Hurricane Otis has hit Acapulco in Mexico with “record intensity”, causing flash floods and landslides, the Financial Times reports. It quotes the US National Hurricane Center saying Otis presented a “nightmare scenario” for southern Mexico because it strengthened so quickly, leaving little time to prepare. The paper reports: “Within 24 hours Otis went from a tropical storm of under 100km per hour (60mph) to a Category 5 hurricane, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and slammed into the coast with maximum sustained winds of 270km per hour (165mph).” It continues: “Scientists have warned that climate change intensifies weather patterns, leading to more extreme heatwaves, droughts and storms. During hurricanes, the warmer temperatures mean more moisture is held in the air and then released as rainfall. The El Niño weather phenomenon, which warms the water over the Pacific Ocean, exacerbates the extreme conditions as it pushes more heat into an already warmed atmosphere. The past four months have already proved to be the hottest on record globally, with sea surface average temperatures also at their peak.” TheIndependentreports: “As global temperatures increase and sea levels rise, tropical cyclones – the catch-all term for hurricanes and typhoons – are expected to become more powerful and destructive, scientists say.”Le Mondealso has the story.Axiosreports: “The storm’s 12-hour intensification rate of 80 mph was the fastest in the eastern North Pacific during the satellite era, per meteorologist Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University. Studies have established a clear link between climate change, with warming seas and air temperatures, and more frequent and severe bouts of rapid intensification in hurricanes.” AnotherAxiosstory says: “Hurricane Otis’ extremely rapid intensification – so close to the Mexican coast – was one of the biggest, most high-stakes hurricane forecasting failures in years.”New Scientistreports with the headline: “Hurricane Otis rapidly intensified – why was it so hard to predict?” AnotherIndependentarticle says: “Otis went from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in only 12 hours – the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.”

Meanwhile, cyclone Hamoon has hit Bangladesh, killing at least two people and forcing nearly 2750,000 to flee their homes, reportsLe Monde在一篇文章中,描述了这些逃离“climate refugees”. It says: “Hamoon is the latest major storm to batter Bangladesh’s coast, with the low-lying South Asian nation witnessing an increasing number of severe weather events as climate change fuels bigger and deadlier storms…Climate change has increased the intensity of tropical storms, with more rain and stronger gusts leading to flash floods and coastal damage, experts say.” TheIndependentalso has the story. AnAgence France-Pressearticle in Le Mondereports: “Tens of thousands of Bolivian pupils had their classes suspended as schools closed their doors due to air pollution caused by massive forest fires, the education minister said Wednesday, 25 October.”

在极端天气下新闻从the UK, theGuardianreports: “Potato and cereal crops are likely to have been heavily damaged by the recent devastating floods across the UK [due to storm Babet], farmers have warned…Extreme weather events are becoming more likely and frequent due to climate breakdown, and have caused food shortages and price increases.” Thei newspaperreports under the headline: “People would not die in storms like Babet if country was better prepared, climate scientist warns.” A comment for theIndependentby “water expert” Mark Smith is titled: “Storm Babet could just be the beginning of our water woes.”

Chinese president Xi Jinping met with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, in Beijing on Tuesday, reports state news agency Xinhua. Xi stated that Newsom’s visit promotes stable Sino-US relations and that there is “enormous potential” for cooperation on “green development and addressing climate change”, the news outlet adds. Newsom also met Chinese vice president Han Zheng, reports anotherXinhuaarticle, and said that he would like to “further promote” cooperation on climate change.NBC Newsquotes Newsom as saying “we’re not going to move the needle on climate change unless the US and China collaborate together”.Agence France-Pressealso covers the governor’s visit, reporting his comments that he will be “meeting with five governors tomorrow…engaging and advancing our collective efforts on low carbon green growth”. TheNew York Timessays Newsom is “on a weeklong visit to China aimed at negotiating climate partnerships”. It adds: “China has not said whether Xi will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, summit, in San Francisco next month, or meet with [US] president [Joe] Biden. But the potential visit is expected to be high on the agenda of Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, during Wang’s talks in the United States later this week.”Reuterssays Newsom’s meeting with Xi is “raising hopes that China and the US can find common ground ahead of an APEC summit and COP28 climate meeting next month”. It adds: “Xi and Biden are expected to meet at the APEC summit in San Francisco in November, although the meeting has not been confirmed.”

