Environment news

• Environmental groups alarmed as Doug Burgum picked for US interior secretary

  15-11-2024 20:57
  
  Several groups say North Dakota governor will sacrifice public lands on the ‘altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits’Donald Trump’s nomination of North Dakota’s Republican governor, Doug Burgum, as the interior secretary has prompted swift backlash from environmental advocacy groups alarmed at the incoming administration’s plans to use federal lands for oil and gas drilling.Trump also announced in a statement on Friday his intention to make Burgum chair of
  
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• Valencia's president apologises for handling of floods – video

  15-11-2024 19:03
  
  The regional president of the Spanish province of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, rejected calls for his resignation amid growing public anger over his management of the recent devastating floods that killed more than 210 people in the area. He conceded mistakes were made but claimed the unprecedented and 'apocalyptic' scale of the disaster overwhelmed the system Valencia’s president admits mistakes in flood response but will not resignAlmost half of Valencia’s flood victims were aged
  
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• Valencia's president apologises for handling of deadly floods – video

  15-11-2024 19:03
  
  The president of the Spanish province of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, rejected calls for his resignation amid growing public anger over his management of the recent devastating floods that killed more than 210 people in the area. He conceded mistakes were made but claimed the unprecedented and 'apocalyptic' scale of the disaster overwhelmed the system Valencia’s president admits mistakes in flood response but will not resignAlmost half of Valencia’s flood victims were aged over 70,
  
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• The Guardian view on UN climate talks: rich and poor nations can strike a win-win deal | Editorial

  15-11-2024 18:32
  
  At Cop29 the global south needs to unite for sustainable growth, leveraging resources and negotiating transformative climate finance pactsMore than a century of burning coal, oil and gas has fuelled intense heatwaves, prolonged droughts, heavier rains and devastating floods. To prevent even more severe impacts, the UN global climate summit, Cop29, must deliver tangible results to keep global temperature rises below 2C – the limit defined in the 2015 Paris agreement. Achieving this goal mea
  
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• Fears grow that Milei will withdraw Argentina from Paris climate accord

  15-11-2024 18:24
  Far-right president may announce country’s departure from agreement after meeting Donald TrumpThere is growing concern that Argentina’s far-right president, Javier Milei, is set to announce his country’s departure from the Paris climate accord.Earlier this week, negotiators from Milei’s government were ordered to leave the Cop29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, after just three days. Now, the Guardian understands that Milei is considering announcing a formal withdrawal
  
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• Cop29: oil bosses given red carpet treatment at climate summit – as it happened

  15-11-2024 17:26
  At least 123 oil and gas bosses and staff invited as ‘guests’ by Azerbaijani government and given host country badges, the Guardian has learnedAccording to an interesting piece in the Africa Report, African countries at Cop are wary of alienating China.But this year, the main issue at stake in the negotiations is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). In the jargon of climate finance, this is the amount that developed countries will have to provide to vulnerable countries to help
  
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• Future of several RSPB nature reserves at risk as charity cuts costs

  15-11-2024 16:36
  
  Some cafes and visitor centres to close with job losses while reserves in Suffolk and Hertfordshire among those in perilThe future of several RSPB nature reserves is in doubt as the charity makes cuts, citing cost of living pressures.The bird charity told its workers at an all-staff meeting on Thursday that cafes and visitor centres across some of its sites would be closing, and staff would be made redundant. It also said it was in the process of transferring ownership of some of its sites to ot
  
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• Cop29 live: oil bosses given red carpet treatment at climate summit

  15-11-2024 15:41
  At least 123 oil and gas bosses and staff invited as ‘guests’ by Azerbaijani government and given host country badges, the Guardian has learneAccording to an interesting piece in the Africa Report, African countries at Cop are wary of alienating China.But this year, the main issue at stake in the negotiations is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). In the jargon of climate finance, this is the amount that developed countries will have to provide to vulnerable countries to help
  
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• Sydney to London flight emissions can be halved depending on route, plane and seating

  15-11-2024 15:00
  Carbon footprint of an average passenger can vary widely depending on stopovers, plane models and even seating arrangementsSign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailFlying across the world but want to limit your emissions? Experts say the size of an economy passenger’s carbon footprint can vary dramatically depending on the route and model of plane. Even when flying on the same plane type between the same locations, average passenger emissions can vary widely depending on h
  
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• Route of the matter: your flight’s itinerary can dramatically change its carbon footprint

  15-11-2024 15:00
  
  Average passenger emissions between Sydney and London can vary widely depending on stopovers, plane models and even seating arrangementsSign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailFlying across the world but want to limit your emissions? Experts say the size of an economy passenger’s carbon footprint can vary dramatically depending on the route and model of plane. Even when flying on the same plane type between the same locations, average passenger emissions can vary widely d
  
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• COP29 hosts accused of detaining climate defenders

  15-11-2024 13:03 via bbc.com
  
  Human rights groups have called for a review of how countries are chosen to host the COP climate summits.
  
