Up to 100,000, including Kahnawake Mohawk delegates, brave Glasgow rain as 22 arrested after scientists blockade bridgePeople on almost every continent were gathering for marches and rallies on Saturday to mark a Global Day for Climate Justice, halfway through the Glasgow climate change summit.Activists in the Philippines, eight hours ahead of the UK, had already finished their rally as protesters gathered in Scotland. There were also rallies in South Korea, Indonesia, the Netherlands and France. The Belgian arm of Extinction Rebellion occupied a street in Brussels. Continue reading...

Many of the UK’s biggest lenders now offer deals that reward buyers of energy efficient propertiesHomes account for more than a fifth of the UK’s total CO2 emissions, which may help explain why the government and others believe green mortgages could be a gamechanger for moving to a sustainable future.Although they have been around in one form or another for some time, environmentally friendly mortgages have yet to take off in a big way: a poll published this week found that 94% of brokers had never sold one. Continue reading...

Open and fair reporting of progress on targets is crucial for any climate deal to succeed, says an insiderOne of the key negotiating issues for Cop26 remains unresolved at this late stage: transparency. Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, nations set targets on their future greenhouse gas emissions, but we don’t yet know how we will ensure that the ways they report and account for those targets and emissions are transparent and fair.The discussions on transparency to finalise the nuts and bolts of the framework set up in Paris are stalled. Discussions should have been finalised in 2020 but were postponed owing to the pandemic. We are a year behind in the mandate and with most talks happening in a challenging virtual format throughout last year and this one, there is still no clear path toward agreement. If we do not get this right it threatens to undermine any agreement to close the gap between the targets countries set and the emissions cuts needed to keep warming to 1.5C.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 is attending the Cop26 climate conference. Continue reading...

Despite rescue efforts to plant ‘twite meadows’ only 12 pairs of seed-eating bird bred this summerA small bird once so abundant it was called “the Pennine finch” is teetering on the brink of extinction in England after just 12 pairs bred this summer.The twite, an inconspicuous, seed-eating bird that nests in the uplands and spends winters on coastal marshes, has suffered a precipitous decline this century, with the breeding population falling by 75% between 1999 and 2013. Continue reading...

Analysis: the ‘significant outcomes’ came thick and fast but there are question marks about credibilityLong before delegates gathered in Glasgow, the scene for Cop26 was set by the starkest warning yet from the world’s scientists that human activity was unequivocally disrupting the climate, extreme weather was growing more intense, and urgent action was needed to prevent still worse chaos in the future.“Code red,” declared the UN secretary general, António Guterres, as evidence mounted this summer of ever fiercer heatwaves and increasingly deadly storms and floods. No pressure, then, on the climate diplomats who were told they represented the “last best chance” of holding global heating to 1.5C. Continue reading...

A livestreamed session at Cop26 sets out to educate and inspire tomorrow’s leaders, from Ukraine to Peru“Type your favourite crunchiness of peanut butter into the chat thread,” says Matthew Shribman to a global classroom of children, as the scientist and teacher kicks off the Great Big Lesson for Nature at Cop26 in Glasgow.Thousands of schoolchildren from across the world have joined the virtual lesson broadcast live from the nature pavilion in the blue zone, right next to where world leaders make decisions that affect these young people’s future. Continue reading...

Politician says droughts and climate-induced famine in the country are a result of the behaviours of rich nationsMore than a million people facing the first climate-induced famine in Madagascar are paying the price for cheap flights in Europe and appliances such as gas heaters, the country’s environment minister has said.For several years now, the south of Madagascar has suffered successive droughts of increasing severity, and the situation has deteriorated sharply over the last few months. In August, the UN said the country was facing the world’s first climate change famine. On Tuesday, a World Food Programme representative spoke of a “heartbreaking” visit to the country. Continue reading...

