The vote was one of several major decisions on the state’s climate future and will delay the facility’s closure by five yearsCalifornia’s last nuclear plant – scheduled to fully shut down by 2025 – has been given renewed life.California lawmakers voted on Wednesday to delay the closure of the Diablo Canyon facility by five years, after the governor warned the state could face rolling blackouts if its twin reactors were retired too soon. Continue reading...

Scheme will be tried in certain areas for three years, and environmental groups hope it will be rolled out across countryFrance is cracking down on the tonnes of unsolicited junk mail and advertising brochures put through letterboxes each year, warning of unnecessary waste and damage to the environment.For more than a decade, households in France that do not want to receive piles of unaddressed advertising leaflets have been able to put a sticker on their letterbox saying “no to advertising”. But the government acknowledged this approach had failed and has changed tack. Continue reading...

Judgment is huge victory for campaigners concerned about effect of seismic waves on marine lifeA South African court has upheld a ban imposed on the energy giant Shell from using seismic waves to explore for oil and gas off the Indian Ocean coast.The judgment delivered in Makhanda on Thursday marks a monumental victory for environmentalists concerned about the impact the exploration would have on whales and other marine life. Continue reading...

Outgoing leader hails £700m funding for Sizewell C nuclear plant in penultimate speech

Amid mounting energy and climate crises, the would-be prime minister is burying her head in an eternal culture warHow best to describe wilfully vandalising the planet and threatening human life to satisfy ideological bloodlust? Liz Truss – already a plausible contender for the “worst prime minister ever” gong before she even assumes office – apparently intends to issue up to 130 drilling licences for oil and gas firms. If the purpose of this is to confront the looming social catastrophe of energy bills, to describe it as an exercise in futility would be generous: it takes the best part of three decades to pump fossil fuels out of the ground and put them onstream.As Russia switches off Europe’s flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – it implausibly cites maintenance work as the reason – the need for drastic, swift action could not be more obvious, yet our soon-to-be prime minister has nothing meaningful to offer.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistGuardian Newsroom: Who will be our new prime minister?

Experts, concerned about the algae bloom that is turning the water to brown muck, say the die-off is ‘like losing giant redwoods’Thousands of fish carcasses have been floating up to the edges of the San Francisco Bay, and the scummy top of Oakland’s Lake Merritt – stewing under the sun and wafting a putrid stench into nearby neighborhoods.The dead bat rays, striped bass, sturgeon, anchovies and clams, are likely mass victims of an algal bloom that scientists are racing to understand. In the meantime citizen scientists, local photographers, joggers and naturalists have been capturing dramatic photos of the die off. Continue reading...

The technology, put forward as part of the UK’s net zero strategy, could extend the life of fossil fuel infrastructureCarbon capture and storage schemes, a key plank of many governments’ net zero plans, “is not a climate solution”, the author of a major new report on the technology has said.Researchers for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found underperforming carbon capture projects considerably outnumbered successful ones by large margins. Continue reading...

The deputy Liberal leader has been taken to task over the ‘totally wrong, wholly incorrect’ claim that no one is making electric utesOnce upon a time in the former Morrison government, policies to promote electric cars were going to “end the weekend”, while the vehicles themselves wouldn’t be able to tow your boat or trailer.Now in opposition and with Scott Morrison consigned to the backbench, the Liberal party’s deputy leader, Sussan Ley, has continued the EV bashing. Continue reading...

Push for moratorium on offsets comes as NSW’s scheme found to have no strategy for ensuring protection of environment

Lawmakers approved legislation in 2020 banning coal for electricity production by the end of this yearHawaii will close its only coal-fired power plant on Thursday, an aggressive step forward in the state’s effort to transition entirely to renewable energy by 2045.The AES power plant has been in use since 1992 on Oahu – the state’s third largest island and home to its capital Honolulu – and is responsible for as much as 20% of the island’s electricity. Continue reading...

Several California cities broke heat records, rising as high as 112F, and blazes erupted as residents were forced to fleeA record-breaking heatwave has scorched the US west, the latest in a string of extreme temperature events putting communities on high alert for heat-related illness and death as temperatures are expected to spike higher through the holiday weekend.More than 50 million Americans live in areas now under excessive heat watches, warnings and advisories. Temperatures are expected to hit 115F (46C) in the coming days across parts of southern California, Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley, according to the National Weather Service. In Death Valley, temperatures were forecast to reach more than 120F (49C) – and perhaps match the highest temperature observed globally in the month of September. Continue reading...

