Continue reading...

La centrale est-africaine a été construite en moins d’un an. Des emplois ont ainsi été créés et le pays est bien parti pour fournir de l’électricité à la moitié de la population d’ici 2017

The UN climate summit runs into overtime to allow more high-level lobbying7.08pm GMTAll the big action is going to happen on Saturday, with negotiations now going through the night behind closed doors, so I’m going to wrap this liveblog up now.Here’s the top of Suzanne Goldenberg’s news story on the state of play, which you’ll soon be able to read in full on our Paris climate talks coverage page.Barack Obama phoned the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Friday in a last ditch effort to prise open a climate change agreement that can be unveiled at the UN climate talks in Paris on Saturday.As the negotiations ran into overtime – something that has happened at virtually every meeting of the last 20 years – Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister called for a cooling off period to allow more high level lobbying behind closed doors. Fabius put off planned public plenary sessions, which risk being volatile, and gave the floor over to closed meetings in a last push for an agreement.6.50pm GMTLaurent Fabius has reiterated hopes the text will be released at 9am on Saturday. He says the Paris Committee which he chairs will meet at noon, and the final plenary will be at 2pm..@LaurentFabius: "Tomorrow at 9 a.m., I will present a text that is as balanced & as ambitious as possible" #COP21 pic.twitter.com/7rGNM3HU1i Continue reading...

Insufficient airport capacity has long been a serious problem for UK aviation. It is misleading to think of any decision about a hub airport in the south-east as a choice between either Heathrow or Gatwick. Although there have been earlier proposals to run the two airports as one, those proposals considered only partial solutions.Merging the working of the two sites can be most effectively achieved by building a new runway at Gatwick, a direct high-speed rail connection with a parallel motorway linking the two sites, and running the combined airports with an integrated communications system. Continue reading...

Government blames environmental concerns for delay in making a decision, but few take that at face valueSo is it the environment, or plain old politics? Heathrow said it was confident it could meet the government’s environmental criteria for a new runway – although it has yet to be told what green hoops it now needs to jump through.Sources in the Department for Transport say concerns about air quality – and the threat of legal challenge if they are not addressed – are real: there is work to be done to ensure the government meets European Union limits on pollution and this new “period of reflection” would allow it to incorporate new data on vehicle emissions and update the Airports Commission modelling. Continue reading...

Wealthy investors to earn millions after £175m of National Grid contracts are awarded to dirty electricity generators

Government postpones decision over third runway as Labour accuses Tories of procrastinating to help Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign in LondonThe final decision on a third Heathrow runway could be delayed even further than the middle of 2016, the transport secretary has suggested.Patrick McLoughlin admitted on Friday morning that the government’s verdict on airport expansion could be postponed beyond the new deadline of next summer, which was announced on Thursday to widespread anger from business groups. Continue reading...

City links Free buses in Turin, the ‘horizontal elevator’ of Las Vegas, Japan’s recyling capital and the community at the heart of the Turner Prize feature in this week’s round-up of the best urban storiesThe best city stories we’ve collected this week include temporary public transport initiatives in Italian cities hoping to counter increasing air pollution, and the Japanese town on course to become the country’s first “zero-waste” community. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories: share your thoughts in the comments below. Continue reading...

Keeping the price of a barrel of crude at $75 or less will devastate the profitability of fossil fuel extraction – as the shelving of three tar sands projects demonstratesAs world leaders enter the home stretch of the Paris climate negotiations they should keep in mind a key measure of success in limiting carbon emissions: cheap oil. The lower the global price of oil, the more it stays in the ground – due to the brutal, if counterintuitive, logic of the petroleum marketplace.Related: Shell shelves plan for tar sands project in face of low oil prices Continue reading...

Residents of Morpeth, which last flooded in 2012, have spent the subsequent years battling to keep their insurance costs down. Harriet Meyer reportsGovernment pledges to spend billions of pounds on flood defences won’t necessarily shield householders against rising insurance costs in flood-hit areas of the country, despite the protection they offer.Around £23m of defences were completed in June in the Northumberland town of Morpeth after major floods in 2008 and 2012 wrought devastation. Yet some householders near the river Wansbeck still face massive and sometimes rising insurance premiums. Continue reading...

