The Guardian Climate Change

Climate-vulnerable pair add weight to proposed treaty seeking transition from coal, oil and gas in equitable way

Pakistan and the Bahamas have joined a growing bloc of climate-vulnerable countries seeking to broker a global pact to phase out fossil fuels in an equitable way, the Guardian can reveal.

The Bahamas is the 15th nation to fully endorse the proposed fossil-fuel non-proliferation treaty, which would provide a binding global roadmap to explicitly halt expansion of coal, oil and gas in a fair way – with wealthy nations responsible for the highest emissions transitioning first and fastest.

An incurable illness that turns billionaires into owls

• Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published
• Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints

New study shows LNG exports risk raising greenhouse gas emissions, hampering efforts to curtail climate crisis

The Biden administration has released a long-awaited analysis on the economic and environmental effects of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, concluding any further expansion would drive up costs for domestic consumers and hamper efforts to curtail the climate crisis.

In January Joe Biden paused the Department of Energy’s approvals of fossil gas exports to big consumers in Asia and Europe in order to conduct the review, in a move welcomed by climate scientists, environmental justice advocates and public health experts but decried by the oil and gas industry.

Jacinta Allan’s plans to give police ‘wide-ranging power’ to help tackle antisemtism could be used against other protesters, lawyer says

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Victorian government has been accused of “shoehorning” new anti-protest measures that could be used to crack down on the climate movement into a suite of fresh measures touted as necessary to combat antisemitism.

On Tuesday, Jacinta Allan announced a suite of legislative proposals to crack down on what the premier said was antisemitism and extremism at protests. The proposals were announced in the wake of an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Report says rivers, the sea and surface water endangering properties and that number could hit 8m by 2050

More than 6m homes in England are at risk of flooding under the latest climate projections, a study by the Environment Agency has found.

This could rise to 8m – or one in four properties – by 2050, the study said.

France's interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, has told emergency workers during a meeting not to panic following the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte for 90 years, which has devastated the Indian Ocean territory’s health services. Rescuers are racing to reach survivors after Cyclone Chido laid waste many shantytowns, with hundreds believed dead. The cyclone also damaged Mayotte’s airport, cutting off electricity and water on Saturday. The territory's prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, told a local broadcaster that he expected the number dead would reach 'close to a thousand or even several thousand'

• Mayotte cyclone: health services in ruins

• Hundreds feared dead as cyclone devastates island of Mayotte

Rainfall patterns are changing, crops are ripening earlier and the normal rhythms of farming have fallen off – exactly as climate scientists warned

• Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter

Smell is the most evocative sense. I lit a mozzie coil this week and a flood of childhood memories came back. The great long, dry days of summer stretched before us as the five of us slept side-by-side in a canvas tent like a can of sardines. Playing cards in a classic Australian caravan park. Running across hot sand before jumping on a towel to save our feet. Summer meant sliding down green waves, dodging bluebottles, too much sunburn and fish and chips.

In the last 30 years though, summer has meant harvest and the battle to get the crop off in a reasonable state for the best possible price. It has meant never knowing whether the wheat would be in the bin before Christmas Day.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

One of the world’s longest continuous bird counts has dashed the ‘wistful optimism’ of scientists hoping for a La Niña-driven recovery

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Drier conditions have led to waterbird numbers in eastern Australia plummeting by 50% compared with 2023, one of the country’s largest wildlife surveys has found.

Conducted annually since 1983, the eastern Australian waterbird aerial survey is one of the world’s longest continuous bird counts as well as one of the largest by geographical distance covered.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Peter Dutton’s path ‘would be an absolute failure’ in decarbonising the electricity sector and meeting Australia’s emission targets, analyst says

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia would emit far more climate pollution – more than 1.7bn extra tonnes of carbon dioxide – between now and 2050 under the Coalition’s nuclear-focused plan than under Labor’s renewable energy dominated policy, analysts say.

The opposition last week released modelling of its “coal-to-nuclear” plan that would slow the rollout of renewable energy and batteries and instead rely on more fossil fuel generation until a nuclear industry could be developed, mostly after 2040.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Medical supplies airlifted to French Indian Ocean territory after Cyclone Chido leaves hundreds feared dead

• Explainer: Everything you need to know about Mayotte

The worst cyclone to hit Mayotte for 90 years has devastated the French Indian Ocean territory’s health services, leaving the hospital severely damaged and health centres out of operation, a minister has said.

“The hospital has suffered major water damage and destruction, notably in the surgical, intensive care, maternity and emergency units,” the French health minister, Geneviève Darrieussecq, told France 2 on Monday, adding that “medical centres were also non-operational”.

As warmer winters melt the snow drifts that endangered Saimaa ringed seals use to raise their young, humans are giving them a helping hand

• Words by Phoebe Weston. Photographs by Samuel Bloch

Eight hours shovelling snow in -20C might not sound like the ideal day out, but a committed team of volunteers in Finland are working dawn to dusk building enormous snow drifts for one of the world’s most endangered seals.

