New data reveals an extra 5,000 tonnes of waste is sent to landfill or incineration from November to MarchPlastic bottles are reviled for polluting the oceans, leaching chemicals into drinks and being a source of microplastics in the human body.They even cause problems with recycling. When plastic bottles are mixed with cardboard in recycling bins, in the wet winter months the sodden cardboard wraps around the plastic bottles and trays, causing havoc at recycling plants. Continue reading...

Piles of loo paper, a years worth of tinned goods and snake-proof boots. No wonder prepping has become a lifestyle choicePrepping - I'm coming round to it. I've had Prepare, the old government website that Oliver Dowden launched this spring, open on my laptop in a quivering tab for a while now, and this week I've been dipping in every now and then to remind myself of how to prepare for an emergency". How many bottles of water we may need, tweezers, a sage reminder about the fact of tinned meat.I've dabbled in prepping before, without really realising what I was doing. A fear in the early 2000s that Rimmel might stop making my favourite eyeliner led to me dashing to Boots to buy five. Which is fairly normal, I think? On the spectrum of normal? Sensible probably, when so many, as you'll know, have brushes too fine or ink that disappears in rain. In the grip of lockdown, as supermarket deliveries were increasingly scarce, when I was blessed with a Tesco slot I would focus not on toilet paper or flour, but on treats. I'd stockpile the good biscuits, and, in my naivety, Biscoff spread. I remember there were very large gift bars of Galaxy chocolate on offer for a while, bars the size of a small dinghy which I would buy in bulk, nibbling away at the corners like a parasite. That was when we started decanting our pulses. Still, beside the microwave sits a proud wall of oversized Tupperware, carefully labelled in my six-year-old daughter's handwriting: spageti", green lenttles", ryce". It felt good. I felt prepared, but for what, was unclear. Continue reading...

Prices and rents will fall under Rachel Reeves' plans, enabling a younger generation with new ideas to enter the fieldOne of the baleful dimensions of our times is the way that the conversation about what constitutes the good society is framed by the rich and their interests. A conception of the common good withers; instead it is replaced by the existential importance of private wealth, private interests and private ownership to societal health. Nowhere is this more exposed than in the debate over taxation, and in particular the taxation of inherited wealth - as the debate over the past fortnight has dramatised.Half a million people die every year. Under the reforms to inheritance tax relief on agricultural land proposed in the budget, about 500 individuals who inherit land worth more than 2m (3m if they were married to the deceased) will join the rest of society and have inheritance tax levied on their bequest - albeit at half the rate, with an enlarged exemption and 10 years to pay it, concessions not made to the rest of us. How fortunate and privileged are they? Continue reading...

You not only know what we're going to do but how we're going to get there,' PM tells voters

Oilfield services exec denies climate crisis and is expected to support Trump's plan to maximize oil and gas productionDonald Trump said on Saturday that Chris Wright, an oil and gas industry executive and a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, would be his pick to lead the US Department of Energy.Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver, Colorado. He is expected to support Trump's plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades. Continue reading...

Conservation group warns species threatened by exploding populations of grey squirrels who carry lethal virusRed squirrels will soon disappear from England unless the government funds a vaccine against squirrelpox, one of the biggest groups set up to protect the species has warned.Conservationists say the English population of non-native grey squirrels has exploded this year, triggered by warmer winters which enable mating pairs to feed and breed all year round, and estimate that 70% are carrying squirrelpox, a virus which is lethal only to red squirrels. Continue reading...

Wealthy nations are yet to offer the hundreds of billions of dollars that economists say are needed to help the developing world cut emissionsLeaders of the world's biggest economies meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Monday must agree to provide the finance that the world's poorest need to tackle the climate crisis or face economic carnage", the UN has warned.The G20 nations are about to gather in Brazil for two days of talks, while many of their ministers remain in Azerbaijan where crucial negotiations at the Cop29 climate crisis summit have stalled. Rich countries' governments have not yet put forward the offers of hundreds of billions of dollars in financial aid that economists say are needed to help poorer countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather. Continue reading...

