Contentious opening to UN climate conference as delegates struggle to reach agreement on discussion of loss and damageThe Cop27 UN climate summit has made a delayed start after delegates tussled late into Saturday night and on into Sunday morning over what should be discussed at the conference.At the heart of the disagreement was the vexed question of loss and damage, which refers to the devastating consequences of climate breakdown suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable countries, and how to help them. Continue reading...

Report at Cop27 shows the world is now deep into the climate emergency, with the 1.5C heating limit ‘barely within reach’The past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded, a new UN report has found, indicating the world is now deep into the climate crisis. The internationally agreed 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely within reach”, it said.The report, by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sets out how record high greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving sea level and ice melting to new highs and supercharging extreme weather from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are at record levels in the atmosphere as emissions continue. The annual increase in methane, a potent greenhouse gas, was the highest on record.The sea level is now rising twice as fast as 30 years ago and the oceans are hotter than ever.Records for glacier melting in the Alps were shattered in 2022, with an average of 13ft (4 metres) in height lost.Rain – not snow – was recorded on the 3,200m-high summit of the Greenland ice sheet for the first time.The Antarctic sea-ice area fell to its lowest level on record, almost 1m km below the long-term average. Continue reading...

Cybersecurity experts warn that official Cop27 climate app requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emailsThere are mounting fears over the surveillance of delegates at the Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, with cybersecurity experts warning that the official app for the talks requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emails upon downloading it.The revelation, as more than 25,000 heads of state, diplomats, negotiators, journalists and activists from around the world gather at the climate summit that starts in Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday, has raised concerns that Egypt’s authoritarian regime will be able to use an official platform for a United Nations event to track and harass attendees and critical domestic voices. Continue reading...

The climate summits do serve a purpose even while avoiding facing up to some awkward realitiesThe Cop is a strange beast – an annual event that everyone claims to hate but no one wants to miss. This year’s Cop is even weirder: it’s in a famous Red Sea seaside resort renowned for its warm blue seas and coral reefs, but the diving centres are closed for security reasons and in any case few of us will have time to so much as dip a toe in the sea.We will spend all our hours inside a conference centre with little daylight, and only see the sun as we try to dash in our formal clothes from air-conditioned hotel to air-conditioned conference hall without getting covered in sweat.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...

Implementing the $369bn Inflation Reduction Act amid tight deadlines and high-stakes midterm will be a challengeThe bitter fight to deliver a climate change bill to Joe Biden’s desk this summer pitted the White House and its Democratic allies against some of America’s most powerful industry lobbies and every Republican in Congress. It may prove to have been the easy part.At the heart of the hard-won Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a $369bn package of climate investments that Biden called the “most significant legislation in history” to tackle the climate crisis. Estimates suggest it could cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.Coordinating across dozens of different departments and agencies.Minimizing waste and fraud.Investing in risky and uncertain technologies.Smoothing diplomatic wrinkles with international allies who object to the law’s manufacturing and sourcing requirements.Meeting the expectations of climate organizations and advocacy groups whose support for the IRA was contingent on promoting environmental justice and protecting workers.Seeking to head off the inevitable attacks and investigations of congressional Republicans. Continue reading...

Floods crisis continues across NSW and Victoria although waters are subsiding in parts of the country including Forbes and Wagga Wagga

The government denied wavering over the future of Sizewell C, but it needs to come up with an energy plan – and quicklyFor a moment last week, our cash-strapped government seemed ready to abandon a project that many experts believe is central to our plans of achieving energy independence and net zero emissions. According to the BBC, the Treasury had indicated the proposed new nuclear reactor Sizewell C was on a list of major construction projects that were under review for possible cancellation. Its days could be numbered, it was suggested.The threat has since been denied by Number 10. The new atom plant in Suffolk will go ahead, it has insisted. For a nation that hopes to wean itself off its fossil fuel addiction and its dependence on natural gas imports, this is good news. The UK’s future prosperity depends on its ability to generate electricity, independently and at low cost and nuclear power is expected to play a critical role in ensuring this happens. The trouble is that these plans have very shaky foundations, as was revealed last week when uncertainties about Sizewell C first surfaced. Continue reading...

