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Six Portuguese young people claim inadequate policies to tackle global heating breach their human rights
A key plank of the UK government’s defence against the biggest climate legal action in the world next week has fallen away as a result of the U-turn by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on green policies.
The UK is one of 32 countries being taken to the European court of human rights on Wednesday by a group of Portuguese young people. They will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court that the nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.
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The prime minister’s attempts to turn the climate emergency into a US-style wedge issue have dismayed veteran MPs who champion green policies
Rishi Sunak’s decision to drive a “green wedge” between the Conservatives and Labour will take the UK into dangerous new political territory and “the worst kind of culture wars”, not seen for more than 30 years, senior Tory figures and political observers have warned.
Reversals and delays to net zero policy announced last week will be just the start of a general election campaign in which the UK’s longstanding cross-party political consensus on climate will be increasingly at stake. Emails sent to journalists from the Conservative campaign headquarters revealed lines of attack on targets including the independent Climate Change Committee and Labour’s proposed £28bn investment in a low-carbon economy.
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Right this way, sir
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Group tasked with overseeing initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers was only set up in March
The government’s energy efficiency taskforce, charged with reducing the UK’s energy use by 15% by 2030, has been scrapped months after it was established.
The group, which was overseeing an initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers, was announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in his autumn statement last year as part of plans to boost investment in energy efficiency.
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The tycoon, who is stepping down from News Corp and Fox, has used his outlets to promote denial and delay action, experts say
Scientists have described the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch as a “climate villain” who has used his television and newspaper empire to promote climate science denial and delay action.
Murdoch’s outlets, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and The Australian, have long been known to promote doubts about the cause and consequences of the climate crisis. Scientists said this had caused lasting damage.
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Morecambe Bay, Lancashire:After skimming stones into the sea, we saw a rock pipit – but it was so well camouflaged we nearly missed it
One bright September morning, my family and I headed down to the tranquil coast of Morecambe for a vintage festival. As we arrived, the salubrious autumn breeze washed over us, and the squawking seagulls welcomed us with greedy eyes. The cloudless sky was filled with birds, pirouetting above the waves. We threw smooth, small pebbles into the jaws of the sea as the waves crashed against the rocks, leaving a trail of wet sticky sand.
As we crossed the promenade, something caught my attention. Camouflaged against a seaweed-splattered rock was a petite bird – it appeared to be a rock pipit. This distinctive, dainty creature, with legs gripped on to a boulder, had a mixture of taupe feathers, giving it a soft and sleek look. As I continued along the promenade, I wondered how many other “invisible” birds were around the coast, that I hadn’t acknowledged because of their ability to blend in with nature.
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The teenage campaigner took politicians to task about the environment – but their apathy contributed to a devastating decline in his mental health. He talks about his recovery and the radical ideas we need to save the Earth
Precisely how he got there, and why, he does not remember, but Charlie Hertzog Young knows that in the autumn of 2019, aged 27 and at the height of his despair, he jumped from a high building in London. He landed on concrete, split open his pelvis like a book and demolished his legs. He was bleeding out – dying – and yet managed to have a pleasant conversation with a resident of the neighbouring building who thought he was a burglar. He survived, thanks to the speedy arrival of a paramedic with specialist trauma skills. Even so, he spent a month in a coma and six months in hospital. Eventually, he was discharged with legs so damaged that they both had to be amputated. He lost his job as a researcher and his rented flat.
The years leading to this moment are a searing story of personal and planetary pain. Aged 12, Hertzog Young worried about global heating and became a climate activist. He won a national award for founding a green council in his school. Gradually, he became a British Greta Thunberg, without the international fame or internet trolls. As the voice of youth, he was invited to global summits, including the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos and, later that year, the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. “There are young people in communities all across the world who are trying to facilitate change,” he told the elders of Davos. “We’d like you to help us to help you.” Then, at just 17, he accosted the likes of Bill Gates and Barack Obama in corridors between events and harangued them about the urgency of taking action to stop global heating.
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The backlash faced by Sadiq Khan in response to novel and brave measures is absurd, says Nancy Collins
Your interview with Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, for whom I act as a solicitor in claims arising from her daughter’s death, highlights the clear need for an urgent and precise response to address the risks to health from exposure to air pollution (How anti-Ulez campaigners misused air pollution finding in Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah death, 16 September).
The politicisation of London’s ultra-low emission zone makes a mockery of the strengthening scientific consensus that poor air quality causes severe health conditions. History will judge harshly the failure to heed these warnings.
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UK climate watchdog said policy change would make it more difficult to meet legal commitments
Rishi Sunak is likely to face a series of legal challenges aimed at thwarting his plans to U-turn on net zero policies amid further international condemnation of the proposals.
Though the prime minister sought to shrug off criticism on Thursday, the UK’s independent climate watchdog joined the voices of concern, saying it was disappointed with changes that would make it more difficult for Britain to meet its legal commitments.
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More than 4,500 people died due to hot temperatures, ONS data reveals, as rate increases over recent years
More than 4,500 people died in England in 2022 due to high temperatures, the largest figure on record, with the number of heat-related deaths increasing over recent years.
Between 1988 and 2022, almost 52,000 deaths associated with the hottest days were recorded in England, with a third of them occurring since 2016, data from the Office for National Statistics shows. During the same 35-year period analysed, more than 2,000 people died in Wales due to the warm temperatures.
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