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David
Lawder, Reuters
The
World Bank has announced that
it will “retire” its goal to
devote 45% of its annual
lending to projects with
climate co-benefits, reports
Reuters. The newswire adds
that the lender will extend
its climate-change action
plan, which is due to expire
today. It continues: “The
development lender, which had
been under pressure from the
Trump administration to
abandon the climate lending
target adopted during the
Biden administration in 2023,
said in a statement it would
complete a shift to focusing
on lending outcomes rather
than input goals.” Bloomberg
notes that the US is the
biggest shareholder in the
World Bank. Agence
France-Presse also
covers the news.
MORE
ON FINANCE
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Inside Climate
News says “multiple
donors and international
organisations” announced
plans to provide climate
finance for developing
countries during London
Climate Action Week, but
adds that the money is
“not nearly enough”.
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Bloomberg
says: “Fossil-fuel
subsidies are projected to
reach $1.1tn in 2026 as
governments spend more to
shield consumers from high
energy prices triggered by
the war in Iran.”
Pjotr
Sauer, The Guardian
There
is ongoing coverage of the
heatwave sweeping across
Europe. The Guardian reports
that Belgrade and Bucharest
reached 38C and 37C
respectively yesterday, while
Slovakia set a new record
temperature of 40.5C. It adds
that Budapest is forecast to
exceed 40C today. Bloomberg
says: “Red warnings for
extreme heat have been issued
in Poland, Hungary, Romania,
Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Serbia and
Slovakia.” EuroNews
reports that in Portugal,
temperatures will reach 43C by
this weekend. The Associated
Press reports that “for
Western Europe, where
temperatures have dipped from
record June highs, there was
also a warning that the heat
was likely to build again next
week”.
Reuters
says the French prime minister
has announced that he is
keeping the country's health
emergency response plan at its
highest level in the coming
days. Le Monde
reports that the French
government has been criticised
over its “climate record and
sluggish heatwave response”. Bloomberg
reports that France’s nuclear
output has dropped to its
lowest level in nine months
because rivers are too warm to
cool reactors. CNN
outlines the impacts of the
heatwave on men’s fashion week
in Paris.
Meanwhile,
the Daily Telegraph
reports that parts of
Germany’s autobahn highway
network are “crumbling” in the
heat. Sky News
covers new analysis on UK heat
exposure which finds that
“people of colour or on low
income are more than twice as
likely to live in
neighbourhoods that are
polluted and prone to
overheating”.
MORE
ON EUROPEAN HEATWAVE
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Teresa
Ribera, European
Commission executive
vice-president for a
clean, just and
competitive transition,
tells the Guardian
that the heatwave is a
“‘dramatic warning’ to
reject climate
naysayers”.
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Agence
France-Presse
reports that “the European
Union refused to be drawn
into a heated political
debate on the merits of
air conditioning Monday,
saying it was not for the
27-nation bloc to
micromanage how people
cool their homes”.
Wang
Zhen, Yicai
China’s
exports of electric fans to
Europe surged in the first
five months of the year amid a
“record-breaking heatwave”,
reports business news outlet
Yicai. It quotes Li Mingyang,
a manager at Luckyway Home
Appliances, saying that orders
from Europe are expected to
“keep increasing” next year.
State broadcaster CCTV
reports that sales of other
Chinese cooling products, such
as air conditioners, have also
surged amid “persistent
heatwaves” in Europe, adding
that China’s exports of air
conditioners to western
European countries rose 9.7%
year-on-year in the first five
months of 2026. An article by
the Communist Party-affiliated
newspaper People’s Daily
says as “climate change drives
more frequent and intense
heatwaves”, China is
“supporting domestic comfort
while helping address rising
demand in Europe”.
The
EU and China “set an October
deadline to make progress on
trade disagreements”, says Bloomberg,
following a meeting between
trade officials Maros Sefcovic
and Wang Wentao. It adds that
the EU’s stance will “partly
depend” on Germany,
which has “long preferred
dialogue”, but whose
automotive, chemical and
clean-tech sectors have “been
under severe pressure”.
