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By Megan Rowling [[link removed]] | Acting Climate Editor

El Niño returns

The heat is on – even more so, with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declaring today that El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years.

El Niño is a climate pattern that occurs naturally when the surface of the Pacific Ocean warms – but, as the WMO warns, it takes place in the context of climate change and sets the stage for a likely surge in global temperatures and more extreme heat in many parts of the world this year.

It can also bring disruptive impacts such as severe drought in Australia and Indonesia, or increased rainfall in the southern U.S. and the Horn of Africa.

Those things on their own don't necessarily spell disaster, however – it’s the responses that matter. El Niño turbocharges the growing risks of flash floods and wildfires, for example.

Many countries are now working to protect themselves better from fires, as we reported this past week from Nepal [[link removed]], France and Britain - which just experienced its hottest June on record.

Members of Nepal's army try to control a forest fire at Shivapuri National Park overlooking Kathmandu, Nepal April 11, 2021. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

After hundreds of fires broke out on a single day in London a year ago following record temperatures of 40C, the Forestry Commission wants to implement best practices from places like Australia and the U.S. to make Britain's urban areas more wildfire-resistant [[link removed]], Jack Graham reports.

And in France, whose southwest coast saw blazes gobble up pine forests and campsites last summer, our correspondent Jo Gill covers the debate over how to balance commercial needs while replanting in a way that helps make forests less vulnerable to fires [[link removed]] by introducing more biodiversity.

Women of the seaweed

Seaweed is another part of the natural world at risk from rising temperatures, which could curb its ability to provide vital income to coastal communities and store planet-heating carbon dioxide. As a versatile crop threatened by ocean warming and volatile weather, it’s not immune to the very problems it might help solve.

For over 30 years, families on the island of Palawan in the Philippines have championed seaweed. But nowadays, they sometimes find storms have ripped their harvest from its ropes – or heat has made it decay from disease. Watch our video [[link removed]] – and read our story [[link removed]] on the Cherish Fisherfolk Cooperative of mainly women seaweed farmers, named after the 1984 song by American band Kool & the Gang.

Giant kelp grown in one of Kelp Blue's experimental kelp forests in Shearwater Bay in Lüderitz in ǁKaras region, Namibia, April 23, 2023. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Lisa Ossenbrink

Seaweed is also proving a hit in Namibia, where giant kelp forests are being used to make crop biostimulants that can help cope with drought and could one day generate ‘blue’ carbon credits [[link removed]]. The business run by a Dutch startup – co-founded by a former Shell engineer – is also providing green jobs in the former diamond-mining town of Lüderitz.

AI for clean energy

Meanwhile, as the world of climate diplomacy winds down for the summer, it's a good time to start thinking about some of the blockages to climate action I and others discussed at a London Climate Action Week event on those "Hidden Handbrakes" last Friday, organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development ( recording available online [[link removed]]).

Here's one major problem: the lack of fundable clean energy projects in developing countries that could absorb the finance governments are asking for.

And here are two potential solutions: providing technical expertise and risk mitigation [[link removed]] to make projects more attractive to private-sector investors; and a proposed global platform harnessing AI and machine-learning [[link removed]] that could identify renewables projects worth $2 trillion within two years, according to its backers.

We'd love to hear [mailto:[email protected]?subject=Climate solutions - big ideas!] of other big ideas you might be working on!

Megan

This week's top picks Small solar power firms eclipsed in India's renewable energy race [[link removed]]

With limited capital and rising costs, small enterprises lose out as India expands solar power plants and manufacturing

Green shipping can cut emissions and boost developing nations [[link removed]]

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has one more chance to commit to a 1.5C future

Can Nepal get to grips with worsening climate-fuelled wildfires? [[link removed]]

Climate impacts from rising heat to drought fuel record wildfires in Nepal - raising concerns over the country's fire strategies

London's burning? UK seeks to snuff out rising wildfire threat [[link removed]]

Extreme heat is not just fuelling wildfires in Canada and southern Europe but raising the risk in nations like Britain and Sweden

France's wildfires ignite debate over future of forests [[link removed]]

As drought-hit France deals with another fire season, experts see opportunity to better adapt man-made woodland to climate change

In Namibia, kelp forests help lock up planet-heating carbon [[link removed]]

Giant kelp forests being used to make crop biostimulants and other biotech products could one day generate 'blue' carbon credits

Read all of our coverage here [[link removed]] Editor's pick Seaweed can do lots of things. Can it survive climate change? [[link removed]]

For over 30 years, families have championed seaweed on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.

They have been growing seaweed cuttings on ropes in the ocean and harvesting them to make chips, noodles, and carrageenan, a valuable additive. In addition to its commercial benefits, it could also be key in fighting climate change.

[[link removed]]Discover more Nature [[link removed]] Climate Risks [[link removed]] Net Zero [[link removed]] Just Transition [[link removed]] Climate Justice [[link removed]] Green Cities [[link removed]] Thank you for reading!

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