Category Archives: Climate crisis

Australia urged to take leadership role at Cop15 biodiversity summit

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‘The conference for nature this month in Montreal could be what Paris was for climate. We must seize this opportunity’, environment minister Tanya Plibersek says

Australia is being urged to take a leadership role at a global summit that aims to reach what has been described as the nature equivalent of the landmark Paris agreement on climate change.

Countries will meet in Montreal for the Cop15 biodiversity summit from 7 December to work on a new framework agreement to end biodiversity decline. Campaigners say if successful it should result in the global destruction of nature being halted and reversed such that wild areas and habitat for threatened species start to increase in size between now and 2030.

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UN official ‘alarmed’ by jailing of climate activist who blocked traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge

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Human rights groups around the world express outrage over ‘disproportionate’ punishment of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco

A senior UN official has said he is “alarmed” a peaceful Australian climate protester has been jailed for 15 months – and refused bail before her appeal – amid global concern at her “disproportionate” punishment.

On Friday, Deanna “Violet” Coco was sentenced to 15 months in prison for blocking a single lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April in a protest staged to draw attention to the global climate emergency.

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Earthshot fund gives £1m to UK scientists fighting climate crisis

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Scientists who have replaced plastic packaging with seaweed among those to be given prize by Prince of Wales

Scientists who have replaced plastic packaging with seaweed are among those who have been given a £1m prize by the Prince of Wales’s Earthshot fund.

The prize is aimed at rewarding innovative solutions to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies, and is named after former US president John F Kennedy’s Moonshot challenge in the 1960s, which united millions of people around the goal of putting a person on the moon within a decade.

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Climate activist who blocked traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge jailed for at least eight months

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Lawyers for Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco, who stopped traffic for 25 minutes in April, say it is ‘outrageous’ their client was refused bail ahead of an appeal next year

A climate protester who blocked a lane of traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge has been sentenced to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months, with human rights advocates labelling the punishment “disproportionate”.

Magistrate Allison Hawkins in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Friday sentenced Deanna “Violet” Coco to prison for her role in the climate protest on 13 April this year, when the now 32-year-old parked a truck and stood holding a lit flare.

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Australia is on track … sort of: official expert advice urges a ‘big upward shift’ on emissions cuts

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Climate change minister tells parliament official projection of 40% cut does not factor in all Labor’s policy commitments

Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has declared the country on track to reach a 40% cut in climate pollution by 2030 – just short of the national target of 43% – but the government has been told a “big upward shift in momentum” is needed to tackle the problem.

Giving the country’s first climate statement to parliament, which is now required annually under legislation passed earlier this year, Bowen said the official projection of a 40% cut did not factor in all Labor’s policy commitments, and that those measures would “lift our result to at least 43%”.

The statement did not shed light on what the government would do to make deeper cuts in line with its goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, an expectation raised by a UN-backed report if the Great Barrier Reef is to avoid being nominated as a world heritage site “in danger”. It also did not mention the country’s vast coal and gas export industries.

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Australia’s banks likely to reduce lending to regions and sectors at risk of climate change impacts, regulator says

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Apra finds country’s banks may be more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face threefold increase in lending losses

Banks expect to reduce lending to households and businesses in northern Australia and to fossil fuel industries across the country as the risk of losses due to the climate crisis escalates, the industry regulator says.

A new report by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) found climate change could make banks more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face up to a threefold increase in lending losses by 2050, but that the system should be able to absorb the impact.

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Tyre Extinguishers deflate tyres of 900 SUVs in ‘biggest ever action’

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The climate activists claim to have targeted 4x4 owners in eight European and US cities

Guerrilla climate activists Tyre Extinguishers have claimed their “largest ever night of action against SUVs”, with 900 of the vehicles targeted around the world.

“Last night (the evening of Monday 28 November and early morning of Tuesday 29 November), citizens in eight countries deflated tyres on nearly 900 polluting SUVs,” the activist group said in a statement.

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Australia politics live: Dutton says Coalition won’t support motion to censure Morrison – but Archer says she is ‘inclined to’

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The censure motion against Scott Morrison over multiple ministries scandal will be debated in House of Representatives tomorrow. Follow the day’s news live

Bipartisanship cedes to brinkmanship in battle over integrity commission

Meanwhile, Mark Dreyfus is preparing to stare down the Liberals and the Greens over an amendment to the national anti-corruption commission legislation which Dreyfus says risks establishing the commission and the Liberals and Greens say will ensure it won’t be political.

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Tories will not reach ‘embarrassingly poor’ nature targets by 2030, Labour says

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Opposition to unveil plan to reverse biodiversity loss rather than simply halting it, which is government’s current target

The government will not be able to achieve its nature targets by 2030, even though they are “embarrassingly poor”, the shadow environment minister and leading wildlife groups have said.

Next week at the Cop15 biodiversity conference in Montreal, Alex Sobel will be discussing Labour’s “science-led, joined-up plan to tackle the climate and ecological emergency”. The plan will aim to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, rather than simply halting it, which is the government’s current target.

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Climate concern the main reason voters swung to independents at federal election, study finds

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Nearly half of voters who switched to an independent candidate at 2022 election did so because of climate fears, researchers say

Concern about the climate crisis was the No 1 issue that prompted Australians to switch their vote to an independent candidate at this year’s federal election, according to in-depth social research.

