UN climate chief addresses climate summit with no agreement in sight on how to help developing countries
Countries meeting in Azerbaijan to discuss a new global financial settlement for tackling the climate crisis must “cut the theatrics” and get down to serious business, the UN has said.
The UK and Brazil have been drafted in to try to break a logjam at the Cop29 climate summit, which entered its second week on Monday with no agreement in sight on the key issue of how to channel at least $1tn a year to developing countries.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/18/2024 - 11:21
11/18/2024 - 11:00
By relying on natural carbon sinks such as forests and peatlands to offset emissions, governments can appear closer to goals than they actually are
Relying on natural carbon sinks such as forests and oceans to offset continued fossil fuel emissions will not stop global heating, the scientists who developed net zero have warned.
Each year, the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions, forming part of government plans to limit global heating to below 2C under the Paris agreement.
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11/18/2024 - 11:00
As the US grapples with smoky skies, Trump is solidifying an anti-science agenda – here are the challenges ahead
In the days that followed Donald Trump’s election win, flames roared through southern California neighborhoods. On the other side of the country, wildfire smoke clouded the skies in New York and New Jersey.
They were haunting reminders of a stark reality: while Trump prepares to take office for a second term, the complicated, and escalating, wildfire crisis will be waiting.
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11/18/2024 - 10:49
Indian capital imposes emergency measures including closing schools and offices and barring heavy vehicles
Pollution levels in India’s capital, Delhi, have soared to their highest levels this year, forcing schools and offices to close and cloaking the city in thick brown smog.
In some parts of the city, a live air quality ranking by IQAir put pollution levels at more than 30 times the maximum level deemed healthy.
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11/18/2024 - 10:00
US climate envoy says Trump won’t derail progress as GOP argues for increasing oil and gas production at UN talks
Throughout the UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, in recent days, US officials have maintained a studiously sunny disposition, saying that the Republican president-elect, Donald Trump, will not derail climate progress.
The US climate envoy, John Podesta, said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under a re-elected Trump even if some progress is reversed. The energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said: “The absence of leadership in the White House does not mean that this energy transition is stopped.” And Joe Biden’s climate and energy assistant, Jacob Levine, told reporters that the president’s climate policies had sparked an unstoppable clean energy “revolution”.
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11/18/2024 - 09:33
Exclusive: Company relies on obsolete tech and there are troubling security gaps, Guardian investigation suggests
Thames Water supply ‘on knife-edge’
Floods, explosions, asbestos: Thames faces problems on all fronts
“The software we use is older than me, and some of the hardware is older than my dad,” says Siddharth*. He is one of a team fighting a daily battle to sustain ancient IT infrastructure at Thames Water.
Sometimes the defences are breached. Thames, the UK’s largest water and waste treatment company, is on a “knife-edge” according to sources, with its resilience in doubt because it depends on an array of creaking – often Victorian – infrastructure.
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11/18/2024 - 09:00
A kingfisher with a long, dagger-shaped beak. Soft white feathers on its belly, iridescent blue opal spots on its wings
I walked out of my kitchen on an overcast morning last week, feeling depressed, trying to think my way around the US election result somehow towards acceptance – or a totally different reality.
I walked to the garden, carrying a load of laundry. And perched on the top edge of a chair was a fat, fluffy laughing kookaburra. It looked at me, I looked at it. A large kingfisher with a long, dagger-shaped beak. The corners of its beak turn upwards so that it looks as though it is smiling slightly. Soft white feathers on its belly, iridescent blue opal spots on its brown wings.
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11/18/2024 - 08:00
Residents claim contamination from Angus Fire factory has left them trapped and unable to sell their homes
Residents in the UK town with the country’s highest identified concentration of “forever chemicals” have instructed lawyers to investigate the possibility of a first-of-its-kind legal claim against the firefighting foam manufacturer located in the centre of Bentham.
In May this year, an investigation by the Ends Report and the Guardian revealed that the rural North Yorkshire town is the most PFAS-polluted place known to exist in the UK. The town is home to the firefighting foam manufacturer Angus Fire.
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11/18/2024 - 06:00
Scientists say goal to keep world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is not going to happen despite talks at Cop29 in Baku
The internationally agreed goal to keep the world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is now “deader than a doornail”, with 2024 almost certain to be the first individual year above this threshold, climate scientists have gloomily concluded – even as world leaders gather for climate talks on how to remain within this boundary.
Three of the five leading research groups monitoring global temperatures consider 2024 on track to be at least 1.5C (2.7F) hotter than pre-industrial times, underlining it as the warmest year on record, beating a mark set just last year. The past 10 consecutive years have already been the hottest 10 years ever recorded.
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11/18/2024 - 01:30
Cop29 president calls for faster action as progress to agree a climate finance deal slows
Climate crisis to blame for dozens of ‘impossible’ heatwaves
How usual is it to have G20 happening at the same time as Cop? According to Jen Iris Allan, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University who also writes the Regular Earth Negotiations Bulletin, commenting on Bluesky, it’s not normal at all.
Cop29 happening at the same time as the G20 is a rare opportunity. It gets the leaders of the big economies together in a small setting. They could strike a side deal that would really help here.
The new climate finance target is the big issue that will define COP29. Government ministers are arriving to thrash out everything from the amount of money raised to who contributes towards it.
We’ve seen a few versions of the text as parties make sure their views are represented while trying to produce something their governments can work with. The number of “options” is lower than it was on Wednesday. But the number of brackets - meaning undecided bits - is higher.
It’s still long: 25 pages. Negotiators started with a 9-page text, which they rejected as “unbalanced” - then lots of stuff got added back in. It will need to be shorter. The EU chief negotiator told journalists last week that a 2-page text could capture “everything we need”.
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