A Kulkalgal activist from the Torres Strait Islands has said Indigenous people are ‘fighting for their homes’ as conference discussions focus on climate financeThis live blog is closedMore photos from today:Xie Zhenhua continues to say that Beijing is willing to contribute to a mechanism for compensating poorer countries for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis. 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.
There is little doubt that we have already pushed our climate system to the very edge, says Prof Tim Atkinson. Plus letters from David Cottee and Adam HartGeorge Monbiot is correct – the geological record shows a series of disastrous extinctions caused by the climate system being pushed beyond tipping points (Fossil fuel burning once caused a mass extinction – now we’re risking another, 3 November). Although such tipping points might soon be reached, it’s more persuasive to know exactly where the system is right now.You report that temperatures in Europe are now rising by around 0.5C per decade, equivalent to 5C per century (Europe’s climate warming at twice rate of global average, says report, 2 November). Compare this rate with the end of the last ice age, when the system was entering its present relatively warm state. Evidence from fossil insects in Britain shows that by a conservative estimate, the average temperature rose by 1.7C to 2.6C per century, with maximum possible rates inferred from the same data up to 2.8C to 7.2C per century. Continue reading...
Climate change committee chair tells chancellor there are many small changes people can make to save energy and moneyThe UK government must improve its energy-saving advice for households to help cut costs for consumers and the Treasury this winter, its climate advisers have said.The climate change committee chair, Lord Deben, said Britain was exposed to fluctuations in the price for fossil fuels that had forced the government to commit tens of billions of pounds in support and still left homes and businesses facing an extra £1,300 on average annual bills. Continue reading...
US-China relations hit new low this year after Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, over which China claims sovereignty• Cop27 live – latest news updatesChina’s top climate official has said the US must take responsibility for any reconciliation between the two countries at the UN Cop27 climate summit, calling on the US to “clear the barriers” to talks.Xie Zhenhua, the climate envoy for China, said he had met his US counterpart John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, in Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt, where governments and world leaders have gathered for a fortnight of talks on the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Canadian diver captures footage of the cephalopod drawing closer and closer until it fully embraces herFor outsiders, scuba diving in the frigid waters of the northern Pacific can seem daunting: limbs quickly go numb without the right equipment, and unlike the sparkling blue of the tropics, the water has a gloomy, greenish tint.But a recent viral encounter between a diver and an octopus has highlighted the particular magic of the sunken kelp forests off the coast of British Columbia. Continue reading...
Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, who, at Cop27 called again for climate justice, is devising a debt relief and loan blueprint, targeting the IMFMia Mottley’s speeches in defence of climate justice dominated media headlines at Cop26 in Scotland last year, where she called on world leaders to seize the moment and deliver on climate action. On Monday she tried again. “We have the collective capacity to transform,” she urged those gathered at Cop27 in Egypt.One of the main targets in the sights of Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, is a new finance solution to the climate crisis, which is swiftly becoming one of the key issues being negotiated at the conference. Continue reading...
Two climate protesters have scrawled over one of the National Gallery of Australia’s prized modern art pieces, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans.The activists are part of the Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies group, which in a statement called for the Australian government to end support for the oil, gas and coal industries.
Study finds link between smoke-related deaths and eclampsia, helping explain worse maternal healthAir pollution from cooking indoors over a fire of wood or charcoal could have life-threatening consequences for some pregnant women, according to a new study.Researchers at King’s College London found “a significantly positive correlation” between deaths attributable to toxic smoke from cooking and heating and the rate of eclampsia, a rare condition in pregnancy where high blood pressure results in life-threatening seizures. Women with pre-eclampsia, characterised by high blood pressure or hypertension, are at significantly greater risk in pregnancy if they are cooking over an open fire. Continue reading...
Climate Trace reports half of 50 largest sources of greenhouse gas are oil and gas operations and many underreport their emissionsGreenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas facilities around the world are about three times higher than their producers claim, new data has shown.Climate Trace, a project to measure at source the true levels of carbon dioxide and other global heating gases, published a new report on Wednesday showing that half of the 50 largest sources of greenhouse gases in the world were oil and gas fields and production facilities. Continue reading...
by Oliver Holmes (now) and Natalie Hanman (earlier) on (#65K24)
Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears at climate summit via video link; climate experts say US has acted ‘in bad faith’ for decadesI’ve been looking at what some climate scientists on Twitter have been saying about Cop27. Here is a small selection:Dr Chandni Singh has been checking out the displays at different country pavilions, including one from Pakistan. Continue reading...