Water company claims information is not in the public interest despite widespread pollution of UK waters It's a national disgrace': fury at sewage-filled Windermere over toxic algae and dead fishOne of the UK's biggest water companies is fighting a legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District.United Utilities initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at sewage treatment works at the lake was not environmental information". It later claimed the information on phosphorus - which can pollute watercourses when at high levels - was internal communication" and exempt from disclosure. Continue reading...

Ongoing dry conditions threaten to aggravate blazes in New York and New Jersey as wildfire seasons grow in intensityWildfires continue to ravage parts of New York and New Jersey, fueled by high winds and record low precipitation and, despite some rain over last weekend, there is no immediate relief in sight for the historic drought in the region, with ongoing dry conditions exacerbating the risk of spreading fires.Last month was the driest on record in New York City, with only 0.87in (2.2cm) of rain compared with the historic average of 4.12in for October, and forecasts predict the deficit between normal levels of rain and this autumn in the region will grow before the end of the season. Continue reading...

More lobbyists for the controversial technology were present this year, despite debate about its viabilityAt least 480 lobbyists working on carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been granted access to the UN climate summit, known as Cop29, the Guardian can reveal.That is five more CCS lobbyists than were present at last year's climate talks, despite the overall number of participants shrinking significantly from about 85,000 to about 70,000. Continue reading...

Several groups say North Dakota governor will sacrifice public lands on the altar of the fossil fuel industry's profits'Donald Trump's nomination of North Dakota's Republican governor, Doug Burgum, as the interior secretary has prompted swift backlash from environmental advocacy groups alarmed at the incoming administration's plans to use federal lands for oil and gas drilling.Trump also announced in a statement on Friday his intention to make Burgum chair of a National Energy Council he intends to form to oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE" and to focus on the battle for AI superiority". Continue reading...

Roughly 10ft-long specimen discovered on Encinitas beach shortly after August spotting of the doomsday fish'For the second time this year an oarfish, a rarely seen deep sea fish that has historically been considered a harbinger of doom, washed up on the California coastline.The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, reported that last week that one of its PhD students came across a specimen roughly nine to 10ft long on a beach in Encinitas in southern California. Continue reading...

Revealed: more than 100 executives given special guest badges as activists challenge role of oil and gas firms at talksThe host country of this year's UN climate summit, Azerbaijan, has rolled out red carpet" treatment to fossil fuel bosses and lobbyists, the Guardian can reveal.At least 132 oil and gas company senior executives and staff were invited to the Cop29 summit, and had special badges denoting they were guests of the presidency. Continue reading...

The president of the Spanish province of Valencia, Carlos Mazon, rejected calls for his resignation amid growing public anger over his management of the recent devastating floods that killed more than 210 people in the area. He conceded mistakes were made but claimed the unprecedented and 'apocalyptic' scale of the disaster overwhelmed the system

At Cop29 the global south needs to unite for sustainable growth, leveraging resources and negotiating transformative climate finance pactsMore than a century of burning coal, oil and gas has fuelled intense heatwaves, prolonged droughts, heavier rains and devastating floods. To prevent even more severe impacts, the UN global climate summit, Cop29, must deliver tangible results to keep global temperature rises below 2C - the limit defined in the 2015 Paris agreement. Achieving this goal means human societies can only emit a finite amount of additional carbon dioxide, known as the world's carbon budget".Developed nations have exceeded their carbon budgets, while developing countries remain within theirs. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for centuries, turning past unchecked fossil fuel use into a costly planetary bill. Between 1870 and 2019, the US, EU, Russia, UK, Japan, Canada and Australia - home to just 15% of the global population - accounted for over 60% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. Continue reading...

Far-right president may announce country's departure from agreement after meeting Donald TrumpThere is growing concern that Argentina's far-right president, Javier Milei, is set to announce his country's departure from the Paris climate accord.Earlier this week, negotiators from Milei's government were ordered to leave the Cop29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, after just three days. Now, the Guardian understands that Milei is considering announcing a formal withdrawal from the agreement, and that a decision could be made after a formal meeting with Donald Trump. Continue reading...

