Matt Kean urges the Coalition government to ‘go a lot further’ to help drive EV uptake

The Dixie fire grew most explosively on nine of 10 such days, finds analysis of weather station and fire dataOn late summer and autumn days, when the hot, howling winds sting the skin and chap the lips, Holly Fisher starts to feel a bit unsettled. So do many of her neighbors in the town of Paradise, a name that evokes bitter irony in northern California.“It feels eerie,” she said. Three years ago, this arid, blustery weather portended the Camp fire. It consumed the town, killed more than 80 people, and burned down Fisher’s home. As the region reeled in the aftermath, the same potent convergence of weather conditions – known as “fire weather” – helped fuel the North Complex fire in 2019, and the Caldor and Dixie fires this year. Continue reading...

PM will travel to Glasgow by train following criticism for flying back to London by private jet last weekBoris Johnson will make a day trip to the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow on Wednesday to urge climate negotiators to “pull out all the stops” – travelling by train, after he was criticised for flying back by private jet last week.The prime minister attended the opening days of the summit with scores of other world leaders before returning to Westminster and leaving the Cop president, Alok Sharma, to oversee the complex negotiations. He will attend on Wednesday but is not set to be in Glasgow at the end of the summit this weekend, as some had expected. Continue reading...

Country was down four places on greenhouse gas index and was the only one to score zero on policy

UK’s chief science adviser says lifestyle changes needed to have chance of 1.5C

Readers Adam Manolson, Linda Marriott, Robin Bevis and Bob Taylor are not surprised at the findings of a survey which suggests many people don’t feel they need to do more to fight global heatingThe results of this survey are sad but unsurprising (Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds, 7 November). At the weekend, I took my 12-year-old son by bus across west London to his football match. While the world discusses how to address climate change, everyone in west London is out driving a 4x4.The vast majority of children going to play football and rugby on the pitches where we spent the morning were driven there. The roads were gridlocked, the car parks were full, and tempers were fraying. Yet the parents will make the same choices next weekend – and no doubt what I saw is reflected up and down the country. In London in particular there really is no excuse: the city has a comprehensive public transport system, with free buses for children. When will people wake up to the fact that they themselves are the traffic, the congestion and the pollution?

Rules will be changed to allow Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in carbon capture and storage before fund set up

Climate crisis cannot be ended without the empowerment of women, politicians and campaigners tell summit“The world as designed by men has destroyed many things,” Cop26 delegates have been told, as leaders and campaigners warned that the climate crisis could not be ended without the empowerment of women.Women and girls around the world suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate breakdown, as they are on average poorer, less educated and more dependent on subsistence farming. A UN report found 80% of those displaced by the climate emergency are women. Continue reading...

Our climate analysis shows there’s a nearly 1C difference between countries’ 2030 commitments and their 2050 targets

Research from world’s top climate analysis coalition contrasts sharply with last week’s optimism

Sustainable food systems are a cornerstone to cutting emissions but have been largely absent from the agenda in Glasgow“The cow in the room is being ignored at this Cop,” says Carl Le Blanc of Climate Healers. “Animal agriculture has been taken off the agenda and put on the menu.”Le Blanc was one of a number of campaigners who joined climate marches on Saturday in Glasgow to demand action for a new sustainable food system. They fought strong gales to make their point with four giant inflatable animals tethered on ropes above their heads or strapped to the ground. Each symbolised a different problem of the livestock industry: a 40ft cow for methane, a chicken for Covid and health, a fish for microplastics, and a pig for obesity. Continue reading...

Failure to pass Build Back Better would disillusion a generation of voters, and potentially fracture the Democratic partyDeep into the night last Friday, long past the hour when most Americans had ceased paying attention, Congress passed the $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill otherwise known as the BIF. Its passage was heralded as a victory for President Biden, and the daily news chyrons dutifully marked a point in his column. But beyond the horserace myopia of the Beltway – and especially among young people – the news came tinged with the threat of disaster. Because for those of us interested in sustained human civilization on a habitable planet, the most relevant fact about the BIF is this: without consequent passage of the clean energy and social welfare bill known as Build Back Better, the BIF alone will exacerbate the climate crisis.The reasons are manifold. The bill is riddled with exemptions and subsidies for corporations like ExxonMobil, whose lobbyists were caught bragging about their role in shaping the text. It invests in highways, bridges and airports that – in the absence of an aggressive drive to electrify cars and planes – will only add to emissions from the transportation sector. And the climate funding it does contain is focused not on drawing down emissions but on preparing Americans for worsening floods, fires and superstorms. If this is all we get, the message to young people is clear: Exxon will continue to be allowed to drown your homes, but not to worry, the government is investing in some life vests. Good luck! Continue reading...

