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President could bypass the political gridlock as nearly 20% population faces 100F and above temperatures

Joe Biden is under pressure to declare a national climate emergency as temperatures soar across the US and Europe.

Facing political gridlock in Washington, the US president could make such an announcement – which would unlock federal resources to deal with the crisis – as soon as this week, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

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Germany confirmed details of its proposed “global shield” on Tuesday, aiming to “acknowledge” and “address” loss and damage caused by climate change impacts on the world’s most vulnerable countries, while the nation also announced a new partnership to import natural gas and hydrogen.

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The vast majority know that global heating is dangerous. This summer’s crisis should be a tipping point

Will the heatwave change anything? As predicted, British temperature records were shattered on Tuesday with 40.3C recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. While Wednesday is expected to be cooler, the European crisis continues, with wildfires raging in France, Spain and Portugal. What immediate impact these extremes have on individuals depends on factors including geography, age, health, sex and socioeconomic status. Wealthier people in the UK, as all over the world, are better protected, while poorer people (who are more likely to be black or minority ethnic) are more exposed both at work and home.

This is far from the first disruption to British weather attributed to global heating. This time last year saw flash floods. But sometimes the “heating” part of the climate emergency has felt as though it belonged elsewhere. Predictions for the UK have included more rain rather than sun. So this week’s burning heat has shocked scientists as well as the public. Will this alter how we think and behave?

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A true picture of how bad things have become emerges from the report, but with 2,000 pages of convincing evidence, change is possible

The state of the environment report paints a detailed and brutal picture of destruction and loss, and almost none of it is new.

Virtually everything in this five-yearly government report card – that another 202 animal and plant species have been identified as threatened with extinction or worse, that at least 19 ecosystems show signs of collapse, that hundreds of thousands of hectares of native forest have been bulldozed, that vast southern kelp forests have disappeared – was already known and publicly documented.

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The European Commission is set to propose mandatory gas rationing for member states should the EU declare an emergency amid a worsening supply outlook, according to a leaked draft seen by Carbon Pulse on Tuesday.

This role is a key contributor to Shell’s global carbon market analysis with a focus on offering comprehensive and regular fundamental analysis and forecasting of the Australian and New Zealand carbon markets. This role is responsible for bringing supply, demand, and policy views together, modeling key drivers to develop market forecasts across all time horizons.

The UK's net zero strategy for aviation assumes a carbon price rise to £378/tonne by mid-century to meet the goal of climate neutrality in the sector, and does not envisage emissions to rise above pre-pandemic levels, according to documentation published on Tuesday.

Concerns over the future protection of beavers are raised after delays in the introduction of new legislation.

Experts worried that extreme heatwaves in Europe happening quicker than expected, suggesting climate crisis worse than feared

• UK extreme weather: latest updates

Climate scientists have expressed shock at the UK’s smashed temperature record, with the heat soaring above 40C for the first time ever on Tuesday.

Researchers are also increasingly concerned that extreme heatwaves in Europe are occurring more rapidly than models had suggested, indicating that the climate crisis on the European continent may be even worse than feared.

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Spain, Germany and China all have maximum working temperatures. It’s time the UK followed suit

• Mika Minio-Paluello is policy officer for climate and industry at the TUC

We love the summer sun, but it can be deadly. The UK’s former chief scientist, David King, has warned this intense heatwave could cause up to 10,000 excess deaths. Despite decades of warnings from scientists that climate breakdown would bring severe heatwaves to the UK, we are still unprepared. Our buildings, public spaces, rules and laws were made for a different climate in a different century. Extreme heat and stormier winters are becoming the norm in Britain, and we’re struggling to cope.

As record temperatures pass 40C (104F) in the UK, working people deserve to be safe. Builders, postal workers and street cleaners who spend long periods outside in high temperatures are at serious risk of sunstroke, heat stress and skin cancer. Other workers doing physical labour in indoor heat, like packing in a hot warehouse, can also suffer heat stress, respiratory problems and even heart failure. Working under pressure in these temperatures can reduce people’s capacity to concentrate and lead to deadly accidents. This can be especially dangerous in industries such as transport and construction, and in manufacturing plants.

