But poorest half of world’s people contribute to just 10% of emissions, says British charity as negotiators work on UN climate change deal in ParisThe richest 10% of people produce half of Earth’s climate-harming fossil-fuel emissions, while the poorest half contribute a mere 10%, British charity Oxfam said in a report released Wednesday.

Outdoor air pollution kills 3.3 million people, mostly in cities, every year. That’s more than HIV, malaria and influenza combined – yet the sparse coverage of official data means many cities are not even monitoredEvery day, hundreds of millions of people step outside into an environment that has become unsafe for human survival. Outdoor air pollution kills 3.3 million people every year, mostly in cities; more than HIV, malaria and influenza combined. But the search for this insidious mass killer reveals something astonishing. As the governments of more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, not only don’t we know where it kills the most, in many places we aren’t even looking.As November’s cold winds sweep down from Mongolia, the coal burning season begins in northern China. At the time of publication, Chinese maps on the World Air Quality Index website were awash with red, purple and maroon flags, indicating dangerous levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – the world’s primary air pollutant. Continue reading...

Tropical forests provide a bargain climate service, cheaply reducing emissions. The Paris summit should agree payments for anti-deforestation programmesWe need to come up with innovative solutions to look after our planet, and the Paris climate change conference is the place to do it. By innovative we don’t only mean new energy technology and new green financing mechanisms. We need to reimagine tropical forests as a public utility like electricity, producing a service people and governments, including in the rich world, want to buy.

David Cameron is sure he wants to bomb Syria yet lacks all conviction on global warming. Blame the Churchill syndromeWhere you would expect to see caution and circumspection, instead there is a rush to action. Where you would expect to see determination and resolve, there is only vacillation and delay.The contrast between the government’s handling of the Syrian crisis and its handling of the climate change crisis could not be greater. It responds to these issues with an equal and opposite recklessness. Continue reading...

Prime minister Narendra Modi announces $30m solar investment, but also pins historical blame on rich countries asking them to do more on emissions and aidIndia has emerged as a pivotal player in the climate talks, championing developing country demands that the rich take the lead in cutting emissions and providing more money for poor countries. But desperate for a strong deal to protect it from the ravages of climate change, it is also backing the US-led principle that all countries should act.Narendra Modi, prime minister of the country of 1.2 billion and the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has so far taken the strongest line of all the developing country leaders in the talks. Continue reading...

A fisherman films an echidna he spots swimming about 150 metres from the shores of Lake Echo. He later rescued the animal and accompanied it safely back to land. Echidnas are known to swim but not usually for long distances. The discovery comes a week after two other anglers found a wombat swimming 250 metres from shore in Woods Lake, a short distance away Continue reading...

Experts warn of crisis in the making in some provinces where extreme El Niño climate conditions have devastated cropsPeople in drought-ravaged villages in Papua New Guinea are eating toxic mushrooms and clay to stave off hunger pangs as crops fail, vanishing water sources become contaminated and food, medical and fuel supplies are exhausted.Leprosy and severe, potentially fatal, gastrointestinal cases have spiked in some villages in one province, including suspected cholera or typhoid, international experts working in the area reported.

Biologist reports discovery made in June during observation flight over Patagonia region, as cause of whales’ death remains unknownThe coast of southern Chile has become a grave for 337 sei whales that were found beached in what scientists say is one of the biggest whale strandings ever recorded.Biologist Vreni Haussermann told the Associated Press Tuesday that she made the discovery along with other scientists in June during an observation flight over fjords in Chile’s southern Patagonia region. Continue reading...

Inside the climate talks, even the complimentary chocolate bars carry messages of climate justice. Given Malcolm Turnbull’s challenges, it might be better to be handing them out to his ‘friends’ in the CoalitionIn Paris it’s a sea of pillars, decorated for each participating nation. There’s always a grand entry to these climate summits – or conferences of the parties (COP) to the UN climate convention – as if to remind the thousands of delegates traipsing in each day that they are entering Planet COP.