Climate bill inquiry says government should consider establishing a transition authority for coal and gas workers

Diarrhoea and malaria cases spread, with risk of dysentery and cholera, as millions of displaced people forced to drink flood waterHealth officials have warned of large-scale outbreaks of disease in Pakistan after severe flooding displaced millions of people.A rise in cases of diarrhoea and malaria has been reported after months of heavy rains left people stranded and without access to clean water. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson is expected to confirm government funding for Suffolk projectBoris Johnson is poised to sign off as prime minister by giving the green light for a new nuclear reactor costing up to £30bn.The decision to offer funding for the Sizewell C in Suffolk, in his final week in Downing Street, is expected to unlock significant private funding for the project after years bogged down in planning approvals. However, it would come after Johnson promised not to make any major spending decisions before leaving office. Here is the state of play. Continue reading...

Support amid huge industry profits is a ‘roadblock’ to tackling climate crisis, says International Energy AgencyGlobal public subsidies for fossil fuels almost doubled to $700bn in 2021, analysis has shown, representing a “roadblock” to tackling the climate crisis.Despite the huge profits of fossil fuel companies, the subsidies soared as governments sought to shield citizens from surging energy prices as the global economy rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Children in Mississippi capital to return to virtual learning: ‘We have no idea when our kids will go back in person’As the flooding in Jackson, Mississippi, continues to upend the lives of tens of thousands of residents, the city’s youngest are struggling to continue their schooling.Erica Jones, an educator for the last 21 years and president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, said the 20,000 students in the predominantly Black and impoverished school district are dealing with yet another disruption after the pandemic. Continue reading...

IAEA experts wait to inspect frontline facility while Russia says they must join a queue

White House offers help to 150,000 residents of Jackson, which has been under boil-water notice for a monthThe governor of Mississippi declared a state of emergency and called in the national guard after the main water treatment facility in the state capital, Jackson, started to fail, threatening the water supply of up to 250,000 people and leaving many without running water.Tate Reeves delivered the news a critical water treatment plant in Jackson had begun to fail on Monday evening. The announcement made official what thousands of the city’s 160,000 residents already knew – that water pressure is so low it is impossible to carry out vital daily functions such as flushing toilets or taking showers. Continue reading...

Group of 40 organisations says deregulation risks irreparable damage to environment, people’s health and workers’ rightsDitching the UK’s green and social regulations in the bonfire of red tape that both Tory leadership candidates have promised would risk irreparable damage to the natural environment, to people’s health and workers’ rights, a group of 40 organisations has warned.Health and safety in the workplace could also be threatened if current regulations are abandoned, according to the group. Both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, one of whom will be the next prime minister after a poll of Conservative party members, have indicated they would lead a deregulation drive in government. Continue reading...

Energy bills are set to top £3,500 a year for the average household, while voices on the right of the Tory party want to bury the ‘green agenda’The fourth Conservative prime minister in six years will take office next week, facing a set of inflationary economic and social crises not seen since the 1970s.Energy bills set to top £3,500 a year for the average household are forecast to push two-thirds into fuel poverty by January, while food prices have leapt at the fastest rate for more than a decade, adding nearly £500 and rising to the average annual grocery bill. Key workers are striking or mulling stoppages, and services from health to the courts are on the brink of collapse. Meanwhile, sewage is pouring into our rivers and beaches, a grim metaphor for the state of the nation taking tangible form. Continue reading...

Sharif’s climate change minister called the flooding a ‘climate catastrophe’ and said the south Asian nation was ‘paying the price’ for western use of fossil fuelsPakistan is not to blame for a climate crisis-fuelled disaster that has flooded much of the country, the prime minister has said, as he made a desperate plea for international help in what he said was the “toughest moment” in the nation’s history.“We are suffering from it but it is not our fault at all,” Shehbaz Sharif told journalists on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference where his climate change minister referred to the flooding as a “climate catastrophe”. Continue reading...

Charity says strategy is unlawful and will allow storm overflows to dump raw sewage for next 28 yearsThe UK government’s plan to cut millions of hours of raw sewage discharges by water companies each year is facing a judicial review on the grounds that it is unlawful.The conservationist charity WildFish is calling for the storm overflow reduction strategy, published on Friday, to be withdrawn immediately. Continue reading...

We have become used to thinking about things from a driver’s perspective – but is that the sort of world we want?When we block traffic from a street, like for a sports event or a street party, we say that the street is “closed”. But who is it closed for? For motorists. But really, that street is now open to people.We say this because we’ve become accustomed to thinking about the street in “traffic logic”. For centuries, streets used to be a place with a multiplicity of purposes: talk, trade, play, work and moving around. It’s only in the past century that it has become a space for traffic to drive through as quickly and efficiently as possible. This idea is so pervasive that it has colonised our thinking.This is an edited extract from Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives by Thalia Verkade and Marco te Brömmelstroet, translated by Fiona Graham Continue reading...

