Prime minister gives press conference on Australia’s commitments to climate action; Anthony Albanese says government has ‘net zero modelling, net zero legislation and net zero unity’ on climate; South Australia to open to double vaccinated visitors from 23 November; This blog is now closed

Dozens of vultures descended on Bunn, North Carolina, last year and nothing – not even cannon shot – looks like shifting themResidents of a North Carolina town have spoken of their dismay after spending more than a year besieged by scores of buzzards.The birds, which arrived in Bunn in late 2020, quickly staked out their territory in the 344-person town. Continue reading...

Every part of the region affected with extreme temperatures displacing millions of peopleAsia suffered its hottest year on record in 2020, the United Nations has said ahead of the CoP26 summit, with extreme weather taking a heavy toll on the continent’s development.The mean temperature pushed 1.39C above the 1981-2010 average, according to a report by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization. Continue reading...

How should the government approach the issue, and how are they willing to change their own lives?

UK report on public attitudes to net-zero target also finds widespread support for nationalisation

About 100 rats have been discovered since a $17m eradication program on the world heritage-listed island but experts say all is not lost

Actor proposes system under which people would have limited points to spend on holidays and luxury itemsJoanna Lumley has suggested that a system of rationing similar to that seen during wartime, under which people would have a limited number of points to spend on holidays or lavish consumer goods, could eventually help to tackle the climate crisis.The Absolutely Fabulous actor, who has long campaigned against single-use plastic, said legislation could be the only way to curb the amount of waste produced by the public. “These are tough times, and I think there’s got to be legislation,” she told the Radio Times. Continue reading...

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Milestone comes after firm’s Model 3 became first battery-powered electric car to top Europe’s monthly sales chart

FoI documents reveal state government feared rapid approval of Santos project would ‘undermine public trust’

PM urges firms to reduce use of single-use plastics and dismisses recycling as ‘a red herring’Boris Johnson has admitted Britain could fail to broker adequate enough deals to curb irreversible and devastating climate change at the global summit of world leaders beginning in Scotland later this month.The prime minister said it was “touch and go” whether the Cop26 event would be a success, as he told businesses it was their job to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic they produce and described placing too much responsibility on people to recycle as a “red herring”. Continue reading...

Annual target going unmet has endangered developing nations’ trust in Paris deal, say expertsThe longstanding target for providing climate finance to the developing world will be met within two years, according to a new report ahead of the UN Cop26 climate summit.But experts said it was “shameful” that developed countries were not doing more to help the poorest in the world, who were struggling with a climate crisis not of their making. Continue reading...

Conservative politicians release almost identical statements following anger over rejection of environment bill amendmentThe government has launched a defensive social media campaign after MPs faced anger from their constituents over last week’s sewage vote, in which an amendment to the environment bill that would have placed a legal duty on water companies not to pump waste into rivers was voted down.Many Conservative MPs posted almost identical statements on Monday morning after a weekend of anger over the vote. Government sources confirmed to the Guardian that the information in these posts was supplied by No 10. Continue reading...

More than 60 environmental activists obstruct traffic across financial district in central LondonProtesters from Insulate Britain have blocked roads in three locations in London, as the climate activist group returned to the streets after a 10-day pause in its campaign.More than 60 protesters blocked junctions at the north end of Southwark Bridge, Bishopsgate and the Limehouse Causeway, the 14th time they have staged protests since mid-September. Continue reading...

Atrato, which aims to raise £150m, is run by three women including Good Energy founder Juliet DavenportAn investment trust focused on renewable energy due to float next month is understood to be the first company with an all-female board to list on the London Stock Exchange.Atrato Onsite Energy, which said it wants to raise £150m by listing in London next month, is run by three women who make up its board, surpassing voluntary targets for getting more women into senior roles across most of FTSE companies. Continue reading...

The transition to heat pumps will affect almost every household in the UK, but it won’t work without public supportThe government has finally handed in its climate homework. Less than a fortnight before hosting the Cop26 climate summit – arguably the most important meeting in human history – the new net zero strategy is supposed to tell us how the UK will go from long-term hand-waving to now-term problem-solving.There is both a lot in there, and not enough. Until the government’s official advisers give their assessment we won’t know for sure if the plan stands a good chance of achieving legal carbon targets through to 2037. If you want a simple headline for now, I’d offer this: we’re pointing in the right direction, but setting off at a jog. Physics demands we sprint.Max Wakefield is the director of campaigns for the climate action group Possible Continue reading...