US president Barack Obama said on Tuesday that any agreement on climate change must not only help the environment but also allow economies to thrive. Obama admitted that such a deal would be hard, but called on people to remain optimisist that an agreement can be reached Continue reading...

President offers apparent compromise over the periodic review of emission reduction targets as Hillary Clinton goes on attack against Republicans back in USBarack Obama declared on Tuesday that some components to a global climate change agreement must carry legal force, easing one obstacle to a successful outcome at negotiations in Paris.

Marshall Islands foreign minister says he hopes Australia might soon start to take islanders’ fears of climate change as seriously as the US presidentMalcolm Turnbull has been urged to show the same interest in the impact of climate change on low lying island island states as Barack Obama and to return Australia “to its former leadership role in the Pacific.”

Your editorial rightly highlights the serious problem of finding adequate funding to allow developing countries to tackle and cope with climate change (Last chance salon in Paris: there is no planet B, 30 November). It has been estimated that this could cost about $3,500bn, a truly staggering sum at this time of a global economic slowdown. Yet it mustn’t be forgotten that, when the global banking system was threatened, the world’s rich economies responded with programmes to print €7tn of quantitative easing to keep the financial system afloat, ie twice that thought to be required to deal with climate change in vulnerable countries.Indeed the European Central Bank is still e-printing €60bn a month under its QE programme and is committed to doing so until September 2016. Our report Climate QE for Paree proposed that if it were to allocate say €10bn a month either from this QE programme or from an additional QE commitment, it could use it to buy climate change bonds from the European Investment Bank. The EIB could then direct these funds to climate change programmes in both Europe and developing countries. This could have a galvanising effect on other rich countries, putting pressure on them to introduce their own climate QE initiatives and thus further bolster global funds towards thousands of billions eventually needed to keep temperature rises at 2C. We found the money to save the banks, we now need to do the same to save the planet.

Supermarket will work with families in Swadlincote to trial ideas such as growing mushrooms in coffee and artificial ‘noses’ that sniff out food spoilageSwadlincote, a market town in south Derbyshire, has won £1m from Sainsbury’s to invest in finding ways to halve household food waste.The supermarket will work with community groups and the local council next year to test ideas such as growing mushrooms in used coffee grounds, using artificial “noses” that detect whether food is safe to eat and introducing community cook-ups to find new ways of using unwanted food. Continue reading...

From ‘the eyes of the world are upon us’ to ‘planet is a patient’, here is a pick of how world leaders chose to describe the urgency for actionWorld leaders gathered in Paris on Monday for the crucial UN summit on climate change to negotiate a treaty to limit global warming to 2C, the widely accepted temperature threshold to avert catastrophic disasters.But in case the landmark conference was an insufficient reason to make you aware of this, then 147 heads of state and government were present to convey the weight of history with the power of language alone. Continue reading...

B&Q owner to install solar panels on some stores and distribution centres as part of £50m investment in sustainable energyKingfisher, the owner of B&Q and Screwfix, is to put solar panels on its distribution centres and some stores as part of a £50m investment to cut its reliance on the National Grid.The investment comes after Kingfisher installed solar panels at the Screwfix head office in Yeovil in the summer. They now generate a third of the site’s power. Continue reading...

Donald Trump said Obama’s remarks were ‘one of the dumbest statements I’ve heard in politics’ as other GOP candidates joined in derision of the US presidentRepublican presidential candidates have poured scorn on Barack Obama for his comments at the Paris climate talks, with Mike Huckabee mocking him as the “meteorologist-in-chief” and Ted Cruz claiming Obama thinks “having an SUV in your driveway” is more dangerous than Isis.In a speech to more than 130 world leaders and other delegates at the key UN summit on Monday, the US president quoted Martin Luther King by saying “there is such a thing as being too late”. Continue reading...

Recycling rates stall nationally and have even declined in some areas, down by 0.8% in London and 1.2% in the East MidlandsEngland must urgently improve its recycling rates if it is to reach European Union targets by 2020, according to one of Britain’s biggest waste companies.

