Review finds arrests of four journalists covering climate protests last month were directed by senior officersSenior police officers ordered the potentially unlawful arrests of four journalists detained while covering climate protests on the M25, a review has found.The review makes clear that the arrests of the LBC reporter Charlotte Lynch, the press photographer Tom Bowles, the film-maker Rich Felgate and one other person who has not been named were not simply an overreaction or a mistake by police officers on the ground. Continue reading...

About 85% of the town’s 484 residents chose to stay despite being told to evacuate, with roads out expected to be closed for several weeks

Shingo Yamagami emerges as strident critic of Palaszczuk government’s tiered rate aimed at cashing in on record prices

Exclusive: Environment department allowed National Farmers’ Federation to sit in on meeting about grasslands clearing by Jam Land, the company part owned by then energy minister Angus Taylor

Investors are seeing rising potential in tidal power as turbines become more powerful and easier to deployFor decades the immense practical difficulties of harnessing the powerful tides flowing around Britain’s shorelines have put off investors and government officials searching for big renewable energy sources.But as the costs of deploying turbines in tidal streams fall, more and more people are seeing the potential in an energy source that creates energy as the tides ebb and flow at predictable hours every day – energy that is renewable but not intermittent. Continue reading...

Raptor has not bred in southern England for decades – with only breeding populations found on northern moorlandsHen harriers are to be bred in captivity in England for the first time and released on to Salisbury Plain in a new attempt to revive the endangered bird of prey in southern England.The raptor’s only English breeding populations are on northern moorlands, where the bird has been subject to huge persecution in recent decades because its prey includes red grouse – a lucrative gamebird. Continue reading...

About 30 to 40% of the food in the US goes uneaten each year – and individual solutions such as making a grocery list can address the problemPriyanka Naik has been looking for creative ways to reduce food waste for as long as she can remember. A vegan chef, author and TV personality, she often turns kitchen scraps into inventive new meals and packs up restaurant leftovers – including the bread basket – to take home for later. Instead of tossing the white rice that comes with her takeout meals, which she says she’s “not a huge fan of”, she might throw it in a food processor with beans, potatoes and spices, and shape the mixture into patties for veggie burgers.From a climate perspective, Naik’s approach makes sense. While food waste is difficult to measure, one estimate by the UN Environment Program found that if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses after China and the US. Continue reading...

Partnership between RHS, Natural History Museum and DfE will enable schools to access funding to create green spacesChildren will learn about biodiversity and nature in schools, and perhaps gain new green spaces in the playground, thanks to a new partnership between the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the Natural History Museum (NHM) and the government.The plan is for students to map out the biodiversity in their schools and add it to a nationwide database, as well as supporting teachers to develop curriculum-based climate education resources and lesson plans. Continue reading...

Measure affecting 15 million people comes to end but company urges customers to show restraint in usageA hosepipe ban imposed on 15 million people in England is being lifted after three months, it has been announced.Thames Water said the scrapping of the measure was possible due to recent above-average rainfall and the public’s compliance. But the company, which thanked individuals and businesses for helping save water while stocks needed replenishing, urged them to continue showing restraint in their usage. Continue reading...

A hot air summit? Plus: Russia’s sanction-free diamonds.Get the Guardian Weekly magazine delivered to your home addressCop27 ended in a now-traditional blur of last-minute horse-trading, resulting in the welcome agreement of a finance deal for developing countries affected by global heating. But progress on eliminating fossil fuel usage – the key to slowing climate change – again seemed beyond the international community.Environment correspondent Fiona Harvey looks back at a Cop27 that had some successes, but overall felt like another missed opportunity. It’s a theme we take up in this week’s cover design, which contrasts world leaders’ willingness to be seen at climate conferences with their reluctance to agree much in the way of action. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed

MPs hear concerns that investment in North Sea oil and gas reduces the tax, effectively rewarding fossil fuels over renewablesBP declined to reveal how much windfall tax it would have paid without an investment “loophole” when being questioned by MPs on Tuesday, while fellow energy group SSE raised concerns the levy “favours” oil and gas drilling over renewables projects.Appearing before MPs on the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee, the BP vice-president Matthew Williamson said he did not know how much the firm would have paid without an investment allowance that reduces the windfall tax due if a company invests in North Sea oil and gas extraction. He also declined to say how much BP was spending on renewable energy projects this year. Continue reading...

