.. a massive disturbance in precipitation around the world, leading to floods in some regions and droughts in many others. The Amazon is one of the regions that gets drier during an El Niño, leading to more forest fires there. www.wri.org/insights/sup... 2/

How Might a ‘Super El Niño’ Affect Food, Forests and Water?

We asked five WRI experts how this year’s El Niño may differ from past events.

wri.org

The El Niño event developing now is entering uncharted territory. Sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific, indicative of its strength, are already 2.6°C above normal, while a peak above 2°C is seen as a super El Niño! The main effect of such an event is .. 1/

Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · yesterday

The rise in Niño 3.4 region sea surface temperatures over the past few weeks has been nothing short of astonishing. We are now hotter than any days during the 1997/1998 super El Niño event, and we are still many months from the peak.

Today, the Council published the Built Environment chapter of its Annual Review 2026. It highlights the need to accelerate retrofitting, decarbonised heating, solar PV and district heating to reduce Ireland’s reliance on fossil fuels in homes and buildings. Read more: lnkd.in/gfvQAVkF

Emissions from Ireland’s homes and buildings fell in 2025, mainly due to fewer days requiring heating. However, the outlook for 2026–2030 remains challenging. Sustained reductions will require more efficient buildings and a faster move away from fossil-fuel heating. Read more at shorturl.at/96mCa

The Council's Built Environment Sectoral Review highlights that progress on retrofitting local authority homes remains too slow to meet the 2030 target. This is a key part of reducing emissions, lowering energy bills and improving living standards. Learn more at shorturl.at/96mCa

This is a sad occurrence and occurs despite Hungary’s excellent record in solar power (though not necessarily battery storage) Climate change makes nuclear intermittent in many places as well as expensive giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Hungary braced for power cuts amid extreme drought

Hungary braced for power cuts amid extreme drought

Record-low water levels on Danube force country’s first shutdown of nuclear power plant

giftarticle.ft.com

If a climate scientist like @clairbarnes.bsky.social from @wwattribution.bsky.social says it's extremely scary how climate change is intensifying hot, dry, flammable conditions conducive to wildfires, you should probably be worried.

‘Extremely scary findings’ show climate crisis is supercharging Europe’s wildfire weather

Latest study says global heating has made hot, dry and windy conditions in Spain at least 20 times more likely

theguardian.com

Human-caused climate change made the extreme weather fuelling wildfires in southwestern France twice as likely, and made the conditions driving blazes in central Spain 20 times more likely, scientists have said

'Fire-prone' conditions more likely due to climate change

Human-caused climate change made the extreme weather fuelling wildfires in southwestern France twice as likely, and made the conditions driving blazes in central Spain 20 times more likely, scientists...

rte.ie

Ireland made further progress on home energy upgrades in 2025, but delivery remained below the national target. By year-end, 84,270 homes had been upgraded to BER B2 or better, against a target of 120,000. Read more: shorturl.at/96mCa

‘What was a beautiful habitat now is black soot’: Ireland’s wildfires devastate wildlife

‘What was a beautiful habitat now is black soot’: Ireland’s wildfires devastate wildlife

Mammals, small reptiles and amphibians losing shelter and food due to blazes in Tipperary, Wicklow and Waterford

irishtimes.com

Firefighters battle blaze after fire reignites on Slievenamon

Firefighters battle blaze after fire reignites on Slievenamon

Tipperary County Council requests Air Corps support in effort to curb and control problem

irishtimes.com

Climate records on either side of the Irish Sea are collected to different standards, which muddies the picture. This project is building one consistent climate and water dataset for the UK and Ireland. Find out more about the work here 👉️

Islands of Britain and Ireland Climate Dataset - Climate Co Centre

This project aims to create a more accurate and consistent climate dataset for the UK & Ireland. It will use the same high-quality methods...

climatecocentre.org

Hungary will shut down the Paks nuclear power plant on Sunday for the first time in its 44-year history. Climate change means a lack of cooling water in summer is a real challenge for Europe’s nuclear industry. www.dw.com/en/hungary-t...

