Environment news

• Trump picks ally Lee Zeldin as environment chief and vows to roll back rules

  11-11-2024 22:50 via theguardian.com
  
  President-elect says ex-New York congressman will ‘ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions’ as EPA administratorUS politics – live updatesDonald Trump has picked Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vowing the appointment will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions” by the regulator.Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental rules when he last was US president, said that Zeldin
  
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• Keir Starmer to unveil ambitious new UK climate goal at Cop29

  11-11-2024 20:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Target is 81% emissions cut compared with 1990, but activists say it must be backed by plan of actionKeir Starmer will announce a stringent new climate goal for the UK on Tuesday, the Guardian can reveal, with a target in line with the advice given to the government by its scientists and independent advisers.The UK will pledge to cut emissions by 81% compared with 1990 levels by 2035, a target in line with the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee, according to three people
  
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• Carbon credit trade rules approved, breaking lengthy deadlock – Cop 29 day one, as it happened

  11-11-2024 19:34 via theguardian.com
  
  This live blog is closedUN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.“In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don’t go in for hopes and dreams,” he said. “What inspires me is human ingenuity and determination. Our ability to get knocked down and to get up again over and over again, until we accomplish our goals.” Conti
  
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• Cop29 live updates: Carbon credit trade rules approved, breaking lengthy deadlock

  11-11-2024 19:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Draft decision on article 6 approved with no objectionsUN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.“In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don’t go in for hopes and dreams,” he said. “What inspires me is human ingenuity and determination. Our ability to get knocked down and to get up again over and over again, until we acc
  
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• New study on moons of Uranus raises chance of life

  11-11-2024 17:00 via bbc.com
  
  The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be the sterile worlds scientists have long thought.
  
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• Cop29 live updates: Trump victory ‘not the end of fight for a cleaner planet’, US climate envoy tells summit

  11-11-2024 16:53 via theguardian.com
  John Podesta, a Biden appointee, says ‘fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country’UN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.“In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don’t go in for hopes and dreams,” he said. “What inspires me is human ingenuity and determination. Our ability to get
  
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• Indonesia volcano: authorities race to evacuate remaining villagers amid eruptions – video

  11-11-2024 16:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Authorities have been racing to evacuate people reluctant to leave villages affected by the erupting Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano on the Indonesian island of Flores. Volcanic material has continued to spew from its crater since 3 November, prompting authorities to extend the danger area and increase the number of evacuees. Lewotobi Laki-Laki is one of 120 active volcanoes in IndonesiaAt least 10 dead as volcanic eruptions destroy houses in Indonesia Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain’: Californians warn of ripple effect of Trump threat

  11-11-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In 2023, state was nation’s sole producer of almonds, artichokes, figs, olives, pomegranates, raisins and walnutsTake a drive through the Salinas or Central valleys in California and you’ll pass from town to town advertising its specialty fruit or vegetable: strawberries in Watsonville, garlic in Gilroy, pistachios in Avenal and almonds in Ripon. More than 400 types of commodities are grown in the Golden state – including a third of the vegetables and three-quarters of the frui
  
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• Cop29 live updates: UN climate conference starts amid warnings 2024 on track to be hottest year ever

  11-11-2024 15:57 via theguardian.com
  Experts gather in Baku as World Meteorological Organisation says previous records likely to be broken after months of exceptionally high global temperaturesUN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.“In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don’t go in for hopes and dreams,” he said. “What inspires me is human ingenuity and
  
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• Trump 2.0 could make even the most optimistic climate observers cynical – but it's not the whole story | Adam Morton

  11-11-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Much is unclear about how Donald Trump’s return to power will affect efforts to tackle global heating but there are a few things we can sayYou’ve probably already heard the worst-case takes: that a second Trump presidency is a disaster for the climate, and will almost certainly lead to emissions being higher than they otherwise would have been. There’s obvious truth in that. But it’s also true that Trump 2.0 will almost certainly not play out in line with immediate post-e
  