Latest incident at coal-fired power station Callide reignites debate about their future and transition to renewable energy

Environment minister visited Tasmania for two days and insists she’s taking mine decision seriously but Brown wanted her to visit rainforest with him

Only Labour grasps the challenges of the climate crisis and why we must become a clean energy giantRishi Sunak will go on his day trip to Cop27 tomorrow, having been dragged kicking and screaming. His eventual decision to attend was an embarrassing U-turn. But his initial snub, one of his first decisions as prime minister, was the act heard around the world.It said that Britain is not in the business of showing climate leadership on the world stage. That, because of his weak position, the prime minister’s first priority will always be the basest instincts of the Conservative party. For the Tories, it’s always party first. What is best for the country – and for the planet – comes a distant second. Continue reading...

Scepticism from summit attendees as PM adopts Labour leader’s stated aim of making UK a green ‘superpower’Rishi Sunak attempted an extraordinary volte-face on green policy on the eve of the Cop27 climate summit on Saturday, saying he would attend in order to “galvanise” world leaders to save the planet.The prime minister – who had been criticised for saying he was too busy with domestic commitments to attend – also adopted precisely the same language on renewable energy that Labour leader Keir Starmer has been using for months, declaring that he now wanted to turn the UK into a “clean energy superpower”. Continue reading...

The two protesters did not damage the works but ‘caused their frames slight blemishes’ the Prado museum saysTwo climate activists have glued their hands to the frames of two paintings by Spanish master Francisco Goya at a museum in Madrid.The protest at the Prado museum, in which both protesters each glued a hand to the frames, did not damage either painting but caused their frames slight blemishes, the museum said. Continue reading...

New social media drive targets Conservatives’ failure to ban fracking, rising mortgage costs, and direct action taken by Just Stop Oil protestersRed wall Tory MPs are being targeted by Labour attack ads over their failure to oppose a ban on fracking, as part of an overhaul of the party’s social media effort.A new in-house digital team, filled with former Google and tech start-up employees, has been building new applications for the party to create, target and publish swift social media ads at swing voters. They have so far concentrated on fracking, the rising costs of mortgages, the Tory record on the economy and Labour’s opposition to some of the direct action taken by Just Stop Oil protesters. Continue reading...

Campaigners say talks could fail before they begin unless issue of loss and damage is put on agendaCop27, the UN climate summit beginning this Sunday in Egypt, could fail before it even starts if countries do not agree to put the loss and damage experienced by the poorest countries at the heart of the talks, according to climate experts and campaigners.Delegates began to arrive at the conference centre on Saturday, and the talks will formally open on Sunday with a session deciding what should be on the agenda for the two weeks of negotiations, before world leaders gather on Monday and Tuesday. Continue reading...

The devastating effects of climate change are motivating how voters cast their ballots in the midterm electionsAcross the US, temperature records tumbled in a summer of heatwaves, enormous floods drowned entire towns and, in the west, an ongoing drought is now so severe that corpses are being uncovered in rapidly drying reservoirs.Despite these increasingly ominous signs, the climate crisis has struggled to gain much visibility in the lead-up to next week’s midterm elections. “Many voters are more focused on things like inflation, understandably, because people are struggling to get by in this economy,” said Geoffrey Henderson, an expert in climate policy at Duke University. Continue reading...

With war in Ukraine and a cost of living crisis, the global picture is much changed since last year’s conferenceFor oil and gas companies this has been the best year ever. The world’s five biggest alone have made a combined profit of $170bn so far in 2022, a figure likely to be just the tip of the iceberg – most producers are nationally owned, and not required to come clean on their profits. “We are getting more cash than we know what to do with,” as one senior executive from BP admitted, before the companies zipped up their communications in the face of public fury.Party time for fossil fuels is not what climate experts had been hoping for. If the world is to get to grips with the climate emergency, oil and gas must be urgently phased out. Instead, they are becoming one of the most attractive investments in the global market. Continue reading...

