The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act changes are an improvement, but the rush to pass them was purely political

A boom in places offering petting sessions is linked to a rise in the illegal movement of exotic and endangered species, say expertsThe second floor of an unassuming office building in central Bangkok is a strange place to encounter the world's largest rodent. Yet here, inside a small enclosure with a shallow pool, three capybaras are at the disposal of dozens of paying customers - all clamouring for a selfie. As people eagerly thrust leafy snacks toward the nonchalant-looking animals, few seem to consider the underlying peculiarity: how, exactly, did this South American rodent end up more than 10,000 miles from home, in a bustling Asian metropolis?Capybara cafes have been cropping up across the continent in recent years, driven by the animal's growing internet fame. The semi-aquatic animals feature in more than 600,000 TikTok posts. In Bangkok, cafe customers pay 400 baht (9.40) for a 30-minute petting session with them, along with a few meerkats and Chinese bamboo rats. Doors are open 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Continue reading...

Treasury says concession could be worth 30m next year and then 70m annually until 2030

A record 39,000 birds are overwintering on Wallasea island wetlands thanks to soil transported from London tunnelsAlmost 40,000 birds have made their home on a nature reserve created using soil from tunnel excavations for the Elizabeth line.Three million tonnes of earth were transported from London to Wallasea island in Essex and used to lift the ground level and make wetlands. Continue reading...

Strategy paper released with budget allows new oil and gas projects to move ahead if they are linked to existing fields

The Mohana of Pakistan's Sindh province once thrived on the lake but pollution and drought have caused the fragile ecosystem to collapse, along with their way of lifeAt the mouth of Lake Manchar, gentle lapping disturbs the silence. A small boat cuts through the water, propelled by a bamboo pole scraping the muddy bottom of the canal.Bashir Ahmed manoeuvres his frail craft with agility. His slender boat is more than just a means of transport. It is the legacy of a people who live to the rhythm of water: the Mohana. They have lived for generations on the waters of Lake Manchar in Sindh province, a vast freshwater mirror covering nearly 250 sq km. The lake, once the largest in Pakistan, was long an oasis of life. Now, it is dying.Bashir Ahmed in his boat on the lake, next to simple huts built on top of the right bank outfall drain Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former US secretary of state calls for more demanding steps from Australia as it takes over presidency of next year's UN climate summit

EPA had previously said rule reducing fine particle matter from vehicles and industrial sources could prevent thousands of premature deaths a yearThe Trump administration is seeking to abandon a rule that sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution, arguing that the Biden administration did not have authority to set the tighter standard on pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources.The action follows moves by the administration last week to weaken federal rules protecting millions of acres of wetlands and streams and roll back protections for imperiled species and the places they live. In a separate action, the interior department proposed new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems. Continue reading...

If Labor cannot reach deal on Thursday, it will mark second time in 12 months that it has failed to secure planned EPBC Act reforms

As Australians face a maelstrom of interconnected disasters, the climate catastrophe has become just one of many things to doomscroll about

Results show a general sense of gloom' as fewer Australians now believe climate change is caused by humans compared with March

Trump puts US in unflattering company as lack of representative reveals disdain for climate progressMore than two decades ago, the US railed against the axis of evil". Now, after international climate talks spluttered to a meagre conclusion, the US finds itself grouped with unflattering company - an axis of obstruction" that has stymied progress on the climate crisis.Donald Trump's administration opted to not send anyone to the UN climate summit in Brazil that culminated over the weekend - a first for the US in 30 years of these annual gatherings and another representation of the president's disdain for the climate crisis, which he has called a hoax" and a con job". Continue reading...

Campaigners say closure of loophole making it cheaper to export rather than recycle will boost circular economyThe UK could end its reliance on exporting plastic waste by 2030 to support the creation of 5,400 new jobs and take responsibility for the environmental impact of its waste, according to research.The report said up to 15 new recycling facilities could be built by the end of the decade, attracting more than 800m of private investment. The increase in capacity would help generate almost 900m of economic value every year, providing at least 100m in new tax revenues annually. Continue reading...