Activists caused permanent harm to frame holding Peach Trees in Blossom at a London art gallery, judge findsTwo Just Stop Oil activists have been found guilty of causing criminal damage after glueing themselves to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting at a London art gallery.Emily Brocklebank, 24, and Louis McKechnie, 22, caused just under £2,000 of damage at the Courtauld Gallery when they attached themselves to the 1889 work Peach Trees in Blossom, their trial heard on Tuesday. Continue reading...

For decades, world leaders have pledged to reduce emissions, yet they continue to rise, says Richard Mountford. Plus letters from Harold Forbes, Martyn Thomas and John GittingsFor three decades, world leaders at international conferences have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions and greener energy sources have been developed, yet emissions have continued to rise (World still ‘on brink of climate catastrophe’ after Cop27 deal, 20 November). Even as previously extreme weather events become normal and millions of people are displaced by weather-related events, there is still no sign of electorates in richer countries being willing to vote for rationing or much higher prices for car use, air travel, meat consumption and other particularly damaging activities.Clearly, we urgently need a new strategy. The world’s biggest economies or the UN need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps funded by a financial transactions tax, on carbon scrubbing and ocean seeding to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; solar radiation management to reduce warming; and the purchase and protection of land such as rainforest to prevent its destruction.

The continent is now 1.47C hotter than it was in 1910 and sea levels around the coastline are rising at an accelerating rate

The SES cancelled an evacuation order after warning some residents their homes would be inundated

Proposed transmission lines to help meet renewable targets are slated to run through Ripon, held by just 15 votes in 2018

Exclusive: Critics say cut in day-to-day spending will leave department unable to properly tackle issues such as sewage spillsThe government’s environment department is facing a £500m real-terms cut after last week’s autumn statement, as critics say this will leave it unable to properly tackle issues including sewage spillages.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) oversees all things to do with the environment and agriculture, from farming inspections and nature restoration to cracking down on environmental vandalism including fly-tipping and sewage spills. Continue reading...

A list of the five most promising legal steps we can take to help fight climate changeThe world has reached an acute point in the “highway to climate hell”. Talks at Cop27 barely achieved anything, despite the fact that almost one-third of Pakistan’s territory was submerged during unprecedented flooding; record heat over the summer killed nearly 25,000 in Europe; and almost 200,000 people in a major US city have not had clean water for months.It’s all too easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless in the face of such widespread catastrophe. But we as citizens can do something right now. There are many interesting and entirely workable legal ideas percolating around the world from some very thoughtful people. Together, alongside increased citizen activism, these ideas can begin to provide a coherent and comprehensive legal framework for all of us to help save the planet.Steven Donziger is a human rights lawyer and environmental justice advocate. He is also a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Indigenous people in Sweden are battling UK firm over plans for iron-ore mine on reindeer-herding landsThe charity founded in Greta Thunberg’s name has donated £158,000 to cover the legal costs of Indigenous people in Sweden’s Arctic north as they battle a British mining company over plans for an iron-ore mine on reindeer-herding lands.Beowulf Mining, which has its headquarters in the City of London, was given approval in March by the Swedish government for excavation on an area used by the Sami community. Continue reading...

The country is highlighting China’s status as top polluter after being called out for climate inactionThe US, fresh from reversing its 30 years of opposition to a “loss and damage” fund for poorer countries suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, has signaled that its longstanding image as global climate villain should now be pinned on a new culprit: China.Following years of tumult in which the US refused to provide anything resembling compensation for climate damages, followed by Donald Trump’s removal of the US from the Paris climate agreement, there was a profound shift at the Cop27 UN talks in Egypt, with Joe Biden’s administration agreeing to the new loss and damage fund. Continue reading...

More than 630 fossil fuel lobbyists attended Cop27, and the Emirates, where Cop28 will be held, is a major oil and gas exporterFears are growing among climate experts and campaigners over the influence of fossil fuel producers on global climate talks, as a key Gulf petro-state gears up to take control of the negotiations.The United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, will hold the presidency of Cop28, the next round of UN climate talks that will begin in late November next year. Continue reading...

As Anthony Albanese and Dominic Perrottet walk through the disaster zone, residents remind them of the prohibitive costs of flood insurance

The action in the Victorian supreme court mirrors another in the US that was recently settled for $1.3bn

An independent study backs whistleblower’s warning of ‘significant integrity problems’ in carbon market

Just Stop Oil campaigners were held on remand after charges relating to M25 protestsMore than 30 climate activists were behind bars in UK prisons while diplomats from around the world negotiated at the Cop27 UN climate talks in Egypt.Most of the activists, all supporters of the Just Stop Oil campaign, were held on remand after being charged with causing a public nuisance, or conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, in relation to disruptive protests on the M25 motorway. Continue reading...

