UN secretary general António Guterres urges opening session in Brazil to bring about a ‘paradigm shift’Triple-whammy of hottest ever years risks ‘irreversible damage’, says UNThe failure to limit global heating to 1.5C is a “moral failure and deadly negligence”, the UN secretary general has said at the opening session of the Cop30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.António Guterres said even a temporary overshoot would have “dramatic consequences. It could push ecosystems past catastrophic tipping points, expose billions to unliveable conditions and amplify threats to peace and security.” Continue reading...

The issue of how motoring taxes should change as we decarbonise the economy has been dodged for too long. Car salesmen need to get real If you want a document to give you sleepless nights, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s biennial Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report is a go-to publication. This is the one that looks to the horizon and covers everything from demographic trends to state pension promises to the climate crisis.The headline finding in this July’s version was a true jaw-dropper. The UK’s public finances are on an unsustainable long-term trajectory because government debt would rise to a remarkable 270% of GDP by the early 2070s – up from almost 100% today – if current policies were left unchanged. Continue reading...

Scheme aims to raise $125bn to invest in bonds, with returns used to reward tropical countries for conservationAs a battle-scarred veteran of the war against nature, Garo Batmanian has spent 45 years trying to defend the Amazon rainforest. For most of that time, the resistance he leads has been outfunded and outgunned by those who profit from destruction. The most Batmanian felt he could achieve was to slow the advance of the chainsaws and tractors.But the director-general of Brazil’s forest service feels there could be a chance at the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, next week, not just of an even fight, but perhaps a victory. There is one condition: world governments must rally behind an initiative being launched by the host nation – the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). Continue reading...

Liberal MPs are convinced the commitment will be ‘dead’ after next week’s party meeting, saying populist right’s ‘pathological hatred of the environment’ dashed hopes of compromiseGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBy the time Liberal MPs filed out of last Friday’s meeting on energy policy, many had accepted the party’s promise to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 – made under Scott Morrison and retained by Peter Dutton – was all but dead.But there was a similar expectation that the party would remain loosely committed to carbon neutrality at some fixed point in time, even if not by mid-century. Continue reading...

ASA action won approval of clean air campaigners, who said some ‘seriously misleading myths’ had been debunkedAdverts claiming that wood-burning stoves are “very low emissions” have been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency for being misleading and not substantiated.The claims were made on the website of the Stove Industry Association, which represents the makers and sellers of stoves in the UK. Campaigners against air pollution said they were glad the ASA had debunked some “seriously misleading myths”. Continue reading...

Winds of Melissa’s strength are now five times more frequent due to the climate crisis, research saysEvery aspect of Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful storm ever to hit Jamaica, was worsened by the climate crisis, a team of scientists has found.Melissa caused widespread devastation when it crunched into Jamaica as a category five hurricane on October 28, with winds up up to 185mph. Continue reading...

According to folklore, the weather on St Martin’s Day is a glimpse of the winter ahead and geese are said to sense it firstSt Martin’s Day, 11 November, is associated with feasting and the beginning of preparations for winter. Like St Swithin’s Day, Martinmas was believed to indicate the weather ahead.Saint Martin, who is understood to have lived in fourth-century France, was associated with geese, having supposedly hidden in a goose pen to avoid being made bishop, only to be given away by their honking. Weather predictions from his day tend to have a flavour of goose. Continue reading...