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Climate activists likely to be concerned by another fossil fuel-reliant country taking over summit presidency
Azerbaijan has been announced as the host of next year’s climate summit after fraught negotiations.
Under UN rules it was eastern Europe’s turn to take over the rotating presidency but the groups need to unanimously decide on the host. Russia had blocked EU countries and Azerbaijan and Armenia were blocking each other’s bids.
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Exclusive: freedom of information request reveals ministers rejected plan to make pledge legally binding
The UK government has no plans to meet its target for everyone to live within a 15-minute walk of a green space, the Guardian can reveal.
Ministers have also scrapped an idea to make the target for access to nature legally binding, a freedom of information request submitted by the Right to Roam campaign shows.
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Blast in Sidcup not being treated as terrorism but counter-terror officers are leading investigation
The London mayor’s office has condemned a “grotesquely irresponsible” attack in which a camera enforcing the city’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) was damaged with what appeared to be a homemade bomb, saying lives were put at risk.
There was no immediate reaction on the incident from Downing Street or the Home Office, with No 10 saying it could not comment amid a police inquiry, but that it condemned “criminality more generally”.
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Exclusive: Figures reveal growing push by fossil fuel sector for technologies that scientists say will not stop global heating
Cop28 organisers granted attendance to at least 475 lobbyists working on carbon capture and storage (CCS), unproven technologies that climate scientists say will not curtail global heating, the Guardian can reveal.
The figure was calculated by the Centre for Environmental Law (Ciel) and shared exclusively with the Guardian, and is the first attempt to monitor the growing influence of the CCS subset of the fossil fuel industry within the UN climate talks.
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The Guardian asks five climate experts to explain the key differences between 1.5C and 2C
The world’s most ambitious climate target is under threat, both from physics and politics. But what would it mean for the planet and its inhabitants if humanity were to abandon the goal to limit global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels?
The inclusion of 1.5C (2.7F) was hailed as one of the great triumphs of the Paris climate agreement of 2015. Until then, international ambition had been limited to 2C (3.6F), much to the frustration of small island states and others on the frontline of climate disruption.
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Oil cartel warns ‘pressure may reach a tipping point’ and that ‘politically motivated campaigns put our prosperity’ at risk
The Opec oil cartel has warned its member countries with “utmost urgency” that “pressure against fossil fuels may reach a tipping point with irreversible consequences” at Cop28, in leaked letters seen by the Guardian.
The letters noted that a “fossil fuels phase out” remains on the negotiating table at the UN climate summit and urges the oil states to “proactively reject any text or formula that targets energy, ie fossil fuels, rather than emissions”.
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‘Peace parks’ that establish protected areas across borders are one idea from those working to protect marine ecosystems in a region rife with geopolitical sensitivities
‘In Sweden they train crows to pick those up,” shouts a passerby, unhelpfully, as my colleague and I fill our jam jars with hundreds of cigarette butts. Half an hour later, it’s plastic bottles, tin cans and a pair of boxer shorts.
Our team of a dozen volunteers are snorkelling and scuba-diving their way around the Dubai coastline of the Gulf – specifically a stretch of La Mer Bay that has been adopted by Chloe Griffin, a diving instructor who organises these “debris dives” for students.
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New buildings must be zero-emission and have solar panels by 2030, and fossil fuel boilers to be banned by 2040
New buildings in the EU must have no emissions from fossil fuels by 2030, and boilers that use those sources will be banned by 2040 under a new deal on energy and homes.
The rules, agreed between MEPs and member states but not yet formally adopted, set targets to make buildings waste less energy. Subsidies for standalone oil and gas boilers will stop by 2025.
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Exclusive: plant from South America, also known as Gunnera, found to spread rapidly and choke native flora
With its dramatic leaves and sprawling structure, the giant rhubarb has long been a popular garden plant, gracing the grounds of stately homes and multiple National Trust properties.
But the UK government is now to enact a ban – similar to that on Japanese knotweed – on the plant, also known as Gunnera, meaning it cannot be sold or cultivated, and those who have it in their gardens must ensure it does not spread.
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2023 is first year of potential pair of El Niño years and since 1997, every instance of these pairs has led to mass coral mortality
Record-breaking land and sea temperatures, driven by climate breakdown, will probably cause “unprecedented mass coral bleaching and mortality” throughout 2024, according to a pioneering coral scientist.
The impact of climate change on coral reefs has reached “uncharted territory”, said Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, from the University of Queensland, Australia, leading to concerns that we could be at a “tipping point”.
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