Fwd: Daily Briefing: North Sea ‘delusion’ | Heat hits Italy, Balkans, US | EU-China ‘consultation’

[Loretta Lohman]

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Snapshot News • Labour MPs tell Burnham to ignore ‘deluded’ calls for more North Sea drilling | Guardian • Red alerts issued over heatwave in Italy and Balkans | Sky News • Tens of millions swelter as heatwave blasts US | Agence France-Presse • China, EU officially launch trade, investment consultation mechanism | Xinhua Comment • When the right promotes heat-stress denial, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk? | George Monbiot, Guardian Research • New research on emissions from permafrost thaw, tropical cyclone season length and North Sea marine heatwaves Other stories • Record sea temperatures in June push world into ‘uncharted’ waters | Financial Times • Delhi plans to ban petrol rickshaws and scooters in effort to cut toxic fumes | Guardian • China is a clear winner from Trump’s war in Middle East, report concludes | Guardian News Labour MPs tell Burnham to ignore ‘deluded’ calls for more North Sea drilling Fiona Harvey, The Guardian Labour MPs have urged the prospective prime minister Andy Burnham to “rule out” the development of the Rosebank oilfield in the North Sea, reports the Guardian. It notes that “at least 60 Labour MPs and MSPs” have so far made their opposition to the development known and that “many” have urged Burnham in public and in private “not to give in to special pleading”. The newspaper continues that Burnham did not mention the North Sea in a speech on Monday [although he did mention oil hub Aberdeen] and has previously called himself “open-minded” on the issue. The Guardian also points to new research which indicates the oilfield would produce “as much carbon dioxide as the UK does in 10 months”. BusinessGreen covers calls from the Electrify Britain campaign group for Burnham to deliver a plan to tackle high energy bills. MORE ON UK: The Press Association and Times cover calls from the UK car trade body SMMT for the “zero emission vehicle” mandate to be “reformed”. [Despite frequent claims to the contrary, the industry is meeting the policy’s targets for EV sales.] Reuters reports on separate SMMT claims that local sourcing requirements coming into effect for EVs and hybrids traded with the EU will cost the industry £1.4bn. Renewables in the UK set a new generation record in the first quarter of 2026, according to government figures covered by BusinessGreen. The Guardian: “Reform UK chair of Welsh environment committee may ‘undermine scrutiny’, says thinktank.” The Daily Express reports claims from a Conservative peer that including shipping and aviation emissions in UK carbon budgets will be “deeply damaging”. The Times covers analysis finding that a “million” low-income households spend more on levies on energy bills than they do on fresh vegetables (£2.43 vs £2.30).  Red alerts issued over heatwave in Italy and Balkans Sky News There is ongoing coverage of the record-breaking heatwave in Europe. Sky News reports that red alerts for extreme heat have been issued in Italy and Croatia. Serbia’s weather service has warned of temperatures reaching 39C, it says, adding that both Croatia and Albania have seen wildfires. The outlet notes that French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu said he was keeping the country's health emergency response plan at “its highest level” for the coming days in view of "a possible recurrence of a heatwave episode”. Le Monde reports that just shy of 16,000 households are without electricity in Paris and the departments of le Nord and l’Aisne due to the recent heatwave. A separate article in Le Monde says that France's Green Party announced plans to put forward a vote of no confidence in the government over its heatwave response. Reuters covers numbers from the French government which estimate that the earlier May heatwave had caused 300 excess deaths. Euronews explores how Europe’s growing need for cooling is reshaping electricity demand. Bloomberg says air conditioning is becoming a “new political battleground” across Europe, as it reports on an air conditioner push from France’s far-right National Rally party. Euronews also has a story about air conditioning, claiming it has become a “powerful symbol of the tensions between social fairness and the EU’s climate and energy ambitions”.  MORE ON EUROPE Le Monde says that sea temperatures in the north-west Mediterranean were 5.2C above historical levels on Monday, amid a marine heatwave.  The leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party tells Reuters the country should end sanctions on Russian oil and gas. The European Commission said that restarting imports would be “impossible” under current rules, says Euractiv. Cyprus has signed a deal with ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy to extract gas for export to Egypt, reports Associated Press. E&E News: “European People’s Party calls for drastic weakening of EU carbon pricing regime.” Top European steelmakers have urged policymakers to avoid weakening the EU emissions trading scheme and to strengthen its carbon border levy, says Bloomberg. E&E News reports on how Ireland, holding the rotating EU council presidency, will have to act as a “go-between” during a review of the emissions trading scheme. Tens of millions swelter as heatwave blasts US Agence France-Presse “Tens of millions” of people in the US sweltered under “furnace-like temperatures” on Tuesday as central and eastern cities “hunkered down for a heatwave set to last through the 4 July holiday weekend”, reports Agence-France Presse. The newswire notes that the US National Weather Service anticipates that “dozens of local temperature records” could be broken, as many places top 38C and high humidity pushes the heat index as high as 46C. Bloomberg says the heatwave is going to “collide” with football World Cup matches and notes the US Department of Energy has ordered power plants in the PJM power grid to operate at full capacity and bypass some environmental limits “as needed”. Reuters says the heat is expected to “strain” US power systems. New York City is expected to see its hottest temperatures since 2011, according to the New York Times.  Separately, Reuters reports that “dangerously hot conditions” in Toronto and other parts of eastern Canada have prompted the Canadian government to issue a “heat warning and urge residents to check on the welfare of older adults and people living alone”. The newswire says temperatures in parts of Ontario and Quebec ​are expected to reach 34C-37C on ​Wednesday and Thursday, coinciding with Canada’s 1 July holiday and a World Cup ⁠game in Toronto. MORE ON NORTH AMERICA The Associated Press: “Trump administration launches US Wildland Fire Service amid worsening wildfires.” The Financial Times says the US is set to outpace fossil-fuel power investment in China, amid a rush to build out data centres, [as reported by Carbon Brief in May]. Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said his country’s emissions will be higher “than previously projected” and made clear he will “not curb growth in the oil and gas sector to meet nearer-term emissions targets”, reports Bloomberg. US crude oil production hit its highest level on record in April, reports Reuters. Google’s carbon emissions rose 18% last year, the largest annual increase on record, reports Axios. Nine matches in the World Cup group stage were played amid potentially dangerous heat and humidity, according to an analysis from the Guardian. China, EU officially launch trade, investment consultation mechanism Xinhua China said it has conducted “comprehensive, in-depth and constructive discussions on key economic and trade issues” with the EU under the China-EU trade and investment consultation mechanism, reports state news agency Xinhua. The newswire adds that both sides “took note of the positive results of the China-EU export control dialogue regarding rare earth elements and other critical materials and minerals, and intended to strengthen dialogue in this field”. State-run newspaper China Daily quotes Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, saying that continued engagement between China and the EU creates opportunities to “identify new areas of cooperation”, such as “green transition”. Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference that the “root causes of the challenges facing the EU do not lie with China” and that the key to addressing trade relations is to “deepen China-EU cooperation and achieve common development”, reports the state-supporting newspaper Global Times.  The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says that the trend of Chinese cooling products getting popular in Europe “clashes with Brussels’ growing unease over Europe’s reliance on Chinese clean-energy hardware”. However, it adds that the EU’s restrictions on Chinese companies are only changing how they operate in Europe, “not whether they stay or not”. It quotes an anonymous Chinese solar executive saying firms are “increasingly deliver[ing] complete solutions, substituting non-Chinese [components] where restricted, while ensuring projects could still connect to the grid”. China Europe International Business School academics Zhao Xinge and Qiu Ju write in China Daily that the EU’s “protectionist walls” is “stifling European competitiveness and derailing the green transition”. A Global Times editorial says that China is willing to “resolve differences through dialogue”, but that “goodwill is not endless concession, and restraint is not weakness”. MORE ON CHINA China’s State Council has approved an action plan for peaking carbon emissions in the 15th five-year plan period, reports BJX News. Chinese president Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on China to take measures to ensure flood control and drought relief, reports Xinhua. An article under Xi’s byline in Qiushi says a good local official would “lay the groundwork for green development”. CGTN interviews China’s climate envoy Liu Zhenmin, who says the new-energy sector accounts for around 10% of China’s GDP, [as per analysis for Carbon Brief]. The US is “drafting a ban on