At Cop26 Sir Patrick Vallance has said he eats less meat and cycles but society needs to change moreChanges in behaviour are needed to tackle the climate emergency, the UK’s chief scientific adviser has said at the Cop26 summit.Sir Patrick Vallance said behaviour change was starting to happen but needed to go further and said he cycled to work, ate less meat and had taken the train to the climate summit in Glasgow. He also said the climate crisis was a far bigger problem than coronavirus and would kill more people if immediate changes were not made. Continue reading...

As the world shifts to wind energy and electric cars, demand for the conductive metal has increased. But mining copper brings its own environmental hazardsThis story is co-published by New Mexico In Depth and Guardian USCorky Stewart, a retired geologist, and his wife live in a rural subdivision in New Mexico’s Grant county, about a mile north of the sprawling Tyrone copper mine. Continue reading...

Not so long ago Morrison said Labor’s electric cars policy would ‘end the weekend’. Now he’s spruiking his own plan, but there’s no substance to it

PM, who suggested EVs would ‘end the weekend’ during last election campaign, says he now expects them to make up only 30% of new sales by 2030

National Australia Bank commits to cap lending to oil and gas at US$2.4bn but Market Forces calls it a ‘cynical greenwashing exercise’

Climate crisis is driving up deadly combination of temperature and humidity, says study released at Cop26

Engineering firm to proceed with rollout after UK government agrees to match consortium’s investmentRolls-Royce will move ahead with a multibillion pound plan to roll out a new breed of mini nuclear reactors after securing more than £450m from the government and investors.The engineering firm will set up a venture focused on developing small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, in partnership with investors BNF Resources and the US generator Exelon Generation with a joint investment of £195m to fund the plans over the next three years. Continue reading...

Increased demand for PPE has put pressure on an already out-of-control global problem, report findsPlastic waste from the Covid-19 pandemic weighing 25,900 tonnes, equivalent to more than 2,000 double decker buses, has leaked into the ocean, research has revealed.The mismanaged plastic waste, consisting of personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves, vastly exceeded the capability of countries to process it properly, researchers said. Continue reading...

Day eight at the Glasgow summit focuses on loss, adaptation and damage

Failure to do so increases the risks of the economic impacts of climate change for investors and the wider economy, says Charlie KronickAuditors like PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY are paid to check that company accounts are accurate. If most energy intensive businesses and fossil fuel producers consistently overvalue fossil fuel assets on their balance sheets and in their business plans (Half world’s fossil fuel assets could become worthless by 2036 in net zero transition, 4 November), those auditors clearly are not doing their jobs. ClientEarth found that 90% of financial accounts and audit reports for the 250 largest UK listed companies made no reference to the financial implications of climate change.This failure increases the risks of the economic impacts of climate change for pension fund members, institutional investors and the wider economy, as well as huge impacts on vulnerable communities and global biodiversity. Continue reading...

Officers accused of trying to break into Baile Hoose with battering ram and entering rooms with batons drawnThe occupants of a disused building in Glasgow that was reopened to offer emergency accommodation for climate activists have accused police of trying to break into the site with a battering ram early on Monday morning.The activists at Baile Hoose, a former homeless shelter in the Tradeston district, said up to 20 officers from the Metropolitan police and Welsh forces mounted the raid at 3am, claiming to be acting under orders from Scottish police. Continue reading...

Negotiators say funding needed to speed up decarbonisation and help developing countries to adaptAfrican nations want Cop26 to open discussions this week on a mega-financing deal that would channel $700bn (£520bn) every year from 2025 to help developing nations adapt to the climate crisis.Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale, the chair of the African Group of Negotiators on climate change, said the increased finance was needed for the accelerated phase of decarbonisation required to hold global heating to 1.5C. Continue reading...

West African nation’s environment minister says richer countries must finally honour funding commitment made at Cop15 in 2009Rich countries must hit their $100bn climate finance target in the last week of Cop26 or it will be catastrophic for the poorest nations suffering the most from the climate crisis, the Gambian environment minister has warned.In an interview with the Guardian as he prepared to leave for Glasgow, Lamin B Dibba urged developed countries to finally honour the annual funding commitment that was made 12 years ago at the Copenhagen climate summit (Cop15) – but which has never been achieved. Continue reading...

