Climate

A draft global agreement sets a fee for cargo ships, which carry the vast majority of world trade, to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems

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Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

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Clean energy investors likely to pull back from US, but other countries may seize opportunity to speed transition

Donald Trump’s upending of the global economy has raised fears that climate action could emerge as a casualty of the trade war.

In the week that has followed “liberation day”, economic experts have warned that the swathe of tariffs could trigger a global economic recession, with far-reaching consequences for investors – including those behind the green energy projects needed to meet climate goals.

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After hottest 12-month period on record, a high-pressure system brings above-average temperatures across WA, Victoria, SA and NSW

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South-east Australia is in for a hot weekend, with temperatures up to 12C above average forecast in parts of Victoria and Melbourne expected to experience its warmest April days in four years.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast Melbourne will reach a maximum of 30C on Saturday and Sunday, while Sydney is forecast to reach a high of 26C on both days of the weekend.

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Eat-Lancet report recommended shift to more plant-based, climate-friendly diet but was extensively attacked online

A leaked document shows that vested interests may have been behind a “mud-slinging” PR campaign to discredit a landmark environment study, according to an investigation.

The Eat-Lancet Commission study, published in 2019, set out to answer the question: how can we feed the world’s growing population without causing catastrophic climate breakdown?

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There has been little talk about how Australia’s economy will get to net zero. That’s a terrible reflection on the state of our politics

The Coalition has been forced to reassert its commitment to the Paris climate agreement after its energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, appeared to waver on the pledge on Thursday.

O’Brien faced off against the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, at a debate in Canberra, weeks out from a federal election in which energy policy is emerging as a hot-button issue.

Labor, the Coalition, nobody in this country will be able to achieve the emission target set by Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese. The difference between Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese is that Peter Dutton has been honest and upfront about that.

… go against the spirit, if not the letter, of the Paris Agreement, and – in some circumstances – could constitute a breach of those obligations.

Tony Wood is the energy and climate change program director at the Grattan Institute. This article was originally published in the Conversation

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Officials are moving to eliminate requirements that most big polluters disclose how much carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases they emit.

I’ve had too many close calls with increased tornado activity here in Louisville, KY, and the summer heat seems more unbearable each year. After a winter that brought terrible storms, I’m bracing for “Danger Season,”—the period between May and October when North America experiences its worst climate impacts. It seems to be starting earlier and lasting longer.

Danger Season 2025 may bring even more extreme impacts as the climate crisis intensifies—this information makes me fear for the safety of my family and my loved ones. I allow myself to feel fear and grieve for what is lost. I think of the words in Frank Herbert’s Dune:

“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.”

This helps me remember that I won’t allow fear to keep me from finding courage and fighting for a safer world—for my son, for my community, for all of us.

When climate change comes knocking at our door, we need to be prepared. That is why we must tackle the climate crisis and the affordable housing crisis at the same time.

Home looks different for all of us, and because of that we must pursue equitable solutions to make people safer where they live.

From flooded trailers in KY

People clear out a trailer neighboring the Perez home at Ramsey Mobile Home Park following rain storms that caused flooding on February 17, 2025 in Pikeville, Kentucky. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

…to fallen trees in South Carolina when Hurricane Helene cut an 800 mile path across the southeast…

Photo provided by the author of her cousin’s home after Hurricane Helene.

and mobile homes destroyed by hurricanes.

FEMA search and rescue efforts in N. Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Sept. 2024. FEMA

When the lack of air conditioning behind prison doors makes extreme heat a death sentence,

Create Image/Getty Images

and when people who are experiencing homelessness must find relief where they can when a heat dome encompasses Portland.

A man who asked to not be named tries to stay cool near a misting station in Lents Park during an extreme heat wave August 13, 2021 in Portland, Oregon. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

When the sea has forced its way right through the doors of Summer Haven homes,

Drone view of homes in Summer Haven, Florida. Aerial_Views/Getty Images

and when fire consumes everything that a family has worked for.

Sisters Emilee and Natalee De Santiago sit together on the front porch of what remains of their home on January 19, 2025 in Altadena, California. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

When families must pack up what they can and evacuate,

People walk down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after it the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 27, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

and renters and public housing are hit particularly hard…

Diamond Dillahunt, 2-year-old Ta-Layah Koonce and Shkoel Collins survey the flooding at the Trent Court public housing apartments after the Neuse River topped its banks during Hurricane Florence September 13, 2018 in New Bern, N. Carolina. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

even if we’re safe in our doorway, we won’t thrive if our community is not prepared

A person walks past downed power lines as people deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 05, 2024 in Greenwood, South Carolina. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

…because we can’t do this alone.