Hungary to shut sole nuclear plant for first time on Sunday

Record-low water levels on the Danube forced the Paks plant offline, leaving Hungary facing a potential power crunch.

dw.com

The world crossed a major solar milestone - three terawatt (TW) threshold of installed solar capacity. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed

The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.

bloomberg.com

A reminder, as adaptation climbs the agenda: Resilience measures should complement, not replace, rapid emissions reductions. Climate policy needs both: adapting to the impacts already here and cutting emissions fast enough to limit the impacts still to come. www.chathamhouse.org/2026/07/euro...

Europe’s summer of fires: Burnham must centre climate adaptation in policies

The UK government should treat adaptation to the effects of climate change as a core organizing principle of both economic policy at home and foreign policy.

chathamhouse.org

As the UN Secretary General says, every new fossil fuel project approved today makes tomorrow’s heatwaves more dangerous & our world less secure. I hope Andy Burnham is listening. Caving in to the fossil fuel lobby as the planet burns would be unforgivable

Burnham risks first revolt as PM over apparent support for North Sea drilling

Labour MPs fear No 10 team lack up-to-date energy insight and don’t fully recognise voters’ climate concerns

theguardian.com

A reminder this World Nature Conservation Day that Council called for stronger planning protections, greater capacity across public authorities, increased area on land and at sea under conservation, clearer action on peatland restoration, improved management of invasive species. shorturl.at/PBTk0

Europe warned of ‘warmer-than-normal’ August: What’s driving blistering temperatures? Spoiler: human-caused climate change. www.euronews.com/2026/07/28/e...

‘Warmer-than-normal August’ looms: Why is Europe so hot this summer?

"The exceptionally warm Mediterranean Sea is leaving a fingerprint on land, and in several places it shows up in the nights rather than the afternoons.”

euronews.com

Important new study out at Nature Climate Action showing that individual climate actions do not stop people from participating in collective climate action. Instead, they were associated with greater collective engagement and somewhat stronger policy support. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Personal climate actions do not crowd out collective action and policy support: longitudinal evidence - npj Climate Action

npj Climate Action - Personal climate actions do not crowd out collective action and policy support: longitudinal evidence

nature.com

"Miliband will face a shrinking aid budget & tough decisions over allocation. Starmer slashed overseas aid to 0.3% of GNI, a sharp reduction from 0.5% under the Con's & the 0.7% reached under the last Lab gov. #Climate finance was also cut by 14%, from £11.6bn for the period 2021 to 26 to £2bn a yr"

Ed Miliband makes first major foreign policy intervention, signalling clearly that climate and development will be at heart of UK international relations. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Copernicus is also providing rapid emergency mapping to support the response in both countries. My thoughts are with the brave firefighters and everyone evacuated for their safety.

Europe stands with France and Spain as they face devastating wildfires. 5 planes and 2 helicopters from the rescEU fleet are now deployed to France. And 4 planes are arriving in Spain today.

Also in this issue... Carbon Brief interviews Dr Joyce Kimutai, a Kenyan climate scientist and lead author of a new attribution analysis investigating the role of climate change in recent floods in west Africa. Read more here ⬇️ buff.ly/OOFCxFU

As Andy Burnham seems set to give the go ahead on new North Sea oil & gas, and the rise of energy-hungry AI undermines efforts to tackle climate change, perhaps now is the time to sign up to one of our courses on how we adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change. garama-training.com

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Irish cities need heatwave plans, coalition of health experts says

‘Urban heat island’ effect means cities are often several degrees hotter than surrounding areas

irishtimes.com

The extreme weather we have now is not the new normal. It’s going to keep getting worse as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels.

‘Unprecedented’ changes in UK climate are normalising extremes, report says

Annual State of the UK Climate analysis finds last four years in UK are in top five hottest on record

theguardian.com

Main highway from Paris to the Mediterranean closed for a third day because of the wildfires.

It is not headed by a “climate critic“. It is headed by someone who is unqualified in this area, who cannot offer valid critiques but instead shares debunked claims, and who regularly attacks climate scientists. Like me.