Category Archives: Climate crisis

Rishi Sunak delays some green targets and scraps others as he reveals net zero policy shift – as it happened

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PM says people to be given more time to switch gas boilers to heat pumps, and ban on sale of new petrol and diesel cars delayed

Climate scientists have expressed dismay at reports that Rishi Sunak is to row back on net zero commitments, arguing that this would be harmful not just environmentally, but economically too.

Prof Myles Allen, professor of geosystem sciences at Oxford University, said:

We haven’t heard the actual speech yet, but we all have to hope the PM is true to his word that he is looking for better ways to deliver net zero, not just slower ways. As we have found time and again in Britain, dithering costs money. The USA is seeing other countries’ faltering as an opportunity to get ahead. It will be sad indeed if we just see it as an opportunity to join the laggards.

It’s not pragmatic, it’s pathetic. This rolling back on emissions cuts for short-term political gain will undermine the transition to net zero and with it the future opportunities, prosperity and safety of the entire country.

Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide which causes global warming which amplifies the consequences of extreme weather events, as we have so clearly seen this summer. Climate change will continue until we reach net zero globally, and we will then have to suffer the consequences of that warmer world for decades or more. It also matters how we reach net zero, not just when – delaying action means more emissions which means more severe consequences.

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‘Pathetic’: what scientists and green groups think of UK’s net zero U-turn

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UK not a serious player in global race for green growth, says Greenpeace, while Oxfam says move is ‘betrayal’

Scientists and environmental groups have expressed anger and dismay at the U-turn on net zero expected by the prime minister.

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Australia should wipe out climate footprint by 2035 instead of 2050, scientists urge

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The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering says ministers must ‘make up for lost time’ with more ambitious policy

Australian engineers and technology scientists have urged the Albanese government to “make up for lost time” and set itself a “monumental challenge” by setting a target to wipe out the country’s climate footprint by 2035 – 15 years earlier than currently proposed.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, representing nearly 900 leading engineers and scientists, called on the government to set a goal of reaching net zero emissions in just 12 years, arguing it could be achieved with existing mature, low-carbon technology.

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Extreme weather shows need for early warning systems, says Spanish minister

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Teresa Ribera calls for alert systems in every country by 2027 after spate of natural disasters across the world

The latest spate of natural disasters – from the floods in Libya, Greece and Spain to the wildfires in Hawaii and Canada – has further underscored the need for early warning systems to help the world cope with the realities of the climate emergency, Spain’s environment minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian as she prepared to travel to New York to take part in the UN’s climate ambition summit and sign a landmark treaty to protect the high seas, Teresa Ribera said the calamities laid bare the challenges the planet faced.

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Elephants on the march across African borders as heat stress leads to fatalities

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Mortality rate grows as animals roam long distances and clash with local people in desperate search for water

The climate crisis is pushing elephants on a forced migration across borders in southern Africa in search of water, creating problems for national parks and conservation efforts.

In recent weeks, Zimbabwe’s elephants have been crossing the country’s borders into Botswana, officials said on Tuesday. Exactly how many elephants are affected is not yet known. The development comes as a survey this month revealed that elephants are dying of heat stress.

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Japan swelters through ‘abnormal’ autumn, with warnings of more heat to come

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After experiencing a record-breaking number of ‘extremely hot’ days in summer, the unusually high temperatures are due to continue

Matsutake mushrooms and persimmons have appeared on supermarket shelves, along with seasonal beers and sakes. In Tokyo neighbourhoods, residents carry portable shrines through the streets at festivals to mark the end of summer, and children get ready for school sports days.

Autumn, though, has yet to make an appearance in Japan. Instead, experts are warning that the crisp, sunny days that usually offer relief at the end of a sweltering summer are still some way off, with one describing the weather as “abnormal”.

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Bushfires stretch along east coast as Sydney expected to break September heat record

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Dozens of blazes in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania as extreme heatwave moves north

Dozens of fires are burning across the east coast of Australia during the spring heatwave with residents forced to evacuate homes and Sydney expected to set a new September heat record.

There were 63 grass and bushland fires burning along the New South Wales coast on Wednesday morning including 12 that were uncontained.

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Sunak planning to drop net zero policies in pre-election challenge to Labour

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Plans set to be announced on Friday could include delaying ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars

Rishi Sunak is planning to row back on some of the government’s net zero policies that impose a direct cost on consumers as the Conservatives attempt to create a dividing line with Labour before the next election.

The Guardian understands that the move, expected to be announced in a major speech this Friday, could include delaying a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and watering down the phasing out of gas boilers.

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‘Missing half the equation’: scientists criticise Australia over approach to fossil fuels

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Prof Lesley Hughes and others says there is ‘cognitive dissonance’ between Labor’s stated commitment to the climate crisis and its policies

The Australian government is “missing half the equation” in acting on the climate crisis by backing a shift to renewable energy but having no plan to get out of fossil fuels, according to an author of a new scientific review.

