[000:00:00;00] awe, death, injuries and evacuations mount in europe as a blistering heat wave keeps the continent in its grip. but while the record temperature is dominate conversations and headlines in many countries, european union leaders are already worried about a winter that could prove just as brutal in the face of a looming energy crisis. the you today laid out a plan, a road map on how to get through the cold months with little or no rush and gas for now the proposed measures are voluntary and promised to put the often question european solidarity to a historic test. i'm nichol for alicia and berlin, and this is the day

ah, russia is black mailing us. russia is using energy as a weapon. gas from compass much gas is needed. europe is shut everything down that every member states show to reduce the use of gas. we can make it safely through this winter. i don't know if it's worth going into the details of energy policy in european countries. it seems to them that very well to have it, i guess the most you regard as an agreeable level of nervousness in the european energy market, whether it's a partial major cut off of russian gas or total cut off of russian gas. europe needs to be ready. ah, also coming up, b. u. s. president resorts to executive action to push through climate policy. can

america make the transition to clean energy even without the help of congress? i come here to day with a message as president, i have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. and that's what climate change is about. oh, to our viewers around the world, it's good to have you with us. our house is on fire. those were the words of great tune berg addressing the world economic forum in 2019. she was a learning of the devastating consequences climate change was bound to have on all our lives. to day europe, the house of hundreds of millions is on fire, as it has been for days and in some regions for weeks, while fire fighters throughout the self keep battling the blazes authorities in france, spain and portugal are finally able to report improved conditions with searing temperatures slowly abating and france, the area around bordeaux has been one of the worst hit on wednesday. president

munger mccomb visited firefighters and locals, who have been dealing with the fire emergency there for more than a week. and here's what he had to say. national goodness of the changes we were experiencing, not only effect france, they affect the entire mediterranean region and even beyond the real hope that several european countries and countries that would not experiencing great fires a living through an acceleration of to rick consequences of climate change. and so all of this will require us to make structural decisions in the coming months for the coming years in what you again for, nathan, if you and the w barbara hazel has been covering the story on the ground and has more it's been really badly hit the honda, the regions house of for dough, which has the lovely atlantic coast beaches and we've seen this morning because the police brought us there. the forest that have been burned right down to the sea. it's amazing side because the scorched trees and right into the,

in the glowing and white sand, there is so all that is gone that vacation paradise for the next years. however, what will happen here is that the firefighters, after 9 days, they're still at it, they are cautiously optimistic. they have brought the fire somewhat under control. it's not spreading anymore, but it's still gardening. and 9 days that is a long period for, for us to burden and we can see it here. the, the scorch trees they after, while they sort of just simply catch fire again. and they start burdening again, even after though they've been down with water. just half an hour before, so it's not done yet, but they hope that the worst might be over here in a couple of days. they ain't wave, has been steadily moving east across the european continent. much of germany felt the full power of the sun to day, with maximum temperatures falling just short of 40 degrees. still,

it was the hardest day of the year. with it came government health warnings and extreme fire alerts and a capital berlin. people were looking for any way to cool. often our reporter william glue croft caught up with some of them. yeah, indeed. i mean, there are, people are trying to cope. people are trying to make the most of it. i was up at one of berlin's many public pools earlier today and was able to talk to some people who were trying to escape the heat and get a little bit of refreshment. let's hear what some that to say, ne, as a sense on it. i think it's extreme, but it's still possible to do something about it. here in germany, it's still just about manageable, big. so while i think it's quite hot, it's still bearable, but it won't be for long. it's getting worse. like honestly i well it's, it's a much darker. it comes up, i'm privileged i work from home. i'm self employed. so i can choose my workplace. i'm lucky. i know it's harder for others. a friend of mine as waitressing in a cafe and 40 degrees celsius. that's a whole different thing. yeah,

you hear from those of people that people are trying to enjoy, but there is a recognition. this is very difficult, especially for someone who like behind me can't just come to this fountain or go into a museum behind me to get some relief from the people still have to work with difficult service jobs who just have to grin and bear it. and it could be very stressful, very dangerous for that, or the human body really to, to get through it. ah, the sweltering heat might be the most acute challenge for your of right now. but the next is already waiting around the corner with russian president vladimir putin threatening to turn off a tap on the north stream. one pipeline. europe is bracing for a crippling gas crisis this winter. now the european commission is asking every one to pitch in to soften the blow of a looming worst case scenario. the european commission has asked you citizens to use less warm water,

so which of the lights and turned on the heat and air conditioning to prepare for a wind. so without rush and gas, russia is black mailing us. russia is using energy as a weapon and therefore in any event event, whether it's a partial major cut off of russian gas or total cut off of russian gas, europe needs to be ready. and in order to be ready or to laugh under line, had one big message. every one in europe has to save energy starting now. the u. s . asking all member countries to reduce their gas use by 15 percent. first on a voluntary basis. then in case of severe gas shortage is the measure it could become mandatory. it's a scenario that you commission hubs to avoid. if we do nothing, once things, sure, we will have shortfalls. and shortfalls will not just affect the countries where

the shortfalls happen. they will affect every single member state because they will have serious consequences on our economy. and she solidarity among you members is said to become a big topic in europe once it gets colder. but it's not at all clear. all 27 states will get in line. they're not all equally dependent on russian gas and face different levels of emergency. we have seen ongoing, for example, closing down their energy market border. not, you know, allowing our floor out of the country of garza. if for these it becomes sir an action they cannot be on their governments. if these countries start to close down their energy markets, we are going to be in trouble because the ear won't be able to draw on enough energy sources to fully replace fresh and gas by the winter. despite efforts to build new terminals for

a liquefied natural gas boost when your boss and ramp up gas inputs from other countries like us or by john current gas storage levels are far below the ears minimum target of 80 percent. after a hot summer, a very tough winter is looming and is now dr. d w. correspond, and ben triggered here is in brussels band. and this is of course only a proposal for the time being. but looking at the general direction of travel, are we likely to see some e u countries reducing their industrial activity to save gas for other countries households? rossi, originally this could be possible, but this is not the measure that the you is aiming for. the main focus now lies on saving energy of 15 percent. every country has to save it, and these guys should then be stored in the underground storage to use it in winter

to be prepared and to avoid any shortages either for households nor for industry. and the priorities haven't changed in that plan. households and vulnerable infrastructure like hospitals will get gas 1st, then industry. and they will cut off of the things like swimming pools or trade furs and everything that is connected to leisure, to safeguards and guests to sell shall also not be used to, to produce electric power. this should be done by coal and also by oil, and also by nuclear energy. was left on a line says this plant heavily depends on the solidarity as member estate. we briefly heard as a victor of on a from hungary and is that he and everybody else on board? no, they are not on board to hungary excluded any exchange of care supplies with its neighboring

countries and hungry is not the only one that is skeptical other countries that are not so dependent on russian gas ask, why should we save gas? why should we the supply our gas we get from norway, or old algeria, or something like that to other countries? so this will be a big discussion or amongst the member states. but the commission is hoping that the scope of this emergency of the crisis will force them to cooperate and to actor similar to their, the way they acted during the pandemic. so come together and show some solidarity in the international monetary fund war. and yesterday that a complete embargo of rush and gas could lead to a severe recession in many countries. can you tell us who would be most mon ruble and what preparations are being made? they're interested enough. it's also hungary. there is one the road here because it depends on russian gas. it's the czech republic. it's slovakia, but it's also germany,

austria and italy. a who'd knew who need this gas for the industries, if these industries shut down than the whole of the european union would be affected? the recession would not be or isolated in germany, austria, it would effect everything because supply chains and production lines are so intertwined in the you, in the internal market, you cannot separate them. last year they, you imported some 40 percent of its gas and rush hour successful, have a 10th of diversifying away from russian energy supplies. been yeah, the commissioner is telling us that the shop around for a gust supplies around the road actually from the united states to katara. and they managed to get the, the reliance on russian goes down. hm. 40 to 30 percent as you. but still 30 percent is too much, so this has to be saved. it still mones through

a gap of 30000000000 cubic meters. to w correspondent, bentley got in brussels. thank you so much for that update. ah. in the united states, the dual problem is of energy security and climate change dominated the presidential agenda. today, joe biden announced new executive orders on climate policy direct action that doesn't require the approval of congress. this comes just days after divisions and his own party quashed hopes for sweeping legislation on the environment this year. as is backed up, the u. s. president chose a former coal fired power plant in massachusetts. that is shifting to offshore wind manufacturing, as the embodiment of the transition to clean energy that joe biden is striving for, but has struggled to realize so far in his presidency. the actions announce on wednesday did not include declaring a national climate emergency, which would give the president even more power to address the crisis. climate

change is literally existential threat to our nation and to the world. so my message today is this, since congress is not active as it should. and these guys here are, but we're not getting many republican votes. this is an emergency, an emergency, and i will, i will look at it that way. i said last week, say it again loud and clear as president. i'll use my executive power to combat climate. the climate crisis, the apps is, are congressional actually was bringing neat hoffman. he's the founder and director of the center for global sustainability at the university of maryland on the u. s. and he's also been a senior climate advisor to the u. s. government. mr. huffman, welcome, president biden has called climate change. quote, an existential threat to our nation. and to the world, why is the stopping short of declaring a national emergency? well, i don't think we should read too much into the timing of the national emergency. to be honest, i think that the, they're probably going to be,

