Environment | The Guardian

The public stoush is really about whether the party will drop the charade or maintain it while shuffling some words

How do you plan for an event whose timing is unknown? For residents of Tofino on Vancouver Island the threat is distant but signs of preparedness are everywhereJustin Goss was in the shower when he first heard the piercing wail of a nearby tsunami early-warning siren. Still dripping wet, he threw on clothes, grabbed his dog and rushed to the truck. The pair made it 3 metres and no further.The whole parking lot across the street was jammed up. It was complete gridlock within three minutes," he says. I thought, Oh shit, this is not good.'" Continue reading...

Company failed to effectively operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets, Ofwat finds

Environmentalists seeking to end logging, smuggling and pollution in DRC's Mangrove Marine park faced threats, violence and rapePeople who have tried to expose unlawful ownership and profit-making from protected land in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have faced threats, violence and rape, an investigation has found.The DRC government hired the conservation worker Kim Rebholz in 2022 to safeguard the Mangrove Marine park, an internationally recognised nature reserve on the country's tiny coastline. The Congo basin rainforest, to the east, is the largest rainforest after the Amazon. Continue reading...

Rightwing lobby group's email blitz targets party ahead of Liberal shadow ministry meeting at 9am on Thursday

The failure by state governments to do anything about pollution means it has often been met with apathy. But at a rare protest anger and frustration were rifeAs a familiar smoky evening haze gathered over Delhi, the crowd began to assemble in their hundreds. Mothers and children, students, retirees and environmentalists were all united by a basic but desperate demand: the right to breathe safely in India's capital.Delhi is not a liveable city any more, it's a death trap," said Radhika Aggarwal, 33, an engineer who joined the protest on Sunday. Continue reading...

World's biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

Ministers and high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered in the Amazonian city of Belem, with Brazil insisting this will be the Cop of implementation'Hundreds lined up for Cop30 on opening morning, with some in Indigenous headdresses and others in trouser suits, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for the Guardian US.The conference is being held in a massive temporary building in Belem's Parque da Cidade area. It was still under construction just days ago, but now seems to be ready to use. Continue reading...

Children may not understand politics of shutdown, but fear of future hunger can affect young brains, research revealsOn Halloween, neighbors in the downtown Las Vegas area of Huntridge gave out bags of nonperishable meal bags along with the usual trick-or-treat candy. The bag contained ingredients to make a quick chickpea curry: cans of garbanzo beans, coconut milk, crushed tomatoes, chicken, Thai seasoning and jasmine rice. Child-friendly bags held shelf-stable milk, cereals, cheese and crackers, cups of mac and cheese and meat sticks. A fancied-up ramen bag came with tinned BBQ pork, stir-fry vegetables and crunchy chow mein noodles. There were six different dinners in all.The neighbors knew that shelf-stable food wouldn't replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits, commonly known as food stamps, or food bank supplies. Continue reading...

Marcus Decker was served with deportation order while in prison for unveiling Just Stop Oil banner over Dartford CrossingA climate activist who served one of the longest prison sentences in modern British history for a peaceful protest has won his appeal against deportation.Marcus Decker was jailed for two years and seven months for a protest in which he climbed the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Dartford Crossing and unveiled a Just Stop Oil banner in October 2022. He was served with an automatic deportation order while in prison. Continue reading...

Resulting pollution on Camber Sands beach poses threat to wildlife including dolphins and seals

Critics say that fifth Pfas Trump's EPA has proposed for approval this year would put food and water supply at riskThe Trump administration is poised to again approve a new Pfas forever chemical" pesticide ingredient, a move that is drawing criticism from public health advocates who say the nation's food and water supply is being put at more risk from the dangerous compounds.The substance would be sprayed on corn, soybeans and wheat, and it marks the fifth Pfas pesticide ingredient the US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed for approval under Donald Trump's second term as US president. Continue reading...

