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Its key temperature goal has been missed but experts say the agreement is still proving a vital moral compass for progress
It was a curious way of conducting negotiations. Ahead of the 2025 climate summit, in the Amazonian port of Belém last year, the Brazilian hosts had taken off the table the issue that most had assumed would be at its heart: concrete plans from each country laying out exactly what they would be doing to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
Brazil was insisting, instead, that these plans – the bedrock of the Paris agreement – were the business of national governments and not up for negotiation. “In that case, it will be a very short Cop,” one seasoned global south negotiator told the Guardian shortly before, reflecting a widespread unease. “There is nothing to negotiate.”
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The UK is 14th most light-polluted country, but in south-west England the veil is lifted at the dark skies festival
“It’s just mind-blowing,” says the astronomer and teacher Jo Richardson. She is standing in Exmoor national park talking about Saturn, the first planet she ever saw through a telescope.
But it is not the cosmic colour of the planet that Richardson is drawn to, nor its mysteries – it is the vastness. “Saturn, on average, is 800m miles away,” she says, the equivalent to travelling the circumference of the Earth 32,000 times. “You can see it through a telescope here. That’s just nuts.”
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The seasonal transformation offers the chance to enjoy warm, golden colours before winter
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Cairngorms: The scale and depth of damage is shocking, but there are precious small signs of recovery
It’s over three months since the fire started that eventually engulfed 25 square kilometres of moorland and forest in the Cairngorms. I’ve now seen much of the area where the fire raged and have been shocked at the blackness of the land, how many of the moorland pines are dark as charcoal, their needles an unnaturally singed rust colour that goes on into the far distance, into the forest itself.
I joined a party going up one of the affected glens to plant over 3,000 trees: cell-grown goat and creeping willow, downy birch and alder – montane species, often miniature varieties, that previously have grown in this habitat but been devastated by overgrazing. The seeds had been collected from nearby remnant populations and grown in the Cairngorms Connect Tree Nursery, part of an ongoing programme of landscape restoration.
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YouGov survey finds support for tree planting and emissions taxes but opposition to air travel and fuel levies
Europeans believe human-made climate change is real, a survey has shown, with most feeling action must be taken soon – as long as they do not have to sacrifice too much to achieve it.
The YouGov poll of six European countries showed between 69% (Germany) and 80% (France) of respondents believed the climate was changing, with few (1%-4%) denying it and 14-20% believing it was changing, but not as a result of human activity.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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Freshways lowers price paid to producers by 7p a litre, prompting warnings confidence in the sector is ‘at rock bottom’
“Milk is leaving the farm at a loss,” says dairy farmer Ian Harvey, as he warns confidence in the sector is “at rock bottom”.
Most of the UK’s dairy producers were already being paid less for their milk than it costs to produce it after a year of volatile farmgate milk prices, combined with the impact of the summer’s drought and soaring costs of vital fuel and fertiliser triggered by the conflict in Iran.
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The move to clean electricity will form the focus of the climate summit, which begins next week in coal-obsessed Turkey. The outlook doesn’t look good
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Holding a climate conference under the presidency of one coal-obsessed country might be regarded as a misfortune for the planet – sharing it between two starts to look provocative. But at this year’s Cop31 UN climate summit in Antalya, coal exporter Australia and coal consumer Turkey will be trying to shift the focus away from dirty fossil fuels and towards clean electricity, with a target on the table to meet 35% of final energy demand from electricity by 2035.
Will they succeed? The geopolitical outlook for Cop31 is worse than for almost any recent “conference of the parties” under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza are destabilising global alliances, an unpredictable White House is sowing economic uncertainty and AI is threatening to unleash digitised chaos.
