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Advocates say conservative states’ push to define gender as ‘biological sex’ would backslide on decade-old language within the UN
A row over the definition of the term “gender” threatens to bog down pivotal talks at the Cop30 climate summit.
Before the UN talks in Brazil, hardline conservative states have pushed to define gender as “biological sex” over their concerns trans and non-binary people could be included in a major plan to ensure climate action addresses gender inequality and empowers women.
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Study estimates 53,000 females have died on South Georgia since 2023, with ‘dramatic impact’ on future of the species
Bird flu has wiped out half of South Georgia’s breeding elephant seals, according to a study that warns of “serious implications” for the future of the species.
The remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean is home to the world’s largest southern elephant seal population. Researchers estimate 53,000 females died after bird flu hit in 2023.
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The mountains have always been part of our lives. But now they pose a new threat and we need to take action. This is Saúl’s story
LocationHuaraz, Peru
DisasterLake Palcacocha glacier melt
Saúl, a Quechua-speaking mountain guide, farmer and father who lives in the Andean highlands, was the lead plaintiff in a landmark climate lawsuit against the German energyfirm RWE. On 28 May, thehigherregionalcourt of Hamm dismissed his case on the grounds that there was no concrete threat to Saúl’s home. However, it held that major greenhouse gas emitters could be accountable for the impacts of those emissions under German law.
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Motoring groups criticise changes for making it ‘harder to go green’ though discounts of up to 50% will apply
London’s congestion charge will rise by 20% in January from £15 to £18 and electric vehicle drivers will be liable to pay to enter the heart of the capital for the first time.
EVs will no longer be exempt from the levy, Transport for London said, but will pay a lower rate. Electric car drivers will get a 25% discount, paying £13.50 a day, while electric vans and HGVs will pay £9 – 50% of the full charge.
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Exclusive: Supporters say grants largely going to middle-class households, but experts warn move will slow transition from gas boilers
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners will lose their right to subsidies for eco-friendly heat pumps as a result of government plans to bring down energy bills at the budget.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is planning to announce a series of measures to bring down energy bills amid concerns the country’s stubbornly high cost of living is driving millions of voters to Reform UK.
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Exclusive: ‘Deep-rooted injustices’ affect billions of people due to location of wells, pipelines and other infrastructure
A quarter of the world’s population lives within three miles (5km) of operational fossil fuel projects, potentially threatening the health of more than 2 billion people as well as critical ecosystems, according to first-of-its-kind research.
A damning new report by Amnesty International, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found that more than 18,300 oil, gas and coal sites are currently distributed across 170 countries worldwide, occupying a vast area of the Earth’s surface.
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Tyrella Beach, County Down: The surface of the sea is churning with desperate fish and hungry seabirds. This is life and death down the end of a telescope
Out to sea there is a squadron of juvenile great black-backed gulls, each one dark as a witch’s cape against the tide’s limpid sheen. I turn my scope to match their flight, chasing them until they splash down at the edge of a messy raft of birds.
At first I just tick off the species: adult herring, common and great black-backed gulls, dipping their heads almost casually into the water; a gannet irritably wielding its sword-like bill at the mob; razorbills and guillemots in their seasonal tuxedos, diving down and popping up around the larger birds. Askance of the main fray, cormorants buck smoothly under the surface and more gulls tip from the sky. When a winter‑white black‑headed gull struggles back into the air with a silver rag hanging from its bill, I pull back my scopeand finally realise what’s happening. I’m witnessing a feeding frenzy – a bait ball.
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Climate summit in Brazil needs to find way to stop global heating accelerating amid stark divisions
“It broke my heart.” Surangel Whipps, president of the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, was sitting in the front row of the UN’s general assembly in New York when Donald Trump made a long and rambling speech, his first to the UN since his re-election, on 23 September.
Whipps was prepared for fury and bombast from the US president, but what followed was shocking. Trump’s rant on the climate crisis – a “green scam”, “the greatest con job ever perpetrated”, “predictions made by stupid people” – was an unprecedented attack on science and global action from a major world leader.
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Host uses Indigenous concepts and changes agenda to help delegates agree on ways to meet existing climate goals
Shipping containers, cruise ships, river boats, schools and even army barracks have been pressed into service as accommodation for the 50,000 plus people descending on the Amazon: this year’s Cop30 climate summit is going to be, in many ways, an unconventional one.
Located in Belém, a small city at the mouth of the Amazon river, the Brazilian hosts have been criticised for the exorbitant cost of scarce hotel rooms and hastily vacated apartments. Many delegations have slimmed down their presence, while business leaders have decamped to hold their own events in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
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Brazil’s president welcomes world leaders while navigating divided government, promising action on deforestation and emissions
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has welcomed world leaders to Belém for the first climate summit in the Amazon, where conservationists hope he can be a champion for the rainforest and its people.
But with a divided administration, a hostile Congress and 20th-century developmentalist instincts, this global figurehead of the centre left has a balancing act to perform in advocating protection of nature and a reduction of emissions.
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