Category Archives: Cop26

‘We can’t live like this’: climate shocks rain down on Honduras’s poorest

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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.

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Australian politics live: Scott Morrison heads to Rome for G20 before climate summit

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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

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);

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National paid family and medical leave reportedly cut from US reconciliation package – live

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Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Rail strikes planned during Cop26 climate conference called off

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Industrial action abandoned as trade union leaders confirmed pay talks with ScotRail have been settled

Rail strikes planned for next week’s Cop26 climate conference have been abandoned after trade union leaders confirmed negotiations on a pay rise have been settled.

The announcement was made after talks between the RMT union and transport bosses on Wednesday.

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What’s the beef with cows and the climate crisis?

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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.

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Australia politics live news: government faces net zero ‘plan’ fallout; Covid vaccine booster shots approved; overseas travel for fully vaccinated

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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

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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World has wasted chance to build back better after Covid, UN says

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Report says countries must strengthen climate ambitions after wasting chance to build back better after Covid

The world is squandering the opportunity to “build back better” from the Covid-19 pandemic, and faces disastrous temperature rises of at least 2.7C if countries fail to strengthen their climate pledges, according to a report from the UN.

Tuesday’s publication warns that countries’ current pledges would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut scientists say is needed to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, the aim of the Cop26 summit that opens in Glasgow this Sunday.

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‘One of the greatest injustices’: Pacific islands on the frontline of the climate crisis – video

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Pacific countries are among those most at risk amid the climate crisis. Islands are becoming more difficult to inhabit and people across the region face an impossible decision: to stay in a dangerous place, or leave their homes and culture behind. Samoan journalist Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson talks about the cost of global heating and what Pacific leaders are asking for at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

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Cop26: our experts answer your questions about crucial climate summit – live

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Fiona Harvey, Professor Saleemul Huq, Lucy Siegle, Hannah Martin, Professor Mary Gagen and Damian Carrington answer your questions on Cop26

If you have a question for the panel pop it in the comments at the bottom or email me at bibi.vanderzee@theguardian.com.

Q: Does ending the manufacturing of plastic products enter into the Climate Change discussion? Amanda Bliss Taylor, Los Angeles, US.

Damian Carrington replies: The short answer is not really at the moment. Today, the overwhelming majority of climate-heating emissions comes from the burning of fossil fuels. But in coming decades plastic production is likely to account for most oil use and as that nears there will be more focus on the issue. In the meantime, plastic pollution of the planet is the key driver of plans to cut plastic production.

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Climate crisis: greenhouse gas levels hit new record despite lockdowns, UN reports

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The data send a ‘stark’ message to the nations tasked with increasing action at the Cop26 climate summit, UN meteorology chief says

Levels of climate-heating gases in the atmosphere hit record levels in 2020, despite coronavirus-related lockdowns, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has announced.

The concentration of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, is now 50% higher than before the Industrial Revolution sparked the mass burning of fossil fuels. Methane levels have more than doubled since 1750. All key greenhouse gases (GHG) rose faster in 2020 than the average for the previous decade and this trend has continued in 2021, the WMO report found.

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Poorest countries to gain from new climate funding plan to break Cop26 impasse

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Climate finance plan needed to gain backing of developing nations for any deal at Glasgow talks

The world’s poorest countries are set to benefit from a new climate funding plan to help them cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, in an effort to break the impasse between developed and developing countries at the UN Cop26 climate summit

The UK government, as Cop26 host, will unveil the proposals on Monday along with ministers from Germany and Canada, who have been charged with drawing up a plan for climate finance, needed to gain the backing of scores of developing countries for any deal at the talks, which open in Glasgow next Sunday.

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Current approach to wildfires risks lives and wastes money, say experts

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Researchers call for new firefighting techniques that focus on managing landscapes, as global heating sees increase in blazes

A new approach is urgently needed to tackle global wildfires as current methods are no longer working, draining the public purse and placing lives at risk, according to experts.

This summer saw some of the worst wildfires in history and underscored the destructive impacts of global heating. As Cop26 approaches and is expected to shine a light on the importance of protecting ecosystems and building defences to avoid loss of homes and lives, experts say a lack of foresight and funding worldwide means harmful wildfires will continue to rage, putting communities and firefighters in danger.

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Cop26 climate deal will be harder than Paris accord, admits Sharma

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Summit president says 2015 global emissions agreement a ‘framework’ but rules were left for future talks

Achieving a global climate deal in Glasgow in the next three weeks will be harder than signing the Paris agreement of 2015, the UK president-designate of the Cop26 talks has said.

