Bleak report finds greenhouse gas emissions are still rising despite ‘exponential’ growth of renewables
Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating.
The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/21/2025 - 23:00
Human-wildlife conflict has now overtaken poaching as a cause of fatalities – and is deadly for people too. Some villages are finding new ways to live alongside them
Photographs by Edwin Ndeke
At nearly 3.5-metres tall and weighing as much as a bus, you could be forgiven for assuming that Goshi – one of an estimated 30 “super-tusker” elephants left in Africa – would be easy to find. The radio tracker picking up his signal beeps encouragingly, indicating the giant bull is within 200 metres. But the dry season has turned the mass of arid acacia scrubland grey, and everything seems to resemble an elephant.
Even when they are invisible, the huge herbivores shape the landscape here. There are 17,000 elephants across the Tsavo region, Kenya’s largest protected area, which is divided in two. Each year, elephants wander huge distances between feeding grounds, following the seasonal rains as they have done for thousands of years.
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 20:26
Temperatures forecast by Bureau of Meteorology to reach 39C in the CBD as rain and damaging wind gusts up to 130km/h expected along Victoria’s south-west coast
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The weather bureau has forecast a “blistering day” for Sydney on Wednesday, with record-breaking heat shifting towards the east coast, while damaging winds whip through southern states.
On Tuesday, both New South Wales and Queensland recorded their hottest-ever October temperatures, the highest since records began in 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 20:00
Dan Zafra captured a timelapse of something he could only dream of - red sprites, also known as red lightning, flashing above the Milky Way - while photographing from the Clay Cliffs in New Zealand's south island on 11 October. Red sprites are brief, large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorms, reaching altitudes of up to 90km. They are almost impossible to see with the naked eye and last just a few milliseconds
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 18:01
‘The objectives of the Paris agreement are slipping further out of reach,’ say researchers from LSE
No major bank has yet committed to stop funding new oil and gas fields or coal capacity, research has found.
Most banks that have recently updated their climate policies have weakened them, according to the research by the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre (TPI) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 16:30
Government consults on allowing regulator to use lower civil standard of proof and introducing automatic penalties
Water companies in England could face more, and automatic, fines for sewage dumping under new Environment Agency powers.
The government is consulting on allowing the regulator to use a lower, civil, standard of proof instead of the higher criminal standard, for minor to moderate environmental offences.
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 09:00
Exclusive: Looming overhaul of protections should also include definition of ‘unacceptable impact’ on environment, Murray Watt says
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here
The Albanese government wants the power to strip companies of any financial gains made from breaking environment laws, as part of a package of landmark reforms to be put before parliament in the next two weeks.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, the environment minister, Murray Watt, also revealed he wants a definition of “unacceptable impact” to be part of the nation’s new environment laws.
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 08:25
Construction due to begin in 2027 on what is expected to become UK’s largest publicly owned windfarm
Every islander on Orkney is expected to benefit from a major windfarm being built by the local council after it won £62m in financing from the UK’s national wealth fund.
All the profits from the project to build up to 18 turbines across three islands on Orkney will be spent on local services, council officials said, in what is expected to become the UK’s largest publicly owned windfarm.
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 07:00
New rule would prohibit states from banning dangerous chemicals, and could invalidate hundreds of protections
A new rule proposed by the Trump administration would dramatically weaken safety reviews for some of the nation’s most toxic chemicals that are already on the market, public health advocates and an EPA employee warn.
Many of the chemicals that would receive less scrutiny are among the nation’s most dangerous substances, including PFAS, formaldehyde, asbestos and dioxins. Each poses serious health risks in consumer goods, or for workers handling the substances, advocates say.
Continue reading...
10/21/2025 - 07:00
Most vulnerable families could be without critical energy assistance, experts warn, as electricity and gas bills surge
Millions of Americans face having to ration heating this winter as the US federal government shutdown and mass layoffs by the Trump administration cause unprecedented delays in getting energy assistance aid to low-income households, a group that helps people pay energy bills has warned.
Congress approved about $4bn for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap), after Trump’s proposal to cancel the life-saving heating and cooling scheme in this year’s budget was ultimately unsuccessful.
Continue reading...
