Climate Change Turns Up Global Political Heat

(Bloomberg) --

Much of Europe is bracing for the hottest day of the year, with record temperatures forecast for Germany, France and the U.K.

Whether it’s drought in India, wildfires in California and Siberia, or flooding in Argentina, the impact of freak weather events attributed to climate change is being felt worldwide, and forcing itself onto governments’ radars.

Voters in seven European Union countries now name climate change as their No. 1 concern, above the economy, jobs or immigration. Incoming EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to make environmental policy the bloc’s top priority.

That’s not without contention, with major coal-burning countries like Poland wary of moves to tax carbon. In places like the U.S., Australia and Canada, climate and the environment is a key electoral battleground.

It’s not necessarily a left-right political issue. China is making inroads in battling air pollution, while Boris Johnson referenced the U.K.’s effort to tackle climate change in his first speech as prime minister yesterday. Emmanuel Macron put climate at the heart of France’s Group of Seven presidency, and the current heatwave bolsters his case at next month’s G-7 leaders summit.

For President Donald Trump, simply pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord hasn’t made the issue disappear.

Global Headlines 

Just in: Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has died at the age of 92, the presidency said in a statement.

Great purge | On his first day as U.K. prime minister, Johnson took an ax to his predecessor's cabinet and populated the top ranks of government with like-minded Brexit hardliners. It was a new, brutal-yet-efficient side that emerged in a man who has undergone a startling transformation from has-been to undisputed leader in 12 months.

Missiles aloft | North Korea fired two missiles into the sea off its east coast, raising the stakes just before stalled nuclear disarmament talks with the U.S. were set to get back on track. Leader Kim Jong Un has pressed Trump to drop sanctions choking his state's economy, and the tests may have been a reminder that if the dealings sour, Pyongyang has weapons capable of quickly striking American military bases and allies.

Tricky path | Two hundred days into her second stint as U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi is waging battles on her right and her left as well as against the calendar. The Democrats’ lead combatant with Trump is trying to keep ideological fissures from becoming yawning chasms that will hobble her party in the 2020 election.

• Click here for more on House passage of pension legislation aimed at giving Democrats an edge next year with voters in the Midwest’s union-heavy states.
• And read more about Democratic presidential aspirants’ efforts to lock down black voter support in the latest edition of Bloomberg’s Campaign Update.

Leadership void | Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello’s resignation is fomenting fresh uncertainty in the U.S. commonwealth as it struggles back from a ruinous hurricane and navigates a record bankruptcy. Rossello, whose decision follows two weeks of protests, was undone by popular fury after the publication of profane, vengeful and misogynistic text messages among him and his aides.

Fire sale | An investor darling who oversaw a 2,400% surge in shares of Latin America’s largest car rental company is leading one of Brazil’s biggest privatization efforts yet. As Rachel Gamarski reports, former Localiza CEO Jose Salim Mattar is on a mission to sell more than 100 state-controlled companies as President Jair Bolsonaro seeks to deliver on his promise to offload assets in a bid to spark much-needed investments and boost public accounts.

What to Watch

• Turkey’s central bank is expected to lower interest rates today — estimates of how much vary from 50 basis points to 8 percentage points — after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan installed Murat Uysal as governor, having fired his predecessor for failing to cut sooner.
• Spain’s Socialist party rejected demands made by a key potential coalition partner, pushing Pedro Sanchez’s bid to stay on as prime minister to the brink of failure and making a fourth election in as many years more likely.
• The U.K. and France are among U.S. allies spurning the Trump administration’s call for a coalition to protect ships passing through the Persian Gulf amid Iranian attacks on tankers and drones, Nick Wadhams reports.

And finally…A Swedish prosecutor has charged U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky and two other people held in remand since July 5 on suspicion of committing an assault in Stockholm. The case has drawn unusual diplomatic attention after Trump announced he’d offered to “personally vouch” for the performer's bail in a phone call with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. Musician Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian West had lobbied Trump to intervene.

--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Jon Herskovitz and Rosalind Mathieson.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Anthony Halpin

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