Prof Lesley Hughes is a leading climate change scientist and member of the independent Climate Council and government advisory body the Climate Change Authority. Hughes said there is a “cognitive dissonance” between Labor’s stated commitment to addressing the problem and the pace at which it is moving.

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Global heating made Greece and Libya floods more likely, study says

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Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster

Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.

Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.

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Climate action must respond to extreme weather driving health crisis, says WHO

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Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears

Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”

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European governments shrinking railways in favour of road-building, report finds

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Rail networks in most countries have been starved of funding while motorways lengthen, study shows

European governments have “systematically” shrunk their railways and starved them of funding while pouring money into expanding their road network, a report has found.

The length of motorways in Europe grew 60% between 1995 and 2020 while railways shrank 6.5%, according to research from the German thinktanks Wuppertal Institute and T3 Transportation. For every €1 governments spent building railways, they spent €1.6 building roads.

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Climate activists block Federal Reserve bank, calling for end to fossil fuel funding

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Action came as world leaders begin arriving in New York for the UN general assembly and after Sunday’s march to end fossil fuels

One day after the largest climate march since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of climate activists blockaded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to call for an end to funding for coal, oil and gas, with police making scores of arrests.

“Fossil fuel companies … wouldn’t be able to operate without money, and that money is coming primarily from Wall Street,” Alicé Nascimento, environmental campaigns director at New York Communities for Change, said hours before she was arrested.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells climate marchers to be ‘too big and too radical to ignore’ – live

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Demonstration falls days before the United Nations climate ambition summit, at which Joe Biden is expected to be a no-show

Actor and climate activist Susan Sarandon opened her speech by congratulating the students of New York University on the news of their university divesting from fossil fuels after years of pressure, as the Guardian first reported last week.

Addressing the crowd, she said, “You guys give me hope,” adding: “What we have to do is take responsibility and press those that are at the top to finally step up.”

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Key ‘Bidenomics’ architect calls for spending ‘race to the top’ on green tech

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Biden adviser Heather Boushey urges UK and Europe to increase climate friendly investment to reboot growth

Governments around the world must drastically increase public investment in green technologies to combat global heating and drive sustainable economic growth, a top adviser to President Joe Biden has said.

Heather Boushey, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, said countries including the UK needed to ramp up green investment to reboot economic growth, boost energy security, and protect against future inflation shocks.

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AOC to headline rally at New York climate march ahead of UN summit

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March on Sunday will cap a week of more than 650 global actions and is expected to be the largest US climate march in five years

A climate protest and rally headlined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday are expected to bring thousands of activists to the streets of New York.

Under the banner March to End Fossil Fuels, protesters will push the Biden administration to take bold steps to phase out fossil fuels. The demonstration will fall days before the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, which the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described as a “no nonsense” conference meant to highlight new climate commitments.

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‘Towns were erased’: Libyan reporters on the ‘horrifying, harrowing’ aftermath of floods

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Journalists who reported on last week’s catastrophic storm say the country’s bloody political tussle has contributed to the collapse of services

Early last week, Mohamed Eljabo travelled to the eastern provinces of Libya, passing through Derna, Al Bayda and Sousa, and what he saw he describes as “shock beyond comprehension”.

“I have visited these cities before and I know them well,” he says. “I expected to find these cities when I made the journey from Tripoli. I expected to see the neighbourhoods and towns. But these were gone. Erased. It was horrifying.”

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Opposition leader accused of being ‘chief propagandist’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

All eyes will be on the high court from about 10am, when it hands down its decision on whether Qantas illegally sacked its ground staff three years ago. The TWU brought the case and Qantas has appealed it all the way to the high court.

You can read some of the previous reporting here:

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‘Disastrous beyond comprehension’: 10,000 missing after Libya floods

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Neighbourhoods washed away in port city of Derna, where two dams burst, with many bodies swept out to sea

The situation in Derna, the Libyan port city where two dams burst over the weekend, has been described as “disastrous beyond comprehension”, as the Red Cross and local officials said at least 10,000 people were missing after the devastating floods.

The confirmed death toll has exceeded 5,300, Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesperson for the administration that controls the east of Libya told a state-run news agency late on Tuesday. Tariq al-Kharraz, another representative of the eastern government, said that entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.

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Climate crisis: Africa is talking but is the west listening?

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Africa’s largest meeting on the crisis finished last week amid arguments over ‘false solutions’ and unfulfilled promises. But will the lofty ideals presented translate into better lives for Africans?

More than a dozen African leaders stood outside Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi last Wednesday to review what had been billed as the continent’s largest meeting on the climate crisis.

Earlier that morning, the Nairobi Declaration had been adopted as a blueprint to guide the continent in future negotiations with the west in global forums such as the G20 meeting; the UN general assembly; the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund; and Cop28.

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