Scarborough and Bognor Regis among places where water is so polluted it is not recommended for swimmingOne in seven (13%) of England's bathing waters are rated as polluted, and one in 14 so polluted they are not recommended for swimming.Famous beaches including Bognor Regis, Scarborough's South Bay and Littlehaven Beach in South Shields were all rated poor" in the latest classifications from the Environment Agency, which means they are not recommended for swimming. Continue reading...

Evidence that the whales and other marine animals are particularly vulnerable to sound is driving calls for quieter vesselsThe delicate clicks and whistles of narwhals carry through Tasiujaq, locally known as Eclipse Sound, at the eastern Arctic entrance of the Northwest Passage. A hydrophone in this shipping corridor off Baffin Island, Nunavut, captures their calls as the tusked whales navigate their autumn migration route to northern Baffin Bay.But as the Nordic Odyssey, a 225-metre ice-class bulk carrier servicing the nearby iron ore mine, approaches, its low engine rumble gives way to a wall of sound created by millions of collapsing bubbles from its propeller. The narwhals' acoustic signals, evolved for one of Earth's quietest environments, fall silent. Continue reading...

The Nature inFocus photography competition 2025 announced its winners at the Nature inFocus festival hosted at Jayamahal Palace in Bengaluru, India.Close to 16,000 images were submitted by more than 1,250 photographers from more than 38 countries. Continue reading...

It took some oblique wording, but Saudi Arabia made a last-minute decision to sign deal that marks departure for CopDawn was breaking over the Amazonian city of Belem on Saturday morning, but in the windowless conference room it could have been day or night. They had been stuck there for more than 12 hours, dozens of ministers representing 17 groups of countries, from the poorest on the planet to the richest, urged by the Brazilian hosts to accept a settlement cooked up the day before.Tempers were short, the air thick as the sweaty and exhausted delegates faced up to reality: there would not be a deal here in Brazil. The 30th UN climate conference would end in abject failure. Continue reading...

Labor is continuing talks with both sides and could be prepared to give more ground

It's all in the timing

A fragile Cop30 consensus is a win. But only a real bargain between rich and poor nations can weather the climate shocks that are comingThis year's UN climate talks in Brazil's Belem ended without a major breakthrough. The text of the final agreement lacked a deal to shift away from fossil fuels, delayed crucial finance and the mutirao" decision contained no roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation. But the multilateral system at Cop30 held together at a point when its collapse felt close. This ought to be a warning: next year's conference of the parties must strike a better bargain between the rich and poor world.Developing countries are far from united on some issues. Over rare earth minerals China sees any move as targeting its dominance, while Africa sees it as essential for governance. Elsewhere petrostates did not support Colombia's call for a fossil fuel phase-out. Yet the global south broadly coheres around a simple principle: its nations must be equipped to survive a climate emergency they did not create. That means cash to build flood defences, make agricultural systems resilient, protect coastlines and rebuild after disasters strike. They also demand front-loaded finance to transition to clean, green economic growth.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Unimetals, which operates at 27 UK locations, files winding-up petition after failing to find a buyer

A preening brush turkey, a wise cassowary and some hungry terns are among the winning and shortlisted photos in this year's prize. They were chosen from thousands of entries across nine categories, including the special theme of diurnal raptors. Funds raised by the competition support bird conservation programs in Australia Continue reading...

Firefighters call for long-term investment and say UK is dangerously underprepared as climate crisis worsensWildfires have devastated more moorland, forests and fields in the UK this year than at any time since records began, putting huge pressure on the country's fire service, figures show.The Global Wildfire Information System estimates that by November, wildfires had burned 47,026 hectares (116,204 acres) in 2025 in the UK - the largest area in any year since monitoring began in 2012, and more than double the area burned in the record-breaking summer of 2022. Continue reading...

