The Guardian

Young people around the world, inspired by Greta Thunberg, rally to press politicians to act on climate change - follow live updates

• Climate strikes to take place in more than 100 countries
• Where action is planned in Australia
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11.47pm GMT

Footage from Coffs Harbour:

... and they just keep on coming #CoffsHarbour #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/tJlycxjMyx

Some golden signs here at the #schoolstrike4climate #wellington pic.twitter.com/KGrUGpWIml

11.45pm GMT

On Thursday, federal Labor leader, Bill Shorten, also told students to protest on the weekend rather than a school day. But the NSW Labor leader, Michael Daley, who is gearing up for the state election on March 23, told students he supported them on Wednesday.

Sulphur dioxide in Beijing was reduced by 70% and particle pollution by 36% in just four years

It’s been a while since we saw images of smog-obscured Beijing landmarks in the news. A United Nations report explains this.

In four years, sulphur dioxide in the city was reduced by 70% and particle pollution by 36% by tackling the problem at source. Initially, old coal-powered industry and power stations were fitted with air pollution abatement systems before being replaced by cleaner facilities built to run on natural gas.

• Mayor wants to protect Wall Street from floods and rising seas
• Plans to cost $10bn but federal funds might not be available

Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, has announced a radical plan to meet the “existential threat” of climate change by constructing a new section of Manhattan , extending hundreds of feet out into the narrow East river, in order to protect Wall Street and other downtown areas.

Related: Youth climate strikes to take place in more than 100 countries

Nopsema head Stuart Smith is listed to speak at The Great Australian Bight: The Big Opportunity

Environmental groups have written to Australia’s offshore petroleum watchdog to urge him against speaking alongside the oil lobby at a pro-industry event titled The Great Australian Bight: The Big Opportunity.

The head of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema), Stuart Smith, is listed as one of three keynote speakers at the South Australian “parliamentary friends of the resource sector” forum dinner on Tuesday.

Lack of action on 14 expired coal seam gas exploration licences now an election issue for uncertain communities

The New South Wales government has failed to close a loophole that effectively allows expired coal seam gas exploration licences to be extended indefinitely, despite calls from rural communities for certainty ahead of the state election.

More than a dozen licences, mostly in the state’s north-west, have remained active past their expiration dates while the government assesses renewal applications from gas companies. In some cases, those applications have been held up in the system for years.

Movement inspired by Greta Thunberg has snowballed, as Belgian workers join strike

Hundreds of thousands of children are expected to walk out of their classrooms on Friday for a global climate strike amid growing anger at the failure of politicians to tackle the escalating ecological crisis.

Children at tens of thousands of schools in more than 100 countries are due to take part in the walkouts which began last year when one teenager – Greta Thunberg – held a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament.

Climate strike founder shortlisted ahead of global strikes planned in more than 105 countries

• Listen to Greta Thunberg on the Today in Focus podcast

Greta Thunberg, the founder of the Youth Strike for Climate movement, has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, just before the biggest day yet of global action.

Thunberg began a solo protest in Sweden in August but has since inspired students around the globe. Strikes are expected in 1,659 towns and cities in 105 countries on Friday, involving hundreds of thousands of young people.

Revealed: Interior department official says he is ‘thrilled’ by Trump’s ‘knack for keeping the attention of the media and public focused somewhere else’

A top US official told a group of fossil fuel industry leaders that the Trump administration will soon issue a proposal making large portions of the Atlantic available for oil and gas development, and said that it is easier to work on such priorities because Donald Trump is skilled at sowing “absolutely thrilling” distractions, according to records of a meeting obtained by the Guardian.

Joe Balash, the assistant secretary for land and minerals management, was speaking to companies in the oil exploration business at a meeting of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, or IAGC, last month.

Strikes are planned at 60 locations in Australia, including every state and territory capital

Tens of thousands of Australian school students are expected to walk out of class on Friday to demand governments take action on climate change.

The Australian strikes are part of a global campaign by students for greater urgency from politicians in tackling what they see as the greatest threat to their future.

Schoolchildren around the world are joining a global strike against climate change this week. But they’re not the only everyday people inspired to take action. We talk to 10 UK activists on the frontline of our most serious environmental issues.