Climate change seems such a mild word for what’s going on. Things are so desperate that even our fictional dystopias may turn out to be fantasies

People queue up to kill Norways’s wolves and bears, while Japan continues its whale slaughter. Despite the noble claims, there’s no justification for hunting as entertainmentIt is one of the world’s less lovely lotteries. Just under 12,000 people – the vast majority men – have registered for the chance to kill 16 wolves in the Norwegian hunting season, ostensibly to protect the nation’s livestock. Wild bears suffer the same onerous odds, with 10,000 humans going in pursuit of 18 animals. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the Japanese whaling fleet launches into its own new season, in an operation subsidised by its government. Today its whaling fleet sails for Antarctica, defying a UN resolution that their “scientific research” is nothing of the kind.Related: More than 11,000 Norwegians line up to shoot 16 wolves Continue reading...

COP21 advertisers criticised for lack of transparency, monitoring and emissions reduction as series of spoof adverts appear across ParisA survey of 10 sponsors of the Paris climate summit has found that most do not publish data on their CO2 emissions, half don’t track their lifetime carbon footprint, and only one is reducing its emissions in line with the EU’s targets.Full details of the summit’s sponsorship deals will not be made public until after its close, although campaigners say that the €16.9m raised so far represents barely 10% of overall costs, and half of what was expected. Continue reading...

How day one of COP21 unfolded as world leaders gathered in Le Bourget to begin to negotiate a treaty to limit global warming Continue reading...

François Hollande tells Paris climate summit that his government will double investments in wind, solar and hydropower to €2bnFrance plans to spend billions of euros in renewable energy and other environmental projects in its former west African colonies and across Africa over the next five years, President François Hollande said on Tuesday.

Factories in Beijing have been ordered to shut and children allowed to stay away from school as choking smog exceeds safe levels. Footage filmed by a high-rise resident in Xi’an city shows tower blocks floating in the polluted mist. Visibility is reduced in 17 city centres with some reporting no more than 200 metres

As another coal-fuelled ‘airpocalypse’ engulfs northern China, Nut Brother hopes his ‘smog bricks’ will raise awarenessHis idol is Subcomandante Marcos, the masked Mexican rebel; his weapon of choice a 1,000-watt vacuum cleaner.Meet Nut Brother, the Chinese activist-artist attempting to vanquish toxic smog by sucking it up through a black plastic nozzle.. Continue reading...

The UN’s World Food Programme says climate change is stretching resources, and warming could cause a ‘semi-permanent food disaster’ in parts of the worldEl Niños, climate change and increasing conflict linked to prolonged droughts and extreme weather are leaving the world unable to cope with the food needs of millions of people, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.The UN agency, which last year appealed for $8.5bn from governments to provide food aid to people in 80 or more countries but only received $5.5bn, said donors had never been more generous but that the challenges were now outpacing available funds. Continue reading...

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As world leaders gather in Paris to discuss the global response to climate change, we assess the impact of the widespread forest fires in Indonesia. Set to clear land for paper and palm oil production, the fires have not only destroyed forest and peatland, but also severely affected public health and released massive amounts of carbon Continue reading...

December spells the beginning of winter for the northern hemisphere, while the southern hemisphere is preparing for summertime. We’d like to see your photos of the December wildlife near youDecember is upon us, and while the cold and dark winter months embrace the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere is preparing for summer heatwaves. So what sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps? We’d like to see your photos of the December wildlife near you.Share your photos and videos with us and we’ll feature our favourites on the Guardian site. Continue reading...