Arrest of pair capturing images of M25 protest condemned by British Press Photographers’ AssociationThe British Press Photographers’ Association has condemned the arrest of a photographer and documentary film-maker as they captured images of a Just Stop Oil protest.Rich Felgate, a documentary maker, and Tom Bowles, a photographer, were arrested by a Hertfordshire constabulary officer as they caught the action on a footbridge over the M25 on Monday. Continue reading...
Reduced flock sizes and rising costs put pressure on supplies but retailers say they are working to minimise impactBritish egg producers are warning of possible shortages, as farmers leave the industry or reduce the size of their flocks in the face of spiralling costs and uncertainty sparked by the spread of bird flu.A third of farmers surveyed in recent days by the trade body the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) reported they had reduced the number of hens in their flock because egg prices meant they were unable to cover their costs. Continue reading...
President not expected to attend summit but critics cast doubt on veracity of pledges the country could make• Cop27 live – latest news updatesMexico, one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, is expected to announce a hotchpot of old, inadequate and undeliverable climate pledges that will leave its Paris pledges in tatters, experts have warned.Climate action has nosedived under the leadership of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had to be blocked from rolling back Mexico’s modest Paris greenhouse gas targets by the country’s supreme court, and emissions are rising.A reduction in methane emissions from the state-owned oil company, Pemex – an important but existing target for which Pemex has been fined for non-compliance.A 1,000MW state-opened solar plant – construction is already under way for a 180MW project, and the government had previously already ruled out further investment to expand the energy potential.A lithium commitment. Mexico has the ninth-largest identified deposits of lithium – a crucial mineral for electric vehicles and other green technologies – but there has been no government investment so far in advancing extraction, and none is currently being mined. Experts say the country is years away from producing its first gram of lithium. Continue reading...
Campaigners condemning ‘environmental vandalism’ say equivalent of five months of discharges made so far in NovemberSouthern Water has discharged raw sewage for more than 3,700 hours at 83 bathing water beaches during the first eight days of November alone, according to company data analysed by campaigners.Ed Acteson of SOS Whitstable, which has been monitoring the data, said in his experience the scale was equivalent to five months’ worth of discharges: “The Environment Act was supposed to herald a new era for the environment in Britain. But this is the worst I have ever seen sewage pollution in the south-east.” Continue reading...
Officials interested in deal that would allow two countries to bail each other out in event of shortagesGermany is keen to talk to Britain about a solidarity pact that would allow Europe’s largest consumers of natural gas to bail each other out if an extreme cold snap were to create shortages this winter, German officials have said.Such an agreement could be mutually beneficial for both London and Berlin, the German civil servant in charge of rationing in the case of a supply crisis told the Guardian in an interview. Continue reading...
More than 80 staff at £3bn Seagreen project, 27 km off Scotland’s Angus coastline, were forced to evacuateThe world’s “most potent greenhouse gas” escaped during work on Scotland’s largest offshore windfarm, forcing the evacuation of workers, it has emerged.More than 80 workers on a platform at the £3bn Seagreen project, which is 27km off Scotland’s Angus coastline in the North Sea, had to move to another platform after sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) escaped. Continue reading...
Police say 16 arrests made after activists scale gantries in Kent, Essex, Surrey and HertfordshireProtesters have caused widespread disruption on the M25 for a second day after several junctions were blocked.Just Stop Oil said “approximately 15” of its supporters climbed on to overhead gantries in “multiple locations” on the UK’s busiest motorway from 7am on Tuesday, causing police to halt traffic. Continue reading...
Pacific islands nation, which is acutely vulnerable to sea level rises, joins nearby Vanuatu in seeking phase-out of coal, oil and gasTuvalu has become the first country to use United Nations climate talks to demand an international fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, which would phase out the use of coal, oil and gas.The small Pacific islands nation, which is acutely vulnerable to sea level rises caused by global heating, becomes the second country to call for an agreement to end the era of burning fossil fuels, which is the primary cause of the rapidly escalating climate crisis, fellow Pacific nation Vanuatu being the first. Continue reading...
Cop27 summit in Egypt opened with warning countries could either sign ‘a climate solidarity pact, or a collective suicide pact’The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has blasted the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, for trying to “score a cheap domestic political point” after the Liberal leader used the opening day of the Cop27 UN climate summit to demand Australia not compensate other countries for accumulating climate disasters.After António Guterres opened the climate conference in Egypt with a stark warning that countries could either sign “a climate solidarity pact, or a collective suicide pact”, Dutton used the first parliamentary question on Tuesday to demand Albanese “rule out signing Australia up to compensating other countries as part of the deal being negotiated at Cop27 in Egypt”. Continue reading...