Critics say the decision comes at a high cost to both the climate and human healthCalifornia regulators voted Thursday to increase the capacity of a Los Angeles natural gas storage field, where a 2015 blowout caused the nation’s largest-ever methane leak and forced thousands from their homes.Locals, environmental advocates, and lawmakers have called for the closure of the facility, which has been approved to increase more than 20% in capacity. Continue reading...

Laurent Fabius says countries must be open and accountable about how they will deliver pledges in fullProspects of limiting global heating to 1.8C on the basis of commitments made at the Cop26 climate summit are only “a hypothesis”, the godfather of the Paris climate agreement has warned.Laurent Fabius, the former French prime minister who was president of the 2015 Paris summit, said he was “very impressed” by the commitments made in the first week of the Cop26 conference, including a deal to reduce the potent greenhouse gas methane, a net zero target from India, plans from China to reduce emissions and commitments on coal. Continue reading...

Pledges made during Cop26’s first week were encouraging. But without adequate finance and monitoring they don’t mean muchIf week one of the climate conference in Glasgow set out a strong outline, the task for next week is to fill in as many details as possible. The long-term ambition of the global environmental policy now being negotiated would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. While it is not yet clear exactly where the various pledges will get us to in terms of limiting temperature rises, the new agreement on methane spearheaded by President Joe Biden and a commitment by India to get half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 are highly significant.Also encouraging is the more integrated approach to the many environmental challenges humanity faces. Previously, conservation and biodiversity were to some extent viewed as separate issues from the changing atmospheric chemistry that drives global heating. Now, with a promise to reverse deforestation and provide funding directly to indigenous people to help them protect their lands, there is greater recognition of the vital part that nature plays in regulating the climate. Continue reading...

Follow Ocean Day events at the climate summit in Glasgow for day five

Representatives of almost 500 parent groups tell Alok Sharma their children’s health depends on an end to funding for fossil fuel industries

Document says it would not be appropriate for schools to encourage children to join campaignsSchools in England should not encourage pupils to take part in climate protests or join campaigns, according to a draft strategy paper on sustainability and climate change published by the Department for Education.The document was published after Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said students concerned by climate change should consider careers in science and technology, and warned they risked incurring fines if they skipped classes to join protests. Continue reading...

I was trying to chart the peculiar dream-like state we seem to be in, says the poet laureateI wanted to react to Cop26 – so many of my friends and colleagues have been emboldened by the conversation it has generated. And strange times sometimes lead to strange poems.I was trying to chart the peculiar dream-like state we seem to be in, where the rules and natural laws of the old world feel to be in flux, one of those dreams which are full of danger, but not completely beyond the control of the person who sleeps. Continue reading...

With stripes showing temperature rise in the polar regions, the shirts are designed to start conversations about global heatingCop26 may not be the first place that springs to mind when thinking about fashion, but stripes were all the rage in Glasgow this week, where striking white, blue and red shirts were the latest must-have piece for fashion-forward scientists. These statement shirts may look like some 70s throwback but they have been designed using the latest polar data.Climate data is not a natural conversation starter but the shirts, made by Cambridge-based company DressCode Shirts, are designed to get people’s attention. They tell the story of two datasets, which show how rapidly polar regions are warming, using soft blues to represent colder temperatures and reds to show hotter ones. Continue reading...

PM could not resist wheeling out the usual jokes and antics at crucial summit, but the laughs never cameIt was one of the defining images from Cop26.Seated next to Boris Johnson on Monday and wearing a mask was 95-year-old David Attenborough. The prime minister, however, was maskless. At one point, Johnson seemed to have nodded off. Continue reading...

Environment minister of country home to world’s third-biggest rainforest says deforestation pledge must not halt developmentIndonesia has questioned the terms of a Cop26 deal to end deforestation by 2030, days after joining more than 100 countries in signing up to it.The nations agreed on the multi-billion-dollar plan at the climate conference in Glasgow this week to stop cutting down trees on an industrial scale in under a decade. Continue reading...