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• ‘There are days when the school closes because children don’t have water to drink’ – This is climate breakdown

  15-11-2024 13:00
  Until the 1960s it rained a lot. We ate wild game, fish, there were plenty of rivers, but since then they’ve been drying up. This is José’s storyLocation São João das Missões, BrazilDisaster Xakriabá Indigenous territory drought, 2013-24José Fiuza Xakriabá grew up in the Xakriabá Indigenous territory and is now an influential Xakriabá leader. That region was previously watered by an extensive network of rivers. But the on
  
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• Cop29 live: calls grow to ban fossil fuel lobbyists at summit as numbers soar

  15-11-2024 12:53
  
  UK Greens say climate measures ‘being derailed by the fossil fuel lobby’ and that Trump’s victory underlines the need to reform COPAccording to an interesting piece in the Africa Report, African countries at Cop are wary of alienating China.But this year, the main issue at stake in the negotiations is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). In the jargon of climate finance, this is the amount that developed countries will have to provide to vulnerable countries to help them
  
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• Cop29 live: call for summits only to be held in countries that support climate action

  15-11-2024 10:29
  
  The negotiations continue with plenty of disagreement about the way forward, as we approach the halfway mark in Baku, AzerbaijanAccording to an interesting piece in the Africa Report, African countries at Cop are wary of alienating China.But this year, the main issue at stake in the negotiations is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). In the jargon of climate finance, this is the amount that developed countries will have to provide to vulnerable countries to help them adapt to climate chan
  
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• Week in wildlife in pictures: a very lost penguin, cloned baby lemurs and a mystery mollusc

  15-11-2024 09:00
  
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Week in wildlife in pictures: a very lost penguin, cloned baby ferrets and a mystery mollusc

  15-11-2024 09:00
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Picture an all-seeing eye scanning the dying Earth – and then lighting on our ‘solutions’ at Cop29 | George Monbiot

  15-11-2024 08:00
  
  What would it witness in Azerbaijan? A species that knows it is destroying itself but is too greedy to change courseImagine, as many people do, an all-seeing eye in the sky, looking down on planet Earth. Imagine seeing what it sees. It watches, over the course of decades, ice caps shrinking, rainforests retreating, deserts expanding, ocean circulation slowing, freshwater dwindling and sea levels rising, and it thinks – for it has been there since the beginning – “this is famili
  
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• How particle pollution from fireworks harms UK air and rivers

  15-11-2024 07:00
  
  Across Yorkshire, the air pollution measured on 5 November reached level seven on thegovernment’s 10-point scaleThe colours, bangs and excitement of fireworks thrill many of us but what looks pretty comes with a pollution penalty, harming air and rivers.A network of three UK university research observatories have revealed the complexity of the unique air pollution that fireworks create. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: The last leaves are giving way to the first catkins | Phil Gates

  15-11-2024 06:30
  
  Wolsingham, Weardale: The day is fading fast and last night’s frost is still in the air. A stretch of hazel hedge provides a brief reminder that we don’t just live one season at a timeOld single-species hedges are usually hawthorn or blackthorn: prickly, dense, stockproof. This one, beside the footpath, is almost pure hazel, planted along a 200‑yard boundary embankment of rocks cleared from the field, long ago. More than a hundred multi‑stemmed trees, regularly space
  
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• UN climate talks 'no longer fit for purpose' say key experts

  15-11-2024 01:11 via bbc.com
  
  Call for change comes after host country Azerbaijan's president calls oil and gas a 'gift of God'
  
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• Cop summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’, say leading climate policy experts

  15-11-2024 01:01
  
  Future UN conferences should only be held in countries that show support for climate action, urge influential groupOver 1,700 coal, oil and gas lobbyists granted access to Cop29, says reportFuture UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying, according to a group of influential climate policy experts.The group includes former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary
  
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