Care work – paid and unpaid – has huge knock-on effects for the climate that can no longer be ignoredIt is no coincidence that both care and our climate are in crisis. Addressing each requires us to recognise that we are vulnerable and interdependent, as a species and individually. This will only become more apparent, because – as the world gets hotter and consequently more dangerous – we are going to need to care for each other more than ever before. As initiatives including Naomi Klein’s The Leap and the Feminist Green New Deal have explained, we need a care-centred approach to meet the demands of a future that looks very different to our past.First, we must broaden our understanding of what constitutes a “green job”. Research by the Feminist Green New Deal has found that a majority of people identify solar panel installers as green workers, but far fewer consider care workers to be in the same camp. This shows us something important about our mindset. So far, we have thought in terms of greening highly polluting industries – turning from fossil fuels to renewables – rather than identifying what is simply green, ie what is low-carbon by nature. This is the difference between tweaking our current system and stepping into a new approach that makes different kinds of work central to our economy. From this perspective, care work becomes a core component of our future, as those calling for its inclusion in a green new deal have advocated.Emily Kenway is a writer and author of The Truth About Modern Slavery Continue reading...

Barnaby Joyce says ‘decision is settled’ as resources minister Keith Pitt – who opposed 2050 target – is promoted within Coalition cabinetThe federal Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, has said he supports the “process” that led the party to back a net zero emissions target even as he came under fire for opposing the climate policy backed by a majority in the party room.Joyce on Monday insisted his opposition to the target was irrelevant given the final decision reflected the will of the party room. The Nationals secured an extra cabinet position as part of the Coalition deal, with the resources minister, Keith Pitt – who also opposed the mid-century target – reelevated. Continue reading...

NGOs call on officials to stop meeting BP and other oil and gas producers to limit influence over climate policyOil and gas companies should be treated like the tobacco industry and denied routine meetings with EU officials, a group of NGOs have said, as they revealed that fossil fuel producers have enjoyed hundreds of meetings with Brussels decision makers since the Paris climate agreement.Since 2015, six oil and gas giants, including BP and Norway’s Equinor, plus fossil fuel trade bodies have held 568 meetings with top officials at the European Commission, the body responsible for drafting EU climate and energy legislation, according to research by four environmental campaign groups, including Friends of the Earth and the Corporate Europe Observatory. Continue reading...

Study finds species stay longer in European breeding grounds and spend less time in AfricaMigratory birds including the willow warbler, the garden warbler and the nightingale may eventually stop flying south for the winter as they spend longer in their European breeding grounds.Analysis of more than 50 years of bird records from the Gambia and Gibraltar has found that some migratory species that cross the Sahara are spending between 50 and 60 fewer days on average in Africa each winter. Continue reading...

Gifts and donations were from oil companies, airports, petrostates and climate-sceptic thinktanksThe Conservative party and its MPs have registered £1.3m in gifts and donations from climate sceptics and fossil fuel interests since the 2019 general election, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.Oil companies, petrostates, airports and businesses linked with Russian energy tycoons are among this set of donors, who have either made money from fossil fuels or stand to lose economically or politically from cutting emissions. Continue reading...

Despite pushing ahead with dozens of new coal power plants, China has a new plan to increase wind and solar power in its march towards carbon neutralityChina is targeting a clean energy goal of reducing fossil fuel use to below 20% by 2060, according to an official plan published by state media.The cabinet document, released on Sunday, follows a pledge by President Xi Jinping to wean the world’s biggest polluter off coal, with a target of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality 30 years later. Continue reading...

Net zero strategy should have defined what green jobs are so that progress can be measured, says committeeThe government has come under fire from the environmental audit committee of MPs for its “inconsistent” policy on green jobs. The committee said that despite pledging millions of pounds to green jobs initiatives, ministers are yet to define what a “green job” is.“The workforce of the future is being undermined by a lack of evidence-based government policies on how jobs will be filled in green sectors,” said Philip Dunne, the committee chairman. “Encouraging announcements of investment in green sectors of the economy are very welcome but the government admits that claims about green jobs lack explanation and data on how the targets will be achieved.” Continue reading...

