Newly unearthed documents contain warning from head of Air Pollution Foundation, founded in 1953 by oil interestsMajor oil companies, including Shell and precursors to energy giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP, were alerted about the planet-warming effects of fossil fuels as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents show.The warning, from the head of an industry-created group known as the Air Pollution Foundation, was revealed by Climate Investigations Center and published Tuesday by the climate website DeSmog. It represents what may be the earliest instance of big oil being informed of the potentially dire consequences of its products. Continue reading...
by Damien Gayle (now) and Alan Evans (earlier) on (#6S5ER)
Mia Mottley and Keir Starmer among world leaders addressing the UN climate conference on day twoIn the halls of Cop29, activists from Oil Change International gathered around a computer to watch a Dutch court's ruling on a major ruling.In this morning's verdict, the Dutch appeals court struck down a 2021 ruling ordering oil and gas giant Shell to cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. The activists were devastated. Continue reading...
'2024 - a masterclass in climate destruction.' That is how the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, started his address to world leaders at Cop29 on Tuesday. '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. All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change,' he said
Oil and gas company had challenged 2021 ruling that it must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030Shell has won its appeal against a landmark climate judgment by a Dutch court, which in 2021 ordered the fossil fuel company to sharply reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.A court of appeal ruled on Tuesday that, while Shell does have a special responsibility" to cut its emissions as a big oil company, this would not be achieved by imposing a specific legal goal. Continue reading...
by Kirsten Lie-Nielsen in Fredrikstad, Norway on (#6S5EX)
Odd-looking creatures called ciona are naturally rich in protein and one company aims to farm and process them for the tableAt a seaside restaurant near the docks in Fredrikstad, Norway, there's a selection of delicious looking entrees sitting in front of me. There is a cheesy lasagne, a savoury Mexican casserole, and a spicy chilli con carne. Biting in to each one in turn, I savour the familiar taste of ground beef. Or is it?The dishes come from Pronofa Asa, a Scandinavian company whose purpose is to make new and sustainable protein sources. In 2022, it acquired the Swedish research company Marine Taste and expanded on its work turning ciona - or sea squirts" to you and me - into mincemeat. The dishes in Fredrikstad were prototypes, but Pronofa plans to have its mincemeat on supermarket shelves in Norway and Sweden before the end of the year, it says, and will aim to expand throughout Europe in the coming years. Continue reading...
The so-called corpse plant takes a decade to flower - and when it does, the blossom lasts just 24-48 hours and smells of rotting flesh. Guardian Australia's Henry Belot went along to take whiff
Agreement on rules paving way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad breaks years-long deadlockDiplomats have greenlit key rules that govern the trade of carbon credits", breaking a years-long deadlock and paving the way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad while delaying expensive emission cuts at home.The agreement, reached late on the first day of Cop29 in Azerbaijan, was hailed by the hosts as an early win at climate talks that have been snubbed by prominent world leaders and clouded by the threat of a US retreat from climate diplomacy after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election. Continue reading...
by Alan Evans, Damien Gayle and Bibi van der Zee on (#6S4HE)
This live blog is closedUN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don't go in for hopes and dreams," he said. What inspires me is human ingenuity and determination. Our ability to get knocked down and to get up again over and over again, until we accomplish our goals." Continue reading...
by Dharna Noor in Baku and Oliver Milman in New York on (#6S4V3)
Even if president-elect rolls back climate progress, John Podesta reaffirms commitment to a clean planet at Cop29The US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight for a cleaner, safer" planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump even if some progress is reversed, speaking at the Cop29 UN climate talks on Monday as they opened in Baku, Azerbaijan.Although under Donald Trump's leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue," said Podesta, who is leading the Biden administration's delegation at the annual talks. Continue reading...
