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I see looming political and environmental threats – and too few willing to address them. Where is the urgency?

The world is on fire. At no time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 has the world looked so dangerous, nor has an end to its 56 conflicts – the highest number since the second world war – seemed so distant and so difficult to achieve.

Distracted by domestic election campaigns, preoccupied by internal divisions and blindsided by the seismic geopolitical shifts happening beneath our feet, the world is sleepwalking into a “one world, two systems”, “China v America” future. And the cooperation needed to firefight is proving so elusive that even now, an international agreement to prepare for and prevent global pandemics remains beyond our grasp. Nor, even up against the existential problem of climate change (the planet is on course for a temperature increase of 2.7C above pre-industrial levels), can many hold out hopes that Cop29 in Azerbaijan will be equal to the challenge. At a time when global problems urgently need global solutions, the gap between what we need to do and our capacity – or, more accurately, our willingness – to do so is widening by the minute.

We are at a global turning point, not just because crises are multiplying far beyond the very public tragedies of the Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, but because in a year when nearly half the world has gone to the polls, few political candidates have been prepared to acknowledge the altered geopolitical landscape. For three seismic shifts that are bringing to an end the unipolar, neoliberal hyperglobalised world of the last 30 years make a total rethink essential.

Gordon Brown is a former UK prime minister; he will give a keynote lecture at the Edinburgh international festival on Sunday 25 August

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Forecasts suggest June-to-August output will exceed the high recorded in 2022 despite relatively poor weather

Great Britain is on track to generate record levels of solar power this summer, according to expert forecasts, as the government pushes forward plans to triple the country’s solar energy capacity by the end of the decade.

Solar power output between June and August is likely to climb by almost a quarter compared with the same period last year.

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Stings needing medical attention surge by 41% as rising sea temperatures due to the climate crisis boost reproduction

Costa Brava resorts in Spain’s north-east are struggling to cope with an influx of jellyfish as rising sea temperatures facilitate reproduction and drive species farther north.

Between May and August almost 7,500 people on the Catalan coast sought medical attention for jellyfish stings – a 41% increase on last year. The stings are painful and can have unpleasant consequences for anyone with compromised immunity.

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US specialist on invasive species says the densities of the destructive pest are approaching what he has seen in Texas

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Parts of Queensland have as many fire ants as Texas – a hotbed of the uncontrolled infestation that costs the US billions of dollars each year, an expert has warned

Dr Robert Puckett is an American specialist on invasive ant species and he’s followed Australia’s efforts to eradicate fire ants since they were discovered in Brisbane 23 years ago.

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Humanity risks losing the beautiful, complex reefs that have existed on Earth for millennia. Governments and officials have now acknowledged this devastating fact. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Professor, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

South Dakota’s highest court reversed prior rulings made by two lower circuit courts in support of a major CO2 pipeline construction, jeopardising the project's development in the state.

A US-led carbon crediting programme published a brief last week detailing how its credits can be used in corporate climate strategies.

The mining magnate does away with the constraints of arithmetic, simultaneously demanding lower taxes and more public spending

A striking feature of the age of billionaires in which we now live is that billionaires are more and more inclined to give us the benefit of their opinions. In the past year alone, we’ve had Marc Andreessen’s retro-futurist “Techno-optimist manifesto”, Mark Zuckerberg’s pronouncements on the future of media, and, most recently, a cosy chat between Elon Musk and Donald Trump (whose billionaire status is often touted but remains questionable). In most cases, the main effect has been to demonstrate that, however good they are at making money, billionaires are no smarter than the rest of us when it comes to politics or the ordinary business of life.

Australia’s richest billionaire by far is Gina Rinehart, who has massively multiplied the already substantial fortune she inherited from her father, the late Lang Hancock (Rinehart claims she inherited more debts than assets). Like Hancock, who spent decades on the rightwing fringe of Australian politics, Rinehart has never been shy about expressing her opinions.

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Financial players continued to migrate to V25 California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings over another week, while compliance demand for RGGI Allowances (RGAs) extended as prices surged to new record highs, according to weekly data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

New male baby of near-threatened species born at Werribee open range zoo to be named in public competition in coming weeks

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A very large bundle of joy was quietly delivered to a Melbourne zoo last Sunday as a southern white rhino gave birth to a male calf.

Mother Kipenzi, 11, and father Kifaru, 15, welcomed their 60kg baby into the world in the early hours of 18 August, Werribee open range zoo announced.

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European banks charge a higher interest rate to firms with elevated carbon emissions and a lower rate to those that commit to reducing their climate impact in the future, finds a new report.

Type of microplastics used in skin exfoliators and banned in UK and US found in 45% of Indian products studied

India should consider a ban on microbeads in personal care products, in line with many other countries in the world, say researchers.

Microbeads are a type of microplastic used in cosmetic products to exfoliate the skin. After a public uproar when the plastics were highlighted in Europe a decade ago, they were banned in the Netherlands in 2014, with many other countries following, including the US in 2015 and the UK in 2018.

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For all the initial noise against low-traffic neighbourhoods, most people like them and they can benefit the public purse

Here are four words you might not expect from me, as a former Conservative aide, so make the most of them: Louise Haigh is right. Half right, anyway. Labour’s new transport secretary has taken some flak – though not, interestingly, a vast amount - for interviews this week stating that councils that create low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), 20mph zones and bike lanes on their roads “will have my full support”.

“An abdication of responsibility,” huffed the Sun. “Labour declares war on drivers,” announced GB News, though no one was actually quoted to this effect – the shadow transport spokesperson, Helen Whately, said only that Labour “seems unable to take a common sense approach”.

Andrew Gilligan was transport adviser to Boris Johnson in Downing Street, and cycling commissioner for London 2013-16.

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Government stakeholders and private sector representatives met in Harare, Zimbabwe this week to discuss strategies to generate carbon credits from hemp production, according to local media.

Plastic credits can support the implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), according to a new report by carbon standard Verra.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has stepped back from plans to auction oil concessions on protected areas in the Congo Basin with carbon project potential, according to a press release.

China has begun accepting applications for carbon projects under the national offset programme, with participants expecting new credits to be issued by the end of the year.

European carbon allowance prices headed for their fourth decline in a row on Friday morning as selling interest continued to out-muscle buyers with the market continuing to shadow movements in natural gas.

Turnout gear sold in Massachusetts and Connecticut must be free of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ by 2027 and 2028

Massachusetts and Connecticut are the first two states in the US to ban the use of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in protective gear worn by firefighters.

Turnout gear, including jackets, pants, boots, gloves and other protective equipment that firefighters wear is treated heavily with PFAS that makes it resistant to water and heat, and helps the textiles breathe.

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Sweden has launched its bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) auction, allocating 36 billion SEK ($3.4 bln) in grants over 15 years of storage.