You shared your experiences, photos and memories of forgotten or unloved rivers in cities around the world, from Birmingham to Belo HorizonteLA’s river is not your average city river, and is iconic for very different reasons to the picturesque Seine of Paris, or historic Thames of London. It is a mostly dry abandoned concrete channel, used for car chase movie scenes and home to a growing homeless population – though, as Olly Wainwright reports, there are ambitious plans to “revitalise” it.Although rivers often become celebrated focal points of cities around the world, many others are buried, neglected, underused or mistreated. We asked you to share your photographs and memories of unloved city rivers around the world. Here’s a selection of some of the best contributions, from tales of the River Irwell in 1940s Salford – so polluted with bleach it could give those who fell in “peroxide hair” – to exploring forgotten and historic rivers in water crisis-stricken São Paulo. Continue reading...

From Bristol to Sheffield, diverse groups of makers, fixers and techies are creating more self-reliant communities

Women bear severe gendered impacts of climate change but systematically lack equal representation in decision-making. That’s a problemAs the nations of the world meet in Paris to address climate change, it is critical that women play a central role in these historic negotiations. Gender equality is central to effective climate action. The world cannot afford to neglect the needs of half the world’s population, nor ignore their talents and potential in innovating solutions.Structural and cultural disparities make women disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Women are more likely than men to die during and in the aftermath of natural disasters and climate change-related events. For the women who survive, many often lack legal assets and rights to property, which leaves them few resources with which to rebuild their lives. As women travel greater distances to collect essential resources like water, firewood and food to support their families, they are often threatened and abused. Continue reading...

With one year to go before the 100 months countdown ends, how has the climate debate changed?The climate clock may tick loudly when world leaders turn their gaze in its direction, but it never stops. This series of articles about what’s happening in our warming world, which has seen attention to the issue come and go as the time for meaningful action to avert uncontrollable climate change slips away, now has one year to go. Continue reading...

Norwegian hunters outnumber wolves 763 to one, according to new figures for licences to kill population that could be as low as 30Wolves have emerged as the most sought-after animal for Norwegian hunters this season, with 11,571 people registering for licences to shoot 16 animals – a ratio of 723 hunters per wolf.The animals – of which Norway may have as few as 30 living in the wild – top the league in new figures that reveal a trigger-happy community of hunters. Continue reading...

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s hydroelectric project will bring jobs and money to Patagonia’s grasslands – but political and environmental implications of the $5.7bn scheme, backed by China, have sparked concernAs the presidency of Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner enters its final days, her greatest – and arguably most controversial – legacy project is just getting under way in the remote grasslands of Patagonia.Here, amid herds of wild guanacos, condor nests and the occasional rhea, a Chinese-financed team of engineers will soon be dynamiting hillsides and pouring millions of tonnes of concrete for two giant hydroelectric dams that will flood an area the size of Buenos Aires. Continue reading...

The Prince of Wales will give a speech as UN climate talks turn the focus on efforts to cut emissions from deforestationThe Prince of Wales is to give a speech on protecting forests as efforts to cut emissions from deforestation are discussed at the UN climate talks in Paris.Experts warn agriculture, forestry and land use are responsible for almost a quarter of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and action to tackle the problem is a key part of curbing climate change. Continue reading...

Every day, another 2,000 people move to the Bangladeshi capital. It’s nothing new – for generations Dhaka has been a magnet for those escaping rural poverty – but now climate change is accelerating the race to the cityParul Akter travelled across Bangladesh to escape the flood waters, but they seem to have followed her. The shack she shares with her husband and four children in Dhaka, the nation’s capital, sits on the edge of the sprawling Korail slum – next to a lake. When it rains, dank water sloshes into their shelter. Only the bed, raised up on bricks, stays dry. “This room is all we have, so we need to stay here no matter what happens,” said Akter.Seven years ago, a monsoon flood left nothing standing in their village, located in Bhola on the country’s south-west coast. “We had no option but to climb up the banks with our belongings immediately,” said Akter. “Within a week, we moved to Dhaka to start a new life.” Continue reading...

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi holds a news conference alongside French president François Hollande on Monday to launch a global initiative for the promotion of solar power. The alliance of over 120 countries has pledged to invest in providing solar energy to developing areas, with Modi stating that the project will create ‘unlimited economic opportunities’, which will form the ‘foundation of the new economy of this century’ Continue reading...