Campaigners hail Labour’s ‘proactive approach’ after series of policy U-turns under Conservatives
UK politics live – latest updates
Business live – latest updates
The UK government is considering making further commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, likely to be announced at the UN climate summit this year.
It is hoped the plan will help kickstart global ambitions on cutting emissions and encourage other countries to follow suit.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 06:00
Tribes fought for decades to restore the Klamath to its natural state and protect the salmon that spawn there
Salmon will swim freely through a major watershed near the California-Oregon border for the first time in more than a century, as the largest dam-removal project in US history nears completion this week.
Workers breached the final dams on a key section of the Klamath River on Wednesday, clearing the way for the river to run unobstructed.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 05:00
Exclusive: Over $12bn in subsidies awarded for technologies like carbon capture experts call ‘colossal waste of money’
How Exxon chases billions in US subsidies for a ‘climate solution’ that helps it drill more oil
A handful of wealthy polluting countries led by the US are spending billions of dollars of public money on unproven climate solutions technologies that risk further delaying the transition away from fossil fuels, new analysis suggests.
These governments have handed out almost $30bn in subsidies for carbon capture and fossil hydrogen over the past 40 years, with hundreds of billions potentially up for grabs through new incentives, according to a new report by Oil Change International (OCI), a non-profit tracking the cost of fossil fuels.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 05:00
Climate experts raise red flags as oil giant spends millions lobbying while touting ‘underperforming’ carbon capture
When the oil giant ExxonMobil sponsored an event at the re-energizing Democratic national convention (DNC) in Chicago last week, it was disrupted by climate activists outraged that big oil was invited on to an influential political platform. “Exxon lies, people die,” protesters shouted before being evicted.
The event included a “fireside chat” with Vijay Swarup, the company’s senior climate strategy and technology director. Swarup is a 30-year Exxon veteran who headed the company’s research and development team for just under a decade, and oversaw initiatives on biofuels, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 05:00
North Atlantic populations are at a historic low, and this year 33 of the country’s rivers were closed during the fishing season as salmon farming and the climate crisis threaten the fish’s future
“What is Norway without the fjords and the mountains?” asks Ann-Britt Bogen from her candlelit kitchen, the wild Gaula River flowing by outside the window, the hillside covered by low-lying cloud. For centuries, the river, which runs 153km (95 miles) from the mountains near the Swedish border to Trondheim fjord, has attracted salmon – and fishers – year after year.
But this spring the salmon, particularly the medium and larger-sized fish, did not come back from the ocean, raising such alarm over the collapse of the salmon population that the river, along with dozens of others in central and southern Norway, was abruptly closed for the first time.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 03:58
Energy regulator’s investigation found ‘inadequate data governance’ over sourcing of wood to fuel power station
Business live – latest updates
The power generator Drax has agreed to pay £25m after the energy industry regulator found it had submitted inaccurate data on the sourcing of wood pellets used at its massive plant in North Yorkshire.
An investigation by Ofgem, which was launched last year, concluded there was “an absence of adequate data governance and controls in place” when it came to profiling the sources of wood used by Drax from Canada between April 2021 and the end of March 2022. This kind of profiling data is used to determine, for example, whether wood pellets had come from sawmills or forests.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 03:35
Greek authorities have started collecting hundreds of thousands of dead fish that poured into a tourist port in the central coastal city of Volos this week after being displaced from their usual freshwater habitats during flooding last year. 'It spans kilometres,' a city council member, Stelios Limnios, told Reuters. 'It’s not just along the coast, but also in the centre of the Pagasetic Gulf,' he said, referring to the waters off Volos, where the coast is lined with holiday homes. There have been warnings that the rotting fish could create an environmental disaster for other species in the area
Greece tourist port flooded with hundreds of thousands of dead fish
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 03:27
Absence of legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reductions from 2031-49 deemed unconstitutional
South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled that part of the country’s climate law does not conform with protecting the constitutional rights of future generations, an outcome local activists are calling a “landmark decision”.
The unanimous verdict concludes four years of legal battles and sets a significant precedent for future climate-related legal actions in the region.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 03:00
As multinationals and researchers harvest rare organisms around the world, anger is rising in the global south over the unpaid use of lucrative genetic codes found on their land
Even in the warm summer sun, the stagnant puddles and harsh rock faces of Ribblehead quarry in North Yorkshire feel like an unlikely frontier of the AI industrial revolution. Standing next to a waterfall that bursts out from the fractured rock, Bupe Mwambingu reaches into the green sludge behind the cascade and emerges with fistful of algae.
Balancing precariously on the rocks, the researcher passes the dripping mass to her colleague Emma Bolton, who notes their GPS coordinates and the acidity, temperature and light exposure on a phone app.
Continue reading...
08/29/2024 - 00:23
A day after agreement was ratified at the Pacific Island Forum, the country’s climate minister says ‘root cause of climate change’ must be addressed
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Tuvalu’s climate minister has declared that “opening, subsidising and exporting fossil fuels is immoral and unacceptable”, just a day after Australia ratified a climate and security deal with the low-lying Pacific nation.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, welcomed the agreement with Tuvalu on Wednesday, saying Pacific island countries were “fully aware of the commitment that we have to climate action” but gas would continue to play a role.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...