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A project on family education wins the 2021 Earth Photo competition.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Five climate-sensitive infectious diseases exist in the Torres Strait. Traditional Owners are calling on the UN for action. Nina Lansbury Hall, Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Andrew Redmond, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland Condy Canuto, Senior Lecturer Indigenous Health. Specializing in Sexual Health, The University of Queensland Francis Nona, Lecturer, The University of Queensland Samuel Barnes, Research Assistant, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

California approvals of new Compliance Instrument Tracking Service System (CITSS) accounts are taking longer than usual as the state sees an influx of new applications, including from more complicated financial participants hoping to enter the WCI carbon market, traders told Carbon Pulse.

Delegates from 196 countries attending talks offered jabs before event, with rules on self-isolating eased for many

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The government is planning to relax key Covid-19 restrictions for delegates to the UN Cop26 climate conference to be held in Glasgow for two weeks this November.

Delegates from 196 countries are expected to attend the talks, viewed as one of the last chances for the world to agree limits on greenhouse gas emissions that would avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

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Standardised voluntary emissions reduction (VER) prices surged to new records once again over the past week, as futures volumes spiked amid a groundswell in voluntary carbon market (VCM) activity from new financial players and fossil fuel companies.

The world’s political leaders must heed the dramatic warning that climate scientists have delivered

The sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was published against a glowing backdrop of orange skies, as vast wildfires sweep through Greece and California. In western Germany, thousands of homes remain without running water or electricity following the devastating floods of July. In Yakutsk in Siberia – the coldest winter city on earth – residents were warned last month to stay inside as forest fires filled the air with toxic smoke, following heatwaves that began in the spring.

Eight years in the making, authored by the world’s leading climate scientists and approved by 195 national governments, the report confirmed the meaning of the evidence before our eyes: the cumulative impact of human activity since the Industrial Revolution is “unequivocally” causing rapid and potentially catastrophic changes to the climate. The future that environmental scientists foresaw with alarm, when the IPCC produced its first report three decades ago, has arrived.

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Privately-owned utility EPH will shut down all of its coal assets by 2030, with the exception of its plants located in Germany, the Czechia-based company announced on Monday.

The Morrison government’s ‘technology, not taxes’ mantra ignores the fact that taxes pay for technology, and affordable technology can make a difference

• Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible - IPCC’s starkest warning yet
• IPCC’s verdict on climate crimes of humanity: guilty as hell
• Climate crisis ‘unequivocally’ caused by humans, says IPCC
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How many wake-up calls on the climate does Australia need?

It is an unanswerable question, of course – we’ve been here too many times before to pretend otherwise – but everyone should read the summary of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, regardless. Using careful scientific language, it tells the story of what is happening across the planet with a bracing clarity that is at once familiar and alarming.

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The most vulnerable developing countries plead for action after a stark warning from a UN panel.

Alok Sharma says chance to limit worst impacts of climate breakdown ‘still achievable, but retreating fast’

The world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases must produce clear plans to cut their carbon output drastically, the president of vital UN climate talks has urged, after scientists warned there was only a small chance of escaping the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change set out the starkest warning yet on the widespread and “unprecedented” changes to the climate that are “unequivocally” the result of human actions. Extreme weather resulting from these changes was already seen around the world and growing worse, in the form of rising temperatures, more frequent and fiercer storms, heatwaves, droughts, floods and sea level rises, according to the biggest assessment of climate science in eight years.

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Heatwaves, wildfires, floods and droughts highlight how extreme weather is linked to climate change.

What are the key takeaways from the IPCC new study on the science of climate change?

Inger Andersen of the UN Environment Programme has said the climate crisis poses an 'immediate threat', adding that 'every citizen needs to play their part'. Only drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions this decade can prevent global temperatures from rising to disastrous levels, according to the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

• Humans have caused ‘unprecedented’ and ‘irreversible’ change to climate, scientists warn
• Climate crisis ‘unequivocally’ caused by human activities, says IPCC report

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EUAs recovered early losses on Monday morning, despite a general weakness in the energy complex as Russian state producer Gazprom slowly resumed flows from a gas facility damaged by a fire last week.

Prime minister says warning from UN scientists should give world a wake-up call ahead of Cop26 summit

• Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible – IPCC’s starkest warning yet
• IPCC’s verdict on climate crimes of humanity: guilty as hell

Boris Johnson has described the latest warnings from UN scientists about the extent of the climate crisis as “sobering reading” that should provide the world with a wake-up call ahead of the Cop26 summit.

With the global climate conference due to open in Glasgow in less than three months, the British prime minister said he hoped the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would highlight the need for action now.

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The secondary market spot price for Australian carbon credits is holding at record levels above A$22 ($16.16) amid persistent, yet modest demand, while more than 70 million units have now been delivered to the government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.

Achieving net zero will require action from everyone – and a renewed emphasis on science and innovation

• Patrick Vallance is the UK government chief scientific adviser

The release today of the first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report makes for stark reading. It reaffirms that anthropogenic climate change is real, present and lasting: it is now unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land to an unprecedented degree, with effects almost certain to worsen through the coming decades.

The report also dispels any notion that the effects of the climate crisis are abstract or distant. Extreme events are being felt across the world, from wildfires in Australia, Sweden and north-west America to heatwaves in Siberia and Canada and the devastating drought in South Africa. Evidence has grown since the last assessment report that human activity has exacerbated extreme weather events. Without urgent action, such events will continue to get worse. Moreover, sea levels are projected to rise over this century. Rises of as much as 2m cannot be ruled out, leaving low-lying lands and coastal communities extremely vulnerable.

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Zac Goldsmith says COP26 must be a "turning point", despite warnings that costs of tackling climate change will hit poor families.

Heating from humans has caused irreparable damage to the Earth that may get worse in coming decades.