On the UN climate summit’s penultimate day on Friday, Greenpeace activists paint Paris’s streets yellow with ‘eco paint’. They dangle banners from the Arc de Triomphe calling on the French president, François Hollande, to ‘renew the energy’

The response to the 1970s oil shocks gave the planet a life-saving head start in the struggle to avoid catastrophic climate change

As the most important climate change event ever enters the final stages, get up to speed on the key points with our updated guide

En menos de diez años, el país ha reducido drásticamente su huella de carbono y sus costes de electricidad, sin subsidios del Gobierno. Los delegados de la cumbre de París pueden aprender mucho de este éxito

Many schools have already restricted outdoors activities as record levels of air pollution in the Indian capital are expected to last for months to come

With more rain and flooding expected in north-west England this weekend, we’d like to hear from anyone affectedMore flooding has been forecast for north-west of the country over the weekend. The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain on Saturday across north Wales, the north-west, Yorkshire and Humber, the Midlands and parts of the north-east. Continue reading...

Critics say energy auction rewards carbon emitters as National Grid confirms it has secured 45GW of generation to keep lights on at peak periodsThe government is facing calls for an urgent investigation into how companies were awarded more than £175m in subsidies to build heavily polluting “diesel farms” to provide the UK with backup energy generating capacity.Critics said an energy generation auction overseen by the National Grid had descended into a farce by rewarding intensive carbon dioxide (CO) emitters, just as ministers committed Britain to lower carbon emissions at UN climate change talks in Paris. Continue reading...

Business travel is booming and airlines are expecting other sectors to compensate for their apathyAfter a period of decline in some countries, business travel is on the rise. Total spending is expected to have grown by 7.4% in the UK, 3.1% in the US and 15% in China, according to the Global Business Travel Association, with $1.25tn predicted to have been spent globally on business flights this year. Continue reading...

Hugh Grant talks to the Guardian’s Marc Gunther about the agribusiness giant’s two-front war for a sustainable food supply“You have an easy job,” I tell Hugh Grant, the CEO of Monsanto, as we sit down at the W Hotel in New York City. He looks puzzled, so I explain: “I just read on the Internet that Monsanto controls the world’s food supply.”Grant, 57, jokes that it’s all effortless. The idea that Monsanto controls the world’s food is a canard, but there’s no doubt that it’s a major player in the food chain. The St Louis-based agribusiness giant produced 35.5% of the corn seeds and 28% of the soybean seeds planted in the US in 2014, with sales topping $15.8bn last year. Continue reading...

As summit enters closing stages, UN secretary general urges negotiators to set aside national interests to reach a strong global deal for allThe UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has said the international climate talks that are edging towards a conclusion in Paris have been the most complicated and difficult negotiations he has ever been involved in.Ban said that differences still remain among the nearly 200 governments searching for a climate deal in Paris but he urged negotiators to set aside their national interests to reach a compromise. Continue reading...

From shrinking glaciers to extreme weather and urban waste, world’s top photographers present images that capture what is at stake as leaders from over 190 countries seek an international climate agreement in Paris Continue reading...

Prince of Wales criticises failure to address the ‘root cause’ of the problem and singles out damaging role of climate scepticsThe devastating flooding caused by Storm Desmond is linked to the failure to tackle climate change, the “root cause” of the problem, according to Prince Charles.The Prince, whose charity has given £40,000 to affected communities, also lashed out at climate sceptics in a speech on Thursday. “What right do they have to sacrifice our children and grandchildren’s future?” Continue reading...

US, UK and others accused of ‘cynical’ ploy in response to developing countries’ firm stance on holding rich nations accountable for climate change damage

The holiday season won’t be so merry and bright if the effects of climate change eventually ravage the Earth. Artist Zachary Scheer illustrates the ghosts of holidays future in these environmentally minded Christmas cards Continue reading...

If more capacity were vital, the market would have spoken. So let’s discourage these polluting flights and spend the money on roads and trains insteadNever take a fact from a lobbyist. Heathrow runways have nothing to do with “vital British business”. The idea that spending a staggering £18bn on one runway is economically essential is ludicrous. The economy has far more need of better roads to ports, more commuter trains or cheaper electricity. That they lack the glamour of an airport should not be the issue.A full 80% of London’s airport capacity serves one industry: foreign leisure travel. That industry is, overwhelmingly, Britons going abroad, and is thus negative to the balance of payments. Business export travel is a trivial part of the sum. Continue reading...

More than 240,000 people in Somaliland do not have enough food because of acute droughts caused by poor rains. Save the Children, which is building wells and reservoirs and providing chlorination, warns that malnutrition rates – especially for children under five – are alarming and likely to increasePhotographs by Felicity McCabe/Save the Children

Extending capital into surrounding farmland is part of ongoing discrimination against Oromo people, say protesters. Global Voices reportsAt least 10 students are said to have been killed and hundreds injured during protests against the Ethiopian government’s plans to expand the capital city into surrounding farmland.According to Human Rights Watch, the students were killed this week when security forces used excessive force and live ammunition to disperse the crowds. Continue reading...