Meanwhile, China is set to release a “roadmap to cut emissions of methane” before COP28,Bloombergreveals.Reutersquotes Geoffrey Pyatt, assistant secretary for energy resources at the US state department, as saying the US should avoid China being dominant in “wind power, small nuclear power and hydrogen”. Chinese energy outletIN-EN.comreports that executive vice premier Ding Xuexiang remarked that “China and Russia should actively advance energy cooperation…including in renewable energy, hydrogen, energy storage [and] carbon markets”.Naturepublishes an editorial arguing that China’s “belt and road initiative” is “undoubtedly filling unmet needs” and that China and the west must be “more sophisticated” in managing geopolitical relations in order to solve climate change and other challenges.

Separately, theAfrica Reportannounces that Egypt has issued the continent’s first “green Panda bond”, worth 3.5bn yuan ($478.7m), in a bid to drive investment for Africa’s “sustainable energy” and “help the continent diversify away from…dollar-denominated debt”. The Hong-Kong basedSouth China Morning Postwrites that Deutsche Bank is seeking to help Chinese companies’ transactions “meet [European] standards for sustainability and climate transition”.Chinese finance news outletCaixinsays that China is “one step away” from “relaunching” its voluntary carbon credits program (CCERs), with one expert saying that “management measures for the trading process and trading platform, as well as methodologies” are “necessary” steps for trading to start.The industry websiteChina Energy Netreports that the Chineseministry of ecology and environment has issued four new methodologies for CCERs.

In other news, the state-runChina Dailysays that the second phase of China’s “largest renewable energy power base”, based in the Gobi desert, began construction on Tuesday.China Energy Netwrites that 70% of the installed power capacity managed by the State Power Investment Corporation is “clean energy”. Finally,BJX Newsreports that the environmental impact assessment reports for two new nuclear power projects have been approved.

Republican member of congress Mike Johnson, who has been appointed as the speaker of the house, “is a longtime ally of the oil industry and will be perhaps the most vocal sceptic of the scientific consensus on climate change ever to hold the speakership”, the Hill reports. The outlet continues: “In 2017, Johnson denied human-caused climate change at a town hall, telling attendees, ‘The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.’” It adds: “Current Republican congressional leadership has seldom if ever identified climate change as a major priority, often casting the Biden administration as out of touch for its aggressive promotion of renewable energy, but outright scepticism of the kind Johnson expressed six years ago has become rarer among leadership since then…The Hill has reached out to Johnson’s office to ask if he stands by his 2017 comments.”E&E Newshas a profile of Johnson published before he was elected, saying: “House Republicans selected their fourth nominee for speaker in three weeks on Tuesday: Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisianan who has received more campaign money from the oil and gas industry over the course of his seven-year congressional career than any other industry and has repeatedly downplayed climate change.” The outlet says: “Johnson’s ascent could mark a major shift in rhetoric around energy, environmental and climate issues from the highest rungs of the leadership ladder: He has a record of downplaying the climate crisis and questioning the science linking human activity to global warming.” It also quotes his 2017 comments and adds: “That assessment is a striking departure from the way [recently deposed speaker Kevin] McCarthy sought to appeal to a new generation of Republican voters by encouraging the development of a GOP energy policy plank while moving the party further away from its history of straight-up climate denialism…A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment about the congressman’s current views on climate change.”Politico贯穿约翰逊的意见various issues, including climate and energy, reporting: “[H]e has also been a critic of efforts to fight climate change, and in a 2017 op-ed written in theShreveport Times, Johnson railed against the US joining the 2015 Paris climate accord. ‘Few Americans deny that the earth’s climate is changing. Indeed, evidence shows that cycles of climate change have always been a part of the earth’s history,’ Johnson wrote, using a common argument that fossil fuel advocates use in a bid to deny the evidence that emissions from human activity are the main driver of climate change.” TheGuardianprofiles Johnson under the headline: “Election denier, climate sceptic, anti-abortion: seven beliefs of new US House speaker Mike Johnson.”

The conclusion of a transitional committee meeting in Aswan, Egypt last week without a consensus on operationalising the loss and damage fund promised by nations at COP27 “expos[ed] a deep trust deficit among rich and emerging economies over historic responsibility, climate reparations and making money available for compensation”, the Hindustan Times reports. Developed countries “resisted the reference to as least $100bn a year by 2030 in terms of the scale of resources needed” and “held a rigid stance” on the location of the fund”, the United States being the “lead proponent” of the fund to be hosted by the World Bank, according to theThird World Networkquoted in the paper. According to the story, a “logjam over the basic principles of loss and damage could jeopardise the talks at COP28”, with Climate Action Network’s Harjeet Singh pointing out that “there was limited time to discuss the draft text [at the meeting in Aswan], which was only provided in the latter part of the meeting…[g]overnments now face the challenge of proposing solutions to achieve consensus on several contentious issues.”

