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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

This week, China, Japan and Taiwan have been struggling with heavy floods and deadly storms caused by the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri and an additional tropical cyclone, Typhoon Khanun.

Extreme rain battered Beijing, Tianjin and the province of Hebei in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri in late July, causing widespread flooding and damage in a region the size of Britain.

The storms, which have killed at least 20 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, were the worst to hit China in over a decade, with Beijing experiencing its heaviest rainfall in 140 years.

A man stays on a vehicle partially submerged in floodwaters after the rains and floods in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China Aug 3, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

A reservoir in Beijing’s Changping district logged a precipitation reading of 744.8mm (29.3 inches) between Saturday and Wednesday, the most in the city in over 140 years and far exceeding the previous record of 609mm set in 1891.

Besides the remnants of Doksuri, warm and humid air-flows and water vapor brought by Typhoon Khanun slowly moving in the Western Pacific created the conditions for the heavy rains, according to Chinese meteorologists.

From coping with dangerously swollen rivers to helping residents trapped in waterlogged cities, China’s disaster-response systems are being put to the test.

One severely affected area in Zhuozhou is the township of Matou, where roads turned into rivers, power and drinking water supplies have been cut, mobile phone signals are down and many residents are trapped in their homes.

China dispatched thousands of rescue workers on Wednesday to Zhuozhou, with more rescue teams rushing over from neighboring Henan and Shanxi provinces, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Rescuers in rubber rafts and boats plied Matou’s waterlogged streets, stopping to belay trapped residents down from high-rise buildings. Some residents were carried to safety by large forklifts, a state broadcaster reported.

Farmlands in southern Hebei, northern Henan and western Shandong provinces have been waterlogged, the agriculture ministry said. Some corn crops were deeply submerged, with only the tops of the plants showing above the water, clips on the Chinese social media video  platform Kuaishou showed on Wednesday. The clips carried a location tag of the southern Hebei city of Baoding.

China will allocate 432 million yuan ($60 million) in flood relief funds to support agricultural output hit by heavy rainfall in eight provinces including Hebei, the ministry said.

In Japan, the typhoon has also struck its southwestern Okinawa prefecture. The storm is expected to veer westwards in the East China Sea, but then turn northeast, potentially towards Japan’s third largest island Kyushu.

An elderly woman in Okinawa died when her house apparently caught fire because she was using candles since the power had failed, NHK public television said. The other fatality was a man in his 90s crushed when a garage collapsed. At least 62 people in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures were injured, NHK added.

Over in Northern Taiwan, the region shut businesses and schools while airlines canceled dozens of flights on Thursday as the slow-moving Typhoon Khanun skirted past the island’s northeast amid warnings of floods and high winds.

In Taipei, rain and wind have brought down dozens of street signs and trees, while subway services were reduced and food delivery services were suspended. The storm cut power to more than 16,000 households across Taiwan although the majority of them have been restored.

Reef fish swim above recovering coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

In response to the announcement by the UK government that it will be issuing new licences for North Sea oil and gas, Dr Ashok Sinha, CEO at climate solutions charity Ashden, said:

“The announcement by the government to expand fossil fuel production is entirely wrong-headed and dangerous. 

“As we see what the UN General Secretary has described as human-induced ‘global boiling’ occurring across the world in the form of killer heat, flash floods and wildfires, the government is fuelling the fire by investing in more carbon emissions, not less. 

“Plus, at a time when the US and EU are ramping up their investment in the green economy, creating new jobs and attracting inward investment, UK policy is going backwards, threatening the UK’s future economic competitiveness, and creating jobs that will only have to be made redundant later on. 

“Scare tactics about Putin’s Russia won’t wash. The best pathway to energy independence is to slash demand in the first place, by finally embarking on an industrial scale energy efficiency programme, and by accelerating the exploitation of the UK’s abundant sources of renewable energy. 

“This will not only free us from fossil fuel dependence but also keep our homes warm in winter and cool in summer, and slash fuel bills for everyone.”

Alison Rose’s resignation from NatWest leaves just one woman in charge of a major western European bank, highlighting an acute gender imbalance that persists across the sector despite pledges to increase female representation.

Across the broader financial services sector, a recent study by EY found that hiring of women at board of directors level in Europe had actually dipped.

Companies appointed women to 44% of board openings in the 12 months through June 2023, down from 52% during the previous year. The overall gender split has nevertheless improved to 43% female and 57% male on the boards of European financial firms, EY found, from a 37%/63% split a year ago.

Palestinian team distribute bags made of cloth in a new campaign in Gaza called “Replace It” which is a new no-plastic campaign, in Gaza City July 23, 2023. REUTERS/Arafat Barbakh

Today’s spotlight highlights some circular economy examples through a recycling campaign promoting cloth bags over plastic totes in Gaza, Palestine, while a vineyard in Catalonia, Spain, reuses water for cleaning and its vines to survive the drought. 

The “Replace It” campaign in Gaza is distributing bags made of cloth to encourage residents to avoid using plastic totes, which can end up in the sea or littering the streets.

Under the project, funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), young Palestinian women and men tour the streets, educate passersby and store owners about the dangers of the excessive use of plastic to the environment, and offer them cloth bags to use instead.

Winegrower Oriol Roig walks pass a dry grape stock line at Cava Vilarnau’s field, in the Cava production area of Penedes, south of Barcelona, Spain, July 12, 2023. REUTERS/ Albert Gea

Vineyards across Catalonia’s renowned Penedes cava-producing region are so parched that the roots of 30-year-old vines have died, leaving shriveled red and green grapes languishing under the intense sun – to the sector’s dismay.

As droughts and higher-than-usual temperatures are expected to intensify as a consequence of climate change, some producers are seeking creative solutions, hoping to reduce the use of water.

The Vilarnau winery is reusing water for cleaning to also water vineyards, separating vines so they suffer less of what they call “hydric stress” and using other seeds and varieties considered more drought-resistant.

“Earth Overshoot Day (Aug. 2) has shot forwards since calculations began, falling on Christmas Day in 1971 and Aug. 5 40 years later. Although the rate of progression has slowed in the last decade, this does not represent progress and structural change is required to reverse the damage of the past 50 years.”

Chris Williams, CEO and co-founder of UK-based waste management software firm, ISB Global

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date each year when humanity’s demand on nature is estimated to have exceeded Earth’s biocapacity.

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