There is continued coverage of the wildfires burning across the US west, affecting California, Washington and Oregon, with the Financial Times reporting that this year is already a record-breaking one “even before what is regarded as ‘peak’ fire season in the region”. The paper continues: “Across California, more than 2.3m acres have burnt – by far surpassing the 1.9m burnt during the course of 2018’s deadly season – with still more than a month of the state’s typical fire season remaining. The earlier fires were created by lighting storms last month.”Associated Pressreports that 500,000 people have been evacuated in Oregon, more than 10% of the state’s population.Reuterssays that Oregon has “borne the brunt” of nearly 100 major wildfires across the western US, with anotherReuterspiece saying that an arson investigation has been opened into one wildfire in Oregon. A thirdReutersarticle reports that shares in Portland General Electric have “tumbled” after “unconfirmed information that some fires in Oregon region may have been started by its electrical equipment”. TheHillreports: “Fire experts say climate change and recent weather patterns have created the conditions in which the annual fire season is becoming longer and more explosive.” TheNew York Timessays: “The blazes scorching the West highlight the urgency of rethinking fire management policies, as climate change threatens to make things worse.” AnotherNew York Timesarticle describes the current situation in California as a “climate reckoning”. It says: “If climate change was a somewhat abstract notion a decade ago, today it is all too real for Californians fleeing wildfires and smothered in a blanket of smoke, the worst year of fires on record.”BuzzFeed Newsreports on the events in the US under the headline: “Even climate scientists are freaked out by this year’s wildfires.” TheDaily Telegraphcarries analysis from its environment editor Emma Gatten under the headline: “Climate change is already making California feel unliveable.” TheEconomistreports that wildfires “will be more common in a warming world”, but suggests that “clever building design and infrastructure can limit the damage”. AReutersarticle reports: “Wildfires across the US west are among the sparks from climate change that could ignite a US financial crisis by damaging home values, state tourism and local government budgets, an advisory panel to a US markets regulator found.” [See Carbon Brief’s 2018factcheckexplaining how global warming has increased US wildfires, as well as Carbon Brief’s recentexplainerabout how climate change is affecting wildfires around the world.]

An editorial in theEconomistnotes that California is facing its worst fire season yet. It continues: “The fires themselves cannot be stopped; they are fuelled by climate change layered on top of an ecosystem that burns regularly as part of its natural cycle.” But it adds: “California is compounding its problems by undermining the correct pricing of risk, which is essential to encourage homeowners to move out of the most dangerous areas.” A comment for theGuardianruns under the headline: “California’s dark, orange sky is the most unnerving sight I’ve ever woken up to.” A comment by Dr Genevieve Guenther in theBoston Globe超过70%的美国人表示希望媒体report on connections between extreme weather and climate change.

In other fire-related news,Naturereports that the Arctic “is burning like never before – and that’s bad news for climate change”. It says that fires in the region have emitted a “record” 244m tonnes of CO2 this year, a 35% increase on levels last year, which “also set records”.

Meanwhile,Reutersreports that “wild weather this year shows [the] growing impact of climate change”, citing a number of scientists that study “event attribution”. [SeeCarbon Brief’smap of attribution studies for background.] AnotherReutersarticle reports that severe floods have “hit 760,000 people” in west and central Africa. It adds: “Floods are common during the rainy season, but in recent years climate change, land degradation and poor urban planning have led to more frequent disasters.” A piece in theEconomistreflects on typhoon season “mak[ing] Japan and the Koreas ponder climate change”, adding that despite this, Japan, “in particular, is a climate laggard”. TheNew York Timesreports that the world has entered a “La Niña” phase, with impacts including the potential to “worsen what are already severe drought conditions in the American Southwest”.Yale Climate Connectionssays the pattern “could bring more landfalling hurricanes to the US”.

The Times, among many other outlets, reports that “BP has made its first foray into offshore wind with a $1.1bn deal to partner Norway’s Equinor building projects off the US”. It adds: “The oil major is buying a 50% interest in two leases off New York and Massachusetts, where the companies plan to build four wind farms with a total capacity of 4.4 gigawatts, or enough to power more than two million homes…The deal forms part of BP’s new strategy to increase investment in green energy with a target of having developed 50 gigawatts of renewable power capacity by 2030, up from only 2.5 gigawatts as of last year.” In a story trailed on itsfrontpage, theFinancial Timessays: “The decision to take a stake in the…wind assets comes as BP seeks to boost annual investment in low-carbon businesses 10-fold to about $5bn a year…Investors, environmentalists and the public are demanding that fossil fuel companies make drastic changes to their business models to reduce emissions, even as customer demand for oil, gas and even coal remains robust.”Reutersexplains that “European oil firms are under pressure from activists, banks, investors and some governments to shift away from fossil fuels and analysts say offshore wind farms are probably the quickest way for them to scale up”. TheGuardiannotes that BP “plans to give further details on how it plans to make the shift from ‘oil major’ to ‘energy company’ in a series of investor presentations scheduled for early next week”.Axiosobserves that “the move also shows interest in the fledgling U.S. offshore wind market, which has been very slow to develop (there’s just one small project in operation) but is now attracting lots of capital”. The Lex column in theFinancial Timescomments: “Not everyone thinks [that BP’s chief executive] Mr [Bernard] Looney has made the correct strategic call. The deal may be emblematic of the group’s status as a Johnny-come-lately in clean energy. There are obvious similarities between unfashionable hydrocarbon projects and all-conquering offshore wind. In both cases, a pioneer invites in new investors to reduce risk and cost. The key difference is that offshore wind’s revenue streams are much less volatile.”

