Environmental developments worldwide in July 2021

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - July saw several reports on climate change and the environment, including record-breaking fires in the Amazon rainforest and unprecedented heat waves in Canada as well as large and intense forest fires around the world.

Canada's unprecedented heat wave saw a record temperature with a UN agency signaling climate change as “the defining challenge of our time.”

Here is a look at environmental developments, reports, events and stories compiled by Anadolu Agency.

July 2:

- Brazil’s Amazon region in June recorded the most forest fires for that month in 14 years, according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which compares the number of fire spots for the same month of previous years.

- Canada's unprecedented heat wave sees a record temperature of 49.6C (121.2F), extending as far south as the Antarctic, according to the World Meteorological Organization that warns climate change “is the defining challenge of our time.”

July 5:

- China launches Fengyun-3E, a new weather forecasting satellite into space, which gives Chinese space authorities the ability to monitor and report global snow and ice coverage, sea surface temperature, natural disasters and ecology “to better respond to climate changes.

July 6:

- "Significant improvement" has been achieved since the 2015 Paris climate deal in efforts to limit global warming, physicist and climate scientist Bill Hare says at a side event of the Asia Pacific Climate Week (APCW) 2021.

July 7:

- People often see businesses at the heart of environmental sustainability and a little over half have faith there is enough time left to tackle climate change, according to a study of 16 countries by London-based market research firm Mintel.

July 8:

- An international team of climate scientists and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center says it found man-made climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions makes heat waves at least 150 times more likely to occur.

July 12:

- At a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, John Kerry, the US envoy for climate, urges industrialized countries to take action to combat climate change.

July 16:

- The central bank of Japan announced it will offer zero-interest loans to aid financial institutions to address the challenge of climate change.

- Turkey's Trade Ministry releases landmark Green Deal Action Plan that includes 32 objectives and 81 actions in nine categories to power Turkey’s transition to a more sustainable, greener economy in line to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

July 17:

- A Scandinavian heat waves, lethal Western European rainfall, Siberian smoke and record North American heat causing devastating wildfires are among catastrophes that include "human-made climate change," according to the World Meteorological Organization.

- Parts of Turkey’s Black Sea region hit by flooding and landslides to be officially declared a disaster area, says nation’s president.

July 20:

- An extremely large and intense wildfire in the US state of Oregon is now so hot it is affecting the weather.

July 21:

- A state of emergency went into effect in British Columbia (B.C.) as about 300 wildfires rage in the Canadian province.

July 22:

- A meeting of the environment and energy ministers of the Group of 20 rich nations begins in Naples, hosted by Italy, the rotating president of the G20.

July 23:

- Water-related hazards dominated the list of disasters for human and economic toll in the past 50 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

July 28:

- Monsoon rains in Bangladesh have affected more than 12,000 Rohingya refugees while an estimated 2,500 shelters have been damaged or destroyed in the southeast, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

July 30:

- About 83 million people will die from global warming-related issues in the 21st century without major changes to carbon emissions policies, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications.