Sustainable Switch Climate Focus: Storms hit China and Mexico

June 20 - This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch Climate Focus newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change on Fridays.

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This week’s Climate Focus takes a look at the storms that have wreaked havoc across China and Mexico.

Central and southern China were on high alert for more flash floods on Friday as the annual East Asia monsoon gathered pace and extreme rainfall threatened disruption in the world's second-largest economy.

Extreme rainfall and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for policymakers. They threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions and wreak havoc on China's $2.8 trillion agricultural sector.

China's rainy season, which arrived earlier than usual this year in early June, is usually followed by intense heat that scorches any crops that survive waterlogged soil, depletes reservoirs and warps roads and other infrastructure.

Economic losses from natural disasters exceeded $10 billion last July, when the rainfall typically peaks.

Over in Mexico, Hurricane Erick weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall on the southern Pacific coast on Thursday, leaving flooded streets and damaged boats and buildings in Oaxaca as authorities warned of dangerous rains.

In coastal towns, residents began clearing debris. "There are many boats sunk here," fisherman Eduardo Gonzalez said in Puerto Escondido. "We're here to help our colleagues."

"Life-threatening flooding and mudslides are expected, especially in areas of steep terrain," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, forecasting up to 8 inches (20 cm) of rain for Guerrero state with up to 4 inches for its neighboring Oaxaca and Michoacan states.

Mexico's environment ministry also had warned of waves of up to 10 meters (33 feet).

WHAT TO WATCH

- Saving the seas:Click here for a video on marine scientists working to restore underwater forests in Greece's northern Cyclades and click here for a Reuters story on scientists demanding action to protect environmentally important meadows of seagrass at Croatia’s Dugi Otok island in the Adriatic Sea.

Do check out this Reuters story on the vital underwater forest in the cold seas off Chile's arid northern coast that scientists say are threatened by warming oceans and human pollution.

CLIMATE LENS

Water watch: Since 2014, India has lost 60.33 billion units of coal-power generation across the country - equivalent to 19 days of coal-power supply at June 2025 levels - because water shortages force plants to suspend generation, according to federal data. Click here for a Reuters analysis on India’s coal power boom facing challenges with water supplies.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

$10 billion

That’s the amount raised in deals at a United Nations conference to protect the world's oceans – way below the estimated annual need – as investors seek clearer regulation on ocean management before committing funds. Between 2015 and 2019, only $10 billion was invested against the U.N. estimate of $175 billion in required annual funding.

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Editing by Andrew Heavens

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