Richest 1% will account for 16% of total emissions by 2030, while poorest 50% will release one tonne of CO a yearThe carbon dioxide emissions of the richest 1% of humanity are on track to be 30 times greater than what is compatible with keeping global heating below 1.5C, new research warns, as scientists urge governments to “constrain luxury carbon consumption” of private jets, megayachts and space travel.In keeping with the Paris climate goals, every person on Earth needs to reduce their CO emissions to an average of 2.3 tonnes by 2030, about half the average of today. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a baby orangutan, wandering rhino and competing pelicans Continue reading...

Bank says Queensland mine and rail line do not fit in with its environmental, social and governance principles

From a Grade II-listed cottage to a sprawling new-build timber-clad house Continue reading...

Narendra Modi’s Cop26 promise has proved divisive but many observers say only western help can ensure its success

As yet unnamed company claims it could enable ‘clean’ flights running on liquid ammonia by 2030A British company being launched at the Cop26 summit on Friday will unveil technology it claims could enable zero-carbon emission flights running on liquid ammonia by 2030.It aims to build lightweight reactors to “crack” the chemical to produce hydrogen to burn as fuel, a design it says could allow existing planes to be modified to store liquid ammonia rather than paraffin. Continue reading...

At the UN climate summit in Glasgow, global environment editor Jonathan Watts examines the emissions-cutting pledges from world leaders as time runs out to prevent catastrophic global heatingBoris Johnson began the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow by telling fellow world leaders the world was at “one minute to midnight” on the Doomsday Clock and must act now to avert a climate disaster.The Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, has been in Glasgow all week to follow the events as they unfolded. He tells Nosheen Iqbal there have been significant announcements on deforestation, methane reduction and climate finance, but the final week of the conference must have more commitments on reducing global emissions if the target of limiting global heating to 1.5C is to be kept alive. Continue reading...

Australia accused of going backward as Cop26 pledge backed by five of world’s biggest coal power users

‘Gas is the new coal’, says Climate Analytics report that finds it the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissionsThe escalating rollout of gas for heating, electricity and cooking is turning it into the “new coal” and its use worldwide must be slashed by nearly a third this decade to avoid disastrous climate effects, according to a new report.Gas has often been referred to as a “bridge fuel” as it emits around half the carbon dioxide of coal, and many countries have embraced it while also promising to transition to renewable energy in order to cut planet-heating emissions. Continue reading...

Fatih Birol says ‘big step forward’ is possible only if all commitments are implemented in fullThe climate pledges agreed so far at the Cop26 conference could keep the world’s rising temperatures to within 1.8C of pre-industrialised levels, according to the International Energy Agency – but only if the commitments are implemented in full.Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, told delegates at the conference that despite the pessimism ahead of the Cop26 talks, a “big step forward” was possible if all the pledges set out to date were “fully achieved”. Continue reading...

We’ll be following events in Glasgow and around the UK today

Problem is causing £8bn a year in health damage but can be tackled cost-effectively, say scientistsSixty per cent of the tiny particles polluting the air in the UK are from ammonia leaking from farms, according to research.The ammonia is released from livestock manure and urine and the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. The gas drifts into cities and reacts with other air pollutants to form tiny particulate matter, called PM2.5, which is the deadliest form of air pollution. Continue reading...

Exclusive: The Institute of Public Affairs paid for ads that experts say are based on ‘faulty analysis’ on job losses

New research comes months after Australian government lobbied to keep coral reef off world heritage ‘in danger’ list

How much time do we have and what needs to be done to avoid catastrophic consequences of global heating?

$11tn fossil fuel asset crash could cause 2008-style financial crisis, warns new study

Pictures from day four of the UN climate change summit in Glasgow, as the focus turns to accelerating the global transition to clean energy Continue reading...

