Climate

Exclusive: EPA chief executive says ‘foundational’ rule changes put climate impacts ‘front and centre' of planning process

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New coalmines, gas fields and other big sources of greenhouse gases in New South Wales will need to provide more rigorous plans to minimise pollution and reduce carbon emissions before they are approved, under new rules imposed on Monday.

Revised assessment requirements and guidelines from the Environment Protection Authority mark a “foundational” tightening of rules for firms planning new projects or modifying existing ones that emit at least 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, said Tony Chappel, the NSW EPA chief executive.

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A state industrial strategy is needed to reduce carbon output, produce cleaner growth and redistribute jobs around the UK

Theresa May and Boris Johnson both argued for levelling up and for a state-supported green transition undergirded by an industrial strategy. Neither delivered and their successor, Rishi Sunak, has repudiated their legacy as prime minister. He looks to the City to deliver growth, with banks determining the rate of investment to meet the challenge of the climate emergency. This is a recipe for failure. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the government’s independent advisers on cutting carbon emissions, warned last year of “worryingly slow” progress to meet net zero targets. The government is not engaging on what it will take to decarbonise.

Weaning the country off fossil fuels and on to green energy is a complex transition that should be a job for the state, not the free market. Yet Britain is bottom of the league for state spending on renewables in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In the offshore industry alone 30,000 workers could end up with nowhere to go by 2030 without new roles in green industries. Relying on big finance to meet that gap will entrench today’s failing model, which emphasises the need to attract significant capital flows through deregulation and privatisation, strengthening the hand of boom-and-bust financial services and weakening labour rights. The flipside is a bigger trade deficit and a destructive politics of redistribution to asset holders and to London.

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Britain’s railways are spending billions on bolstering the tracks against geological movements caused by extreme weather. But technology and new infrastructure will not save every service

Under the chalk cliffs east of Folkestone sits the Warren, a coastal wilderness largely owned by the railway, hosting a nature trail for walkers, as well as the Victorian rail line that runs on to Dover.

It is also, problematically for Network Rail, an active landslide. “Our monitoring here,” says Derek Butcher, principal geotechnical engineer for the southern region, “shows we’re actually moving ever closer to France – despite Brexit.”

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Thousands of homes and farming land damaged in Ghor province, a week after over 300 people killed in flash floods

At least 60 people have been killed in a fresh bout of heavy rain and flooding in central Afghanistan, according to an official.

Dozens others remained missing, said Abdul Wahid Hamas, spokesperson for Ghor’s provincial governor, on Saturday. He said the province had suffered significant financial losses, with thousands of homes and properties damaged and hundreds of hectares of agricultural land destroyed in the floods on Friday, including in the province’s capital city, Feroz Koh.

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About 60 flights cancelled after members of Letzte Generation glue themselves to ground at Munich

Eight climate activists have been arrested after causing Munich airport to close, leading to about 60 flight cancellations.

Six activists broke through a security fence and glued themselves to access routes leading to runways, officials and local media reported.

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Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on how to overcome the “soft” climate denial that keeps us buying junk.

Una confluencia de factores como el cambio climático, la expansión urbanística y una infraestructura deficiente ha llevado a la capital mexicana al borde de una severa crisis de agua.

A system of dams and canals may soon be unable to provide water to one of the world’s largest cities, a confluence of unchecked growth, crumbling infrastructure and a changing climate.

War in Gaza, the Russian offensive in Kharkiv, protests in Georgia, the Northern lights and the Cannes Film Festival: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

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Scientists say storms like those that battered Houston could become more intense as the planet warms, though pinning down trends is still challenging.

San Pedro Sula is rated ‘dangerous’ as effects of forest fires, El Niño and the climate crisis cause a spike in respiratory illnesses

The air quality in San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, as been classified as the most polluted on the American continent due to forest fires and weather conditions aggravated by El Niño and the climate crisis.

IQAir, a Swiss air-quality organisation that draws data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations around the world, said on Thursday that air quality in the city of about 1 million people has reached “dangerous” levels.

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A 1C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world gross domestic product, researchers have found

The economic damage wrought by climate change is six times worse than previously thought, with global heating set to shrink wealth at a rate consistent with the level of financial losses of a continuing permanent war, research has found.

A 1C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world gross domestic product (GDP), the researchers found, a far higher estimate than that of previous analyses. The world has already warmed by more than 1C (1.8F) since pre-industrial times and many climate scientists predict a 3C (5.4F) rise will occur by the end of this century due to the ongoing burning of fossil fuels, a scenario that the new working paper, yet to be peer-reviewed, states will come with an enormous economic cost.

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NBIM, one of oil group’s largest investors, calls for ‘additional disclosures’ about green commitments ahead of AGM

Norway’s state investment fund has urged Shell to clarify its climate targets as the oil group braces for its biggest ever green shareholder rebellion at next week’s annual general meeting.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages $1.6tn on behalf of the people of Norway and is one of Shell’s largest investors, urged the company to give investors more information about its plans for the next decade after its new chief executive watered down climate commitments earlier this year.

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Fossil-fuel dependent country hopes to provide bridge between wealthy global north and poor south at November gathering

Oil is inescapable in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The smell of it greets the visitor on arrival and from the shores of the Caspian Sea on which the city is built the tankers are eternally visible. Flares from refineries near the centre light up the night sky, and you do not have to travel far to see fields of “nodding donkeys”, small piston pump oil wells about 6 metres (20ft) tall, that look almost festive in their bright red and green livery.

It will be an interesting setting for the gathering of the 29th UN climate conference of the parties, which will take place at the Olympic Stadium in November.

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Alas, some of Donald Trump’s peculiarities aren’t unique.

Scientists in the United States are reporting “unprecedented patterns” of surface warming, an ominous sign for coral.

The lake remains below healthy levels and experts warn the increase could reduce the pressure to conserve water.

At a climate change summit at the Vatican, Gov. Kathy Hochul positioned New York State as a leader in pursuing environmental goals, but also recalled her late father.

The California governor, speaking at the Vatican, used sharp language to describe the former president’s appeal to fossil fuel executives for campaign donations.

Government, including far-right leader Geert Wilders, announces it will abandon key green policies in strategy

The Netherlands’ new right-wing coalition government aims to reintroduce daytime speeds of 80mph on motorways as part of a number of proposed changes to the country’s environmental policies which have sparked concern.

The move echoes the anti-green stance of other right-wing parties across the continent, as environmental issues become popular bogeymen for populist politicians. In Germany, for example, heat pumps have been politicised, as members of the far-right party AfD have called the Green party “our enemies’.

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