Christel and Luc Fockaert awarded €110,000 after over health problems they claim were caused by windfarmA French court has recognised “turbine syndrome” after a couple complained their health was damaged by living near a windfarm.In what is believed to be the first judgment of its kind in France, Belgians Christel and Luc Fockaert were awarded more than €100,000 in compensation by the judge in Toulouse. Continue reading...

Senior Beijing adviser also defends scale, depth and detail of country’s ‘unappreciated’ climate actionsChinese officials are sceptical of claims that Cop26 commitments will keep global heating below 2C, and want other countries to focus on concrete actions rather than distant targets in the final week of the talks.They feel that China, the world’s biggest emitter, is doing more than it is given credit for, including plans to peak coal consumption by 2025 and add more new wind and solar power capacity by 2030 than the entire installed electricity system of the US. Continue reading...

NSW parliamentary inquiry told concerns of Rachel Musgrave and another ecologist were ‘watered down’ by consultants

Officials have been sending out misleading and overhyped statements during the conference. Fiona Harvey dissects one missive• What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guideThe first week of Cop26 was a packed affair, with world leaders of the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies first meeting in Rome, then moving on to meet more than 100 other leaders in Glasgow for the initial stage of a fortnight of intensive talks.António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that recent optimistic assessments were “an illusion”, exhorting leaders to make stronger efforts to cut greenhouse gases. The biggest country to respond was India, the world’s third biggest emitter, which set out a target of net zero by 2070, which most regard as too late for the Cop26 goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels but some said would be met sooner.END OF COAL IN SIGHT AS UK SECURES AMBITIOUS COMMITMENTS AT COP26 SUMMITThanks to a package of support from the UK and our international partners, a 190-strong coalition has today agreed to both phase out coal power and end support for new coal power plants.The UK’s campaign sees major banks commit to end financing coal, on top of China, Japan, Korea and the G20 commitments to end overseas finance for coal generation by the end of 2021, effectively ending all public financing of new unabated coal power.Agreed under the UK’s Cop26 presidency, countries pledge to accelerate coal phase-out and rapidly scale up deployment of clean power generation, marking a momentous turning point in the global clean energy transition.The end of coal – the single biggest contributor to climate change – is in sight thanks to the UK securing a 190-strong coalition of countries and organisations at Cop26, with countries such as Poland, Vietnam, Egypt, Chile and Morocco announcing clear commitments to phase out coal power.Today’s commitments, brought together through UK-led efforts including the new ‘Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement’, encompass developed and developing countries, major coal users and climate vulnerable countries. This includes 18 countries committing for the first time to phase out and not build or invest in new coal power, including Poland, Vietnam, and Chile, marking a milestone moment at Cop26 in the global clean energy transition.This statement, launched today, commits nations across the world to:· End all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationallyThis is on top of China, Japan and Korea, the three largest public financiers of coal, committing to end overseas finance for coal generation by the end of 2021, announced in the last year during the UK’s incoming Cop26 presidency. Agreements at the G7, G20 and OECD to end public international coal finance send a strong signal that the world economy is shifting to renewables. This could end over 40GW of coal across 20 countries, equivalent to over half of the UK’s electricity generating capacity.The business and energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said:There has also been a 76% cut in the number of new coal plants planned globally over the last six years, which means the cancellation of 1,000GW of new coal plants since the Paris agreement, roughly equivalent to 10 times the UK’s total peak generating capacity.Today’s global agreement to move away from coal to clean power has been made possible thanks to a number of other UK-convened initiatives, including: Continue reading...

The ratchet issue is among several sticking points still to be finalised as negotiators return to the Cop26 tableCountries that have failed to come up with national plans on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with limiting temperature rises to 1.5C must be forced back to the negotiating table every year from now on, poor countries have said ahead of crunch talks at the Cop26 climate summit.Current pledges are inadequate, and would lead to heating of 2.7C, according to UN calculations. But under the Paris agreement, countries are only required to ratchet up their pledges – known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – every five years, with the next deadline falling in 2025. Developing countries say this is much too late. Continue reading...

Seen by their guardians as sacred, Ethiopia’s church forests are protected and cared for by their priests and their communities. Photographer Kieran Dodds has brought together his images of these oases and the story of the country’s spiritually driven conservation movement in a new book, The Church Forests of Ethiopia.By Kieran DoddsSouth of the Sahara, and just north of the Great Rift Valley in landlocked Ethiopia, the Blue Nile flows from Lake Tana, the largest lake in the country. Radiating out from the sacred source is a scattering of forest islands, strewn across the dry highlands like a handful of emeralds. At the heart of each circle of forest, hunkered down under the ancient canopy and wrapped in lush vegetation, are saucer-shaped churches – otherworldly structures that almost seem to emit a life force. And in a sense they do.Ethiopia is one of the fastest expanding economies in the world today and the second most populous country in Africa. The vast majority of people live in rural areas, where the expansion of settlements and agriculture is slowly thinning the forest edge by cattle and plough. Continue reading...

