Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

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Europe is breaking its reliance on critical scientific data that was provided by the United States, which was historically made freely available to the world, as President Trump’s administration rolls back vital climate regulations on greenhouse gases.

The European Union is ramping up its own data collection systems to monitor climate change and weather extremes, according to Reuters interviews.

The effort – which has not been previously reported – marks the most concrete response from the EU and other European countries so far to the U.S. government's retreat from scientific research under President Donald Trump.

Over the next two years, the EU plans to expand its European Marine Observation and Data Network which collects and hosts data on shipping routes, seabed habitats, marine litter and other concerns, a senior European Commission official told Reuters.

The initiative was aimed at "mirroring and possibly replacing US-based services," the official said.

The EU’s move comes as the Trump administration planned to undo U.S. climate regulation as a way to cut costs for industry.

The plan aims to rescind the long-standing finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, removing the legal foundation for U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said the move, which would end limits on greenhouse gas pollution from vehicle tailpipes, power plants, smokestacks and other sources, would save companies $52 billion in environmental compliance costs.

But the plan may backfire by forcing automakers, utilities, and manufacturers into a future of regulatory uncertainty and litigation risk, according to lawyers and trade groups.

Companies that have already invested heavily in reducing emissions to meet government limits, a move also demanded by many shareholders, are worried the proposal will lead into a regulatory and judicial unknown, lawyers said.

Extreme rains and flooding across northern China have killed 60 people, more than half of them at a care home for the elderly in a suburb of Beijing, which has grappled with its deadliest flood disaster in years. 

Elsewhere, flooding triggered by heavy rain has left at least 14 people dead or missing in Vietnam's northern province of Dien Bien, Tien Phong newspaper reported on Friday.

Prisons and heat graphic. Illustration by Adolfo Arranz. Scorching cells reporting by Reuters: Gloria Dickie, Soumya Karwa, Prinz Magtulis.

Click here for a Reuters special report on how prisons are prioritizing security over health as inmates are forced to spend their time behind concrete walls, steel doors, sealed windows, limited ventilation, lack of tree cover and outdated infrastructure that creates dangerously hot conditions. 

And check out the exclusive database created by Reuters using documents obtained through public records requests to all 50 U.S. states about the number of prisons with partial or no air conditioning in housing units.

Thousands of firefighters struggled to put out a dozen wildfires raging in northern Portugal and central Spain this week, in the largest wave of blazes in the Iberian Peninsula so far this year after weeks of summer heat.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian warned against excessive water consumption which he said was untenable for the country and could leave Tehran facing severe shortages by September, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Faced with resource mismanagement and over-consumption, Iran has faced recurrent electricity, gas and water shortages during peak demand months.

Brazil is preparing to host this year's United Nations climate summit in November in the rainforest city of Belem, where nearly every government in the world will gather to negotiate their joint efforts to curb climate change.

But the event is already facing issues as the U.N.’s climate bureau had to hold an urgent meeting over sky-high accommodation prices which could price poorer countries out of the negotiations, according to diplomats and a document seen by Reuters.

Click here for a Reuters video on animal conservation in Chile, The country has launched a new effort to save the endangered Darwin's frog, a tiny amphibian with leaf-like skin whose males carry tadpoles within pouches in their mouths.

The EU may have steadily decreased its greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, but its scientists from the Joint Research Centre don’t think that’s enough to reach the bloc's net zero emissions target by 2050.

Damage to European forests from increased logging, wildfires, drought and pests is reducing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, putting EU emissions targets at risk, scientists warned.

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