Global Pulse

分类： environment

  • China braces for a powerful typhoon after a week of deadly storms

    China braces for a powerful typhoon after a week of deadly storms

    As East Asia braced for a new round of severe weather on Friday, powerful Typhoon Bavi was tracking steadily toward China’s eastern coastline, arriving on the heels of a catastrophic week that has already claimed dozens of lives across multiple regions of the country.

    The storm, which currently boasts maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometers per hour (101 miles per hour), was initially projected to pass north of Taiwan, bringing intense, prolonged rainfall to the island’s 23 million residents starting Friday evening and continuing through Saturday. In preparation for the incoming bad weather, Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, suspended all classes for Friday, while hundreds of fishing vessels have been secured and berthed closely together in northern Taiwanese ports. According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, dozens of commercial flights bound for Japan, Hong Kong and other regional destinations have been canceled through Saturday, though a small number of services remain operational as of Friday.

    Following Bavi’s current northwest trajectory, the storm will first pass over remote Japanese islands before skirting the northern edge of Taiwan on Saturday. Forecasters predict the typhoon will make landfall Saturday night south of Shanghai, near the provincial boundary between Fujian and Zhejiang, two populous eastern Chinese provinces.

    Local officials have already enacted sweeping emergency preparedness measures to mitigate potential damage. Official state news outlet Xinhua News Agency reported that more than 17,000 residents have already been evacuated from high-risk coastal and low-lying areas in Zhejiang, while 170,000 professional rescue workers have been placed on high standby to respond to emergencies. In Fujian, authorities have suspended multiple inter-island and cross-strait ferry routes due to dangerous wind speeds and choppy seas, and issued an urgent order for all ocean-going fishing vessels to return to sheltered ports before the storm arrives.

    Bavi has weakened significantly since earlier this week, when it raged as a category 5 supertyphoon that brought destructive, life-threatening winds to Saipan and other U.S. Pacific territories.

    The approaching storm marks the third major weather-related disaster to hit China in seven days, after two separate deadly events that have already claimed 50 lives. On Thursday, southern Chinese authorities confirmed 39 people had been killed in widespread flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Maysak, which dumped record-breaking rainfall across large swathes of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region over several days. The torrential rainfall overwhelmed local water infrastructure, causing multiple reservoir breaches and the dramatic partial collapse of a dam in Hengzhou. The failure sent fast-moving muddy floodwater surging through surrounding communities, trapping hundreds of residents on the second floors and higher levels of buildings for days, many cut off from electricity, before search and rescue teams could reach them.

    A further 11 people lost their lives in central China’s Hubei province after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes swept through the region on Monday night, leaving widespread destruction in their wake. In a separate, non-storm-related tragedy, a sudden landslide killed 21 forestry workers working in the mountainous terrain of northwestern China’s Gansu province on Tuesday.

  • Twelve die in Spain wildfire as heatwave continues in southern Europe

    Twelve die in Spain wildfire as heatwave continues in southern Europe

    A devastating wildfire in the southern Spanish municipality of Los Gallardos, Almeria, has claimed 12 lives and left six people injured, regional Andalusian authorities confirmed this week, marking one of the deadliest European wildfire events of the 2026 summer season.

    Initial witness accounts point to a downed power line as the likely ignition source, which sparked the blaze before it spread rapidly into nearby wooded terrain. However, regional officials have not yet formally verified the cause. Some victims were found trapped in their vehicles, overcome by flames as they attempted to flee the fast-moving fire overnight. Of the six injured, one was hospitalized for severe smoke inhalation, while another received care for burn injuries; four additional people were treated at the scene for minor burns and respiratory distress linked to toxic smoke.

    Roughly 150 local firefighters have been deployed to contain the inferno, with Spain’s elite Military Emergency Unit (UME) also activated to support suppression efforts. The fire has forced the evacuation of 1,000 local residents and triggered widespread road closures across the affected area.

    The Los Gallardos tragedy comes amid a months-long record heatwave baking Southern Europe, with persistent temperatures hovering around 40°C (104°F) creating tinder-dry conditions that have spawned hundreds of large wildfires across France, Portugal, and Spain. Thousands of people across the region have already been displaced from their homes by overlapping fire events this summer.

    Juanma Moreno, president of the Andalusian regional government, described the rising death toll as an unfathomable tragedy. “Our hearts are heavy and we are devastated by grief,” Moreno wrote on social media platform X after the final fatality count was released.

    Long-term climate data links the growing frequency and severity of Mediterranean wildfires directly to human-caused climate change. The Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, making it the world’s fastest-warming continent. Rising temperatures have amplified the intensity of summer heatwaves, strained regional water supplies, and extended high-risk wildfire seasons across the continent.

    Last year, Spain recorded its worst wildfire season in modern history, with 393,000 hectares (971,000 acres) of land burned — more than six times the 2006-2024 national average. Across the European Union, 2025 marked the worst wildfire season on record dating back to 2006, with more than one million hectares burned, an area roughly half the size of Wales. A 2025 analysis from the World Weather Attribution group at Imperial College London found that climate change has directly increased the risk of severe, large-scale wildfires across the Mediterranean basin.

    In preparedness moves ahead of this high-risk season, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced in May that the country would roll out its largest-ever summer wildfire response deployment. Still, climatology and wildfire experts warn that more frequent and deadly fire events will continue to impact Europe as global temperatures rise. This June, Spain logged its highest average monthly temperatures since national record-keeping began in 1950, with forecasts calling for peak temperatures as high as 42°C (107.6°F) across parts of the country in the coming weeks.

  • Pressure builds on Europe’s biggest port to be greener

    Pressure builds on Europe’s biggest port to be greener

    Nestled on reclaimed North Sea land at the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, the Port of Rotterdam stands as Europe’s undisputed freight powerhouse. By volume, this massive logistics hub handles nearly as much annual cargo as all United Kingdom ports combined. Its skyline is defined by towering container cranes, stacked shipping boxes, and massive bulk carriers – the front-facing infrastructure of one of the world’s largest integrated energy and chemical complexes.

    Five major oil refineries, anchored by Shell’s largest European processing facility, collectively process hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil every day, while a dense network of chemical plants supplies manufacturing operations across the European continent. Research from independent environmental research firm CE Delft links the full lifecycle carbon emissions of fossil fuels passing through Rotterdam to roughly 600 megatonnes of carbon dioxide annually – a figure multiple times higher than the annual emissions of the Netherlands’ busiest airport, Schiphol.

    This outsized carbon footprint has positioned Rotterdam as a global test case for one of the energy transition’s most pressing questions: Can a port built entirely around the fossil fuel economy ever make a full, authentic shift to sustainable operations? Growing pressure from climate activists is pushing port leadership to confront this challenge head-on, culminating in a high-profile lawsuit filed by Dutch environmental group Advocates for the Future. The suit argues the Port of Rotterdam Authority has failed to take sufficient action to phase out fossil-based energy flows, and demands a legally binding, concrete roadmap to wind down coal, oil and gas throughput – emissions from which already outpace the total national emissions of most of the world’s countries.

    Port officials acknowledge the scale of the problem. Mark van Dijk, head of external relations for the Port of Rotterdam Authority, confirms the port’s industrial cluster currently emits roughly 29 million tonnes of CO2 annually, accounting for half of the Netherlands’ entire domestic emissions. “It’s not good,” van Dijk admits, putting the figure in perspective: the annual emissions equal that of tens of thousands of round-trip passenger flights between Amsterdam and Los Angeles.

    Port leadership has already laid out a formal decarbonization plan targeting its own operations and aiming to encourage lower-emission practices among on-site businesses. The authority has set a target to cut its direct and purchased energy emissions by 90% between 2019 and 2030. Key initiatives include developing a dedicated hydrogen hub to allow companies to test and scale low-carbon fuel technologies, investing in onshore shore power infrastructure that lets docked ships turn off their polluting auxiliary engines and connect to the local electrical grid, and supporting the adoption of alternative bunker fuels including liquefied natural gas, biofuels and methanol.

    To address existing industrial emissions in the near term, the port is prioritizing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), which involves capturing carbon emissions from industrial facilities and storing them permanently in depleted offshore gas fields via the port’s Porthos project.

    But activists reject the port’s incremental approach. Maikel van Wissen, director of Advocates for the Future, argues a port of Rotterdam’s scale and influence carries a unique responsibility to accelerate the clean energy transition, rather than simply continuing to manage ongoing fossil fuel flows. “A state-owned enterprise should take on the same legal obligations that governments have to reduce emissions,” van Wissen says. “We are asking in the lawsuit to phase out that dependency, to create alternatives. It takes time, but if you don’t have a plan, you always choose cheap short-term solutions. This is an important hub, if you do it in a controlled way, you offer an alternative, that will stop industry from moving elsewhere.”

    Port officials counter that they are already actively reshaping the port’s business model to prioritize decarbonization. “We try to work together with the polluters, and slowly phase them out,” says Oscar van Veen, the port’s director of innovation, before correcting himself: “As fast as possible, of course.”

    Still, the transition faces steep structural and geopolitical barriers. Many of the port’s largest emitting facilities are owned by multinational corporations headquartered in the United States, China and other countries, whose primary loyalties lie with their global boardrooms. If regulations become too stringent in Rotterdam, companies can simply relocate operations – a precedent already set when Shell moved its global headquarters to the United Kingdom and consumer goods giant Unilever left Rotterdam entirely.

