Climate, in brief

The US government proposed on Friday to shrink the list of streams, ponds and wetlands its main water-pollution law protects. [2][3]

The Clean Water Act of 1972 is not being rewritten. What is being rewritten is the definition of 'waters of the United States', which decides what the law reaches. [2][3]

The new version goes further than the one published in November and could remove federal protection from most US wetlands, which filter drinking water and shelter birds and fish. [3]

The US Environmental Protection Agency says states and tribes are best placed to manage their own water resources. [2]

Two days earlier the same agency moved to cut what a state is allowed to consider when it refuses a project. [1]

Section 401 of the same law lets a state or tribe withhold a water-quality certificate from a pipeline, an export terminal or a hydropower dam before it can get its federal permit. [1]

The proposal would limit states to looking at pollution from a pipe, ditch or channel, rather than a project's wider effect on sediment, temperature and flow. [1]

States hardly ever say no. Their decisions average 77 days and 13 states have never refused one, according to the group that represents state water regulators of both parties. [1]

When a state has said no it has counted. Washington's refusal in 2017 killed what would have been North America's largest coal export terminal, and the developer went bankrupt in 2020. [1]

A state can also say yes with conditions. West Virginia used the same power to require advance notice and state auditors on site while the Mountain Valley Pipeline crossed its streams. [1]

Jon Devine of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a US environmental law group, said the only thing tying the proposals together is reducing environmental protection. [1]

A near-identical version of the state-power rule was finalised in Trump's first term and reversed by the next administration in 2023. [1]

Why it matters. Watch whether either proposal is finalised, because the near-identical rule written in Trump's first term was reversed in 2023. [1]

The US interior department has three months to decide whether gray wolves can be removed from the country's endangered species list, after an order from President Donald Trump. [4] Being on that list is what makes it illegal to hunt an animal or wreck its habitat without federal permission. The Endangered Species Act itself is not being changed. What is under review is whether this animal still counts as something the act protects.

Why it matters. It is the same move as the water rule above, applied to a different law: the words of the statute stay and the set of things it covers gets smaller.

A US judge barred the country's environment agency on 3 September from sending California's vehicle emissions rules to Congress. [5] California has long been allowed to set tighter limits on car pollution than the rest of the United States, and other states may adopt its rules instead of the national ones. Putting them in front of lawmakers is a way of getting rules cancelled by a vote rather than rewritten. The judge stopped it.

Why it matters. The same week the environment agency moved to narrow two water rules, a court refused to let it reclassify a third thing into a category where it could be voted away.

Nature has retracted a 2025 paper titled 'Warming accelerates global drought severity'. [6] The authors withdrew it themselves after being told of errors and finding more. They had averaged their world map without weighting grid cells by area, used an older version of a global water dataset in one figure, and mis-read dates when splitting the record into two periods. Correcting the area weighting reduced the drought-affected area they had reported for 2022. The paper had been read 12,000 times.

Why it matters. A finding that travelled a long way turned on how the map was averaged rather than on what the weather did, and the people who found the mistake were the authors.

Plants are disappearing from European mountain summits, and faster than before. [7] A team led by Johannes Wessely returned to the same vegetation plots in 16 European mountain regions repeatedly over two decades and counted local extinctions. Losses happened most often at the lower edge of a species' range, and were more common in years that followed rapid warming. Species from further down the slope moved up, so the number of species on a summit rose even as the high-altitude ones vanished.

Why it matters. A rising species count can hide the loss of the plants that have nowhere higher to go, which is how a summit empties while its biodiversity score improves.

Smoke from wildfires has covered parts of Indonesia and drifted into Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. [8] The fires have burned across Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo since mid-July, on ground dried out by a strengthening El Nino, the Pacific warming pattern that shifts rainfall across half the world. Indonesia's health ministry recorded more than 50,000 respiratory infections linked to the fires between July and August, over 12,000 of them in children under five. In places the air carried more than 15 times the pollution the World Health Organization calls safe.

Why it matters. A teaching assistant in South Kalimantan told the BBC the smoke inside her classroom was so thick she could not see her own feet, and that this year is worse than the ones she grew up with. [8]

Record marine heatwaves are gripping oceans worldwide, pushed by warming and a strengthening El Nino. [9] Off Devon and Cornwall in south-west England the sea ran up to 9F above normal, and octopus larvae that would normally die in cold water survived. This year's bloom is the largest in 75 years, and octopus landings on that coast were roughly 7,700% above normal in 2025. Scallop, lobster and crab catches fell, while seals, conger eels and dolphins increased.