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• Trump 2.0 could make even the most optimistic climate observers cynical - but it's not the whole story | Adam Morton

  11-11-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Much is unclear about how Donald Trump’s return to power will affect efforts to tackle global heating, but there are a few things we can sayYou’ve likely already heard the worst-case takes: that a second Trump presidency is a disaster for the climate, and will almost certainly lead to emissions being higher than they otherwise would have been. There’s obvious truth in that. But it’s also true that Trump 2.0 will almost certainly not play out in line with immediate post-el
  
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• This is climate breakdown: ‘There’s a child in the water’ – how floods took my son

  11-11-2024 13:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Before the floods, I was always with my boys. Always. This is Tera’s storyLocation Martock, CanadaDisaster Nova Scotia floods, 2023Tera works with people who have physical and mental disabilities and lives in the same rural municipality she grew up in: West Hants. When flash floods inundated Nova Scotia, she was working at a group home and raising her two boys, aged six and 11. Those floods would result in the death of her youngest son. Continue reading...
  
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• I lost my six year old son when flash floods inundated Nova Scotia - This is climate breakdown

  11-11-2024 13:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Before the floods, I was always with my boys. Always. This is Tera’s storyLocation Martock, CanadaDisaster Nova Scotia floods, 2023Tera works with people who have physical and mental disabilities and lives in the same rural municipality she grew up in: West Hants. When flash floods inundated Nova Scotia, she was working at a group home and raising her two boys, aged six and 11. Those floods would result in the death of her youngest son. Continue reading...
  
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• Skies to clear for Taurid meteor shower peak on Monday

  11-11-2024 13:05 via bbc.com
  
  The Northern Taurids are at their peak on 11-12 November - but will the clouds part to let us see them?
  
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• ‘I’m switched off’: frustration and fatigue as power cuts keep Ecuador in the dark

  11-11-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Facing a severe drought and reliant on hydropower, the country is enduring relentless blackouts. But experts say opportunities have been missed to adapt and diversifyIt’s 6.30pm in Quito, and Anamary Mazorra Vázquez’s flat has fallen into darkness after weeks of government-mandated power cuts to manage Ecuador’s electricity crisis. She puts clothes away by the light of her phone while her husband, Roberto Vaca, seated on the bed by the window, uses the streetlights to he
  
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• Cop29 live updates: global north owes $5tn a year climate debt to global south, say campaigners

  11-11-2024 12:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Rich nations need to fund poorer nations to avoid burning fossil fuels and cope with severe weather events fuelled by global heating, says campaign groupUN climate chief Simon Stiell gave a moving speech at the Cop29 opening plenary on Monday, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for Guardian US, who is reporting from Baku.“In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don’t go in for hopes and dreams,” he said. “What inspires me is human ingenuity and de
  
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• EPA staff fear Trump will destroy how it protects Americans from pollution

  11-11-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Workers face being targets in what could be Environmental Protection Agency’s biggest upheaval since its foundingAfter several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump’s last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House.When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environme
  
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• ‘I can hear dry-retching from inside’: queuing for hours to smell Geelong’s corpse plant

  11-11-2024 10:07 via theguardian.com
  
  The so-called corpse plant takes a decade to flower – and when it does, the blossom lasts just 24-48 hours and smells of rotting fleshGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastI’ve never smelt the rotting decay of a corpse, but I’m told it would smell something like the slightly phallic endangered flower on display at Geelong’s botanic gardens.The smell of the so-called corpse plant, or amorphophallus titanum, for those playing at home, hits you like a pu
  
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• New framework for biodiversity credits rules out a global offsetting exchange

  11-11-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Voluntary standards proposed at Cop16 focus on keeping offsets strictly local, while critics call the issue a ‘distraction’International biodiversity offsetting “doesn’t work”, according to experts aiming to create a nature market that avoids the pitfalls of carbon offsets.The biodiversity sector has been circling the idea of a credits market that would allow companies to finance restoration and preservation of biodiversity, deliver “net-positive” gains
  
