Fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives outnumber those of the EU or host country South Korea
Record numbers of plastic industry lobbyists are attending global talks that are the last chance to hammer out a treaty to cut plastic pollution around the world.
The key issue at the conference will be whether caps on global plastic production will be included in the final UN treaty. Lobbyists and leading national producers are furiously arguing against any attempt to restrain the amount that can be produced, leaving the talks on a knife-edge.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/27/2024 - 06:00
Loyalists selected for important roles have offered staunch support to fossil fuels and downplayed climate crisis
Donald Trump’s cabinet picks have been eclectic and often controversial but a unifying theme is emerging, experts say, with the US president-elect’s nominees offering staunch support to fossil fuels and either downplaying or denying the climate crisis caused by the burning of these fuels.
Trump ran on promises to eviscerate “green new scam” climate policies and to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil and gas, and his choices to run the major organs of the US government echo such sentiments, particularly his picks relating to the environment, with Lee Zeldin chosen as the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Chris Wright as energy secretary and Doug Burgum as interior secretary.
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11/27/2024 - 03:00
We’ve cared for our farm through war, pandemic and money worries. The inheritance tax row shows how little the government respects that
Clare Wise is a farmer based in County Durham
If you are familiar with the pangs of parental guilt, then you can relate to owning a farm. Take that gut-wrenching, often irrational feeling, amplify it, and welcome to being a farmer. From the moment you’re born into a family farm, there’s a weight of expectation on you to look after it, to put it before yourself, to uphold your family’s pride. All farm kids know they don’t open presents on Christmas morning until the animals are fed, that parents miss special occasions because cows are calving, and that hopes of a foreign holiday are almost nil, at least on a livestock farm such as mine.
Owning a farm is like playing a game of pass the parcel with a valuable gift, but the one who unwraps the present is very much the loser of the bunch. From an early age, it’s drilled into you that the farm, the land and its legacy are things you carry and pass on to your children. We don’t see the farms we inhabit as truly ours: they’re generational assets that produce food for the masses. That is why farmers are putting up a huge fight against the government’s new inheritance tax changes. It’s hard not to feel as though this policy is a land grab by ministers who have no idea about how farming works.
Clare Wise is a farmer based in County Durham
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11/27/2024 - 01:05
Hundreds of climate protesters joined a rally in Canberra on Wednesday – days after a protest in Newcastle
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More than 20 Rising Tide protesters have been arrested for blocking a road to federal Parliament House after they took their protest from Newcastle to Canberra on Wednesday.
It comes after NSW police arrested 173 Rising Tide protesters on the water after they paddled on kayaks and rafts to disrupt the Port of Newcastle – the world’s largest coal port. Organisers say it was Australia’s largest climate civil disobedience action.
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11/27/2024 - 01:00
Another vast tourist resort project promising jobs and prosperity. But critics say such developments imperil the pristine environments they advertise
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Joseph Darville has fond memories of swimming with his young son off the south coast of Grand Bahama island, and watching together as scores of dolphins frolicked offshore. A lifelong environmentalist now aged 82, Darville has always valued the rich marine habitat and turquoise blue seas of the Bahamas, which have lured locals and tourists alike for generations.
The dolphins are now mostly gone, he says, as human encroachment proliferated and the environment deteriorated. “You don’t see them now; the jetskis go by and frighten them off.
Joseph Darville is worried that the big cruise lines and developers will ‘come in and eat what’s left of our country’. Photograph: Richard Luscombe/the Guardian
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11/27/2024 - 00:00
Ed Miliband argues the UK should race towards becoming a ‘clean energy superpower’, but costs to the consumer shouldn’t be ignored
The government’s plan to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2030 is a vast undertaking. Energy companies will throw £40bn-plus annually at the effort, backed by financing that ultimately affects consumers’ bills. So it is extraordinary that no official body seems able to answer this question: will it cost more to complete the job by 2030 rather than by the old 2035 timetable? Is it more expensive to go faster?
That is not to dispute the necessity of generating electricity from clean domestic sources, an ambition shared widely across the political spectrum for reasons of security of supply and climate emergency. But the pace of decarbonisation can clearly also affect the cost for consumers, a point Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, tends to skip over too breezily when he argues that security, sustainability and affordability are now perfectly aligned.
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11/26/2024 - 19:01
Research reflects rising optimism about country’s green transition as it takes leading position on climate action
Nearly half of experts surveyed by a climate thinktank believe China’s carbon dioxide emissions have already peaked, or will do so in 2025, reflecting increasing optimism about the country’s green transition at a time when it is being called on to take a leading position on global climate action.
According to a report published on Tuesday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a research organisation, 44% of climate experts from academia and industry believe that China’s CO2 emissions will peak, at the latest, in 2025. In last year’s survey, only 21% of experts gave the same response.
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11/26/2024 - 13:46
The environmental harm caused by this shapeshifting, underregulated industry must be tackled
Local pushback against cruise ships in the world’s top tourist destinations is nothing new. More than three years ago, these vast vessels were barred from Venice’s lagoon on grounds of the risk they posed to the city’s historic buildings. This summer, cruise ships in Amsterdam and Barcelona were targeted by protesters, on grounds of chemical pollution but also as part of a wider movement against overtourism (as the negative impacts of huge influxes of visitors have become known). But – as revealed this week in a series of Guardian articles, The real cost of cruises – the environmental and social impact of this fast-growing industry goes way beyond individual cities, and requires action on a global scale.
The carbon emissions of a cruise are roughly double that of the equivalent flights plus a hotel stay. The industry is also responsible for a vast quantity of waste discharged directly into the sea, as well as high levels of toxic air pollution in the ports where ships are docked – usually with their engines running. Once seen as the exclusive pursuit of a minority of wealthy retired people, these holidays are now mainstream, with vast floating resorts designed and marketed for families and young adults. The largest ships have up to 20 floors and room for several thousand people.
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11/24/2024 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 24 November 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00096-0
A global assessment of preferential access areas for small-scale fisheries
11/21/2024 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 21 November 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00092-4
Effects of stock rebuilding – A computable general equilibrium analysis for a mackerel fishery in Korea
