There is widespread media coverage of a new report on EU competitiveness led by Mario Draghi – the former Italian prime minister and president of the European Central Bank. Euractiv says the “long-awaited” report “calls for a fundamental re-think of the EU’s green growth drive”. It continues: “Stating that ‘the energy transition will be gradual’ the report argues that ‘fossil fuels will continue to play a central role in energy pricing for the remainder of this decade’ and calls for more joint purchasing of gas by national governments. He also wants lower energy taxes, despite acknowledging that ‘taxation can be a policy tool to encourage decarbonisation’. He also pitches greater bending of EU environmental law to facilitate the build-out of renewables. Looser rules would allow ‘limited (in time and perimeter) exemptions in EU environmental directives until climate neutrality is achieved’…While not questioning the EU ETS [emissions trading system], Draghi notes its ‘high and volatile’ impact on European energy prices. His report is unconvinced of the effectiveness of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which aims to help European companies compete against their international rivals who do not face carbon pricing. If CBAM is found to be ineffective, Draghi wants European companies to continue to receive free carbon allowances – to protect them from the full impact of carbon trading.” Bloomberg says: “To make the energy transition an opportunity, Europe needs to sync all its policies with climate goals and come up with a joint plan for decarbonisation and competitiveness that would span energy producers, clean tech and automotive sectors as well as energy-intensive companies where emissions are hard to abate. The four largest emission-intensive industries in the EU, such as chemicals and metals, will require €500bn over the next 15 years in order to decarbonise, Draghi’s report said.” The Wall Street Journal says: “Draghi’s central argument is that Europe’s economic travails will deepen unless it can become more competitive in emerging clean-tech and digital sectors, areas the Chinese and US governments subsidise heavily.” The Financial Times leads with the line “Mario Draghi calls for €800bn EU investment boost”. The New York Times notes that, according to the report, the bloc “depends on a handful of suppliers like China for critical raw materials”. BBC News says that according to the report, “the EU faces an ‘existential challenge’ unless it vastly increases investment and reforms its industrial policy”. Reuters notes that the nearly 400-page report was requested by the European Commission. Chinese financial news outlet Cailian says that “the report comes at a time when European leaders are increasingly realising that the EU is losing competitiveness against its major rivals in the east and west”.  Chinese business news outlet Wall Street CN reports “Draghi also advocated a comprehensive reform of the energy market, saying…that as fossil fuels will continue to play an important role in the energy mix for some time, how to reduce emissions while maintaining economic vitality has become a key issue”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quotes Draghi’s report as saying: “If Europe cannot become more productive, we will be forced to choose. We will not be able to become, at once, a leader in new technologies, a beacon of climate responsibility and an independent player on the world stage. We will not be able to finance our social model.” Current affairs news outlet IFeng says “The report claims that European businesses are being ‘doubly squeezed’ by China, which is providing weaker economic demand on the one hand, and higher competitive pressure from Chinese companies on the other.”

In related comment, Draghi has an article for the Economist that outlines “three main areas for action”. The first and third are “closing the innovation gap with America” and “increasing security and reducing dependencies”. The second is “combatting decarbonisation with competitiveness”, about which Draghi says: “The report proposes a plan to marry decarbonisation with competitiveness. It starts with reforming Europe’s energy market so that end-users can see the benefits of clean energy in their bills. Industries that enable decarbonisation, such as clean tech and electric vehicles, will need more support to promote innovation and level the playing field against competitors using large-scale industrial policies. Europe will need to act together to green industries that use energy intensively and are disadvantaged by asymmetric regulations.” The Financial Times has published an editorial, which says that the report “makes a number of sensible, if not new, recommendations to help Europe capture digital and green growth opportunities” – including “integrating capital markets by centralising market supervision, developing new common funding pots, and aligning and streamlining industrial, competition and trade regulations”. 

In other European news, the Financial Times has published a “big read” under the headline “Is red tape strangling Europe’s growth?” The piece calls the EU’s Green Deal “a bureaucratic machine that has spawned reams of legislation that businesses across the EU are struggling to implement, or even understand”, adding that “the EU’s green legislation is the only policy area that has resulted in a net cost deficit”. The New York Times reports that Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt has decided to “cut jobs, seek partnerships and merge some operations” due to declining demand for electric vehicles in Europe. The newspaper calls Northvolt “Europe’s strongest competitor to Chinese battery manufacturers”. However, it adds: “Carmakers across Europe are struggling with slowing demand for electric vehicles and competition from China, which has begun flooding the market with affordable electric vehicles…China also dominates in the production of materials, like graphite and processed lithium, that are essential to the flow of electricity within a battery. Northvolt has invested tens of billions of dollars in lithium-ion battery production, but it has struggled to compete because of a combination of state subsidies and economies of scale that has benefited its rivals in China.” The Financial Times and CNBC also cover the news.

