Carbon Tracker thinktank says investors in fossil fuels on the continent would be left with stranded assetsExpanding oil and gas exports would threaten the economic stability of many African countries, new analysis has found, despite soaring fossil fuel prices.Demand for fossil fuels is likely to fall sharply in the medium term, according to a report published on Monday by the Carbon Tracker thinktank. That makes relying on gas exports to fuel economic growth a short-term, risky strategy, while boosting solar power would prove a better long-term bet, the analysis found. Continue reading...
Days scheduled to discuss issues such as women’s rights and civil society alongside formal negotiationsWater and the effects of the climate crisis on water scarcity will come under scrutiny on Monday at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh as it enters its second week.The talks are scheduled to end on Friday, though it is likely they will continue at least into Saturday, with new measures and pledges hoped for on issues from greenhouse gas emissions cuts to financial assistance for the poorest nations. Continue reading...
Momentum matters on climate, and he won’t get another chance to make an urgent first impressionIt lasted only three hours, but Joe Biden’s visit to Egypt on Friday afternoon underlined that it was a mistake for Anthony Albanese not to attend the annual UN climate conference known as Cop27.Not a disastrous mistake, but an avoidable one, and a lost opportunity. The prime minister has turned down a chance to argue in front of more than 110 other leaders that his still-new government is serious about pushing for greater action – that, in the words of the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, “we’re back” after years as a global laggard. Momentum matters on climate, and Albanese won’t get another chance to make an urgent first impression. Continue reading...
Delegation at climate summit tell of destruction of protected areas and carbon toll of invasion and rebuildingUkraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to make the case that Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction.Ukraine has dispatched two dozen officials to the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to spell out the links between the war launched by Russia in February, the soaring cost of energy due to Russia’s status as a key gas supplier, and the planet-heating emissions expelled by the offensive. Continue reading...
Why is the government fixated on Sizewell C when geothermal and tidal energy are safe, simple and cost-effective?I do not share your enthusiasm for the “good news” that Sizewell C is believed to be safe from Jeremy Hunt’s budgetary cuts (“Britain can’t afford to waver over nuclear power – soon it will be too late”, Editorial). “On a freezing cold, windless, winter’s evening”, Britain’s grid will indeed need an alternative power source to wind or solar, but why is it assumed that only nuclear can provide an alternative base load? And at the cost of how many billions? And how many decades of lead time?Geothermal could do the job faster, more safely and cheaply – for about a quarter of the cost. Geothermal power plants operate already in the United States, Italy and Iceland. And nothing is more certain and regular than the tide twice a day; sea turbines already operate in tidal flows off Orkney and Shetland and are another safe source of energy baseload. Let us not be blinkered by nuclear.
Portuguese economy minister António Costa e Silva was giving a speech when demonstrators got on to the premisesHundreds of protesters angry about the climate crisis took to the streets of Lisbon on Saturday, with dozens storming a building where Portugal’s economy minister, António Costa e Silva, was speaking, demanding that the former oil executive resign.Holding banners and chanting slogans, protesters demanded climate action. As some demonstrators broke into the building, those outside shouted: “Out Costa e Silva!” Continue reading...
by Patrick Greenfield (now) and Alan Evans (later) on (#65R8Z)
US climate envoy John Kerry has said his country is ready to discuss the loss and damage at Cop27After six years as the big cheese of UN climate negotiations, Patricia Espinosa has been enjoying walking the halls of power not quite as an ordinary Joe and apparently isn’t closely following the negotiations. “It has felt just amazing. I knew that as the [UNFCCC] executive secretary that I was missing so much, and it’s been a really wonderful experience.”Espinosa might not be paying close attention, but we’re starting to see developed countries push back against this year’s hot topic, loss and damage, after developing nations laid out a unified case for why a funding mechanism separate to climate adaptation and mitigation is needed to address the climate catastrophes that can’t be averted. The US in particular has been accused of being a “bad faith actor” due to its long track record of disrupting and delaying progress on the issue. Continue reading...
Project promises to create jobs and restore biodiversity, but locals say it is taking food-growing land out of productionThe rolling fields south of Grantham are scenic, but these huge expanses of wheat and beans are almost bereft of insects in summer. In autumn, a few skylarks sing and the occasional buzzard soars, but there is precious little life in the landscape.But soon a 1,525-acre swath of this productive Lincolnshire farmland will be brimming with wildlife, according to a new company that aims to restore biodiversity and make money by rewilding farmland. Continue reading...
