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Continue reading...Category Archives: Climate crisis
Cop26 summit at serious risk of failure, says Boris Johnson
UK PM says climate crisis talks at G20 over weekend only ‘inched forward’
The Cop26 climate summit is at serious risk of failure because countries are still not promising enough to restrict global temperature rises to below 1.5C, Boris Johnson has warned.
In a blunt admission after two days of preliminary talks at the G20 meeting of world leaders, the prime minister conceded little progress had been made – and the conference is not on track to achieve a deal that keeps the goal alive. He put the chances of success as “six out of 10”.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison to use final G20 remarks to defend climate policy ahead of Cop26
PM says Australia has cut emissions by ‘more than most of the countries sitting around this table’
Scott Morrison will use his final remarks at the G20 summit in Rome to declare climate finance must focus on adaptation and “empowerment”, not just on emissions reduction.
Australia’s prime minister will also push back at coordinated global efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
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Continue reading...Prof Peter Stott: ‘Denialists question the cost of climate action … doing nothing costs far more’
The veteran scientist on Trump’s limited impact, Russia’s ruthless climate stance and on the urgency of COP26 in Glasgow
Prof Peter Stott is a forensic climate detective who examines the human fingerprint on extreme weather. A specialist in mathematics, he leads the climate monitoring and attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services at the Met Office in Exeter and was part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that won the Nobel peace prize in 2007. Since he started in the field more than 25 years ago, Stott has often found himself on the frontline of the battle against the fossil fuel lobby, petrostates and sceptical rightwing US politicians, which he details in his new book. Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial. He is also exploring new forms of scientific expression and is co-founder, with his wife, of the Climate Stories initiative, which brings artists, scientists and members of the public together to respond to the climate emergency by creating new poems, songs and pictures.
You have spent a quarter of a century in climate science. On a personal level, how does that feel?
At times I have felt exhilarated about the progress of our science and hopeful that it will be acted on. In other moments, I felt dispirited that our warnings were ignored, such as at Copenhagen in 2009, or worried when we were attacked as in Moscow in 2004, or in the US and UK after Climategate. At those times, I felt I was uncovering an uncomfortable truth and there were people who were literally trying to stop me from saying it. Now I feel anxious that the clock is ticking on the whole issue. Another very hot year has gone by and there is no sign of action that is sufficient to change the data trends. That makes me concerned about the science I have spent 26 years doing. I hoped this work would make the world a better place, but I am increasingly anxious that this will not happen in time.
Cop26 failure could mean mass migration and food shortages, says Boris Johnson
Ahead of G20 meeting, PM warns of ‘difficult geopolitical events’ echoing those that ended Roman empire
A failure by world leaders to commit to tackling the climate emergency at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow could prompt “very difficult geopolitical events” including mass migration and global competition for food and water, Boris Johnson has said.
Speaking before the start of a gathering of leaders from the G20 industrialised nations in Rome, where he will push for countries to arrive in Glasgow with fixed plans to cut emissions, Johnson said the chances of success hung in the balance.
Continue reading...Cop26: the time for prevarication is over | Katharine Viner
Glasgow 2021 must be the moment when the promise of Paris 2015 becomes real – history will not forgive us otherwise
Summits do not always live up to the name. They can get bogged down in detail and disagreement, never really reaching altitude.
That is often the case with the annual UN climate summits known simply as the Cop, which have earned a reputation since the first was held 26 years ago for being bewildering marathons that overrun and underdeliver.
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Continue reading...‘If we don’t act now it will be too late’, warns Johnson ahead of Cop26
Prime minister says ‘too many countries doing too little’ amid last-minute talks before summit
World leaders have been warned that Cop26 must “mark the beginning of the end of climate change” amid last-minute talks that could help determine the future of the planet.
With the long-awaited environmental summit due to start on Monday, Boris Johnson issued his plea while saying “too many countries are still doing too little”.