Why it matters. The same warm water made one fishery rich and wrecked three others within the same few miles of sea, which is what an ecosystem reshuffle looks like from a harbour.

Two large warming patterns are building in the Pacific together, a combination that is rarely seen. [10] A marine heatwave that formed in May 2025 in the north-east Pacific is running 3-4C above average for the time of year. Further south, El Nino is strengthening and is expected to peak this autumn as the strongest in living memory, described elsewhere as the strongest in 70 years. [10][11] Andrew Leising, an oceanographer at the US ocean agency NOAA, called the heat patch a really bright red eyeball stretching across the whole ocean.

Why it matters. Coasts plan for one of these at a time, and California is already being told to expect more storm surge and flooding this autumn. [10]

India has proposed that new renewable energy projects must include battery storage from July 2027. [12] Solar farms make most of their electricity in the middle of the day, when demand is lowest, so a grid that adds solar without storage ends up switching some of it off. Requiring the battery in the same project puts that cost on the developer rather than on the grid operator later. It is a proposal, not yet a rule.

Why it matters. India is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the world, so changing what counts as a finished project there changes what gets built.

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank have approved a 2 billion euro investment programme to cut emissions on Greece's islands. [13] About 1.1 billion euros of it goes to electricity cables linking islands to the mainland grid, with the rest for clean generation, storage and electric transport. Many Greek islands still run on diesel generators fed by fuel brought in by boat. The money comes from the EU's emissions trading system, so the final total depends on the price of carbon permits.

Why it matters. It is one of the few schemes where the money polluters pay for permits is spent directly on removing the diesel it was charged for.

Michigan is spending $7.5 million to research geologic hydrogen, hydrogen that forms naturally in rock rather than being manufactured. [14] Burning hydrogen produces only water, with no carbon dioxide and no other air pollutants, which is why it is attractive for industries that are hard to run on electricity. Almost all hydrogen used today is made from natural gas, which is what makes it dirty in practice. The state money pays for finding out whether Michigan's geology holds enough to be worth drilling.

Why it matters. Nobody yet knows how much natural hydrogen exists anywhere on Earth, so a government paying to look is itself the news.

The US energy department warned on 2 September of a raised risk of power cuts across PJM Interconnection, the largest American grid, which serves 67 million people between Chicago and the US capital. [15] Intense heat was pushing demand up faster than supply could follow. Late the previous night, energy secretary Chris Wright authorised PJM to order backup generation to run as a last resort. Those backup units are generally old and dirty and exist for exactly this moment.

Why it matters. The lights stayed on, and the order is the visible edge of a summer supply gap that heat and new demand are both pulling at.

Mongolia is bearing the brunt of Russia's fuel crunch, a Russian official said on 3 September. [16] Mongolia is landlocked between Russia and China and buys nearly all its petrol and diesel from Russian refineries, which have been cutting output. A country with one land route and one supplier has no quick alternative when that supplier keeps more for itself.

Why it matters. It is the part of an oil shock that never reaches a price chart: a small neighbour absorbing a bigger country's shortage first.

The head of the International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog set up by rich importing countries, said on 3 September that Nigeria could double its energy investment within five years. [17] Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and its largest oil producer. The agency set out expansion plans alongside energy security risks, so the figure is a possibility rather than a commitment.

Why it matters. Where the next decade of African energy money goes decides whether growing electricity demand there is met by gas or by solar and grid.

Diversified Energy has agreed to buy Birch for $1.8 billion, expanding its footprint in the Permian basin. [18] The Permian, spanning west Texas and south-east New Mexico, is the largest oil-producing region in the United States. A deal of this size is a bet that those fields keep producing and keep paying for years to come.

Why it matters. Consolidation in American shale is how the industry responds to a period when drilling new wells is less attractive than buying existing ones.

Insurers may pay more than $130 million for the Nepal floods before any claims for death or injury are counted. [19] Nepal's government has put total damage at about $2.56 billion, so insurance covers roughly one twentieth of the loss. [35] Reinsurers, the companies that insure insurers, are wary of Himalayan risk because glacier-driven floods are hard to model and rare enough that there is little history to price from. [19][20]

Why it matters. When cover is that thin the bill falls on households and the national budget, which is why Nepal has spent the past week asking other countries to help pay for it.