A unique species on Socotra in Yemen, famed for its bright red resin and umbrella-shaped crown, has been in decline for years. Now islanders are leading efforts to save itJust after 4am on the Diksam plateau, near the centre of Yemen’s Socotra Island, a loudspeaker stirs local people from their sleep with the day’s first call to prayer. A heavy fog drifts over the plateau and a breeze ruffles a half-dozen green and blue nylon tents sheltering American and European tourists who have come to glimpse one of the island’s most iconic and otherworldly species: a strange, upside-down tree called the dragon’s blood (Dracaena cinnabari).As the sun rises, the fog recedes, illuminating a small cluster of buildings that form the village, the campsite and, to the west, a single paved road winding its way past the jagged Hajhir mountains toward the northern coast.The rapacious eating habits of Socotra’s goat population are thought to have contributed to the decline of the dragon’s blood tree. Photograph: Jess Craig Continue reading...
Major producers of soya and beef accused of failing to deliver on pledges to stop deforestationThe world’s largest food companies, whose products have been linked to the widespread destruction of rainforests, have failed to come up with an adequate strategy to align their business practices with the 1.5C climate target, according to campaigners.The leading producers of soya beans, palm oil, cocoa and cattle published their roadmap to align with 1.5C earlier this week, promising to develop and publish commodity-specific, time-bound targets on stopping deforestation which will be backed by science and checked each year. The companies include the Brazilian beef firm JBS, the American agricultural firm Cargill and the Singaporean food processing firm Wilmar International. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey, Nina Lakhani, Patrick Greenfield, Da on (#65R73)
Despite ‘loss and damage’ focus there have been more oil and gas lobbyists than delegates from the most vulnerable countriesHumanity is on a highway to hell, with our foot on the accelerator. The message from the UN secretary general to more than 110 world leaders at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt could not have been clearer: change course now, or face “collective suicide”.Greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise this year, research published this week has shown, despite stark warnings from climate scientists in the past year. The prospects of sticking to the 1.5C limit above pre-industrial levels that scientists tell us is necessary have receded to a “narrow window”. Continue reading...
After years of tension with policy-makers, will New Zealand manage to deliver its ‘world-first’ scheme to reduce methane and nitrous oxide in agriculture?Almost 20 years ago, hundreds of furious New Zealand farmers jumped into their tractors, farm bikes and trucks and ploughed up Wellington’s main street towards parliament to kick up a stink against the so-called “fart tax” – a levy on livestock methane gases, proposed by the then-Labour government to reduce emissions.A cow named Energy was led up the building’s granite steps and left an unwelcome mess in her wake. In doing so, she provided the opposition movement with a powerful, if indelicate, visual metaphor: rural New Zealand was ready for a mudslinging match with the capital. Just months later, the government abandoned the tax. Continue reading...
Advocates of plant-based protein say 75% of world’s farmland should be rewilded to reduce emissions• Cop27 live – latest news updatesEnough protein to feed the entire world could be produced on an area of land smaller than London if we replace animal farming with factories producing micro-organisms, a campaign has said.The Reboot Food manifesto argues that three-quarters of the world’s farmland should be rewilded instead. Continue reading...
The US president assured the summit the US would hit its climate targets by 2030 and apologised for pulling out of the Paris agreementThis liveblog is now closedSvitlana Romanko is a Ukrainian lawyer, climate campaigner and founder of Razom We Stand, a grassroots group calling for a permanent embargo on Russian fossil fuels and an immediate end to all investment into Russian oil and gas companies.So far, she’s somewhat disappointed by Cop27:I thought there would be more space to talk about the ongoing horrific fossil fuel war and the opportunity this should represent for a global green transformation, but it feels like these conversations are limited to the Ukrainian pavilion and not happening at the highest levels.EU exports of Russian LNG has risen 46% year-year-on year in the first nine months of 2022, according to European Commission figures, the EU needs to step-up, act more globally and ban all fossil fuels and insurance. We also demand that US institutions divest the billions they have invested in Russia’s carbon bombs. Continue reading...
by Damien Gayle Environment correspondent on (#65QKY)
Three UK countries ‘way above where we should be for this time of year’ says Met Office forecasterBritain’s armed forces have gone on parade on the warmest Armistice Day on record, according to the Met Office, with the country on track for what could be an unprecedented 11th month of above average temperatures.Unseasonably high temperatures led to “exceptionally mild” conditions across the UK, the forecaster said, with the record-breaking 19.5C recorded in Myerscough in Lancashire more than a degree warmer than the previous record of 17.8C at Kensington Palace in London. Continue reading...
