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Climate
Floods Wreak Havoc Across Four Continents
Top UK food firms urged to do more to cut ‘staggering’ emissions
Food campaign Bite Back says 10 firms account for more carbon emissions globally than aviation industry
Britain’s biggest food and drink firms are doing too little to tackle the climate emergency and are producing “staggering” amounts of greenhouse gases, campaigners claim.
The 10 companies that manufacture more of the UK’s food than anyone else produce more carbon emissions between them than even the aviation industry, a report says.
Three of the firms increased their annual emissions in 2022 – Ferrero, Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo.
Seven are on course to miss meeting emissions targets they have set themselves to achieve by 2050.
Only four have a verifiable commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 – Danone, Mars, Mondelēz and Nestlé.
Continue reading...Hope for coral reefs after IVF colonies survive record heat event – study
Scientists found 90% of young coral surveyed remained healthy compared with 25% of older corals, after mass bleaching event in the Caribbean
Young corals bred using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and planted in reefs around the US, Mexico and the Caribbean have surprised scientists, after most survived last year’s record marine heatwave, while older corals struggled.
A study has found that 90% of the young IVF-created corals surveyed remained healthy and colourful, holding on to the algae that live within them and supply them with nutrition. In contrast, only about a quarter of older non-IVF corals remained healthy.
Continue reading...Australia is a mess. Cop31 is a chance to redefine ourselves from climate laggard to global leader | Anna Cerneaz
Hosting the conference would help us overcome our colonial mentality and the fossil fuel lobby, both of which have held us back from tackling climate change
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As the world grapples with the climate crisis, Australia stands at a crossroads. Our bid to co-host the UN’s climate conference, Cop31, with Pacific nations is not just a diplomatic event; it is a pivotal opportunity to redefine our nation’s role in the global fight against climate change. This could mark a shift, propelling Australia from climate laggard to leader on the world stage. With the Cop presidency, we would be at the centre of international climate negotiations, shouldering the responsibility to provide the infrastructure and visionary leadership needed to drive meaningful progress. The stakes are high, but so too are the potential rewards for our nation and the planet.
For years, Australia has been held back from meaningful climate action by the powerful influence of the fossil fuel lobby. This industry has shaped policies and public opinion, prioritising short-term profits over long-term sustainability. Their grip on our political landscape has delayed the transition to cleaner energy and put us on a dangerous path that threatens the security of our communities, our environment and our economy. Now, as the cost of living skyrockets and climate impacts escalate, we’re facing the consequences of that inaction.
Continue reading...Global heating is making El Niño and La Niña forecasts less reliable, BoM says
Exclusive: Meteorologists say climate change and the amount of heat being added to the oceans make predictions based on the past less reliable
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The Bureau of Meteorology is shifting the way it communicates about climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, because global heating is making predictions based on the past less reliable.
This week the bureau kept the country on a “La Niña watch” and said if the climate system in the Pacific does develop, it’s likely to be short-lived and weak.
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Continue reading...Climate Change Authority determined incoming chair Matt Kean had no conflict of interest despite advisory role
Documents show authority chief said ex-NSW treasurer and energy minister declared Wollemi Capital directorship as ‘material personal interest’
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The Climate Change Authority determined that its incoming chairman, Matt Kean, did not have a conflict of interest despite taking a role at a climate advisory service – but he would need to make ongoing disclosures on relevant investments by the firm.
Brad Archer, the authority’s chief executive, said Kean – a former New South Wales treasurer and energy minister – had declared his position as a director of “regulatory affairs and strategic partnerships” at Wollemi Capital as “a material personal interest”, according to documents seen by Guardian Australia.
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Continue reading...Floods in Poland and wildfires in Portugal show reality of climate breakdown, says EU
Emergency crews battle to reinforce defences around Wrocław in Poland amid devastating rainfall
Soldiers, emergency workers and volunteers battled through the night to reinforce defences around Wrocław, Poland’s third biggest city, as the EU said flooding in central Europe happening simultaneously alongside wildfires in Portugal showed climate breakdown in action.
More than five times the average rainfall for the whole of September has fallen in five days on swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, triggering devastating flooding that has killed 23 people in four countries.
Continue reading...Wildfires rage across Portugal – video
At least seven people have died and more than 50 have been injured as hot, dry and windy weather inflames wildfires across Portugal. The country's civil protection service said 54 wildfires were burning nationwide, mainly in the north, with 5,300 firefighters mobilised. Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said the country faced 'some very difficult times over the next few days'
Continue reading...Superyacht and private jet tax could raise £2bn a year, say campaigners
Oxfam says ‘commonsense solution’ would reduce emissions and raise urgently needed climate finance
Fair taxes on superyachts and private jets in the UK could have brought in £2bn last year to provide vital funds for communities suffering the worst effects of climate breakdown, campaigners say.
Private jet use in the UK is soaring. It was home to the second highest number of private flights in Europe last year, behind only France, according to figures from the European Business Aviation Association.
Continue reading...More floods are coming to Britain, but you ought to know this: the system that should protect us is a scandal | George Monbiot
A network of public bodies are supposed to safeguard us from flooding. But, like old boys’ clubs, they are bastions of self-interest
Labour’s first stage of government resembles a vast forensic excavation. As it works through the Conservatives’ midden of horrors, it discovers an ever greater legacy of underinvestment, neglect and corruption. However disappointing the new government’s compromises might be, we shouldn’t forget how overwhelming this task must feel.