In other news from India, disaster authorities in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh report that “heavy rain and rainfall-triggered landslides had caused 509 fatalities, destroyed at least 2,200 homes and damaged a further 10,000” by the end of August, with losses in just two months estimated at $1.2bn, according to a story inDown to Earth。气候变化使cloudbursts and other heavy rainfall events “more intense and more frequent in the Himalayan foothills, hilly slopes are becoming saturated more frequently, and thus unstable”, the story says.

In energy news,Business Standardreports on the Indian government extending two mandates “aimed at increasing coal imports into the country”, which “come at a time when the price of imported coal is feared to go up, following the Israel war and the geopolitical tensions impacting global trade.” In a comment piece in theIndian ExpressRohit钱德拉印度理工学院的教授,Technology (IIT), Delhi argues that even though “reports of coal’s death are highly exaggerated”, coal-rich, “RE [renewables]-poor states need to be given a bigger stake in this energy transition, rather than be treated as collateral damage.” Chandra points out that “India’s massive RE build-out so far has largely benefited western and southern states”, while “coal-rich states are likely to face a double hit to state revenues:…declining coal royalties and increasing electricity imports”, warning that “reluctant states and frequent policy conflicts could hold back India’s ambitions for an energy transition.” Meanwhile,Indian Expressreports on a newly approved charging connector standard for “light electric vehicles (LEVs) such as scooters, bikes, and rickshaws” and “why a national standard is key for mass EV adoption.”

A report from the UN University (UNU) in Germany says “humanity is moving dangerously close to irreversible tipping points that would drastically damage our ability to cope with disasters, including the withdrawal of home insurance from flood-hit areas and the drying up of the groundwater that is vital for ensuring food supplies”, the Guardian reports. The paper continues: “The report examines six examples of risk tipping points, including the point when building insurance becomes unavailable or unaffordable. This leaves people without an economic safety net when disasters strike, compounding their difficulties, particularly for the poor and vulnerable.”New ScientistandReutersalso report the story.

Oil major Shell is to cut “at least 15% of the workforce at its low-carbon solutions division and scale back its hydrogen business”, reports Reuters. The newswire says: “The staff cuts and organisational changes come after [chief executive Wael] Sawan, who took the helm in January, vowed to revamp Shell’s strategy to focus on higher-margin projects, steady oil output and grow natural gas production.” It continues: “Shell will cut 200 jobs in 2024 and has placed another 130 positions under review as part of a drive to reduce the headcount in the unit, which numbers around 1,300 employees, the company confirmed in response to a query from Reuters. Some of these roles will be integrated into other parts of Shell, which employs more than 90,000 people, the company added.” The newswire adds: “The LCS [low-carbon solutions] operations include the hydrogen and other businesses looking at decarbonising the transport and industry sectors, but do not include the renewable power business…The division also includes Shell’s carbon capture and storage and nature-based solutions businesses, which will not be impacted by the current round of cuts, the sources said. The main focus of the changes has been the hydrogen business. Shell plans to sharply scale back its hydrogen light mobility operations, which develop technologies for light passenger vehicles, and will focus on heavy mobility and industry, the company said.” TheTimesreports: “Shell is cutting up to a quarter of the workforce in one of its main low-carbon divisions as part of its new chief executive’s drive to improve profitability.” It adds: “The cuts in the low-carbon division are understood to be linked, in part, to Shell’s decision to shift away from offering clean-burning hydrogen for cars and instead to focus on hydrogen as a fuel for heavy-goods vehicles. Hydrogen cars have failed to catch on as electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity and Shell shut down all its hydrogen car refuelling stations in Britain last year.” TheDaily Telegraphsays the job cuts “mark a clear shift away from hydrogen”. It adds: “Shell was once a keen supporter of hydrogen-fuelled cars and had opened a string of hydrogen-fuelling stations at Gatwick Airport and various motorway service stations. However, these have since been closed due to a lack of demand.” TheGuardianalso has the story.