In 1995, as one of the Ogoni Nine, he was hanged after protesting against Shell's oil pollution. With education and a move towards renewable energy, we can honour his legacyEarlier this year, my father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and his eight colleagues, known collectively as the Ogoni Nine, were pardoned for a crime they never committed. After peacefully campaigning against environmental degradation of Ogoniland in Nigeria at the hands of the oil industry, they were imprisoned by the military dictatorship on false charges of treason and incitement to murder, following a trial condemned by the international community as a sham.On 10 November 1995, the men were executed by hanging. Continue reading...

After bully-like behavior last month over a small emissions levy, diplomats will be relieved if the US stays away from climate talksFor years, countries around the world pressed the US to engage with them in addressing the climate crisis and to show it was serious about taking action. Now, with key United Nations climate talks under way in Brazil this week, other nations have been quietly hoping the US stays well away.Under Donald Trump, who has called the climate crisis the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world", the US has not only pulled back from climate action but openly agitated for greater global fossil fuel use and for other countries to tear down their own climate policies. Continue reading...

Two decades ago, the city's council chose to prioritise playgrounds and youth clubs to help its poorer families - and the benefits are plain to see Read more: Last youth centre in one of England's most deprived coastal areas faces closureThree schoolboys in black sweatshirts dart from a wooden fort across a sandpit, weaving and jostling past prams, scooters and bystanders, after a pink football. A pony-tailed girl launches herself on to a moving roundabout, while a young man wrestles a half-naked toddler into a pair of training pants before she scampers off back to the sandpit in the autumn sunshine.This is Buckland adventure playground in Portsmouth, surrounded by trees and a mix of two-storey flats, terrace houses and tower blocks, mostly social housing built to replace the city's demolished slums.Buckland adventure playground has now had three generations of children enjoying its facilities Continue reading...

The spread of African swine flu among the wild boars the animals eat has led to the deadliest winter for attacks on people in the Russian region for decades - and a spike in tiger killingsThe attacks seemed to come from nowhere. At first, the tigers snatched guard dogs on the edge of villages in Russia's far east, emerging from the forest at night to prey. Others went for livestock, going after horses and cattle.Then the attacks on people began. In January, an ice fisher was mauled at night and dragged away by a big cat, just weeks after a forester had been killed. In March, another man was attacked and partly eaten by a tiger. It was the deadliest winter for tiger attacks in Siberia for decades. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: As the world's leaders gather in Brazil, the urgency of the climate crisis collides with political inertia. The Guardian's journalists will be following all the stories from BelemGood morning. I was warned when I agreed to sit in on First Edition that sometimes your early Monday morning could get derailed by a big breaking news story. So imagine my face yesterday when it happened on my very first weekend, as the BBC's director general, Tim Davie, and the head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, both resigned.The decisions come in the wake of Donald Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, describing the BBC as 100% fake news" over the way a speech by the US president was edited. A week of hostile rightwing media headlines - very clearly set out by Jamie Grierson in this piece - seems to have taken its toll at the top of the corporation. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy's judgement will also no doubt be in the spotlight, having said, prior to his resignation, that she retained confidence" in how Davie was handling the situation. Davie himself clearly didn't agree.UK news | Tim Davie, the BBC's director general, and Deborah Turness, head of BBC News have resigned after a former adviser to the corporation accused it of serious and systemic" bias in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.Remembrance day | Veterans of the second world war were applauded as they arrived at the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall to honour those who have died in conflict.US news | More than 2,500 flights were cancelled as US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said flight reductions could reach 20% if the federal government shutdown persisted.The Philippines | More than a million people were evacuated from their homes in the Philippines and at least two people were killed as Typhoon Fung-wong - the second big storm to hit in the space of a few days - made landfall on the east coast.Business news | The Barclay family is set to lose control of another part of their former business empire with a US private equity firm taking control of online retailer the Very Group. Continue reading...