It’s great the new president is on the side of nature but no leader can succeed unless the Cop15 deal in Montreal is right on the moneyWe are a month away from Cop15 and money is on my mind. The election of President Lula da Silva in Brazil is good news for the chances of success in Montreal. But optimism must always consider reality: huge financial resources are needed to halt the destruction of the planet’s ecosystems, and we are still very far from a credible plan for raising the necessary funds.Across the globe, almost without exception, nature is worth more dead than alive. That is the unfortunate truth. There is not yet a mechanism for tilting the playing field in favour of biodiversity and the climate, something I am sure will come up frequently at Cop27, too. To change that, we need to tackle two key issues: rural poverty and globalised greed. Continue reading...

Spurred by Lula’s election, the three countries, home to half of all tropical forests, will pledge stronger conservation effortsThe big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate on their conservation, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests”, the Guardian understands.The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, has been followed by a flurry of activity to avoid the destruction of the Amazon, which scientists have warned is dangerously close to tipping point after years of deforestation under its far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro. Continue reading...

Reactions to the UK’s National Grid warning of unlikely but possible power cuts this winterHouseholds across the UK have begun preparing after warnings that the National Grid may impose a series of rolling three-hour power cuts this winter if the supply of gas for power stations falls too low.Some are preparing blackout boxes and buying candles, camping stoves and windup radios. Others are sourcing batteries and generators to keep vital equipment running, including a home aquarium and sensory equipment for an autistic family member. Continue reading...

A look at who will – and who may not – be at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh climate summit this month

Expert team studied maps, old photos and satellite data to estimate glacier movements and track lost gearWhen the American mountaineers Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates summited Canada’s third-tallest peak in 1937, bad luck forced them to jettison hundreds of pounds of gear – including tents, fuel ice axes and valuable cameras – on a glacier before they began their ascent.They then had to rework their planned route back due to poor weather, transforming a celebratory descent into a harrowing trek through Yukon territory. Continue reading...

La Niña brings an increased chance of above average rainfall for Australia’s north and east and a lingering risk of flooding for the months ahead

Labor has improved Australia’s emissions pledge on the one Scott Morrison took to Glasgow, but observers say it will still have questions to answer

Grant Shapps hints scaling back of Northern Powerhouse Rail could be among cost-saving measuresAll capital spending is under review before Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement with a view to making billions in savings on infrastructure projects, with a senior cabinet minister hinting a key northern rail line could be scaled back.No 10 denied reports on Friday that plans for the new Sizewell C nuclear power station could be scrapped, but big energy projects along with every other major infrastructure plan such as HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail will have costs reviewed. Continue reading...

Statement comes after reports Suffolk reactor project could be delayed or axed amid spending cuts

Egypt has expressed frustration at leaders making positive statements that are abandoned in negotiationsGovernments meeting for vital climate talks have been accused of making positive commitments in public but denying them later in the privacy of the negotiating rooms by the Egyptian hosts of the summit.Wael Aboulmagd, the Egyptian diplomat in charge of running the negotiations at the Cop27 UN climate summit, said: “Political statements and pledges are made in front of the cameras, but in the negotiating rooms it’s back to the adversarial approach. These [publicly positive positions] will not be of value until translated into the negotiating rooms, and that has not been the case so far.” Continue reading...

About 70 people seized in protest at environmental damage from crude oil spillage into Cuninico RiverIndigenous people in the Amazon in Peru have detained a group of Peruvian and foreign tourists, including UK and US citizens, in protest at a lack of government aid following an oil spill in the area.“[We want] to call the government’s attention with this action, There are foreigners and Peruvians, there are about 70 people,” Watson Trujillo, the leader of the Cuninico community, told RPP radio. Continue reading...