Climate finance plan needed to gain backing of developing nations for any deal at Glasgow talksThe world’s poorest countries are set to benefit from a new climate funding plan to help them cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, in an effort to break the impasse between developed and developing countries at the UN Cop26 climate summitThe UK government, as Cop26 host, will unveil the proposals on Monday along with ministers from Germany and Canada, who have been charged with drawing up a plan for climate finance, needed to gain the backing of scores of developing countries for any deal at the talks, which open in Glasgow next Sunday. Continue reading...

Readers respond to letters from readers who were sceptical about the practicality of replacing gas boilers with heat pumpsYour correspondents are too gloomy about heat pumps for houses and flats (Letters, 20 October). Heat pumps may be unusual in Britain, but they are a major industry and very widespread in Europe and elsewhere. They are used in Canada, where outside temperatures drop very low. Individual units may not be suitable for high-rise blocks – although they might be installed on balconies. But high-rise buildings make up a small fraction of the housing stock, and blocks can have communal heating and cooling with large centralised heat pumps.Older heat pumps were noisy, but new makes are on the market that are much quieter. It is not true, except in the worst cases, that installing heat pumps requires dwellings to be insulated first. The great majority of houses and flats in the UK are already reasonably insulated, and heat pumps can be run for longer and at lower temperatures than gas boilers. Better insulation of existing gas-heated houses and flats will by itself only produce modest cuts in carbon emissions. To meet climate goals, we have to stop using gas. Continue reading...

Researchers call for new firefighting techniques that focus on managing landscapes, as global heating sees increase in blazes

There is no longer any population or place on earth untouched by PFAS contamination. We are living through a toxic experiment with no control groupThis week the EPA announced a new roadmap to research, restrict, and remediate PFAS – a group of industrial “forever chemicals” that have been linked to cancer and are found in our food, water, and even our blood. President Biden is requesting $10bn in the infrastructure bill to address PFAS. But this new attention still falls short of what’s required to confront an unprecedented crisis that affects the health of the entire United States and countless people across the world.Today, toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are everywhere we’ve thought to look for them. As engineered, these synthetic chemicals glide through air and water with ease, evade all natural processes of decay, and inflict debilitating injuries even at exceedingly low levels of exposure. The petrochemical industry has its fingerprints all over the ubiquity of PFAS, yet that very ubiquity is now being used as an excuse against doing anything about it. PFAS are becoming too toxic to fail. Continue reading...

Fresh wave of direct action is planned before Cop26 summit opensClimate protest group Insulate Britain has revealed its “absolute disbelief” that its members have been allowed to repeatedly disrupt the motorway network, saying it had originally expected its campaign of direct action to last just two days.As the group prepares for a fresh wave of protests this week, organisers admit they are baffled over why the police have effectively allowed them to keep closing major routes. Continue reading...

Top climate official issues strong warning on effect of unchecked greenhouse gases ahead of summitGlobal security and stability could break down, with migration crises and food shortages bringing conflict and chaos, if countries fail to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, the UN’s top climate official has warned ahead of the Cop26 climate summit.Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: “We’re really talking about preserving the stability of countries, preserving the institutions that we have built over so many years, preserving the best goals that our countries have put together. The catastrophic scenario would indicate that we would have massive flows of displaced people.” Continue reading...

In the run-up to the global summit in Glasgow, we revisit families with children – now teenagers – born at the time of the 2009 climate conferenceThey are entering their teenage years and aspire to bring about positive change when they grow up. But the dreams of these three children, each born in different corners of the world in the weeks leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009, are beset by worries of how global heating might shape their futures.Following their births, and again in 2015 ahead of the Paris climate summit, the Observer heard from the families of Maria, Olomaina and Denislania about how they were coping with the impacts of climate change. Continue reading...