It was the No 2 issue that led to people to swing to Labor, behind concern about the cost of living – including affordable housing.

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Gordon Brown says China must pay into climate fund for poor countries

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Former prime minister says US and Europe will pay biggest share of loss and damage fund, but China must too

China must pay into a new fund for poor countries stricken by climate-driven disaster on the basis of its high greenhouse gas emissions and large economy, the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

“America and Europe will have to provide most, but China will have to contribute more too,” he told the Guardian.

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The Australian suburbs where more than half of properties will be uninsurable by 2030

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‘We’re now seeing that the system is not able to cope with climate change,’ insurance analyst says

When Kim Sly moved to a lower-lying area of Forbes four years ago, she was asked to pay $12,000 a year for flood insurance.

The bill was a shock. Her new home was built 1.2 metres above the ground to protect it from floods, a factor that did not seem to influence the insurance company’s assessment.

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‘Point of no return’: Chris Packham leads calls for Rishi Sunak to attend Cop15

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Conservationist says if world leaders do not go to the summit a strong deal to halt and reverse nature loss is at risk

Chris Packham is urging the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to attend a key nature summit to protect the planet for the sake of his great-grandchildren because we are “very close to the point of no return”.

The Cop15 biodiversity summit being held in Montreal from 7-19 December is the nature equivalent of the recent Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, with governments from all over the world expected to agree targets to halt the destruction of the natural world. But world leaders are not expected to attend the once-in-a-decade meeting where the next 10 years of targets will be agreed.

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US receives stinging criticism at Cop27 despite China’s growing emissions

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The country is highlighting China’s status as top polluter after being called out for climate inaction

The US, fresh from reversing its 30 years of opposition to a “loss and damage” fund for poorer countries suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, has signaled that its longstanding image as global climate villain should now be pinned on a new culprit: China.

Following years of tumult in which the US refused to provide anything resembling compensation for climate damages, followed by Donald Trump’s removal of America from the Paris climate agreement, there was a profound shift at the Cop27 UN talks in Egypt, with Joe Biden’s administration agreeing to the new loss and damage fund.

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Trevor McDougall wins $250,000 science prize for researching ‘thermal flywheel’ of climate system

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Oceanographer takes top honours in prime minister’s prizes for science after researching ocean’s role in regulating climate

When Trevor McDougall began studying the ocean in the 1970s he had no idea that his field would become a crucial part of climate science.

The University of New South Wales professor was on Monday awarded the top honour at the prime minister’s prizes for science for his contributions to the field of oceanography and research on the ocean’s role in regulating the climate.

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Australia politics live: Albanese accuses Dutton of ‘dog-whistling’ over Cop27 climate damage fund

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Buy now, pay later review has been coming for a while

The last time the issue was examined, under the previous government, it was decided the industry could regulate itself.

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‘We couldn’t fail them’: how Pakistan’s floods spurred fight at Cop for loss and damage fund

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With the deadly devastation fresh in the world’s mind, Pakistan pushed for damage funds with other frontline countries

In early September, after unprecedented rainfall had left a third of Pakistan under water, its climate change minister set out the country’s stall for Cop27. “We are on the frontline and intend to keep loss and damage and adapting to climate catastrophes at the core of our arguments and negotiations. There will be no moving away from that,” Sherry Rehman said.

Pakistan brought that resolve to the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh and, as president of the G77 plus China negotiating bloc, succeeded in keeping developing countries united on loss and damage – despite efforts by some rich countries to divide them. Its chief negotiator, Nabeel Munir, a career diplomat, was backed by a team of savvy veteran negotiators who had witnessed the devastation and suffering from the floods, which caused $30bn (£25bn) of damage and economic losses. Every day, Munir repeated the same message: “Loss and damage is not charity, it’s about climate justice.”

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No ice rinks, fewer lights: Christmas markets across Europe scaled back as energy costs soar

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Cities are trying hard to keep the festive spirit amid the cost of living crisis and war in Ukraine

European Christmas markets and illuminations are scaling back due to the energy crisis and climate breakdown – ditching seasonal ice rinks for rollerskating and switching on lights for less time.

When the traditional end-of-year markets and Christmas lights launch in France and Germany this week, in many cities such as Paris they will go dark hours earlier than usual.

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Rich nations relent on climate aid to poor at Cop27

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Developed countries agree to ‘loss and damage’ fund for vulnerable nations, but delay approving wider deal

The world’s poorest countries have scored a historic victory at the Cop27 climate summit, after countries agreed to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but delayed approving a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.

After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian Cop27 presidency early on Sunday released a draft text for an overall agreement – and simultaneously called a plenary session to gavel it through as the final, overarching agreement for the UN summit.

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EU president says Cop27 deal is ‘small step towards climate justice’ but warns much more to be done – as it happened

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Despite breakthrough on fund for developing nations, Ursula von der Leyen says Cop27 has not delivered on commitment to phase down fossil fuels

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The main sticking point of Cop27 has been over the creation of a loss and damage fund – finance provided by rich nations to poorer ones to help them prepare for and recover from the worst impacts of climate breakdown.

Some, especially in the rightwing press, have framed this as “reparations”, a highly loaded term. It’s also misleading, as under article 8 of the Paris climate agreement it is explicitly made clear that loss and damage “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation”.

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