India’s energy conundrum: committed to renewables but still expanding coal

Critics says India’s plans to increase coal production to 1bn tonnes a year are environmentally devastating and unnecessary

Three days before India’s environment minister boarded a flight to Egypt for this year’s UN climate summit, Cop27, the country’s finance minister was busy with a new announcement.

“India needs greater investment in coal production,” said Nirmala Sitharaman at the Delhi launch of India’s biggest ever coalmine auction, where 141 new sites for coalmines will be sold off to the highest bidder.

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The Egyptian human rights activists unable to attend Cop27

Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh follows decade-long crackdown on civil society in Egypt

“Honestly, what I want is to be in Sharm el-Sheikh and just scream,” said Amr Magdi of Human Rights Watch. Like dozens of other prominent human rights defenders, researchers and environmentalists, Magdi has been unable to attend Cop27 as he is exiled from Egypt because of his work.

“I just want to tell everyone about the injustice happening in Egypt. I can’t do it personally and I’m trying to do it with my work. I’m even helping others who are able to travel there to do this,” he said.

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Climate-focused reform of World Bank could be done in a year, says Al Gore

Former US vice-president says bank should refocus its spending and end its role in ‘fossil fuel colonialism’

Fundamental reform of the World Bank could be completed within a year, to refocus its spending on the climate crisis and end its contribution to “fossil fuel colonialism”, according to the former US vice-president Al Gore.

“I don’t know why it need take longer than a year,” said Gore, a longtime campaigner on the climate crisis since leaving politics, in an interview with the Guardian at the Cop27 UN climate summit. “We have an emergency on our hands.”

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‘This could be the Cop where we lose 1.5C,’ warns Alok Sharma – as it happened

As negotiations develop, some countries pushed to weaken the goal of keeping a global temperature increase to 1.5C

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We’ve been reporting a lot on the lack of food at Cop (it’s been on our reporters’ minds for obvious reasons).

But my colleague Damian Carrington has found that vegan campaigners have capitalised on the burger shortage.

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Alaa Abd el-Fattah: family of activist jailed in Egypt say he is alive

‘Proof of life’ note says writer, who has been on hunger strike, is drinking water again

The family of the jailed British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah say they have received proof of life, in the form of a letter in which he says he has ended his water strike after six days but will continue his hunger strike.

“I’m sure you’re really worried about me,” Abd el-Fattah wrote to his mother, in a cautiously worded letter as his communications are heavily monitored by the Egyptian authorities.

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Fraser Island’s formation over 1m years ago was critical to development of Great Barrier Reef, study reveals

Scientists say the world’s largest sand island helped create clearer water conditions for reef growth

The world’s largest sand island formed around a million years ago and enabled the southern and central Great Barrier Reef to develop, new research suggests.

An international team of scientists have dated K’gari (Fraser Island) and the nearby Cooloola Sand Mass in south-east Queensland as forming between 0.7m and 1.2m years ago.

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Australia still trails most developed countries in climate performance ranking

Despite Labor’s increased emissions target, Australia has only improved four places to 55th out of 63 in the annual index

Australia continues to trail other developed countries in addressing the climate crisis, in part due to the Albanese government’s support for new fossil fuel developments, according to an analysis released at the Cop27 UN conference in Egypt.

The climate change performance index, published by Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network with input from 450 climate and energy experts and campaigners, found Australia was still a “very low performing country”. It ranked 55th on a list of 63 countries and country groupings, up from 59th last year.

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Peruvian Amazon Indigenous leaders to lobby banks to cut ties with state oil firm

Leaders from Achuar and Wampis peoples say Petroperú is responsible for spills in their territory

Native leaders from the Peruvian Amazon are to travel to the US this week to lobby banks to cut financial ties with Peru’s state oil company, Petroperú.

Leaders from the Achuar and Wampis peoples say the state company is responsible for oil spills in their territory that violate their human rights by polluting their water sources and irreparably damaging their fishing and hunting grounds.

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Increasing demand for oil and fuel threatens African nations’ economies, analysis finds

Carbon Tracker thinktank says investors in fossil fuels on the continent would be left with stranded assets

Expanding oil and gas exports would threaten the economic stability of many African countries, new analysis has found, despite soaring fossil fuel prices.

Demand for fossil fuels is likely to fall sharply in the medium term, according to a report published on Monday by the Carbon Tracker thinktank. That makes relying on gas exports to fuel economic growth a short-term, risky strategy, while boosting solar power would prove a better long-term bet, the analysis found.

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PM’s meeting with Chinese president confirmed – as it happened

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Andrews rules out deal with the Greens and independents in event of minority government

Dan Andrews was also asked what would happen if Labor finds itself in a minority government situation – will it do a deal with the Greens?

No deal will be offered and no deal will be done.

And independents – no deals with independents?

No deal will be offered and no deal will be done.

So if you’re in a minority situation and you hold more seats than the Liberal party, what happens? You go back to another election?

Well, I think what the best thing to do, and what happens, Michael, is we work hard for the next 13 days, we work hard to put a positive and optimistic plan out there, and we’ll see what the verdict of Victorian voters is. I’m arguing, I’m urging people to vote for a strong, stable majority Labor government, to vote for your local Labor candidate.

