World heritage sites in US, Australia and Russia among those that have emitted more carbon than they absorbed since 2001Forests in at least 10 Unesco world heritage sites have become net sources of carbon since the turn of the millennium due to wildfires, deforestation and global heating, says a new report.Protected areas such as Yosemite national park in the US, the Greater Blue Mountains area in Australia and the tropical rainforests of Sumatra in Indonesia are among the sites that have emitted more carbon than they absorbed since 2001 as a result of human activities, according to research by the World Resources Institute, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Unesco. The analysis found more sites were expected to switch from sinks to sources of carbon in the coming decades. Continue reading...

Chancellor’s speech did not mention the climate crisis despite UK-hosted climate summit opening on Sunday

The Guardian understands the funding is likely to be used to back the planned £20bn Sizewell CThe government will make its first direct investment in a large-scale nuclear reactor since 1995 after pledging to plough up to £1.7bn of taxpayers’ money into a new power plant.Treasury documents published alongside the autumn statement did not name which nuclear project would be in line for the public funds, but the Guardian understands it is most likely to be the planned £20bn Sizewell C plant in Suffolk. Continue reading...

Budget offered little detail on UK response to climate crisis, but city will be key test of success on green economy and ‘levelling up’The UK’s energy revolution has a surprisingly artisanal feel. In the vast halls of a wind turbine blade factory in Hull, workers manually unroll layers of fibreglass and balsa wood into 81-metre moulds, before resins and paint are added. The blades are then shipped to the middle of the North Sea to generate clean electricity.They also generate jobs – 1,000 on the Siemens Gamesa site, plus another 200 to come after an investment of £186m to make bigger 108-metre blades. The site is the epitome of Boris Johnson’s claim that green jobs can help to “level up” Britain’s neglected regions. Continue reading...

‘Medicane’ storm with winds of 100km/h expected in Sicily, where two have died in floodingSouthern Italy was braced on Wednesday for the arrival of what forecasters have described as a Medicane – a rare Mediterranean hurricane bringing winds of more than 100kmh and producing 5-metre waves.Fierce storms have battered Sicily for days, leaving roads submerged in the eastern part of the island and claiming the lives of at least two people. Video footage shows flood waters engulfing the city of Palermo, turning streets into rivers and squares into lakes. Continue reading...

Members stage roadblock protests near M25 Dartford Crossing in Kent and on A40 in west LondonForty-nine members of Insulate Britain have been arrested after the climate activist group blocked three major junctions in defiance of a series of injunctions banning them from protesting anywhere on England’s strategic road network.In their 15th day of action since starting their campaign in mid-September, members of the group staged roadblock protests near the M25 Dartford crossing in Kent and another on the A40 in West London. Continue reading...

Figure of £150-660bn to cut raw sewage discharges into rivers was quoted by Tory MPs and environment ministerGovernment claims that cutting the millions of hours a year of raw sewage being discharged into rivers by water companies would cost up to £660bn have been challenged by experts.On Tuesday night, peers kept the pressure on the government to enshrine a duty in law on water companies to reduce the dumping of raw sewage into rivers and seas. Continue reading...

Boost for advocates’ group is step further in decades-long fight against mining pollutionRita Capitan has been worrying about her water since 1994. It was that autumn she read a local newspaper article about another uranium mine, the Crownpoint Uranium Project, getting under way near her home.Capitan has spent her entire life in Crownpoint, New Mexico, a small town on the eastern Navajo Nation, and is no stranger to the uranium mining that has persisted in the region for decades. But it was around the time the article was published that she began learning about the many risks associated with uranium mining. Continue reading...

