The Lead

July is on course to become the hottest month in recorded history, with the average global temperature for the month poised to surpass the record from July 2017.

Even though there’s still time left in the month, dozens of climate scientists are making this prediction. “It’s looking like there’s a strong likelihood that we will end up with the warmest month ever,” suggested Brian Brettschneider, a climate researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Jack Williams of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has also insisted that “we’re on a good pace right now to beat that record” from 2017, as has Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University.

Researchers believe that the average global temperature for this July will be slightly more than the July 2017 mark, which was 2.16 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th century average for the month. There’s a “greater than 50/50” chance, said Mann.

Should the global heat wave hold, the anticipated hottest month ever would come on the heels of the hottest June recorded since modern-record keeping began in roughly 1880, NBC News reports.

In Canada

Canadian Natural Resources, the country’s largest oil and gas producer, is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its oilsands operations to net-zero by focusing heavily on innovation.

The company did not attach a timeline to its stated goal, but executive vice-chairman Steve Laut offered that it is “good to have a big target,” adding that it will “take some time and it won’t be easy, but there’s a lot of technology out there.”

Canadian Natural Resources has already made progress toward its goal since 2012, cutting GHG emissions per barrel of oil produced by 29 per cent and methane emissions by 78 per cent using a variety of innovations, including carbon capture technology. In fact, the company is able to capture up to 2.7 million tonnes of GHG emissions annually.

Laut described Canadian Natural Resources’ performance over the last decade as “game changing,” adding that the company has “got a lot more to go.”

CBC News has the full story.

Internationally

For the first time ever, renewable sources of energy have recently surpassed the total electricity production of coal and nuclear power combined in Germany.

In the first six months of 2019, renewable sources of energy including solar, wind, biomass, and hydro accounted for 47.3 per cent of Germany’s power generation, compared to 43.4 per cent for coal-fired and nuclear plants.

The transition — mostly attributable to an increase in solar panels, natural gas, and a marked decrease in black coal use — contributed to a 15 per cent reduction in carbon emissions compared to the same period last year, the Independent reports.

On Wednesday morning, Brent Crude was at US$64.26 and West Texas Intermediate US$57.33.

Noteworthy

In Opinion

Considering that the global heat wave shows no sign of breaking — not to mention the plethora of other recent extreme weather events — we “need to significantly change our behaviour and, even more importantly, overhaul our economic system,” Arya Mahdawi argues. “After all, only 100 companies are responsible for 71 per cent of global emissions,” she writes in a column for the Guardian.