Climate

Cop29 is taking place in a country whose economy has long been dependent on its oil reserves

Oil runs deep in Azerbaijan, the host country of this year’s UN climate summit. Just 30 minutes south-west of the Cop29 conference centre lies the site of the world’s first industrially drilled oil well, opened in 1846.

Just metres away sit a handful of operating oil wells, nodding away. The Guardian spoke to an employee of Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, who was working on one of the wells. Asked what oil meant for Azerbaijan, the 47-year-old worker said: “Too much!”

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Draft text under fire as poor nations wanted more of the money to come directly from developed countries

• Cop29 climate summit – live updates

Developing countries have reacted angrily to an offer of $250bn a year in finance from the rich world – considerably less than they are demanding – to help them tackle the climate crisis.

The offer was contained in the draft text of an agreement published on Friday afternoon at the Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where talks are likely to carry on past a 6pm deadline.

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When the rain kept coming down, people began to worry. We were afraid the dam up the hill might not hold up. This is Jie’s story

Location Guangdong, China

Disaster Extreme rainfall, 2024

Li Jie lives in Xianniangxi, a mountainous village in southern China’s Guangdong province with her family, where she is a social worker for a rural non-profit organisation and also works in the fields. The climate crisis has increased heavy rainfall in Guangdong and exacerbated floods in the province in April 2024, which have since killed at least 47 people.

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Saudi Arabia trying to avoid reaffirmation of resolution as UAE tries to defend commitments made at last year’s Cop

A new text of the Cop29 deal has yet to emerge, but civil society activists have not given up hope, reports Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor.

Hilda Nakabuye, 27, from Fridays for Future campaign group in Uganda, said:

We are holding on to hope. As a mother I am here to represent my people, my community, but also future generations that we hold close and dear to our hearts and why we are all in this fight. The ones least responsible for climate change undergo its worst effects.

We know what power we hold: the power to act. We are in an emergency. This COP is all about the money, but communities on the ground are not seeing the money. When the climate hits we need to respond like any other emergency, because it is an emergency. We all know deep down there is more than enough money to fill the loss and damage fund with trillions, so why are we still pleading for the bare minimum?

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The hoppy pilsner from Singapore, where freshwater is scarce, is part of an effort to promote recycling solutions.

Despite endorsing a transition away from fossil fuels last year, Saudi Arabia has since worked to undermine it, diplomats say. Lisa Friedman, a New York Times reporter covering climate policy and politics, describes how the opposition is unlike anything climate negotiators say they’ve seen before.

Petrostate’s rebuke comes as Saudi Arabia and allies try to derail transition promise made at climate talks last year

• Cop29 climate summit – live updates

The world must stand behind a historic resolution made last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the United Arab Emirates has said, in a powerful intervention into a damaging row over climate action.

The petrostate’s stance will be seen as as a sharp rebuke to its neighbour and close ally Saudi Arabia, which had been trying to unpick the global commitment at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan this week.

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In today’s newsletter: After two weeks of fraught negotiations, the draft text still contains an ‘X’ in place of a number. Is consensus on a trillion-dollar funding target for developing nations possible?

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Good morning. For a clear symbol of how much work lies ahead at what is supposed to be the last session of the Cop29 climate summit today, you only have to look at the figure included in the draft text on new climate finance for developing countries: “[X] trillion dollars”.

That placeholder on the most important single detail under consideration – included in two rival versions of the text – was supposed to leave space for negotiation. But it also suggests how much still has to be decided if any kind of positive momentum is to be rescued from two very difficult weeks in Azerbaijan.

Israel | The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war. It is the first time that leaders of a democracy and western-aligned state have been charged by the court.

Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the use of an experimental ballistic missile by Russia amounted to “a clear and severe escalation” in the war and called for worldwide condemnation of the move. Vladimir Putin said that the missile lauch “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”.

