Category Archives: Environment

Imprisoned activist’s lawyer denied access at Egyptian jail during climate summit – as it happened

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British-Egyptian Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has been on hunger strike for months, stopped drinking water when Cop27 began

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We promised you the full story on fossil fuel lobbyists, and here it is.

There are more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists at the Cop27 climate conference, a rise of more than 25% from last year and outnumbering any one frontline community affected by the climate crisis.

While the average delegation at Cop1 was 88% male and 12% female, this has shifted over time. For example, Cops 23 to 25 all had an average gender balance of 62% male to 38% female, while Cop26 had a balance of 64%-36%.

The provisional gender balance of Cop27 is similar, clocking it at 63% male to 37% female.

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New York passes $4.2bn environmental bond act on midterm ballot

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Proposal, a first in 26 years, aims to disburse benefits to communities most impacted by the climate crisis

On Tuesday, New York state voters passed a ballot measure that would fund up to $4.2bn for environmental improvement projects – including increasing flood resiliency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, electrifying school buses and creating more green and open spaces.

The proposal also aims to reach communities most affected by the climate crisis. If approved, it will allow the state to sell bonds in order to raise funds to finance several projects.

Climate change mitigation: Up to $1.5bn for projects including reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from state-owned properties and agricultural lands, reducing air and water pollution in environmental justice communities, and addressing the effects of extreme heat in cities with measures like increased green space and community cooling centers. The act also specifies at least $500m will go toward electric school buses.

Flood risk reduction and waterway restoration: At least $1.1bn to address flood-prone roadways, properties and infrastructure, and fund projects including coastal, wetland and stream restoration.

Water quality and infrastructure improvement: At least $650m to improve water infrastructure and projects like reducing chemical runoff from farms, upgrading wastewater systems and improving municipal stormwater management.

Open space conservation: Up to $650m for projects like preserving farmland and open space for recreation and improving parks, campgrounds and fish hatcheries.

Unallocated: $300m

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‘Vital’ energy security bill must be brought back, says Labour

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Shadow climate minister says Britain is losing the race to create green jobs

Labour has accused the government of being “highly irresponsible” in sidelining a crucial piece of energy legislation, arguing that Britain is “losing the race” to create green jobs.

The energy security bill was published in July with the aim of boosting domestic, low-carbon power supplies and bringing down energy costs.

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Civil society groups report surveillance and intimidation at Cop27

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Attenders say actions of Egyptian authorities are threatening their participation at conference

Members of civil society attending Cop27 have described how surveillance and intimidation by the Egyptian authorities is threatening their participation in the climate conference.

Problems reported by attenders include overt surveillance, control of their meetings by conference staff and problems with accommodation.

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Australia news live: Medibank hacker demands ‘US$1 per customer’ ransom; ‘rotten egg gas’ problem in navy patrol boats

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Defence officials say there is an issue with hydrogen sulphide in the vessels’ waste systems. Follow the day’s news live

Coalition’s staff cap has fuelled lack of payment integrity, Shorten says

Bill Shorten goes on to criticise the NDIS staff cap implemented by the Coalition government:

When there were 180,000 participants in the scheme, the staff numbers were around 3,500 to 4,000. And the government of the day said, ‘OK, no more staff.’

Now the scheme has half a million people-plus, and what’s happened is that we’ve brought in contractors or labour hire or partners in the community and the scheme hasn’t been well, in my opinion, supervised and well loved.

I don’t blame someone for seeking to get support for the child. What does make me wonder is the state school systems providing the support for kids with developmental and learning delays? Are they doing enough or not? How can you force their hand to do it so that these people aren’t going on the NDIS?

Originally, when the NDIS was created, it was to be a 50/50 split, at the moment the federal government is paying 64% to 66% of the scheme and states are paying in the mid 30s.

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France to require all large car parks to be covered by solar panels

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Legislation approved by Senate will apply to existing and new car parks with space for at least 80 vehicles

All large car parks in France will be covered by solar panels under new legislation approved as part of president Emmanuel Macron’s renewable energy drive.

Legislation approved by the French Senate this week requires existing and new car parks with space for at least 80 vehicles to be covered by solar panels.

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China’s top climate official urges US to ‘clear barriers’ to talks

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US-China relations hit new low this year after Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, over which China claims sovereignty

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

China’s top climate official has said the US must take responsibility for any reconciliation between the two countries at the Cop27 climate summit, calling on the US to “clear the barriers” to talks.

Xie Zhenhua, the climate envoy for China, said he had met John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where governments and world leaders have gathered for a fortnight of talks on the climate crisis.

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Philanthropists acquire nearly 4,000 hectares of NSW koala habitat for conservation

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Australian Wildlife Conservancy to manage the site allowing ecologists to restore crucial habitat for multiple species

Almost 4,000 hectares of koala habitat in the Hunter region of New South Wales will be protected after the land was privately acquired for conservation.

Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford bought the property north of Newcastle, which scientists from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) estimate is habitat for more than 100 vertebrate species, including the endangered koala and 11 other animals listed as threatened.

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‘Significant’ moves on climate disaster funds lift Cop27 hopes

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Small but symbolic moves at summit where finance is critical include new loss and damage money and debt relief

A series of symbolic moves on climate finance at Cop27 suggests positive momentum could be starting to build on a pivotal issue at the UN summit in Egypt.

The UK said it would allow some debt payment deferrals for countries hit by climate disasters, while Austria and New Zealand put forward funding for loss and damage, which is the cost of rebuilding in poorer nations after unavoidable climate impacts.