‘Bunch of baloney’: calls grow for Cop summit reforms as countries on track to fail nature targets
The Amazon’s canary in the coalmine: what a tropical fish can tell us about climate upheaval
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From energy prices to datacenters, climate became a cost-of-living issue – and a winning one
Climate-forward Democrats swept into power on Tuesday night as a blue tsunami flipped the Senate, House and several governor’s races. Voters were laser-focused on affordability, and experts said Democrats succeeded in linking cost-of-living concerns with rising energy prices, datacenters and, to some extent, the climate crisis. They may have even created a path for a “new climate politics”.
The results delivered a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump, who started a war with Iran that raised gas pump prices across the country and exposed the fragility of fossil fuels, all while the US oil industry earned $130bn in profits since the war began. Household energy costs soared, driven by various factors including constraints on renewables, climate disasters and a datacenter boom.
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The BLVD is home to 250 enterprises, from banks, tattoo shops and restaurants to museums and a performing arts centre
Passing through the Mojave desert on State Route 14, going by landscapes Hollywood uses to represent alien planets, a driver might not expect to find a walkable, tree-lined boulevard.
But there are nine beautiful, leafy blocks on West Lancaster Boulevard, a piece of what used to be Highway 14. They were redeveloped as part of a mixed-use urban streetscape in the city of Lancaster, California in 2010.
The BLVD, as it’s been rebranded, is home to 250 public and private enterprises, from banks, tattoo shops and restaurants to museums, a performing arts centre and a public library. City Hall is just a block south.
The city invested $11.5m (£8.5m) to transform a busy thoroughfare into an inviting public space. The three lanes in the centre of the former five-lane road were replaced by a series of tree-lined ramblas – Spanish for “avenue” and “watercourse,” because dry stream beds served as streets in early cities.
The redesign was planned and funded by the city of redevelopment agency. Within four years of completion, it had generated more than $270m in economic output, attracted $130m in investment, created hundreds of jobs and prompted the building or renovation of hundreds of housing units, according to the city.
The revitalisation has also created more intangible benefits, residents say. The city centre the feels like a gathering space, they said — somewhere where they can feel like part of a community.
There are biological reasons why you may reach for sweet treats before bed, but you can change the habit.
The doctor tested positive in DR Congo, where there is an outbreak. The government says the risk to the public remains low.
The number of deaths linked to cocaine use in England and Wales has nearly quadrupled in a decade.
The aim is to detect hard-to-diagnose abdominal cancers, including liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancer, much sooner.
Concerns from staff, parents, carers or the child themselves will trigger an immediate escalation of care.
Saskia Reeves-Priestley didn't know she had a Vitamin D deficiency until she suddenly collapsed at work.
Chomping on vegtable skins, seeds and stalks could give us vital fibre, say food scientists.
Doctors are finding vitamin D deficiency is increasingly widespread in the UK, especially in young people. But the symptoms are difficult to spot and can be missed.
It will cause huge disruption in some parts of England and Wales, say GP leaders.
Senior doctors to stage 48-hour walkout, beginning on 25 November, in dispute over pay and pensions.
Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
At Maido — the Lima restaurant recently crowned the best in the world — one of the star dishes is paiche, a giant prehistoric river fish.Its journey to the table begins on a small family farm deep in Peru’s Amazon.
“Jane Goodall forever changed how people think about, interact with and care for the natural world,” said Daniela Raik, interim CEO of Conservation International.
Conservation International’s Neil Vora was selected for TIME’s Next 100 list — alongside other rising leaders reshaping culture, science and society.
Climate change is happening. And it’s placing the world’s reefs in peril. What can be done?
After decades of negotiation, the high seas treaty is finally reality. The historic agreement will pave the way to protect international waters which face numerous threats.
The Amazon rainforest, known for lush green canopies and an abundance of freshwater, is drying out — and deforestation is largely to blame.
The ocean is engine of all life on Earth, but human-driven climate change is pushing it past its limits. Here are five ways the ocean keeps our climate in check — and what can be done to help.
In a grueling and delicate dance, a team led by Conservation International removes a massive undersea killer.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures might be worth even more. An initiative featuring the work of some of the world’s best nature photographers raises money for environmental conservation.