Continue reading...Pope Francis urges radical response to climate crisis at Cop26 – video
Pope Francis has urged world leaders to offer 'concrete hope' to future generations. In a special message for BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, before the Cop26 summit in Glasgow next week, the pontiff said climate change and Covid-19 had 'raised numerous doubts and concerns about ... the way we organise our societies'. These global crises could only be overcome through 'a renewed sense of shared responsibility for our world', he added
Continue reading...‘Apocalypse soon’: reluctant Middle East forced to open eyes to climate crisis
With the region warming twice as fast as the rest of the world but oil spoils keeping regimes in power, leaders are in a bind
Northern Oman has just been battered by Cyclone Shaheen, the first tropical cyclone to make it that far west into the Gulf. Around Basra in southern Iraq this summer, pressure on the grid owing to 50C heat led to constant blackouts, with residents driving around in their cars to stay cool.
Kuwait broke the record for the hottest day ever in 2016 at 53.6, and its 10-day rolling average this summer was equally sweltering. Flash floods occurred in Jeddah, and more recently Mecca, while across Saudi Arabia average temperatures have increased by 2%, and the maximum temperatures by 2.5%, all just since the 1980s. In Qatar, the country with the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world and the biggest producer of liquid gas, the outdoors is already being air conditioned.
Continue reading...‘81 million Americans voted for it’: Biden makes ‘historic’ $1.75tn pitch – video
Joe Biden has urged Democrats to pass his $1.75tn social spending plan, insisting he campaigned on the agenda in the bills and ‘81 million Americans voted’ for it. ‘Their voices deserve to he heard, not denied,’ the US president said as he delivered remarks at the White House after declaring he has reached a ‘historic economic framework’ with Democratic lawmakers
Continue reading...Wealthy nations urged to meet $100bn climate finance goal
Countries must close gap on funding target for developing countries says European Commission president
The European Commission president has urged wealthy countries to close the gap to meet a $100bn annual climate finance target for developing nations a year earlier than expected.
Speaking before crucial meetings on the climate emergency at the G20, and at the UN Cop26 talks, the president, Ursula von der Leyen, said rich countries had “to try harder” to close the shortfall in climate finance.
Continue reading...Biden releases new $1.75tn framework for Democrats’ reconciliation package – live
- Biden pitches scaled-down policy agenda to House Democrats
- Progressives want to see package text before supporting bill
- $1.75tn package does not include paid family or medical leave
- Biden’s framework calls for bill to be funded by new taxes on corporations and the wealthy
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Joe Biden rallied House Democrats behind a proposed $1.75tn framework deal that he said could win the support of every Democrat in the Senate and prove to the world that American democracy can deliver.
“I am back here to tell you that we have a framework that will get 50 votes in the United States Senate,” he told House Democrats during a morning caucus meeting, according to a source familiar.
Continue reading...The greatest songs about the climate crisis – ranked!
As Cop26 opens in Glasgow, we provide the soundtrack, ranging from Gojira’s metal fury to gorgeous environmental paeans by Childish Gambino, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell
From its cover shot of a submerged bedroom down, 2019’s Titanic Rising feels like an album informed by the climate crisis, but the lyrics seldom address it explicitly. Something to Believe is the perfect example: a plea not to feel overwhelmed by or nihilistic about the challenges faced, beautifully steeped in the lush sound of early 70s Los Angeles.
Continue reading...The make-or-break climate summit: here’s what’s at stake at Cop26
If leaders in Glasgow do not act to ratchet up carbon cutting, the alternative is a dialling up of calamitous global heating
Cop26 may involve dozens of world leaders, cost billions of pounds, generate reams of technical jargon and be billed as the last chance to prevent calamitous global heating, but at its simplest the climate conference in Glasgow is a debate about dialling up or dialling down risk.
Continue reading...‘We can’t live like this’: climate shocks rain down on Honduras’s poorest
Rural communities like Chapagua that have done least to stoke the climate crisis barely have time to recover from one disaster before another hits
It was around dusk on the third consecutive day of heavy rain when the River Aguán burst its banks and muddy waters surged through the rural community of Chapagua in north-east Honduras, sweeping away crops, motorbikes and livestock.