The Saimaa ringed seal was once widespread across Finland but is now confined to Lake Saimaa in the south-east of the country, where just 495 of them remain.

Clockwise from top: volunteers check the suitability of the ice to build a snow cave under the supervision of Heikki Härkönen, coordinator at the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation; Riikka Alakoski, from the Finnish forestry agency inspects an artificial den; and records the location of a breathing hole (the image has been altered to obscure its location); a small den in the ice

Experts express fear – and resilience – as they prepare for president-elect’s potential attacks on climate research

As the world’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists swarmed a Washington venue last week, the packed halls have been permeated by an air of anxiety and even dread over a new Donald Trump presidency that might worsen what has been a bruising few years for science.

The annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting drew a record 31,000 attendees this year for the unveiling of a slew of new research on everything from seismology to climate science to heliospheric physics, alongside a sprawling trade show and bouts of networking as scientists jostle to advance their work.

Stephanie Carrie gives tours and educates Angelenos on the importance of the urban forest – and how to improve it

On a recent Sunday morning, 25 Angelenos gathered under a large rusty leaf fig tree for a walking tree tour in a local Culver City park that was also playing host to an outdoor tai chi class as well as a group of yogis.

As we walked past Chinese elm trees, coast live oaks and Brazilian pepper trees, Stephanie Carrie shared the history of the city’s celebrated palm trees with a rapt audience. Many of today’s trees, planted in the 1930s, are approaching the end of their lives – and while they have become symbols of the city, they also guzzle water, fueling calls to replace them with drought-resistant trees.

The man behind Amy and Senna has turned his attention to ‘techno-authoritarianism’ in the genre-defying 2073. He talks to our journalist – one of the movie’s unlikely stars – about the events that fed his dystopian vision

It was some time in the early 2000s and Asif Kapadia, already a successful film director, a wunderkind whose first feature in 2001, The Warrior, won the Bafta for outstanding British film, was travelling back from New York.

“There’s a beautiful, gorgeous sunset over Manhattan. I’m in a limo being taken to the airport. And I was taking photos of Manhattan because I was driving over Brooklyn Bridge and it’s just all so cinematic and I became subconsciously aware of the driver watching me in the rear view mirror.

Despite a clever comms strategy, there are significant credibility issues around the assumptions on which the cost estimates are based

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Coalition has moved a considerable way on climate and energy since Scott Morrisson brought a lump of coal into the parliament and told us not to be afraid. On Friday, the Coalition finally released the long-awaited details of the nuclear plan it will take to the election and, once again, asks us not to be afraid – of the price tag, the higher climate pollution and a range of other variables.

However, despite a clever comms strategy, there are significant credibility issues around the assumptions on which the cost estimates are based, and there are other critical issues that have been left unanswered. Australians have a right to consider all the issues they are being asked to vote on, with facts rather than political rhetoric. These issues can be broadly listed under three headings: the economics, the environment and the law.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Nicki Hutley is an independent economist and councillor with the Climate Council

The fall of Assad in Syria, protests in Georgia, the Franklin Fire in Malibu and the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Amid Italian island’s worst drought, towns such as Troina are fighting for survival as supplies run dry and tensions rise

An ancient Sicilian proverb goes like this: “When water to two fountains flows, one will stay dry – that’s how it goes.” The residents of the small town of Troina in the heart of Sicily, struck by a long and unprecedented drought, perhaps understand its meaning better than anyone else. When authorities decreed that the little water left in their dam should be shared with the villages of another province, they took action, and, on 30 November, occupied the distribution centre of the reservoir, blocking access.

“It’s a war between the poor; we are aware of it,” says Salvatore Giamblanco, 66, owner of a bed and breakfast in Troina. “But we had no other choice. The dam is drying up. We have difficulty finding water for ourselves. I had to cancel numerous reservations due to the lack of water. If we also have to share what little we have with other towns, we will all be left dry.”

Follow today’s news headlines live

• John Pesutto defies calls to resign after being ordered to pay $300,000 for defaming Moira Deeming
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

News bargaining code announcement expected today

The youth minister, Anne Aly, spoke with ABC News Breakfast just earlier ahead of the news bargaining code announcement, expected today.

What I can say is that the government believes that journalists should be fairly compensated for the work that they do, that there is a current regime in place but that’s not working. And so that’s why the government has turned its attention to updating this code and ensuring that social media companies pay for the news that they use as content on their platforms.

Marginalised communities have been elevated during hearings in The Hague on impact of climate crisis

The village of Veraibari in Papua New Guinea sits at the mouth of the Kikori River, just before it opens into the Pacific. “Veraibari was so beautiful when I was a child,” remembers Ara Kouwo, 52. “I used to walk down to the beach passing under mango trees.”

Kouwo’s testimony was one of many included in written submissions to the international court of justice (ICJ) before hearings that began last week and continue until Friday in a landmark case in which the court has been asked to give an advisory opinion on “the obligations of states in respect of climate change”.