Anthony Harris, a local worker, wipes sweat from his face as he works with E-Z Bel Construction along Fredericksburg Road during an excessive heat warning in San Antonio, Texas, the US on July 19, 2022. Photo: IC  

A firefighter sprays water over festival-goers on the fourth and last day of the 30th edition of the musical festival Les Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix-Plouguer, western France, on July 17, 2022. France and Britain went on high alert on Monday, bracing for record temperatures from a punishing heat wave as deadly wildfires raging in parts of southwest Europe showed no sign of abating. Photo: VCG

 As the "unprecedented heat wave" is scorching Europe and the US, self-claimed climate change leaders and vanguards, especially the US, are struggling to deal with the pressing crisis. With US President Joe Biden hesitating to declare climate emergency, and European countries forced back to use coal again, Chinese scientists said those facts should cool Western countries down from chiding China on the issue of coal; and make them realize people's lives should be the priority. 

With top environment officials from China, the US and Europe holding frequent meetings recently, experts noted the warming globe is pressing major powers to join hands in tackling this dilemma. They urged Washington to stop sabotaging climate cooperation with China, as it is US' paranoia and poisoned political situation that stands in the way of achieving fruitful results with China, and delivering positive climate achievements to the world. 

The heat wave in the UK and Europe continent has made worldwide headlines in recent days. The UK recorded its hottest-ever day on Tuesday, with temperatures hitting a high of 40.3 C in the east of England, as London's fire service tackled several blazes across the capital, CNBC reported.

Across the English Channel, record temperatures across Europe have claimed the lives of at least 1,500 people, with train tracks buckling and fires raging across the continent, according to ABC Australia.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Tuesday that Europe's heat wave could persist into the middle of next week, whereas the negative impacts of climate change are bound to continue at least until 2060s.

Heat alerts covered more than 20 states on Tuesday and Wednesday across the Southern Plains and parts of the Northeast in the US, and temperatures will soar above the century mark for 60 million people over the next week, according to CNN. 

In China, the scorching heat that engulfed southern China for weeks is expanding further to northern parts of the country, said the country's National Meteorological Center (NMC). Jiang Debin, an official from China Electricity Council, told the Economic Daily that despite the heat wave, plus the country's fastened pace in resuming production, "demand and supply of electricity are balanced, and there's no power rationing or power cuts." 

In an interview with the Global Times, Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer at WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch Programme, said that he expects above-average temperatures all over the globe to become a trend. "The reason is that, whereas heat waves are a normal atmospheric phenomenon, the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause the atmosphere to retain more heat makes heat waves more likely and its temperatures more severe. We have been seeing this trend for a number of years now and it is likely to continue in the future," said the WMO scientist. 

"The scientific community agrees that increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are responsible for the rising temperatures throughout the planet. Therefore, the only way to stop and revert the trend in higher temperatures is to make reductions in greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale," said Labrador. 

Rail passengers pass an electronic sign warning of 'Extremely hot weather' forecast for July 18 and 19, advising commuters to only travel for essential journeys, at Kings Cross station in London on July 17, 2022. The UK's meteorological agency on Friday issued its first ever "red" warning for exceptional heat, forecasting record highs of 40 degrees Celsius next week.

West tumbles under heat wave
Despite suffering a historical heat wave that is wreaking havoc on society and economy of European countries and the US, the West who has labeled itself as the vanguard on climate change, is tumbling in dealing with the thorny issue. 

Rejoining the Paris climate pact is hailed as a symbolic and practical first step for Biden after he took office last year. Yet when the heat wave became more pressing, Biden only plans to promote new efforts to combat climate change, but not declare an emergency that would unlock federal resources to deal with the issue despite increasing pressure from climate activists and Democratic lawmakers, AP reported. 

Experts said that Biden's hesitation in declaring climate emergency is a vivid demonstration of how US' ambitious verbal promises will eventually end up being dwarfed by its petty actions.

Declaring climate emergency may meet legal hurdles, and the US mid-term election will throw Biden's efforts in great uncertainty as a Republican controlled House of Representatives may not allow allocation of funds, Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

He noted that unlike China's concept of building "a community with a shared future for mankind," US politicians always eye their own benefits, and the US system, focused on capital, totally ignores global equality and human values. "The inconsistency of its words and actions … And the country's system makes the US an unreliable country in leading climate change," said Wang. 

In Europe, major countries like Germany and the Netherlands are turning to coal to ensure they have enough power to keep the air conditioning running, and, in a few months, the heat on, according to Global News. This is partly reluctant response to Russia's decision of cutting back its gas exports to European countries following the Ukraine crisis. 

Europe's forced returning to coal should have the West realize that people's lives come first, and policy formulating needs to couple with this goal, Yang Fuqiang, a research fellow at Peking University's Research Institute for Energy, told the Global Times in response to Western constant criticism of China's move to "boost coal output." 

China aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

China's short-term goal and long-term goal are coordinating with each other, said Yang, noting that for example, the government stressed to avoid power rationing, because the heat wave is also engulfing China, and people's lives need to be guaranteed. 

A new cooperation area
Recently, environmental officials between China and the US, China and Europe held talks to discuss climate issues. China's environment minister, Huang Runqiu visited the US last week, where he met with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, deputy administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Janet McCabe and Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. 

The two countries have opened up their markets for technical services and products related to addressing climate change and ecological and environmental protection, Huang said, adding it strongly supported low-carbon energy transition and improving the quality of the environment and ecology for a "win-win."

On July 9, Vice-Premier Han Zheng and Frans Timmermans, executive vice-president of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, held a virtual meeting, where both sides agreed to deepen cooperation on environment, climate and energy.

Experts said climate cooperation has been pressing big powers such as China, the US and Europe to join hands, as the climate crisis may come faster than predicted. 

China has made the gesture to cooperate as a responsible big power, it is the US, who talks about cooperation on the table and kicks China under the table, said Yang, noting Washington's paranoia and its highly politicized and poisoned political environment, which is also suffering from "Sinophobia," has always hindered actual cooperation.

Sun Shao, a senior researcher at the National Climate Center affiliated with the China Meteorological Administration, who has cooperation with the United Kingdom Met Office told the Global Times that one of the symbolic projects that highlight climate cooperation between the UK and China is the CSSP-China project, which aims to build strong partnership between UK and Chinese climate scientists. Since being established in 2014, scientists from both countries have made great strides in researching extreme climate, and some of their results were implemented in real life.