    Bettina Kampman, a senior analyst at CE Delft, notes that the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s influence over independent on-site operators is inherently limited. Even expanding the port’s own low-emission infrastructure faces significant bottlenecks. “New developments need physical space. They can speed up the energy infrastructure developments – the electricity needed to electrify the processes. That’s all limited at the moment due to the lack of power cables,” Kampman explains.

    Harry Geerlings, emeritus professor of sustainable transport and ports at Erasmus University Rotterdam who has studied the sector for more than 30 years, argues no single port authority can deliver a full energy transition on its own. What is required, he says, is a global level playing field, similar to the regulatory frameworks the European Union has already established through the EU Emissions Trading System and international marine fuel sulphur standards.

    Geerlings points to the EU’s sulphur regulations as a proof of concept: when new rules required all ships calling at European ports to switch to lower-sulphur fuels or install pollution-control scrubbers, major shipping nations including China eventually complied after initially resisting, once their vessels were barred from major global ports without meeting the standards. “If you have the right incentives, you change the behaviour of these companies,” he says.

    Even with effective regional regulation, loopholes remain: many shipping lines now use dual-fuel engine setups, switching to cleaner low-sulphur fuel only when entering EU territorial waters, then reverting to cheaper high-sulphur heavy fuel oil once they reach the unregulated high seas.

    Geerlings says he believes Rotterdam’s port leadership is genuinely committed to decarbonization and is already investing in the infrastructure needed to support a smoother transition. Still, he notes a core, unresolved dilemma: “But their biggest income is still tied to fossil fuel industries. It’s not simply a switch you turn on or off. A port needs activity as a logistics node – otherwise it’s no longer a port. It’s a real dilemma.”

    Geopolitical tensions have further complicated the transition. Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s skepticism of aggressive climate policy and financial incentives favoring fossil fuels over renewables have amplified Rotterdam’s fears that energy-intensive industries will relocate to regions with weaker environmental regulations and lower energy costs.

    Activists argue that as a publicly owned entity, the Port of Rotterdam Authority should be held to a higher environmental standard than private operators. They are not asking for an immediate full shutdown of all fossil fuel operations, but rather a detailed, time-bound phase-out plan – not just a long-term promise to reach climate neutrality by 2050. “We are not asking for anything extraordinary,” van Wissen says. “We’re asking for a plan that really contributes to a sustainable future for the port.”

    For their part, port officials say they share the same end goal. Speaking during an electric taxi ride back to Rotterdam from the port’s outer edge, van Dijk stresses that both the port authority and its critics are aiming for the same destination: net-zero emissions by mid-century. The core disagreement, he acknowledges, is over how quickly the transition needs to happen, and how radical the changes to the port’s existing business model need to be.

  • Africa secures $900 million in new clean cooking commitments

    Africa secures $900 million in new clean cooking commitments

    NAIROBI, KENYA – Global and continental leaders have announced an additional $900 million in fresh funding commitments to expand access to low-emission clean cooking technologies across Africa, the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed Thursday.

    This new pledge builds on the $2.2 billion in financing mobilized at the inaugural Africa Clean Cooking Summit held in Paris in 2024, pushing the total amount of committed funding for the continent’s clean cooking transition to more than $3.1 billion. All allocated funds will go toward scaling up access to cleaner alternative fuels, modern low-emission stoves, and supporting infrastructure across African nations.

    The funding announcement came during a virtual high-level meeting on African clean cooking co-convened by the IEA and the Kenyan government. Attendees gathered to review progress delivered since the 2024 Paris summit and outline key priorities ahead of the second summit scheduled for later this year.

    The urgent need for this investment remains clear: nearly 1 billion people across Africa still lack access to clean cooking solutions, forcing them to rely on charcoal, firewood and other high-polluting traditional fuels. According to IEA data, household air pollution from these dirty fuels contributes to roughly 850,000 premature deaths across the continent every year. The transition to clean cooking – which encompasses low-emission alternatives such as ethanol, biogas and electric stoves – cuts dangerous indoor air pollution and delivers transformative public health benefits for millions of vulnerable households, particularly for women and children who typically bear the burden of collecting fuel and managing household cooking.

    Friday’s meeting brought together a cross-section of global leaders, including Kenyan President William Ruto, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Lerato Mataboge, and IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, among other stakeholders.

    “Access to clean cooking is one of the most impactful yet overlooked challenges of our time,” U.S. Energy Secretary Wright noted during the meeting, emphasizing that the issue directly shapes daily life for billions of people, with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups.

    President Ruto echoed the call for greater investment, stressing that financing remains the single largest barrier to achieving universal clean cooking access across the continent. “Ambition alone is not enough. It must be backed by investment,” Ruto said.

