neil Glasser, a professor at Aberystwyth University, writes: “The projected loss of Glacier Perito Moreno is not just a problem for Patagonia. It is an icy warning of what lies ahead for the world’s remaining glaciers.”
Marco Trujillo and Abdul Saboor, Reuters
There is ongoing media coverage of what Reuters calls a “massive” wildfire in France, which having “scorched through 16,000 hectares (39,537 acres) of forest and villages in southern France since Tuesday”, has now been contained. BBC News says the fire was the country’s largest since 1949. It adds that environment minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher “linked the blaze to climate change”. The Associated Press says: “The fire’s rapid spread was fueled by weeks of hot, dry weather, though cooler temperatures and calmer winds overnight helped slightly ease the situation.” The Daily Telegraph says: “Scientists have warned that climate change is a key factor and such wildfires could become more frequent and widespread in the coming years. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.” The New York Times, Euronews, Reuters, Bloomberg and France24 also cover the news.
MORE ON EXTREME EVENTS
Agence France-Presse reports that the flooding in India’s Uttarakhand state “was likely caused by a rapidly melting glacier exacerbated by the rising effects of climate change”, according to “experts”. Le Monde says: “The number of drownings at the start of summer 2025 was twice as high as during the same period the previous year. This increase is linked to the early onset of heatwaves, which have driven people to swim in rivers and lakes that are minimally or not at all supervised.” There is ongoing media coverage of the news that July 2025 was the third-warmest July on record. The news, announced by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, is covered in the Associated Press, Politico and the Hill.
Susanne Preuß, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Not a single investor” submitted a bid in the auction for two North Sea offshore windfarm sites with a combined capacity of 2.5 gigawatts (GW), marking the first such failure in Germany, FAZ reports. For comparison, it notes that in 2023, bids totalling €12.6bn had been made for areas with a total capacity of 7GW. The outlet explains that the major problems for investors are supply chain bottlenecks, geopolitical tensions and low electricity prices. It adds that Germany is targeting 70GW of offshore wind capacity by 2045. Der Spiegel adds that the planned windfarms were due to start operating in 2030 and 2031, so the sites are to be re-tendered in June 2026. The newspaper explains tha |