AlphaGeo, a company that models location risk, ranked 72 of the world's largest cities on climate resilience. [21] Its score is exposure minus adaptation: how much inland flooding, coastal flooding, heat, drought, wildfire and hurricane wind a city faces, set against its early-warning systems, its rules and its physical defences such as flood barriers and high-capacity drains. Chicago came out most resilient, helped by a temperate latitude. The company said some cities show a dangerous gap between their exposure and their ability to cope.

Why it matters. Founder Parag Khanna's point is the useful one: everyone talks about resilience and almost nobody measures it, so nobody can say which cities are behind.

Solar radiation modification is being openly discussed in climate policy as warming heads towards 1.8C. [22] The idea is to reflect a small share of sunlight back to space, usually by putting fine particles high in the atmosphere, cooling the planet without emissions falling. It was treated for years as beyond discussion. The same thing happened first to adaptation, once dismissed as defeatism, and then to carbon removal, which Australia's net zero plan now depends on.

Why it matters. A taboo lifts when the alternative stops being available, so the arrival of this debate is a measure of how far behind the emissions cuts have fallen.

The Guardian examined how the British broadcasters GB News and Talk TV covered this summer's record heat. [23] As the first heatwave arrived on 23 May, presenter Cristo Foufas said he was sick of naysayers and that people should drink water and less rose wine. Co-host Renee Hoenderkamp, a medical doctor, replied that they used to call it Darwinism. Presenter Bev Turner said sending children home from overheated schools was priming them for climate lockdowns. Thousands of heat-related deaths did not change the tone.

Why it matters. Heat kills quietly and mostly indoors, so what a large audience is told about a heat alert is part of how seriously the alert gets taken.

Photojournalist Alessandro Gandolfi has documented floating housing in the Netherlands, where more than a quarter of the land sits below sea level and around two thirds is at risk of flooding. [24] The IJburg district on the edge of Amsterdam has 158 waterside homes, 55 of them floating, connected by bridges and roads, with most houses keeping a boat outside instead of a car. Floating homes already exist in the Philippines and Vietnam, and richer countries are now copying them because raising the dykes higher is no longer enough.

Why it matters. It is adaptation you can photograph: not a target for 2050 but a house that rises when the water does.

Energy companies are facing cyber attacks made more efficient by artificial intelligence as their networks get more connected, Reuters reported on 1 September. [25] Every extra device that talks to the grid is another way in. Russian hackers have systematically targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure since the war began, and Poland has faced similar attacks, including one in December aimed at breaking the link between renewable installations and grid operators. Last month US officials warned that unidentified hackers were trying to breach Siemens equipment used across critical infrastructure.

Why it matters. The same connections that let a grid balance wind and solar minute by minute are the connections an attacker uses to reach it.

Canada announced on 27 August that its universities had recruited 64 researchers from around the world, and that 48 of them were moving from the United States. [26] The recruitment is part of a national campaign to attract foreign scientific talent, running while the two countries argue over tariffs. Several of those hired are well-known figures in their fields.

Why it matters. Where researchers sit decides where the next decade of climate and energy science gets done, and people move faster than funding programmes do.

A Guardian analysis found that dozens of policy submissions to Australia's parliament, from across the political spectrum, wrongly summarise real research or cite sources that do not exist. [27] In some cases parliamentary committee reports have quoted submissions in which most of the references appear to have been generated by AI, because the papers cited cannot be found. Submissions are the formal route by which outside groups feed evidence into new laws.

Why it matters. Climate and energy laws are written on top of that evidence, and a committee cannot check a citation it does not know was invented.

An organisation called Project:Camp runs emergency day camps for children after disasters, and one is operating in eastern Washington state a week after wildfires drove families out. [28] Campers begin the morning with a 'me check', holding up one to ten fingers for how much energy they have. The camps exist because when a family evacuates, school and childcare stop at the same moment as the house does. One mother, Mareesha Backman, handed her youngest son to a stranger and took her first deep breath in a week.

Why it matters. Disaster money goes on rebuilding, and the gap it leaves is the weeks in between, when parents have nowhere to put their children and no way to work.

