June 26 – July 2, 2026
  A weekly digest on impacts, politics and science of the climate emergency from the Global South perspective. You can find this digest in the web here.  
     
Dear readers,

Welcome to the Climate Weekly Digest by the Centre for Science and Environment’s Climate Change and Green Economy programme and Down to Earth.

A new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has revealed that renewable energy projects commissioned in 2025 helped avoid $480 billion in fossil fuel costs globally. Down to Earth’s Puja Das writes that renewable energy continued to strengthen its cost advantage over fossil fuels, with over 90 per cent of the newly-added utility-scale renewable capacity generating electricity at lower costs than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternatives. Solar PV, onshore and offshore wind all maintained or improved their cost advantage over conventional fossil sources.

Across 20 major economies accounting for four-fifths of global renewable energy generation, renewables helped avoid about $377 billion in fossil fuel purchases in 2025. China accounted for the largest savings at $177 billion, followed by the United States at $35 billion, Brazil at $32 billion, India and Germany at $18 billion, and Japan at $15 billion. Furthermore, even as geopolitical tensions in West Asia raised the cost of conventional power generation in early 2026, existing renewable energy assets helped countries avoid fossil fuel price shocks, reinforcing the role of renewables in improving energy security and economic resilience.

In climate finance updates, global climate finance flows crossed $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, according to the latest Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2026 report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). Das explains that climate finance has continued to grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic, energy market volatility, sovereign debt pressures and geopolitical conflicts, signalling a maturing market for climate investments. However, annual growth in climate finance flows slowed down sharply to 6 per cent in 2024 from from 16 per cent in 2023 and 22 per cent in 2022. CPI’s estimates suggest that annual climate investment much reach at least $6.2 trillion by 2035, raising concerns over whether capital can be mobilised fast enough to meet global climate goals.

Lastly, the latest episode of the Carbon Politics podcast was released on Sunday, June 28.  In this episode, titled “The IPCC in the Age of Misinformation”, CSE Climate’s Trishant Dev speaks to Dr. Minal Pathak and Dr. Aditi Mukherji, two IPCC authors from India, who discuss the workings of the IPCC's assessment cycles, why climate science continues to be misunderstood and contested, and how the next assessment cycle, AR7, is taking shape.
   
 
Down To Earth
 
By - Upamanyu Das
Climate Change and Green Economy, CSE
 
 
   
 
EXTREME WEATHER TRACKER
 
   
 
Global daily sea surface temperature breaks record in June 2026, hints at global marine heatwaves, 01 July 2026
Down To Earth
 
   
 
Down To Earth Imprint of El Nino, other weather patterns on India’s deficit June 2026 rainfall, 30 June 2026
 
   
 
COMMENTARIES
Ozone pollution spreading across Indian cities, says new CSE analysis, 30 June 2026
Delhi-NCR emerges as largest regional hotspot; Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Patna severely affected
 
     
 
Development is hard power, clean energy is security: Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2026 sounds the alarm on a fractured world, 29 June 2026
Compounding weight of conflict, energy shocks and shrinking development finance demands not a retreat from multilateralism, but a reinvention of it, say speakers
 
   
  CLIMATE NEWS | SCIENCE| IMPACTS| POLITICS  
   
 
Down To Earth
Renewables save $480 billion in fossil fuel costs in 2025 as price advantage widens: IRENA, 02 July 2026
Existing solar and wind fleets act as a financial buffer during gas price spikes, with China, US and Brazil leading global savings
 
   
   
 
Down To Earth
Monsoon advances but July rainfall to be below normal with high day and nighttime temperatures, 02 July 2026
July is an important month for monsoon rainfall and contributes 32 per cent of the seasonal total
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Could this be Australia’s warmest winter ever?, 02 July 2026
Abnormally warm conditions in Australia are likely to continue for at least the coming weeks
 
   
 
Down To Earth
A severe El Niño could threaten something essential to half of humanity — rice, 01 July 2026
Poorer nations dependent on rice imports, such as the Philippines and West African countries, will be worst hit
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Assam and Arunachal have remained rain-deficit in June. Yet they are flooded; here is how, 30 June 2026
Intense rain over a network of sub-Himalayan rivers is to blame, say experts
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Cooperation in a fragmented world: Inside London Climate Action Week 2026, 30 June 2026
As record heat gripped London, leaders sought to turn climate ambition into action before COP31
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Global energy demand rises 1.7 per cent in 2025 as clean power hits milestone, Asia remains emissions hotspot, 30 June 2026
Coal consumption in Asia exceeded 138 exajoules, driven largely by China and India. Oil demand growth slowed, while gasoline and diesel consumption remained broadly flat over the past two years
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Summer’s new normal is a hazard that’s testing Europe’s climate resilience, 29 June 2026
As lethal heatwaves become routine, Europe scrambles to adapt cities built for a cooler past
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Centre unveils VB-GRAMG planning framework with focus on water, roads and climate resilience, 29 June 2026
Geospatial, outcome-based framework to steer 125-day rural jobs scheme towards water, roads and resilient livelihoods
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Bihar's rooftop solar push through demand aggregation enters implementation phase, 29 June 2026
The utility-led aggregation model used by the state needs an implementation framework that goes beyond contracts and tariffs
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Global climate finance tops $2 trillion for first time, but growth slows as investment gap widens, 26 June 2026
Climate finance growth is slowing at a time when acceleration is essential
 
   
 
Down To Earth
$57 billion. That’s how much extreme heat costs women informal workers every year, 26 June 2026
More exposed to extreme heat, women in informal labour have the least protection from its effects
 
   
 
Down To Earth
Europe is battling a record‑breaking heatwave. What’s making it so severe?, 26 June 2026
High-pressure ‘heat domes’, warmer seas and El Niño are amplifying Europe’s latest bout of dangerous, record-breaking heat
 
   
 
Down To Earth
El Niño is coming. India isn’t ready for who it hurts most, 26 June 2026
The question is whether people and communities in Kolar, the Sundarbans and Marathwada will be treated as the centre of the response, or left once again to absorb the costs of a crisis that arrived with months of warning attached
 
   
 
    Carbon Politics: A Video Podcast by CSE
 
    Simply Put: Europe heatwave
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This weekly digest is published by Down to Earth and the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based global think tank advocating on global south developmment issues.
We would love your feedback on this weekly digest. To speak to our experts for quotes and comments on the above stories. Please email to vikas@cseindia.org
 
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