Mika Minio-Paluello is policy officer for climate and industry at the Trades Union Congress and an energy economist with Transition Economics

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Its ‘jet zero’ strategy relies on the invention of pie in the sky technologies to tackle dangerous airline emissions

It’s here. The climate crisis has landed in the UK. We’re in a dangerous heatwave that’s forcing schools to close, hospital appointments to be cancelled, trains to reduce service, and flights to stop as the runway melts. Extreme weather is not only a threat to our infrastructure, but a threat to our lives. There’s only one answer: urgent action to tackle the climate crisis.

And yet, on a day that has broken a temperature record set just three years ago, the government has done the opposite. While the tarmac sizzles beneath our feet, the skies above us are still full of planes spewing out greenhouse gases. What will it take for the government to get serious about cutting emissions from flights?

Leo Murray is co-founder and director of innovation at the climate charity Possible

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Activists target London HQ of Rupert Murdoch’s media company after UK weather treated as upbeat story

Extinction Rebellion protesters have smashed windows at the London headquarters of Rupert Murdoch’s media company, in protest at his outlets’ coverage of the climate crisis.

Activists targeted the News UK building next to London Bridge station early on Tuesday morning, destroying glass panels and putting up posters reading “tell the truth” and “40 degrees = death” next to the entrance used by journalists at the Sun and the Times.

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As a climate scientist, I’m tired of hearing about that summer. The extreme heat we’re experiencing globally has no precedent

I’m too young to remember the 1976 heatwave. But as a climate scientist, I’m tired of hearing about why it means we shouldn’t take the climate crisis seriously. 1976 was undeniably a hot summer. A really hot summer, in fact. Temperatures topped 32C (89.6F)somewhere in the UK for 15 days on the trot, climbing to a maximum of 35.9C on 3 July. But in many ways it was nothing like the heatwave we’re enduring right now.

In 1976, the UK was an anomalous red blob of unusual heat on a map of distinctly normal summer temperatures. Contrast that to July 2022, and there are few places on Earth where temperatures are not considerably above average. What makes 2022 a lot worse than 1976 is not just the temperature itself – which will be 4-5C higher than in 1976 if the forecasts are accurate – but how large an area is currently feeling the heat. Parts of Spain, Portugal, France and Italy have been baking in 40C-plus heat for days on end. Combined with extremely dry conditions, the heat has triggered wildfires and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

Dr Ella Gilbert is a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey

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EUAs gave up ground for a second day on Tuesday but remained firmly entrenched within their recent range as activity continued to dwindle, while energy markets were generally slightly firmer after the European Commission said it did not expect the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to resume flows after maintenance ends later this week.

Following a legal challenges from environmental groups, a court has ordered the UK government to outline how it plans to meet emissions reduction targets as part of its net zero strategy with the current level of detail unlawful.

Tory leadership hopeful says she could set target back, despite backing the 2019 pledge on Monday

Kemi Badenoch has U-turned a second time on her support for the government target of net zero emissions by 2050.

After telling a room of MPs at the Tory leadership climate hustings on Monday that she supported the 2019 manifesto pledge, later that evening she declared on TalkTV that she would delay it.

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Replacing 20% of our meat with microbial protein could dramatically reduce carbon emissions and the rate of deforestation, a new study has found

Replacing just one fifth of the red meat we eat with microbial proteins derived from fungi or algae could reduce annual deforestation by a massive 56% come 2050, according to a study published this spring.

Climate scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research simulated four future scenarios in which humans replace either 0%, 20%, 50% or 80% of the red meat in our diets with microbial protein, which is a low-calorie, high-protein and high-fiber fermented product that’s already an ingredient in some commercial alt-meats, including Quorn and Nature’s Fynd. The researchers then looked at how this dietary change might affect global forests by 2050.

Adrienne Matei is a freelance journalist

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Australia’s environment minister has emphasised the expanding role carbon credits will play in protecting and restoring marine and land-based ecosystems, while ACCU delivery to the government fell slightly in the last financial year, according to regulator data.

India’s Modi government will shortly introduce legislation to the country’s lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, that will facilitate a national framework for carbon trading and boost clean energy use, according to local media reports.