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Urgent questions from the climate crisis to tax avoidance remain on the table

It is January 2020. Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg are the star turns at the annual festival of globalisation organised by the World Economic Forum in Davos. The fossil-fuel loving president and the teenage environmentalist have a pop at each other. There are reports of a new virus emerging from China but Covid barely gets a mention.

Much has happened since. For a second year running, Davos is not going ahead in person. US billionaires will not be parking their private jets at Zurich airport. The skies above the ski resort made famous by Thomas Mann in the Magic Mountain will not be thick with helicopters. Hotels will not be able to charge five times their normal rates for a captive audience of policy makers, business leaders, academics, campaigners, journalists and assorted hangers-on.

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While further tsunamis may be unlikely, there are mounting fears over how badly Tonga has been hit.

The inside story on how the UK's largest, most complete ichthyosaur fossil was saved for the nation.

Over the next decade or so these new offshore wind farm sites could supercharge renewable energy capacity.

The spill in the Timor Sea was one of Australia’s worst environmental disasters, with thousands of seaweed farmers claiming it destroyed their livelihoods

The oil came without warning.

One morning in September 2009 it was there, coating Daniel Sanda’s modest seaweed farm on the Indonesian island of Rote: a dark sheen across the water, waxy yellow-grey blocks floating in the sea.

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Conservation groups appeal to EU to take action against slaughter they allege flouts rules

Finland is joining Sweden and Norway in culling wolves this winter to control their population, as conservation groups appeal to the European Union to take action against the slaughter.

Hunters in Sweden have already shot dead most of their annual target of 27 wolves, while Finland is to authorise the killing of 20 wolves in its first “population management cull” for seven years.

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Exclusive: Studies show high temperatures and air pollution during pregnancy can cause lifelong health effects

The climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.

Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children.

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This weekend is the last chance to donate to our 2021 appeal supporting those on the frontline of the climate emergency

• Guardian and Observer charity appeal 2021: the fight for climate justice
• Donate to our charity appeal here

In this year’s Guardian and Observer charity appeal we have supported communities and individuals hit hardest by the climate emergency, people who have seen their lives upended and livelihoods lost by extreme weather. It’s a topical issue, and not going away – and there is still time to donate: so far we have raised over £800,000.

Our appeal is shaped by vivid stories of climate emergency: floods, drought and wildfires; from reindeer killed by unnatural arctic heat to chronic crop failure by the shores of Lake Victoria. At its heart, however, lies inequality and poverty: the stark truth is the countries least responsible for global emissions have by far suffered worst from climate-induced disasters.

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Artist Kevin Eason won't ever see his favourite iceberg up close, but he's come to know it so well.

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

The government proposals also aim to ensure landscapes play a key role in tackling climate change.

he American Forest Foundation (AFF) seeks a highly motivated candidate to join the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) Team. Individuals and families own 36% of America’s forests – more than any other ownership group – and are critical to unlocking U.S. forests as a Natural Climate Solution.  Were 20% of these lands to implement management activities that improved carbon sequestration and storage by 2030, an additional 2 gigatons of CO2e would be sequestered and stored over the balance of the century.

UK-headquartered low-cost leisure airline Jet2 has launched what it calls “one of the world’s largest” aviation offset programmes, neutralising all emissions not already covered by compliance schemes.

EU nations should face penalties for every tonne of emissions exceeded in non-ETS sectors based on prices in the bloc’s carbon market, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing draft plans set out by the lawmaker steering scrutiny of the revised Effort-Sharing Regulation (ESR).

Speculators significantly increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holding this week as prices dove, while compliance entities modestly decreased their net short position, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Quebec’s initial free allowance distribution for 2022 slightly regressed from the previous year, even as the number of industrial cap-and-trade emitters receiving allocation increased, according to data published by the province’s environmental ministry.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including a market-based climate policy in New Mexico.

Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay are reeling from a historic heatwave with temperatures as high as 113F

Cities and towns across southern South America have been setting record high temperatures as the region swelters during a historic heatwave.

“Practically all of Argentina and also neighboring countries such as Uruguay, southern Brazil and Paraguay are experiencing the hottest days in history,” said Cindy Fernández, meteorologist at the official National Meteorological Service.

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President Joe Biden announced his nominations for three top Federal Reserve officials on Friday, advancing climate change considerations into the central bank’s influence over the financial sector.

Miami-Dade police department has shared body cam footage of one of their officers rescuing a juvenile dolphin that was tangled in a fishing net off the coast of Miami, Florida. The footage shows how officer Nelson Silva used a knife to cut the net and free the animal. The rescue took place on 10 December

• Companies race to stem flood of microplastic fibres into the oceans
  
• Plastic beads could make nets more visible to cetaceans, scientists say
  

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