The new SEC – government-owned, not private for-profit, but government-owned electricity, so owned by every single Victorian – creates nearly 60,000 jobs – 6,000 of those will be apprentices. It will be 100% renewable electricity. These companies can’t be relied upon to replace themselves. They’ll just put another profit machine in place. We need to make sure that we’re looking after pensioners, we’re looking after families and, indeed, businesses. And without electricity, there is no economy, so we have to replace them. And we choose to replace them with a public option – a government-owned option. An option that’s owned by every single Victorian.

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South Australia suffers biggest blackout since 2016 as weather system brings more flooding to inland NSW

Severe storms continue to drench exhausted communities as a humid air mass prompts flash flooding alerts in eastern Australia

Wild storms have caused the biggest blackout in South Australia since the entire state went dark in 2016, as flash flooding caused havoc in parts of New South Wales and Victoria.

More than 423,000 lightning strikes were recorded in SA on Sunday. Heavy winds downed trees and SA Power Networks received more than 500 reports of fallen wires.

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Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war

Delegation at climate summit tell of destruction of protected areas and carbon toll of invasion and rebuilding

Ukraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to make the case that Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction.

Ukraine has dispatched two dozen officials to the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to spell out the links between the war launched by Russia in February, the soaring cost of energy due to Russia’s status as a key gas supplier, and the planet-heating emissions expelled by the offensive.

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Climate protesters in Lisbon storm building and urge minister to resign

Portuguese economy minister António Costa e Silva was giving a speech when demonstrators got on to the premises

Hundreds of protesters angry about the climate crisis took to the streets of Lisbon on Saturday, with dozens storming a building where Portugal’s economy minister, António Costa e Silva, was speaking, demanding that the former oil executive resign.

Holding banners and chanting slogans, protesters demanded climate action. As some demonstrators broke into the building, those outside shouted: “Out Costa e Silva!”

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Cop27: US ‘totally supportive’ of moves to address loss and damage, says Kerry – as it happened

US climate envoy John Kerry has said his country is ready to discuss the loss and damage at Cop27

After six years as the big cheese of UN climate negotiations, Patricia Espinosa has been enjoying walking the halls of power not quite as an ordinary Joe and apparently isn’t closely following the negotiations. “It has felt just amazing. I knew that as the [UNFCCC] executive secretary that I was missing so much, and it’s been a really wonderful experience.”

Espinosa might not be paying close attention, but we’re starting to see developed countries push back against this year’s hot topic, loss and damage, after developing nations laid out a unified case for why a funding mechanism separate to climate adaptation and mitigation is needed to address the climate catastrophes that can’t be averted. The US in particular has been accused of being a “bad faith actor” due to its long track record of disrupting and delaying progress on the issue.

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‘It’s like winning the lottery’: Lincolnshire rewilding plan welcomed by some… others not so happy

Project promises to create jobs and restore biodiversity, but locals say it is taking food-growing land out of production

The rolling fields south of Grantham are scenic, but these huge expanses of wheat and beans are almost bereft of insects in summer. In autumn, a few skylarks sing and the occasional buzzard soars, but there is precious little life in the landscape.

But soon a 1,525-acre swath of this productive Lincolnshire farmland will be brimming with wildlife, according to a new company that aims to restore biodiversity and make money by rewilding farmland.

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Russian oligarchs and companies under sanctions are among lobbyists at Cop27

The heavy presence of lobbyists from Moscow suggests Russia is using the climate talks to drum up business

Russian oligarchs and executives from multiple companies under international sanctions are among the lobbyists currently attending Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Among those at the pivotal climate talks are the billionaire and former aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is under UK sanctions, and the billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, the former head of the Russian fertiliser company the EuroChem group, who has been targeted with individual sanctions by the European Union which he disputed, calling them “absurd and nonsensical”.

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Weather tracker: unusual cold and snow spreading across North America

Temperatures in Canada dropped by as much as 20C below normal this week

Significant cold is spreading widely across North America this weekend, having already affected northern and western parts so far this week.

During the night of 9 November, temperatures across central and western provinces of Canada, as well as many western states of the US, plummeted to at least 10C (18F) below normal, with some parts of Canada seeing temperatures as low as 20C (36F) below normal.

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Warmest Armistice Day ever for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Three UK countries ‘way above where we should be for this time of year’ says Met Office forecaster

Britain’s armed forces have gone on parade on the warmest Armistice Day on record, according to the Met Office, with the country on track for what could be an unprecedented 11th month of above average temperatures.

Unseasonably high temperatures led to “exceptionally mild” conditions across the UK, the forecaster said, with the record-breaking 19.5C recorded in Myerscough in Lancashire more than a degree warmer than the previous record of 17.8C at Kensington Palace in London.

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Solar farm owner Toucan Energy enters administration amid Thurrock scandal

Authority lent total of £655m over four years to owner of 53 solar parks across Britain

One of the country’s largest solar farm owners has entered administration amid the fallout from a scandal that forced an Essex council leader to resign.

Administrators at Interpath Advisory have been appointed to Toucan Energy Holdings, which owns a portfolio of 53 solar parks with a combined capacity of 513 megawatts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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BoM rebranding aimed to overcome ‘negative associations related to the acronym’, internal documents reveal

In late 2021, the Bureau of Meteorology was telling staff ‘the point of this change is to build trust’ and public trust could ‘save millions of lives’

The Bureau of Meteorology told staff it wanted to avoid the BoM nickname due to “negative associations related to the acronym”, newly released documents about the agency’s aborted rebranding reveal.

That explanation was dropped from a later version of an internal style guide, however, with that document stating the bureau was simply focused on “reclaiming our name”.

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