US politics | Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman, withdrew from consideration to serve as Donald Trump’s attorney general on Thursday amid intense scrutiny of allegations of sexual misconduct. Later, Trump nominated former Florida state attorney general Pam Bondi in Gaetz’s place.

Farming | New inheritance tax rules for farmers could be changed to make it easier for those 80 and over to hand down their farm without it incurring the tax, in what would be a partial climbdown by the government after a bruising row with farmers and a huge protest march in Westminster on Tuesday.

Art | A banana bought for 35 cents and taped to a gallery wall with duct tape by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has sold for $5.2m, making it surely the most expensive piece of edible fruit on the planet. One of three editions of the 2019 work was bought by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun at Sotheby’s New York for four times the initial estimate.

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Australian foreign affairs minister says ‘we have been clear that all parties to the conflict must comply with international humanitarian law’. Follow today’s news headlines live

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Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

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Deadly landslides are becoming more common and large amounts of rain are a known trigger. An atmospheric river is dumping rain out West. What you should know about your risk.

Trump has said he’ll repeal President Biden’s climate law, but one North Carolina district shows how hard unwinding multibillion-dollar projects could be.

Rich country budgets are stretched amid inflation, Covid and Ukraine war, Mary Robinson tells Cop29

Poor countries may have to compromise on demands for cash to tackle global heating, a former UN climate envoy has said, as UN talks entered their final hours in deadlock.

In comments that are likely to disappoint poorer countries at the Cop29 summit, Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and twice a UN climate envoy, said rich country budgets were stretched amid inflation, Covid and conflicts including Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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Climate crisis, habitat loss and poaching have reduced its numbers – but will Trump put the kibosh on protections?

They are the tallest animal to roam the Earth and have become an icon of children’s books, toys and awed wildlife documentaries. But giraffes are in decline, which has prompted the US government to list them as endangered for the first time.

Giraffes will be listed under the US Endangered Species Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed in a move that will cover five subspecies of the animal. The agency hopes the listing will crack down on the poaching of giraffes, as the US is a leading destination of rugs, pillowcases, boots, furniture and even Bible covers made from giraffe body parts.

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Another year, another legislative session. Much like a sine graph, this year had highs and lows. Also like a sine graph, Union of Concerned Scientists will keep moving forward no matter what (and backward technically, but I am political science major and way out of my depth here, so let’s pretend they only move forward, give me kudos for an awesome simile, and get to the recap!).

Bidirectional EVs Could Be the New Standard

Electric vehicles (EVs) should be a clean transportation and a clean energy solution. That is why we sponsored SB 59 by Senator Nancy Skinner which paves the way for California to require EVs to have the ability to export their power. This could let drivers use these batteries to power critical appliances during emergencies, their homes during power shutoffs, or even the grid when electricity demand is high. (More on this in my colleague Sam Houston’s latest blog.)

The bill made it all the way through the legislature and was signed by Governor Newsom. As exciting as this is, it is only the first step in making sure this capability is standard issue on all new EVs. The California Energy Commission now holds the power to set this requirement, but it will be up to us to make the case that they should.

 As fate would have it, UCS is working to analyze the potential benefits of widespread bidirectional capabilities in CA that will help inform the implementation of SB 59 in the coming year.

Special session takes on big oil and wins

The transition to clean transportation and away from fossil fuels is here. Earlier this month, we saw yet another California refinery announce plans to close its doors. While this is an inevitable part of the transition to clean transportation, and generally good news for the climate and impacted communities, the oil industry will not go down easily. ABX2-1 by Assemblymembers Hart and Aguiar-Curry illustrates this reality.

Over the last few years, California drivers have seen huge spikes in gasoline prices and big oil has seen corresponding, massive windfall profits. With authority granted by the legislature and Governor last year, the state discovered that when refineries did not store enough gasoline before maintenance, prices (and profits) spike. So, refiners were incentivized not to be prepared, and it was drivers who paid the price.

This year, we helped Gov. Newsom take on Big Oil by strongly supporting his special session that resulted in the passage of AB2X-1 allowing the state to require minimum gasoline storage at refineries, limiting refiners’ ability to manipulate the market.