Meanwhile, a story from theNew York Timesreports: “Exxon Mobil and Chevron are spending tens of billions of dollars buying oil and gas assets, betting that the International Energy Agency’s predictions of declining oil demand are wrong.” Elsewhere, theWashington Posthas a feature article titled: “Companies capture a lot of CO2. Most of it is going into new oil.” AtAfrican Arguments, Tina Lee, editor in chief of Unbias the News, writes that “green hydrogen” is “Africa’s chance to break the colonial extractive dynamic.” A comment for theFinancial Timesis titled: “Why ditching hydrogen heating for homes makes sense.”

Renewable energy developers have asked the UK Treasury to scrap a windfall tax on offshore windfarms and boost subsidies and tax breaks, Bloomberg reports. It says: “Dan McGrail, the chief executive of RenewableUK, wrote to chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt on Monday, calling for a bigger budget for the next auction round for offshore wind. The industry group showed Bloomberg a copy of the letter. The UK aims to have 50 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, but is expected to fall short of the goal by nearly a third, according to BloombergNEF. Last month, there wasn’t a single bid to build an offshore wind project in the government auction for clean-energy contracts.” An article in theDaily Telegraph, meanwhile, quotes the head of energy firm RWE saying that the UK government’s price cap for offshore wind contracts needs to rise by 50-70% in the next auction in order to secure new projects, from £44 per megawatt hour (MWh) to £65-75/MWh. The newspaper misleadingly headlines the story: “Electricity prices ‘must rise by 70% to pay for more wind farms’.” [Electricity prices, which are usually set by the price of gas power, currently stand well above £100/MWh. Even at £75/MWh, wind projects holding a “contract for difference” would be cheaper than this and would pay excess earnings above their “strike price” back to consumers.]

Japanese carmaker Toyota is aiming to “roll out” its Lexus electric vehicle (EV) with a roughly 1,000km range by 2026, Reuters reports, as part of a “strategic pivot to EVs reliant on advanced battery technology”. The newswire explains: “The world’s top-selling automaker announced in June an ambitious plan to ramp up in battery EVs, including the launch of the next-generation lithium-ion batteries that offer longer ranges and quicker charging. It also said it had achieved a ‘breakthrough’ in overcoming problems previously identified with the durability in solid-state batteries. It aims to sell vehicles powered by solid-state batteries – considered a potential ‘game changer’ for the industry because of their range and performance – by 2027 or 2028.” A comment for theFinancial Timesby Asia business editor Leo Lewis asks: “Can [Japan’s] automakers jump from laggard to leader on EVs?” He writes: “Whatever the calculation behind [Toyota’s] EV foot-dragging – it continues to believe that hybrids will have a critical role in the vehicle mix around the world – its laggard status on this is striking…But Toyota has an alternative narrative. It has not been on the back foot at all as Tesla and others have advanced and land-grabbed, but biding its time. It has been allowing the early days of the EV market to establish standards on pricing, range, charging time and reliability that it believes it can comfortably surpass. It envisages, in other words, a leap from laggard to leader on EVs.”

Meanwhile, anotherFinancial Timesarticle reports: “Shares of LG Energy Solution dropped to a year-low on Wednesday after the South Korean battery producer echoed Tesla chief Elon Musk and warned electric vehicle sales were expected to slow as a result of higher interest rates.” TheHillsays: “Honda and General Motors are no longer working together on a plan to develop electric vehicles (EVs).”Axiosreports: “A new analysis finds a ‘strong and enduring correlation’ between political ideology and US electric vehicle adoption.” A thirdFinancial Timesarticle reports: “Surging UK insurance premiums for electric vehicles pose a risk to their widespread adoption, analysts have warned.” A fourthFinancial Timespiece is titled: “Can America’s south-east unseat Detroit as ‘Motown’ of the EV age?” TheEconomistsays: “Firms are exploring sodium batteries as an alternative to lithium.”

在拦截功能,与the Centre for Climate Reporting and Drilled, looks at the background to the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE’s national oil company, as president of the upcoming COP28 climate talks “despite questions over his green credentials”. The story says that Al Jaber, chief executive of Adnoc, “is currently overseeing a major expansion of the company’s oil and gas output. And the oil company’s staff has played a critical role in shaping the summit. At least a dozen Adnoc employees have been appointed to roles on the hosting team, including two staffers designated as negotiators for the UAE.” The reporters say that they “reviewed hundreds of pages of US justice department filings and internal communications strategy documents that reveal the careful curation of Al Jaber’s image over the years”. They add: “We also interviewed a number of Al Jaber’s former colleagues and advisers, who asked that their names be withheld for fear of professional repercussions. Despite stalled progress on Al Jaber’s acclaimed eco-city and questions over his green credentials as he ramps up oil and gas production, PR agencies and consultants secured him the support of global leaders and institutions and placed him at the helm of COP28.” In a video interview with theFinancial Times美国前副总统阿尔·戈尔讨论“大Oil, COP28, and the fight for climate action”.