    IEA data shared during the meeting shows that progress is already underway: approximately one-third of the commitments announced at the 2024 Paris summit, equal to $740 million, has already been deployed for clean cooking projects across 22 African countries. Birol noted that the new $900 million pledge signals growing global momentum for the transition, with additional commitments expected ahead of the upcoming second summit.

    Alongside the funding announcement, the IEA released new data showing that 30+ African countries have introduced 121 new national clean cooking policies since the 2024 Paris summit. These countries represent roughly 80% of the African population currently without access to clean cooking solutions. The agency is now working alongside the African Union to support governments in strengthening national policy frameworks under a continent-wide strategy and action plan, in preparation for the next summit.

    In a related move to address emerging supply chain risks, the IEA launched a new public-private Clean Cooking Security Programme designed to strengthen global supply chains for clean cooking fuels, with a specific focus on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The initiative was developed in response to shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, which disrupted roughly 30% of globally traded LPG – a fuel that more than 3.4 billion people worldwide rely on for their primary cooking energy needs. The new program will provide technical assistance to countries working to improve their fuel security, while also facilitating greater international cooperation to build more resilient clean cooking supply chains.

    This reporting on climate and the environment from The Associated Press receives financial support from a network of private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Two thirds of EU faced harmful ozone levels during heatwave: report

    Two thirds of EU faced harmful ozone levels during heatwave: report

    Last month’s historic heatwave that baked Western Europe left an alarming hidden public health crisis in its wake: a new report from environmental non-governmental organization Global Witness has found that two-thirds of the European Union’s population were exposed to dangerous, above-guideline levels of ground-level ozone pollution between June 21 and 28.

    The analysis, which combines data from 162 cross-continental air quality monitoring stations, atmospheric modelling from the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and regional census data, estimates that nearly 298 million EU residents — including 100 million children and elderly people, groups that are disproportionately vulnerable to air pollutant harm — faced ozone concentrations exceeding the EU’s recommended maximum daily eight-hour average of 120 micrograms per cubic meter. Even more starkly, around 87 percent of the EU’s 450 million total population were exposed to levels above the World Health Organization’s stricter safety guideline of 100 micrograms per cubic meter, with 72 million people hit by concentrations crossing the 150 micrograms per cubic meter threshold, classified as the most dangerous range. Two-thirds of all monitoring stations recorded ozone readings in the top 1 percentile of all June measurements dating back to 2013, with a peak reading of 233.7 micrograms per cubic meter recorded in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia on June 27.

    This widespread exposure event comes just hours after the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed June 2024 was the hottest June ever recorded in Western Europe, amplifying longstanding concerns about how climate change is worsening dangerous air quality events. Unlike the stratospheric ozone layer that shields Earth from harmful solar radiation — which is slowly recovering from decades of damage caused by chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants — ground-level ozone is a toxic primary component of smog that poses severe risks to human health. Exposure can trigger acute breathing issues, permanent lung tissue damage, asthma attacks, and a range of other chronic respiratory and cardiovascular complications. Data from the European Environment Agency shows that ozone pollution was linked to more than 63,000 premature deaths across Europe in 2023 alone, alongside billions of euros in damaged agricultural crops.

    Ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides (most often released from vehicle traffic) and volatile organic compounds (largely tied to human-caused methane emissions) react under high temperatures and intense sunlight — conditions that were widespread across the continent during last month’s heatwave. “If these chemicals are not emitted in the first place, then ground-level ozone does not form,” explained CAMS director Laurence Rouil, whose agency provided modelling data for the Global Witness report. Rouil noted that the scale of this ozone event, occurring so early in the summer season, is particularly concerning when compared to the devastating 2003 European heatwave, calling it “really remarkable and worrying.” She added that coordinated international action is essential to address the root causes of rising ozone pollution.

    While the EU has made significant progress cutting nitrogen dioxide emissions over the past several decades, the report highlights a critical policy gap: methane, which contributes one-third of all ground-level ozone formation, currently has no binding reduction targets for agricultural sources in the bloc. Global Witness senior campaigner Flossie Boyd framed the widespread exposure as an “invisible threat” driven by fossil fuel dependence. “People are being forced to live through very dangerous conditions as a result of our dependence on fossil fuels,” Boyd told AFP, calling for immediate policy action to cut precursor emissions that drive both rising global temperatures and toxic ozone pollution. “We need to stop these initial emissions driving up dangerous temperatures and driving the ozone and other forms of pollutants that are making our cities and beyond dangerous places to live,” she added.

    Independent climate scientists not involved in the report have echoed its findings, noting that the pattern matches on-the-ground data across the continent. James Weber, a climate scientist at the University of Reading in the UK, told AFP that his own independent research found more than half of UK air monitoring stations exceeded the WHO’s ozone safety guideline during the heatwave’s peak. Weber warned that ozone pollution creates an extra layer of health risk during heat events, when human bodies are already strained by high temperatures and humidity. “Ozone is a problem when there are already pressures on people’s health from humidity and temperature,” he said, noting that ongoing climate change will only increase the frequency and severity of these overlapping extreme heat and ozone events. For the general public, he recommends avoiding strenuous outdoor activity during the hottest hours of days when high ozone levels are forecast.

