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Most of the sectoral pledges announced during COP28 will not lead to a sufficient reduction in emissions to limit global warming by 1.5C, as many are already counted in national plans or lack sufficient ambition, a report published on Saturday found.

Climate activists likely to be concerned by another fossil fuel-reliant country taking over summit presidency

Azerbaijan has been announced as the host of next year’s climate summit after fraught negotiations.

Under UN rules it was eastern Europe’s turn to take over the rotating presidency but the groups need to unanimously decide on the host. Russia had blocked EU countries and Azerbaijan and Armenia were blocking each other’s bids.

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The Australian government should fund demonstration projects that will generate biodiversity certificates in its Nature Repair Market scheme in order to generate interest and understanding among potential participants, experts said on the side lines of the COP28 conference.

Finland plans to achieve negative emissions by around 2040 by “aggressively” pursuing carbon capture, the country’s environment minister told an audience at the United Nations climate conference COP28 on Saturday.

Azerbaijan's capital Baku will be confirmed as the next host of the annual UN climate summit, the country's ecology minister announced at COP28 in Dubai on Saturday, after Armenia formally gave its blessing earlier in the week and Russia lifted its veto threat.

Continent’s chief negotiator says an agreement for fair and equitable funding is a matter of life and death

• Cop28 live – latest updates

Fair and equitable finance for climate adaptation is a matter of life and death for the African continent, but talks at Cop28 so far have failed to deliver, the chief negotiator for the African group has warned.

Adaptation is being discussed as part of the global stocktake (GST), the assessment of where the world is on delivering the commitments made in the 2015 Paris agreement. The long-awaited global goal on adaptation (GGA) – a collective commitment proposed by the African group in 2013 and established under the Paris agreement – to drive political action and finance for adaptation on the same scale as mitigation, is also due to be completed in Dubai.

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UK’s former climate chief Alok Sharma says phase-out crucial to limit global warming to 1.5C

Failure to agree a phase-out of fossil fuels at the UN Cop28 climate summit would push the world beyond the crucial 1.5C temperature limit and into climate breakdown, the UK’s former climate chief has warned.

Alok Sharma, who was president of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, said it was vital that governments made a clear commitment in the next few days to eliminate coal, oil and gas.

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A consortium led by two major South Korean companies has taken an undisclosed stake in a global developer of carbon credits as they seek to increase their involvement in nature-based as well as technology-based projects.

EU institutions agreed on updated rules to decarbonise the gas market and create a hydrogen one on Friday evening, which will enable the bloc to further reduce its dependence on gas, as well as agree that long-term contracts for unabated fossil gas should not extend beyond 2049.

It is Day 10 – Nature Day – at COP28, where already tense negotiations about the global stocktake (GST) and Article 6 carbon markets are heating up, with announcements also seeping in on biodiversity and nature-based solutions (NbS). Week 2 is well underway, and it's now crunch time in Dubai. Fortunately, Carbon Pulse's hardworking correspondents are on the ground in Expo City wading through reports, gathering intel, and skulking around the sidelines of the summit so you don't have to. In our daily running blog, we will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (Gulf Standard Time, GMT+4).

Guerrilla leader turned president says, faced with having to reduce their carbon consumption, upper classes fear ‘the barbarians are coming’

Middle-class fears of losing a high standard of living because of green policies is driving the rise of the far right across the world, the president of Colombia has warned.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian at the Cop28 UN climate summit, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftwing president, said the world had to find carbon-free ways of being prosperous, and that his country’s rich biodiversity would be the basis of its wealth after phasing out fossil fuels.

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Exclusive: freedom of information request reveals ministers rejected plan to make pledge legally binding

The UK government has no plans to meet its target for everyone to live within a 15-minute walk of a green space, the Guardian can reveal.

Ministers have also scrapped an idea to make the target for access to nature legally binding, a freedom of information request submitted by the Right to Roam campaign shows.

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As the conference goes into the last few days, today’s theme will be nature and forests

It’s the Global day of action today. There have already been demonstrations in the Philippines, demanding urgent action at Cop28.

There are demonstrations planned around the UK today too. But it’s a little confusing because a number of countries – Belgium and Spain for example – ran demonstrations last weekend. So the concentrated force is perhaps not quite what it could be.

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Global public and private funding that has a detrimental impact on nature stands at a massive $7 trillion per year, while funding with a positive impact last year reached $200 billion, UNEP said in its annual State of Finance for Nature report, released Saturday.

Inaction and self-interest are built into climate summits. Instead, we need a voting system that can’t be subverted by fossil fuel producers

Let’s face it: climate summits are broken. The delegates talk and talk, while Earth systems slide towards deadly tipping points. Since the climate negotiations began in 1992 more carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels has been released worldwide than in all preceding human history. This year is likely to set a new emissions record. They are talking us to oblivion.

Throughout these Conference of the Parties (Cop) summits, fossil fuel lobbyists have swarmed the corridors and meeting rooms. It’s like allowing weapons manufacturers to dominate a peace conference. This year, the lobbyists outnumber all but one of the national delegations. And they’re not the only ones: Cop28 is also heaving with meat and livestock lobbyists and reps from other planet-trashing industries. What should be the most important summit on Earth is treated like a trade fair.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Planning approval given for 2,000 MWh battery in Collie that could double in size and will be used to soak up solar and shift it to the evening peaks, replacing coal.

The post Planning approval given for Australia’s biggest battery to soak up solar and replace coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Food and agriculture firms have sent three times as many delegates to the climate summit as last year

Lobbyists from industrial agriculture companies and trade groups have turned out in record numbers at Cop28, with three times as many delegates representing the meat and dairy industry as last year.

Representatives are present from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies – such as the meat supplier JBS, the fertiliser giant Nutrien, the food giant Nestlé and the pesticide company Bayer – as well as powerful industry lobby groups.

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

Compliance entities and speculators moved in opposite directions with their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI holdings, while both groups reduced their Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) positions over the last week, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Friday.

The UN climate talks turn to oceans and a Pacific islander is here to fight for her home.