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Fifty-year extension for one of Australia’s biggest CO2 emitters likely after WA ditches emissions-reduction rules
Critics say extending life of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas processing plant on Burrup Peninsula could result in billions of tonnes of climate pollution
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The Western Australian Labor government appears all but certain to give one of Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters the green light to operate until 2070 after it announced it would abolish state emissions-reduction requirements.
Scientists have warned the proposal to extend the life of the North West Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup Peninsula in the country’s remote north-west is linked to the development of at least three major gas fields and could ultimately result in billions of tonnes of climate pollution being released into the atmosphere.
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Continue reading...Three things with Yael Stone: ‘Please just remember – I am not talking about a vibrator’
In Guardian Australia’s weekly interview about objects, the actor turned activist tells us about her ‘dooga dooga’ – and a childhood cassette tape
Yael Stone scored her big break with her role as inmate Lorna Morello in the hit Netflix prison drama Orange Is the New Black. But instead of pursuing a Hollywood career after the series ended in 2019, Stone walked away from it all.
After securing a coveted US green card, Stone’s initial plan was to live and work between the US and Australia. Then the black summer bushfires hit, and the carbon emissions required to jet between the two countries no longer felt right. So the Sydney-born talent quit acting, returning to Australia to join the climate fight and founding Hi Neighbour, a not-for-profit that trains steel and coal workers to work in renewables.
Continue reading...Who’s who at Cop29? The world leaders and others who will attend
Crucial question for summit will be how to help developing countries cope with extreme weather caused by high temperatures
Cop29 officially opens on Monday 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the conference is scheduled to end on 22 November, although it is likely to run later. World leaders – about 100 have said they will turn up – are expected in the first three days, and after that the crunch negotiations will be carried on by their representatives, mostly environment ministers or other high-ranking officials.
The crucial question for the summit is climate finance. Developing countries want assurances that trillions will flow to them in the next decade to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the rapidly receding hope of limiting global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and to enable them to cope with the increasingly evident extreme weather that rising temperatures are driving.
Continue reading...Thousands call for Valencia’s leader to resign over deadly floods response
About 130,000 Spaniards protest against perceived failings by Carlos Mazón’s regional government
Spaniards have taken to the streets of Valencia to demand the resignation of the regional president who led the emergency response to the recent catastrophic floods that killed more than 200 people.
Floods that began on the night of 29 October have left 220 dead and nearly 80 people still missing.
Continue reading...‘Devastating’: California fire victims return to sift through rubble of homes
Ten people have been injured so far by the Mountain fire, which was 17% contained by Saturday morning
As firefighting crews continued to battle the Mountain fire on Saturday, some residents were allowed to return to areas destroyed by the blaze to sift through the destruction to their homes.
As of 7am Pacific time on Saturday, the fire had been 17% contained, according to Cal Fire, the state’s wildfire-fighting agency.
Continue reading...Tory former energy secretary facing conflict of interest claim over JCB owner links
Shadow cabinet secretary Claire Coutinho accepted donation from Lord Bamford while overseeing millions awarded to his family businesses in green grants
A Conservative former cabinet minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty – including a £7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter – oversaw decisions to award his family’s business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.
Claire Coutinho also posed for pictures promoting Lord Bamford’s personal £100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a £7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.
Continue reading...After Trump re-election, UK will lead efforts to save Cop29, says Miliband
Energy secretary says Britain must work on vital alliances with other countries following victory of climate-denier Trump
The UK must ramp up its efforts on renewable energy to foster national security in an increasingly uncertain world, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has warned, on the eve of a fraught global summit on the climate crisis.
He pledged that the UK would lead efforts at Cop29 to secure the global agreement needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown, in talks that have been thrown into turmoil by the re-election of Donald Trump as US president.
Continue reading...‘He thrives on chaos’: to dismiss Trump pledges as campaign rhetoric is a triumph of hope over experience | Kim Darroch
The lesson of his first term is that he does what he says he is going to do: the UK must prepare
Wednesday 9 November 2016: a misty, drizzly day in Washington DC, an overwhelmingly Democrat city in trauma after the shock victory of Donald Trump in the election the previous day. A Washington rarity, a declared Trump supporter, was among a group of guests for lunch in the residence that day. I took him aside and asked whether Trump would be as radical and disruptive as the giants of American political journalism were predicting. “Not at all,” he said: “I know the guy. All that red meat was just for the campaign. I expect him to govern as a mainstream Republican.”
Fast forward to London, Wednesday 6 November 2024. I’m speaking at a business dinner about the election outcome and what will come next. I mention Trump’s commitment to levy 20% tariffs on all imports into America. One participant says he has just spoken to a friend in Arizona who knows Trump personally. This friend has said: “It’s not about instant action. Trump will use the tariffs as a threat, to persuade countries to act to get trade flows into balance.” Another participant says: “Trump has won his second term now. So he doesn’t need to fight any more. Surely he’ll calm down and focus on his legacy?”