  • Western Europe records its hottest June as heatwaves surge: EU monitor

    Western Europe records its hottest June as heatwaves surge: EU monitor

    The European Union’s official climate monitoring body confirmed Thursday that 2025 has brought Western Europe its hottest June ever recorded, capping off a month of unprecedented extreme heat that has underscored the accelerating impacts of human-caused climate change across the continent. The announcement comes as a second intense heatwave already bears down on Europe this summer, following the June record-breaking event and an unseasonably early spring heatwave that struck in May.

    Data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows the average June temperature across Western Europe hit 20.74°C this year – more than 3°C higher than the 1991-2020 baseline average for the month. The figure shatters the previous regional June record set just two years prior in 2025. For the globe as a whole and Europe as an entire continent, this June ranked as the second hottest ever recorded, Copernicus confirmed, as decades of greenhouse gas emissions continue to drive global average temperatures steadily upward.

    Global average June temperatures this year hit 1.39°C above the pre-industrial baseline (1850-1900), the service reported. The world’s oceans also logged their warmest June on record, compounded by a developing El Niño weather pattern in the tropical Pacific that forecasters project will strengthen in the coming months.

    The record-breaking June heat was driven by a stubborn “heat dome” – a persistent high-pressure system that traps hot air like a lid over a boiling pot – that settled over much of Western Europe, pushing multiple countries to break both monthly and all-time high temperature records. An analysis by Agence France-Presse found that more than 410 million Europeans – over two-thirds of the region’s population – faced temperatures above 35°C between June 15 and 30. Thousands of heat-related deaths were recorded across the continent, concentrated primarily in France, Spain and Belgium, with high humidity amplifying the danger by preventing cooling overnight.

    “It was extremely humid, which then meant people didn’t get relief at night. So we had a number of tropical nights in a row,” explained Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which manages the Copernicus program. Warm ocean waters along Europe’s Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts compounded the issue, eliminating cooling sea breezes that typically bring overnight relief. The Mediterranean also saw a record-breaking marine heatwave that put coastal and marine ecosystems at severe risk.

    Dry conditions from the heat also exacerbated drought risks in Eastern Europe and amplified wildfire activity across the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France, Copernicus noted.

    Climate scientists from World Weather Attribution, an international research network, previously classified the June 2025 heatwave as the most severe ever recorded in Europe based on three-day peak average temperature forecasts across the affected region. The group concluded the event would have been virtually impossible to occur without the influence of human-caused climate change; a similar heat event in June 2003 would have been roughly 2°C cooler, they found.

    Burgess warned that heat extremes will only become more common, intense and widespread as global temperatures continue to rise. “We will see more heatwaves in a warmer world. They will be more intense and they will last longer, and they will impact more geographical areas,” she told AFP. She added that climate change is no longer a distant future threat, but a disruptive force already reshaping daily life: “We’re at a transition point where climate change is shifting from being an abstract statistical future problem that you read about in reports, to a concrete present and disruptive feature of daily life.”

    Europe, which is already the fastest-warming continent on Earth, faces unique challenges as it adapts to this new climate reality, Burgess noted. Many of the region’s most iconic historic buildings were constructed centuries ago for a cooler climate that no longer exists, requiring urgent updates to built infrastructure to protect residents from extreme heat. To slow the progression of worsening heat extremes, Burgess emphasized that the world must reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion as quickly as possible. “Heatwaves will only get worse the more (emissions from) fossil fuel we pump into the atmosphere,” she said.

  • India is adding biofuels to petrol – but many drivers are unhappy

    India is adding biofuels to petrol – but many drivers are unhappy

    India’s ambitious push to roll out a 20% ethanol-blended petrol standard, E20, across all national fuel stations has sparked sharp public pushback, igniting a heated debate over the rapidity of the energy transition, vehicle compatibility, and consumer rights. As the world’s third-largest car market and the biggest global market for two-wheelers, India launched the policy to cut reliance on costly crude oil imports, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and support domestic agricultural sectors that produce the sugarcane and maize used to make ethanol. The accelerated transition, however, has left millions of vehicle owners grappling with unanticipated costs and uncertainty.

    India first began integrating ethanol into petrol supplies in the mid-2000s, gradually increasing the blend ratio to 10% over nearly two decades. In April 2025, the government moved forward five years on its original timeline to mandate E20 as the default petrol available at all pumps, replacing the 10% blend that 75% of the country’s on-road vehicles were engineered to accommodate. While unblended petrol remains an option for consumers, it is priced 40% to 50% higher than E20 depending on the state, and many drivers remain unaware they can request the non-blended alternative.