Sefcovic said Wang reassured
him that rare-earth and
permanent magnet export
controls will “not disrupt EU
supply chains", reports Agence
France-Presse. The Financial Times
covers a statement by a
state-backed outlet that
Beijing could “weather a
‘freeze’ in [EU] commercial
relations”. The South China
Morning Post quotes a
“senior” EU figure saying it
has to “live with” China’s
“overcapacity”. A comment
article by the state news
agency Xinhua says
that “as Europe swelters under
severe heatwaves, Chinese-made
air conditioners are flying
off the shelves”, adding that
the EU must not resort to
“protectionism” when Chinese
products are in demand.
MORE
ON CHINA
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BJX News
reports 11 Chinese battery
companies have backed an
initiative to shorten
payment terms, helping
move the industry toward
“more sustainable
development”.
-
China Daily
reports experts saying
China is facing a “complex
mix of climate-related
risks this flood season”
amid El Niño and global
warming.
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AI,
electric vehicles and
other emerging sectors are
creating “greater
uncertainty in forecasting
energy demand” for China,
a government official
tells Bloomberg.
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Solar
power could make
“desalinating seawater
cheaper than producing
bottled water”, reports
the South China
Morning Post.
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Xinhua says
that cooperation between
Chinese and Australian
companies is expanding
into “mine
decarbonisation, green
steel and renewable
energy”.
Jillian
Ambrose, The Guardian
The
UK’s National Energy System
Operator (NESO) estimates that
£89bn is needed to build new
high-voltage transmission
lines and infrastructure
across the UK to connect
low-carbon energy to the grid
in the 2030s, according to the
Guardian. The newspaper says
this is 50% higher than the
operator’s original estimate
of £58bn. It continues: “NESO,
which is owned by the
government, said the scale of
investment was ‘broadly
consistent’ with its initial
recommendations but had
evolved to align with the UK
government’s 2030 clean power
action plan, an accelerated
rollout of new low-carbon
energy projects and rising
inflation.” Separately, Bloomberg
reports that “the UK will
probably miss its clean
electricity target by five
years because of capacity
constraints on its grid and
could struggle to deliver on
promises to cut household
energy bills, according to
consultant LCP Delta”. It
quotes one of the authors
saying the UK would
nevertheless have “lower
reliance on gas, helping to
shield households from the
kind of price volatility seen
during recent energy crises”.
MORE
ON UK
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The
Daily Mail
reports comments by Kemi
Badenoch, leader of the
Conservative party,
calling energy secretary
Ed Miliband “‘the villain'
of Britain's energy
crisis”. [Bills have
mainly been driven up by expensive gas,
not government energy
policy.]
Maxine
Joselow, The New York Times
The
Trump administration has
announced that it will pay
Duke Energy $129m to “abandon”
its plans to build an offshore
windfarm around 15-22 miles
from south-eastern North
Carolina, according to the New
York Times. The newspaper says
this is “the fourth such deal
struck by the administration
to throttle the development of
offshore wind power”. It adds
that “the project was in the
early stages of development
and construction had not yet
begun”. Bloomberg
says: “Duke aims to invest the
refunded money in projects
such as nuclear generating
facilities and grid upgrades
before the end of the year,
according to a company
statement.” It adds: “Duke
acquired the lease in 2022. It
said the area could support up
to 1.6 gigawatts of wind
energy, enough to power
375,000 homes by 2032.” Reuters
also covers the story.
MORE
ON US
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The
Associated
Press reports that
“tens of millions of
people across the Midwest
endured a heatwave
[yesterday] that is
expected to spread
eastward”, while the Associated
Press outlines how
extreme heat will affect
the US summer world cup.
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The
New York Times
reports that wildfire
season is “revving up
early” in western states,
due to drought and a warm
winter.
-
Reuters
says Trump administration
policies are putting “more
than $121bn of
[clean-energy] investment
at risk”, according to
Wood Mackenzie.
-
E&E News
says the Grantham Research
Institute finds that
around 12% of new
climate-related lawsuits
last year “could be
considered anti-climate”.
-
The
Guardian
reports that the Trump
administration “wants to
loosen two Biden-era
regulations governing oil
and gas drilling on
national public lands”.
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Reuters
says that the US
“accounted for about a
third of the rise in
global carbon emissions in
2025, as higher gas
prices pushed power
producers back to coal”.
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