Category Archives: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Australia politics live: Albanese condemns Nazi salutes at anti-trans rally after Dutton and Dreyfus clash in question time

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Follow the day’s politics

Jacqui Lambie expresses concerns over housing fund costing

Over on ABC RN Breakfast, Jacqui Lambie is speaking about what it would take for her and Tammy Tyrrell to vote for the housing fund.

We are worried about the $500m annual cap on disbursements to the fund because the way that we’re working out if you look at the next five years is that that that is only going to build it the amount of houses that you need to and I’m sorry, the house that you need to build is only is gonna end up about $80,000 per house. That’s the first problem that they have right now.

We are worried also with the inflation on what that $500m looks like in the next nine or 10 years. That’s your other issue. So we are concerned about that.

Yeah, I think obviously we’ve got to take the advice of our intelligence agencies. And that advice is becoming stronger and stronger. I think it’s unwise to have a TikTok account on your government held phone. We’ve got to understand the world we live in and the risk of having these phones as members of parliament, the privileged position we have, does pose to our national security. So I think it is important that the government takes that advice and if that’s the advice we should act swiftly on it. I would be very disappointed if any members of my National party didn’t adhere to any advice given by a security agency on social media, particularly TikTok.

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Samoa PM urges world to save Pacific people from climate crisis obliteration

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Fiame Naomi Mata’afa pleads for action before landmark IPCC report is expected to issue ‘final warning’

The world must step back from the brink of climate disaster to save the people of the Pacific from obliteration, the prime minister of Samoa has urged.

On the eve of a landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is expected to deliver a scientific “final warning” on the climate emergency, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Samoa’s prime minister, issued a desperate plea for action.

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Brazil, Indonesia and DRC in talks to form ‘Opec of rainforests’

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Spurred by Lula’s election, the three countries, home to half of all tropical forests, will pledge stronger conservation efforts

The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate on their conservation, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests”, the Guardian understands.

The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, has been followed by a flurry of activity to avoid the destruction of the Amazon, which scientists have warned is dangerously close to tipping point after years of deforestation under its far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

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UK not prepared for climate impacts, warns IPCC expert

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Sewage works, airports and seaports among key infrastructure at risk, says intergovernmental report

The UK “is very much not adapted to climate change and not prepared”, according to a lead author of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The study, published this week and approved by 195 countries, says the worldwide impacts of the climate crisis are more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance of securing “a liveable future for all”.

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Only 6% of G20 pandemic recovery spending ‘green’, analysis finds

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Review of G20 fiscal stimulus spending counters many countries’ pledges to ‘build back better’

Only about 6% of pandemic recovery spending has been “green”, an analysis of the $14tn that G20 countries have poured into economic stimulus.

Additionally, about 3% of the record amounts governments around the world have spent to rescue the global economy from the Covid-19 pandemic has been spent on activities that will increase carbon emissions, such as subsidies to coal, and will do little to reduce greenhouse gases or shift the world to a low-carbon footing.

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IPCC issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on impacts of climate breakdown

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Report says human actions are causing dangerous disruption, and window to secure a liveable future is closing

Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.

Even at current levels, human actions in heating the climate are causing dangerous and widespread disruption, threatening devastation to swathes of the natural world and rendering many areas unliveable, according to the landmark report published on Monday.

Everywhere is affected, with no inhabited region escaping dire impacts from rising temperatures and increasingly extreme weather.

About half the global population – between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people – live in areas “highly vulnerable” to climate change.

Millions of people face food and water shortages owing to climate change, even at current levels of heating.

Mass die-offs of species, from trees to corals, are already under way.

1.5C above pre-industrial levels constitutes a “critical level” beyond which the impacts of the climate crisis accelerate strongly and some become irreversible.

Coastal areas around the globe, and small, low-lying islands, face inundation at temperature rises of more than 1.5C.

Key ecosystems are losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, turning them from carbon sinks to carbon sources.

Some countries have agreed to conserve 30% of the Earth’s land, but conserving half may be necessary to restore the ability of natural ecosystems to cope with the damage wreaked on them.