Brazil's Andre Correa do Lago says countries should follow China's lead on clean energy as conference begins

Fall reported by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as UN calls for accelerated action in buildings sector to meet global climate goalsThe growth in global demand for green" office buildings has slowed after Donald Trump's assault on environmental protection policies caused a slump in interest in the US, according to a survey of construction industry professionals.Building occupiers and investors across North America and South America expressed significantly lower growth in demand for green commercial buildings, a shift that seems to be in response to a change in US policy focus", according to a survey of members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Reported demand across the rest of the world also fell, albeit not as sharply. Continue reading...

State government says expanded use of shark nets and drum lines will continue despite evidence of deadly impact on other marine life

Floods, storms and droughts have uprooted people across the globe as rising temperatures intensify conflict and hungerClimate-related disasters forcibly displaced 250 million people globally over the past decade, the equivalent of 70,000 people every day, according to a report by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).Floods, storms, drought and extreme heat are among the weather conditions driving conflict and displacement, alongside slow-onset disasters such as desertification, rising sea levels and ecosystem destruction, which are threatening food and water security. Continue reading...

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung elder says First Nations people want to work with government to look after that country'

Research which polled a representative sample of 2,000 people also found over a third of Coalition voters believed the climate would not change at all

Exclusive: David Bailey plays down concerns after HSBC and Barclays quit UN-backed Net Zero Banking AllianceA Bank of England executive has insisted that UK banks are still showing a vibrant" commitment to climate goals despite the recent demise of a global net zero target-setting group.David Bailey, the executive director of prudential policy at the Bank's regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), played down concerns surrounding the fact that significant lenders including HSBC and Barclays had followed their US peers in dropping membership of the UN-backed Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Those exits led to the closure of the once-lauded NZBA last month. Continue reading...

Data from peak motoring body shows battery-electric vehicles accounted for 9.7% of new cars sold in September quarter, the highest proportion on record

Pie Factory Music in Ramsgate, Kent, runs creative projects and provides a range of support services, but the building that houses the centre is due to be sold off in FebruaryRead more: Portsmouth defied funding cuts and saved its youth centres - here's what happenedThe last remaining youth centre in one of the most deprived coastal areas of England is facing closure after a year-long campaign to try to save it was rejected by the council. The looming closure comes despite an independent report that estimated the centre is saving the council more than 500,000 a year in costs that include services in mental health, youth justice and social care.Pie Factory Music in Ramsgate, Kent, is a social space for eight- to 25-year-olds that also offers services including counselling, employment advice, life skills sessions, assistance for young refugees, as well as creative and music projects. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Leading ecologists say warnings over threat to wildlife have been ignored in drive to build 1.5m new homesThe scale of lobbying of ministers by developers on Labour's landmark planning changes, which seek to rip up environmental rules to boost growth, can be exposed as campaigners make last-ditch attempts to secure protections for nature.The government published its planning and infrastructure bill in March. Before and after the bill's publication the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and housing minister Matthew Pennycook have met dozens of developers in numerous meetings. The body representing professional ecologists, meanwhile, has not met one minister despite requests to do so. Continue reading...

MP asks for explanation from Southern Water amid concerns the spill could have dire impact on rare sea lifeSouthern Water is investigating after millions of contaminated plastic beads washed up on Camber Sands beach, risking an environmental catastrophe".The biobeads could have a dire impact on marine life, the local MP has said, with fears rare sea life, including seabirds, porpoises and seals, could ingest them and die. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Just Stop Oil activist was banned from attending gatherings, including meeting a friend in a cafe, without permissionEnvironmental protesters are being given licence conditions on release from jail that are supposed to be limited to extremism cases.Ella Ward, 22, was banned from going to any meetings or gatherings, except for worship, without permission from her probation officer, although the Ministry of Justice dropped the condition after she brought a legal challenge. Continue reading...