So I’m sorry to expose yet another toxic stratum. It contains a series of stupendous failures in the governance of rural bodies, which, in the case I want to discuss, put human lives at risk.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...More than £494bn subsidies a year in developing world harmful to climate, says report
ActionAid says ‘parasitic behaviour’ is fuelling the climate crisis and represents ‘corporate capture’ of public finance
More than $650bn (£494bn) a year in public subsidies goes to fossil fuel companies, intensive agriculture and other harmful industries in the developing world, new data has shown.
The subsidies entrench high greenhouse gas emissions and are fuelling the destruction of the natural world, according to a report from the charity ActionAid.
Continue reading...Europe’s Floods Are Another Sign of Growing Threat of Climate Change
‘We empower ourselves’: the women cleaning up Bolivia’s Lake Uru Uru
Once clean enough to drink, the Andean lake was poisoned by mining pollution and urban waste. But now Indigenous women are using giant reeds to revive the vital ecosystem
• Photographs by Claudia Morales for the Guardian
Looking out over Lake Uru Uru in the Bolivian highlands, it is hard to imagine that it once supported thousands of people, and was a sanctuary for wildlife, including 76 species of birds.
Plastic waste now stretches as far as the eye can see, the water is tinged black or brown, and the stench is overwhelming.
Continue reading...Global spending on subsidies that harm environment rises to $2.6tn, report says
Exclusive: analysis finds $800bn increase in direct support for activities including deforestation and fossil fuel use
The world is spending at least $2.6tn (£2tn) a year on subsidies that drive global heating and destroy nature, according to new analysis.
Governments continue to provide billions of dollars in tax breaks, subsidies and other spending that directly work against the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the 2022 Kunming-Montreal agreement to halt biodiversity loss, the research from the organisation Earth Track found, with countries providing direct support for deforestation, water pollution and fossil fuel consumption.
Continue reading...Fossil fuel companies sponsor $5.6bn in global ‘sportswashing’ deals
Thinktank says funding from oil and gas firms is attempt to ‘divert attention from their role in fuelling the climate crisis’
Fossil fuel companies pumped at least $5.6bn (£4.2bn) of sponsorship money into motorsports, football, golf and even snow sports in an effort to “buy social licence to operate”, according to a new report.
Almost no major spectator sport remains untouched by oil and gas money, according to research carried out by the New Weather Institute (NWI), a climate thinktank, which traced more than 200 sponsorship deals between sports teams and the industry.
Continue reading...Man accused of arson in devastating California wildfire pleads not guilty
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, 34, was denied bail and entered his plea from jail in a video arraignment Tuesday
A California man has pleaded not guilty to starting a fire that authorities said ballooned into the rapidly spreading Line fire that has scorched at least 39,000 acres (15,783 hectares) and forced the evacuations of thousands of homes.
Online court records show that Justin Wayne Halstenberg, 34, entered the plea from jail in a video arraignment Tuesday in the San Bernardino city of Rancho Cucamonga. He was denied bail and appointed an attorney, the records show.
Continue reading...Ed Davey says Liberal Democrats will be ‘responsible opposition’ to Labour – as it happened
Lib Dem leader speaks about importance of care and carers as he addresses final day of party conference. This live blog is closed
The number of migrants who have crossed the English Channel since Labour won the general election has passed 10,000, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. As PA Media reports, some 65 migrants were detected crossing the Channel on Monday, taking the cumulative number of arrivals since July 4 to 10,024. PA says:
The cumulative total for the year so far now stands at 23,598.
This is 1% lower than the equivalent figure at this point last year, which was 23,940, and 21% lower than the total at this stage in 2022, which was 29,783.
The home secretary announced the package of up to £75m, which redirects funds originally allocated to the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act. It will unlock sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities for the NCA to bolster UK border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs. The investment is designed to build on a pattern of successful upstream disruptions announced at an operational summit, attended by the prime minister, at the NCA headquarters last week.
The truth is that in the last few years, something went badly wrong. Badly wrong, in our national debate on climate change and net zero.
Net zero became, under the Tories, a battleground. A battleground of the worst type of narrow-minded Westminster tactical warfare.
Continue reading...Portugal wildfire deaths rise to seven after firefighters trapped in blaze
More than 50 people injured as 54 fires burn across country amid hot, dry and windy weather
Seven people have been killed and more than 50 injured in wildfires ravaging central and northern Portugal, authorities have said, after three firefighters died on Tuesday when their vehicle was trapped in flames.
Portugal’s civil protection service said 54 wildfires were burning nationwide, mainly in the north, with 5,300 firefighters mobilised. France, Greece, Italy and Spain sent eight water-bombing planes through the EU’s mutual assistance mechanism.
Continue reading...Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera gets top EU role steering climate and antitrust policy
Spain’s deputy PM among six executive vice-presidents in Ursula von der Leyen’s next European Commission team
Spain’s deputy prime minister, the outspoken Socialist Teresa Ribera, will take charge of Europe’s “clean transition” and antitrust enforcement, in a powerful role at the heart of the next European Commission.
Ribera is to become one of six executive vice-presidents in the incoming EU executive led by Ursula von der Leyen, which is expected to start work at the end of the year.
Continue reading...People evacuated via helicopters after catastrophic flooding in central Europe – video
The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in central and eastern Europe has risen to at least 16, with several more people missing. Authorities reported deaths in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria. In Nysa, a southern Polish town, a surgeon drowned after returning from work. The mayor ordered a mass evacuation on Monday afternoon while some people tried to prevent the river's embankment from collapsing with sandbags.
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