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Ratchets, phase-downs and a fragile agreement: how Cop26 played out

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Last-minute hitch on coal almost reduced Alok Sharma to tears as Glasgow climate pact made imperfect progress

As weary delegates trudged into the Scottish Event Campus on the banks of the Clyde on Saturday, few realised what a mountain they still had to climb. The Cop26 climate talks were long past their official deadline of 6pm on Friday, but there were strong hopes that the big issues had been settled. A deal was tantalisingly close.

The “package” on offer was imperfect – before countries even turned up in Glasgow they were meant to have submitted plans that would cut global carbon output by nearly half by 2030, to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Although most countries submitted plans, they were not strong enough and analysis found they would lead to a disastrous 2.4C of heating.

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‘One of the greatest injustices’: Pacific islands on the frontline of the climate crisis – video

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Pacific countries are among those most at risk amid the climate crisis. Islands are becoming more difficult to inhabit and people across the region face an impossible decision: to stay in a dangerous place, or leave their homes and culture behind. Samoan journalist Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson talks about the cost of global heating and what Pacific leaders are asking for at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

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The climate science behind wildfires: why are they getting worse? – video explainer

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We are in an emergency. Wildfires are raging across the world as scorching temperatures and dry conditions fuel the blazes that have cost lives and destroyed livelihoods.

The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.

But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains

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Stop the east African oil pipeline now | Bill McKibben, Diana Nabiruma and Omar Elmawi

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The fate of a planned line from Uganda to Tanzania will be the first test of whether anyone was listening to António Guterres’ call to end fossil fuels

If there is one world leader trying to look out for the planet as a whole, not just their own nation, it’s the UN secretary general. Last week, António Guterres was resolute in the wake of the damning report from the IPCC on the perilious climate crisis. It should, he said, sound “a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet”.

He called for an end to “all new fossil fuel exploration and production”, and told countries to shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy.

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Humans ‘pushing Earth close to tipping point’, say most in G20

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Global survey finds 74% also want climate crises and protecting nature prioritised over jobs and profit

Three-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey.

The Ipsos Mori survey for the Global Commons Alliance (GCA) also found a majority (58%) were very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the planet.

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‘You follow the government’s agenda’: China’s climate activists walk a tightrope

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The IPCC’s alarming report has Chinese environmentalists wondering how to push a government that brooks no criticism into taking more action

In the wake of the IPCC’s alarming warning last week that human induced climate change is affecting every corner of the planet, China’s environmental activists were left wondering what they could do to push their government into taking more action.

Having prioritised rapid economic development for decades, China is responsible for a long list of environmental disasters and concerns, and produces around a third of the world’s carbon emissions. It has made ambitious pledges to hit peak emissions by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2060, but still drawn warnings that it may not be possible under their current trajectory.

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At the frontier of the climate crisis, one scientist’s quest to record the ‘invisible world’ of the Arctic

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Lighter nights, orange sunsets, straying killer whales: Wayne Davidson has observed the subtle signs of a tragically warming Arctic for four decades

Wayne Davidson has been taking atmospheric readings from the Arctic Weather Station at Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, for 40 years.

The climate of the high Arctic, he believes, is a guide in many respects to our past and is also the place from which our climate future can be previewed, as this week’s IPCC climate change report laid out in stark terms.

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UN climate report raises pressure on Biden to seize a rare moment

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The US president may have only one chance to pass legislation to confront the crisis: ‘We can’t wait’

A stark UN report on how humanity has caused unprecedented, and in some cases “irreversible”, changes to the world’s climate has heaped further pressure on Joe Biden to deliver upon what may be his sole chance to pass significant legislation to confront the climate crisis and break a decade of American political inertia.

The US president said the release on Monday of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report showed that “we can’t wait to tackle the climate crisis. The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. And the cost of inaction keeps mounting.”

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IPCC report shows ‘possible loss of entire countries within the century’

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Pacific island nations are already being battered by king tides, catastrophic cyclones and sustained droughts

Global heating above 1.5C will be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea level rise within the century, experts have warned.