Continue reading...The Australians who sounded the climate alarm 55 years ago: ‘I’m surprised others didn’t take it as seriously’
Australia will join other countries at Cop29 to discuss the escalating climate crisis, but some political and scientific leaders have been talking about it for decades
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Half a century ago, Richard Gun stood on the floor of parliament and became the first known Australian political figure to warn about the “sinister” threat posed by climate breakdown. Today his maiden speech is a distant memory.
“I never thought of myself as the first politician to issue a warning about climate change,” he says. “At the time it seemed to me an existential threat to our civilisation and it seemed like a sufficiently important issue to mention.
Continue reading...Contempt for human rights, trashing allies: the world’s populists are rubbing their hands with glee | Simon Tisdall
After Donald Trump’s victory, brute force will prevail over geopolitics as authoritarians are appeased from Russia to Israel to China
Feelings are not the usual focus of a world dominated by macho strongmen, complex geopolitical challenges, wars and disasters. Yet every rule has exceptions. Following Donald Trump’s unexpectedly decisive US election victory, dark storm clouds seeded with powerful emotions overshadow the international landscape.
Feelings of shock and anger that this lying conman again seduced enough voters to win the presidency roil America’s friends and allies. There is incredulity that so very many people collaborated in their own seduction. And there is puzzlement at exit polls that show 45% of female voters backed a serial sexual predator while Latino and black men helped a shameless racist to prevail.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Continue reading...Is a ‘Green’ Revolution Poisoning India’s Capital?
Global boiling, mass flooding and Trump: 10 big talking points for Cop29
Record carbon emissions, melting ice sheets and the return of the former US president will all be under the spotlight at this week’s climate summit
It has been a remarkable year for meteorological mayhem with intense heatwaves and storms of extreme intensity battering many parts of our planet. Last month these culminated in the devastating floods that struck eastern Spain and killed hundreds.
Ahead of this week’s Cop29 summit, scientists believe disasters like these are becoming more frequent because major changes in our climate are occurring as emissions from the burning of fossil fuel continue to rise.
Continue reading...Biden and Environmental Groups Try to Protect Climate Policies from Trump
We can prepare for hurricanes, heatwaves and flooding – but only if we are bold at Cop29 | Ban Ki-moon
The right funding now can protect the frontlines of the climate crisis from the worst effects of extreme weather events
As we approach Cop29 in Baku, world leaders are due to set a new climate finance goal – a sum set aside to help poor countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of the climate crisis. Their negotiations take place against a backdrop of increasingly severe weather events. This year alone, we have witnessed deadly heatwaves across north Africa, Mexico, India and Saudi Arabia; a historic drought across southern Africa; catastrophic wildfires in the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands; record-breaking hurricanes in the Caribbean and the US; and plenty more. The climate emergency knows no borders and spares no one.
These events serve as stark reminders of the pressing need for world leaders and all of us to protect vulnerable communities on the frontline of the climate crisis. For many developing countries, particularly in Africa, the cost of climate impacts is staggering. African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP because of climate extremes, while some are diverting as much as 9% of their national budgets to overcome the fallout from them. The latest report by the World Meteorological Organization estimates that Africa south of the Sahara alone will need $30bn-$50bn annually over the next decade just to meet the costs of protecting communities facing unprecedented climate-related disasters. We will not be able to reduce poverty, eliminate hunger and build a prosperous and resilient global community without addressing the climate crisis.
Ban Ki-moon is a former secretary general of the United Nations and co-chair, Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens
Continue reading...Brush Fire in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park May Burn All Night
California fire crews make progress against wildfire that burned homes to rubble
More than 130 structures destroyed in two days by ferocious Mountain fire, as thousands remain under evacuation order
Firefighters in southern California made progress in their effort to contain a wildfire that destroyed more than 130 structures in two days as fierce wind gusts that were fanning flames eased on Friday.
The Mountain fire, which started on Wednesday morning in Ventura county, had grown to 20,630 acres (about 8,349 hectares) with 14% contained as of Friday evening.
Continue reading...With Ready Orders and an Energy Czar, Trump Plots Pivot to Fossil Fuels
We’re Getting an Induction Range. Is It All Right to Sell Our Old Gas One?
The Guardian view on Trump’s planet-wrecking plans: the UK government’s resolve will be tested | Editorial
The new president’s disruptive policies will challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s green goals. But with strong leadership he could enhance Britain’s global influence
Donald Trump’s electoral earthquake in America will complicate Sir Keir Starmer’s plans. Nowhere will the shock of Mr Trump’s win be more intensely felt than in environmental policy. His stance on climate – advocating a US exit from the Paris climate agreement and rallying behind “drill baby drill” – is more disruptive than constructive. This should concentrate Sir Keir’s mind as he heads to Cop29, the UN’s annual climate summit, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
At last year’s conference, world leaders agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels in a just and orderly manner for the first time. Mr Trump, however, dismisses the climate crisis as a hoax. With this year likely to be the hottest on record, the devastating effects of global heating are undeniable, as extreme weather batters the planet. Mr Trump may ignore the facts, but the trail of climate-related chaos and destruction speaks for itself.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...The week around the world in 20 pictures
The US election, the aftermath of the floods in Valencia, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and the Maa festival in Kenya: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
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