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• Global biodiversity offsetting doesn’t work – keep schemes local, say experts

  11-11-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Voluntary standards proposed at Cop16 focus on local like-for-like habitat projects, while critics call the issue a ‘distraction’International biodiversity offsetting “doesn’t work”, according to experts aiming to create a nature market that avoids the pitfalls of carbon offsets.The biodiversity sector has been circling the idea of a credits market that would allow companies to finance restoration and preservation of biodiversity, deliver “net-positive”
  
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• At Cop29, we must treat the climate crisis with the same urgency as Covid – history shows it can be done | Mukhtar Babayev

  11-11-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This emergency will cost trillions of dollars, and is beyond the reach of developing nations. Private investors have to step upMukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conferenceTo avert climate catastrophe, the world needs more climate finance. At Cop29, the UN climate summit in Baku that begins today, agreeing a new climate finance goal is the top priority of Azerbaijan’s Cop presidency.Developing countries require assistance to tackle their emissions and build resilie
  
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• Weather tracker: Philippines braced for landslides as fourth cyclone in three weeks hits

  11-11-2024 08:40 via theguardian.com
  Meanwhile, unseasonable heat will continue across parts of Australia this week The northern Philippines is experiencing its fourth tropical cyclone in three weeks. Typhoon Toraji, also known as Nika, is passing westwards over the island of Luzon, with winds equivalent to a category 1 hurricane. Toraji follows cyclones Trami, Kong-rey, and Yinxing, which combined left 159 people dead and more than 700,000 displaced. The ongoing recovery efforts are being frustrated by the repeated onslaughts of d
  
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• Cop29 live updates: climate summit gets under way in Baku, Azerbaijan

  11-11-2024 08:27 via theguardian.com
  Finance at top of agenda as developing nations call for funding to build protection against extreme weather impactsLike most international diplomatic jamborees, Cops take place in fairly lavish surroundings, and Cop29 is no different. Here are a few views of the sights delegates and visitors are enjoying in the Baku conference centre.The opening ceremony of Cop29 has begun. Mukhtar Babayev, the summit president-elect, has called it a “moment of truth for the Paris agreement”.Colleagu
  
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• A ‘Cop of peace’? How can authoritarian, human rights-trashing Azerbaijan possibly host that? | Greta Thunberg

  11-11-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The ‘theme’ chosen for Cop29 must be some kind of dark joke. This summit, like those before it, is a mere act of greenwashingDuring rapidly escalating climate and humanitarian crises, another authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights is hosting Cop29 – the UN’s latest annual climate summit that starts today and is being held after the re-election of a climate-denier US president.Cop meetings have proven to be greenwashing conferences that legitimise countr
  
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• Country diary: The finest autumn colour we’ve had for years | Susie White

  11-11-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Whitfield, Northumberland: Even if you know the science behind it, the sight of beech and sycamore trees in full blaze can still astoundLast week, it was village fireworks that lit up the Whitfield Valley. Today, the woodlands are glowing with reds, oranges and yellows in a dazzling display. Wet weather has kept the trees hydrated, while warm temperatures have held back leaf-drop. The woods around Cupola Bridge are a place to slow down and experience the best autumn colour for years.Th
  
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• ‘Levels are dropping’: drought saps Zambia and Zimbabwe of hydropower

  11-11-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Vast human-made Lake Kariba is at near-record low, causing daily power cuts and devastating two African economiesAll is not well with the waters of Lake Kariba, the world’s largest human-made lake. A punishing drought has drained the huge reservoir close to record lows, raising the prospect that the Kariba Dam, which powers the economies of Zambia and Zimbabwe, may have to shut down for the first time in its 65-year history.Under the heat of the dry-season sun, the lake looks vast, serene.
  
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