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The climate crisis in charts: how 2024 has set unwanted new records
Data tracks how Earth’s heating has led to rising sea levels and extreme weather – yet there is no sign of emissions slowing
“The era of global boiling has arrived” is what the UN chief, António Guterres, presciently declared last year. In 2024, he has continued to be proven right; a report by the EU’s space programme has found it is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record. The scientists found global temperatures for the past 12 months were 1.62C greater than the 1850-1900 average, when humanity started to burn vast volumes of coal, oil and gas. The chart below shows just how quickly global surface temperatures have climbed, and this year is on track to be the first to hit 1.5C above preindustrial temperatures.
Continue reading...‘Bomb cyclone’ brings high winds and soaking rain to north-west US
Strongest atmospheric river seen by California, Washington and Oregon this season knocks out power and downs trees
What was expected to be one of the strongest storms in the north-west US in decades arrived on Tuesday evening, knocking out power and downing trees across the region.
The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks beginning on Tuesday and lasting through Friday as the strongest atmospheric river – a large plume of moisture – that California and the Pacific north-west has seen this season bears down on the region. The storm system is considered a “ bomb cyclone”, which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.
Continue reading...Why children like me have a right to be heard at the People’s Blockade of the Newcastle coal port | Frankie Kelly
From my perspective as a 12-year-old, it’s devastating that the protest is getting such a negative reaction from the NSW government
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All year, I have been looking forward to the People’s Blockade of the Newcastle coal port. I’ve been so excited to see the colourful array of kayaks and get to swim and paddle in the harbour with my friends to make our voices heard, and let the government know that we need to do everything we can right now to stop the climate crisis.
I know that Rising Tide has been working incredibly hard to make the blockade a fun and safe experience for everyone, but it feels like instead of listening to our concern about the climate crisis, the state government is doing everything they can to try to stop our “protestival” from going ahead.
Continue reading...Joe Biden ‘abandona el chat’ de las cumbres internacionales
Australia pledges $50m for climate 'loss and damage' fund, ramps up Cop31 host bid - video
Australia and Turkey are both lobbying to host Cop31, the world's annual United Nations climate change negotiations planned for 2026. The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said Australia wants to co-host Cop31 'in partnership with our Pacific family'. Bowen also announced a $50m contribution to loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Eight times more children will face extreme heatwaves by 2050s, Unicef says
Without action on climate crisis, far greater numbers will also experience floods, wildfires and droughts, according to report
Eight times as many children around the world will be exposed to extreme heatwaves in the 2050s, and three times as many will face river floods compared with the 2000s if current trends continue, according to the UN.
Nearly twice as many children are also expected to face wildfires, with many more living through droughts and tropical cyclones, according to the annual state of the world’s children report.
Continue reading...Biden Fades Out of the Picture in Talks With World Leaders
Inching Toward a Fusion Energy Future
The Perfect Novel for the Baku Climate Summit: Lydia Kiesling’s Mobility
China and India should not be called developing countries, several Cop29 delegates say
Poor country delegates say classifications that date back to 1992 are obsolete and two countries ‘should be contributing’
China and India should no longer be treated as developing countries in the same way as some of the poorest African nations are, according to a growing number of delegates from poorer country at the Cop29 UN climate talks.
China should take on some additional responsibility for providing financial help to the poorest and most vulnerable, several delegates told the Guardian. India should not be eligible for receiving financial help as it has no trouble attracting investment, some said.
Continue reading...How China's Rising Emissions Could Change Global Climate Politics
Cop29 live: Slashing methane emissions is ‘our emergency brake’, UN says – as it happened
Cop29 presidency announces new drive to cut methane emissions from waste dumps as G20 reaffirms transition from fossil fuels
The UK government has conceded that Australia was mistakenly included on a list of countries that were expected to sign up to a US-UK civil nuclear deal agreed at Cop29 on Monday, writes Adam Morton, Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor.
The Albanese government flatly denied media reports on Tuesday that it would join the UK and the US in a collaboration to share advanced nuclear technology. The UK and the US announcement said they would speed up work on “cutting-edge nuclear technology”, including small modular reactors, after inking a deal at the Cop29 UN climate summit in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
We urge them to use the G20 meeting to send a positive signal of their commitment to address the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Paris agreement is working, Australian minister tells Cop29, but much deeper cuts needed by 2035
Chris Bowen also pledges A$50m to a fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown
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The Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has declared the landmark Paris agreement “is working” as it had brought the world back from “the brink of catastrophic 4C warming”, but argued countries must set the most ambitious emissions targets possible for 2035 to limit worsening global heating.
Giving Australia’s national statement on the conference floor at the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan, he also pledged A$50m (US$32.5m) towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.
Continue reading...‘I’m imagining what my mother went through in her last seconds’ – This is climate breakdown
My brother called saying there was a storm. I was waiting, waiting, waiting. This is Elisa’s story
Location Saint-Martin-Vésubie, France
Disaster name Storm Alex, 2020
Elisa is a women’s clothing designer who runs her own label in Montreal, Canada. She was born and grew up in Nice, France, where much of her family remained, but was in Canada with her children and partner when Storm Alex gusted towards France and the mountain village where her mother lived. The storm was a powerful extratropical cyclone that caused extreme flooding around the Mediterranean, killing at least 15 people. Three months’ worth of rain – 50cm – fell on Saint-Martin-Vésubie in one day, 3 October 2020.
Continue reading...What we’ve learned in the five years since our first environment pledge
An update on our progress from the Guardian’s head of sustainability
- The Guardian environment pledge 2024
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Five years ago the Guardian made a pledge that we would “play a part, both in our journalism and in our own organisation, to address the climate emergency” with our first annual environment pledge. That commitment reflected our long history of environment reporting and our view that individual companies had to take greater responsibility for their impact on the natural world. We wanted to demonstrate to readers that we were taking the action that our journalism showed was so necessary, and to be transparent about our progress. Today we publish the 2024 pledge.
Since then we have worked hard to measure and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, to understand our impact on nature and to share our results openly with readers. In our latest sustainability report, published last month, we show that our emissions have fallen by 43% since 2020, putting us well on track to achieve our goal of a 67% cut by 2030.
Continue reading...Hundreds of lobbyists for industrial farming attend Cop29 climate summit
Nearly 40% of food sector lobbyists have travelled to Baku as part of countries’ delegations
Hundreds of lobbyists for industrial agriculture are attending the Cop29 climate summit in Baku, analysis shows.
They include representatives from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies including the Brazilian meatpacker JBS, the animal pharmaceuticals company Elanco, and the food giant PepsiCo, as well as trade groups representing the food sector.
Continue reading...At COP29, Tourism Gets Its Day. How Has It Fared With Climate Goals?
Construction is the world’s biggest polluter, yet Labour still refuses to tackle it | Simon Jenkins
Refurbishing an old building is subject to full VAT, but it isn’t if you build a polluting new one. The government’s priorities are all wrong
You can damn oil companies, abuse cars, insult nimbys, kill cows, befoul art galleries. But you must never, ever criticise the worst offender of all. The construction industry is sacred to both the left and the right. It may be the world’s greatest polluter, but it is not to be criticised. It is the elephant in the global-heating room.
It’s hard not to feel as though we have a blind spot when it comes to cement, steel and concrete. A year has now passed since the UN’s environment programme stated baldly that “the building and construction sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases”. The industry accounts for “a staggering 37% of global emissions”, more than any other single source. Yet it rarely gets the same attention as oil or car companies.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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