Kean also took a swipe at MPs supporting nuclear power, saying they are ‘chasing a unicorn’

Northern California faces flash flood risk and threat of mudslides, especially in fire-charred areasA huge Pacific storm is poised to unleash conditions known as an “atmospheric river”, with torrential rains and strong winds putting about 10 million people at risk of flash floods in parts of northern California this weekend.The incoming tempest has raised fears of mudslides, especially in areas charred during record-setting wildfires this summer. Continue reading...

Those born in the small NSW town of Nundle are generally in favour of a new windfarm, while many tree changers object

Converting every vehicle to electric by 2035 would halve costs, Australian Conservation Foundation report findsAustralia may be left with almost a $1tn health bill by 2050 if it doesn’t boost the take-up of electric vehicles, according to a new report released on Sunday.But this could be slashed in half by setting an ambitious target to convert every car in the country to electric by 2035. Continue reading...

Agriculture turns full-circle as the trend for ripping out hedges is reversed… and farmers hail the ecological benefitsThe emerald-green five-year-old hawthorn hedge glistens in autumnal sunshine. In the cider apple orchard and grass pastures below, younger hedges shoot off towards a fast-flowing trout stream.History has come full circle in Blackmore Farm, which nestles in the foothills of the Quantocks in Somerset. The owner, Ian Dyer, remembers helping his father, who arrived as a tenant farmer in the 1950s, grub out old hedges in the 1960s and 1970s. But – like increasing numbers of landowners – he has hired a hedgelayer to bring back his hedges to provide habitats for wildlife, capture carbon and slow water pouring off fields into rivers. Continue reading...

Government urged to carry out comprehensive review of curriculum and decarbonise school estate by 2030Climate crisis education should become fully embedded in the system, unions have urged.A joint letter to the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, calls for a review of the curriculum to ensure everyone is mobilised for a “sustainable future”. Continue reading...

I’ve worked in oil for decades, and seen what happens when jobs dry up with no plan B. Now industry leaders must face reality tooMoving to a green energy system and a zero-emissions society without leaving people behind is an enormous challenge. Many oil and gas workers are actually ready for the change, but the oil and gas industry itself is slowing the process, holding back real progress.Having worked in the oil industry in Aberdeen and abroad for decades, what I have seen feels like the industry applying all of its power to self-preservation, in the face of the immutable truths that fossil fuels will one day run out and that we must keep what of them remains in the ground.Erik Dalhuijsen is a consultant petroleum and sustainability engineer and a climate change activist living in Aberdeen Continue reading...

Ambivalence, industrial disputes and other issues are complicating city’s build-up to the climate conferenceDiwali candles in pretty terracotta pots are stacked around the counter at Suresh & Sons grocer in Finnieston, the Glasgow district that borders the UN-managed “blue zone” of the Scottish Event Campus. Next weekend more than 30,000 delegates from 196 countries will converge on the area for the crucial two-week Cop26 climate conference.Four days into the event is the Hindu festival of lights, Leena Kumar explains. The council advised her to talk to suppliers about getting stock delivered before the road closures begin this weekend, but it is not that easy, she says. “We are well-informed, but we still don’t know what’s going to happen,” she laughs. Continue reading...

The lowdown as householders are being urged to replace their old boilers with greener alternatives

An insider says keeping temperatures within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels rests with big developing countries in G20As we get closer to the beginning of Cop26, I worry that the main goal – keeping temperature rises within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – is slipping away.The Covid-19 pandemic offered the opportunity for a global reset. We could rebuild in a way that was green and with lower greenhouse gas emissions.Every week we’ll hear from negotiators from a developing country that is involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and will be attending the Cop26 climate conference. Continue reading...

From grassroots campaigners to Hollywood actors, 21 climate rebels tell their storiesTap on each activist to read their story Continue reading...

Each item will have an estimate of its carbon footprint, so visitors can make ‘climate-friendly choices’Plant-based dishes will dominate the menu at the Cop26 climate conference, where 80% of the food will be from Scotland.The low-carbon menu includes 95% British food, especially locally sourced Scottish produce, and each menu item has an estimate of its carbon footprint, “helping attendees make climate-friendly choices”.Winter squash lasagne (0.7kg COequivalent emissions) – celeriac, glazed root vegetables and winter squash, with a vegan cheddar.Organic kale and seasonal vegetable pasta (0.3kg COee) – spelt fusilli, field mushrooms, kale and seasonal vegetables.Braised turkey meatballs (0.9kg COee) – with organic spelt penne pasta in a tomato ragu.Organic spelt wholegrain penne pasta (0.2kg COee) – with a tomato ragu, kale, pesto and oatmeal crumble. Continue reading...