i understand that they're going to be reviewing that and potentially declaring it next week or the week after that or something. i think the more important thing that, that, that we're seeing today is that kind of recognition that climate is an urgent issue . the, the fact that he's kind of making it back on his central agenda is quite important . and i do think that as we're thinking about the substance of the actions that are coming out of the government at this time after the congress has had this sort of problem of, of delivering on biden's larger agenda. i think what we should be focusing on is, is not just these kind of executive actions that are happening this day and maybe next week in the week after. but also looking at the regulatory actions that happen out of the executive branch, which are rooted in existing legislation that can actually deliver a substantial amount of action on climate change over the course of the next couple of years and beyond. what are those and what impact will they have?

yes. so i think that this is kind of the way the u. s. system works. you know, we have some laws that are passed by congress. once those are passed, we have to, you know, deliver them through regulatory action. that's similar to a lot of places around the world on. but basically what happens is that, for example, if you look at our vehicle fleet, there's a, there's an ability by the environmental protection agency to regulate, to regulate the fuel economy standards for vehicles. and that's something that's very conventional. it's not controversial in terms of like the legal questions around it, so we'll likely see additional actions happening on those kinds of things. for vehicles, we're seeing continuing action on reducing methane. methane leaks from the oil and gas industry proceed. additional actions on energy efficiency standards and more in, in the, and those actually do aggregate to quite a lot on that's been a central pillar of us climate action in, in, in past administrations. and actually biden has done a lot of that stuff already just hasn't been as visible as the discussions that have been had on capitol hill, mr. hoffman. we'll keep talking in a bit. but 1st,

let's listen to another part of my speech today. while so many governors and bears have been strong partners in this fight to tackle climate change. we need all governors and measures. we need public utility commissioners, the state agency heads. we need electric utilities and developers to stand up and be part of the solution. so all hands on deck is what biden is calling for. but mr . hoffman, there are at least 15 states where governors openly deny or question. the existence of human made climate change. so how realistic is it that the change needed to avert a climate catastrophe will be achieved on that level? well, it's important to remember that in the u. s, we do have a federal system. there's a lot of policy authorities that do in fact, reside with states and even cities and, and others. if you look at the way that this works for in the united states, what happens is that the bottom up actors are often pioneering the most ambitious

policies and work that we've done has shown that over the u. s. if you look at the climate, the climate friendly actors in states, cities and businesses, it represents over 70 percent of u. s. economy. that's an economy, roughly the size of china's, of that, of actors that are taking steps to day to address climate change in and ambitious way. and one of the things that then happens is that these actors take steps that actually deliver emissions reductions in their own states. that benefit their own citizens directly, but they also make it possible for other governors, other places around the country to look to those examples and see, look, maybe they don't sort of talk about climate change. but maybe they like the jobs that come with clean energy, for example, wind electricity in texas. and so they might, in fact take steps to enhance clean energy, even if there are oppositional on climate as a general philosophy. they might now when it comes to reducing consumption and emissions, the u. s. is in a very different position than europe. nobody is threatening to turn of gas supplies. isn't studying millions of people on for

a winter without heating today. that problem was addressed by the european commission. let's listen in and get right back to you. we have to address and this is for the 1st time our energy security at the european level put in is trying to push us around this winter. and this he will dramatically failing if we stick together and we'll get then stronger out of this crisis than we went into this crisis and deeply context and hope and is still with me. so without an autocrat breathing down people's necks, where will the impetus in the us come from to trigger more urgent climate action and shift to renewable energy? well, i think what we will see is that there's, there's going to be increased pressure as we talked about a minute ago on the sub national actors. so there will be increased pressure in states and cities and other places for those entities to do more. there will answer undoubtedly be increased action happening at the federal executive in regulatory space. so in other words,

like we talked about before from the biden administration, not from congress, but through these executive actions. and in terms of your question about where the social pressure comes from, i think that actually if you look at polling, yes, we do have a country with very polarized politics. and i think we need to see that and recognize that for what it is at the same time. support for clean energy, specifically, and jobs that relate to clean energy is extraordinarily high, often pushing 70 or 80 percent in even diverse diverse political contexts and even support for addressing climate change has been growing rapidly. in fact, now a majority of americans believe climate change is a threat and an issue that needs to be tackled. how that refract specifically in the policy environment that they're in, in wyoming or texas or wherever it is. that's actually something that we'll have to see there will continue to be federal action. but ultimately, i think we're, we're going to see the impetus, primarily from the us, is actually on the positive story of clean energy jobs and positives sort of aspects of the technologies that are in fact better whether it's heat pumps or

