Authorities say rainy season getting deadlier, with Ghana reporting 13 dead and floods hitting Benin, Togo and Nigeria
Floods in Côte d’Ivoire have killed 59 people since May, the communication minister told a cabinet meeting in Abidjan.
There are fears the toll could further rise as rescue teams continue to search for victims during the rainy season, which runs from May until July, the minister, Amadou Coulibaly, added.
Continue reading...Past and present leaders of wealthy nations such as UK and Germany have argued their actions are insignificant
On first hearing, it is a position that sounds reasonable. “When our share of global emissions is less than 1%,” Rishi Sunak argued when he was the UK prime minister in 2023, “how can it be right that British citizens are now being told to sacrifice even more than others?”
Sunak is not the only world leader to have cited such figures while delaying cuts to pollution. In 2019, Scott Morrison, Australia’s then prime minister, used his country’s 1.3% of global emissions to reject any suggestion Australia was not “doing our bit” on climate breakdown. In July, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pointed to his country’s 2% share of global emissions while supporting loopholes in European climate targets. A few months later the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, followed suit, flagging the EU’s 6% share.
Continue reading...Teresa Ribera blames ‘ideologically driven’ falsehoods, driven by those with vested interests in fossil fuels, for attacks on green policy
The heatwave wreaking chaos across Europe is a “dramatic warning” to reject climate naysayers, a European Commission vice-president says.
Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, lambasted those who listened to the “vested interests” of the fossil fuel industry rather than scientists and their own citizens.
Continue reading...Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday
Good morning, or dzień dobry, from Warsaw, Poland as the heatwave that affected much of the continent last week continues to impact central and eastern Europe.
It’s 9am local time and already 32C. I have seen two people cycling home with large fans, trying to get back before the heat hits the fan again. None of this is normal.
At least seven people have died in water-related incidents during record-breaking June temperatures
The body of a 15-year-old boy has been recovered from a reservoir near Manchester, as police renewed warnings about the dangers of swimming in open water during soaring temperatures.
Greater Manchester police said officers had been called to reports of a boy getting into difficulty in the water near Cowbury reservoir in Stalybridge at about 6.30pm on Saturday. A body was recovered later that evening, and was identified as the missing teenager.
Continue reading...Denmark experiences highest temperature on record on Saturday as weather system spreads eastward
Germany and Italy endured sweltering conditions on Saturday as a heatwave linked to dozens of deaths in western Europe spread eastwards, after temperatures broke records above 40C (104F).
Denmark registered its highest temperature on record on Saturday, according to the Danish meteorological institute. “With 36.6C north of Odense, we have the warmest day ever since measurements began in 1874,” it said in a post on X.
Continue reading...Accumulation on Switzerland’s glaciers from last winter expected to all be gone by Monday amid ‘enormous’ melt rates across Alps
Swiss glaciers are set to lose an enormous amount of ice due to the heatwave battering Europe, according to the head of Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (Glamos).
The snow and ice accumulated last winter by Switzerland’s glaciers is expected to have all melted away by Monday, marking the alarming second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as glacier loss day.
Continue reading...French capital hails ‘landmark decision’ against oil firm relating to disclosure of emissions from oil and gas products
A Paris court has ruled that the French oil company TotalEnergies must disclose the climate risks linked to emissions from its oil and gas products and set out plans to address them in a high-stakes case brought by NGOs and the city of Paris.
The ruling on Thursday is a partial victory for climate change NGOs seeking to apply France’s 2017 corporate duty of vigilance law to the climate crisis. However, the court stopped short of ordering specific measures such as limiting overseas exploration and production or setting binding emissions reduction targets.
Continue reading...Mayor of Manchester is coming under pressure from some to ditch net zero targets but this could be highly damaging on many levels
Britain’s net zero economy is booming. The sector is worth £100bn a year to the UK, has outpaced other sectors, and supports higher-paying jobs than the average.
For a union leader to suggest that the man who has overseen this impressive record – the energy secretary, Ed Miliband – would be a “noose around the neck” of job creation, as Unite’s Sharon Graham has done, might seem extraordinary.
Continue reading...LSE analysis highlights litigation linked to energy sources, water consumption and air pollution
The proliferation of datacentres and AI is increasingly at the forefront of environmental litigation around the world, from the US and UK to Chile to Ireland, a report has found.