Policies like this will be critical to ensure that the fossil fuels phaseout is equitable and Big Oil doesn’t squeeze every dollar out of California consumers on the way out the door.

A step towards getting water rights right

California’s water rights system is inequitable, unfair and just plain broken. The outdated system essentially allows “senior water rights holders” to use water with reckless abandon, even as the climate crisis worsens, and water supply becomes more constrained.

Over the past few years, we have been fighting to pass bills that would reign in some of the most powerful interests in the state and ensure that they are not using too much water when supply is limited.

This year, we took an important step forward by passing AB 460 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, which increases the fines on entities that knowingly steal more water than they are allocated. This is a commonsense step and hopefully the first of many towards a more equitable, sustainable water rights system. 

EV battery end of life bill life ended on Governor’s desk

Due to the necessarily ambitious regulations we fought to pass, California will continue to see a huge increase in the number of EVs on the road. As these regulations drive down emissions, we will also see an increase in battery retirements.

When EVs do retire, it is critical that we can keep hazardous waste out of landfills and communities while limiting the amount of critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc.) that need to be mined for new batteries.

For two years, we worked on SB 615 with Senator Ben Allen to require all EV batteries to be repurposed or recycled. We negotiated hard with auto makers, recyclers and others for the bill to include robust reporting requirements, producer responsibly and environmental protections.

In the end, we won on all those issues and sent a strong bill to the Governor’s desk. Newsom ultimately vetoed it due to concerns with the cost of implementation in a tough fiscal year for the state.

We now have a roadmap for a strong bill and will keep at it next session. Rest assured, we won’t sleep until all EV batteries are repurposed or recycled at the end of their useful lives.

Clean cars not 4 all

UCS research found that cars that were manufactured before 2004 make up less than one fifth of the cars on California roads but account for more than two thirds of the smog-forming emissions of all cars. That is why we sponsored AB 2401 by Assemblymember Phil Ting to target the state’s limited “Clean Cars 4 All” clean vehicles incentive dollars towards replacing these older cars.

This bill was such a good, science-based, iron-clad idea that it made it all the way through the entire legislative process without a single “no” vote. In the end, the Governor vetoed it citing similar budgetary concerns.

The intention of the bill was to require the state to spend wisely with a pot of money we know is vanishingly small rather than increase costs as the Governor feared. Fortunately, we built momentum on this idea that clearly everyone in the legislature thinks is a worthwhile endeavor.

We will think creatively and work with the Governor to make sure our research results in a positive policy change next year.

Onward

Before the new legislative session begins in January 2025, we will take time to both celebrate our victories, work to support their implementation, and continue working on the bills that ended up on the wrong end of Newsom’s pen.

We will also work on new policy solutions to protect California’s values, combat the climate crisis, clean the air, improve access to water, overcome barriers to clean energy adoption, take on Big Oil, transition cropland to less intensive uses, and many, many other answers to the world’s biggest problems. 

I hope you aren’t tired from riding that sine wave, because next year we are going fully linear with a positive slope (I know I nailed that one).

Donald J. Trump promised to erase Biden tailpipe rules that are designed to get carmakers to produce E.V.s. But Detroit wants to keep them.

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British prime minister Keir Starmer says he is “deeply saddened” to hear that Prescott has died, and called him a “true giant of Labour”.

In a statement on X, he said, “I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of John Prescott. John was a true giant of the Labour movement. On behalf of the Labour Party, I send my condolences to Pauline and his family, to the city of Hull, and to all those who knew and loved him. May he rest in peace.”

He possessed an inherent ability to connect with people about the issues that mattered to them – a talent that others spend years studying and cultivating, but that was second nature to him.

He fought like hell to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol and was an unwavering champion of climate action for decades to come. I’m forever grateful to John for that commitment to solving the climate crisis and will miss him as a dear friend.”