Extinction Rebellion is an environmental direct action group

Data shows while emissions from electricity sector are in decline, gains have been wiped out by increases from other industries

Australia’s annual carbon emissions have reached a new high and drops in emissions from the electricity sector have been wiped out by increases from other industries, according to new data.

Ndevr Environmental, an emissions-tracking organisation that releases quarterly greenhouse gas emissions data, said on Thursday that annual emissions for the year up to December 2018 increased to 558.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. It was the highest level on record when excluding unreliable land use data.

Environment department ‘cherry picked’ data to claim clearing has decreased, but figures show recent steady increase

Two of Australia’s largest environment groups have accused the federal environment department of providing inaccurate information about land clearing to the Senate, and of not acting to reduce habitat loss.

The Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF Australia say the department has “cherry picked” data to claim that land clearing in Queensland has decreased, when national figures on land clearing rates in that state in fact show increases since 2011.

Young activists and our columnist answer your questions as pupils around the world stage climate strikes

On Friday 15 March young people around the world will be walking out of their classrooms to strike for action to save the planet from climate change.

Related: Young climate strikers can win their fight. We must all help | George Monbiot

Temperatures likely to rise by 3-5C above pre-industrial levels even if Paris goals met

Sharp and potentially devastating temperature rises of 3C to 5C in the Arctic are now inevitable even if the world succeeds in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement, research has found.

Winter temperatures at the north pole are likely to rise by at least 3C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century, and there could be further rises to between 5C and 9C above the recent average for the region, according to the UN.

Environmental groups say chancellor’s climate change pledges do not go far enough

Gas boilers will be replaced by low-carbon heating systems in all new homes built after 2025 in an attempt to tackle the escalating climate crisis, Philip Hammond has said.

In his spring statement, the chancellor said new properties would use alternative systems, such as heat pumps, to help the UK reduce its carbon emissions.

Labor has promised to introduce strong environment laws and a national EPA if elected but policy details have been scarce

Three months on from Bill Shorten’s promise to introduce strong environment laws if elected, campaigners are calling on Labor to release the policy detail behind the pledge, with one accusing the ALP environment spokesman, Tony Burke, of going missing on the issue.

For activists who have spent decades fighting to strengthen protection of Australia’s natural heritage, Shorten’s commitment at the ALP conference in December to bring in a new environment act and a national environment protection authority (EPA) was an extraordinary breakthrough. In the months since, they say, the issue has evolved into a question mark.

Environment groups, councils and London mayor challenge airport expansion in high court

The decision to expand Heathrow airport with a third runway was unlawful because it failed to consider the full impacts of climate change and the need for more stringent targets to avoid catastrophic global warming, the high court has been told.

Friends of the Earth on Wednesday accused the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, of acting unlawfully when he agreed to the expansion, which is contained in the government’s airports national policy statement.

Air quality has become a key political issue after record pollution levels hit the country last week

South Korea has passed emergency measures to tackle the “social disaster” being unleashed by air pollution, after record levels of fine dust blanketed most of the country in recent weeks.

The national assembly passed a series of bills on Wednesday giving authorities access to emergency funds for measures that include the mandatory installation of high-capacity air purifiers in classrooms and encouraging sales of liquified petroleum gas vehicles, which produce lower emissions than those that run on petrol and diesel.

Trevor St Baker says deputy governor’s speech warning of risks to Australia’s economy is ‘totally inappropriate’

The coal baron and Liberal National party donor Trevor St Baker has blasted the Reserve Bank deputy governor, Guy Debelle, for sounding the alarm on climate change, branding a significant speech on Tuesday warning of risks to Australia’s financial stability “totally inappropriate”.

The politically connected founder of the business electricity retailer ERM Power, who has approached the Morrison government to underwrite new coal developments in Victoria and New South Wales, including a high-efficiency plant on the site of the AGL-owned Liddell power station, told the ABC on Wednesday Debelle’s intervention was out of order.

Scientists map out threats faced by thousands of species of birds, mammals and amphibians

More than 1,200 species globally face threats to their survival in more than 90% of their habitat and “will almost certainly face extinction” without conservation intervention, according to new research.

Scientists working with Australia’s University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society have mapped threats faced by 5,457 species of birds, mammals and amphibians to determine which parts of a species’ habitat range are most affected by known drivers of biodiversity loss.