Most inhabitants fled to higher ground after the category 4 Hurricane Eta made landfall in early November 2020, but fisherman Rosendo García stayed behind, hoping to safeguard the family’s home and animals. After a ravine on the opposite side of the village also flooded, there was no way out.
Continue reading...World is failing to make changes needed to avoid climate breakdown, report finds
Pace of emissions reductions must be increased significantly to keep global heating to 1.5C
Every corner of society is failing to take the “transformational change” needed to avert the most disastrous consequences of the climate crisis, with trends either too slow or in some cases even regressing, according to a major new global analysis.
Across 40 different areas spanning the power sector, heavy industry, agriculture, transportation, finance and technology, not one is changing quickly enough to avoid 1.5C in global heating beyond pre-industrial times, a critical target of the Paris climate agreement, according to the new Systems Change Lab report.
Continue reading...Australian politics live: Scott Morrison heads to Rome for G20 before climate summit
Prime minister is flying to Europe amid global criticism of his plan for Australia to reach a net zero emissions target. Follow all the day’s news
- Labor has led Coalition in eight of nine Guardian Essential polls
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McKinsey, a consulting company paid to advise on the vaccine rollout before receiving another contract to advise on the government’s net zero 2050 commitment, is now being paid to advise on how to cut down on waiting times for veterans waiting for their benefits.
From estimates overnight:
To mark this new chapter, Australia will invest $154 million into our cooperation with Asean through:
· a new Australia for ASEAN Futures Initiative, which will provide $124 million to support projects that address complex challenges including health security, terrorism and transnational crime, energy security, promoting the circular economy and healthy oceans, and support implementation of the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP);
Continue reading...Southern Italy braced for rare Mediterranean hurricane
‘Medicane’ storm with winds of 100km/h expected in Sicily, where two have died in flooding
Southern Italy was braced on Wednesday for the arrival of what forecasters have described as a Medicane – a rare Mediterranean hurricane bringing winds of more than 100kmh and producing 5-metre waves.
Fierce storms have battered Sicily for days, leaving roads submerged in the eastern part of the island and claiming the lives of at least two people. Video footage shows flood waters engulfing the city of Palermo, turning streets into rivers and squares into lakes.
Continue reading...What’s the beef with cows and the climate crisis?
Reducing methane emissions is seen as the biggest opportunity for slowing global heating by 2040
About a third of human-caused methane emissions come from livestock, mostly from beef and dairy cattle, produced in the digestive process that allows ruminants (hoofed animals including cows, sheep and goats with four-part stomachs) to absorb plants.
Cows and other farm animals produce about 14% of human-induced climate emissions, and it is methane from their burps and manure that is seen as both the biggest concern and best opportunity for tackling global heating.
Although methane breaks down relatively quickly in the atmosphere, it is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Reducing these emissions has been touted as one of the most immediate opportunities to slow global heating ahead of the Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow.
Australia politics live news: government faces net zero ‘plan’ fallout; Covid vaccine booster shots approved; overseas travel for fully vaccinated
Question time tackles climate policy as PM faces mounting criticism over roadmap for reducing emissions by 2050; vaccine booster program to begin from 8 November; 16 Covid deaths in Victoria and NSW; international travel exemption scrapped for vaccinated Australians; national child abuse prevention strategy announced. Follow all the day’s news
- Australian Open: no exemptions for unvaccinated tennis players, Victoria premier says
- Angus Taylor reveals trade-offs with Nationals for net zero support not yet approved by cabinet
- Fearful of losing their homelands, islands are taking Australia to court over climate
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The UN Environment Programme’s latest emissions gap report is out and it makes for sobering reading. The accompanying statement includes this:
Alok Sharma, incoming COP26 President, said the report underlined why countries need to show ambitious climate action at COP26:
“As this report makes clear, if countries deliver on their 2030 NDCs and net zero commitments which have been announced by the end of September, we will be heading towards average global temperature rises of just above 2C.
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