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Bart Biesemans and Kate Abnett, Reuters
Over the weekend, firefighters have ”battled” to contain Belgium's biggest wildfire on record, says Reuters, which has already burned 3,000 hectares and is “heading towards the German border”. The blaze in the High Fens, a nature reserve in the east of Belgium, has been burning since Friday, the newswire explains. It quotes the captain of one fire brigade, who said: "We would never have imagined that Belgium would be affected by a fire of this scale. Now, we have to face the facts.” The article adds: “Scientists say that human-caused climate change has increased the likelihood of the hot and dry conditions that allow wildfires to spread faster and burn longer.” The EU deployed three helicopters and two water-bomber aircraft to help, reports another Reuters article. Euractiv and the Associated Press also have the story, while the Guardian says two people have died in a wildfire on a Greek island. BBC News looks at Europe’s “scorched landscapes”.
Meanwhile, there is widespread coverage of continuing heat and drought across Europe. The Financial Times has a “big read” on the cost of Europe’s drought. Reuters says that Hungary has sunk two barges near its nuclear plant to raise the levels of the River Danube. The newswire has further articles on rivers and lakes drying up, as does the New York Times and Al Jazeera. There is coverage across multiple outlets of the impact of extreme heat on the French maize crop, France’s forests, Europe’s heat deaths, the European economy, German farming and European companies. The Guardian reports on the “fight to save France's rural swimming pools”. The New York Times looks at why Europe “keeps being pummelled” by heatwaves.
Joe Wertz, Bloomberg
The UK government issued a nationwide wildfire alert to mobile phones on Friday, reports Bloomberg, as “drought and the tail end of a heatwave left much of the country at very high fire risk”. The alert “advised people to avoid activities that could spark fires, including using disposable barbecues and fire pits or setting off fireworks”, it explains. Friday was provisionally a record-breaking 10th day in 2026 exceeding 35C, notes the Independent. At the same time, disposable barbecues have been temporarily banned from sale over the risk of wildfires, reports BBC News. Prime minister Andy Burnham announced additional funding for fire services and urged people not to risk lives in “tinderbox” Britain, says the Guardian. (See Comment below.) On Friday, Burnham visited Stourbridge in the West Midlands, where a fire that started on grass had spread to nearby houses, destroying 19 homes, reports the Financial Times. BBC News says that the military have been deployed to help tackle multiple fires across Wales, while the Guardian speaks to people evacuated from fires in Stourbridge.
Meanwhile, Burnham has announced £65m of funding to help farmers manage this year’s drought, reports the Guardian. Most of the £65m will go to the sustainable farming incentive, which pays farmers in England to support nature, the outlet says, while farmers will also get £15m in support for building on-farm reservoirs to provide supplies during future dry summers. Posting on Twitter, Burnham said farmers were “on the frontline of a changing climate and they shouldn’t be left to face it alone”, reports Reuters. The Times reports on the “unknown territory” of heat and drought for UK farmers. The Guardian has an explainer. BBC News says the hot weather is fuelling the UK’s “worst” outbreak of the bluetongue virus in livestock. Finally, a Times frontpage story says that government ministers have been “told to brace themselves for widespread bans on water use at car washes and private swimming pools during secret talks about how to combat the drought”. And a Sunday Telegraph frontpage article says water regulator Ofwat has plans to “charge consumers higher prices during droughts”.
MORE ON UK EXTREMES
Five key reservoirs across England and Wales are now “exceptionally low”, reports the Guardian, while the Daily Telegraph reports that the UK’s “only water desalination plant could be switched on to help London fight drought”. The Guardian reports on how heatwaves are leaving “hospital wards unsafe” and also on “this summer’s stench” from London’s sewers caused by the hot, dry weather. The Daily Telegraph: “Heatwave may have caused train derailments, rail boss admits.” Prof Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, has described this year’s heatwaves as "unprecedented" and "exceptional", reports BBC News. As BBC News reports that “bus drivers strike over oven-like cabs in heatwave”, the Daily Telegraph says that an “Extinction Rebellion (XR) splinter group is lobbying unions to stage strikes when the weather is too hot”. The Thames Barrier that protects London from flooding “may need to be replaced up to two decades earlier than anticipated”, says the Financial Times.
Wendell Roelf, Reuters
On Friday, South Africa's constitutional court blocked offshore exploration led by Shell along the country's Indian Ocean “wild coast”, in what Reuters describes as a “setback for the oil major after years of legal challenges by local communities and environmentalists”. It continues: “The majority decision by South Africa's highest court overturned a 2024 judgment by the supreme court of appeal, which handed a lifeline to Shell and Impact Africa in their quest to conduct seismic surveys off the east coast as part of an exploration right granted in 2014.” A group of not-for-profit organisations, including Greenpeace Africa, had brought the legal action for failing to consult affected communities – a legal requirement in the country, says Climate Home News. Bloomberg notes that Shell, along with TotalEnergies, were “among the explorers looking to utilise prospects to drill offshore South Africa, after discoveries in Namibia’s waters in 2022 turned the area into one of the continent’s exploration hotspots”.
Alexandra White and Nolan Shaffer, Financial Times
A US “datacentre building boom” by companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta could “create a huge new source of carbon emissions”, says the Financial Times. Analysis by the newspaper of the 60 largest planned US datacentres reveals that “they could together produce 101.5m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year once fully operational”. This would be “equivalent to about 7% of US power-sector emissions in 2025, the newspaper says. The datacentre boom is also “spurring the construction of new fossil-fuel power plants”, the newspaper says, noting that “three-quarters of the utilities serving the 60 projects are planning or building new gas-fired capacity”, while “a third of those that operate coal plants are also delaying retirements”. The article says the findings “underscore how the AI infrastructure boom threatens to undermine years of progress in cutting emissions from US electricity generation, even as big tech companies pledge billions of dollars for clean energy”.
MORE ON US
Hurricane Lala yesterday weakened to a tropical storm after skirting Hawaii without making landfall, reports the Associated Press, but its heavy rains and winds were still strong enough to “sweep around 100 homes off their foundations”. Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the US has “now has shrunk to its lowest level on record”, reports CNN. Politico: “US threatens EU over its green reporting rules.” Demand for batteries has "skyrocketed as electricity use across the US swells", says Bloomberg, but it is "also getting harder to get them connected to power grids". Bloomberg: “New Mexico gas pipeline for Oracle datacentre delayed to 2027.”
William James, Reuters
On Friday, the UK government opened a consultation on the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which sets a 2035 target to phase out new petrol and diesel cars, reports Reuters. It continues: “The mandate, introduced in 2024, requires carmakers to ensure a rising proportion of their annual sales are zero-emission vehicles, with EVs accounting for 33% of new car sales in 2026, 80% in 2030 and 100% by 2035.” The consultation sets out four alternative pathways for the targets, the newswire says: “Three would retain the 2035 endpoint but cut the 2030 target to as low as 50%. A fourth would keep the existing path but introduce new flexibility to help manufacturers comply.” |
