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Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways

In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming impassable to barge traffic. In Italy, the Po is 2 metres lower than normal, crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube.

Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite.

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Dorset and Wiltshire fire service reports 492% increase in number of August wildfires compared with 2021

A large blaze at a Dorset nature reserve was most likely caused by a barbecue, firefighters have said.

Firefighters battled through the night to bring the fire at Studland Heath under control on Friday.

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Dry conditions in the UK and Europe are stress on facilities including nuclear, say experts.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Market administrator RGGI. Inc will reject the nearly 16 million Pennsylvania-owned allowances from next month’s RGGI auction unless a court-ordered injunction against the programme is temporarily lifted, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said Friday.

Financial players added to their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings this week ahead of the Q3 WCI auction next week, while regulated entities pared back their positions as prices increased on the secondary market, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data.

The US House of Representatives on Friday approved Democrats’ $430 billion climate change, healthcare, and tax bill, marking the largest-ever climate bill to pass through the US Congress despite several provisions designed to prop up the fossil fuel industry.

New Colombian President Gustavo Petro retained phase-in carbon tax provisions on coal from the previous administration’s planned reforms, as well as inflation-adjusted annual increases to the levy that target equality and social justice objectives, according to a draft tax reform package submitted to Congress this week. 

Domestic cats destroy over one million native animals a day – but Australians still find it hard to accept their own cute little moggie could be a killer

The Macquarie Island parakeet was, by all accounts, an elegant parrot endemic to the island off southern Tasmania that shared its name. We will never really know, because the last of its species was seen in the 1880s.

The lesser bilby inhabited warmer climes – it was found predominantly in the sandy deserts of central Australia. A charismatic but fierce little marsupial, it joined the list of extinct Australian species more recently, with the last known remnants found in a wedge-tailed eagle nest in the late 1960s.

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Leaked documents predict crop failure rates of up to 50% as water companies resist calls to prioritise food production

Experts have warned of widespread crop failures across England, as charities and farmers criticised water companies for dithering over hosepipe bans despite drought being declared across much of the country.

On Friday, the Environment Agency classified eight of the 14 areas of England as being in a drought. Despite this, water companies, including Anglian Water, Southern Water and South West Water have not brought in hosepipe bans. Thames Water said it does not plan to expedite a hosepipe ban expected next week.

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The UK government is looking to further boost compensation for energy intensive industries to relieve the pressure from soaring electricity prices

England’s privatised water system is compounding the climate emergency. Instead of fixing it, the government has gone awol

A drought has officially been declared across vast swathes of England. Rivers and reservoirs are evaporating in front of our eyes. Water may soon be rationed and crop irrigation restricted. Drought, and the extreme heat that exacerbates it, isn’t some occasional freak occurrence that can be brushed off as “super scorchio” fun once or twice a year. It’s a consequence of years of inaction on the climate emergency. This is producing a perfect storm of energy insecurity, food supply chaos and extreme weather that is wreaking havoc on society.

Getting a firm grip on this crisis requires both immediate and long-term solutions. Our lame duck government is offering neither. It’s clear that the privatisation experiment for water companies has failed. They’re fit for profit, not for purpose. The head of Thames Water – the company responsible for the supply fiasco at Northend in Oxfordshire – is set to receive a £3.1m “golden hello” for signing on as CEO. English water firms across the board have handed over £72bn to shareholders in dividends.

Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

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A drought has been declared across swathes of England amid prolonged dry conditions, with some areas not receiving significant rainfall all summer. A hosepipe ban came into force for about 1.4 million South East Water customers in Kent and Sussex on Friday, but more severe measures may be put in place

• Drought to be declared across eight areas of England

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German utility EnBW has enough coal to supply its plants over the coming winter, it said in its half-year results on Friday that indicate the company won’t be impacted by low water levels on the river Rhine.

EUAs climbed to another six-week high amid thin trading on Friday morning as traders suggested the market is detached from fundamentals, while energy markets were weaker as countries continued to look for ways to trim demand for gas this winter.

What does drought mean and what are the implications for water, food, rivers and wildlife?

The important change sends a direct signal for more investment in renewable energy, and comes not a moment too soon. Madeline Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A 1965 report warned of the climate crisis, but is recent legislation enough to undo the fossil fuel industry’s years of disinformation?

The scientists’ warning to the US president on climate crisis was stark: the world’s countries were conducting a vast, dangerous experiment through their enormous release of planet-heating emissions, which threaten to be “deleterious from the point of view of human beings”. Some sort of remedial action was needed, they urged.

This official alert was issued not to Joe Biden, who is poised to sign America’s first ever major legislation designed to tackle the climate crisis, but in a report given to his presidential predecessor Lyndon Johnson in 1965, a year when the now 79-year-old Biden was still in college.

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Equestrian groups call for riders – who are mostly female – to get same access rights as cyclists and walkers

The government must allow horse riders access to England’s publicly funded woodlands, equestrian groups have said.

Those who ride horses are banned from many scenic countryside routes, including many footpaths, meaning that most are severely restricted in their access to nature.

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