Letter to Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund trustees warns of ‘full-blown climate catastrophe’More than 130 MPs, including over half of the parliamentary Labour party, have signed a cross-party letter to their pension fund calling on it to divest from fossil fuel companies to “ensure that our pensions are not funding climate disaster”.The letter, to be delivered on Monday to trustees of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF), applauds recent reductions in investments in fossil fuels, but adds: “We believe you must go a step further, divesting from the fossil fuel industry in its entirety, as quickly as possible. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Simon Kofe hopes the speech will demonstrate the reality for countries on the frontlineTuvalu’s foreign minister has recorded a speech for the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow standing knee-deep in seawater to highlight how his low-lying Pacific Island nation is on the frontline of climate change.Images of Simon Kofe standing in a suit and tie at a lectern set up in the sea, with his trouser legs rolled up, have been shared widely on social media, drawing attention to Tuvalu’s struggle against rising sea levels. Continue reading...

Communities and groups say being shut out of key negotiations will have dire consequences for millionsThe legitimacy of the Cop26 climate summit has been called into question by civil society participants who say restrictions on access to negotiations are unprecedented and unjust.As the Glasgow summit enters its second week, observers representing hundreds of environmental, academic, climate justice, indigenous and women’s rights organisations warn that excluding them from negotiating areas and speaking to negotiators could have dire consequences for millions of people. Continue reading...

Morrison government rejects direct calls for action from Britain, the US, Europe and Pacific nations at Cop26

Exclusive: poll of 10 countries including US, UK, France and Germany finds people prioritising measures that are already habitsCitizens are alarmed by the climate crisis, but most believe they are already doing more to preserve the planet than anyone else, including their government, and few are willing to make significant lifestyle changes, an international survey has found.“The widespread awareness of the importance of the climate crisis illustrated in this study has yet to be coupled with a proportionate willingness to act,” the survey of 10 countries including the US, UK, France and Germany, observed. Continue reading...

From Philippines to Greenland, protecting dying coral reefs to melting ice sheets, young people are fighting for their futures• What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guideFor millions of young people around the world, climate breakdown is something they have known their entire lives. Many live in regions that are particularly at risk of being affected by tipping points - parts of the Earth’s system where small changes, such as increased temperatures, could lead to accelerated and irreversible impacts.A landmark IPCC report earlier this year warned that tipping points such as melting ice sheets or Amazon forest loss could soon be triggered, with the potential to bring catastrophic change to vulnerable areas. Continue reading...

Levy on imports related to CO2 generated by meat production might be necessary, says ministerThe UK may eventually need to implement a carbon dioxide border tax to stop consumers effectively exporting greenhouse gas emissions abroad, the environment secretary has said.On Sunday, George Eustice insisted he was not in favour of a domestic meat tax to help reduce global heating and that such a proposal had “never been on the cards”. Continue reading...

Travel firm amends animal welfare policy to no longer offer activities involving captive cetaceansThe travel company Expedia has stopped selling holidays that include performances by captive dolphins and whales.There have been growing calls in recent years, including from the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, to ban attractions and experiences that involve captive sea creatures. Continue reading...

In the six years since the Paris agreement, the climate crisis has rapidly accelerated. From catastrophes to slow transformations of familiar landscapes, lives everywhere have been upendedThe jubilation of the Paris climate agreement, where delegates from around the world triumphantly declared the climate crisis would finally be tamed, will have felt very hollow to many in the US in the six years since.Following the landmark 2015 deal to curb dangerous global heating, the US has experienced four of its five hottest years ever recorded. A drought of a severity unprecedented in modern civilization has tightened its grip upon the American west, parching cities and farms, fueling the eight largest wildfires on record in California and smothering much of the rest of the country in a choking pall of smoke. Continue reading...

Promised an income, those affected by $20bn oil project are losing their land and resources insteadA bumpy, mud-spattered road leads deep into Kakumiro district in western Uganda, where the longest heated oil pipeline in the world will pass through its homes, farms and wetlands.The villagers in the Kijungu settlements welcomed the project when the route was announced in 2017, hoping that the government and companies involved would buy their land and change their lives for good. Their optimism has since given way to frustration. Continue reading...