The financial sector is helping to drive the climate crisis. Radical government action is needed to overhaul the systemDespite the stark warnings of climate breakdown from the IPCC and the UN, it’s business as usual for fossil fuel capitalism. An astonishing 56% of the G20 nations’ Covid-19 recovery funds for energy have gone to fossil fuel companies.In April, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) chaired by Mark Carney was launched to bring together leading financial corporations to redirect finance towards achieving net zero by 2050. Yet many of its signatories remain among the world’s top backers of fossil fuels. Some have even issued new financing to companies expanding fossil fuel infrastructure since signing up with the GFANZ.Mariana Mazzucato is professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London, and the founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). Her latest book is Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism; Matthew Thompson is Research Fellow in Rethinking Public Value at IIPP.

Actors, politicians and firms lend support to 21x Club’s call to pull investments out of industries that harm planetThe actors Stephen Fry and Kelly Macdonald and the former Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson have joined a coalition of campaigners calling on the public to harness the untapped power of their pensions to tackle the climate crisis.They are among the celebrities, activists and businesses joining the 21x Club, launched at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow by the Make My Money Matter campaign, set up by Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, director and Comic Relief co-founder. Continue reading...

Cop26 is told that millions of lives at risk without focus on preparing for problems that are already inevitable

If an ageing pipeline under the Great Lakes spills, it would be devastating. But Canada is trying to block Michigan from shutting it downCanada would be apoplectic if the US government marched into a Canadian court and argued that the province of Ontario has zero authority over an American company operating an aging, corroded pipeline under Canada’s pristine Georgian Bay. Yet this is the exact approach Canada is taking in US courts by arguing that the state of Michigan has zero authority to order the shutdown of an aging and dangerous pipeline operated by a Canadian company under the Straits of Mackinac – where any spill would have catastrophic ramifications for the Great Lakes.Canada’s strained position is premised on ignoring the plain text of the 1977 US Canada Pipeline Treaty: “Pipeline[s] shall be subject to regulations by the appropriate governmental authorities … with respect to such matters as the following: (a) pipeline safety … ; (b) environmental protection.”Lana Pollack was appointed by President Obama to chair the US Section of the International Joint Commission. The IJC was established by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to assist the US and Canadian governments in managing and protecting waters shared by the two countries. The views expressed are Pollack’s, not those of the IJC Continue reading...

Oil companies and the banks that finance them are making empty promises – and getting credit for them tooJPMorgan Chase won glowing headlines last year when the global investment bank unveiled a commitment to counter the climate crisis.The press amplified JPMorgan’s message – sometimes in JPMorgan’s own words. Fortune published a commentary article trumpeting the bank’s plans to “tackle climate change”. Six paragraphs into the piece, the writers noted they worked for the investment firm. (They were actually its top executives.) Continue reading...

Prof David Reay is in for the long haul, attempting to transform his Scottish farm to remove a lifetime’s environmental impactFrogs hopping around his sheep field were a sure sign to Prof David Reay that the land wanted to be boggy. It had been grazed for centuries and keeping a particular area dry had been a constant battle. “The frogs were still coming back, as if to say, ‘where’s my pond?’ So what I want to do as part of this is give them back some of their pond,” says Reay, who is creating what he hopes to be a pioneering carbon farm on the Mull of Kintyre, a remote peninsula on the west coast of Scotland.Reay, a professor of carbon management, bought his farm three years ago. It lies in the village of Glenbarr, on the west side of the peninsula, which is best known for inspiring the Paul McCartney song of the same name. Reay’s dream was to buy some land that could enable him to remove his and his wife’s lifetime’s carbon footprint from the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Utopia is within our reach if we address the colonial, racist and oppressive roots of our current planetary crisisYoung people know that our generation already disproportionately feels the effects of the climate crisis. Almost all of the intense heatwaves that have hit Europe since 1950 occurred during my lifetime. It’s likely they will only get worse.Unfortunately, Poland, where I live, has clung to an energy model driven by burning fossil fuels for too long. This irreversible destruction violates our right to life, health, property and values ​​of the natural world. That is why at 17 years old, I decided to take the Polish government to court in June 2021 over its failure to act on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Annual cuts of 2.5% would keep aviation’s contribution to global warming at about 0.04C, research suggestsA modest diet in our flying habits would be enough to level off the global heating caused by the aviation industry. That’s the surprising conclusion from a study, which also warns that if the aviation industry continues to grow at current rates then it will be responsible for around nearly 0.1C of heating by 2050.Taking a flight adds to global heating in two ways. The first is from the direct effect of burning jet fuel and producing carbon dioxide, which remains in the atmosphere. The second is from indirect effects caused by tailpipe emissions in the upper atmosphere, resulting in cirrus clouds that trap additional heat and complex chemical reactions that alter the balance of greenhouse gases such as ozone and methane. Continue reading...