At least 123 oil and gas bosses and staff invited as guests' by Azerbaijani government and given host country badges, the Guardian has learnedAccording to an interesting piece in the Africa Report, African countries at Cop are wary of alienating China.But this year, the main issue at stake in the negotiations is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). In the jargon of climate finance, this is the amount that developed countries will have to provide to vulnerable countries to help them adapt to climate change.When they signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, the developed countries undertook to allocate $100bn a year from 2020 onwards - via loans and grants - to finance projects that enable developing countries to adapt to climate change (rising sea levels, drought, etc.) or help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This amount was not reached until 2022, but is due to be renegotiated upwards this year.The developed countries are also lobbying to broaden the base of contributing countries to include the new polluters": China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others. The African Group will not be supporting this proposal, as it is too sensitive and we don't want to alienate China," says an African negotiator.The African countries are also members of the G77, the group of developing countries to which China belongs. Continue reading...

Exclusive: UK energy secretary says at Cop29 that people see the economic advantages of making the transition

Ending $7,500 consumer tax credit could have grave implications for already stalling EV transition in USDonald Trump's transition team is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling US EV transition. And yet representatives of Tesla - by far the nation's biggest EV maker - have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. Continue reading...

Climate change minister's effort to convince Ankara to drop out underlines push for Pacific Cop'

Carlos Mazon resists calls to step down, saying floods that killed 216 in his area were unprecedented and apocalyptic'The regional president of Valencia, who is under mounting pressure over his handling of the catastrophic floods that killed 216 people in the area, has conceded mistakes were made but refused to step down, claiming the unprecedented and apocalyptic" scale of the disaster simply overwhelmed the system.A total of 224 people lost their lives - all but eight of them in Valencia - when torrential rains and floods hit eastern, central and southern parts of Spain on Tuesday 29 October, drowning people in their homes and cars and sending torrents of water through cities, towns and villages. Continue reading...

Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility accuses Australian oil giant of misleading and false claims in closing arguments

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

What would it witness in Azerbaijan? A species that knows it is destroying itself but is too greedy to change courseImagine, as many people do, an all-seeing eye in the sky, looking down on planet Earth. Imagine seeing what it sees. It watches, over the course of decades, ice caps shrinking, rainforests retreating, deserts expanding, ocean circulation slowing, freshwater dwindling and sea levels rising, and it thinks - for it has been there since the beginning - this is familiar". All the signs are there, of an Earth system sliding towards collapse, as it has done five times since animals with hard body parts first evolved.But this time, it knows, is different. Not only is one of the life forms causing the collapse, but it shares some of the eye's supernatural abilities: it too can see what is happening. So, with heightened curiosity, the eye zooms in, to see what this well-informed being is doing to avert catastrophe.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Baby spiders collected from egg sacs via Australian Reptile Park's yearly callout are vital to creating lifesaving antivenom

Fossil fuel-linked lobbyists outnumber delegations of almost every country at climate talks in Baku, analysis finds

Future UN conferences should only be held in countries that show support for climate action, urge influential group

When infestations affect Notting Hill billionaires, it reminds you that it's the little winged bastards who truly own this cityWhile reading of the case of the super-rich couple suing the previous owners of their west London mansion over its moth infestation, one particularly detail prompted warm memories. Iya Patarkatsishvili and Yevhen Hunyak had to tip away glasses of wine after discovering moths floating in them, Hunyak told the court. Ah yes, I thought, I too have found a moth taking a little dip in my tipple, though I'll admit that I simply fished him out rather than waste a glass. Worse, mine only contained Tesco's finest wine, as opposed to, you know, the world's.Moths, it seems, pay no attention to social class. Whether you are a lowly renter in a poky flat, such as I, or the daughter of a Georgian billionaire; if you live in London, they are coming for you. Moths, like mice in the tube, are simply a fact of living in this city, so commonplace as to be almost unremarkable. Even when waging daily battle against them, you sort of forget about them; their soft fluttering wings are a kind of inaudible mood music, until someone who has recently moved here says, What's with all the moths?", and you remember the bastards that truly own this city.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author Continue reading...

Police reveal ages and genders of the 216 people who died in Valencia, along with eight other victims elsewhere in SpainAlmost half of the 216 people known to have died in the catastrophic floods that hit the eastern Spanish region of Valencia at the end of October were 70 or above, according to a police analysis.Figures from the data integration centre set up after the disaster show that 131 of the victims were male, 85 were female and 104 were aged over 70, including 15 aged over 90. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Cop29 coverage hereJosh Gabbatiss, from Carbon Brief has published an update on social media about where negotiations at Cop29 have got to.You may have seen talk of new texts about the climate finance negotiations doing the rounds.These proposals have been produced by the co-chairs and circulated among negotiators and civil society observers, but for some reason they are not being published on the UNFCCC website. Continue reading...