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His tenacity in pushing crucial deals over the line in Kyoto and Copenhagen was born of belief in social justice

• John Prescott, British former deputy prime minister, dies aged 86

“When I do die,” said John Prescott as he entered his last decade, “after 50 years in politics, all they will show on the news is 60 seconds of me thumping a fellow in Wales.”

He wasn’t wrong. TV news bulletins, ever the reducers of nuance and detail, showed that clip of him flooring a voter in Rhyl on a loop on Thursday, when the former British deputy prime minister’s death at the age of 86 was announced.

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Consulting giant had said it engages with clients to help them transition to cleaner energy even as it knew they were in line to exceed climate targets

• ‘Capitalism incarnate’: inside the secret world of McKinsey, the firm hooked on fossil fuels

The world’s biggest consulting firm found that its clients were on a trajectory to bust global climate targets, details of internal forecasting in 2021 uncovered by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the Guardian reveal.

McKinsey & Company has worked with some of the world’s biggest emitters, including many of the largest fossil fuel producers. It has previously argued it is necessary to engage these clients to help them transition to cleaner forms of energy and hit the target of limiting global warming to less than 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

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The Trump campaign has made so many radical promises that it’s hard to know which will come to pass. Yet, we are tracking them knowing that the president-elect’s team is committed to broad and destructive reforms.  An early target of the transition team is the agency where I worked for nearly two decades: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

The EPA, like many federal agencies, is run by political appointees. While it’s true that federal agencies have always changed leadership from administration to administration, countless career employees have worked to fulfill their agencies’ missions, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. Their expertise and institutional knowledge are invaluable—and of great benefit to the public.  

I know this because I lived it, serving at the EPA through the majority of the first Trump administration. Within the Office of Community Revitalization, and across the entire agency—an institution charged with protecting human health and the environment—I saw politically-motivated and industry-driven attacks on science that sought to undermine our core values and mission. 

Lee Zeldin must protect people 

Last week, the President-elect announced former Congressman Lee Zeldin as his nominee to lead the EPA. Zeldin is a loyalist to the President-elect with no relevant environmental background to lead an agency that relies heavily on science to protect the public, and especially environmental justice communities. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be forced to choose between taking the EPA’s mission to serve the public seriously or following through on the Trump campaign’s promise of severe deregulation. 

Deregulation would benefit a small number of big polluters at the expense of people’s health, wallets, and the environment. This is also a major equity concern because heavily polluting industries exist most commonly in communities where Black, Indigenous and people of color, as well as low-income people, live. 

Data shows this is also a concern shared by nearly two-thirds of Trump voters, who worry that the future EPA Administrator will put the interests of polluting corporations ahead of protecting clean water, clean air, and public health. Now that Zeldin is the official nominee, I too share this concern. 

Zeldin has a history of fossil fuel fealty, illustrated by campaign donations and a track record of anti-science votes. During his terms in Congress, he voted against clean air and clean water legislation dozens of times, putting our health, environment, and economy at risk. Frankly, this is not the record of someone seriously interested in protecting people and our environment. 

Lee Zeldin must protect science 

More than two-thirds of the civil servants who power the EPA are scientists, charged with protecting both human health and the environment. They oversee long-term research that may, and often will, span administrations. The speed of science is not meant to be managed under political cycles, and when the pendulum swings too far between administrations, public trust in agencies designed to protect us erodes.

Science-informed public policy requires scientists serving in key agency positions to recommend policy. To do that agencies devote staff time, expertise, and resources to gathering and sharing data and information to make better decisions about policies now and in the future. When scientists are forced or threatened to leave agencies, it severely limits agencies’ ability to advance science-informed policy free from any particular group’s self-interest. It also poses a long-term threat. It could lead to more hazardous air pollutants from power plants and chemical plants.  Or it could mean capitulating to the auto industry, rolling back fuel efficiency standards and sending emissions soaring. Or it could mean putting children’s safety at risk because dangerous pesticides are allowed to flow freely. When federal agencies lose the expertise and knowledge of scientists, anti-science special interests benefit while public health is harmed. The EPA relies on scientists to inform policies that protect people and the environment, and the politicization of facts puts all of us at risk. 