Multilateral development banks are funding a roll out of hydropower projects in national parks, world heritage sites and conservation zones across the BalkansInternational banks have ploughed hundreds of millions of euros into a wave of hydropower projects sweeping across many pristine national parks and environmentally-protected regions in the Balkans, according to a new report.Around half of 1,640 planned and actual projects in countries such as Bosnia, Macedonia and Albania are to be constructed in protected national parks, world heritage and Natura 2000 (EU protected) sites or their equivalents. Continue reading...

French foreign minister calls for second all-night session to seal agreement on 20-year diplomatic process but admits talks will finish on Saturday

Early next year, production of the Defender will cease at its West Midlands home. The model that has served a host of British icons including the Queen has finally been overtaken by time, technology and legislationThat great steel and aluminium beast, the Land Rover Defender, and its ancestors have been clanging and clunking their way off the production line at Solihull since 1948. Born in postwar rationing, the Defender feels as quintessentially British as the Queen, Churchill or Bond, among the other national icons who have been plonked atop its unbending chassis.Orders have boomed of late, and the 2 millionth Defender will be auctioned off at Bonhams in London next week, probably for the price of a luxury sports car. But the model that has served adventurers, soldiers, farmers and generations of enthusiasts is almost done: overtaken at last by time, technology and legislation. Continue reading...

Met Office issues yellow weather warning for rain this weekend as clear-up continues in Cumbrian towns and villagesMore flooding has been forecast for north-west of the country over the weekend as the army arrives in Keswick to help the clear-up effort.Residents of the Cumbrian town, one of the worst-hit by last weekend’s flooding, will be assisted by 100 soldiers from 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. Continue reading...

French foreign minister says Paris talks are ‘extremely close’ to agreement but negotiations will overrun into SaturdayNegotiators in Paris are within reach of a global agreement to curb greenhouse emissions to 2030 and beyond, with the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, saying the meeting was “extremely close to the finishing line” as he presented a draft text that cut through many key sticking points.After reading the draft and chairing a meeting of the so-called “umbrella group” of developed nations, the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said she thought the text was “about 80% there”.

Government announces postponement of final decision on airport expansion over environmental concernsDavid Cameron has delayed the decision on whether to allow a third runway at Heathrow airport until summer 2016 over environmental concerns.The government said it was supporting more airport capacity in the south-east by 2030, as recommended by the Airports Commission. However, it delivered a setback to Heathrow’s hopes of building a third runway by neglecting to mention the airport by name in its statement and making clear other viable options – such as expansion at Gatwick – were still on the table. Continue reading...

What more can we expect from a government with such a shambolic response to climate change and disregard for the poorest people in high-risk flood areas?Not everyone is equal in their capacity to recover from flooding. Tenure, for example, is a particular problem: people who rent privately and struggle to get their landlords to fix even minor problems in their homes may be up against significant challenges in the face of natural disaster.Meanwhile housing associations and councils, already blasted by cuts, are likely to struggle to repair homes quickly with dwindling funds and mass staff layoffs. Many socially deprived areas are also in high-risk flood areas: charting the Indices of Multiple Deprivation against maps of flood risk shows a high correlation between poorer areas and those vulnerable to flooding, especially as a result of rainwater flooding. Continue reading...

Scenes in Cumbria before and after the flood waters receded Continue reading...

If I were David Cameron, I would fast-track flood defences ahead of HS2, and say: ‘These are the people’s priorities – I get it’Ever since at least the time of King Canute, and probably long before that, those in authority have had an uneasy relationship with the forces of nature. And with good reason, as this week has once again reminded many parts of Britain.Floods, like the ones that have coursed through so many communities in northern England and southern Scotland this week, have a way of uprooting more things than the cars, trees and bridges that have been the stuff of the week’s television news bulletins. Water can sweep away the metaphysical as well as the physical. It can carry away authority, trust, and some of the certainties of ordered life with them too. And floods are no respecter of reputations either. King Canute understood this. It is not so clear that David Cameron does. Continue reading...

Angel Gurria takes a swipe at India for accusing OECD of dubious accounting methods over climate aid flow to poor countriesSome developing countries risk destabilising the UN climate negotiations in Paris by trying to rerun old battles over climate aid that have already been resolved, the head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation has said.Angel Gurria, the OECD’s secretary general robustly defended the organisation’s assessment of global climate finance and said that developing countries should accept that most funding due to them under international agreements was already flowing. Continue reading...