China aims to “include cement, steel and aluminium production in its carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS)” by the end of 2024, which could “bring the greenhouse gas covered by the exchange to around 60% of the country’s total…more than the emissions of the US”, Reuters reports. The Chinese government hopes the expansion will help the sectors cut emissions and “soften the blow” from the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, Bloomberg reports. It continues: “The move was broadly expected by the market, and Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu announced the timeline at an industry conference at the weekend, according to a report in the China Securities Journal.” The outlet adds: “Expanding the three-year-old carbon market paves the way for seven additional sectors to be included as Beijing aims to cover 70% of its total emissions by 2030.” Industry news outlet BJX News carries the full text of the plan, which is currently open for comment.

In other news, Reuters covers comments by an oil researcher that “oil products demand in China…peaked in 2023 and is projected to decrease by 1.1% annually between 2023 and 2025, with the drop accelerating in subsequent years”. It says China’s adoption of electric vehicles, among other factors, has been “a drag on global consumption”. The Wall Street Journal covers an announcement by the China Passenger Car Association that “retail sales of new-energy cars [NEVs, including battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles]…made up 53.9% of all passenger-vehicle sales in August”. Energy news outlet China Energy Net quotes a government representative saying China has “formed a relatively complete industrial system” for NEVs. Bloomberg reports that “China has boosted underground storage of natural gas, after it made an early start on preparations for peak demand over the winter”.

Meanwhile, state news agency Xinhua reports that China Minmetals Corporation and its subsidiaries have signed an agreement with Qinghai province to form the China Salt Lake Group. The new company will develop the province’s salt lakes to “bolster China’s ability to secure potassium and lithium resources”, it adds. This will “speed development of a ‘world-class’ industry extracting” lithium, Bloomberg adds, saying that it indicates a “move by the central government to push for a bigger role in building out a key part of the domestic lithium sector”. Securities Times says China Minmetals will hold a 53% share in the entity. China’s lithium reserves are “primarily concentrated in salt lake resources”, which account for more than 80% of the country’s total, economic news outlet Jiemian reports.

The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily carries an article by the National Energy Administration’s party group saying that it is important to understand goals for “energy reform and development” and “support China’s modernisation through the energy transition”. Business news outlet Yicai quotes the Chinese Academy of Engineering’s Huang Zhen saying it is “crucial to shift away from the mindset that ‘new energy must operate like traditional energy to be safe’”. An editorial in the state-run newspaper China Daily says “China and the US have accelerated their climate and trade exchanges after…Sullivan’s visit to Beijing late last month and the Joe Biden administration’s postponement of its determination on the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports”. 

There is ongoing coverage of Typhoon Yagi, which has killed 49 of people in northern Vietnam, Reuters reports. According to the newswire, preliminary government estimates show that 22 additional people are missing – mostly due to landslides and flooding caused by the typhoon. It continues: “Yagi cut power to millions of households and companies, flooded highways, disrupted telecommunications networks, downed a medium-sized bridge and thousands of trees and brought economic activity in many industrial hubs to a halt.” The Associated Press reports that a bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away on Monday. It adds: “Typhoon Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades when it made landfall Saturday with winds up to 149 kph (92 mph). It weakened [on] Sunday, but the country’s meteorological agency warned that continuing downpours could cause floods and landslides…Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi caused at least 20 deaths in the Philippines last week and four deaths in southern China.” BBC News coverage of the typhoon reports that as the planet warms, “typhoons can bring higher wind speeds and more intense rainfall”, but adds that “the influence of climate change on individual storms is complicated”. 

More than 10,000 people are under a mandatory evacuation order due to a “fast-spreading, uncontrolled wildfire” in southern California, BBC News reports. According to the outlet, the fire started on Thursday, and had grown to cover more than 20,000 acres by Monday evening. “The cause of the fire is under investigation,” the outlet says. It continues: “The amount of burned areas in the summer in northern and central California increased five times from 1996 to 2021 compared to the 24 year period before, which scientists attributed, external to human-caused climate change. Not all wildfires can automatically be linked directly to climate change. The science is complicated and human factors including how we manage land and forests also contribute. However, scientists say that climate change is making weather conditions that lead to wildfires, such as heat and drought, more likely.” The New York Times reports that “the fire broke out during a prolonged heatwave that has pushed temperatures in many parts of Southern California into the triple digits in recent days”. The Los Angeles Times says the fires have led to “major air quality concerns”. 

In other US news, the Los Angeles Times reports that “more than 10,000 Southern Californians were without power Monday morning as scorching temperatures continued to batter the area”. The Guardian reports that a storm is forming in the Gulf of Mexico that is set to become a hurricane by the time it reaches the US coast on Wednesday. The newspaper continues: “The fears of a violent hurricane season were spurred by record ocean temperatures in the Atlantic, caused by the climate crisis, whose primary drivers include the burning of fossil fuels.” Reuters reports that US Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas producers were “evacuating staff and curbing drilling” on Monday in preparation for the storm. CNN covers the results of a new survey, which finds that 26% of US homeowners are “financially unprepared for extreme weather events”. Reuters reports that “a major US oil and gas trade group on Monday warned that energy production in the Gulf of Mexico could stop if the Commerce Department does not act quickly to publish a new assessment of how endangered species should be protected in the region”. Separately, Reuters reports that the Biden administration has “approved a major transmission line in Nevada that will run hundreds of miles along the state’s border with California and be able to provide power to about 5m homes”, as part of its effort to speed up the  approval of major clean energy projects. The Los Angeles Times reports that “with 25% of state land protected, California nears its ‘30×30’ conservation goal”. In the Conversation, Valerie Thomas – a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology – writes that “under both Trump and Biden-Harris, US oil and gas production surged to record highs, despite very different energy goals”. 