Authority lent total of £655m over four years to owner of 53 solar parks across BritainOne of the country’s largest solar farm owners has entered administration amid the fallout from a scandal that forced an Essex council leader to resign.Administrators at Interpath Advisory have been appointed to Toucan Energy Holdings, which owns a portfolio of 53 solar parks with a combined capacity of 513 megawatts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Continue reading...
Waste stored in Kiveton Park building caught fire in September and is proving difficult to extinguishResidents of a South Yorkshire village have been left worried for their safety after spending seven weeks engulfed by toxic smoke from an industrial blaze that fire services are struggling to put out.People who live and work in Kiveton Park, near Rotherham, have been told to stay indoors and keep their windows closed to avoid inhaling acrid, plasticky smoke being emitted from a building storing waste that caught fire on 21 September. Continue reading...
by Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani in Sharm el-Sheikh on (#65QNF)
US president announces plan to cut methane emissions as he urges major economies to ‘step up’ efforts to keep global heating to 1.5CJoe Biden has implored countries to do more to tackle the climate emergency, telling the Cop27 summit that world leaders “can no longer plead ignorance” and that time to confront the crisis is running out.Biden told a large crowd of delegates at the talks, held in Egypt, that the “science is devastatingly clear – we have to make progress by the end of this decade.” The US president stated that America was taking action on cutting planet-heating emissions and that other major economies needed to “step up” to avoid a disastrous breach of 1.5C in global heating. Continue reading...
Argos’s fake tree has built-in fairy lights, hangs on a hook and sits flush on the wall – ideal for a tight spaceDepending on your point of view it is either genius or a depressing idea but retailers are now selling cut-in-half artificial Christmas trees that can be hung on the wall in smaller homes.The attraction of half a tree is that it cuts the need to wrestle with loops of fairy lights or hang baubles where they’ll never be seen while the smaller footprint means there is no need to move all the furniture around your living room to fit it in. Continue reading...
Initiative aims to stop expansion of fossil fuel exploitation, but who supports it and how would it work?It is a proposed treaty to explicitly stop the expansion of fossil fuel exploitation and manage a just transition away from coal, oil and gas to clean energy. Continue reading...
Outcome of climate summit is crucial to ensuring strong targets at Cop15 in December, warns biodiversity headThe outcome of Cop27 will be crucial not just in terms of tackling the climate crisis but to help ensure a future for nature, the UN’s head of biodiversity has said, outlining plans for “a Paris moment for biodiversity” at Cop15 in Montreal in December.“Clearly the world is crying out for change, watching as governments seek to heal our relationships with nature, with the climate,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the convention on biological diversity (CBD), at a media briefing on Thursday. “Scientists have told us in no uncertain terms … that climate change and biodiversity loss are intrinsically connected and that’s why we are looking at the [Cop15] framework as, basically, a Paris moment for biodiversity.” Continue reading...
Environmental group pauses actions to give government ‘time to consider their responsibilities’The Just Stop Oil protests that have disrupted the M25 motorway around London over the past four days are to pause, organisers have said, to give the government time to reconsider issuing fresh licences for oil and gas extraction.The demonstrators said they had chosen Remembrance Day to halt the action to call on Rishi Sunak “to honour all those who served and loved their country” by ensuring a “liveable future”. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#65PQ2)
‘Bleak’ findings come from report at Cop27 that notes ‘no sign’ of urgent cuts needed to stop climate breakdownCarbon emissions from fossil fuels will hit record levels this year, according to a comprehensive analysis. The finding represents a brutal contrast with the need to cut emissions by half by 2030 to restrict global heating to 1.5C and avoid the most devastating impacts of the climate crisis.There is no sign of the decline needed, the researchers said, heaping further pressure on the countries whose representatives are meeting at the UN Cop27 climate summit in Egypt to deliver real and rapid action. Other scientists described the news as “bleak” and “deeply depressing”. Continue reading...