Coalition aims to give voice to ideas and solutions it believes are largely absent from the Cop talksA counter climate summit kicks off in Glasgow on Sunday amid mounting criticism from activists about greenwashed solutions and stalled action from corporations and rich nations inside Cop26.The People’s Summit for Climate Justice will bring together movements and communities from across the world to amplify voices, ideas and solutions it believes are largely absent from Cop – including the global green new deal, polluters’ liability, indigenous ecological knowledge and the gulf between net zero and real zero emissions. Continue reading...

The likes of BP and Shell promise a ‘transition’ to green energy backed by their revenues. They need to convince us furtherExecutives at big oil and gas companies, at least the European ones, have spent the past two years trying to change the narrative. The likes of BP and Shell have trumpeted their net zero plans, declared themselves to be “transitioning” to a cleaner energy future and talked up the historical significance of new targets. Think of us as part of the solution, was the message.To climate activists and politicians demanding faster decarbonisation, the industry’s reply has been that switching off investment in oil and gas too quickly would create a supply crisis: instead what’s needed are “integrated” energy companies that can recycle cashflows from hydrocarbons and build the green infrastructure of tomorrow. Continue reading...

Move would encourage landowners to repair peatlands, restore woods and cut carbon emissions, says conservation groupTaxing deer and grouse estates for failing to ensure their land properly locks up carbon dioxide could play a crucial role in fighting the climate crisis, a leading conservation group has said.The John Muir Trust, a charity set up to protect wild places in Britain, says such a plan could help to absorb millions of tonnes of carbon every year, and help the UK – in particular Scotland – achieve its goal of reaching net zero emissions as soon as possible. Continue reading...

The ‘ecotype’, thought to have been wiped out by disease and invasive species, is thriving in the estate’s ancient woodlandsThousands of rare forest honeybees that appear to be the last wild descendants of Britain’s native honeybee population have been discovered in the ancient woodlands of Blenheim Palace.The newly discovered subspecies, or ecotype, of honeybee is smaller, furrier and darker than the honeybees found in managed beehives, and is believed to be related to the indigenous wild honeybees that foraged the English countryside for centuries. Until now, it was presumed all these bees had been completely wiped out by disease and competition from imported species. Continue reading...

As Cop26 reached halfway stage, rallies were held around the world, with actor Idris Elba among those calling for African voices to be central to public debateTens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Glasgow on Saturday to demand stronger climate action from world leaders as the climate crisis summit reached its halfway stage.Protests were also held in London and other parts of Britain. There were rallies in South Korea, Indonesia, the Netherlands and France. Environmental groups, charities, climate activists, trade unionists and indigenous people all joined the Glasgow march in heavy rain. Extinction Rebellion activists dressed as Ghostbusters while another group, Scientist Rebellion – wearing white lab coats – blocked King George V bridge, one of the city’s busiest routes. Continue reading...

Beijing Games will require almost 49 million gallons of water to create conditions for Alpine eventsThe mountains that will be the setting of the Alpine events for the forthcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing boast spectacular scenery and breathtaking runs, but lack just one vital ingredient: real snow.Between January and March this year, the National Alpine Ski Centre in Yanqing, about 55 miles north-west of Beijing, had just 2cm of snow. London, Paris and Madrid all recorded greater snowfalls, according to data compiled by the website worldweatheronline.com. Continue reading...

These elegant birds have long held a special place in the nation’s heart and imagination. But now they are dying in untold numbersTo the British, the swan is not so much a bird as a national treasure – the avian equivalent of Dame Judi Dench or Sir David Attenborough. Its unique status is a result of its long and complex history living alongside us, a relationship that goes back well over a thousand years.Alarm at reports last week that dozens of swans and cygnets have died of bird flu in Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon – up to half of the town’s population – reminded us just how passionate the British public are about the bird. Continue reading...

A growing number of brands are switching to recycled fibers but experts worry people may believe their purchases are impact-free – when that’s far from trueWoven into your clothes is a material that takes on many disguises. It may have the texture of wool, the lightness of linen or the sleekness of silk. It’s in two-thirds of our clothing – and yet most of us don’t even know that it’s there. It’s plastic, and it’s a big problem.Today, about 69% of clothes are made up of synthetic fibres, including elastane, nylon and acrylic. Polyester is the most common, making up 52% of all fiber production. Plastic’s unique durability and versatility have made it indispensable to the fashion industry. Continue reading...