In the first Trump administration, UCS catalogued over 50 instances of political appointees sidelining scientific evidence and attacking scientific integrity. These tactics included censoring scientists, circumventing advisory committees, undermining science-based safeguards, halting, suppressing and altering scientific studies, and driving out over 1,000 scientists and technical experts. President-elect Trump and former Congressman Zeldin are expected to do much of the same in the four years to come: removing experts who could stand in their way of dismantling landmark climate regulations that for decades have kept the air we breathe and water we drink clean.  

Lee Zeldin must protect stability 

The last time Trump was president, his administration sought to impose double-digit percentage budget cuts on the EPA year after year. And, year after year, the EPA saw the departure of hundreds upon hundreds of scientists. Undermining the EPA doesn’t only pose real, tragic health risks—it is in direct defiance of the voters who elected the incoming administration.  

An overwhelming majority of voters, including 81% of voters who supported Donald Trump, want Congress to increase funding for the EPA, or at the very least, keep it the same. Three in four Trump voters oppose attempts to weaken the EPA. And of dire importance to me, after focusing on the EPA’s environmental justice work for years, 72% of Trump voters support increasing funding for communities disproportionally harmed by air and water pollution. Rolling back the progress the EPA has made over its nearly 55-year tenure isn’t just out-of-touch with what communities need—it’s entirely detached from reality.  

Source: EPN 

Ultimately, attacking science endangers our health by compromising protections for the public and for environmental justice communities facing the largest potential impacts from buried science, and weak and ineffective environmental and public health protections. In order to support the EPA’s mission, and ensure they are providing benefits to those most harmed by the current status quo, we need a robust and supported scientific community at federal agencies—both to limit the potential harms of a Trump administration, and to ensure we can have a speedy recovery and reversal of any harmful and damaging policies when the opportunity arises. 

We must protect our future 

Nothing is inevitable, and UCS is ready to fight to keep strong science at EPA. During the first Trump administration, UCS successfully led a lawsuit overturning the EPA’s unlawful ban on scientists serving on advisory committees and restoring integrity to federal decision-making. When the EPA refused to hold a hearing on a proposed rule that would transform how the agency uses science in policy decisions and scientific assessments UCS organized an alternative public hearing, giving a platform to affected communities and experts. UCS brought accountability to the agency, exposing the devastating impacts of the administration’s weakened Clean Water Rule, highlighting its disregard for science and the importance of wetlands and tributaries in protecting drinking water. And UCS helped win additional pollution protections from trucks, and brought a spotlight to the real and devastating impacts reckless, anti-science leadership has on public health. 

I bring up what UCS did from 2017 to 2021, not to diminish the tangible harms accomplished in the first Trump administration, but rather to frame our mission in facing the challenge that lies ahead.  

It is clear that the incoming administration has the entire regulatory state in their crosshairs—which is why UCS is hitting the ground running to save science and save lives.  We intend to continue our work of fully supporting federal scientists through our network and resources in order to protect and limit the loss of the federal scientific workforce. We will also use Senate confirmation hearings to fight unqualified science agency nominations such as Lee Zeldin. We will also support efforts to continue funding programs that support communities via the Inflation Reduction Act.  

Independent science is a public good and it must be protected. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said “In the first Trump Administration, the agency was dealt double-digit percentage budget cuts year after year.” This has been corrected to say, “The last time Trump was president, his administration sought to impose double-digit percentage budget cuts on the EPA year after year.“

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has hit out at the lack of Conservative support for climate targets and said it shows 'just how far the party has fallen'. 'It’s a shame,' he said. 'When Cop was in Scotland, there was a real unity across the house about the importance of tackling one of the most central issues of our time,' Starmer said in Commons after returning from the G20 and Cop29

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