Money talks - and his essay denouncing near-term emissions goals' at Cop30 mostly argues the case for letting the ultra-rich off the hookLet's begin with the fundamental problem: Bill Gates is a politics denier. Though he came to it late, he now accepts the realities of climate science. But he lives in flat, embarrassing denial about political realities. His latest essay on climate, published last week, treats the issue as if it existed in a political vacuum. He writes as if there were no such thing as political power, and no such thing as billionaires.His main contention is that funds are very limited, so the delegates at this month's climate summit in Brazil should direct money away from near-term emissions goals" towards climate adaptation" and spending on poverty and disease.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Energy firms and charities urge chancellor to avoid short-term fix that could also harm low-income householdsRachel Reeves has been told that cutting funding for home insulation at the budget would risk the UK's climate goals and hurt low-income households in a joint intervention by energy firms, fuel poverty charities and environmental groups.In a letter to the chancellor, more than 60 groups and companies urged Reeves not to take such a damaging short-term fix" to slash funding for more energy-efficient homes to pay for a reduction in energy bills. Continue reading...

Government and water companies are devising emergency plans for worst water shortage in decadesWater companies and the government are drawing up emergency plans for a drought next year more extreme than we have seen in decades.Executives at one major water company told the Guardian they were extremely concerned about the prospect of a winter with lower than average rainfall, which the Met Office's long-term forecast says is likely. They said if this happened, the water shortfall would mean taking drastic water use curtailment measures going beyond hosepipe bans". Continue reading...

Experts say the proposed legislation is full of problems, including excessive ministerial discretion and relaxing like-for-like offset rules

The increasing ferocity and frequency of tropical storms imposes an unbearable burden on countries including JamaicaThe geographically uneven risks from increasingly extreme and dangerous weather grow ever starker. As Jamaica and other Caribbean countries clear up after Hurricane Melissa, and Typhoon Kalmaegi heads west after killing nearly 200 people in the Philippines and Vietnam, the case for more international support to countries facing the most destructive impacts from global heating has never been stronger.Last week's five-day rainfall in Jamaica was made twice as likely by higher temperatures, according to initial findings from climate attribution studies. The current death toll across the Caribbean is at least 75. The economic and social costs are hard to quantify in a region that is still recovering from 2024's Hurricane Beryl. Crucial infrastructure has been destroyed before the loans used to build it have even been paid off. Andrew Holness, Jamaica's prime minister, estimates that the damage there is roughly equivalent to one-third of the country's gross domestic product.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...

Exclusive: Environment secretary says global tipping points are possible as he rejects far-right climate defeatism'Tackling the climate emergency is one of the key issues that could turn the tide against hard-right populists across the world, the UK's energy secretary has said.Speaking on the eve of the UN's climate summit, Ed Miliband said it was the cause progressives could rally around, because most people recognise populist parties have got it wrong. Continue reading...

Damage from Typhoon Halong underscored the vulnerability of villages in western Alaska to climate crisisDarrel John watched the final evacuees depart his village on the western coast of Alaska in helicopters and small planes and walked home, avoiding the debris piled on the boardwalks over the swampy land.He is one of seven residents who chose to remain in Kwigillingok after the remnants of Typhoon Halong devastated the village last month, uprooting homes and floating many of them miles away, some with residents inside. One person was killed and two remain missing. Continue reading...

Sprinklers could save 500-year-old tree that had branches cut off without authorisation in April, says expertThe restaurant chain Toby Carvery is being urged to pay for life support for an ancient oak tree that its owner had chainsawed last spring to widespread public dismay.Experts say the trunk of the 500-year-old tree, on the edge of a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, has shown signs of regrowth, despite its branches being sawn off by the restaurant's contractors in April. Continue reading...