California Forever, a company backed by Silicon Valley investors, wants to build a new city, factories and a shipyard on rural land in Solano County, north-east of San Francisco. [29] Its proposal hit a legislative setback this week. California has a severe housing shortage and wants domestic manufacturing, and the plan was pitched as a fix for both. The New York Times reports that a public backlash against billionaires may make building there harder still.

Why it matters. Whether a country can put up clean factories and housing quickly is decided in the same permitting arguments as pipelines are.

The Finnish company Donut Lab reported a laboratory result of 409 watt-hours per kilogram for a battery cell, a high figure for energy stored per unit of weight. [30] At the CES show in January the company had said the same solid-state cell was ready for carmakers and that Verge Motorcycles would ship the first production vehicle using it in the first three months of 2026. It did not. Electrek's point is that the broken promise was the readiness, not the number.

Why it matters. Battery announcements are read as delivery dates by everyone planning factories and cars around them, and a laboratory cell is not a production line.

Electric car sales in Britain were 30% higher in August than in the same month a year earlier, and electric cars led the market, industry data published on 3 September showed. [31] August is a big month for British car sales because the registration plate changes, so a lead taken then is a lead on a large base.

Why it matters. Britain is one of Europe's biggest car markets, and a month where electric leads outright is a different signal from a rising share.

American dealers are cutting the price of the Polestar 4, a well-reviewed electric SUV from a Chinese-owned brand, by close to half. [32] The discount exists because the company is being forced out of the United States after the 2026 model year, the New York Times reports. So a buyer gets a good car cheaply, from a maker that will not be there in the same way to service it later.

Why it matters. It is what a trade barrier looks like from a showroom: the cars get cheaper on the way out and then stop existing.

Researchers reported in Nature Materials a perovskite solar cell converting 27.61% of the sunlight hitting it into electricity, with 27.19% confirmed under steady-state testing. [33] Perovskites are cheap crystals that can be coated onto a surface rather than sliced from a block of silicon. The team improved the cell by changing which organic molecule sits inside the crystal, which reshapes how charge moves at the surface, instead of adding chemical dopants. Modules measuring 655 square centimetres reached 22.26%.

Why it matters. The module figure matters more than the record: small laboratory cells often do well and large areas are where the results usually fall apart.

Ireland has its first vertical rooftop solar installation, with panels standing upright on a commercial roof above a planted green roof. [34] Upright panels catch morning and evening sun rather than midday sun, which spreads generation across the day instead of piling it into the hours when power is already cheapest. The contractor, Solar Precision, put a green-roof system underneath: the plants handle rainwater and cool the roof, and light bouncing off them lifts the panels' output without shading them.

Why it matters. Roof space is usually treated as a choice between plants and panels, and this installation is a working case that it does not have to be.

A US official said on 4 September that the American stake in the Venezuelan oil agreement is structured so that it cannot be diluted. [36] Under the pact announced last week, the United States is expected to hold 55% of a partnership producing 17 oilfields. [37] That puts about 65 billion barrels of recoverable oil under American control, more than the 46 billion barrels of proved reserves the United States holds itself. [37] The agreement did not go through a competitive process and stayed secret until it was announced. [37]

Why it matters. Analysts say full development takes more than 25 years, so who can be squeezed out of the partnership matters more than this year's output, and lawyers are still asking both governments to publish the contract. [37]

At least 44 gigawatts of onshore wind projects are stuck in review at the US defence department, according to John Hensley of the American Clean Power Association. [38] The department checks whether turbines interfere with radar and military training areas. Meanwhile the wider clean power pipeline, counting onshore and offshore wind, large solar and batteries, passed 200 gigawatts and was up 11% year on year in the first half of 2026. Google alone accounted for 54% of company power purchase announcements in the second quarter.

Why it matters. Demand for clean electricity is rising fastest from data centre operators, and the wind half of the supply is waiting on a review about radar.

The Californian utility PG&E says interest is growing in Flex Connect, which lets a large customer plug into the distribution grid in months rather than waiting years for a firm connection. [39] The customer links their energy management system to the utility's, and follows a capacity limit set from grid conditions in real time. Five customers are connected and around 85 are interested, mostly electric vehicle charging companies plus smaller data centres, factories and battery sites. Most are between 2 and 5 megawatts.

Why it matters. A firm connection used to take these customers one to three years, so the trade on offer is a fast start in exchange for being curtailed when the grid is tight.