Companies and financial backers are laying the groundwork for a shift in attitudes towards gasGas producers and their financial backers see Cop27 as an opportunity for discussions about rebranding natural gas as a transition fuel rather than a fossil fuel, experts have said.The push is coming from the host Egypt and its gas-producing allies amid a global energy crisis compounded by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...
Exclusive: most extraction points for rivers and groundwater not metered, so government relies on users’ honestyThe government has “no idea” how much water is being taken from rivers and groundwater, according to an Environment Agency (EA) whistleblower, as swathes of England remain in drought despite recent heavy rainfall.The whistleblower told the Guardian that the EA’s regulation of water abstraction points for farms, small businesses and private water supplies was “absolutely pointless” because most were not metered and the monitoring that did take place was unreliable. Continue reading...
Panama Cites convention considers proposals to protect turtle populations also depleted for food, medication and colorful shellsTurtle poaching to meet the rising demand for the species as pets has pushed more than half of the nearly 300 living turtle and tortoise species closer to extinction, a global wildlife conference has heard.The 184-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which is meeting in Panama from 11 to 25 November, has seen one proposal that would ban or limit the commercial trade in more than 20 mud turtle species. More than 10 other proposals have been received that would increase protection for freshwater turtles. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Leader says easing planning curbs would be part of its plan to tap economic potential of wind powerA Labour government would rip up the planning rules restricting the expansion of onshore windfarms as part of a plan to make the UK a clean energy superpower, the Guardian has learned.Keir Starmer admitted that he would have to “persuade some communities to get on board” after Rishi Sunak reinstated a ban, dropped by Liz Truss, on new onshore projects amid fears of local objections. Continue reading...
Joe Biden is on his way to Egypt and more than 50 poor developing countries are in danger of defaultAnd so we are edging towards the end of the first week. Friday is decarbonisation and industry day, with events themed around that topic.The US president, Joe Biden, is heading to Egypt and Asia. He is expected to drop in on Cop27 on Friday before going on to the East Asia Summit in Cambodia and then the annual G20 in Indonesia. It will be interesting to see how that galvanises the discussions.Khaled Ali, the lawyer of the imprisoned hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah, has said he went to the prison where his client was being held but was denied access to visit him.More than 50 of the poorest developing countries are in danger of defaulting on their debt and becoming effectively bankrupt unless the rich world offers urgent assistance, the head of the UN development programme has said.There are a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists at Cop this year. There are 600 of them, an increase of more than 25% on last year, and they outnumber any one frontline community affected by the climate crisis.Obviously, protesters are not happy about this and have called for the “criminal” fossil fuel representatives to be booted out of Cop.Some UK politicians made the rounds, with the net zero tsar Chris Skidmore fitting in no fewer than six events. The business secretary, Grant Shapps, was there too, answering questions about UK oil and gas exploration, and the Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, addressed a couple of panels.Our colleague Damian Carrington brought us two pieces of good news: first, that Israel, Lebanon and Iraq have teamed up to reduce emissions, and that Norway is shutting down plans for a large oilfield.The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made some rather extraordinary comments in which she said Republican politicians believe climate breakdown is a “hoax”.Slovenia is the latest in a long line of European countries to quit the energy charter treaty, which gives energy companies the right to sue governments.The Guardian reporter Nina Lakhani spent much of the day with protesters who were wearing white in solidarity with murdered and jailed environment defenders around the world. Egypt is responsible for a few of those imprisonments, notably Abd el-Fattah. Continue reading...
by Bibi van der Zee, Natalie Hanman and Helena Horton on (#65NQH)
British-Egyptian Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has been on hunger strike for months, stopped drinking water when Cop27 beganThis liveblog is closedWe promised you the full story on fossil fuel lobbyists, and here it is.There are more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists at the Cop27 climate conference, a rise of more than 25% from last year and outnumbering any one frontline community affected by the climate crisis.While the average delegation at Cop1 was 88% male and 12% female, this has shifted over time. For example, Cops 23 to 25 all had an average gender balance of 62% male to 38% female, while Cop26 had a balance of 64%-36%.The provisional gender balance of Cop27 is similar, clocking it at 63% male to 37% female. Continue reading...
Developing countries falling into default would be catastrophic and delay climate action, UN development chief warnsMore than 50 of the poorest developing countries are in danger of defaulting on their debt and becoming effectively bankrupt unless the rich world offers urgent assistance, the head of the UN Development Programme has warned.Inflation, the energy crisis and rising interest rates are creating conditions where an increasing number of countries are in danger of default, with potentially disastrous impacts on their people, according to Achim Steiner, the UN’s global development chief. Continue reading...