With her brave book Silent Spring, Carson changed the course of US environmental history. We would do well to study her example“Glasgow is our last chance” has become a climate crisis mantra.World leaders scheduled to meet soon at the United Nations Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow to discuss – and act upon – our global climate crisis face a huge task, as do those here in the US as they fine-tune the climate measures in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan. All political measures up to now have been insufficient. The latest UN report on climate change issued a “code red for humanity”. And it’s only going to get worse and probably irreversible – larger fires, extended droughts, more intense storms, and more environmental refugees, destabilized regimes and unlivable parts of our planet – if our carbon-based economy continues unabated.A frequent contributor to the Guardian, Kim Heacox is the author of many books, including The Only Kayak, a memoir, and Jimmy Bluefeather, a novel, both winners of the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Alaska Continue reading...

Few are household names, yet these 12 enablers and profiteers have an unimaginable sway over the fate of humanityFor too long, Americans were fed a false narrative that they should feel individually guilty about the climate crisis. The reality is that only a handful of powerful individuals bear the personal responsibility.The nation’s worst polluters managed to evade accountability and scrutiny for decades as they helped the fossil fuel industry destroy our planet. The actions of these climate supervillains have affected millions of people, disproportionately hurting the vulnerable who have done the least to contribute to global emissions. Continue reading...

ICAP-Speedwell Climate Index will use stats from 50 independent weather stations globallyThe City broker TP ICAP has launched a weather data-backed index that it says will allow business risks tied to the pace of the climate crisis to be traded on financial markets for the first time.The creation of an index allows financial firms to form a view on the rate of temperature change and build financial products to hedge the risks. Continue reading...

International travel exemption scrapped for vaccinated Australians; 16 Covid deaths in Victoria and NSW; national child abuse prevention strategy announced. This blog is now closed

The conservative Democrat is busy trying to strip out many of the policies to tackle the problems his home state is facingThe rise of Joe Manchin as a key power player for Democratic policymaking in 2021 is the result of a perfect storm for the US senator from West Virginia.His position as the Senate’s most conservative Democrat means he often has final say in what his party is able to push through, especially when it comes to Joe Biden’s ambitious domestic agenda on infrastructure, far-reaching social policies and a powerful attempt to tackle the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Some of the harshest criticism came from CNN, which labelled Australia ‘the rich world’s weakest link at Cop26’

Protesters hold candlelight vigil inside London landmark for ‘victims of museum’s sponsors’Youth climate activists have “occupied” London’s Science Museum in protest at its sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies.Members of the London branch of the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN London) said they were holding a candlelight vigil at the famous landmark on Tuesday evening for “the victims of the museum’s fossil fuel sponsors: Shell, BP, Equinor and Adani”. Continue reading...

Report says countries must strengthen climate ambitions after wasting chance to build back better after CovidThe world is squandering the opportunity to “build back better” from the Covid-19 pandemic, and faces disastrous temperature rises of at least 2.7C if countries fail to strengthen their climate pledges, according to a report from the UN.Tuesday’s publication warns that countries’ current pledges would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut scientists say is needed to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, the aim of the Cop26 summit that opens in Glasgow this Sunday. Continue reading...

Water companies will have duty to reduce impact of sewage discharges from storm overflowsThe government has announced a partial U-turn over the sewage amendment after Tory rebels threatened to scupper an upcoming vote in the Commons.Under new rules, there will be a duty on water companies to reduce the impact of sewage discharges from storm overflows. This means the organisations will be required by law to show a reduction in sewage overspills over the next five years. Continue reading...

Legislation paves way for firms building nuclear plants to charge households long before completionThe government plans to resuscitate the UK’s nuclear energy ambitions by creating a financing model that could pile part of the upfront cost of the £20bn Sizewell C power plant on to householders’ energy bills before it starts generating electricity.The energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, set out legislation on Tuesday that would share the early construction costs with consumers, with the aim of reducing the UK’s reliance on overseas funding for nuclear projects by making them more attractive to domestic investors. Continue reading...

ABP says it will no longer invest in sector and will sell €15bn of holdings by first quarter of 2023One of the world’s largest pension funds, ABP, is selling its €15bn-worth of holdings in fossil fuel companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, claiming it had been unable to persuade the sector to transition quickly enough towards decarbonisation.Corien Wortmann-Kool, the chair of ABP, the Dutch pension fund for civil servants and teachers, said it would no longer invest in producers of oil, gas and coal, and that it would dispense with its current investments in those sectors by the first quarter of 2023. Continue reading...

