The Guardian Climate Change

Ports including in Saudi Arabia and the US projected to be seriously damaged by a metre of sea level rise

Rising sea levels driven by the climate crisis will overwhelm many of the world’s biggest oil ports, analysis indicates.

Scientists said the threat was ironic as fossil fuel burning causes global heating. They said reducing emissions by moving to renewable energy would halt global heating and deliver more reliable energy.

The New Orleans truck attack, hunger in Khan Younis, the plane crash in Seoul and new year’s celebrations: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

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

Families Like Ours has become national talking point but some scientists say events depicted could not happen

Featuring scenes of huge crowds boarding ferries, protest and desperation as six million Danes become climate refugees and life as they know it rapidly collapses, the new TV series by the Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg is a potential “look into the future”, he says.

Familier som vores (Families Like Ours) – a drama which depicts a flooded Denmark shut down and evacuated – has been viewed nearly 1m times and become a national talking point. At its premiere at the Venice international film festival, it evoked tears, shouts and a standing ovation, with one critic describing it as “grimly prophetic”.

The trendy green nut is drought-resistant and sustainable – making it appealing to farmers and consumers alike

Pistachios have long polarized the world’s taste buds – the flavor is bold, nothing like the subtlety of an almond or a walnut. You either love them or hate them.

But one side of the pistachio debate appears to be reigning supreme. Pistachios were named nut of the year in 2023, unsurprising to anyone who had an eye on pop culture. Pistachio is now a popular flavor of latte. Pistachio butter and cream became food trends on social media. Vibrant pistachio green even made several appearances on the runway, with fashion designers being inspired by the unique, earthy hue.

Policymakers and insurers act as if Britain’s coastlines are fixed, but the waters are advancing faster than before

The increasing speed of sea level rise hardly seems to register with policymakers in Britain – even though with the UK weather getting more violent, destructive storm surges are increasingly likely. The future looks bleak for properties on fast-eroding cliffs and large areas of rich agricultural land on the east coast, already at or even below sea level.

The evidence that things are rapidly getting worse is clear. Sea levels have risen 24cm (9in) (7ft 3in) since 1880 but the rise has accelerated from an average of 1.4mm a year in the 20th century to 3.6mm annually by 2015. Previous conservative estimates of sea level rise of 60cm by the end of this century now look very optimistic and on current emission levels will be 2.2 metres by 2100 and 3.9 metres 50 years after that.

Engineers assess damage as heavy rains cause first major breach of Bridgewater canal since 1970s

Engineers are assessing the scale of damage to a canal built more than 250 years ago after flood waters caused a dramatic collapse of part of its elevated embankment in Cheshire.

The Bridgewater canal, which was previously used to transport coal but is now a leisure waterway, caved in near Dunham Massey, in the first major breach of the waterway for 54 years.

UK has more than halved amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels but gas still had largest share at 28%

The UK’s electricity was the cleanest it has ever been in 2024, with wind and solar generation hitting all-time highs, according to a report.

The analysis by Carbon Brief found that in the past decade the UK had more than halved electricity generated from coal and gas and doubled its output from renewables.

Bowhead whales may not be the only species that can live to 200 years old. Researchers have found that the industrial hunting of great whales has masked the ability of these underwater giants to also live to great ages

In Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s epic novel of 1851, the author asks if whales would survive the remorseless human hunt. Yes, he says, as he foresees a future flooded world in which the whale would outlive us and “spout his frothed defiance to the skies”.

Moby Dick was a grizzled old sperm whale that had miraculously escaped the harpoons. But a new scientific paper is set to prove what oceanic peoples – such as the Inuit, Maōri and Haida – have long believed: that whales are capable of living for a very long time. Indeed, many more than we thought possible may have been born before Melville wrote his book.

Society to retire plants no longer suited to UK’s changing climate after 14% fewer days of ground frost recorded

Fig and almond trees are thriving in Britain as a result of fewer frosts, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.

The lack of frost, one of the effects of climate breakdown, means plants used to warmer climes have been doing well in RHS gardens. Almond trees from the Mediterranean were planted at Wisley in Surrey several years ago, and without frost this year have fruited well for the first time.

Despite Pacific Ocean moving into a La Niña phase, this year is forecast to be one of three warmest years on record

What kind of weather lies ahead in 2025? The Met Office’s global forecast suggests it will be one of the three warmest years on record, surpassed only by 2024 and 2023. This is despite the Pacific Ocean moving into a La Niña phase, which normally brings slightly cooler conditions.

It will be confirmed officially in the coming days, but 2024 is expected to be the warmest year on record and the first when the average global temperature exceeded 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial levels. This comes hot on the heels of the previous warmest year on record – 2023 – which recorded an average global temperature of 1.45C above preindustrial levels.