Blockade delayed arrival of rescue vehicle, but attending doctor says this had no influence over cyclist’s deathThe death of a cyclist after a traffic collision in Berlin has revived a growing debate in Germany about climate crisis protests.Sandra Umann, 44, was severely injured last Monday when her bike collided with a cement mixer lorry when she was cycling to work. A specialist rescue vehicle dispatched to the scene was delayed in reaching her because of a blockade by activists from the movement The Last Generation. Her death was announced on Friday. Continue reading...
The Office star Rainn Wilson announces he has changed his name to raise awareness of Arctic weather changesThe actor Rainn Wilson says he has changed his name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson to protest against the climate crisis.In a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday, Wilson said: “as a cheap little stunt to help save planet Earth, I’ve changed my name on Twitter, Instagram and even on my fancy writing paper.” It is not clear if Wilson has legally changed his name. Continue reading...
An expedition to find Wallace’s giant bee in the wild led to its ‘rediscovery’ in Indonesia’s Maluku islandsA “flying bulldog” is how conservation photographer Clay Bolt described it, while local people call it raja ofu, or the king of bees. Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto) is certainly a bee-hemoth. The world’s largest species of bee, it can grow to four times the size of a honeybee, with a wingspan of 64mm (2.5in). Such a giant should be hard to lose, but the incredibly rare bee, native to a cluster of Indonesian islands, was feared extinct for nearly 40 years, until Bolt and his colleagues “rediscovered” it in 2019.The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, collected the first known sample of the bee in 1858 while exploring Bacan, one of northern Indonesia’s Maluku (Moluccas) islands. Wallace collected a single female of the species, and noted it as “a large, black wasp-like insect, with immense jaws like a stag-beetle”. Continue reading...
Proposal, a first in 26 years, aims to disburse benefits to communities most impacted by the climate crisisOn Tuesday, New York state voters passed a ballot measure that would fund up to $4.2bn for environmental improvement projects – including increasing flood resiliency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, electrifying school buses and creating more green and open spaces.The proposal also aims to reach communities most affected by the climate crisis. If approved, it will allow the state to sell bonds in order to raise funds to finance several projects.Climate change mitigation: Up to $1.5bn for projects including reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from state-owned properties and agricultural lands, reducing air and water pollution in environmental justice communities, and addressing the effects of extreme heat in cities with measures like increased green space and community cooling centers. The act also specifies at least $500m will go toward electric school buses.
Enough supply to avoid worst-case scenario of rolling blackouts given milder weather and key electricity link to France back on lineNational Grid expects there to be “sufficient generation” to avoid rolling power cuts this winter, with Britain’s supplies boosted by the return of a crucial electricity link to France that was hit by fire.The power networks owner warned last month that Britain should be able to meet its energy needs this winter, but could experience rolling power cuts in a worst-case scenario if Russia cut off gas supplies into Europe. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey, Ekaterina Ochagavia, David Levene, P on (#65NSZ)
In a crucial year for the climate, award-winning Guardian environment editor Fiona Harvey reflects on 30 years of Cops and meets the politicians, activists and scientists asking who is responsible for saving the planet.In November last year, the world’s gaze focused on Glasgow at Cop26 as 'a historic, collective achievement' was forged between 200 countries – the Glasgow climate pact. Since then, unprecedented global events have threatened this commitment to limiting climate destruction, and the hopes of 'keeping 1.5 alive' have been dashed. We follow Fiona as she prepares for Cop27 in Egypt, asking presidents, global leaders, activists and scientists if global diplomacy is enough to save humanity from the brink of annihilation Continue reading...
Third of Congo basin’s tropical forests are under threat from fossil fuel investments, undermining climate action, report warnsThe area of land given over to oil and gas extraction in Africa is set to quadruple, threatening to wipe out a third of the dense tropical forests in the Congo basin and accelerate the climate breakdown, a report warns.Almost 10% of the African continent is already covered by oil and gas production fields, but this could expand to almost 38% if proposals for new projects get the go-ahead – unleashing a huge carbon bomb into the atmosphere that would severely undermine global climate action, according to mapping and analysis by Rainforest Foundation UK and Earth Insight. Continue reading...