    In recent months, consumer frustration has boiled over into public protest and a flood of complaints on social media. Thousands of drivers have reported issues including increased engine wear, reduced vehicle performance, and noticeably lower fuel efficiency. Last week, a mass protest organized by an entrepreneur aligned with the opposition Congress party drew dozens of motorists in central Delhi, where demonstrators accused the national government of unilaterally imposing the new fuel standard without giving consumers a viable choice or sufficient preparation time.

    The administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejected these complaints, framing them as misleading misinformation spread across social platforms. In an official statement released last month, the government asserted that E20 was rolled out only after years of extensive testing and poses no risk of engine damage. Officials have also launched a public outreach campaign to debunk popular myths about the blend and highlight its long-term environmental and economic benefits, and enlisted major domestic and international automakers to back their claims.

    In an unusual display of coordinated support for the policy, six leading automakers appeared alongside government officials at a recent press conference to defend E20’s safety. Rahul Bharti, senior corporate affairs executive at Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car manufacturer, noted that the company had serviced more than 15 million older, non-E20-compliant vehicles and found no evidence of widespread fuel-related mechanical faults. Automakers did acknowledge that E20 delivers a 3% to 3.5% drop in fuel efficiency compared to 10% blended petrol, a consequence of ethanol’s lower energy density. Independent analysts, however, estimate the actual reduction in fuel economy ranges much higher, between 4% and 12%.

    From a policy perspective, the E20 mandate aligns with India’s broader strategic goals: cutting a $100 billion-plus annual crude oil import bill, boosting farm incomes by creating new demand for food crops, and reducing carbon emissions to meet the country’s net-zero climate targets. Government data indicates the policy has already delivered measurable progress on these targets, and recent global oil market volatility sparked by the Iran conflict has only strengthened the government’s case for domestic fuel production. India is not alone in this shift: other major oil-importing Asian nations including Indonesia and Vietnam are also moving quickly to expand ethanol blending and flex-fuel vehicle programs.

    Critics point to Brazil, the global gold standard for ethanol integration that Indian officials frequently cite as a model, to argue that New Delhi has skipped a critical step in the transition. Brazil built its ethanol-compatible vehicle fleet gradually over four decades before mandating higher blend ratios, and gives consumers a clear choice between multiple fuel options at competitive prices. By contrast, India compressed its shift from a 10% to 20% mandatory blend into just three years, moving to the new standard five years ahead of its original 2030 target.

    Industry analysts confirm that the vast majority of India’s active vehicle fleet is not engineered to handle the higher ethanol content. Puneet Gupta, director of automotive research firm Mobility Global, estimates that more than 75% of on-road vehicles are not E20-compliant. A 2024 analysis by the Thomson Reuters Foundation reached the same conclusion, finding that only 20% of petrol vehicles sold in India over the past 15 years were designed to accommodate a 20% ethanol blend.

    Interviews with mechanics and service centre operators across major Indian cities paint a mixed picture of on-the-ground impacts. While some service technicians report no unusual increase in fuel-related issues, others have documented a rise in problems they link directly to higher ethanol levels. Mohammed Arif, a Mumbai-based motorcycle mechanic, told reporters he has seen a steady increase in older bikes brought in for carburettor cleaning to remove sticky fuel residue buildup, a problem he attributes to E20. The extra maintenance adds recurring costs for vehicle owners, he noted. Basil Jacob, who runs a car service centre in Mumbai, added that customers consistently report lower fuel mileage, forcing them to refuel more often even as E20 is priced the same as the previous 10% blend at the pump. “They’re paying the same per litre but getting fewer kilometres,” Jacob explained.

    Some industry experts warn that the most significant impacts may be slow to emerge, developing gradually over thousands of kilometres of use. Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of *Autocar India*, explained that ethanol naturally absorbs moisture, which can separate from fuel over time and cause corrosion in fuel delivery systems after 10,000 to 20,000 kilometres of use. Ethanol can also loosen built-up carbon deposits in older engines, which can clog fuel pumps and injectors and lead to accelerated component wear. Sorabjee noted that well-maintained vehicles may avoid major issues, and that some social media concerns are overstated, but acknowledged that long-term incremental costs are likely for owners of non-compliant vehicles.

    A 2025 survey of more than 44,000 owners of pre-2023 petrol vehicles conducted by community platform LocalCircles found a sharp increase in drivers reporting unusual wear and tear and unexpected repair needs. To date, however, no independent public scientific study has confirmed either consumer claims of widespread damage or government and automaker assertions that extensive testing proves E20 is safe for all vehicles. This evidence gap has only deepened public confusion and distrust.