Rise in greenhouse gases responsible for average temperatures rising to 1.46C above average, with one climate scientist saying this is ‘the norm now’

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Last year was Australia’s second-hottest on record going back to 1910 and the warmest for night-time temperatures, according to official Bureau of Meteorology data.

The average temperature across the country in 2024 was 1.46C above the long-term average, calculated from 1961 to 1990, and was second behind the 1.51C record set in 2019.

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes

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With the new year come new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

Emboldened red states could advocate for rightwing reforms from steep tax cuts to slashes to education

Republican state lawmakers and conservative leaders around the United States see Donald Trump’s re-election as a mandate that will help them enact rightwing policies in Republican-run states across the US.

The policies include steep tax cuts, environmental legislation, religion in schools and legislation concerning transgender medical care and education, among other hot-button social issues.

With the climate crisis hitting Britain, we must build resilience at a local level by rewilding, saving water and fighting floods

Imagine, for a moment, if 2025 was the year that the UK achieved its legally binding targets of reducing dangerous carbon emissions to zero. Imagine if the Extinction Rebellions of 2019 had achieved their goal, and the government had bowed to the pressure of climate activism to meet this target. In this counterfactual reality, the world would be much saner than our own. But as the new year arrives, we’re forced to confront a stark reality. Britain is nowhere near achieving zero carbon in the next 12 months.

When Extinction Rebellion (XR) was founded in 2018, the 2025 target was conceived as a clarion call to action. It was based on the need to decarbonise quickly, to mitigate the worst impacts of climate decline, and to fulfil our historical responsibility as one of the world’s largest polluters. With the new year upon us, it’s clear that decarbonisation at the scale and speed we imagined isn’t a feasible goal within our existing political and economic frameworks. And this failure brings with it some uncomfortable truths that everyone concerned about the climate crisis must face head-on. And that means, in effect, everyone: for even if you don’t feel affected by this crisis, it still affects you.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, a former environment commissioner, criticises bloc’s decision to delay deforestation law

A former EU environment commissioner has warned against backsliding on the protection of nature and the battle against the climate crisis after the bloc decided to delay its landmark deforestation law.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Lithuanian MEP and a vice-president of the European parliament’s Green group, said he disagreed with the decision to amend the deforestation law in order to give companies a year of extra time to ensure their products are not implicated in the felling of trees.

Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

Opponents say rule could hike premiums by 40% and does not require new policies to be written at fast enough pace

Insurance companies that stopped providing home coverage to hundreds of thousands of Californians in recent years as wildfires became more destructive will have to again provide policies in fire-prone areas if they want to keep doing business in the state.

The new state regulation, announced on Monday, will require home insurers to offer coverage in high-risk areas, something the state has never done, the office of the California insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, said in a statement.

The president-elect said he will ‘stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists’ but the ability to block suits will be limited, experts say

Donald Trump has promised to deregulate the energy sector, boost fossil fuels, dismantle environmental rules and otherwise attack climate progress. However, experts and advocates say that lawsuits that aim to hold the fossil fuel sector responsible for deceiving the public about the climate crisis still “have a clear path forward”.

“The overwhelming evidence of the industry’s lies and ongoing deception does not change with administrations,” said Richard Wiles, president of the non-profit Center for Climate Integrity, which tracks and supports the litigation. There are more than 30 accountability lawsuits active around the US brought by states and municipalities accusing fossil fuel interests of covering up the climate risks of their products or seeking damages for impacts. “Climate deception lawsuits against big oil have a clear path forward no matter who is in the White House.”

The Guna people have fought for survival for hundreds of years. But modern threats are testing its cultural resilience

• Vanishing act: Panama’s Guna people forced to move as the sea swallows their island – in pictures

In a church built on stilts facing the sea, two 19-year-old American Mormon priests sit in front of the altar chatting to young Guna people. Elder Burr and Elder Aba, from the US states of Utah and Oregon respectively, reached the island of Kanir-Dup , in the Guna Yala (San Blas) archipelago in Panama, by pirogue more than four months ago, sent by their movement to teach the Indigenous community about the word of Jesus Christ.

Since their arrival, the missionaries’ daily routines have been on a continuous loop: prayers, sports, meals, Bible studies and mass. Yet Burr does not seem to mind the repetition; he has his mind on the greater aim of his proselytism mission. “We are here to convert these natives,” he says.

PM will have to respond to Climate Change Committee’s recommendations on future emissions cuts with drastic changes in many sectors of economy

Keir Starmer will face a key test of his claims to leadership on the climate early next year, when the UK’s statutory advisers issue their latest advice on future cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

The independent Climate Change Committee will set out recommendations on the UK’s seventh carbon budget on 26 February. At the core of the budget will be an overall cap on emissions for the years 2038 to 2042, needed to meet the legal obligation of reaching net zero emissions in 2050.