Oceanographer takes top honours in prime minister’s prizes for science after researching ocean’s role in regulating climate

Exclusive: Most important antibiotics for human health still used in supply chains of major US food companies, risking spread of superbugsSuppliers of beef to McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Walmart are sourcing meat from US farms that use antibiotics linked to the spread of dangerous superbugs, an investigation has found.Unpublished US government records obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian show farms producing beef for meat packing firms Cargill, JBS, and Green Bay are risking public health by still using antibiotics classed as the “highest priority critically important” to human health (HP-CIAs). Continue reading...

Agency dismisses criticisms of the project, insisting it will deliver an overall economic benefit

The loss of the amphibian from Costa Rica’s cloud forest was one of the first linked to global heating, say scientistsDeep in Costa Rica’s mist-shrouded cloud forest, hundreds of bright golden toads would appear suddenly each April to mate. It was a spectacular sight for those who witnessed it: the dazzling, mostly subterranean amphibians gathered en masse around pools of rainwater and fought aggressively for the right to copulate with the females before heading back underground.“It was one of the truly great wildlife spectacles of the American tropics,” says ecologist Alan Pounds, resident scientist at the Tropical Science Center’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve, standing at the centre of the toads’ former habitat. “It somehow looked unreal.” Continue reading...

PM says opposition leader’s claim that climate aid is ‘giving away’ Australians’ money boosts re-election chances of independents and Greens over Liberals

This blog is now closed

In Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port, residents wait to hear whether their village will be chosenOn the site of an old leisure centre, a U-shaped trio of temporary offices sit alongside a neat lawn and fledgling shrubs. Named the “hydrogen experience centre”, this unassuming place is at the heart of a testy tussle that could have implications for how homes across the country are heated.The site, in the village of Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port on the south bank of the Mersey, could become the UK’s first “hydrogen village”. It is being analysed, along with Redcar in the north-east, for potential conversion to 100% hydrogen heating, using the existing gas network and new appliances to update up to 2,000 properties. Continue reading...

Trials of the SharkGuard – which emits a pulse to repel sharks and rays from fishing gear – have produced eye-catching resultsMarine scientists have designed a piece of technology that could drastically reduce shark bycatch by emitting short electrical pulses as a deterrent.The small battery-powered device, known as SharkGuard, reduced the numbers of blue sharks accidentally caught by commercial fishing gear in a French longline tuna fishery in the Mediterranean by 91% and stingrays by 71%, according to a study in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology. Continue reading...

Showers, storms and damaging winds forecast for NSW and ACT as recovery assistance points set up for flood-affected communities

Qualified victory was snatched from defeat at the climate summit with a genuine and surprising agreement on loss and damage. But there’s still no plan to get to 1.5C

Experts say biggest economies must pledge more cuts to carbon emissions but hail agreement to set up loss and damage fund

The creation of a loss and damage fund is a milestone, but a 1.5C limit to the global temperature rise looks even further out of reachThe Cop process often seems to encapsulate the broader global reaction to climate breakdown. Leaders make grand but vague pledges of action; fossil fuel lobbyists (600 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this year) schmooze and press governments into maintaining the status quo; and scientists, civil society groups and those most affected by the climate emergency have to scream to be heard at all. The results are predictable: indecision, evasion, obstruction and buck-passing followed by desperately needed – but desperately inadequate – last-minute action.Given the utter disarray evident as late as Saturday evening, the final outcome of Cop27 is a relief, and in one regard even a cause for celebration. The agreement to establish a loss and damage fund is a historic breakthrough, demanded for three decades by developing countries. The devil will as usual lie in the detail: who will fund it? But it should help to provide the financial assistance poorer nations need for rescuing and rebuilding as extreme weather pummels their populations and infrastructure. And it comes despite the sustained opposition of the US and (until the eleventh hour) the EU. Continue reading...

Despite breakthrough on fund for developing nations, Ursula von der Leyen says Cop27 has not delivered on commitment to phase down fossil fuelsThis liveblog is now closedThe main sticking point of Cop27 has been over the creation of a loss and damage fund – finance provided by rich nations to poorer ones to help them prepare for and recover from the worst impacts of climate breakdown.Some, especially in the rightwing press, have framed this as “reparations”, a highly loaded term. It’s also misleading, as under article 8 of the Paris climate agreement it is explicitly made clear that loss and damage “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation”. Continue reading...