    “If you’re going to force this on the public, you should be able to prove it’s safe,” a senior anonymous industry expert told reporters, adding that given the confirmed drop in fuel efficiency, E20 should be priced lower than standard petrol and remain optional rather than mandatory.

    The debate is further complicated by widespread uncertainty over vehicle warranty and insurance coverage for fuel-related damage. It remains unclear whether automakers will honour warranty claims for fuel system failures in non-compliant vehicles that use E20, and insurance coverage rules remain equally muddled. Last month, private insurer ICICI Lombard sparked public outcry after a blog post suggested that using E20 in a non-compliant vehicle could be considered driver negligence and lead to claim denial. The insurer quickly reversed its position, confirming that motor policies remain valid for E20 use, but experts note that most policies only cover accidental damage, not gradual wear and tear caused by fuel use.

    For India’s cost-conscious consumer market, where vehicle ownership represents a major long-term financial investment for most households, the uncertainty surrounding E20 has become a top everyday concern.

  • Woodside pursues protesters over 2023 stinky gas stunt in the WA Supreme Court

    Woodside pursues protesters over 2023 stinky gas stunt in the WA Supreme Court

    A high-stakes legal clash between energy giant Woodside Energy and three convicted climate activists is set to resume next week in Western Australia’s Supreme Court, as the company pushes to force the protesters to disclose the identities of other co-conspirators behind a disruptive 2023 protest that forced the evacuation of thousands of staff.

    The incident at the center of the dispute dates back to 2023, when three environmental activists affiliated with the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign carried out a deliberate stunt inside Woodside’s Perth headquarters. Activist Kristen Morrissey deployed a foul-smelling “stench bomb” in the building’s main lobby, with logistical support from co-activists Joana Partyka and Emil Davey. The action was deliberately designed to be mistaken for a toxic gas leak, triggering a full evacuation that displaced roughly 2,000 employees from the site.

    The protest was organized to draw public attention to Woodside’s controversial Burrup Hub gas expansion project. Activists argue the project poses severe threats to both the global climate and sacred Aboriginal cultural heritage sites located in the project area. Last year, all three activists pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the WA District Court. Morrissey and Partyka received suspended prison sentences, while Davey was ordered to complete a community-based sentence.

    Months before the criminal case concluded, Woodside first issued a demand to the activists: hand over internal documentation that would reveal the identities of other people involved in planning and executing the 2023 stunt, or face civil litigation. When the activists refused to comply while criminal proceedings were still ongoing, Woodside followed through on its threat and filed a civil suit against the trio in the WA Supreme Court five months after the initial warning.

    When the case returns to court on July 16, Woodside’s legal team is widely expected to formally ask the Supreme Court to compel the three protesters to disclose the names of other collaborators. In its court filings, Woodside argues that the stunt caused measurable financial harm, including costs for cleaning services, lost workplace productivity, and other damages, and that the company has legal grounds to pursue claims against all responsible parties.

    But activists and their legal representatives have framed the legal action as a blatant campaign of intimidation against climate campaigners speaking out against the company’s fossil fuel expansion. “This is a blatant attempt by Woodside to threaten, intimidate and silence young campaigners sounding the alarm about their gas expansion,” Davey said in a statement ahead of the hearing. Represented by the advocacy group Climate Defenders Australia, Davey added that the Burrup Hub project destroys both sacred Aboriginal cultural sites and contributes to planetary damage for future generations, and that the campaign has successfully held the company accountable for its actions.

    “Every Australian now understands that the gas industry is ripping us all off and refusing to pay its fair share,” Davey said.

    Partyka echoed Davey’s criticism, describing the legal action as a calculated attempt to bully peaceful citizens challenging a multi-billion dollar corporation. Instead of discouraging her activism, Partyka said Woodside’s legal push only confirms how effective the campaign has been at disrupting the company’s plans.

    “Far from cowing me, Woodside’s legal move serves only to confirm the significant impact of our campaign. Woodside is trying to prevent people from doing this again, because it was so successful,” Partyka said. “Woodside may have endless resources at their disposal to pursue legal action against me, but they sure as hell don’t have history on their side.”

    The upcoming court hearing will mark the next major step in a conflict that has become a flashpoint for tensions between fossil fuel developers and climate campaigners opposing new fossil gas projects in Australia.

  • Rescuers search for 5 missing people after a deadly landslide in India’s Kerala state

    Rescuers search for 5 missing people after a deadly landslide in India’s Kerala state

    Rescue operations are underway in the scenic hill district of Wayanad in India’s southern Kerala state, where a catastrophic landslide triggered by intense monsoon downpours has left three people dead and five others unaccounted for. The disaster struck at a tunnel construction site Wednesday, when a massive wall of mud broke loose during heavy rain, tearing through the work area. Seven workers caught in the slide were pulled out with injuries and are currently receiving care at a local hospital.

