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Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Maxine is back from vacation today and taking the reins of the newsletter again. Send tips and advice for surviving D.C.'s heat and humidity to maxine.joselow@washpost.com. But first:

Other countries have declared climate emergencies. They've been ‘wholly symbolic,’ activists say.

In June 2019, the Canadian government declared a national climate emergency, calling the Earth's rapid warming a “real and urgent crisis” for the country and the planet.

The next day, the same government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which would triple the amount of crude oil that moves from the Alberta tar sands to the Pacific Coast for shipment around the world.

That may seem like a contradiction. But environmental activists say that climate emergency declarations in 39 countries around the world — including Canada, Japan and the entire European Union — have been more about virtue signaling than substance.

However, activists argue that President Biden, who is considering declaring a climate emergency in the coming weeks, could issue a declaration that temporarily unlocks new powers to bolster clean energy and curb investments in fossil fuels.

“Canada's climate emergency declaration was wholly symbolic,” Eddy Pérez, international climate diplomacy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, said in a text message. “Declaring a climate emergency in Canada didn't come with new powers or the ability for the federal government to do more. It hasn't stopped Canada's support for fossil fuels.”

But Pérez, like other climate activists interviewed for this report, said he would welcome a climate emergency declaration from Biden.

“If by declaring a climate emergency President Biden helps bring back the U.S. from its current path toward climate failure, with a Congress kidnapped by fossil fuel interests, then of course I'd support it,” he said.

In April 2019, after 10 days of climate protests, Britain's Parliament voted to declare a climate emergency, making the United Kingdom the first country to do so.

But today, as the U.K. swelters under an extreme heat wave, activists say the government has yet to release a credible plan for reaching its goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“Unless these declarations are backed by real plans and concrete policies that rapidly reduce emissions, they risk invoking climate action in name only,” Joanne Etherton, head of climate at ClientEarth, a London-based environmental law group, said in an email.

Following in the U.K.'s footsteps, 39 countries and thousands of towns, cities, and counties have issued their own climate emergency declarations.

“I’ve not seen any tangible evidence that NYC’s declaration of a climate emergency had any discernible policy impacts. It was symbolic and ‘feel-good,’” Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, said in an email.

“Of course, that is a local dynamic,” he added. “At the federal level, we join our allies across the country demanding a national climate emergency declaration.”

If Biden declared a national climate emergency, he could unlock executive authority to tackle the climate crisis, even as ambitious climate legislation appears doomed in Congress, according to activists and some Democrats.

In a February report, the Center for Biological Diversity argued that an emergency declaration would empower Biden to take the following steps:

“This is an emergency, by any definition, and Biden’s powers to address it are real, not symbolic,” Jean Su, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email. “If he deploys every single one of them, he can slow this runaway climate catastrophe.”

On Saturday, activists demonstrated outside White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain’s Maryland home to demand a climate emergency declaration:

🚨BREAKING🚨: We just went to @WHCOS @RonaldKlain’s house in Chevy Chase to tell him the #climatecrisis is a 4 alarm 🔥 asked him to deliver a card from our kids to @potus. The police REFUSED to deliver our card but we know Klain heard us. Declare a #ClimateEmergency NOW! pic.twitter.com/n2xMYBOQb3

A White House spokesman declined to comment on a potential climate emergency declaration. But a White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said the administration would announce new initiatives this week to mitigate wildfire risk and protect communities from extreme heat.

More than 100 million Americans sweltered under heat alerts over the weekend, with heat indexes across the Northeast reaching triple digits, Meena Venkataramanan, Marisa Iati and Brittany Shammas report for The Washington Post. 

The exceptional heat has been tied to increased susceptibility to illness. Officials urged people to stay hydrated and watch for signs of heat-related illness, as people flocked to pools and cooling centers in cities stretching from Boston to D.C.

London hit 104 degrees. That’s like 129 in Phoenix.

Temperatures have been soaring across the globe this month, with highs in London and Hamburg in northern Germany reaching 104 degrees — a number that seemed unthinkable in previous generations, Naema Ahmed, John Muyskens, Kevin Schaul and Jason Samenow report for The Post. 

Compared to large areas of the western and central United States that are arid, landlocked and routinely exceed 105 degrees, the average July temperatures in those parts of Europe rarely go above mid-70s. 

To put these records in context, The Post and the nonprofit Climate Central calculated what the high temperatures would feel like in U.S. cities:

Last week, Madrid matched its highest temperature on record of 105 degrees and experienced its hottest night ever at 79.1 degrees. In a country where only one-third of homes have air conditioning, many people congregated in air-conditioned workplaces and public spaces.

Temperatures remained warm throughout the night. Elevated nighttime temperatures can make it difficult for people to cool down and can lead to heat exhaustion, strokes and death. In the past week, nearly 900 people in Spain have died of heat-related illnesses.

Dublin set an all-time record this month at 91.4 degrees, Ireland's highest temperature in the 21st century. People flocked to beaches to cool down, and at least one wildfire appeared about 15 miles south of the Irish capital. The heat wave was exceptional but short-lived, with rainfall returning to the region this week.

The Forest Service on Friday said it is taking emergency steps to save California’s giant sequoia trees from the increasing threat of wildfires by speeding up projects to clear brush that serves as fuel for the blazes, Brian Melley reports for the Associated Press. 

The agency said it would bypass some environmental reviews for such projects, potentially shaving years off the normal approval process for cutting smaller trees in national forests and using prescribed burns to reduce brush.

Already, wildfires have killed up to 20 percent of the world’s largest trees over the past two years. The agency's move could accelerate efforts to protect sequoias in 12 groves spread across Sequoia National Forest and Sierra National Forest.

“Without urgent action, wildfires could eliminate countless more iconic giant sequoias,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said in a statement. “This emergency action to reduce fuels before a wildfire occurs will protect unburned giant sequoia groves from the risks of high-severity wildfires.”

The agency’s announcement is among a growing list of efforts to save the iconic species that can live up to 3,000 years. The Save Our Sequoias Act, which was introduced by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers this year, also includes a provision to accelerate environmental reviews like the Forest Service plan.

The trees are natural carbon sinks, meaning they can lock away massive amounts of planet-warming gas. But when they burn, much of the sequestered carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere, contributing to further warming.

On Wednesday: The House Natural Resources Committee will mark up the Environmental Justice For All Act from Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.). The measure would direct agencies to follow certain environmental justice standards while creating new funding programs to address the disproportionate effects of climate change on front-line communities.

On Thursday: The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will meet to examine pathways to prevent corporate polluters from obtaining a contract with the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management.