Exclusive: crown estates accused of greed in selling rights to ‘incompatible’ carbon capture and windfarm projectsA clash between two multibillion pound “net zero carbon” schemes is brewing in the North Sea after the Queen’s property manager granted development rights for one patch of seabed to two different projects at the same time.The crown estate will earn millions of pounds after agreeing to lease an area off the Yorkshire coast to the latest phase of the giant Hornsea offshore windfarm, as well as to a scheme led by BP which plans to begin storing carbon dioxide under the seabed. This has prompted concern that the giant wind turbines could interfere with seabed sensors for the carbon storage project. Continue reading...

Summit president says 2015 global emissions agreement a ‘framework’ but rules were left for future talksAchieving a global climate deal in Glasgow in the next three weeks will be harder than signing the Paris agreement of 2015, the UK president-designate of the Cop26 talks has said.Alok Sharma, the cabinet minister in charge of the UK-hosted talks, just over a week away, said the task would be to get nearly 200 countries to implement stringent cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions, in line with holding global temperature increases to within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels – a goal fast receding as global carbon output continues to climb. Continue reading...

Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull lash out at Morrison government’s ‘cynical indifference’ and assure Pacific leaders ‘a majority’ of Australians ‘are in your corner’Former Australian prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, and former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr, have accused the Morrison government of “cynical indifference” and “empty rhetoric” when it comes to climate action, saying the commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 was the “bare minimum” that needed to be done.The broadside came in a letter to Pacific leaders, in which the Australian politicians said they shared the “alarm and disappointment” of Pacific heads of government at the suggestion Australia will not table a new and increased target for the reduction of emissions ahead of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow next month. Continue reading...

Exclusive: chancellor to boost green credentials by hitting environmentally damaging long-haul flightsTravellers to destinations including Australia, South Africa and Japan can expect to pay more to fly, as Rishi Sunak prepares to overhaul air passenger duty in next week’s budget to reflect the environmental damage wrought by long-haul flights.The chancellor is keen to burnish his green credentials after a week in which he was accused of failing to back Boris Johnson’s net-zero pledges with sufficient resources. Continue reading...

More than 70% of Americans report ordering takeout or delivery one to three times a week – resulting in hundreds of billions of single-use productsThe first question Lauren Sweeney set out to answer when she co-founded DeliverZero, a platform for ordering meals in reusable containers, was: do other people care about takeout packaging waste? “Is it just me standing in front of recycling bins with sushi containers knowing they’re not going to be recycled?” she asked herself at the time.It wasn’t just her. In November 2019, she and two partners launched the DeliverZero website, where people could place takeout orders that would arrive in reusable boxes instead of the standard disposables. Despite offering food from only a few restaurants in one Brooklyn neighborhood and having a “very bad” user interface the app quickly took off. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a hungry jay, rescued turtles and a lone wolf Continue reading...

Arizona senator – who once led the state Green party – has refused to specify which parts of the $3.5tn budget bill she objects toWildfires, deadly heat, drought and flooding show how climate change has “already arrived” in Arizona and action is desperately needed, according to climate and progressive advocates who helped elect Kyrsten Sinema to represent the state in the Senate.Many of them are wondering why their senator seems to have “turned her back” on her background in environmental politics and is now blocking Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar legislation to address climate change. Continue reading...

Water sources used by millions of humans as well as wildlife poisoned with ‘forever chemicals’Last year, residents in Campbell, Wisconsin, a four-square-mile island city in the Mississippi River, learned disturbing news: toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” used in firefighting foam at a neighboring airport had probably been contaminating their private wells for decades.As state and local leaders search for a solution, residents now use bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth. Yet the situation represents more than an enormous inconvenience. Some strongly suspect that the seemingly high rate of cancer, Crohn’s disease and other serious ailments that have plagued the island’s residents stem from the dangerous chemicals. Continue reading...