Farmers for Climate Action chief tells Rural Network Facebook Live event Australia’s stance is about protecting the gas industry

Researchers take sticky beak at bin chicken DNA to see if city-dwellers could revive country populations

Fossil fuels are surging in post-pandemic recovery as scientists warn 1.5C emission limits will be reached in 11 yearsGlobal carbon emissions are shooting back to the record level seen before the coronavirus pandemic levels, new analysis has shown. Scientists said the finding is a “reality check” for the world’s nations gathered at the Cop26 climate summit.The emissions driving the climate crisis reached their highest ever levels in 2019, before global coronavirus lockdowns saw them fall by 5.4%. However, fossil fuel burning has surged faster than expected in 2021, the international research team said, in stark contrast to the rapid cuts needed to tackle global heating. Continue reading...

Report into lobbying tactics names ExxonMobil and Chevron as worst, while carmaker Toyota takes thirdExxonMobil and Chevron are the world’s most obstructive organisations when it comes to governments setting climate policies, according to research into the “prolific and highly sophisticated” lobbying ploys used by the fossil fuel industry.The biggest US oil companies, as well as American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group, were found to be the worst offenders in a global report by lobbying experts at the thinktank InfluenceMap. It concluded that companies were manipulating governments to take “incredibly dangerous paths” in their approach to climate action. Continue reading...

Critics say pledge to end use of dirtiest fuel source in 2030s and 40s does not go far enoughMore than 40 countries have agreed to phase out their use of coal-fired power, the dirtiest fuel source, in a boost to UK hopes of a deal to “keep 1.5C alive”, from the Cop26 climate summit.Major coal-using countries, including Canada, Poland, Ukraine and Vietnam, will phase out their use of coal for electricity generation, with the bigger economies doing so in the 2030s, and smaller economies doing so in the 2040s.More than 20 governments and financial institutions, including the UK, US and Denmark, agreed to phase out overseas finance for all fossil fuels.Research showed that the world could be on track to limit global heating to 1.9C, if commitments from India and other countries on greenhouse gas emissions are fulfilled.Data seen by the Guardian revealed fossil fuel companies were using the energy charter treaty to sue governments for the losses they incur from national commitments to decarbonise.Ireland was told it would need to cull 1.3m animals to meet climate targets.The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, told the Cop26 conference London would become a global hub for net zero investment. Continue reading...

Remote Indigenous housing models are not fit for purpose, and it will be ‘quite difficult’ to remain in communities if nothing changes

Labour accuses PM of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ over flight from Glasgow to go to Daily Telegraph reunion at private clubBoris Johnson has been accused of “staggering hypocrisy” after it emerged that he flew back to London from the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow by private jet to go to a dinner at a men-only private members’ club.The prime minister is reported to have attended the exclusive private members’ club The Garrick in the West End for a reunion of Daily Telegraph journalists. He flew 400 miles on Tuesday night from Glasgow to London, according to the Daily Mirror. Continue reading...

Summary of the main developments on the third day of the UN climate summit in Glasgow