    Footage of the incident captured the full force of the disaster: a large earthen embankment collapsing under relentless rainfall, uprooting mature trees and sweeping away the temporary metal and fabric barriers that ringed the construction zone. Local law enforcement has segmented the search area into multiple operational zones to coordinate the effort, which includes specialized disaster response teams and sniffer dogs brought in to locate the missing. According to local police official Devamanohar, who spoke to reporters on the ground, ongoing heavy rainfall has significantly slowed progress and complicated search efforts.

    In a surprising turn, Kerala’s Home Minister T. Siddique has publicly labeled the disaster not a natural event, but a man-made tragedy caused by negligent construction practices. Speaking to India’s official Press Trust of India news agency, Siddique alleged that the landslide occurred because construction crews dumped excavated earth in an unscientific manner, and failed to remove construction debris despite prior official warnings about the hazard. The construction company at the center of the allegations has rejected all claims of responsibility, telling the news agency that the landslide originated on elevated terrain far from the actual construction site, making the project blameless for the disaster.

    State authorities have launched a formal investigation to determine the root cause of the incident and assign accountability for the casualties. This landslide is part of a growing pattern of deadly monsoon-related disasters across South Asia. Last year alone, extreme rainfall events including cloudbursts, widespread flooding, and multiple landslides across India caused devastating losses of life and widespread destruction of property.

    Climate researchers have repeatedly warned that human-induced climate change is altering the behavior of South Asia’s iconic monsoon seasons, which typically bring two periods of rainfall between June and December. Once a predictable, life-sustaining weather pattern, monsoons now produce erratic, extreme downpours that dump massive volumes of water over short time frames, punctuated by extended dry periods that create drought conditions. This shift not only increases the risk of catastrophic landslides in hilly, deforested or development-heavy regions like Wayanad, but also threatens food and water security across the entire subcontinent.

  • A southern Chinese region reels from floods and destruction from remnants of tropical storm

    A southern Chinese region reels from floods and destruction from remnants of tropical storm

    As remnants of Tropical Storm Maysak dumped historic volumes of rain across southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, authorities and local residents are grappling with widespread destruction, massive displacement, and a growing humanitarian crisis that emerged by Wednesday. As of Tuesday evening, regional officials confirmed six fatalities and 11 people still unaccounted for in the flood disaster, with more than 130,000 local residents forced to evacuate their inundated communities, according to the region’s official propaganda office.

    Many stranded residents remained trapped in affected areas waiting for emergency rescue teams to reach them, even days after the worst of the rainfall began. Lu Xiaofei, a professional working in the nearby tech hub of Shenzhen, shared details of her brother’s trapped family in Lu Village, located in Guangxi’s Qintang District. Her brother, his wife, their 9-month-old infant, his parents, and elderly grandfather have been confined to the second floor of their home, after floodwaters rose to more than the height of an adult. Since Tuesday morning, the household has been cut off from both electricity and running water, Lu told the Associated Press in a phone interview.

    Lu added that her brother reported flood levels climbed further overnight, leaving the family in an increasingly desperate situation: their supplies of drinkable water are nearly exhausted, and local emergency responders have not yet reached their community. Dozens of nearby villagers face identical unaddressed crises, she said. Many other trapped residents have turned to social media to plead for assistance, posting footage of their submerged neighborhoods and drawing public attention to critical shortages of food, water, and emergency supplies.

    Local Chinese outlet Litchi News has also reported a secondary hazard spreading through Hengzhou City: snakes from commercial breeding facilities were swept away by floodwaters and are now loose across populated areas. Multiple residents have reported the loose snakes attempting to enter local homes, with more than a dozen people already bitten by the wandering reptiles, according to a local villager quoted by the outlet.

    China’s National Meteorological Center confirmed that relentless heavy rain has pummeled central-eastern and southern districts of Guangxi since last Saturday. Cumulative rainfall totals have hit between 100 and 400 millimeters (4 to 16 inches) across most affected areas, while the hardest-hit locations have recorded more than 900 millimeters (35 inches) of total precipitation. Forecasters warned that additional heavy rainfall would continue to batter the region through Wednesday, worsening already dangerous flood conditions. In response to safety risks, multiple regional passenger train services have been suspended indefinitely.

    As Guangxi continues its emergency response to Maysak’s aftermath, a new severe weather threat is already approaching southeastern China: Super Typhoon Bavi is projected to make landfall in the region over the coming weekend. The extreme weather disaster in China is part of a broader pattern of deadly monsoon and tropical storm activity across South and East Asia this season. In southeastern Bangladesh, monsoon rain-triggered landslides have killed multiple Rohingya refugees, including five children, while neighboring India has seen more than a dozen fatalities from severe monsoon flooding across its northern and eastern regions over the past three days.

    This reporting featured contributions from AP writer Fu Ting based in Washington, D.C.