Alok Sharma, the cabinet minister in charge of the UK-hosted talks, just over a week away, said the task would be to get nearly 200 countries to implement stringent cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions, in line with holding global temperature increases to within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels – a goal fast receding as global carbon output continues to climb.

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No formal Cop26 role for big oil amid doubts over firms’ net zero plans

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Officials from fossil fuel firms may attend fringe events but campaigners hail lack of official role

Fossil fuel firms have been given no official role in the Cop26 climate summit, it can be revealed, against a background of growing concern among UK officials that big oil’s net zero plans do not stack up.

Private emails from civil servants in the Cop unit, seen by the Guardian, show doubts about one oil major’s net zero plans, with an official saying BP “[does] not currently fit our success criteria for Cop26” and another noting “it’s unclear whether [its net zero] commitments stack up yet”.

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Global heating ‘may lead to epidemic of kidney disease’

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Deadly side-effect of heat stress is threat to rising numbers of workers in hot climates, doctors warn

Chronic kidney disease linked to heat stress could become a major health epidemic for millions of workers around the world as global temperatures increase over the coming decades, doctors have warned.

More research into the links between heat and CKDu – chronic kidney disease of uncertain cause – is urgently needed to assess the potential scale of the problem, they have said.

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‘You shouldn’t work if your kidneys are failing – but people can’t afford not to’

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Global heating is having a deadly impact on Nicaragua’s sugar cane workers, who toil in temperatures of up to 45C

At the Sacuanjoche clinic in Chinandega, the largest city in Nicaragua’s sugar cane-growing region, nephrologist Nelson Garcia does the rounds of his patients. Many are suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD); most fell ill while working long hours under the beating sun in the nearby sugar cane fields, and now have damaged and failing kidneys.

“People arrive with a host of symptoms here; some are really nauseous, or vomiting, or have severe diarrhoea,” Garcia says, adding that although unsure exactly how many people he has treated for heat stress and related kidney diseases this year, he knows it is a lot. “Others are physically weakened, tired, or have nasty muscular cramps, while others complain about having no appetite or libido – there really are so many symptoms.”

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Australia politics live: climate deadline looms as Nationals prepare demands for Morrison; Victoria records 2,232 Covid cases, NSW 372

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Covid case numbers rise in Victoria and NSW; Victoria hits 70% vaccination target; Nationals MPs poised to hand PM details of what they require to secure support for a 2050 net zero emissions target – follow all today’s news

Scott Morrison will also appear on Nine’s commercial breakfast TV show. No doubt we’ll have one of the favoured radio shows pop up as a media alert soon.

Penny Wong is now in the ABC radio studios speaking to Fran Kelly on ABC RN.

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Too hot to handle: can our bodies withstand global heating?

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Extreme heat can kill or cause long-term health problems – but for many unendurable temperatures are the new normal

The impact of extreme heat on the human body is not unlike what happens when a car overheats. Failure starts in one or two systems, and eventually it takes over the whole engine until the car stops.

That’s according to Mike McGeehin, environmental health epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “When the body can no longer cool itself it immediately impacts the circulatory system. The heart, the kidneys, and the body become more and more heated and eventually our cognitive abilities begin to desert us – and that’s when people begin fainting, eventually going into a coma and dying.”

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Australia politics live: Scott Morrison in last-ditch talks with Nationals on net zero

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Prime minister expected to push Liberals and Nationals to find agreement on emissions roadmap in meeting on Tuesday. Follow the latest updates live

And also worth keeping in mind – the Liberals don’t actually need the Nationals to move ahead with the climate commitments. Nothing is going to parliament (at least at this stage – because we are talking a 2050 plan) which means there is no danger of people crossing the floor.

Scott Morrison told the Liberal party room yesterday he planned on taking Australia’s commitment to net zero by 2050 to Glasgow as an NDC – a a nationally determined contribution – which doesn’t need the parliament either. It’s essentially a pledge which says ‘we intend to do this’, and makes it a little more official, rather than just a speech. He doesn’t need the Nationals for that either.

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US and China urged to find way to work together before Cop26

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Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appeals to Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to meet and find common ground

US president Joe Biden and the president of China, Xi Jinping, have been urged to meet before the UN Cop26 climate talks to search for common ground by the former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and other prominent global voices.

“We are appealing to the leaders of the US and China to see their common interest and find a way to work together. We need an ambitious 2030 [carbon] target from China and the US to deliver what they have pledged,” said Ban, speaking on behalf of the Elders group of former world statespeople and prominent community and business leaders.

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