Derelict dams crisscrossing the country’s rivers and tributaries disrupt the paths of migrating fish and pose a flood hazardOn a muggy day in late August, George Jackman, an aquatic ecologist who works on habitat restoration, stood at the edge of Quassaick Creek in upstate New York.The Quassaick, which flows through the small city of Newburgh, New York, and spills into the Hudson River, was unusually shallow after a summer with little rain. “It looks bucolic now,” Jackman said. “But it can be a raging torrent.” Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including jellyfish, wild ponies and a squadron of pelicans Continue reading...

Recent flooding is believed to have caused the pipeline outage in central-west NSW and is hampering repair

Scientists have long sought to farm the scarce seafood staple, but critics say animals are not suited to intensive methodsScientists in Japan say they have developed a groundbreaking method of farming squid that could solve shortages of the seafood staple, amid warnings from environmental groups that aquaculture is incompatible with the animal’s welfare.Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) say their system produced a reliable supply of squid and has the potential to be commercialised. Continue reading...

Queensland environment group had asked federal minister to revisit decisions made going back to 2011

Waverley Abbey’s 500-year-old ‘living legend’ wins contest, as experts seek greater protection for ancient treesA gnarled yew whose twisted trunk has been growing for more than half a millennium has been crowned tree of the year.The roots of the yew snake around the ruins of Waverley Abbey in Surrey, which was the first monastery founded in Britain by the Cistercian religious order in 1128. Continue reading...

Judge says VicForests’ actions posed ‘a threat of serious and irreversible harm’ to greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders

The Lachlan River in Forbes is expected to exceed 10.8 metres by Friday night – a level not reached since 1952

Fund was paralysed when far-right president Jair Bolsonaro wound up two committees in 2019Brazilian environmentalists have celebrated a timely victory after the country’s supreme court ruled for the reactivation of the Amazon Fund, a major weapon in the country’s fight against deforestation.The fund was paralysed in 2019 when far-right president Jair Bolsonaro wound up two of its key committees, citing unspecified irregularities. Continue reading...

Teresa Ribera says she was ‘hugely surprised’ and saddened by PM’s initial refusal to go to Cop27 summitThe Spanish government has urged Rishi Sunak to demonstrate a clear commitment to fighting the climate emergency, describing the British government’s flip-flopping over the prime minister’s attendance of the forthcoming Cop27 summit as “sad” and “surprising”, given the UK’s global reputation and its current presidency of the conference.Spain’s environment minister, Teresa Ribera, also said the “absurd”, heel-dragging political debate over climate change in the UK was “surprising and disappointing”. Continue reading...

The last Quercus tardifolia was thought to have died in 2011 – until a team of researchers fanned out and combed through Big Bend national park in Texas“It was like when folks go searching for a lost child in the woods,” says Michael Eason, associate director of conservation and collections at San Antonio Botanical Garden. “Our team would spread out in a line, spaced about 30 metres apart, and comb through an area.”Rather than a scene from a TV crime series, this search and rescue team of nine botanical researchers was scouring Big Bend national park in Texas this May looking for Quercus tardifolia, also known as the Chisos Mountains oak or lateleaf oak. The tree was first described in the 1930s, but the last living specimen was believed to have perished in 2011. Continue reading...

Murray Watt says Canberra is funding disaster mitigation infrastructure and ‘expects the insurance industry to fulfil its end of the bargain’

Action comes after social media video shows wolf strolling past family in Hoge Veluwe national parkDutch provincial authorities have authorised the use of paintballs to scare wolves they say have grown so unafraid of humans that they could become a serious danger.“We’re dealing with wolves that have become too tame,” a spokesperson for Gelderland province in the eastern Netherlands told the broadcaster Omroep Gelderland. “We have to make them frightened of people again.” Continue reading...

