The Guardian

Amid record-breaking heat, increased access to air conditioning could save lives – but AC units are damaging the environment. Are there other options?

Much of the Earth sweltered under record-topping temperatures this month. Phoenix, Arizona, broke its record for most 110F (43.3C) days. California’s Death Valley had its highest temperature ever. An airport in coastal Iran saw a heat index of 152F, while Beijing saw a record stretch of 95F days.

Oppressive heatwaves have become more frequent and more severe as a result of the climate crisis – a trend that’s expected to continue, and could worsen in proportion to how quickly we can transition from fossil fuels.

Focus group for the Guardian made up of Chipping Barnet and Don Valley residents backs net zero policies

For all the fanfare about UK political parties facing pressure to re-examine their climate policies given the cost of living crisis, voters in two areas near clean air zones support measures to ensure net zero targets are met.

Wrangling in the aftermath of last Thursday’s byelection, when Labour narrowly lost out on winning Uxbridge and South Ruislip, has pushed briefings by some MPs into overdrive about what policies should be reconsidered.

Eleni Myrivili, whose job is to help cities prepare for extreme heat, says many people do not understand how deadly it can be

It is “shocking” how little people know about the danger of hot weather, the United Nations global chief heat officer has said, as high temperatures bake cities across the northern hemisphere and politicians backslide on climate promises.

A study this month found that extreme heat in Europe last summer killed 61,000 people, most of whom were women and older people. As well as killing people through heatstroke, hot weather can push the bodies of people with heart and lung disease into deadly overdrive.

Leading scientists and medics back London and other clean air schemes and urge politicians to keep their nerve

Leading doctors and scientists have warned politicians against watering down plans to expand city-wide schemes aimed at reducing traffic pollution levels linked to thousands of deaths each year.

They urged politicians not to lose their nerve over plans to improve poor air quality, such as the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez) in London, which they said were central to tackling “unacceptably high” levels of illness and child deaths, and called for more ambitious policies to reduce toxic air.

London mayor to expand charging zone for drivers after high court win and rejects pressure from Labour leadership to think again

Sadiq Khan has vowed to press ahead with the expansion of London’s low emissions zone saying tackling the climate emergency and air pollution are “bigger than party politics”, despite the Labour leadership urging a rethink of the policy.

After the high court dismissed a legal challenge brought by five Conservative councils, the Labour mayor said he understood concerns of some Londoners but it was right to charge the most polluting vehicles £12.50 a day to drive in the capital’s outer boroughs from the end of August.

Arguments between and within parties have been inflamed by the apparent ‘Ulez effect’ in the Uxbridge byelection

• UK politics live – latest updates

Since the Conservatives narrowly won a shock byelection victory by campaigning against a key low-emissions zone known as Ulez in London, there have been seven days of turmoil for climate policy in the UK.

Support for a net zero UK by 2050 is expressed among all ages and types of political voter, according to the pollsters. But nevertheless, Rishi Sunak’s government scented in Uxbridge a possible “wedge” issue that could put Tories on the side of swing voters and pit them against Labour.

Plus, my plan to live for ever by standing on one leg, and Nigel Farage lives his best life despite debanking ‘shame’

You would have thought the sight of wildfires in many parts of southern Europe would have given Rishi Sunak pause for thought. Instead it has inspired his pyromaniac tendencies. After the byelection in Uxbridge last week, which Labour lost principally because of Sadiq Khan’s ultra-low emission zone policy, Sunak has declared a binfire of the Tories’ green agenda. He had never really believed in it – despite most of the country supporting climate crisis measures – and had now declared it to be just a woke indulgence. Another arm of the culture wars.

Is that fire?

Courts have quashed a decision to store water in Kimbra, meaning there is still no centralised repository in the country

More than 20 tonnes of reprocessed nuclear fuel will stay at Australia’s only reactor in southern Sydney, while nuclear waste will remain scattered in “cupboards and filing cabinets” around the country, after the federal court blocked plans for a long-term storage site in outback South Australia.

The site in Kimba was selected more than 40 years after Australia started planning for a centralised repository. But this month, that decision was quashed by the courts.

The Uxbridge byelection victory should have bolstered the Tory campaign – instead, it’s triggered a battle over green policy

What’s the biggest mistake Keir Starmer has made this year? Given that the Labour leader enjoys a 19-point poll lead, you could argue there aren’t many to pick from. Figures on the left of the party cite policy decisions such as sticking with the two-child benefit cap. But Downing Street would point you back to four months ago and Labour’s attack ads. The springtime offensive saw Starmer fight dirty as his party accused Rishi Sunak of not believing adults convicted of sexually abusing children should go to prison.

They were designed as a stress test (with mixed results) for the shadow cabinet and parliamentary party on the need to hold a difficult line in an election campaign. But in No 10 they were seen as a green light for the Tories to go further. “His strategic mistake was to step in the gutter,” argues one senior government figure. With the polls showing little sign of improvement, No 10 is now planning to join Starmer there. The Tories are going into fight mode.