Anger at western hypocrisy heated to boiling point in Sharm el-Sheikh, but after intense talks the impasse was finally brokenOn the eve of the Cop27 climate conference that has just finished in Sharm el-Sheikh, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned of the stark consequences of failure.“There is no way we can avoid a catastrophic situation, if the two [the developed and developing world] are not able to establish a historic pact,” he said, in an interview with the Guardian. “Because at the present level, we will be doomed.” Continue reading...

With the deadly devastation fresh in the world’s mind, Pakistan pushed for damage funds with other frontline countriesIn early September, after unprecedented rainfall had left a third of Pakistan under water, its climate change minister set out the country’s stall for Cop27. “We are on the frontline and intend to keep loss and damage and adapting to climate catastrophes at the core of our arguments and negotiations. There will be no moving away from that,” Sherry Rehman said.Pakistan brought that resolve to the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh and, as president of the G77 plus China negotiating bloc, succeeded in keeping developing countries united on loss and damage – despite efforts by some rich countries to divide them. Its chief negotiator, Nabeel Munir, a career diplomat, was backed by a team of savvy veteran negotiators who had witnessed the devastation and suffering from the floods, which caused $30bn (£25bn) of damage and economic losses. Every day, Munir repeated the same message: “Loss and damage is not charity, it’s about climate justice.” Continue reading...

World leaders, diplomats and activists respond to signing of ‘historic’ deal as climate talks wrap up

Cities are trying hard to keep the festive spirit amid the cost of living crisis and war in UkraineEuropean Christmas markets and illuminations are scaling back due to the energy crisis and climate breakdown – ditching seasonal ice rinks for rollerskating and switching on lights for less time.When the traditional end-of-year markets and Christmas lights launch in France and Germany this week, in many cities such as Paris they will go dark hours earlier than usual. Continue reading...

Every fraction of a degree increases human suffering, so the fight to end the fossil fuel industry must ramp up

In the US, most food waste ends up in landfills while South Korea recycles close to 100% annually, and its model could illustrates some core principlesEvery few months or so, 69-year-old Seoul resident Hwang Ae-soon stops by a local convenience store to buy a 10-piece bundle of special yellow plastic bags.Since 2013, under South Korea’s mandatory composting scheme, residents have been required to use these bags to throw out their uneaten food. Printed with the words “designated food waste bag”, a single 3-liter bag costs 300 won (about 20 cents) apiece. In Hwang’s district of Geumcheon-gu, curbside pickup is every day except Saturday. All she has to do is squeeze out any moisture and place the bag by the street in a special bin after sunset. Continue reading...

Harassment of climate summit delegates and holding pen for protesters mar country’s attempt to polish international reputationAn empty pen designed to contain protesters in the middle of the desert, harassment and surveillance of Cop27 delegates (including evidence that the official conference app could spy on them), food and water shortages, and widespread problems with accommodation have all served to undermine the Egyptian government’s attempts to use the climate talk to bolster its international image.Belgian politician Séverine de Laveleye said she was briefly detained by Egyptian security forces while entering the conference centre simply for carrying badges depicting some of Egypt’s 65,000 political prisoners, including British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah. “It’s clear that human rights aren’t even respected at the heart of the Cop,” she said. “Sisi’s Egypt is one of repression.” Continue reading...

Deal is hailed as potential turning point that acknowledges vast inequities of climate crisisDeveloping countries celebrated on Sunday morning as crucial climate talks ended with a “historic” deal on their most cherished climate goal: a global fund for “loss and damage”, providing financial assistance to poor nations stricken by climate disaster.However, the deal was far from perfect, with several key elements flawed or lacking. Some countries said the commitments on limiting temperatures to 1.5C represented no progress on the Cop26 conference in Glasgow last year, and the language on phasing out fossil fuels was weak. Continue reading...

Developed countries agree to ‘loss and damage’ fund for vulnerable nations, but delay approving wider deal

Protesters sat at tables in the Chelsea venue to highlight ‘perfect inequality’ of high-end diningClimate crisis activists occupied Gordon Ramsay’s three-star Michelin restaurant in London’s Chelsea on Saturday evening to protest at the “perfect inequality” such high-end dining venues represent.Members of Animal Rebellion entered Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea at about 6pm. Continue reading...