Decision disappoints experts hoping for world’s biggest emitter to take global lead on climate crisis
China has ruled out hosting the Cop33 UN climate summit in 2028 after months of deliberations, leaving the field open for other Asian countries to hold it, the Guardian understands.
The decision will disappoint many countries and climate experts, who had hoped the world’s biggest emitter would take the lead on the global stage, as the US under Donald Trump has vacated all forms of international cooperation on the climate.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/12/2026 - 15:53
Sightings of the species are becoming increasingly common as experts worry about danger posed by busy waterways
A humpback whale was spotted on Thursday swimming in New York’s Hudson River, sparking a social media frenzy.
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, president of Manhattan borough, was among those to share a photograph of the whale on Facebook, an image taken on Thursday morning and provided by Gotham Whale, a citizen science and education group that tracks marine mammals in New York’s waterways.
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11/12/2026 - 12:51
Andy Burnham’s newly appointed climate adviser used report to warn of national security risk from collapsing ecosystems
The UK government still has no plans to publish an explosive report showing the national security risk from the collapse of ecosystems around the world – even after handing the key official behind the report a new advisory role.
Andy Burnham addressed the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey on Thursday and said the UK was determined to reach net zero by 2050 and work with its partners to build a clean energy future.
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11/12/2026 - 11:39
Swedish activist criticised world governments for their failure to prevent environmental breakdown
The planet is “not dying, it is being killed and we know by who”, said Greta Thunberg, who excoriated world governments for their failure to prevent environmental breakdown in her first appearance at the annual UN climate talks in five years.
Thunberg, 23, the Swedish activist who became famous for heading the school climate strike movement, delivered her stark message to those gathered at the Cop31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, amid the ongoing failure by countries to adequately address the climate crisis.
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11/12/2026 - 10:25
Flanked by Greta Thunberg, Rikki Dank says the Australian PM must heed the calls for action on climate change
An Indigenous climate activist who is taking the Australian government to the UN human rights committee over its coal and gas exports stood alongside Greta Thunberg at Cop summit to demand Anthony Albanese “stop speaking and start listening.”
Draped in traditional dress in front of a media throng, Rikki Dank, a Gudanji and Wakaya traditional owner, delivered an impassioned plea to Albanese to listen to “the Australian people when they say no more new coal, oil and gas”.
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11/12/2026 - 09:00
Battery maker CATL aims to have 2,000 swapping stations in China by the end of 2027 and to bring the tech to Europe
Every day, Wang Bing drives his big electric lorry to send about five tonnes of goods between the cities of Haikou and Dongfang on Hainan, a tropical island in southern China. A round trip covers about 500 kilometres (310 miles). But refuelling is not something Wang worries about.
“When my battery runs low, I just drive my truck into a battery-swapping station to get a fully charged one,” says the 53-year-old, who shares the journey with a colleague in eight-hour shifts.
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11/12/2026 - 06:00
Kerry decries president for ceding clean-energy dominance to China and says climate crisis still a key issue for voters
Donald Trump is the “biggest loser we’ve seen in a long time” for scrapping action on the climate crisis and ceding the clean energy race to China, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.
Kerry, speaking at the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey, criticized Trump for withdrawing the US from the international climate process and axing measures that reduced planet-heating emissions. Unlike almost all other countries in the world, the Trump administration has sent no delegation to the resort city of Antalya for the annual UN climate talks, which started on Monday.
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11/12/2026 - 06:00
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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11/12/2026 - 05:00
As the planet faces unprecedented human-caused global heating, heads of government are meeting in Turkey for the next fortnight for the latest round of climate talks. Madeleine Finlay tells co-host Ian Sample why these negotiations are so critical and what the chances are of meaningful change.
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11/12/2026 - 02:54
World leaders including UK prime minister Andy Burnham addressed the summit today, as talks near the end of the first week
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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