Category Archives: Climate crisis

UK hoping to work with China to counteract Trump’s climate-hostile policies

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Ed Miliband visits Beijing as part of plan to create global axis working in favour of climate action

The UK is hoping to shape a new global axis in favour of climate action along with China and a host of developing countries, to offset the impact of Donald Trump’s abandonment of green policies and his sharp veer towards climate-hostile countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy and net zero secretary, arrived in Beijing on Friday for three days of talks with top Chinese officials, including discussions on green technology supply chains, coal and the critical minerals needed for clean energy. The UK’s green economy is growing three times faster than the rest of the economy, but access to components and materials will be crucial for that to continue.

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Richest farmers in England may lose sustainability funding in Defra review

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Exclusive: Officials explore restricting incentive to allocate greater funds to farms with less money and more nature

The richest farmers will not be able to apply for post-Brexit nature funding under plans for England being considered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Farming groups and climate experts have warned that such a plan would “leave farmers in the cold” and make it more difficult for the UK to reach net zero by 2050.

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‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

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The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

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Trump officials to reconsider whether greenhouse gases cause harm amid climate rollbacks

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Activists horrified as EPA reverses pollution laws and reviews landmark finding that gases harm public health

Donald Trump’s administration is to reconsider the official finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health, a move that threatens to rip apart the foundation of the US’s climate laws, amid a stunning barrage of actions to weaken or repeal a host of pollution limits upon power plants, cars and waterways.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an extraordinary cavalcade of pollution rule rollbacks on Wednesday, led by the announcement it would potentially scrap a landmark 2009 finding by the US government that planet-heating gases, such carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health.

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Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda could keep the world hooked on oil and gas

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The US president is making energy deals with Japan and Ukraine, and in Africa has even touted resurrecting coal

Donald Trump’s repeated mantra of “drill, baby, drill” demands that more oil and gas be extracted in the United States, but the president has set his sights on an even broader goal: keeping the world hooked on planet-heating fossil fuels for as long as possible.

In deals being formulated with countries such as Japan and Ukraine, Trump is using US leverage in tariffs and military aid to bolster the flow of oil and gas around the world. In Africa, his administration has even touted the resurrection of coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, to bring energy to the continent.

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Argentina flooding: 16 killed as two girls swept away by rising waters

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Authorities warn more fatalities expected as a year’s worth of rain falls on Bahía Blanca in eight hours

Rescue teams in Argentina are searching for two girls, aged one and five, who were swept away by severe floods that ripped through Buenos Aires province, killing at least 16 people.

A year’s worth of rain fell on the city of Bahía Blanca and the town of Cerri on Friday, rapidly inundating neighbourhoods and destroying homes, bridges and roads. The rainfall – 400mm (15.7in) recorded in just eight hours – was more than twice the city’s previous record of 175mm (6.8in) set in 1930.

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What the world needs now is more fossil fuels, says Trump’s energy secretary

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Chris Wright signals abandonment of Biden’s ‘irrational, quasi-religious’ climate policies at industry conference

The world needs more planet-heating fossil fuel, not less, Donald Trump’s newly appointed energy secretary, Chris Wright, told oil and gas bigwigs on Monday.

“We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less,” he said in the opening plenary talk of CERAWeek, a swanky annual conference in Houston, Texas, led by the financial firm S&P Global.

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Butterfly population in US shrinking by 22% over last 20 years, study shows

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Drop in line with rate of overall insect loss as scientists point to habitat loss, pesticide use and the climate crisis

Butterflies may be among the most beloved of all creatures, routinely deified in art and verse, but they are in alarming decline in the United States with populations plummeting by a fifth in just the past two decades, according to the most comprehensive study yet of their fortunes.

The abundance of butterflies in the US slumped 22% between 2000 and 2020, the new analysis of more than 76,000 mostly regional surveys, published in Science, found. For every five butterflies fluttering daintily around at the start of the century, just four remain today.

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Japan battles largest wildfire in decades

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More than a thousand people have been evacuated near forest of Ofunato in northern region of Iwate

More than a thousand people have been evacuated as Japan battles its largest wildfire in more than three decades.

The flames are estimated to have spread over about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) in the forest of Ofunato in the northern region of Iwate since a fire broke out on Wednesday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

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Australia’s second-hottest summer in 2024-25 ‘not possible without climate change’, scientist says

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2024-25 summer at 1.89C above long-term average ‘will be one of the coolest in the 21st century’, according to one expert

Last summer was Australia’s second-hottest on a record going back to 1910, at 1.89C above the long-term average, according to data from the Bureau of Meteorology.

The second-hottest summer – coming after the second-hottest winter and the hottest spring on record – included the second-hottest January and the third-hottest December.

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US climate research agency braces for ‘efficiency’ cuts: ‘They will gut the work’

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Workers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fear crackdown will have global fallout

The Trump administration has set its sights on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency, with significant cuts and a political crackdown on climate science. As Trump takes aim at the agency, the impact is likely to be felt across the US and around the world.