As the UN’s Cop27 summit begins in Egypt, there are warnings more must be done to avert climate breakdownLast year’s UN Cop26 climate talks in Scotland were framed by John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy on the climate crisis, as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” and avert climate breakdown. As world leaders gather in Egypt for Cop27, evidence suggests they have yet to fully do so.The Glasgow conference drew collective promises by governments to “phase down” coal use, curb deforestation, advance remedial payments to developing countries hit hardest by floods, heatwaves and droughts, and to come back the following year with more ambitious emissions reduction targets. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#65K0N)
Exclusive: charities say animal abusers are not being held to account as figures show small number of inspectionsJust one in 300 complaints about animal welfare at UK farms led to a prosecution over the last four years, with half of the accused holdings not even inspected, analysis has shown.A report by Animal Equality and the Animal Law Foundation also said that fewer than three in 100 of the UK’s estimated 291,000 farms had an annual inspection by a public body between 2018 and 2021. Continue reading...
Brussels’ plan to oppose a a total international ban on trade in hippopotamus products puts species at risk, says letter signed by states, including Mali, Niger and SenegalTen African countries have accused the EU of jeopardising the survival of the common hippopotamus by not supporting a proposed commercial trade ban, in documents seen by the Guardian.Illegal hunting for meat and ivory is thought to have wiped out hippo populations in five African states: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Liberia and Mauritania. But Brussels is planning to oppose a bid to ban the global trade in hippo products at a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) conference in Panama from 14 November. Continue reading...
Prime minister tells summit Britain will honour commitments but makes no mention of reparationsRishi Sunak has said it is “morally right” that Britain honours its climate change commitments in his speech at Cop27, but he made no mention of paying reparations after Boris Johnson said the country cannot afford to do so.The prime minister made a very short appearance on the world stage on Monday, after making a very public U-turn on his attendance in Egypt – the same reversal that may have left him living in Johnson’s shadow, as he was forced to speak hours after his rival. Continue reading...
António Guterres warns leaders of catastrophic consequences of failure to act as conference in Egypt openedThe US and China are showing the ‘can-do promethean’ spirit that can get us to net zero. We need to “put the electric throttle to the floor”.Glasgow was a high point, a moment at which the ‘clouds of despair’ momentarily parted. But then Putin invaded Ukraine and the fight against climate change was one of the most important collateral damages. Continue reading...
Secretions of Sonoran desert toad have long had hallucinogenic reputation but authorities want you to keep your tongue awayThe US National Park Service is warning people to stop licking one of the largest toads in America, due to a toxin it secretes from its glands that can create a hallucinogenic experience.The Sonoran desert toad, which emits a quick, “weak low-pitched toot”, can make someone sick if they touch it or lick it, NPS said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Continue reading...
António Guterres told delegates gathered at the start of the conference in Egypt that humanity was 'on a highway to climate hell with our foot – still – on the accelerator'. The UN secretary general's speech set an urgent tone as government representatives assembled for two weeks of talks on how to avert the worst of climate breakdown
Some fear the outcome of the 8 November elections might derail US leadership on the global climate crisisFor Joe Biden, the United Nations climate summit in Egypt is the crowning stage to trumpet the US finally passing major legislation to slow dangerous global heating. But the thoughts of the US president and delegates from around the world are likely to nervously flit to events 6,000 miles (9,65km) away – knife-edge midterm elections back in America.The climate talks, known as Cop27, begin in earnest on Monday when more than 90 heads of state convene in Sharm el-Sheikh amid warnings from scientists that the world is heading towards disastrous climate breakdown without further, deeper cuts in planet-heating emissions. António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, has warned governments heading to Egypt that they face “economy-destroying levels of global heating” and that their efforts to stem this disaster were falling “pitifully short”. Continue reading...
Until now, I’d hung on to an irrational childhood fear of the exploding pressure cooker, but I’ve recently rediscovered just how fast and efficient they areThis column ends well, with an ideal pan of beans, cooked in a third of the usual time, using less than a third of the usual energy. This column began decades ago, when I decided I was afraid of pressure cookers. Raking back though unreliable memories, it isn’t clear why, exactly, I was afraid. We didn’t have one at home, and relatives who did weren’t using them any more by the time we were growing up. There was no incident in the house next door, no scaremongering public-information film that had lodged itself in my mind. Unexplained fear became a quiet hang-up to which I clung even as pressure cookers evolved dramatically. Some of the best cooks I know told me to get over it.Actually, this column began with a French physicist, Denis Papin. Born near Blois in 1647, he studied medicine before moving to Paris, where he assisted the Dutch physicist Christian Huygens in building vacuum pumps. Later, in England, Papin worked with the physicist Robert Boyle – whose pressure and volume of gas theory is known as Boyle’s Law – and built air pumps for the Royal Society of London. Papin’s research explored the relationship between boiling temperature and the surrounding pressure. When you cook in an ordinary pot at atmospheric pressure, water boils at 100C until it escapes as steam. Inside a sealed vessel, however, the trapped steam molecules move faster, increasing the surrounding pressure, which means the water boils at 121C. In 1679, Papin demonstrated a sensational invention: a closed vessel with a tight-fitting lid in which steam under pressure was used to cook food and soften bones; his “digesting engine”. One featurewas a small, weighted piston that moved up and released steam; a pressure-relief valve – and the original model for all modern pressure-cookers. Continue reading...