imports of foreign inverters…over concerns China could use them to disrupt power supplies”, reports Reuters. Yicai reports that a solar thermal power plant designed to work in “one of China's coldest climate zones” has begun commercial operations in northeastern China. The NEA held a meeting on “quality of electricity access”, including access to low-carbon power, reports Xinhua. Comment When the right promotes heat-stress denial, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk? George Monbiot, The Guardian Guardian columnist George Monbiot criticises the UK media’s coverage of the recent heatwave, noting that “across the billionaire press…columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools”. He says there will be more of this “heat-stress denial” next week when temperatures are expected to rise again. Citing Carbon Brief editor Leo Hickman, he highlights articles including those published by the Sun and Daily Mail as falsely arguing that schools stayed open in a previous 1976 heatwave. Monbiot stresses that heatwave warnings and advice have been proven to save lives – and that heat hits children “harder” than most adults. He concludes: “Thanks to years of austerity, many classrooms are in a terrible state. School buildings that should have been replaced decades ago are still in use…So now, as ever, the rich lecture the poor and demand the removal of the feeble protections that might enhance and defend their lives.” MORE COMMENT In the Daily Telegraph, world economics editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes: “It is an oddity of human character that the west’s pro-fossil backlash should peak just as the scientific facts [about climate change] on the ground become so evident, the costs so clear and the alternative technologies so easily and cheaply available”. An editorial in the climate-sceptic Daily Express urges Burnham to “put people over net-zero ideology and strain every sinew to ensure nobody has to shiver in a freezing home”. [High gas prices are the biggest driver of high bills.] In the Irish Times, columnist Fintan O’Toole writes that, “at a fundamental level, we do not believe what we are experiencing: the catastrophic effects of global heating”. For Climate Home News, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities’ Eric Macres and Drexel University’s Usama Bilal write that local data can save lives during extreme heat. In the Times, former chair of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt calls on Andy Burnham for a “radical change” in the delivery of major projects, including by implementing the Fingleton Review on nuclear planning and regulation. Research Including emissions from permafrost thaw raises the likelihood of the Arctic becoming a net carbon source at 2C of warming by more than 50% | Earth System Dynamics The “intense” tropical cyclone season has lengthened by up to two weeks per decade since 1980 | Nature Communications Marine heatwaves have become more frequent in the North Sea since the 1980s, although natural variability “has damped the effect of the long-term warming” | Ocean Science Other stories Record sea temperatures in June push world into ‘uncharted’ waters Attracta Mooney, Financial Times Delhi plans to ban petrol rickshaws and scooters in effort to cut toxic fumes Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian China is a clear winner from Trump’s war in Middle East, report concludes Amy Hawkins, The Guardian Ocean summit stays silent on new wave of offshore oil and gas expansion Sebastian Rodriguez, Climate Home News ‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter? Ajit Niranjan, The Guardian Regional framework could be set up to monitor rapidly shrinking Caspian Sea, Azerbaijani official says Reuters What is the Indus Water Treaty and why are India and Pakistan willing to ‘go to war’ over it? Stuti Mishra, The Independent UN plastics pact talks restart amid fears production curbs will be left out Matteo Civillini, Climate Home News India to get below normal rain in July, risking crop outlooks Pratik Parija, Mary Hui and Rajesh Kumar Singh, Bloomberg Singapore households face record power bills as war impact hits Sing Yee Ong, Bloomberg Data centres emitting more CO2 than thought: study Agence France-Presse Trump directs rollback of emissions penalties for those who fix cars Chris Marquette, E&E News Australia's largest green hydrogen project secures green light Bloomberg US: Utility presses DOE over coal-power extension costs Jason Plautz, E&E News Spain's solar is so cheap investors are looking for an exit Thomas Gualtieri, Eamon Farhat and Clara Hernanz Lizarraga, Bloomberg ‘They want to destroy CORSIA’: Brussels takes aim again at airline emissions Nikolaus J Kurmayer, Euractiv Campaigners ask to appeal Gatwick expansion decision Catherine Evans, BBC News Greece fights poisonous pufferfish invasion fueled by warming waters Nektaria Stamouli, E&E News This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Cecilia Keating, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. 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