Noaa provides essential resources to the public and has helped make the US a scientific leader internationally. Operating 18 satellites and 15 research and survey ships, the agency’s scientists, engineers and policy experts issue forecasts relied on by aviation, agriculture and fishing industries; ocean floor mapping depended upon for shipping; advises on species protection, and increasingly precise and accurate modeling on what to expect as climate crisis unfolds.

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Ex-US security officials urge funding for science research to keep up with China

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Appeal from officials, including two senior figures from Trump’s first term, comes amid reports National Science Foundation’s budget will be slashed

Chuck Hagel, the former US defense secretary, and other former US national security officials, including two senior figures from Donald Trump’s first term, on Tuesday warned that China was outpacing the US in critical technology fields and urged Congress to increase funding for federal scientific research.

The appeal comes a week after the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds science research, fired 170 people in response to Donald Trump’s order to reduce the federal workforce. An NSF spokesman declined comment on reports that hundreds more layoffs were possible and that the agency’s budget could be slashed by billions.

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Forest fires push up greenhouse gas emissions from war in Ukraine

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Emissions estimated at 55m tonnes in 2024 and nearly 230m tonnes in three years of war

The burning of Ukraine’s forests at unprecedented rates over the past year has helped push the total greenhouse emissions from the war since Russia’s full-scale invasion to almost 230m tonnes, analysis shows.

The study, published on the third anniversary of the invasion, found the fighting and its consequences had led to 55m tonnes of emissions in the past 12 months.

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Flood warnings issued in parts of UK after weekend of rain and wind

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Environment Agency warns of risk of river and surface flooding, as climate crisis brings warmer and wetter winters

Flood warnings are in place across the UK after a weekend of heavy rain and high winds.

As sunshine and scattered showers moved in on Monday, flood warnings were issued across much of Wales, the south and south-west of England and a few in central Scotland.

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Scotland ‘likely to miss net zero climate target by up to 20m tonnes’

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Exclusive: Top officials and climate policy experts believe delays in cutting emissions make it improbable 2045 target will be met

Scotland is likely to miss its legally binding climate target by up to 20m tonnes, according to official data seen by the Guardian.

The Scottish government set itself the world-leading target of reaching net zero – the point where any excess carbon emissions are soaked up by trees, peat or carbon capture – by 2045.

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Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions ‘climate’

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US government stripping funds from domestic and overseas research amid warnings for health and public safety

The Trump administration is stripping away support for scientific research in the US and overseas that contains a word it finds particularly inconvenient: “climate.”

The US government is withdrawing grants and other support for research that even references the climate crisis, academics have said, amid Donald Trump’s blitzkrieg upon environmental regulations and clean-energy development.

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EU overhaul of farming strategy ignores vital green proposals, campaigners warn

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The report promises better pay and protections for farmers, but environmentalists say it will not help restore nature or assure food security

European farmers will face fewer rules and less foreign competition, a new vision for agriculture promises, as environmental campaigners warn that key green proposals have been ignored.

The EU’s new farming strategy will overhaul the sector with targeted financial support, stricter import standards and a shift from “conditions to incentives” in the green strings attached to its vast subsidy scheme, according to the report published on Wednesday.

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HSBC net zero goal delayed 20 years, as CEO offered 600% bonus

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Bank is criticised for pushing climate targets to 2050 and watering down environmental goals

HSBC has been criticised after it delayed key parts of its climate goals by 20 years, while watering down environmental targets in a new long-term bonus plan for its chief executive, Georges Elhedery, that could be worth up to 600% of his salary.

The London-headquartered lender said it was reviewing its net zero emissions policies and targets – which are split between its own operations and those of the clients it finances – after realising its clients and suppliers had “seen more challenges” in cutting their carbon footprint than expected.

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Brazil asks UN to ditch proposed levy on global shipping

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Those supporting the deal hope it will raise billions to help poor countries deal with climate breakdown

Brazil has asked the UN to throw out plans for a new levy on global shipping that would raise funds to fight the climate crisis, despite playing host to the next UN climate summit.

The proposed levy on carbon dioxide emissions from shipping will be discussed at a crunch meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that begins on Monday. Those supporting the deal, including the UK, the EU and Japan, are hoping the levy will raise billions of dollars a year, which could be used to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate breakdown.

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DeSantis urged to declare emergency over toxic red tide algae off Florida coast

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Harmful algae bloom off south-west coast blamed for deaths of marine life and poses threat to beaches

Environmentalists in Florida are calling on the governor, Ron DeSantis, to declare an emergency as a worsening “red tide” algae bloom off the state’s south-west coast threatens popular tourist beaches and is being blamed for the deaths of wildlife including fish and dolphins.

Several counties have issued health alerts in response to the outbreak, which scientists say began in the Gulf of Mexico last year when Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore up nutrient-rich waters that feed the algae.

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