In an analysis of about 3,600 climate-related lawsuits filed since 2015, the latest annual review of climate litigation by the London School of Economics (LSE) found a growing number of cases challenging the energy sources, water consumption and air pollution of datacentres, all of which have related climate implications.
Continue reading...Temperature on Tuesday hits high of 34.6C in Surrey, England, with heatwave forecast to get more intense on Wednesday and Thursday
Searing heat has swept the UK with schools, hospitals, transport networks and water companies struggling to cope with the extreme temperatures caused by climate breakdown.
Temperatures hit highs of 34.6C in Wisley in Surrey, the Met Office said, with the UN chief warning that London was “cooking”.
Reduced rail speeds and services.
Hospital patient appointments cancelled.
School closures across southern England and Wales.
Hosepipe bans in south-east England.
Continue reading...Study warns AI datacenters are vulnerable to the climate hazards that their global greenhouse gas emissions bolster
Amid rising concern that the artificial intelligence boom is fueling the climate crisis, a new report has found that nearly 80% of datacenters are also exposed to extreme climate hazards, including flooding, extreme winds and wildfires.
Those impacts are leaving the infrastructure vulnerable to disrupted operations, increased time offline and inflated insurance and repair costs, the research from climate risk analytics firm First Street shows.
Continue reading...Number of countries issue alerts with sustained and rising temperatures expected to present danger to health
Two children aged four and two have been found dead in their family’s car in south-eastern France, the local prosecutor said, as a large swathe of western Europe suffers a ferocious heatwave forecast to shatter absolute temperature records.
“The causes of death are yet to be determined, but the heat is the leading line of inquiry,” said Hélène Mourges, the prosecutor in the town of Carpentras, where the temperature was expected to exceed 39C (102.2F) on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading...A national heatwave plan has been activated to help people stay cool during the Netherlands’ increasingly hot summers
Households in Amsterdam are being urged to hang their curtains outside their windows as health experts recommend simple hacks to moderate the heatwave rolling across the Netherlands, where homes were built for old-fashioned damp and coldish northern European weather.
In a viral social media post last week, Eline Coolen, the heat coordinator at the city’s public health institute, urged sweaty city-dwellers to rig up temporary curtain rails or drape curtains or sheets outside to stop the sun’s rays reaching their large windows.
Continue reading...Appearance of a western reef heron in north Wales is unlikely to be the last, as heating temperatures mean species can survive Britain’s winter, say experts
It is a tropical bird typically encountered between west Africa and India, but last week a western reef heron arrived in north Wales in what is believed to be the first ever sighting in the UK.
The heron was first spotted in Foryd Bay at the weekend before flying to nearby Caernarfon harbour where it fed among the boats.
Continue reading...Photosynthesis does not always result in wood growth, a key factor in carbon dioxide sequestration
Trees may not be able to store as much planet-heating carbon as hoped, a study suggests, with researchers finding photosynthesis does not always lead to wood growth.
Scientists studied 137 sites across the US and found trees stopped growing months before the point in the year at which photosynthesis stopped.
Continue reading...Exclusive A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’
Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels.
One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsular last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average.
Continue reading...Analysis pinpoints areas most vulnerable to hotter, drier weather causing ground to shrink and drag foundations down
Millions of homes are at risk from climate-related subsidence, according toan analysis by the British Geological Survey (BGS).
As hotter, drier summers driven by global heating become more frequent, the ground under houses can shrink and drag down a property’s foundations. The most vulnerable areas include London, Essex, Kent and a tranche of land from Oxford up to the Wash on England’s east coast, according to scientists, who say mitigation measures will be needed.
Continue reading...A Guardian analysis reveals how most of 39 countries facing US entry restrictions are most vulnerable environmentally
Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is largely targeting people from the countries most vulnerable to displacement from climate-driven disasters, a Guardian analysis shows.
As the Trump administration pushes policies to boost planet-heating fossil fuels, millions of people are being forced to flee their homelands due to storms, floods and droughts worsened by the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Cold storage and logistics body warns food supplies at risk from fuel shortages, cyber attacks and extreme weather
Ministers have been accused of being complacent about the risks to vital supplies of food into the UK amid concerns over fuel shortages, cyber attacks and extreme weather.
The trade body for cold storage and logistics has urged the government to make potential disruption to the UK’s food system an “immediate national priority”.
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