Hunger is part of American life. Even as a professional adult, it's never too far from Dr Angie Morrill's thoughtsI asked my older sister why we sang the Patty Cake song so often as children: Patty cake, patty cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can! She replied simply: Because we were hungry."Her answer stayed with me, and I thought about some happy memories: mom making Toll House cookies while The Wizard of Oz played on television. Delivering baked goods to elders and friends in our Native urban community at Christmas; we are enrolled citizens in the Klamath Tribes, whose traditional homelands are in southern Oregon and northern California. Sharing food is a cultural value for Native people. Mom taught us to always offer food and drinks to our guests. It's also important to have enough food to share. Continue reading...

Government panel's final report calls for radical reset' of planning and environmental rules to get reactors built faster and cheaper

Blazes that smoulder in the permafrost, only to reignite, are extending fire season though winter, leaving vegetation struggling to recoverIn May 2023, a lightning strike hit the forest in Donnie Creek, British Columbia, and the trees started to burn. It was early in the year for a wildfire, but a dry autumn and warm spring had turned the forest into a tinderbox, and the flames spread rapidly. By mid-June, the fire had become one of largest in the province's history, burning through an area of boreal forest nearly twice the size of central London. That year, more of Canada burned than ever before.The return of cold and snow at the close of the year typically signal the end of the wildfire season. But this time, the fire did not stop. Instead, it smouldered in the soil underground, insulated from the freezing conditions by the snowpack. The next spring, it reemerged as a zombie fire" that continued to burn until August 2024. By then, more than 600,000 hectares (1.5m acres) had been destroyed. Continue reading...

The fingerprints of Russia and Saudi Arabia are all over the decision text in Brazil. But a group of nations led by Colombia and the Netherlands offer hope

The Philippines is one of the countries most at risk of the climate emergency due to its low-lying island geography. With sea temperatures rising, the country deals with increasingly frequent and intense typhoons, rising sea-levels that threaten coastal communities, and changing rainfall patterns that disrupt agriculture. The country is one of the smallest contributors to climate change but one of the places most affected by its impacts. Gideon Mendel's visceral portraits from his project Drowning World show people in Bulacan province dealing with the climate emergency in their daily lives Continue reading...

Opposition claims key diplomatic role at next year's conference in Turkey would make Bowen a part-time minister' while Australians face inflated energy prices

Getting to net zero CO emissions globally means we can halt global warming. This requires a rapid phase-out. It's physicsWith another set of global climate talks behind us, the Australian government faces some tricky tasks before it takes over negotiations at the next round of talks next year in Turkey.

For all its flaws, the Brazil conference underlined the wish by a global majority for clean energy and climate action - and the UK will keep leading the way

Reaching agreement in divisive political landscape shows climate cooperation is alive and kicking', says UN climate chiefThe world is not winning the fight against the climate crisis but it is still in that fight, the UN climate chief has said in Belem, Brazil, after a bitterly contested Cop30 reached a deal.Countries at Cop30 failed to bring the curtain down on the fossil fuel age amid opposition from some countries led by Saudi Arabia, and they underdelivered on a flagship hope - at a conference held in the Amazon - to chart an end to deforestation. Continue reading...

The government has offered to make changes to the bill to both the Greens and the Liberals hoping to reach a deal on legislation that can pass the Senate

Alison Gaffney believes her son's rare leukaemia was caused by dumped toxic waste from the town's steelworksAlison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received the devastating news that their 17-month-old son, Fraser, had a rare type of leukaemia in 2018.Two years of gruelling treatment followed, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, then aged three, made a miraculous recovery" from the surgery, before doctors declared the cancer in remission. Continue reading...

Cross-party coalition behind proposals hope eco-friendly scheme for million people could begin before end of decadeIn the next few years, spades could be in the ground for a city made of wood, in the middle of the largest new nature reserve created in England in decades, with four-bedroom homes on sale for 350,000.It sounds too good to be true, but a cross-party coalition of campaigners is trying to make a forest city" to house a million people a reality, with construction commencing by the end of this parliament. It would be the first such project in England since the purpose-built new town of Milton Keynes in the 1960s. Continue reading...

