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World leaders including UK prime minister Andy Burnham are addressing the summit today, as talks head into the third day
Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party in the UK, criticised Andy Burnham’s Cop31 speech on Radio 4’s Today programme. Saying he was “not at all reassured” by the prime minister’s words, he described it as a “bizarre” speech.
Polanski said climate action is about what you do, not what you say, referring to the recent decision by the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, to allow drilling in the Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea. It’s “one step forwards, two steps back”, Polanski said.
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Proponents argue ocean carbon removal is necessary to counteract the effects of the climate crisis but critics say more research is needed
A cluster of candy cane-striped smoke stacks dots the horizon of Tufts Cove in Nova Scotia, Canada. Deep in the briny depths of Halifax harbour, something huge is happening: the ocean is being engineered to remove atmospheric carbon.
“This is what Mother Nature has done naturally for a few billion years in order to rebalance the atmospheric and ocean chemistry over long timescales,” says Dr Greg Rau, co-founder and senior scientist at Planetary Technologies.
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It is built of wood, resembles an Ikea and its power is totally renewable. Plus, it was built with the local community in mind. Is this facility in Falun the best datacentre in the world?
‘It was pretty cool, when they were building it. It looked like a very large Ikea,” says John Wernvik, of EcoDataCenter. He is giving me a tour of their facility in Falun, Sweden, which could lay claim to being the world’s greenest datacentre – although to many, that is a contradiction in terms.
One difference is immediately visible: this datacentre is made out of wood. Huge panels of cross-laminated timber arrived at the site pre-cut, and were assembled by crane according to instructions, like flatpack furniture. Aesthetically, this section of the datacentre is more like an Ikea before the fit-out, a cavernous, echoey, immaculately clean hangar. The wood is not EcoDataCenter’s only claim to sustainability; it is more than just cosmetic, says Wernvik, the company’s chief external relations and sustainability officer. “Compared with a traditional datacentre built with steel and concrete, we lower the embodied carbon of the full structure by three times.” With a complex the size of a football pitch, that is a lot of wood, but, says Wernvik, “the amount of timber one of our datacentres uses takes the Swedish forest about 10 to 15 minutes to grow back”.
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Regulator to hasten review over concerns that firms are ‘undermining’ rules to make large payments to bosses
The water company bonus ban is set to be tightened after the regulator accused the industry of a risk of “damaging public trust” with large payments to bosses that appeared to get around the rules.
Anglian Water was singled out for particular criticism over “retention payments” worth up to £800,000 for its chief executive, Mark Thurston, despite the bonus ban. Anglian will face increased monitoring of its governance arrangements because of the controversial payments.
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Exmoor, Somerset: Tarr Steps is no stranger to flooding, but the damage is becoming more and more frequent
Fog cloaked the combe as we walked down to the River Barle, and for the first time in months I wished I were wearing gloves. A red kite wheeled overhead, the dull copper colour of its underparts matching the autumn leaves still clinging to the oaks. Red kites are still fairly uncommon on Exmoor, though their numbers have increased recently as the species pushes west. Several pheasants whirred past, calling loudly in alarm: they are also more numerous now, due to the spread of game-shooting estates.
We were heading for Tarr Steps, the longest clapper bridge in Britain, an ancient footbridge nearly 55 metres long, with 17 arches braced across the Barle. It is constructed of pillars of piled rock set about two metres apart, spanned by huge, flat gritstones weighing up to two tonnes each. The whole edifice is held together by bulk and weight, without the aid of mortar, cement or ironwork. Its exact age is uncertain, but the existing structure is considered to be a medieval improvement of a simpler bronze age crossing.
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Package for plan off Norfolk coast revealed as government tries to calm critics after approving Jackdaw gasfield
Andy Burnham has hailed a record investment in offshore wind, as the government tries to repair its green credentials after approving the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea.
On Wednesday the government announced a £12bn investment from the German energy company RWE and the US private equity firm KKR, as the prime minister prepares to travel to the Cop31 climate crisis summit in Turkey.
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The transition to electric vehicles should be moving apace, but it is not. And why? Incompetence, expedience and cowardice
This is how it works. An industry puts tremendous effort into resisting change: lobbying governments, mobilising the media, pouring money into junktanks. It argues that a transition would threaten jobs, or damage the national interest, or harm poor people, while what it really fears is the cost of retooling its plants or developing new protocols. Then, when the inevitable cliff edge approaches, it whines that change is coming too soon. For reasons beyond its control, it isn’t ready, so the government must delay its plans.
This is what triggered the Dutch nitrate crisis, and the UK’s repeated “emergency” exemptions from the ban on a devastating class of pesticides. Now the same dynamic is driving the UK’s crisis over the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). The result is that, as the global climate summit, Cop31, begins, it looks as if our gift to the world will be a major, predictable and entirely avoidable increase in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
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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.
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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.
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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.
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