Authorities have been racing to evacuate people reluctant to leave villages affected by the erupting Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano on the Indonesian island of Flores. Volcanic material has continued to spew from its crater since 3 November, prompting authorities to extend the danger area and increase the number of evacuees. Lewotobi Laki-Laki is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia
In 2023, state was nation's sole producer of almonds, artichokes, figs, olives, pomegranates, raisins and walnutsTake a drive through the Salinas or Central valleys in California and you'll pass from town to town advertising its specialty fruit or vegetable: strawberries in Watsonville, garlic in Gilroy, pistachios in Avenal and almonds in Ripon. More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state - including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States.Much of that food is grown by immigrant farm workers - many of whom are undocumented. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), about half of the country's 2.4 million agricultural farm workers do not have legal status in the US. But farm worker advocates say the number is much higher in places like California, where it can be as high as 70% in some areas", according to Alexis Guild, vice-president of strategy and programs at Farmworker Justice, a non-profit based in Washington DC. Continue reading...
Much is unclear about how Donald Trump's return to power will affect efforts to tackle global heating but there are a few things we can sayYou've probably already heard the worst-case takes: that a second Trump presidency is a disaster for the climate, and will almost certainly lead to emissions being higher than they otherwise would have been. There's obvious truth in that. But it's also true that Trump 2.0 will almost certainly not play out in line with immediate post-election predictions.We have been here before. As the writer and analyst Ketan Joshi points out, in 2016 it was projected that Trump's policies would lead to a steep rise in US emissions - a fork in the road at odds with the decline forecast if Hillary Clinton had won. Continue reading...
Workers face being targets in what could be Environmental Protection Agency's biggest upheaval since its foundingAfter several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump's last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House.When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a little bit of the EPA" left because you can't destroy business", prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency's 50-year history. Continue reading...
Air force had earlier claimed supreme court's overturning of Chevron doctrine had exempted it from EPA's orderThe US air force has backpedaled on a claim that the supreme court's recent reversal of the Chevron doctrine shields it against regulators' orders to clean drinking water the military polluted in Tucson, Arizona.The air force's bases partially contaminated water supplies for more than 500,000 people with toxic PFAS forever chemicals" and other dangerous compounds. In a July letter in which it refused to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's May orders to address the problem, air force attorneys cited the reversal of Chevron. It claimed the EPA's order can not withstand review". Continue reading...
Voluntary standards proposed at Cop16 focus on local like-for-like habitat projects, while critics call the issue a distraction'International biodiversity offsetting doesn't work", according to experts aiming to create a nature market that avoids the pitfalls of carbon offsets.The biodiversity sector has been circling the idea of a credits market that would allow companies to finance restoration and preservation of biodiversity, deliver net-positive" gains for nature, and help plug the $700bn (540bn) funding gap. Continue reading...
The theme' chosen for Cop29 must be some kind of dark joke. This summit, like those before it, is a mere act of greenwashingDuring rapidly escalating climate and humanitarian crises, another authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights is hosting Cop29 - the UN's latest annual climate summit that starts today and is being held after the re-election of a climate-denier US president.Cop meetings have proven to be greenwashing conferences that legitimise countries' failures to ensure a livable world and future and have also allowed authoritarian regimes like Azerbaijan and the two previous hosts - the United Arab Emirates and Egypt - to continue violating human rights.Greta Thunberg is a Swedish activist and international climate crisis campaigner Continue reading...
Early signs of success seen in area where native European oysters were fished to local extinction by early 1900sThousands of oysters released into the Firth of Forth appear to be thriving again after a century-long absence from the Scottish estuary since they were lost to overfishing.Marine experts from Heriot-Watt University who have helped reintroduce about 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary said divers and underwater cameras showed they were doing well. Continue reading...
Verse's connection to nature can inspire awareness and hope amid the climate crisis, offering clarity beyond dataPoetry has a big debt to nature, its muse and source ofmetaphor for centuries. As the UN climate conference begins, it is time to pay it back. Poetry mustgive nature a voice to express its dire predicament. I will rise," declares the furious river in the Scottish makar Kathleen Jamie's poem What the Clyde Said, After Cop26 - just as the River Xanthus inHomer's Iliad rose in revenge against Achilles for filling it with so many bodies.Ms Jamie's poem appears in a new anthology, Earth Prayers, edited by the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. We are in the age of anthropogenic climate breakdown, possibly the Age of Grief," Ms Duffy writes in the foreword. The 100 poems, ranging from classics such as Matthew Arnold's 1867 Dover Beach to #ExtinctionRebellion by Pascale Petit, remind us not just of the beauty of the natural world, but its fragility. Continue reading...