Gigantic multicoloured organism is visible from space and has grown for between 300 and 500 yearsThe world's largest known coral, visible from space, has been discovered in the waters of the Solomon Islands.With a circumference of 183 metres, the gigantic multicoloured organism is an intricate network of individual coral polyps that have grown for between 300 and 500 years. Continue reading...

The H-2A program might grow under Trump and mass deportationsAgriculture rules in Quincy, Washington. Sprawling apple, cherry and peach orchards surround this rural city of about 8,000. Packing sheds dot the middle of downtown. Railroad tracks run close to the Columbia River, so produce can make its way to market by both train and waterway.Farm workers such as Alberto, who is only using his first name for privacy reasons, are the backbone of the industry. Once a migrant farm worker traveling around California and Washington state for jobs, he now lives permanently in Quincy with his family. There, he's found steady year-round work planting, tending and harvesting crops at various farms. With that more stable work, he and other domestic farm workers have built a tight community in Grant county. Continue reading...

NatureScot to allow shooting estates to greatly reduce area of grouse moors affected by licensing regimeWildlife charities have condemned a decision by Scotland's nature conservation agency to dilute a new law designed to combat the illegal killing of birds of prey.NatureScot, a government agency, has decided to greatly reduce the area of land affected by a new licensing regime for grouse moors after legal threats from shooting estates and land owners. Continue reading...

The climate crisis created the setting for Trump's economy-first win and it's the global south that will suffer mostDonald Trump's election is a triumph for the politics of the doomsday bunker, which is bad news for the world's environment.This is the idea that in an age of climate disruption, nature extinction and ever wider social inequality, the best chance of survival for those who can afford it is to construct a personal shelter, where they can keep the desperate masses at bay. It is survival of the richest. Continue reading...

Tiny isopod is dubbed Pentaceration forkandbrewer in push to engage community with climate-threatened life in local watersNew Zealand scientists have named a tiny snowflake-like crustacean after a Wellington brewery, in an attempt to boost the public's interest in local marine life.The roughly 1.5mm marine isopod was found in the silty depths off New Zealand's southern east coast. It helps decompose organic material that drifts to the seabed. Continue reading...

One expert says climate targets can seem abstract but matter because they serve as an investment signal' to cashed up investors

California researchers found mystery mollusc' in deep-sea midnight zone after initially observing it 20 years agoResearchers in California have discovered a new species of sea slug off the Pacific coast in an area of deep sea known as the midnight zone.A team with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute first came across the creature, which they dubbed the mystery mollusc" in 2000 at 8,576ft (2,613 meters), and spent years documenting the sea slug in order to prepare the most comprehensive description of a deep-sea animal ever made". Continue reading...

Large parts of east and south under alerts as schools are shut and riverside neighbourhoods evacuated in AndaluciaAuthorities in eastern and southern Spain have closed schools and begun evacuating some residents as the country is pounded by further torrential rains two weeks after the catastrophic floods that killed at least 215 people and unleashed a bitter political blame game.On Wednesday morning, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, put large parts of eastern and southern Spain on amber alert and issued the highest level of warning for the provinces Tarragona in Catalonia and Malaga in Andalucia. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Mia Mottley, who has championed climate action, says she would seek common ground with US president-electMia Mottley, the climate-championing prime minister of Barbados, has invited Donald Trump to a face-to-face meeting where she would seek common ground" and persuade him that climate action was in his own interests.Let us find a common purpose in saving the planet and saving livelihoods," she told the Guardian at the UN's Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. We are human beings and we have the capacity to meet face-to-face, in spite of our differences. We want humanity to survive. And the evidence [of the climate crisis] we are seeing almost weekly now." Continue reading...

France's ecology minister cancels after Azerbaijan's president attacks French actions in overseas territoriesMian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, has joined a chorus of leaders using their speeches to call for more money to reach their climate goals - and specifying that they need grants rather than loans that saddle them with more debt.