Beaches closed after male surfer was bitten by great white shark on Wednesday morning with a drone deployed to search for the animal

Open letter from 44 Anglican leaders contrasts ‘generous’ British response to Ukraine with ‘dire need’ still unmet in their countriesDozens of bishops from drought-ravaged east Africa have appealed to the UK government to urgently get more funding to those in need, warning that Britain’s rapid response to the Ukraine crisis must not come at the expense of lives elsewhere.As the worst drought for four decades tightens its grip on Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, with millions facing acute hunger, the group of 44 Anglican bishops criticised the international community for not paying attention to early warnings or backing up rhetoric with sufficient funds. Continue reading...

His warnings of ecological and social breakdown have proved accurate. But with months to live, Davis is anything but defeatedFor decades, the southern California writer Mike Davis has obsessively documented the dark side of the Golden state - its wildfires, earthquakes, megalomaniac real estate developers and violent police departments.In essays like The Case for Letting Malibu Burn, Davis has argued that California’s natural disasters are not really natural at all, but the result of greed, racism, and lack of foresight from the region’s power brokers. In City of Quartz – published in 1990, two years before the Rodney King uprising – he depicted Los Angeles as a white supremacist police state that had successfully marketed itself as paradise. Continue reading...

Prehistoric stone circle and 11th-century church uncovered as country’s reservoirs hit 36% of normal capacityA huge megalithic complex and a centuries-old church are among the underwater monuments to have resurfaced in Spain as a severe drought causes water levels to plunge.After a prolonged dry spell, Spain’s reservoirs – which supply water for cities and farms – are at just under 36% capacity, according to environment ministry figures for August. Continue reading...

Australian Energy Market Operator warns that without investment in new-generation electricity storage and transmission, demand will outstrip supply

Minister says debt is high quality and shows farmers are ‘investing’, but academic believes there are ‘real and unrealised problems’

Forest fires, droughts and heatwaves across the country is forcing provinces to reduce power consumptionThere were still some streetlights on the Bund, one of the main roads in central Shanghai. But the decorative lights which light up the city skyline – blue, pink, and red – were turned off for two days to cope with the peaking power demand.The power restriction imposed by the city authorities, was the first in Shanghai, the financial hub of China. But across the rest of the country similar restrictions have been put in place, as cities, notably in the south-western region, grapple with ongoing power shortages caused by devastating droughts this summer. Continue reading...

Environmentalists say replacing natural forests with wood plantations to realise shift in construction practices is ‘bonkers’Building new urban homes from wood instead of concrete and steel could save about 10% of the carbon budget needed to limit global heating to 2C this century, according to a new study.The overhaul of construction practices needed for such a shift would require up to 149m hectares of new timber plantations – and an increase in harvests from unprotected natural forests – but it need not encroach on farmland, according to the paper by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Continue reading...

Gathering of as many as 100 boats in protected Mar Menor may have broken environmental lawsSpain’s ecology ministry and wildlife police are investigating whether a “mega party” and concert involving dozens of boats held this month in one of Europe’s largest and most endangered saltwater lagoons broke environmental laws.Photos emerged of as many as 100 boats moored off the Isla del Ciervo in the Mar Menor, in the south-eastern region of Murcia. Continue reading...

Canada warns of ‘significant’ economic damage in the event of a shutdown of Line 5, which travels through MichiganCanada has once again invoked a longstanding treaty with the US as it seeks to keep a controversial cross-border pipeline open, warning of “significant” economic damage to both countries in the event of a shutdown.Canada’s foreign minister said Line 5, a pipeline operated by Calgary-based Enbridge, was a critical source of energy security. Continue reading...

Mississippi capital says complications with water linked to recent flooding, leading to emergency distribution of bottled waterMississippi’s capital, Jackson, will go without reliable drinking water indefinitely, officials said, after pumps at the main water treatment plant failed on Monday, leading to the emergency distribution of bottled water and tanker trucks for 180,000 people.The city linked the failure to complications from the flooding of the Pearl River, but Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, who declared a state of emergency, said the cause was unknown and that the city-run water treatment plant had been poorly operated and understaffed for years. Continue reading...

A fifth of the 52m tickets sold were bought by people who did not ordinarily use public transportGermany’s three-month experiment with €9 tickets for a month’s unlimited travel on regional train networks, trams and buses saved about 1.8m tons of CO emissions, it has been claimed.Since its introduction on 1 June to cut fuel consumption and relieve a cost of living crisis, about 52m tickets have been sold, a fifth of these to people who did not ordinarily use public transport. The scheme is due to end on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Aloha Petroleum’s case against AIG could set precedent as to whether firms are protected against climate damage claimsA fossil fuel firm is suing its insurer for refusing to cover a climate lawsuit in a case that could affect the wider industry’s ability to defend itself from litigation.Aloha Petroleum, a subsidiary of the US-based Sunoco, filed a claim against AIG’s National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh earlier this month, arguing it had failed to protect Aloha from the mounting costs of defending climate-related claims by local governments in Hawaii. Continue reading...