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‘It was giving me a hug’: video captures rare giant octopus encounter

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Canadian diver captures footage of the cephalopod drawing closer and closer until it fully embraces her

For outsiders, scuba diving in the frigid waters of the northern Pacific can seem daunting: limbs quickly go numb without the right equipment, and unlike the sparkling blue of the tropics, the water has a gloomy, greenish tint.

But a recent viral encounter between a diver and an octopus has highlighted the particular magic of the sunken kelp forests off the coast of British Columbia.

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Cop27: ‘It’s humiliating’ – Indigenous voices say they are being ignored at climate summit – as it happened

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A Kulkalgal activist from the Torres Strait Islands has said Indigenous people are ‘fighting for their homes’ as conference discussions focus on climate finance

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More photos from today:

Xie Zhenhua continues to say that Beijing is willing to contribute to a mechanism for compensating poorer countries for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.

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Climate crisis will have huge impact on Africa’s economies, study says

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As Cop27 discusses climate finance, report says continent’s GDP growth could fall by two-thirds this century

African countries, which are the least responsible for the global climate crisis, face seeing their GDP growth rate fall by up to 64% by the end of the century, according to research – even if the world succeeds in limiting global heating to 1.5C.

As world leaders hustle over climate action at the UN summit in Egypt, a study commissioned by Christian Aid has found that burning fossil fuels at the current rate will have a huge impact on the finances of African countries. The average hit to GDP per capita could be as much as 34%, finds the report, while the effect on GDP growth will lead to an average 20% reduction in rates by 2050 and a huge 64% on average by 2100.

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Cop27: Ukraine president says peace is vital for saving climate; US called out for blocking ‘loss and damage’ funds – live

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears at climate summit via video link; climate experts say US has acted ‘in bad faith’ for decades

I’ve been looking at what some climate scientists on Twitter have been saying about Cop27. Here is a small selection:

Dr Chandni Singh has been checking out the displays at different country pavilions, including one from Pakistan.

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Cop27: ending war in Ukraine necessary to tackle climate crisis, Zelenskiy says

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Ukrainian president says Russia’s invasion has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power to alleviate energy costs

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told world leaders they will not be able to tackle the climate crisis unless Russia’s invasion of his country ends.

“There can be no effective climate policy without the peace,” he said in a video address at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Tuesday. “The Russian war has brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people, to lower prices that are shockingly rising due to deliberate Russian actions.”

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Macron and Sunak ‘bromance’ signals intent to reset Franco-British ties

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Clear wish in Paris to thaw relations that plummeted to their worst state in decades under Boris Johnson

When Emmanuel Macron rushed to hug the new UK prime minister at their first meeting in Egypt this week, some called it a “bromance”.

Even though the French president’s hands-on embrace of world leaders is almost always called a “bromance” – from Justin Trudeau to Mohammed bin Salman and Donald Trump (a relationship which eventually soured), Macron and Rishi Sunak’s grinning and back-slapping stood out as symbolic.

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Mexico will try to ‘deceive the world’ at Cop27, experts warn

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President not expected to attend summit but critics cast doubt on veracity of pledges the country could make

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

Mexico, one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, is expected to announce a hotchpot of old, inadequate and undeliverable climate pledges that will leave its Paris pledges in tatters, experts have warned.

Climate action has nosedived under the leadership of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had to be blocked from rolling back Mexico’s modest Paris greenhouse gas targets by the country’s supreme court, and emissions are rising.

A reduction in methane emissions from the state-owned oil company, Pemex – an important but existing target for which Pemex has been fined for non-compliance.

A 1,000MW state-opened solar plant – construction is already under way for a 180MW project, and the government had previously already ruled out further investment to expand the energy potential.

A lithium commitment. Mexico has the ninth-largest identified deposits of lithium – a crucial mineral for electric vehicles and other green technologies – but there has been no government investment so far in advancing extraction, and none is currently being mined. Experts say the country is years away from producing its first gram of lithium.

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Cop26 one year on: how much progress has been made?

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As the UN’s Cop27 summit begins in Egypt, there are warnings more must be done to avert climate breakdown

Last year’s UN Cop26 climate talks in Scotland were framed by John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy on the climate crisis, as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” and avert climate breakdown. As world leaders gather in Egypt for Cop27, evidence suggests they have yet to fully do so.

The Glasgow conference drew collective promises by governments to “phase down” coal use, curb deforestation, advance remedial payments to developing countries hit hardest by floods, heatwaves and droughts, and to come back the following year with more ambitious emissions reduction targets.

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Australia politics live: $591m cost of cancelling French submarines revealed in Senate estimates; Bob Brown charged with trespass

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Tony Burke is also being quite conciliatory about David Pocock’s concerns about the bill.

Asked by Patricia Karvelas if he is prepared to make more amendments to the IR bill, Tony Burke says that is standard after a senate inquiry process.

I suspect there’ll be more to come.

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One in 300 animal welfare complaints at UK farms lead to prosecution – study

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Exclusive: charities say animal abusers are not being held to account as figures show small number of inspections

Just one in 300 complaints about animal welfare at UK farms led to a prosecution over the last four years, with half of the accused holdings not even inspected, analysis has shown.

A report by Animal Equality and the Animal Law Foundation also said that fewer than three in 100 of the UK’s estimated 291,000 farms had an annual inspection by a public body between 2018 and 2021.

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Germany keen to discuss natural gas pact with UK amid supply risk

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Officials interested in deal that would allow two countries to bail each other out in event of shortages

Germany is keen to talk to Britain about a solidarity pact that would allow Europe’s largest consumers of natural gas to bail each other out if an extreme cold snap were to create shortages this winter, German officials have said.

Such an agreement could be mutually beneficial for both London and Berlin, the German civil servant in charge of rationing in the case of a supply crisis told the Guardian in an interview.

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