Langstone, Hampshire A pair of tiny goldcrests hover-glean, plucking spiders from the underside of leaves and branchesAs the days have grown shorter and the weather colder, dwindling natural food resources have drawn the birds back to my garden. The dunnock that roosts in our unkempt bay tree pauses to sip rainwater from the base of an upturned coal scuttle, before scouring beneath the bird table for spilled seed.I glimpse a foraging wren scuttling mouse-like through the labyrinth of ivy that covers the fence. A song thrush skulks behind the wood pile sucking up worms like spaghetti, while a trio of magpies take turns to sidle up and steal a peanut from the mound I have left by the back door for our visiting squirrel. Continue reading...

Researchers ran climate modelling experiments and found that climate change made flooding 40% more likelyManmade climate change was partly responsible for Storm Desmond’s torrential rain which devastated parts of Scotland, the Lake District and Northern Ireland, scientists have concluded.The researchers at Oxford University and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) calculated that climate change had made the flooding event 40% more likely, with the estimate of the increased likelihood ranging between 5% and 80%.

This personal and reflective documentary recounts the mission of a pioneering scientist to find evidence of climate change in the ice of the AntarcticThe title of this nature documentary says it all – all about scientific data mined from the Antarctic telling you what is happening up there in the sky or in the air around us. It is the story of the pioneering climate scientist Claude Lorius, now 83, whose lifelong passion for the Antarctic began in his 20s when he signed on for a scientific expedition to that remote region.Lorius was able to take samples deeper and deeper in the ice, which effectively contained fossilised records of its ambient temperature hundreds or thousands of years ago: the evidence showed an unmistakable upswing in the last century, and Lorius realised that mankind’s CO emissions were heating up the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Laurent Fabius says end in sight as talks on global agreement go into another all-night meetingNegotiators in Paris are embarking on another all-night meeting to try to reach a new global climate agreement, with the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, telling them they were “extremely close to the finishing line” as he presented yet another draft text.

Negotiators from governments around the world continue to work to iron out their differences over a draft text of the COP21 agreement to stop dangerous global warming9.21pm GMTThat’s all for today, folks, thanks for reading. Negotiators are heading in to closed overnight meetings, so we’ll restart out live coverage on Friday morning to see if the nearly 200 governments here in Paris can agree a deal that’ll keep dangerous global warming in check.See you then.9.19pm GMTTim Gore, Oxfam’s head of policy, says the “main area of progress are definitely on finance. That seems to be a big step forward. There are some strong changes to the text that will increase finance from rich countries towards the $100bn target for 2020.”He notes, with a raised eyebrow, that human rights have been purged from the text completely just one day after gender equality was stripped. Continue reading...

That the government is still delaying at this point in the political cycle shows how toxic an issue the third runway isEven by the government’s standards of inaction on the airports debate, six months to simply blandly agree with the Airports Commission’s superseded shortlist from 2013 is quite a feat.Air quality remains a real issue, and government sources were keen to point out that there is still time to make a decision in six months and meet the 2030 deadline before runway capacity becomes a crisis. And the official statement does affirm that it now definitely believes a runway somewhere is needed. But this further delay until next summer will prompt resigned fury, yet little surprise, in a sector that has seen this all too often before. Continue reading...

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visits the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth on Thursday, which was badly affected by floods following Storm Desmond. Corbyn praises the community spirit he has witnessed and urges positive action on climate change, which he says has a clear impact on extreme weather events in the UK. He also calls on the government to do more to strengthen flood defences in areas vulnerable to flooding

China’s strategy for dealing with air pollution is a cosmetic exercise cynically timed to coincide with the Paris summit on climate change (Airpocalypse now: factories and schools in Beijing shut by unprecedented smog alert, 9 December).The 24-hour WHO limit for small particulates is 25 microgrammes per cubic metre of air, though recent studies have demonstrated adverse effects on foetal development at levels well below this. During recent pollution episodes, levels as high as 900 have been recorded in Bejing and other large cities such as Baoding. China’s ruthless determination to grow its economy has therefore rendered its cities wholly unfit for human habitation, and especially dangerous for pregnant women. Continue reading...

Storm Desmond flooded Cumbrian house of 15-year-old cancer sufferer, but an unknown benefactor has stepped in to helpA good samaritan has come forward to offer a property to a couple with a son who has cancer after the family were forced out of their home in Cumbria by flooding.Andrew Williams, a self-employed window fitter, had to leave his house in Kendal on Tuesday when the water reached knee height. His wife was 80 miles away at Alder Hey hospital, where their 15-year-old son, James, had received chemotherapy for osteosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer most common in teenagers and young adults. Continue reading...