At least 196 people were killed last year defending the environment, according to a new report by Global Witness covered in the New York Times. The paper says that Columbia topped the list for the second year in a row, adding: “The spate of killings carries a heavy political weight for the Colombian government as it prepares to host a global biodiversity summit in October, known as COP16. Almost half of the activists, which Global Witness calls environmental defenders, who were killed in Colombia were Indigenous, and many were either members of Afro-descendant communities or small-scale farmers.” The newspaper continues: “The vast majority of reported killings last year, 166, happened in Latin America, where a struggle for land and wealth in some of the world’s most biodiverse areas continues to victimise traditional communities, and governments with low law enforcement capacity have often failed to deliver justice.” Reuters says: “The findings on Colombia are a sharp contrast to promises from the government of president Gustavo Petro, who took office in 2022 and has pledged to end the country’s 60-year conflict and pursue environmental justice for communities. Peace processes with various armed groups – which are sometimes implicated in environmentalists’ killings – have faltered, and though deforestation fell to a 23-year low last year, the environment ministry has warned of an increase in 2024.” Inside Climate News reports that Honduras saw the largest number of people killed per capita, and the Philippines saw the largest number in Asia. It continues: “Indigenous people made up a disproportionate share of the victims. Despite being only 6% of the global population, they comprised about 43% of defenders killed in 2023. That is, in part, because of companies’ and governments’ rampant disregard for their rights and because Indigenous communities own or occupy land that is home to roughly 80% of Earth’s biodiversity and often sits atop vast amounts of minerals, metals and fossil fuels sought by extractive industries.” It adds that the mining sector has been linked most often to defender killings: “Given the continued high demand for traditionally mined materials like gold, coal and iron, and the growing demand for minerals and metals used in low-carbon technologies like batteries, that portends a dark future.” The Guardian reports that 43% of people killed were from Indigenous communities and nearly 90% were men. It adds that since 2012, Global Witness has recorded 2,106 people who have been killed for defending the environment.

In other news from Latin America, Reuters reports that water levels in South America’s Paraguay River have hit a record low, after a “severe drought” in Brazil depleted the water supply. The Associated Press adds: “Experts said the drying of the Paraguay River – as with other rivers from Colorado to France to Brazil’s Amazon – reflects how population growth, climate change and deforestation have increasingly conspired with weak governance and inefficient irrigation practices to transform landscapes, upending delicate ecosystems and sending scores of communities scrambling for fresh water.”

In a comment for the Guardian, Alan MacDonald, the head of the International Association of Hydrogeologists’s (IAH) groundwater network for international development, says that across Africa, there is 20 times more water stored underground than in lakes and reservoirs. At the IAH world groundwater congress this week, experts will discuss the opportunity to use solar power to pump up this water, he says. However, he warns against “overexploiting and depleting groundwater resources”. He also discusses geological and technological limitations – such as rural African communities who live on ancient rocks, and may not be able to use the technology. MacDonald continues: “[A]longside the big projects, there should continue to be investment in small-scale use of groundwater for rural water supply, and for technologies such as handpumps or low-yielding solar-powered pumps that are more appropriate for the geology.”

Elsewhere, the Conversation has published multiple pieces by scientists explaining their research, under the headlines “Warm winters are waking snakes early. Here’s what that means for them and us”, “As renewable energy demand rises, mining for critical minerals in the Amazon is at a critical point” and “How we discovered a new type of wood – and how it could help fight climate change”. 

Some 70% of the world’s population could experience strong and rapid changes in extreme temperatures and rainfall in the next 20 years if future greenhouse gas emissions are extremely high, new research finds. The proportion drops to 20% in a scenario where emissions are curbed in order to meet global climate goals, the study says. The impacts are likely to be concentrated in “large parts of the tropics and subtropics”, according to the research, which uses large climate model simulations.

The growth of digital service inputs in China, the US and Europe is linked to an overall decrease in CO2 emissions, the research says. The study uses modelling “to answer the question of whether the growth of digital inputs can be beneficial for carbon neutrality”. The authors say: “First, the results show that digital inputs continue to increase in most countries (regions) from 2000 to 2021, especially in the USA, EU countries and China. Digital equipment inputs in China are the most significant, while digital service inputs in the US and EU countries are relatively important. Second, the regression results show that digital service inputs have significant negative influence on carbon emissions, which means that the growth of digital service inputs will decrease carbon emissions.”