As the Coalition tears itself to shreds, the Albanese government must keep progressing its net zero policies

It may be a midlife crisis, says the man behind seven-metre installations of the Earth, moon and Sun who has planted 365 trees in a 100-year project in SomersetLuke Jerram, whose art installations have travelled the world, is philosophical about his latest project bearing fruit beyond his time on Earth.Known for his Play Me I'm Yours street pianos project and his Museum of the Moon artwork - a seven-metre diameter sculpture of the moon featuring detailed Nasa imagery of the lunar surface - Jerram is now working on Echo Wood, a living, breathing installation made of native British trees. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Research shows oil, gas and coal firms' unprecedented access to Cop26-29, blocking urgent climate actionMore than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to the UN climate summits over the past four years, a period marked by a rise in catastrophic extreme weather, inadequate climate action and record oil and gas expansion, new research reveals.Lobbyists representing the interests of the oil, gas and coal industries - which are mostly responsible for climate breakdown - have been allowed to participate in the annual climate negotiations where states are meant to come in good faith and commit to ambitious policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...

Dozens of US state and local leaders will be at talks in Brazil with president's team expected to send no representativesThe Trump administration appears to be sitting out this month's United Nations climate talks known as Cop30, telling the Guardian it will not deploy any high-level representatives to the negotiations.But dozens of US subnational leaders attend to promote their climate efforts. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

From night walks with children to switching off streetlights and rewilding areas, naturalists are working to save Europe's dwindling populationsAn hour or so after sunset, green twinkles of possibility gleam beneath the hedgerows of Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset. Under an orange August moon, the last female glow-worms of the season are making one final push at finding a mate.For almost 20 years, Peter Bright and other volunteers have combed the village's shrubberies and grasslands, searching for the bioluminescent beetles as part of the UK glow-worm survey. Most years, they have counted between 100 and 150, rising to 248 in 2017.Ben Cooke, a National Trust ranger, places a glow-worm trap near Winspit Quarry in Dorset. Photograph: P Flude/Guardian Continue reading...

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres urges opening session in Brazil to bring about a paradigm shift'

The issue of how motoring taxes should change as we decarbonise the economy has been dodged for too long. Car salesmen need to get realIf you want a document to give you sleepless nights, the Office for Budget Responsibility's biennial Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report is a go-to publication. This is the one that looks to the horizon and covers everything from demographic trends to state pension promises to the climate crisis.The headline finding in this July's version was a true jaw-dropper. The UK's public finances are on an unsustainable long-term trajectory because government debt would rise to a remarkable 270% of GDP by the early 2070s - up from almost 100% today - if current policies were left unchanged. Continue reading...

Delegates from global giants and smaller nations expected to clash at Brazilian summit over how to tackle the climate crisis and who should payThe UN's Cop30 climate conference is under way, with negotiators, diplomats and leaders from around the world in Belem, Brazil, to discuss how to handle the climate crisis.Who are the big players, and what do they want? Continue reading...

Experts say 2023, 2024 and 2025 the three hottest years in 176 years of records, with 1.5C Paris agreement target now virtually impossible'

ASA action won approval of clean air campaigners, who said some seriously misleading myths' had been debunkedAdverts claiming that wood-burning stoves are very low emissions" have been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency for being misleading and not substantiated.The claims were made on the website of the Stove Industry Association, which represents the makers and sellers of stoves in the UK. Campaigners against air pollution said they were glad the ASA had debunked some seriously misleading myths". Continue reading...

Report says proven technology could benefit thousands in poor quality housing and help UK meet carbon reduction targetsFlooded disused coalmines could be a significant source of energy and provide cheap heat to thousands of homes, a new report argues.Mine water geothermal heat (MWGH) systems use the water in flooded coalmines, which is warmed by natural processes, to supply low-carbon heat. Heat exchangers and pumps recover the heat, which is distributed via district heating networks to homes and buildings, providing low-cost, long-term, stable energy. Continue reading...

Winds of Melissa's strength are now five times more frequent due to the climate crisis, research saysEvery aspect of Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful storm ever to hit Jamaica, was worsened by the climate crisis, a team of scientists has found.Melissa caused widespread devastation when it crunched into Jamaica as a category five hurricane on October 28, with winds up up to 185mph. Continue reading...