Meanwhile,Reutersreports that BHP, the world’s biggest listed miner, has announced it will focus on cutting its operational emissions by 30% by the 2030 financial year from 2020 levels. The newswire adds that BHP will “focus on using cleaner forms of power supply as well as taking steps to electrify its diesel-powered truck fleet as part of steps that will eventually see it reach net zero operational emissions by 2050”. TheFinancial Timessays the “Anglo-Australian company [has] outlined plans…to spend up to $4bn over the next 10 years to reduce its environmental footprint and said it would link a portion of bonus payments for top executives to its new climate goals”. But the FT adds that the company “will still invest in oil and gas”.

Separately, the FT’s “Energy Source” newsletter says: “Oil and gas producers are fast losing their relevance to investors. Not because the world no longer needs fossil fuels but because the sector’s failure to address its environmental shortcomings is making it uninvestable. That is the view of private equity house Kimmeridge, which told [Energy Source] this week the sector faces an ‘existential threat’ as societal pressure to divest from the industry gains momentum.”

欧洲议会环境委员会公顷s backed a higher 60% reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, reports Reuters. It adds that the full parliament is to vote on its position in early October, with the 60% target more ambitious than what has been considered by the EU executive or member states. The three groups must reach a common position on the target for it to be agreed.Politicoreports on “four things to know” about the EU target discussions, including uncertainty over whether German efforts to get agreement on a 55% target can be passed by member state ministers or if national leaders would have to sign off too.

Democratic lawmakers have set out proposals for a green stimulus “that would bolster union jobs while tackling climate change and racial injustice”, Reuters reports. It adds: “Republicans have resisted efforts to use economic stimulus to further environmental or social issues. Disagreements between the parties have contributed to an impasse over new measures to help the country recover from the economic fallout of the pandemic.” TheHillalso has the story. AnotherReutersarticle reports that the Republican-sponsored proposals for $300bn of funding have been defeated by the US Senate “as Democrats seeking far more funding prevented it from advancing”. TheHillreports comments from Democratic speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, saying climate action would be an “early part” of her party’s agenda in 2021, if Joe Biden is elected president. TheIndependentreports President Obama having tweeted “alarming pictures of west coast fires” with a message to “vote like your life depends on it – because it does”.

Separately, theHillreports that senators have reached a compromise on a deal that would reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a group of powerful greenhouse gases. TheWashington Post说,“罕见的两党气候协议”cut use of HFCs by 85% by 2035.

一群妇女袒胸th外抗议e UK parliament as part of Extinction Rebellion action, Press Association reports. It adds: “The women wore masks with ‘4C’ written on them, and with words including drought, starvation and wildfires written on their chests to highlight the anticipated consequences of global heating.” The 30 protestors carried a banner reading: “Can’t bare the truth?”, reportsReuters. Meanwhile, in a story on its frontpage, theDaily Telegraphreports that Extinction Rebellion protestors “defaced” a statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, with the news also covered by theDaily Mirror,MailOnlineand theSun. An article in theEconomistsays “Extinction Rebellion shows how not to run a protest group,” arguing that “internal conflicts have dampened momentum and harmed the outfit’s cause”. A comment in theHerald Scotlandruns under the headline: “Why I was wrong to defend Extinction Rebellion.”

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists editor-in-chief John Mecklin introduces aspecial issueof the magazine on the action that will be needed to cut emissions to net-zero to meet global climate goals. He writes: “Government officials and other decision-makers are the ones who will have to decide in favour of a transition away from fossil fuels, and once they have, that transition will have to be implemented and managed in the real world.” Articles in the special issue cover topics including whether the world has reached “the peak of carbon emissions”, the “climate risks” of China’s “belt and road” plans and how to finance a “low-carbon revolution”.

Climate correspondent Lisa Holland summarises a Sky News special broadcast on Thursday night, which looked at “where the pandemic leaves us with climate change – and whether in rebuilding the economy we can also reduce carbon emissions”. Holland’s “five takeaways” include that people “want to be part of the solution” and that coronavirus offers a chance to “rebuild green”. [亚慱官网is tracking government “green recovery” efforts.] Other content published around the special broadcast include aSky News“explainer” on “why scientists have warned Covid lockdowns will not stop climate change” – which cites analysis published by亚慱官网– and acomment articleby climate sceptic Bjorn Lomborg, who appeared in the broadcaster’s televised debate.Sky Newsalso publishes the “exclusive” results of a poll it commissioned that asked the British public what should be the “government’s bigger priority”. It says that two-thirds pointed to coronavirus, against 15% for climate change. Separately, theGuardianreports the comments of an Australian scientist saying the Covid slowdown in CO2 emissions will be “not even a blip” in terms of levels in the atmosphere.

Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) during Covid-19 lockdowns in Chinese cities dropped by around 20-50% in February before rebounding again, a new study says. Using observations recorded by the Copernicus Sentinel‐5P satellite, the researchers also find “an average emission reduction of 40% over coal power plants, and a reduction in maritime transport by 15‐40%”. The drop in emissions “lasted until around the end of February and the emissions slowly returned to normal during the month March 2020”, the study says. It adds that one exception was the region Wuhan, “where emissions started to rebound since 8 April, the end of their lockdown period”.

New research explores the risks to hop yields from heat and drought in the key hop-growing regions in Europe, including Hallertau in Germany, Alsace in France and Kent in the UK. The study finds that a total of 22%, 13% and 7% of European Union areas with conditions suitable for commercial hop production fell into the moderate, high and very high yield loss risk categories, respectively. Yield losses are highest when crops are exposed to a combination of high temperatures and dry conditions, the researchers say, noting that “the hotter European droughts caused decreases in noble aromatic hops by 29% to 68%”. The findings indicate that “hop yields are very vulnerable to these events due to a slower rate of adaptation of hops compared to field crops”, the study concludes.