Environment Agency’s James Bevan says he wants to change law that provides tough water testing regimeThe head of the Environment Agency has signalled he wants to change a key regulation on water quality which repeatedly exposes how English rivers are being choked in a cocktail of sewage and agricultural pollution.James Bevan, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, said he wanted to change the water framework directive, the law that provides a tough testing regime for English rivers. It provides a legal requirement that 75% of English rivers be in good health under its testing regime by 2027. Continue reading...

Researchers recommend that displays do not take place in areas with large wildlife populationsThough fireworks on bonfire night bring joy to many people, it is likely to be a night of terror and distress for the UK’s geese.Research by Anglia Ruskin University has found that firework displays cause wild birds to suffer significant distress, and researchers have recommended that displays do not take place in areas with large wildlife populations. Continue reading...

Latest attempt to dismantle primary ‘school street’ in Tower Hamlets disrupted amid pollution concernsA group of pupils in east London have seen off – temporarily at least – the workers who had come to dismantle their school street.Parents gathered outside Chisenhale primary school in Mile End on Thursday morning to show support for the area, which includes a play space protected by a wooden fence, trellised with plants and painted in bright colours. Continue reading...

From senate and governor races to industry-regulating board contests, outcomes could influence policy for years to comeClimate is on the ballot in a big way this November, despite the fact that it is not front and center in any of the campaigns. Even when it comes to voter turnout, the mood of climate voters has been a topic of conversation among political consultants for months.“Several months ago I was very concerned about the apathy we were seeing in young climate voters because of Democrats’ failure to even talk about the successes they have had,” Rania Batrice, political strategist and founder of Batrice & Associates, says. “But I do feel like there’s been a little bit of a renewed sense of urgency. In Georgia, for example, early voting just started and it’s already breaking all kinds of records.” Continue reading...

Secretary general warns effects of global heating are outstripping the ability to adapt to themA dramatic increase in funding for climate adaptation is needed to save millions of lives from “climate carnage”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said.Climate adaptation includes preparing defences against rising floods, shelters against intensifying cyclones and emergency plans to protect people during worsening heatwaves and droughts. Guterres said only a small fraction of the required finance was given by rich nations to protect vulnerable people. Continue reading...

Office for Environmental Protection chair expresses concern over delays to legislative deadlinesThe head of the independent environmental watchdog is holding talks with the environment secretary over delays in meeting key targets to tackle water and air pollution and halt the decline in nature.Dame Glenys Stacey, the chair of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), has told Thérèse Coffey, the new secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, that the possibility of taking formal enforcement action against the government over multiple missed targets was being kept under active review. The OEP can launch an investigation and take legal action if it deems it necessary. Continue reading...

Materials put into domestic compost are failing to disintegrate after six months – the only solution is to use lessMost plastics marketed as “home compostable” don’t actually work, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research.An estimated 10% of people can effectively compost at home, but for the remaining 90% of the population the best place to dispose of compostable plastics is in landfill, where they slowly break down, releasing methane, researchers say. If compostable plastic ends up among food waste, it contaminates it and blocks the recycling process, the study finds. The only solution is to use less plastic. Continue reading...

British-Egyptian activist says he will cease drinking, raising fears he may die while officials attend summitA British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist has said he will escalate his hunger strike inside a desert prison, raising concerns he could die while British officials attend the Cop27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a figurehead of Egypt’s 2011 uprising and one of the Middle East’s best-known political prisoners, has spent most of the past decade behind bars. Shortly after gaining British citizenship while in detention last year, he was sentenced to a further five years in a high-security prison on charges of “spreading false news” for sharing a social media post about torture. Continue reading...

By 2030, project will help conserve wide range of threatened wildlife in south-west EnglandA network of flower-filled grasslands sweeping from the fringes of sandy beaches to moorland edges is being created by the National Trust in the south-west of England.Designed to boost flora and fauna – and be a balm for human visitors – the new grassland is due to cover more than 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land in north Devon by 2030. Continue reading...