Most expensive storm cost $100bn while deadliest floods killed 1,700 and displaced 7 million, report finds
The 10 most expensive storms, floods and droughts in 2022 each cost at least $3bn (£2.5bn) in a “devastating” year on the frontline of the climate crisis, a report shows.
Christian Aid has highlighted the worst climate-related disasters of the year asmore intense storms, heavy downpours and droughts are driven by rising global temperatures as a result of human activity.
Continue reading...Increased plant growth due to warmer climate appears to be prompting change in eating habits
As the Arctic warms, concern for the plight of Santa’s favourite sleigh pullers is mounting. But in one small corner of the far flung north – Svalbard – Rudolph and his friends are thriving.
Warmer temperatures are boosting plant growth and giving Svalbard reindeer more time to build up fat reserves; they also appear to be shifting their diets towards “popsicle-like” grasses that poke up through the ice and snow, data suggests.
Continue reading...Government research shows dramatic decline in numbers in western Hudson Bay stronghold
Polar bears are disappearing fast from the western part of Hudson Bay on the southern tip of the Canadian Arctic, according to a government survey.
The report said there had been a dramatic decline in the of number of female bears and cubs in particular.
Continue reading...Spending bill passed by Senate includes less than $1bn in climate assistance for poorer nations even though Biden promised $11.4bn
The US has risked alienating developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis, after Congress delivered just a fraction of the money promised by Joe Biden to help poorer nations adapt to worsening storms, floods and droughts.
Biden has promised $11.4bn each year for developing countries to ease climate impacts and help them shift to renewable energy but the vast $1.7tn spending bill to keep the US government running, passed by the Senate on Thursday, includes less than $1bn in climate assistance for these countries.
Continue reading...Waratah Coal lodges application to overturn recommendation that lease and approvals be refused
A company owned by Clive Palmer is seeking to overturn a landmark ruling that found its plans to dig Australia’s largest thermal coalmine in central Queensland would infringe upon the human rights of future generations and exacerbate the climate crisis.
The coalition that first brought the case court – led by young First Nations women and environmentalists – is vowing to defend last month’s ruling, which they describe as “the most significant decision on climate change and human rights in Australia”.
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Continue reading...Three campaign groups challenge plans to award up to 130 new licences for exploration
The UK government is facing a fresh challenge in the courts over plans to award up to 130 new licences for North Sea oil and gas exploration, in the latest attempt to stop ministers’ proposed expansion of the country’s fossil fuel production.
Three campaign groups have written to the business secretary, Grant Shapps, explaining the grounds on which they consider the latest offshore oil and gas licensing round to be unlawful. They call for the decision to award the new licences to be reversed, arguing that new oil and gas exploration and development is incompatible with the UK’s own rules and international climate obligations.
Continue reading...Chair of the museum, George Osborne, says it no longer wants to be a ‘destination for climate protest’
The future for the British Museum could be very different indeed. That was the message from the organisation’s chair George Osborne in his annual speech to Trustees last month, in which he announced a “complete reimagination” of the museum, under a billion-pound masterplan that will be revealed next year.
Among the hints of potential loans of its exhibits, leading to further speculation over the Parthenon marbles, was one explicit promise on energy. “Our goal is to be a net zero carbon museum,” said Osborne, “no longer a destination for climate protest but instead an example of climate solution”.
Continue reading...Jim Chalmers will say global investors increasingly see ‘a new harmony between profit and planet’
Banks and other big businesses will be forced to come clean with the public about what they are doing to cut emissions under plans put forward by the Albanese government.
The government is also looking for ways to crack down on “greenwashing” – or when businesses try to win over consumers by overhyping their environmental practices.
Continue reading...Exclusive: A string of protesters linked to Blockade Australia have been charged under the legislation
More than a dozen climate activists are facing possible jail time over protests in Sydney’s CBD this year after being charged under the same controversial laws that led to Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco being handed a 15-month prison sentence.
Court documents seen by the Guardian show a string of activists linked to climate group Blockade Australia have been charged under the laws, which introduced a two-year jail sentence for protests that block major roads, bridges or tunnels in New South Wales.
Continue reading...Experts create guide to help save seabirds from bleak future caused by global heating
The majority of puffin nesting sites in western Europe are likely to be lost by the end of the century due to climate breakdown, a report has warned.
Other seabirds will also be affected unless urgent action to limit global heating is taken, with razorbills and arctic terns forecast to lose 80% and 87% of their breeding grounds respectively owing to reduced food accessibility and prolonged periods of stormy weather.
Continue reading...Crossbench says government’s response ‘moving in the right direction’ but lacks aspects such as a climate trigger and a pause on logging
The Greens and independent senator David Pocock have signalled they will expect the Albanese government to move more urgently to improve environmental protection if it is to win their support for conservation law changes next year.
On Thursday, the government released its response to the 2020 review of national environmental laws by the former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel. The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced a suite of proposed reforms, including a new environment protection authority and national environmental standards.
Continue reading...Mine could affect Britain’s climate commitments, which some believe could help get decision struck down
The government has given the green light to a new coalmine in Cumbria, the first in the UK for more than 30 years, but already moves have begun to challenge the decision before construction work can start.
Climate campaigners are examining the decision with a view to a legal challenge, based on the UK’s national and international legally binding climate commitments.
Continue reading...Climate crisis increases risks for subsistence farmers in Africa who usually work throughout pregnancy
Rising temperatures driven by climate breakdown are causing distress to the foetuses of pregnant farmers, who are among the worst affected by global heating.
A study revealed that the foetuses of women working in fields in the Gambia showed concerning rises in heart rates and reductions in the blood flow to the placenta as conditions became hotter. The women, who do much of the agricultural labour and work throughout pregnancy, told the scientists that temperatures had noticeably increased in the past decade.
Continue reading...Hybrid vehicles so popular they account for one in every three cars sold by Toyota
Hybrid vehicles that combine battery and fuel technology are proving increasingly popular in Australia with sales double that of more expensive electric-only cars.
Sales figures released this week show that low-emissions cars are soaring in popularity.
Continue reading...Emails show how NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s advisers, along with several other ministers, sought to fast-track bill after media furore
The bill that led to climate activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco being jailed for 15 months had not even made it through the New South Wales parliament in April when the offices of multiple ministers were pushing to have it rubber-stamped by the state’s governor.
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal how the governor, Margaret Beazley, agreed to return to her office about 11pm after a function in April to sign off on the laws after a senior public servant complained he was “copping it from absolutely every direction”.
Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.