Volunteer rescuer workers help a woman from her home that was inundated with the flooding of Hurricane Harvey on August 30, 2017 in Port Arthur, Texas. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“The measure of whether or not a community is resilient is how it protects people from the inevitable.” –Andreanecia Morris, Executive Director for Housing NOLA

Climate-driven risk will make the ongoing housing crisis worse and would have disproportionate impacts on low-income families and communities of color, including people who are incarcerated or experiencing homelessness.

Right now, we need elected officials and government agencies from the local to the federal level doing everything possible to ensure people have safe, affordable, climate-resilient housing and resources to recover from disasters. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is an essential agency for meeting our housing needs, yet Elon Musk is attempting to cut staff and render HUD inoperable in his illegal grab for power.

Thankfully, he’s facing pushback. The Government Accountability Office has committed to investigating the impact on fair housing enforcement in response to a petition led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. We’ll need sustained action to keep Elon’s hands off HUD and to invest in affordable, climate-safe housing nationwide.

Call your Senators today and tell them to keep Elon’s hands off HUD and to invest in affordable, climate-safe housing.

For talking points, refer to this national letter signed by UCS and housing justice organizations.

Kathleen Sgamma abruptly withdrew from consideration days after a memo surfaced in which she sharply criticized President Trump.

New warnings from financial firms and insurers point to a future defined by profound risks to the global economy from heat, storms and other disasters.

White House claims university’s work exposed students to ‘climate anxiety’ and ‘exaggerated climate threats’

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Almost $4m in federal funding has been stripped from an Ivy League university’s prestigious climate research department because the Trump administration has determined it exposed students and other young people to “climate anxiety”.

The government research grants to Princeton University have been cut off because the White House considers its work on topics including sea level rise, coastal flooding and global warming to be promoting “exaggerated and implausible climate threats”, according to the New York Times.

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The butterflies’ resilience shows that some species are capable of adapting to dramatic changes in climate, food availability and urban development.

Dutch group Follow This says it will not file any resolutions against oil and gas companies this AGM season

A green shareholder activist group has decided to “pause” its work pushing oil companies to reduce their emissions amid a growing investor backlash against climate action.

Follow This has confirmed that it will not file any climate resolutions against oil and gas companies during the forthcoming AGM season for the first time since 2016.

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Climate denialism should not blind investors and governments to the very real opportunities to be found in financing solutions

Among the many shocks currently facing the international development community is the new direction of the US administration on climate, and the implications worldwide for mitigation and adaptation efforts.

This is not uncharted territory. While a withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement is undoubtedly a setback, it no longer carries the same level of disruption as it did. The global community has become more resilient and will continue to advance climate action.

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Scientists say a complex mix of factors are making seasonal allergies worse for longer in many parts of the world – but why is it happening and is it here to stay?

The first time it happened, László Makra thought he had flu. The symptoms appeared from nowhere at the end of summer in 1989: his eyes started streaming, his throat was tight and he could not stop sneezing. Makra was 37 and otherwise fit and healthy, a mid-career climate scientist in Szeged, Hungary. Winter eventually came and he thought little of it. Then, it happened the next year. And the next.

“I had never had these symptoms before. It was high summer: it was impossible to have the flu three consecutive years in a row,” he says.

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For decades, US meteorologists were forbidden from uttering the word ‘tornado.’ Now, US officials have banned the term ‘climate change’

For more than 60 years, US meteorologists were not allowed to use the word “tornado” in their forecasts. No tornado warnings were issued in this period at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th – even when danger was imminent.

Sergeant John Park Finley, of the US Army Signal Corps’ Weather Bureau, was one of the first to work on tornado prediction. By 1884, Finley had trained almost a thousand “spotters” to identify the conditions associated with tornado formation and send reports by the new telegraph system. The resulting trial predictions were not always accurate, but the warnings saved lives by giving people time to get into storm cellars.

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The IEA forecast indicates a sharp rise in the requirements of AI, but said threat to the climate was ‘overstated’

The global rush to AI technology will require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today, but only about half of the demand is likely to be met from renewable sources.

Processing data, mainly for AI, will consume more electricity in the US alone by 2030 than manufacturing steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

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Advocacy group contends the firm is using 35 methane gas burning turbines, but has permission for only 15

KeShaun Pearson took a seat in front of the Shelby county board of commissioners in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday morning. In the gallery behind him, a small group of people held up signs that said “Our air = our lives” and “Our water, Our future.” With a manner-of-fact demeanor, Pearson addressed the commissioners.

“I’m here because today we’ve learned that xAI is using 35 methane gas burning turbines,” said Pearson, who is the director of the advocacy group Memphis Community Against Pollution. “They have submitted a permit to our Shelby county health department for 15, yet they are using double that amount with no permit.”

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The move raises concerns among scientists that the assessment, which is required by Congress, is now in jeopardy.

After halting federal attempts to combat global warming, President Trump is now targeting efforts by states to reduce greenhouse gases, setting up a legal clash.