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Rich country budgets are stretched amid inflation, Covid and Ukraine war, Mary Robinson tells Cop29

Poor countries may have to compromise on demands for cash to tackle global heating, a former UN climate envoy has said, as UN talks entered their final hours in deadlock.

In comments that are likely to disappoint poorer countries at the Cop29 summit, Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and twice a UN climate envoy, said rich country budgets were stretched amid inflation, Covid and conflicts including Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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Researchers identify collision hotspots around world but reveal almost all these lack preventive measures

Collisions between whales and ships can prove fatal for the marine mammals, but researchers say expanding mitigation measures to just 2.6% of the ocean’s surface would reduce the chance of such strikes in all risk hotspots.

While experts say many whale-ship collisions go unobserved and unreported, making it difficult to put a figure on the scale of the problem, some estimates suggest tens of thousands of the animals are killed each year.

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Climate crisis, habitat loss and poaching have reduced its numbers – but will Trump put the kibosh on protections?

They are the tallest animal to roam the Earth and have become an icon of children’s books, toys and awed wildlife documentaries. But giraffes are in decline, which has prompted the US government to list them as endangered for the first time.

Giraffes will be listed under the US Endangered Species Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed in a move that will cover five subspecies of the animal. The agency hopes the listing will crack down on the poaching of giraffes, as the US is a leading destination of rugs, pillowcases, boots, furniture and even Bible covers made from giraffe body parts.

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Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has pledged to phase out all of the country’s coal-fired and fossil fuel-based power plants over the next 15 years.

Norway will join a fund from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that seeks to provide carbon finance to developing countries in Asia Pacific to support Article 6 projects, the country announced at COP29 on Wednesday, pledging $50 million to the effort.

The COP29 global climate summit enters its last day on Friday amid widespread frustration surrounding negotiations over a new global climate finance target, as a headline sum is yet to emerge.

Carbon pricing in the buildings sector can be fully offset, even for hardship cases where households face significant financial burdens from climate policy measures, according to research published on Wednesday.

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (ICVCM) recent approval of three REDD+ methodologies paid special attention to the environmental and social safeguards of Indigenous and local communities, an ICVCM senior expert said Thursday.

Brazilian public prosecutors asked a federal court this week to suspend carbon credit concessions launched by the state of Amazonas, citing concerns around potential violations of Indigenous rights, according to a national media outlet.

Some 13% of companies that are offsetting their emissions are applying the resulting credits to 100% or more of their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The EU’s Green Claims Directive, currently under negotiation in Brussels, could go some way towards restoring trust in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), provided that policymakers do it right and don’t overstretch their mandate, experts say.

New oil and gas fields are less carbon-intensive than old ones because they use state-of-the-art technology, providing significant decarbonisation gains, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a new report published on Thursday.

Investors can now customise how they analyse climate risks and portfolio alignment with global temperature goals, thanks to a new reporting tool released on Thursday.

A Swiss NGO has alleged that a clean cooking project developed under a bilateral agreement between Ghana and Switzerland is using assumptions that inflate issuances of credits generated under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, known as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs).

Project developers are urging the SBTi to listen to the Global South and allow credits to be used for Scope 3 emission targets to strengthen the voluntary market.

More than 260 companies have signed a letter outlining what is needed to expedite the shift away from fossil fuels, urging negotiators to tighten up texts at the COP29 global climate summit, underlining that policy clarity is crucial for private sector support.

Two project developers announced on Thursday the construction of a direct air capture (DAC) facility to be run entirely on wind power and stored onsite using geological storage in central Texas.

Fossil fuel companies that have sent lobbyists to COP summits produced enough oil and gas since the 2015 Paris Agreement to cause 17 million heat deaths, according to new analysis released on Thursday.

Steve Reed says he may not agree on inheritance tax changes but government will listen to rural Britain

• UK politics live – latest updates

The UK environment secretary has promised to reform the food system to ensure farmers are paid fairly for the food they produce, after many filled the streets of Westminster to campaign against inheritance tax changes.

Speaking at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) conference, Steve Reed said: “I heard the anguish of the countryside on the streets of London earlier this week. We may not agree over the inheritance tax changes, but this government is determined to listen to rural Britain and end its long decline.”

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Large, heavy-emitting economies appear to be winning the battle over if and how the COP29 summit should push forward on last year's landmark commitment to transition away from fossil fuels — raising alarm bells for many in Baku.