electric vehicles. that people then choose with some policy support to deploy more rapidly. alright, i want to quickly ask you about the commission today, asking member states to reduce gas consumption by 15 percent. heavily relying on voluntary cutbacks by citizens. what do you think of that approach? well, we've someone else's that is certainly i've seen and we've done some ourselves, shows that there are plenty of good opportunities to deploy technologies rapidly. and as your earlier reports noted, to sort of enhance supply wherever possible. but it looks like that might not be enough for this winter. and frankly, at that point, you do have to look to reducing consumption. and a number of studies have shown that even simple steps like reducing thermostats, by a degree or, or 2 degrees, but not much in households across europe can actually make a huge dent in consumption. and i know it's coordination issue, and i know it's a question about how many people will in fact do that. but those are quite

effective if you can get people to get on board. all right. need help and thank you so much. thank you. ah, russia is the invasion of ukraine has that political analysts asking themselves if taiwan could be next. china considers the democratically govern island its own territory. one major concern is that beijing could, as sees a taiwanese outpost, like the kin men islands. they were a watershed in the chinese civil war. they're politically part of taiwan, but are close to the chinese coast. and many residents are pro china. during the pandemic, i want to spend a direct fairies and flights to the mainland and those links still haven't been restored. locals now fear will be abandoned by taipei and swallowed up by beijing. t w's. joyce lee reports the ferries from kidman to mainland. china have been idle for 2 and a half years. so is the tourism industry on the island?

won't show megs. so in the shop has suffered from the lack of tourist visiting, but he's also worried about security and relations with china fell on the valuable me. rejected what i want to peacefully unify with china equal. we must not quit our ties else, we will become enemies. our ties of china have prevented warmth, shine and no use the people of kin. women are not hostile. are lou savvy wound attackers? we are lot brothers now. she the one shows us a bomb shout. i liked the one he hid in as a child, when the communist attacked his from their generation that experienced war with china. now he says he would accept anything to survive. power, good battle pots. yo, jim, and you say followed she leave taiwan and china go to war. canada would be done for you. would you the high one can't. protectors is too far away to give his military support. if war comes,

i will defense to the communist. as for the sake of survival, which other ethiopia tinman was an antique holeman as frontline during the cold wall residents were cut off from even their relatives on may 9, china. and they were also unable to freely travel to mainland taiwan. many felt like they didn't belong to either side. opening direct links to china 20 years ago . east cross tray tensions can madness now the most pro beijing part of taiwan. it's only 5 kilometers away from the chinese. said he, salmon, many came my residence hoping to build a bridge to get to the other side portrayed and medical care. but opponents rejected the idea calling it a trojan horse that could aid a, china's invasion henry learners of the generation that, that not experienced a fighting. he built his war game business on widespread interest in recent history

and wants to show customers was at stake to day who finder hawaii ties. so do a lot of the older generation fought so hard to defend our land. so we can have such an advanced democratic and free country who if we give out so so easily. it's of a communist fallacy for blood and sweat and efforts will be in vain. by fidel henry has family and business ties with maine and china. the economic growth day impresses him. but he says, tie wants, freedoms are more important. quote, who gave me good when you knew who the communist regime control was your mind. we must be loyal and obey or dislike a robot. whereas in taiwan, we encourage diversity and individuality. to me, freedom of fort and expression are very important to me. also, of course, i don't want to reunify with china, dies of which you all work with. people in 10 men disagree over whether they want to join china. but they all want to avoid a war that will surely be devastating. the day is almost done,

but the conversation continues online. you'll find us on twitter either at c that we news or i'll meet nickel underscore. thank you so much for spending parts of your day with locust on the loose again in sardinia. a huge swarm has overrun until

nella, our farm monk of hard work destroyed, and we just a few hours. the farmer is desperately looking for ways to deal with the locus. play. one, unfold, focus on europe. next on d, w. innovation. bring it on new ideas and conventions are what drives the economy, the engine, their social progress. but do they really make our lives easier? is this what our future will look like? oh, made in 60 minutes on d. w. people in trucks injured when trying to free the city center more and more refugees are being turned away and the water

a for the credit on it is with people fleeing extreme ross getting 200 people around the world. more than 300000000 people are seeking refuge. yes. why? because no one should have to flee. make up your own mind. d. w. made for mines with . hello and welcome to focus on europe. thank you for joining us for this week's