Once heavily scorned because of fraud and poor outcomes, carbon trading is likely to be high on the agenda in BakuFor the next two weeks, countries will gather on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss how to increase finance for climate crisis adaptation and mitigation. A global agreement on carbon markets will be high on the agenda as countries try to find ways of generating the trillions they need to decarbonise in order to limit heating to below 2C above preindustrial levels.Here is what you need to know. Continue reading...
Annual bird survey suggests particularly bad' autumn on key migration route through city's brightly lit skyscrapersAs fall bird migration nears its end in New York City, a troubling trend may be emerging: preliminary evidence suggest that more avians collided with buildings this season compared with last autumn.NYC Bird Alliance surveys suggest that collisions are up citywide and that it has proved to be a particularly bad" autumn for collisions. While spring 2024 showed fewer collisions than in 2023, about 60-75% of such accidents occur during fall migration, which peaks from early September to October. Continue reading...
Crucial question for summit will be how to help developing countries cope with extreme weather caused by high temperaturesCop29 officially opens on Monday 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the conference is scheduled to end on 22 November, although it is likely to run later. World leaders - about 100 have said they will turn up - are expected in the first three days, and after that the crunch negotiations will be carried on by their representatives, mostly environment ministers or other high-ranking officials.The crucial question for the summit is climate finance. Developing countries want assurances that trillions will flow to them in the next decade to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the rapidly receding hope of limiting global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and to enable them to cope with the increasingly evident extreme weather that rising temperatures are driving. Continue reading...
The region's president responds to criticisms that he was slow to act by attacking the prime ministerThe sun still hadn't risen on Tuesday 29 October when the mayor of Utiel, Ricardo Gabaldon, took another look at the warnings from Spain's state meteorological office and ordered all the schools in the small Valencian town to close.The warning early that morning - at 5am or 6am - was orange," he said. That's when I was weighing up whether to close the schools here. In the end, I ordered them to close at six or seven that morning. Soon after, the alert went red." Continue reading...
Ten people have been injured so far by the Mountain fire, which was 17% contained by Saturday morningAs firefighting crews continued to battle the Mountain fire on Saturday, some residents were allowed to return to areas destroyed by the blaze to sift through the destruction to their homes.As of 7am Pacific time on Saturday, the fire had been 17% contained, according to Cal Fire, the state's wildfire-fighting agency. Continue reading...
Shadow cabinet secretary Claire Coutinho accepted donation from Lord Bamford while overseeing millions awarded to his family businesses in green grantsA Conservative former cabinet minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty - including a 7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter - oversaw decisions to award his family's business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.Claire Coutinho also posed for pictures promoting Lord Bamford's personal 100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a 7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak's government. Continue reading...
Energy secretary says Britain must work on vital alliances with other countries following victory of climate-denier TrumpThe UK must ramp up its efforts on renewable energy to foster national security in an increasingly uncertain world, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has warned, on the eve of a fraught global summit on the climate crisis.He pledged that the UK would lead efforts at Cop29 to secure the global agreement needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown, in talks that have been thrown into turmoil by the re-election of Donald Trump as US president. Continue reading...
The lesson of his first term is that he does what he says he is going to do: the UK must prepareWednesday 9 November 2016: a misty, drizzly day in Washington DC, an overwhelmingly Democrat city in trauma after the shock victory of Donald Trump in the election the previous day. A Washington rarity, a declared Trump supporter, was among a group of guests for lunch in the residence that day. I took him aside and asked whether Trump would be as radical and disruptive as the giants of American political journalism were predicting. Not at all," he said: I know the guy. All that red meat was just for the campaign. I expect him to govern as a mainstream Republican."Fast forward to London, Wednesday 6 November 2024. I'm speaking at a business dinner about the election outcome and what will come next. I mention Trump's commitment to levy 20% tariffs on all imports into America. One participant says he has just spoken to a friend in Arizona who knows Trump personally. This friend has said: It's not about instant action. Trump will use the tariffs as a threat, to persuade countries to act to get trade flows into balance." Another participant says: Trump has won his second term now. So he doesn't need to fight any more. Surely he'll calm down and focus on his legacy?" Continue reading...