The Pacific has long been seen as the “canary in the coalmine” for the climate crisis, as the region has suffered from king tides, catastrophic cyclones, increasing salinity in water tables making growing crops impossible, sustained droughts, and the loss of low-lying islands to sea level rise. These crises are expected to increase in frequency and severity as the world heats.

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World’s climate scientists to issue stark warning over global heating threat

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IPCC’s landmark report will be most comprehensive assessment yet as governments prepare for pivotal UN talks in November

The fires, floods and extreme weather seen around the world in recent months are just a foretaste of what can be expected if global heating takes hold, scientists say, as the world’s leading authority on climate change prepares to warn of an imminent and dire risk to the global climate system.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will on Monday publish a landmark report, the most comprehensive assessment yet, less than three months before vital UN talks that will determine the future course of life on Earth.

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Reduce methane or face climate catastrophe, scientists warn

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Exclusive: IPCC says gas, produced by farming, shale gas and oil extraction, playing ever-greater role in overheating planet

Cutting carbon dioxide is not enough to solve the climate crisis – the world must act swiftly on another powerful greenhouse gas, methane, to halt the rise in global temperatures, experts have warned.

Leading climate scientists will give their starkest warning yet – that we are rushing to the brink of climate catastrophe – in a landmark report on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish its sixth assessment report, a comprehensive review of the world’s knowledge of the climate crisis and how human actions are altering the planet. It will show in detail how close the world is to irreversible change.

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IPCC steps up warning on climate tipping points in leaked draft report

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Scientists increasingly concerned about thresholds beyond which recovery may become impossible

Climate scientists are increasingly concerned that global heating will trigger tipping points in Earth’s natural systems, which will lead to widespread and possibly irrevocable disaster, unless action is taken urgently.

The impacts are likely to be much closer than most people realise, a a draft report from the world’s leading climate scientists suggests, and will fundamentally reshape life in the coming decades even if greenhouse gas emissions are brought under some control.

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The climate crisis in 2050: what happens if cities act but nations don’t?

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It is cities, not national governments, that are most aggressively fighting the climate crisis – and in 30 years they could look radically different

She has barely ever been in a car, and never eaten meat or flown. Now 31, she lives on the 15th floor of a city centre tower from where she can just see the ocean 500 yards away on one side and the suburbs and informal settlements sprawling as far as the eye can see on the other.

Life is OK in this megacity. She earns the exact median income and is as green as she feels she can be: she has no children yet, her carbon footprint is negligible, and her apartment, built in the early 2000s, has been retrofitted for climate change with deep insulation, its own solar air-con and heating systems.

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The world has a third pole – and it’s melting quickly

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An IPCC report says two-thirds of glaciers on the largest ice sheet after the Arctic and Antarctic are set to disappear in 80 years

Many moons ago in Tibet, the Second Buddha transformed a fierce nyen (a malevolent mountain demon) into a neri (the holiest protective warrior god) called Khawa Karpo, who took up residence in the sacred mountain bearing his name. Khawa Karpo is the tallest of the Meili mountain range, piercing the sky at 6,740 metres (22,112ft) above sea level. Local Tibetan communities believe that conquering Khawa Karpo is an act of sacrilege and would cause the deity to abandon his mountain home. Nevertheless, there have been several failed attempts by outsiders – the best known by an international team of 17, all of whom died in an avalanche during their ascent on 3 January 1991. After much local petitioning, in 2001 Beijing passed a law banning mountaineering there.

However, Khawa Karpo continues to be affronted more insidiously. Over the past two decades, the Mingyong glacier at the foot of the mountain has dramatically receded. Villagers blame disrespectful human behaviour, including an inadequacy of prayer, greater material greed and an increase in pollution from tourism. People have started to avoid eating garlic and onions, burning meat, breaking vows or fighting for fear of unleashing the wrath of the deity. Mingyong is one of the world’s fastest shrinking glaciers, but locals cannot believe it will die because their own existence is intertwined with it. Yet its disappearance is almost inevitable.

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