Announcement means 11 of agency’s 14 areas in England now in drought status after record dry spellAll of south-west England is in drought after some of the driest conditions in nearly 90 years, the Environment Agency has said.The Wessex area – which includes Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, south Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire – has been declared in drought status. Continue reading...

Call for emergency funding as nearly half a million people displaced and estimated $10bn damage to economyThe United Nations and Pakistan are to appeal for $160m (£135m) in emergency funding for the nearly half a million people displaced by record-breaking floods that have killed more than 1,150 people since mid-June.Large areas remain underwater and more than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by the floods. Rescuers have been evacuating stranded people to safer ground. Continue reading...

Billionaire becomes first Asian person to break into the top three of world’s wealthyThe Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has been named the world’s third richest person with an estimated $137bn (£117bn) fortune and becomes the first Asian person to break into the top three of world’s wealthy.Adani, 60, who founded the mining-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group after dropping out of university, was on Tuesday ranked third on the daily-updated Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Continue reading...

Solar and wind projects to expand in size and provide bulk of total American electricity supply by decade’s end, study showsRenewable energy is set for an unprecedented boom in the US in the wake of its first ever climate bill, with the capacity of solar and wind projects expected to double by the end of the decade and providing the bulk of total American electricity supply, new analysis has shown.The passage of the legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), will help propel the US towards the forefront of the clean energy economy, experts predict, helping it compete with China on the manufacturing and installation of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and emerging zero carbon technology. Continue reading...

Tory leadership candidate criticised by campaigners after reports her team have met energy firms

Despite many challenges, December’s crucial biodiversity talks in Montreal may set a new path for humans to live with nature

Conservationists say auditor general’s report shows offsets must be ‘last resort’ amid calls for overhaul of biodiversity market

Senator David Pocock and Bob Carr among those urging Albanese government to claw back massive mining profits

Weather agencies warn of flooding as analyst warns a winter energy crunch is ‘highly likely’Rain across central China this week is expected to relieve the country’s worst heatwave on record, but weather agencies are now warning of potential floods, while analysts say the energy crisis exacerbated by the months-long drought is not over.Almost half of China has been affected by the latest heatwave, the hottest since record-keeping began in 1961. Hundreds of temperature records have been broken, and the heat has exacerbated the effects of low rainfall, drying up rivers and reservoirs across the country. Continue reading...

Watchdog due to arrive in Kyiv as frequent attacks on Russian-occupied power station raise fears mission may be called off

Outgoing PM to warn against focusing on short-term energy solutions in one of his final speechesLeading green Conservatives have backed Boris Johnson’s call for his successor to invest in renewable energy, amid concern that the Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss could rely more on fossil fuels to combat soaring prices.In one of his final speeches as prime minister, Johnson is set to warn against focusing on short-term solutions and neglecting both renewables and a wider shift towards net zero. Continue reading...

Loss will contribute a minimum rise of 27cm regardless of what climate action is taken, scientists discoverMajor sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now inevitable, scientists have found, even if the fossil fuel burning that is driving the climate crisis were to end overnight.The research shows the global heating to date will cause an absolute minimum sea-level rise of 27cm (10.6in) from Greenland alone as 110tn tonnes of ice melt. With continued carbon emissions, the melting of other ice caps and thermal expansion of the ocean, a multi-metre sea-level rise appears likely. Continue reading...

Northern Irish painter Jack Coulter used the climate activist’s words and music by the 1975 to create the pieceWhen Greta Thunberg delivered her “Our house is on fire” speech at Davos in 2019, she galvanised hundreds of thousands of school students to strike for the climate. The address was unique and potent in its urgency, but what did it look like in colour? What hues, textures and shapes could be ascribed to her words?One artist has sought to answer that very question, by transcribing Thunberg’s voice into a painting that will debut at Sotheby’s next month. Continue reading...

Foreign minister urges countries and IMF to help stricken country after climate change minister speaks of climate ‘catastrophe’Pakistan’s government has appealed for international help to tackle a flooding emergency that has killed more than 1,000 people and threatens to leave a third of the country – an area roughly the size of Britain – underwater.Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday night that floods brought on by weeks of extreme monsoonal rainfall and melting glaciers would worsen Pakistan’s already dire economic situation and that financial aid was needed. Continue reading...