Category Archives: Climate crisis

Climate-sceptic IPA refuses to reveal funders in fiery Senate inquiry

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Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart has previously donated to Institute of Public Affairs but thinktank won’t say if she remains a donor

A thinktank known for its rejection of the climate crisis and a conservation group that has opposed renewable energy projects refused to identify their funders during a fiery Senate inquiry into climate and energy misinformation on Wednesday.

Chair of the committee, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, asked Rainforest Reserves Australia’s vice-president, Steven Nowakowski, who had funded nine full-page newspaper advertisements promoting an open letter attacking a shift to renewable energy and promoting nuclear.

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China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds

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World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

China’s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, analysis reveals, adding evidence to the hope that the world’s biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule.

Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation – which grew by 46% and 11% respectively in the third quarter of this year – meant the country’s energy sector emissions remained flat, even as the demand for electricity increased.

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Agenda for Cop30 agreed as crucial climate talks begin – as it happened

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Ministers and high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered in the Amazonian city of Belem, with Brazil insisting this will be ‘the Cop of implementation’

Hundreds lined up for Cop30 on opening morning, with some in Indigenous headdresses and others in trouser suits, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for the Guardian US.

The conference is being held in a massive temporary building in Belem’s Parque da Cidade area. It was still under construction just days ago, but now seems to be ready to use.

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Growth in global demand for ‘green’ office buildings slows amid Trump policies

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Fall reported by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as UN calls for accelerated action in buildings sector to meet global climate goals

The growth in global demand for “green” office buildings has slowed after Donald Trump’s assault on environmental protection policies caused a slump in interest in the US, according to a survey of construction industry professionals.

Building occupiers and investors across North America and South America expressed significantly lower growth in demand for green commercial buildings, a shift that “seems to be in response to a change in US policy focus”, according to a survey of members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Reported demand across the rest of the world also fell, albeit not as sharply.

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Survey finds 40% of Australian women without kids hesitant to have children because of climate change

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Research which polled a representative sample of 2,000 people also found over a third of Coalition voters believed the climate would not change at all

About 40% of Australian women without kids say they are hesitant to have children because of climate change, a new survey suggests.

The survey, on attitudes about the impacts of global heating, also found that half of Australians were very or extremely concerned about climate change and two in five believed the climate would be “much hotter” in 2050.

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Jailed UK climate protesters facing conditions reserved for extremists on release

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Exclusive: Just Stop Oil activist was banned from attending gatherings, including meeting a friend in a cafe, without permission

Environmental protesters are being given licence conditions on release from jail that are supposed to be limited to extremism cases.

Ella Ward, 22, was banned from going to any meetings or gatherings, except for worship, without permission from her probation officer, although the Ministry of Justice dropped the condition after she brought a legal challenge.

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Over 100 US leaders to attend Cop30 climate summit as Trump stays away

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Dozens of US state and local leaders will be at talks in Brazil with president’s team expected to send no representatives

The Trump administration appears to be sitting out this month’s United Nations climate talks known as Cop30, telling the Guardian it will not deploy any high-level representatives to the negotiations.

But dozens of US subnational leaders attend to promote their climate efforts.

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‘Long on talk and short on action’: Papua New Guinea leader criticises Cop climate summits ahead of Brazil meeting

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James Marape skipped the meeting last year in protest but will attend Cop30 due to ‘encouraging signs’ on climate finance

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, has criticised Cop climate summits as “long on talk and short on action” but will attend the upcoming meeting of world leaders in Brazil, after pulling out last year in frustration with big emitters.

The leader of the Pacific nation of about 10 million people skipped the meeting in 2024 in “protest at the big nations” for failing to support to the victims of climate change. Marape will take part in the annual UN climate summit, which officially beings in Belém, Brazil on 10 November, due to “encouraging signs” emerging from developed nations on climate finance.

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Climate crisis means super-strength Hurricane Melissa is ‘dangerous new reality’

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Winds of Melissa’s strength are now five times more frequent due to the climate crisis, research says

Every aspect of Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful storm ever to hit Jamaica, was worsened by the climate crisis, a team of scientists has found.

Melissa caused widespread devastation when it crunched into Jamaica as a category 5 hurricane on October 28, with winds up up to 185mph (298km/h).

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Nationals members vote to ditch net zero target from party platform

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Policy position diverging from senior Coalition partner expected to be formalised at Nationals partyroom meeting on Sunday morning

The Nationals’ grassroots members have voted to ditch net zero, setting the scene to formally scrap the target at a meeting on Sunday morning.

“We believe in reducing emissions, but not at any cost,” the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, told the party’s federal council on Saturday.