Biggest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, Four Paws animal charity saysThe largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger body parts, according to a report by an animal welfare charity.Research by Four Paws, which is campaigning to shut down South Africa's big cat industry, found 103 places in the country where tigers were kept in captivity in 2023 or 2024 or had been kept during the previous three years. Continue reading...

German energy firm shaved 3bn from spending plans for next financial year to 7bnA German energy giant has warned that Donald Trump's election victory has increased the risks of investing in offshore wind projects - but his return to the White House could help to bolster Britain's renewables sector, according to UK developer SSE.Germany's RWE has cut its spending plans and warned that, as a result of the US election, the risks for offshore wind projects have increased". Continue reading...

Of 140 million people in the US who draw water from US aquifers via private or public wells, 70% at riskPFAS may be contaminating drinking water for up to 70% of about 140 million people in the US who draw water from the nation's aquifers via private or public wells, a new federal government study estimates. The findings show a potential impact on about 95 million people, or 27% of the nation's population.The US Geological Survey sampling and modeling of groundwater contamination found readings up to 37,000 times higher than the EPA's new drinking water limits. In some regions virtually all of those using public systems that draw from groundwater may be drinking contaminated water. Continue reading...

From olive oil to butter, extreme weather is pushing up the cost of living and having a dramatic political impact. Economists need a solutionIn the US, where Donald Trump swept the board last week, it was the experience of sharply increasing essentials prices, from food to energy, that glued together the Republicans' new electoral coalition. About 75% of those voting Republican reported that they had faced hardship" or severe hardship" as a result of price rises; only 25% of Democrats said the same. When Trump asked if Americans felt better now than they did four years ago, the answer for most was a clear no.Price surges are having political impacts. In elections this year in three of the world's largest economies, incumbent parties were hammered by voters angry about their helplessness in the face of the steeply rising cost of essentials.James Meadway is the host of the podcast Macrodose Continue reading...

Federal inquiry hears support for a nuclear industry in central Queensland even though local councillors say they were not consulted

Conservationists demand action from Minns government after alarming' rise in deaths of female koalas and joeys

Questions raised over influence after 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for biodiversity summit in ColombiaRecord numbers of business representatives and lobbyists had access to the UN's latest biodiversity talks, analysis shows.In total 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which ended in disarray and without significant progress on a number of key issues including nature funding, monitoring biodiversity loss and work on reducing environmentally harmful business subsidies. Continue reading...

Despite nations' pledges at Cop28 a year ago, the burning of coal, oil and gas continued to rise in 2024There is no sign" of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world's nations a year ago, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global carbon emissions.The new data, released at the UN's Cop29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, indicates that the planet-heating emissions from coal, oil and gas will rise by 0.8% in 2024. In stark contrast, emissions have to fall by 43% by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping to the 1.5C temperature target and limiting increasingly dramatic" climate impacts on people around the globe. Continue reading...

Antonio Guterres says global heating is super-charging disasters, and Cop hears warning of inflation on steroids'This year has been a masterclass in human destruction", the UN secretary general has said as he reflected on extreme weather and record temperatures around the world fuelled by climate breakdown.Antonio Guterres painted a stark portrait of the consequences of climate breakdown that had arisen in recent months. Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; floods tearing through communities and tearing down infrastructure; children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops," he said. All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change." Continue reading...

Sir Keir Starmer's pledge on emissions is an encouraging step at a frightening momentPredictions that this will be the first calendar year in which the 1.5C warming limit enshrined in the Paris agreement is surpassed provide a stark backdrop to the UN's 29th climate conference. This year - 2024 - has already seen the hottest-ever day and month, and is expected by experts to be the hottest year too. Addressing delegates on Tuesday, the UN chief, Antonio Guterres, referred to a masterclass in climatedestruction". The escalating pattern of destructive weather events, most recently in Valencia,is a warning of what lies ahead.When the 1.5C figure was included in the 2015 deal, it was known to be a stretch. The treaty says countries must hold the average temperature well below 2C above pre-industrial levels" and aim for 1.5C. Busting this target in 2024 will not mean it has been definitivelymissed; the measurement of global temperatures relies on averages recorded over 20 or more years. But the crossing of this threshold is a menacing moment. Around the world, people as well as governments and climate specialists should take notice - and act. Continue reading...