Project in Friesland aims to draw on residual warmth from Zuidwal volcano for sustainable energy

Heat from an extinct volcano could be piped into homes under a plan in the Dutch city of Bolsward.

The Netherlands may be known for windmills but Ynze Salverda is no fan of the wind turbines proliferating across the country. He believes sustainable energy could be generated underground using residual warmth from the Zuidwal volcano deep under the Wadden Sea.

Caribbean Development Bank head urges help for countries classed as developing but not among poorest

Middle-income developing countries hit by devastating climate disaster risk missing out on rescue funds, the head of one of the world’s development banks has warned.

Hyginus Leon, the president of the Caribbean Development Bank, told the Guardian that some developing countries with per capita incomes that would disqualify them for some forms of overseas aid could be made ineligible for climate funds.

Fertiliser use on key crops down more than a quarter on 2010-19 average, while yields increased 2.4%

Britain’s farmers increased their yields of major crops last year despite significant reductions in fertiliser use, according to research.

Making artificial fertilisers relies on natural gas, the price of which rose sharply last year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Fertiliser prices almost tripled, from £233 a tonne in 2020 to £766 a tonne in 2022, which farmers say led to a reduction in their use.

You’re more likely to die taking a selfie than in a shark attack: as oceans warm, we need to get used to close encounters

Silly season is upon us and sharks are dominating the headlines again. As a marine conservationist, if I see another headline along the lines of “Menacing man-eating shark lurking off the coast of Britain” accompanied by a photo of a basking shark – a species that exclusively consumes plankton – I think I might scream.

It seems all a shark needs to do these days is push its dorsal fin above the ocean waves and panic immediately ensues. Just this week, that’s exactly what happened off the French coast. A blue shark – a species typically found in the open ocean with an extremely low record of unprovoked attacks on humans – was spotted close to the shoreline. Instant drama ensued, with lifeguards closing the beach and swimmers watching on from the water’s edge. What is it about sharks that makes us lose our minds?

Hannah Rudd is the author of Britain’s Living Seas: Our Coastal Wildlife and How We Save It, a marine scientist at Shark Hub UK, and policy and advocacy manager at the Angling Trust

Pro-car campaigns fail to cut through in Britain. Labour must dare to stand firm in defence of green policies

Once so clogged with noxious fumes that it earned the nickname the Smoke, London has been battling pollution for more than a century. From the Great Stink to the Great Smog, successive public health emergencies have for decades prompted ambitious anti-pollution measures, gradually transforming the capital for the better.

The Victoria Embankment containing Joseph Bazalgette’s pioneering sewer system, the magnificent Abbey Mills pumping station and the groundbreaking Clean Air Act 1956 stand among other initiatives as testaments to the unflinching conviction of past leaders in tackling London’s pollution problems head-on.

Phineas Harper is chief executive of the charity Open City

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including deer in Greece, busy ants and the return of the kākāpō

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said scientists have confirmed July was on track to be the world's hottest month on record. Guterres warned 'the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived' after recent global temperatures shattered records. The steady rise in global average temperatures, driven by pollution that traps sunlight and acts like a greenhouse around the Earth, has made weather extremes worse

• ‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record

Wildfires have turned the hills surrounding the temple of Segesta to ash after days of fires spreading across Sicily. Local authorities said the blaze was put out around the archaeological site, but it is temporarily closed to check for any damage. The island has been devastated by wildfires that have killed at least three people, while heatwaves and severe storms affected the north of Italy

• ‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record

Drone footage from the island of Rhodes in Greece, which has been hit be a string of fierce wildfires, gives an idea of the scale of destruction left by the blaze. The footage, from the towns of Asklipio and Kiotari, shows the charred embers of several burnt out cars and scorched trees and earth. Large areas of land were burnt grey and black, in fires that prompted the island's authorities to declare a state of emergency and carry out a mass evacuation of locals and tourists from affected areas. Greece is one of almost a dozen Mediterranean countries that struggled to control wildfires that broke out amid a record breaking heatwave in July

• Greece ‘at war with fire’ amid chaotic evacuation of tourists from Rhodes

• Climate crisis up close: a week of wildfires in Rhodes

• ‘Like a blowtorch’: Mediterranean on fire as blazes spread across nine countries

Wildfires spread across nine Mediterranean countries, killing at least 40 people, most of them in Algeria. Algerian authorities said 34 people had died in the mountainous northern region, with neighbouring Tunisia similarly battling wildfires.

Across the Mediterranean, Sicily and large parts of Calabria were among dozens of wildfires, Italian authorities reported, amid a record-breaking heatwave. Two people were killed in their homes, said officials in Sicily. Firefighters also battled blazes in Turkey, Croatia, Syria, Gran Canaria and a natural park near Lisbon in Portugal.

The frequency and intensity of the blazes were 'unequivocally' linked to the human-induced climate emergency, said the scientist Izidine Pinto: 'In terms of heatwaves, more often we see that every study that we do, we see the fingerprint of climate change intensifying these type of events, of heatwaves. So, it's pretty clear'

• ‘Like a blowtorch’: Mediterranean on fire as blazes spread across nine countries

• Rhodes wildfires are climate wake-up call, says UK minister