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No high-level US representatives will go to UN climate talks, Trump officials say

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Decision to stay away from Cop30 meeting in Brazil underscores administration’s hostility to climate action

The Trump administration has confirmed that no high-level representatives will be sent by the US to upcoming UN climate talks in Brazil, underscoring the administration’s hostile stance towards action on the climate crisis.

The US has always sent delegations of various sizes to UN climate summits over the past three decades, even during periods under George W Bush and Donald Trump’s first term where there was scant desire to address the global heating crisis.

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Boris Johnson tells Tories to stop ‘bashing green agenda’ or risk losing next election

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Former PM says he has not seen party ‘soaring in the polls as a result of saying what rubbish net zero is’

Boris Johnson has warned the Conservatives they will not win the next election by “bashing the green agenda”.

The former prime minister said he had not seen the Conservatives “soaring in the polls as a result of saying what rubbish net zero is”.

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America’s super-rich are running down the planet’s safe climate spaces, says Oxfam

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Exclusive: Data shows wealthiest 0.1% of the US burn carbon at 4,000 times the rate of the world’s poorest 10%

The US’s super-rich are burning through carbon emissions at 4,000 times the speed of the world’s poorest 10%, according to an analysis provided to the Guardian.

These billionaires and multimillionaires, who comprise the wealthiest 0.1% of the US population, are also running down our planet’s safe climate space at 183 times the rate of the global average.

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Pakistani farmers to sue German polluters over climate-linked flood damage

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Claimants seek compensation from RWE and Heidelberg Materials after extreme flooding destroyed harvests

A group of Pakistani farmers whose livelihoods were devastated by floods three years ago has fired the starting shot in legal action against two of Germany’s most polluting companies.

Lawyers acting for 43 men and women from the Sindh region sent the energy firm RWE and the cement producer Heidelberg formal letters before action on Tuesday warning of their intention to sue later this year.

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World’s climate plans fall drastically short of action needed, analysis shows

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Recent plans submitted to UN by more than 60 countries would cut carbon by only 10%, a sixth of what is needed

Recently drafted climate plans from scores of countries fall drastically short of what is needed to stave off the worst effects of climate breakdown, analysis has shown.

More than 60 countries have so far submitted national plans on greenhouse gas emissions to the UN, setting out how they will curb carbon for the next decade.

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Exxon sues California over climate laws, alleging free speech violations

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Oil firm asks court to block enforcement of laws that would require disclosure of planet-heating carbon emissions

Exxon, an oil firm consistently ranked among the world’s top contributors to global carbon emissions, is suing the state of California over two climate-focused state laws, arguing that the rules infringe upon the corporation’s right to free speech.

The 2023 laws, known collectively as the California Climate Accountability Package, will require large companies doing business in the state to disclose both their planet-heating carbon emissions and their climate-related financial risks, or face annual penalties.

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Two crucial Florida coral species left ‘functionally extinct’ by ocean heatwave

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Climate crisis drives near-total collapse of staghorn and elkhorn corals that formed backbone to state’s reefs

Two of the most important coral species that made up Florida’s reef are now functionally extinct after a withering ocean heatwave caused catastrophic losses, scientists have found.

The near-total collapse of the corals that once formed the backbone of reefs in Florida and the Caribbean means they can no longer play their previously crucial role in building and sustaining reef ecosystems that host a variety of marine life.

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Global use of coal hit record high in 2024

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Bleak report finds greenhouse gas emissions are still rising despite ‘exponential’ growth of renewables

Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating.

The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.

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Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country

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Three specimens discovered in what was previously one of the few places in the world without the insects

Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time as global heating makes the country more hospitable for insects.

The country was until this month one of the few places in the world that did not have a mosquito population. The other is Antarctica.

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UK ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows

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Lobbyists attended 48% more meetings than Tories, as Labour accused of giving them ‘backstage pass’

Government ministers met representatives from the fossil fuel industry more than 500 times during their first year in power – equivalent to twice every working day, according to new research.

The analysis found that fossil fuel lobbyists were present at 48% more ministerial meetings during Labour’s first year in power than under the Conservatives in 2023.

Ministers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) met fossil fuel lobbyists 274 times, with industry figures present at almost a quarter of meetings.

Ed Miliband, the secretary for energy and climate change, met fossil fuel lobbyists 250 times – with a third of all his meetings attended by industry figures.

During the same period DESNZ ministers met trade union representatives 61 times

Three fossil fuel companies: BP, Shell and Equinor , met ministers 100 times between them.

Fossil fuel lobbyists attended almost every government meeting about the energy profits levy, a temporary windfall tax on the “extraordinary profits” of North Sea oil and gas companies.

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