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Carbon dioxide emissions are forecast to jump this year by the second biggest annual rise in history, as global economies pour stimulus cash into fossil fuels in the recovery from the Covid-19 recession.
The leap will be second only to the massive rebound 10 years ago after the financial crisis, and will put climate hopes out of reach unless governments act quickly, the International Energy Agency has warned.
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Carbon dioxide to be cut by 78% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels, the prime minister is to say later this week
The UK is to toughen its targets on greenhouse gas emissions for the next 15 years, the first major developed economy to do so, the Guardian understands.
Following recommendations of the government’s statutory climate advisors, carbon dioxide is to be cut by 78% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels, the prime minister will say later this week – an increase from the current target of a 68% reduction by 2030.
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Every job lost to Covid pandemic could be replaced in upcoming recovery years, Green New Deal UK finds
A stimulus programme focused on green and digital infrastructure, research and development, energy and care work could create more than 1.2m jobs within two years and more than 2.7m jobs during the next decade, according to research.
Such a strategy alongside additional government investment could mean every job lost to the coronavirus pandemic would be replaced during vital upcoming recovery years, a report by Green New Deal UK non-profit group has found.
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Many psychologists say they feel unequipped to handle a growing number of patients despairing over the state of the planet. A new contingent of mental health professionals aims to fix that
Andrew Bryant, a therapist based in Tacoma, Washington, felt helpless the first time climate change came up in his office. It was 2016, and a client was agonizing over whether to have a baby. His partner wanted one, but the young man couldn’t stop envisioning this hypothetical child growing up in an apocalyptic, climate-changed world.
Related:‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to confront the climate crisis?
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Buxton, Derbyshire: On this denuded edge, stripped of so many species, a peregrine and four buzzards puncture the sterility
Wood warbler, ring ouzel, common redstart, tree pipit, common sandpiper, twite, cuckoo and lapwing: these birds, whose names I jotted down on each spring visit to Lightwood in the 1970s, may seem insignificant, but to me they’re a skeleton summary of my childhood and my origins as a naturalist. Every day I would see at least one of them.
In a way, the list also narrates the shape of my adulthood, because every one of those species, except redstart, has declined catastrophically in Britain. For the last 40 years I’ve been writing about the environmental losses that the story of these Lightwood birds imply.
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Religious leaders, who know how to relate to communities on an emotional level, may be best positioned to convince people to support climate activism, experts say
The Rev Scott Hardin-Nieri regularly revisits the story of Noah’s ark. “People look at that story fondly, because they focus on all the animals that were saved,” the pastor says. But for Hardin-Nieri, Noah’s ark isn’t a simple story of hope; it is principally a story about human suffering amid widespread ecological devastation. “We forget how many people were killed in this apocalyptic world where the environment was ruined,” he says.
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Suez vessel’s crew said to be ‘relaxed but apprehensive’, while 50 miles away a cautionary tale plays out on another ship
For two years Mohammad Aisha has been the lone resident of an abandoned container ship marooned off Egypt in the Gulf of Suez. If he needs to charge his phone, get drinking water or buy food, he has to row to shore, although he can only stay for two hours at most as the area is a restricted military zone. According to one doctor who examined him, the malnourished sailor has started to exhibit similar symptoms to prisoners held in poor conditions.
Aisha has been the custodian of the 4,000-tonne MV Aman, trapped onboard as a prolonged legal battle to sell the vessel and pay the crew plays out thousands of miles away. Less than 50 miles north, the crew of the Ever Given, now immersed in its own legal struggles, are hoping to avoid anything close to the same fate. On Sunday, representatives from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), an umbrella union that represents seafarers, boarded the ship to check on the crew’s wellbeing.
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Figures from oil, gas and petrochemical companies does not include £100m from Ineos in 2021
Oxford University has received more than £11m from oil, gas and petrochemical companies since 2015, according to a new report by students and alumni of the elite university who are calling for it to cut its ties to the fossil fuel industry.
Oxford recently announced plans to eliminate the carbon footprint of its site and supply chain by 2035 to help tackle the climate crisis but, according to the report, departments within the university continue to take funding from and work closely with fossil fuel extraction giants such as Schlumberger, ExxonMobil and BP.
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Pandemic had no effect on emissions but made impacts of global heating even worse for millions of people, report says
There was a “relentless” intensification of the climate crisis in 2020, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.
The coronavirus pandemic made the accelerating impacts of global heating even worse for millions of people. But the temporary dip in carbon emissions due to lockdowns had no discernible impact on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, the WMO report said.
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Untreated waste regularly flows into waters across England and Wales. Is it time to radically rethink sewerage – or do away with sewers altogether?
The pandemic has not been the only crisis we’ve been wading through over the past 12 months: 2020 was a banner year in much of Britain for sewage spills. Last July a Guardian investigation revealed that raw sewage had been pumped into English rivers via storm overflows more than 200,000 times in 2019. In November, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) published data showing that untreated wastewater was discharged on to English and Welsh beaches on 2,900 occasions in a year.
Continue reading...There are "good reasons" for keeping the new variant out of the UK, scientist Prof Mark Walport says.
More people were seeking mental health support, but data shows no increase in suicides in England.
The EU's drugs regulator says the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine still outweigh the risks.
The health secretary hails the "terrific milestone", urging those eligible to come forward for the jab.
Samir Jassal, who has campaigned with the PM, was a contact in a £100m deal for Covid safety gear.
Scientists will see how the immune system copes second time round, by deliberately infecting volunteers.
The first minister confirms that the most significant stage in lockdown easing will go ahead as planned.
East Kent Hospitals Trust admits failings that came to light after family's campaign for "justice".
Some cases of the Indian variant have been found that are not linked to travel, a scientist says.
Vaccines for a limited number of people aged between 35 and 39 are being made available from Monday.
A new alliance is on a mission to advance the conservation of 18 million square kilometers (7 million square miles) of ocean — an area twice the size of the continental United States — over the next five years.
In case you missed it: The recent boom in digital currencies is raising awareness of their environmental toll, the pandemic offers lessons for fighting climate change and more affordable clean energy means emissions are dropping as some economies grow.
The pandemic cratered ecotourism in Africa last year, depriving local communities of life-sustaining revenues. However, the people of Chyulu Hills in southeast Kenya were able to tell a different story — and make a number of investments toward their futures. Here's how.
Across Peru, the COVID-19 pandemic has left millions without jobs. But in the Alto Mayo Protected Forest, where the Amazon meets the Andes, coffee farmers were spared much of the economic devastation that gripped Peru’s cities and towns.
In case you missed it: Protecting nature is key to preventing future pandemics, underwater odors could provide hints to healthier coral reefs, and lightning storms may fuel climate change in the Arctic.
Here are three recent conservation success stories you should know about.
In case you missed it: A professor of environmental studies shares why “climate anxiety” is a largely white phenomenon, a new report suggests that securing the land rights of Indigenous communities across Latin America and the Caribbean could reap major climate benefits at low costs, and the world lost a Dutch-sized plot of forests in 2020.
Conservation News spoke to a manta ray expert at Conservation International about the findings of his new research — from promising pregnancies to drone discoveries to acrobatic feeding behaviors.
In case you missed it: Fish farming is becoming more sustainable, a new study found that summer could last nearly half the year by 2100, and poaching and habitat degradation are pushing Africa’s elephants to the brink.
With support from Conservation International, the municipality of Guanay in Bolivia established a law to protect one-third of its land.