After Donald Trump's victory, brute force will prevail over geopolitics as authoritarians are appeased from Russia to Israel to ChinaFeelings are not the usual focus of a world dominated by macho strongmen, complex geopolitical challenges, wars and disasters. Yet every rule has exceptions. Following Donald Trump's unexpectedly decisive US election victory, dark storm clouds seeded with powerful emotions overshadow the international landscape.Feelings of shock and anger that this lying conman again seduced enough voters to win the presidency roil America's friends and allies. There is incredulity that so very many people collaborated in their own seduction. And there is puzzlement at exit polls that show 45% of female voters backed a serial sexual predator while Latino and black men helped a shameless racist to prevail.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
Landscape and architecture photographer Vincenzo Pagliuca was always fascinated by the empty, isolated houses scattered around the Campania region of southern Italy where he grew up. Since 2016 he has travelled along the Apennine mountain range that runs almost the length of the country, photographing uninhabited rural houses and abandoned holiday homes linked to ski tourism - now unused due to lack of snow. These images, collected in the book Monos, were shot during the winter months to capture the particular quality of the light. A house immersed in a winter landscape, even more so in its isolated state, evokes an ancestral sense of shelter and protection," says Pagliuca. It becomes an archetypal image of intimacy, inviting us to reflect on the psychological significance of home for human beings."
Patrick Grant says not even luxury clothing labels care enough about quality any moreEarlier this year Patrick Grant, The Great British Sewing Bee presenter and clothes designer, criticised the poor quality of Marks & Spencer's jumpers and socks - and now the luxury British heritage brand Burberry is in his line of fire.Speaking at an event organised by the Design Council last week, Grant had a simple message for the audience: Most people who sell you clothes do not give a stuff about the quality." Continue reading...
Gabriel Kay hopes his design can help tackle the problems caused by discarded electrical goodsGabriel Kay really understands his target audience. As a student of industrial and product design at De Montfort University, he focused on the kettle.Everyone can relate to a kettle, right?" says the 22-year-old graduate. It's easy to understand and associated with comfort. It's a friendly introduction to design." Continue reading...
More than 130 structures destroyed in two days by ferocious Mountain fire, as thousands remain under evacuation orderFirefighters in southern California made progress in their effort to contain a wildfire that destroyed more than 130 structures in two days as fierce wind gusts that were fanning flames eased on Friday.The Mountain fire, which started on Wednesday morning in Ventura county, had grown to 20,630 acres (about 8,349 hectares) with 14% contained as of Friday evening. Continue reading...
After debris balls were widely reported to be tar, testing coordinated with EPA revealed they were consistent with human-generated waste, or likely lumps of fatberg'
The new president's disruptive policies will challenge Sir Keir Starmer's green goals. But with strong leadership he could enhance Britain's global influenceDonald Trump's electoral earthquake in America will complicate Sir Keir Starmer's plans. Nowhere will the shock of Mr Trump's win be more intensely felt than in environmental policy. His stance on climate - advocating a US exit from the Paris climate agreement and rallying behind drill baby drill" - is more disruptive than constructive. This should concentrate Sir Keir's mind as he heads to Cop29, the UN's annual climate summit, in Baku, Azerbaijan.At last year's conference, world leaders agreed to transition away" from fossil fuels in a just and orderly manner for the first time. Mr Trump, however, dismisses the climate crisis as a hoax. With this year likely to be the hottest on record, the devastating effects of global heating are undeniable, as extreme weather batters the planet. Mr Trump may ignore the facts, but the trail of climate-related chaos and destruction speaks for itself.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Most recent fatality marks 17th beluga to die at Niagara Falls, Ontario, aquarium since 2019A fifth beluga has died at Canada's Marineland, as questions mount over the future of both the controversial theme park and one of the world's largest populations of captive whales.The most recent fatality marks the 17th beluga to die at the Niagara Falls aquarium since 2019. Continue reading...