An editorial in the British Medical Journal says climate change and biodiversity should be tackled jointly: “The world is currently responding to the climate crisis and the nature crisis as if they were separate challenges. This is a dangerous mistake.” It continues: “The 28th UN Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change is about to be held in Dubai while the 16th COP on biodiversity is due to be held in Turkey in 2024. The research communities that provide the evidence for the two COPs are unfortunately largely separate, but they were brought together for a workshop in 2020 when they concluded: ‘Only by considering climate and biodiversity as parts of the same complex problem … can solutions be developed that avoid maladaptation and maximise the beneficial outcomes.’” It concludes: “Health professionals must be powerful advocates for both restoring biodiversity and tackling climate change for the good of health. Political leaders must recognise both the severe threats to health from the planetary crisis and the benefits that can flow to health from tackling the crisis. But, first, we must recognise this crisis for what it is: a global health emergency.”

An editorial in the Guardian reflects on UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s first year in office, saying: “Perversely, a policy area where rupture with the recent past is most distinct is one where continuity was an ethical imperative: targets for achieving net-zero. History will judge Sunak’s retreat from climate leadership as exceptionally shortsighted.” An article for theHouseis titled: “Consumers will end up paying the price for net-zero U-turn.” It says: “Last month Rishi Sunak announced he was scrapping several net zero policies (including some which never existed, like forcing people to rip out perfectly functioning gas boilers), under the guise of saving people money in the cost of living crisis. The reality, however, is just the opposite: delays will be more expensive and households will foot the bill.”

In other UK comment, an editorial in theSuncomplains yet again about the Just Stop Oil climate protestors: “The folly of judges giving Just Stop Oil loons a slap on the wrist was writ large in bright orange in central London yesterday. Wellington Arch was senselessly daubed in paint by the Carbonystas just hours after a gang of Lord’s cricket pitch invaders avoided jail…They won’t stop until our judiciary actually starts locking them up.” Also in theSun, Piers Morgan writes under the headline: “Just Stop Oil vandals should be sent to prison to stop stunts…current sentences will encourage them to wreak more havoc.”

In a comment for Scientific American, Dr Hannah Ritchie, deputy editor of Our World in Data and senior researcher at the University of Oxford, argues that “our past efforts tell us there is hope” for tackling climate change. She continues: “The world has solved large environmental problems that seemed unsurmountable at the time…An eye-opening example is acid rain; studying how the world tackled this geopolitically divisive problem can give us some insights into how we can tackle climate change today.” Ritchie explains: “This is a classic game theory problem; outcomes don’t only depend on the actions of one country but on the actions of the others too. Countries will only act if they know that others are willing to do the same. This time, they did act collectively. Government officials signed international agreements, placed emissions limits on power plants and started to reduce coal burning. Interventions were incredibly effective.” She adds: “What we learned from tackling acid rain and the ozone hole can be applied to tackling climate change overall. First, the cost of technology really matters…Second, climate agreements and targets take time to evolve…Finally, the stance of elected officials matters more than their party affiliation.” Ritchie concludes: “Climate change is not the perfect parallel for the environmental problems we’ve solved before. It will be harder; we should be honest about that. It means rebuilding the energy, transport and food systems that underpin the modern world. It will involve every country, and almost every sector. But change is happening, even if it doesn’t hit the headlines.”

New research sheds light on how the impact on tropical climate of an ocean phenomenon known as the “Atlantic Nino” remains high, despite having decreased in strength since the 1970s. The apparent discrepancy comes from the finding that there are two types of Atlantic El Nino with distinct patterns and climatic impacts – a central and an eastern type. The authors explain how the eastern type has weakened by approximately 50% in recent decades, allowing the central type–which impacts tropical climate more strongly and can trigger the cold phase of the phenomenon known as La Nina–to dominate. The paper concludes that “it is necessary to distinguish between them and investigate their behaviours and influences on climate in future studies”.