Climate Change Committee head Chris Stark explains what needs to happen for Britain to meet its targets

Climate group makes declaration after transport secretary obtains injunctionInsulate Britain has declared the M25 a “site of non-violent civil resistance” and called for motorists to keep to 20mph on the motorway or avoid it altogether, after a new injunction banned the group from major roads across England.It comes after Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, announced that England’s roads agency, National Highways, had obtained an injunction banning the group from protesting across England’s “entire strategic road network”. Continue reading...

Government to retain resistance to tougher action against water companies despite backlashPlans to take tougher action against water companies for pumping sewage into rivers and the sea will once again be opposed by the government tonight, Downing Street has announced.The prime minister’s spokesperson confirmed the government would retain its resistance to adopting an amendment to the environment bill tabled by the Duke of Wellington, which was passed by the Lords earlier this month but subsequently rejected by the Commons. Continue reading...

New polling data shows two-thirds of Republicans do not want to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the climate crisisNearly two in three Republicans believe oil and gas companies are at least somewhat responsible for the climate crisis – but they don’t want to keep these companies accountable.In fact, even when they were told that oil and gas companies knowingly misled the public about their products driving climate change, most Republicans said the public and the government should not hold those companies accountable. Continue reading...

While a strong majority of Americans believe global heating is happening, a new Guardian poll shows sharp partisan dividesA majority of Americans want to see oil and gas companies held to account for lying about the climate crisis and contributing to global heating, according to a new YouGov poll commissioned by the Guardian, Vice News, and Covering Climate Now.Released today, the poll reveals that the US remains sharply divided over the causes of the deepening environmental emergency following the fossil fuel industry’s long campaign to downplay and deny climate science. That division falls largely along political lines, with Democrats and Republicans at odds over the source of climate disinformation. Continue reading...

Advisers say strategy boosts UK credibility before Cop26 summit, but more needed to protect low paidThe UK strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is achievable and affordable, according to the government’s official climate advisers. The Climate Change Committee said the plan was the most comprehensive in the G20 and strengthened the position of the UK as it prepares to preside over the Cop26 summit.The CCC, which is independent, said the strategy was a big step forward from setting targets to planning their delivery, but implementation would be a huge task. Continue reading...

Prime minister Scott Morrison says ‘technology breakthroughs’ will help country meet reductions targets but Labor calls plan a ‘scam’ based on a ‘vibe’

State environment minister, Matt Kean, has launched internal review after Guardian investigation revealed major problems with offsets schemes

Torres Strait communities have filed a class action, arguing Australia must cut emissions by 74% by 2030 to save the islands from sea level incursion and inhabitability“This island is me, and I am this island,” Wadhuam Pabai Pabai says of the homeland he’s known all his life.“I can’t imagine being forced to leave Boigu … there are 65,000 years of wealth and experience here,” the father of seven says. Losing Boigu, his home in the Torres Strait, will mean losing all of it. Continue reading...

The number of nesting sites on the archipelago has risen dramatically, but global heating sees male population plummetIt’s nearly midnight as Delvis Semedo strolls along an empty beach on the Cape Verdean island of Maio. Overhead, the dense Milky Way pierces the darkness. A sea turtle emerges from the crashing waves and lumbers up the shore. Then another. And another.Semedo is one of about 100 local people who patrol Maio’s beaches each night during nesting season to collect data on the turtles and protect them from poachers. This year has been busier than usual. Sea turtle nests on the islands of Sal, Maio and Boa Vista – the primary nesting grounds for loggerheads in Cape Verde – have soared in the last five years. Cape Verde’s environment ministry puts nest numbers in 2020 across all 10 islands at almost 200,000, up from 10,725 in 2015. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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