Australia may not be hosting Cop31, but the unprecedented Turkey partnership is a real chance to secure global influence and turbocharge a new green zeitgeist

After a series of all-night meetings and fears the summit could collapse, an agreement has been gavelled through at Cop30We have some texts, but we do not have the big one yet (the global mutirao decision).So far, we have the final versions on the mitigation work programme, the global stocktake, gender, loss and damage, and the global environment facility. Continue reading...

Wealthy countries should triple funds for countries to tackle climate impacts, but deforestation and critical minerals blocked from final dealThe world edged a small step closer to the end of the fossil fuel era on Saturday, but not by nearly enough to stave off the ravages of climate breakdown.Countries meeting in Brazil for two weeks could manage only a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase-out of fossil fuels, and they achieved this incremental progress only in the teeth of implacable opposition from oil-producing countries. Continue reading...

Trend is adding to waste crisis' owing to individual packaging and potential for unwanted items, campaigners sayThe trend for Advent calendars aimed at adults is superfluous consumerism" that adds to excessive and wasteful consumption, according to environmental groups.While once children excitedly opened a door each day to see what festive picture lay behind it, adults can now count down the days to Christmas with calendars containing everything from luxury beauty products to instant mashed potato. Continue reading...

National Trust begins planting the 49 trees of hope' so the illegally felled tree can live on in a positive waySaplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism.The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as trees of hope", would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way. Continue reading...

Summit president Andre Correa do Lago issued plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries unable to reach compromise on scheduled final dayAn informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments. Continue reading...

UK energy secretary says UN climate talks must find way to keep proposals alive despite significant resistanceSupporters of a global phaseout of fossil fuels must find creative" ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said in the closing stages of the UN climate talks.As the Cop30 summit in Brazil carried on past the Friday night deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap to a global transition away from fossil fuels" looked increasingly dim. A first draft of the potential outcome text from the summit had contained the formulation, but in the updated draft text produced on Friday by the Brazilian presidency it had been excised. Continue reading...

President of talks urges ministers and high-ranking officials to find common ground as conference nears its end

Exclusive: Concession follows fierce criticism of the workaround but may not be enough to convince minor party

Australian Marine Conservation Society's GoodFish guide aims to showcase the most environmentally friendly seafood sources

Here are some of the standout images from this year's Nature Conservancy Australia Oceania photo contest. Winners were chosen from over 3,500 entries from across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Continue reading...

Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars' worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico's cutest critterFor most of her life, Gorda was just an axolotl who lived in a museum in Mexico City - that is, until she became the star of the country's favourite banknote.The note, which features a depiction of Gorda as the model for Mexico's iconic species of salamander, went into circulation in 2021, dazzling the judges of the International Bank Notes Society, who declared it the Note of the Year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Summit leadership releases new text despite 29 nations threatening to block progress without commitmentA new draft text on the outcome of the Cop30 climate talks has been published that contains no mention of a phase-out of fossil fuels, despite countries supporting such action having threatened to block any agreement without it.The Guardian revealed on Thursday night that at least 29 nations supporting a phase-out of fossil fuels at the climate summit had sent a letter to the Brazilian Cop presidency threatening to block any agreement that did not include such a commitment, in a significant escalation of tensions at the crunch talks. The leaked letter demanded that the roadmap be included in the outcome of the talks, which are due to end on Friday but are likely to continue into the weekend. Continue reading...

Climate sceptics tell us that more people die of extreme cold than extreme heat. What's the truth?I began by trying to discover whether or not a widespread belief was true. In doing so, I tripped across something even bigger: an index of the world's indifference. I already knew that by burning fossil fuels, gorging on meat and dairy, and failing to make even simple changes, the rich world imposes a massive burden of disaster, displacement and death on people whose responsibility for the climate crisis is minimal. What I've now stumbled into is the vast black hole of our ignorance about these impacts.What I wanted to discover was whether it's true that nine times as many of the world's people die of cold than of heat. The figure is often used by people who want to delay climate action: if we do nothing, some maintain, fewer will die. Of course, they gloss over all the other impacts of climate breakdown: the storms, floods, droughts, fires, crop failures, disease and sea level rise. But is this claim, at least, correct?George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...