Developing countries hope to make progress on this problem because we are already suffering the effectsCop27 had not even officially opened, and already we delegates found ourselves staying up all night wrangling over important issues. In this case, it was loss and damage – and there may be many more late nights to come on that issue.At the official start of the conference of the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), the conference must first of all achieve consensus on the agenda.The Secret Negotiators are representatives of developing countries involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, and who will be attending the Cop27 climate conference. Continue reading...
Rich countries ‘not living up to obligations’, says Andrew Steer, in charge of $10bn environmental fundBillionaires can not be expected to make up for climate finance gaps left by rich countries that fail to deliver on promises to the developing world, the head of the Bezos Earth Fund has said.The Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, created a $10bn (£8.8m) grant to protect the Earth’s environment in 2020. Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, oversees this alongside the billionaire, his partner Lauren Sanchez and the fund’s board. Continue reading...
World leaders, climate groups and activists are meeting in Egypt to thrash out plans on how to safeguard the future of the planetFor almost three decades, world governments have met nearly every year to forge a global response to the climate emergency. Under the 1992 UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), every country is treaty-bound to “avoid dangerous climate change” and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally in an equitable way. Continue reading...
Analysis examining carbon impact of billionaires’ investments published as Cop27 talks get under wayThe super-rich emit greenhouse gases at a level equivalent to the whole of France from their investments in carbon intensive businesses, according to analysis published on the opening of the Cop27 UN climate talks in Egypt.Examining the carbon impact of the investments of 125 billionaires, the research found they had a collective $2.4tn stake in 183 companies. On average each billionaire’s investment emissions produced 3m tonnes of CO2 a year; a million times more than the average emissions of 2.76 tonnes of CO2 for those living in the bottom 90% of earners. In total the 125 members of the super-rich emitted 393m tonnes of CO2 a year – equivalent to the emissions of France, which has a population of 67 million. Continue reading...
Ex-PM to contrast optimism at Cop26 last year with failures of governments – including UK – to follow throughBoris Johnson will attack the “corrosive cynicism” on net zero that is hampering UK, and global, efforts to tackle the climate crisis, in a speech at the UN Cop27 climate summit on Monday.In a swipe at members of his own Conservative party, the former UK prime minister will contrast the success and spirit of optimism at Cop26 in Glasgow last November with the failures of governments – including the UK – to follow through on promises since. Continue reading...
A valuable if somewhat conventional reminder of how our reliance on oil developed and the threats it now poses to life on EarthAs protests against the fossil fuel industry continue to go viral in the news media, Emma Davie’s documentary makes for a valuable resource on the historical background as well as the environmental ramifications of oil drilling in the North Sea. Featuring interviews with those from both sides of the issue, who include environmental experts, executives of oil corporations as well as student activists, the film captures how the black gold permeates every aspect of our daily life.The expert voices here describe how Britain’s dependence on the oil industry is a relatively new phenomenon, escalated in the 1970s by the discovery of oil reserves in the Forties field off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. Following the mass privatisation of these assets under Margaret Thatcher’s government, this natural resource became the lifeblood behind the functioning of Britain as a nation, providing employment, enabling the production of consumer goods, and much more. The film moves on to discuss the bigger picture: how the environmental changes resulting from this ceaseless, industrial extraction of oil lead to increased flooding and natural disasters in countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. As millions of barrels of oil are produced every day, individual responsibility is simply not enough to make a difference. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#65HCW)
Restore Trust blamed new voting system for defeat of all its candidates at annual general meeting in BathA right-leaning campaign aiming to wrest control of the National Trust from an alleged “political” takeover has criticised a new voting system, after all of its candidates for council seats were defeated at the trust’s annual general meeting.Restore Trust failed to secure a single win and immediately attacked the soundness of the charity’s democratic system after results were announced at the National Trust’s Grade I-listed Bath Assembly Rooms. Continue reading...
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