Elnur Soltanov recorded speaking with fake oil and gas group that asked for deals in exchange for sponsoring talksThe chief executive of Cop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at the climate summit.The recording has amplified calls by campaigners who want the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists to be banned from future Cop talks. Continue reading...
It could have been better designed, but Rachel Reeves's inheritance tweak will help farmers with mud on their bootsShould multimillionaire landowners benefit from a tax break designed to help small family farms pass down their land to their children? This is a hotly contested question, given last week's budget. Labour has reintroduced 20% inheritance tax for farms that are valued at more than 1m, meaning the children of farmers will no longer inherit land tax-free. Granted, 20% is still only half of the standard inheritance tax rate, and it probably sounds more than generous to an ex-miner, foundry worker or shipbuilder. But today, 1m would only buy you about 40 hectares (100 acres) of farmland, which is far short of a viable farm.Farming is a long-term business that requires substantial assets and often makes only meagre returns. Farming families have not had to consider tax planning for family succession since 1992. As a second-generation farmer, I support much of the budget. But on the inheritance tax threshold, I thought, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had got it wrong. The positive reading of her decision is that she was trying to close a loophole whereby wealthy people buy up farmland and pass it, tax-free, to their children. If that was the main objective, though, the threshold should have been set substantially higher than 1m.Guy Singh-Watson is the founder of the organic veg box company Riverford and a member of Patriotic Millionaires UK. He grows organic vegetables on 60 hectares (150 acres) in Devon and 120 hectares (300 acres) in the French Vendee. He sold Riverford in 2018 to its 1,000 employees, and the company is now 100% employee-owned Continue reading...
Prospects of strong outcome appear dim but there is hope the talks will address pressing issue of climate financeMore than 100 heads of state and government are expected to land in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, over the next few days and the first thing they are likely to notice is the smell of oil. The odour hangs heavy in the air, evidence of the abundance of fossil fuels in this small country on the shores of the Caspian Sea.Flaring from refineries lights up the night sky, and the city is dotted with diminutive nodding donkey" oil wells raising and lowering their pistons as they draw from the earth. Even the national symbol is a gas flame, epitomised in the shape of three skyscrapers that tower over the city. Continue reading...
On the eve of Cop29 in Baku, Antonio Guterres says dangers are underestimated as irreversible tipping points nearThe world is still underestimating the risk of catastrophic climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse, the UN secretary general has warned in the run-up to Cop29, acknowledging that the rise in global heating is on course to soar past 1.5C (2.7F) over pre-industrial levels in the coming years.Humanity is approaching potentially irreversible tipping points such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and the Greenland ice sheet as global temperatures rise, Antonio Guterres has said, warning that governments are not making the deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit warming to safe levels. Continue reading...
Country's foreign minister says UN climate summits have produced no results' as Pacific nation takes the rare step of withdrawing from upcoming Cop29Papua New Guinea's decision to pull out of an upcoming UN global climate summit due to frustration over empty promises and inaction" has prompted concern from climate advocates, who fear the move will isolate the Pacific nation and put vital funding at risk.Prime minister James Marape announced in August the country would not attend Cop29 in protest at the big nations" for a lack of quick support to victims of climate change". Then last week, foreign affairs minister Justin Tckatchenko, confirmed Papua New Guinea would withdraw from high-level talks at the summit, which begins on 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, describing it as a total waste of time". Continue reading...
Royal says it's probably been the hardest year in my life' as Catherine and King Charles underwent cancer treatmentPrince William has described the past year as brutal" and probably the hardest year in my life" as he dealt with his wife and father having cancer.In a video interview to mark the end of his week-long visit of Cape Town in South Africa for the Earthshot prize awards ceremony, William was asked about his year. Honestly, it's been dreadful," he said. It's probably been the hardest year in my life. Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult. Continue reading...
Newfoundland Memorial Univeristy team find white masses are likely material used to clean pipes in oil industryWhen the chemist Chris Kozak finally got his hands on a sample of the mysterious blobs that recently washed up on the shores of Newfoundland's beaches, Project Unknown Glob officially began.At his disposal, Kozak and a team of graduate students had the gorgeous" new science building and world-class facilities" of Newfoundland's Memorial University to run a battery of tests on the white, doughy blob. Continue reading...
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