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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

As the world registered the hottest month of all time in July, a Reuters photographer captured how residents in a southwestern city in the United States dealt with severe heat in a special report, whilst Italy’s health ministry recorded more deaths than normal after a baking heatwave.

The city of Phoenix shattered its own 1974 heat-wave record, with temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43°C) for 31 straight days.

Reuters photographer Carlos Barria spent three days in the city with his FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) camera, which captures the surface temperature of people and landscapes, and revealed how temperatures rose to dangerously high levels.

Firefighter EMT personnel assist a man who collapsed during heat wave with temperatures over 110°F(43°C), near downtown Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Heat-sensitive photography in late July reveals an even hotter Phoenix, where concrete on the street registers 150F (66°C), outdoor workers’ bodies reach 105F (41°C) and homeless people swelter, surrounded by surfaces as hot as 143F (62°C).

Before 10am at one of the city’s favorite sites – the Desert Botanical Garden – the thermometer is already at 111F (44°C), but a Saguaro cactus records a surface temperature of 120F (49°C). A man walks on a road with no shirt and a bottle of water. The camera puts his temperature at 105F.

The summer monsoon rains that historically help Phoenix residents and the vegetation cool down have been scant this year and even the cacti have started to collapse. Health workers say hospitals have been inundated with patients suffering from heat-stroke, sometimes life-threatening.

“We’ve had patients that are 111 degrees. Your brain cannot handle that that long,” said Dr. Frank LoVecchio, Valleywise Health in Phoenix. Patients are put into an ice slurry to bring their temperatures down as quickly as possible.

Speaking of life-threatening heat, the central and southern regions of Italy recorded 7% more deaths than normal in July after a baking heatwave, health ministry data showed, while firefighters battled fires on Sardinia and hailstones and floods battered the northeast.

Italy has been at the forefront of extreme weather events since a heat wave hit southern Europe last month, with scorching temperatures leading to increased risk of fires and deaths.

In its latest monthly data, Italy’s ministry of health noted the effects of extreme temperatures on the country’s mortality rate in July compared to the average rate recorded in the same period from 2015 to 2019.

It noted that record temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius have caused more fatalities than expected in the population aged 75 and over. The increased mortality rate was particularly evident in southern cities such as Bari, Catania, and Reggio Calabria.

Over in Iraq, with temperatures that can go above 50C (122F), Iraqi building sites have long been a hazardous place to work in summer. Laborers grapple with bricks that are too hot to touch and tiles that can burn.

The risks are growing in a country which the United Nations has identified as the fifth-most vulnerable to climate change, prompting calls for a rethink of work practices and better safeguards – in construction and more widely.

More than a dozen workers Reuters spoke to between Basra and Baghdad said they had regularly seen colleagues faint on building sites, and even fall from buildings when the temperature got too high.

Indigenous Australians and supporters march through the city centre to “abolish the monarchy” , in Sydney, Australia, September 22, 2022. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy

Shawn Kreloff, founder & CEO of U.S.-based renewable natural resources firm Bioenergy Devco, talks about food waste and the need for alternative energy supplies: 

“As the fight against climate change becomes more urgent, the focus on toxic emissions has increased. 

“Every week, dump trucks load a million tons of food waste and haul it off to be incinerated, where it is burned and released as an environmental pollutant.

“It is projected that by 2025, 75% of all organic waste must be diverted from landfills to ensure methane emissions from buried waste are greatly reduced and increase edible food recovery by 20%.

“The adoption of innovative waste conversion technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, at scale greatly addresses not only the challenge of waste management but also provides a sustainable solution to meet our energy needs.

“Anaerobic digestion, a natural microbial process, efficiently converts organic waste into biogas, which can be used for electricity generation, heat production, and it is poised to reshape our energy landscape, delivering greener power, cleaner air, purer water, and healthier soils.

“By reducing food waste and harnessing the power of anaerobic digestion, significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved, simultaneously improving air, water, and soil quality, while creating a sustainable circular economy.”

As floodwaters began to drop over the weekend, residents of the Chinese city of Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, say their challenges have only just begun.

Zhuozhou bore the brunt of the worst storms to hit the northern province of Hebei in decades. More than a sixth of the city’s 600,000 inhabitants were evacuated.

“Our difficulties are only beginning now,” a Zhuozhou resident Wang Dan, told Reuters on Monday. “What’s next will be the most bitter.”

Solar panels are pictured at a solar energy park in Saelices, Spain, May 11, 2022. Picture taken May 11, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Guillermo Martinez

We’ve got solar fever in today’s spotlight as solar power during heat waves in southern Europe have helped quell power surges whilst a solar panel maker in Canada sets expansion plans in motion.

A major increase in solar power generation in southern Europe played a leading role in averting energy shortages during the heatwaves of recent weeks when temperatures broke records and drove unprecedented demand for air conditioning.

“The very significant growth in solar basically compensates for the peaks that are caused by air conditioning,” Kristian Ruby, secretary general of electricity industry group Eurelectric, said of the situation in Spain.

Spain and Greece are among the countries that have installed many more solar panels in the face of record high energy prices last year and the quest for increased energy security linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Panels given final electroluminescence and AI visual inspections at the solar panel factory in Iron Mountain, Minnesota, U.S. in this undated handout image. Heliene/Handout via REUTERS

Over in Canada, solar panel maker Heliene is planning a major expansion of its U.S. manufacturing operations with a new Minnesota factory that will produce both modules and cells, its chief executive told Reuters.

Heliene, which is privately held, will spend about $145 million on the new facility, which will be in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. It will have an annual capacity of about one gigawatt of modules and 1.5 gigawatts of cells, CEO Martin Pochtaruk said in an interview last week.

“As we endure another summer of record-breaking heat, communities continue to be left vulnerable to the health and safety risks of extreme temperatures, such as heat strokes. Tree planting and shading are solutions, but beating the heat will require a toolbox of urban cooling solutions.”

Jeff Terry, vice president of corporate social responsibility and sustainability at U.S. manufacturing company GAF

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