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The big issues facing global leaders gathering for the world's most important climate summit.

Switzerland has concluded bilateral agreements with Chile, Kenya, and Tunisia to pave the way for buying correspondingly adjusted carbon credits from them under the Paris Agreement.

Sultan Al Jaber calls allegations false as the United Arab Emirates prepares to host the biggest Cop meeting yet

Sultan Al Jaber, the president of the UN Cop28 climate summit, has hit back strongly at reports he abused his position to try to sign oil deals with other governments, as the United Arab Emirates prepares to host the biggest Cop meeting yet.

Al Jaber’s role is to act as an “honest broker” for the 190-plus governments gathering at the global climate talks, charged with leading them to a successful conclusion. He is also the chief executive of UAE’s national oil company, Adnoc, and campaigners say the two roles are in conflict.

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Greater focus will be given to food and agriculture this year at COP28 in Dubai, as the links between food production and climate change become increasingly apparent, with a day dedicated to the topic and a concerted push to get governments to align agricultural policies with their emissions pledges.

Climate financier Respira International intends to purchase up to 50,000 direct air carbon (DAC) capture credits for an undisclosed price in a new project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company announced Wednesday.

Astronomers hope to learn how its six planets formed and whether any of them are home to life

It’s obscene that the super-rich can criminalise protest, while they burn the world’s resources and remain untouched by the law

Don’t they have children? Don’t they have grandchildren? Don’t rich and powerful people care about the world they will leave to their descendants? These are questions I’m asked every week, and they are not easy to answer. How can we explain a mindset that would sacrifice the habitable planet for a little more power or a little more wealth, when they have so much already?

There are many ways in which extreme wealth impoverishes us. The most obvious is money-spreading across our common ecological space. The recent reporting by Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Guardian gives us a glimpse of how much of the planet the very wealthy now sprawl across. The richest 1% of the world’s people burn more carbon than the poorest 66%, while multibillionaires, running their yachts, private jets and multiple homes, each consume thousands of times the global average. You could see it as another colonial land grab: a powerful elite has captured the resources on which everyone depends.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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The provisional EU nature restoration bill has overcome opposition from agriculture lobbyists, lending a “ray of hope” to the bloc's environmental future, following approval from the European Parliament's environment committee (ENVI).

EU co-legislators reached a provisional political agreement to revise existing legislation on harmful industrial emissions across the bloc, striking a deal in the early hours of Wednesday that widens obligations to include more farmers and miners but not methane-intensive cattle rearers. 

Companies representing around 60% of the world's shipping market on Wednesday launched an emissions-saving alliance to raise the standard temperatures for transporting frozen foods, citing research that suggests food safety would not be impacted.

The report said the UAE planned to use its role as host of UN climate talks to strike oil and gas deals.

The UK government will lay biodiversity net gain (BNG) before parliament on Nov. 30 in a step towards making the law mandatory, it announced among a raft of nature-related pledges.

Bushfire season has begun, followed by school students striking for climate action and 97-year-olds blockading ports. Elsewhere, Australia celebrated 50 years of jousting, the Arias served up glamour, Melbourne shone a spotlight on homemade fashion and working dogs were put through their paces

• Australia’s best photos of the month

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Move builds on decisions by states like Oregon to fully or partially prohibit the use of M-44s used to kill predators and other wildlife

A campaign to end the use of so-called “cyanide bombs” within the United States has received a major boost after the country’s largest public land management agency banned the poison devices on hundreds of millions of acres across the nation.

The move builds on decisions by states such as Oregon to fully or partially prohibit the use of cyanide bombs, also known as M-44s, within their jurisdictions. The US Department of Agriculture uses these devices to kill predators and other wildlife.

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The Australian Automotive Association has found some SUVs use up to 13% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests. Is your vehicle underperforming?

• The Crunch: what Australia’s love for SUVs means for emissions and safety – video
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A real-world testing program at the Australian Automobile Association has shown that some SUVs have much better fuel consumption than others.

The program, which compares the fuel consumption and emissions of vehicles in Australian driving conditions with each vehicle’s laboratory test result, showed some SUVs used up to 13% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests.

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An Israel-headquartered direct air capture startup, backed by several oil majors as well as the Frontier removals buyers' club, has launched a pilot for its electrochemical dual-cell system, which it hopes will help drive carbon credits generated using the technology below $100/tonne.

A US-based non-profit has updated its carbon inventory statistics and maps for forest and non-forest lands globally in its overhauled tool, which it says will support country efforts to create stronger, more accurate deforestation policies.

REDD+ standards should not only include technical and scientific aspects developed in the Global North, but also contributions and experiences of the inhabitants of the same territories where these standards will be implemented, writes Gustavo Sanchez of the Mexican Network of Rural Forestry Organizations and colleagues representing other Indigenous peoples and Local Communities.

European carbon prices fell to a new 13-month low in early trade on Wednesday before gaining some support as data from futures exchanges showed that investment funds had built a record net short position, while energy markets slumped for a fourth day.

US tech giant Amazon is increasing its investment in the vast rainforest after which it is named through two new agroforestry projects, in an effort to meet its 2040 net zero pledge and promote projects that meet a new standard, company representatives told Carbon Pulse on Wednesday.