-
Debate over climate science, transition away from fossil fuels, electrification and climate finance can begin in earnest as world leaders leave UN summit
Far away from the conference centre, Norway’s supreme court has declared the state’s decision to award three permits for oil and gasfields in the North Sea invalid, as it had not accounted for the harm caused by burning the fuels.
The decision, hailed as a win by climate campaigners, does not automatically revoke the permits or demand an immediate shutdown of the fields, but will force the government to consider the global impacts of pollution before awarding licenses. It comes two days after the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stør, told fellow leaders at Cop31 that “Norway will do its part” in a speech that did not mention the country’s ongoing expansion of oil and gas infrastructure.
Continue reading...
-
Exclusive: Fossil fuels no longer dominant energy source, IEA leader says, as summit considers electrification pledge
The world has left behind the age of coal, oil and gas and is now firmly in “the age of electricity”, the world’s leading energy economist has said.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said more than twice as much electricity generation would be added to the global economy in the next decade than in the last, as countries scramble to secure their energy supplies against fossil fuel price volatility and supply shocks, such as the Iran war.
Continue reading...
-
Effects of extreme weather expected in countries that already have high maternal and newborn death rates
El Niño stokes a higher risk of death in childbirth for millions of women in the world’s harshest crisis zones, midwives have warned.
Converging waves of weather – floods, cyclones and extreme heat – forecast to peak in the coming months will prove fatal for many, especially pregnant women, who face being cut off from hospital when in labour.
Continue reading...
-
Country’s fiercest blazes in at least a decade produced toxic smog blamed for 400,000 respiratory infections
Indonesia’s fiercest fires in at least a decade were amplified by an “El Niño that turned off the taps” and “fossil fuels that turned up the heat”, scientists have revealed.
Along with the conversion of forests to plantations, this created the conditions for blazes that have burned almost 3m hectares (7.4m acres) – 19 times the size of Greater London – this year, and cast a choking haze across much of south-east Asia.
Continue reading...
-
Research finds highest levels of cancer-related PAH pollutants in cities that have widespread wood heating
Children’s exposure to home wood-burning could be as significant as exposure to traffic exhaust, suggests new research across six European towns and cities.
Scientists measured the air in buildings where children spend much of their time; in schools, sports centres and homes. Specifically, they looked at polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a family of pollutants that are given off when fuels are burned.
Continue reading...
-
Kerry decries president for ceding clean-energy dominance to China and says climate crisis still a key issue for voters
Donald Trump is the “biggest loser we’ve seen in a long time” for scrapping action on the climate crisis and ceding the clean energy race to China, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.
Kerry, speaking at the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey, criticized Trump for withdrawing the US from the international climate process and axing measures that reduced planet-heating emissions. Unlike almost all other countries in the world, the Trump administration has sent no delegation to the resort city of Antalya for the annual UN climate talks, which started on Monday.
Continue reading...
-
Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: The woodland floor is littered with sycamore and ash, some revealing a pattern that runs through trunks like words in a stick of rock
An ash tree swayed, audibly groaning, a split in the trunk opening and closing like a mouth. Suffering from ash dieback, it seemed it could topple at any second here in the quiet of the woodland. A few weeks ago, Dad set the trail camera on it, to capture the moment of fall. Since then, two storms have churned through Norfolk – treating us gently compared with elsewhere, but nevertheless leaving casualties in their wake.
Fallen trunks now crisscross the woodland floor: sycamores, several ashes, an oak. But not the ash that had seemed so vulnerable. Why does one tree survive but another fall? I look closely at one of the ashes that succumbed to the winds, with its headless trunk jutting skyward, spiked and bare.
Continue reading...
-
Delegates from more than 190 countries are gathering in Turkey for climate talks, but the US will be absent
As the planet faces unprecedented human-caused global heating, heads of government are meeting for the next fortnight for the latest round of climate talks. We ask why it matters and what is likely to be achieved.
Continue reading...
-
High-stakes talks involving 190 countries begin on Monday as world grapples with El Niño supercharged by fossil fuels
The Cop31 summit must produce progress, “a tangible outcome... that people can see is real”, its host has said as scores of world leaders and representatives of close to 190 countries gather in Turkey for the UN climate talks.
The high-stakes meeting begins on Monday, as countries around the world grapple with the strongest El Niño weather system on record, supercharged by fossil fuels, which is set to take hundreds of thousands of lives and cause damage costing trillions of dollars.
Continue reading...
-
What are the relationships and dominant interests in play, as the summit kicks off after a bitter row over its hosting?
Hosting Cop was a key pledge from Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese in 2021, while in opposition, before his successful election campaign. But arcane rules meant the country had to wait its turn to bid and was then embroiled in an angry row with Turkey over the hosting. The final compromise put Australia in charge of the negotiations which will take place in the Turkish city of Antalya. The bitter taste left by the row lingers and Australia has seemed to some a rather half-hearted host. The country’s media has been much quieter on Cop than previous host countries, and although Albanese will speak at the opening of the leaders’ segment, he is unlikely to stay long.
Continue reading...
