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Revealed: more than 100 executives given special guest badges as activists challenge role of oil and gas firms at talks

The host country of this year’s UN climate summit, Azerbaijan, has rolled out “red carpet” treatment to fossil fuel bosses and lobbyists, the Guardian can reveal.

At least 132 oil and gas company senior executives and staff were invited to the Cop29 summit, and had special badges denoting they were guests of the presidency.

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The president of the Spanish province of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, rejected calls for his resignation amid growing public anger over his management of the recent devastating floods that killed more than 210 people in the area. He conceded mistakes were made but claimed the unprecedented and 'apocalyptic' scale of the disaster overwhelmed the system

• Valencia’s president admits mistakes in flood response but will not resign

• Almost half of Valencia’s flood victims were aged over 70, figures show

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At Cop29 the global south needs to unite for sustainable growth, leveraging resources and negotiating transformative climate finance pacts

More than a century of burning coal, oil and gas has fuelled intense heatwaves, prolonged droughts, heavier rains and devastating floods. To prevent even more severe impacts, the UN global climate summit, Cop29, must deliver tangible results to keep global temperature rises below 2C – the limit defined in the 2015 Paris agreement. Achieving this goal means human societies can only emit a finite amount of additional carbon dioxide, known as the world’s “carbon budget”.

Developed nations have exceeded their carbon budgets, while developing countries remain within theirs. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for centuries, turning past unchecked fossil fuel use into a costly planetary bill. Between 1870 and 2019, the US, EU, Russia, UK, Japan, Canada and Australia – home to just 15% of the global population – accounted for over 60% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment.

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A British carbon finance specialist, Swiss bank, and Scottish carbon capture and storage (CCS) firm have partnered to issue carbon removals credits from Scotch whiskey distilleries and their supply chains, the companies announced on Friday.

An increasing number of countries have committed to reduce their methane emissions, with proposals to strengthen their goals and mobilise nearly $500 million to support 65 developing countries.

The federal government of Tanzania has teamed up with a Nairobi-based cookstoves manufacturer and project developer to distribute 1 million clean cookstoves throughout the East African nation to be funded by voluntary carbon credits.

Exclusive: UK energy secretary says at Cop29 that people see the economic advantages of making the transition

• Cop29 climate summit – live updates

Renewable energy is now “unstoppable”, and no government can prevent the shift to a global low-carbon economy, UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has said.

He said the UK was acting out of national self-interest by taking a global lead on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting financial help available to poor countries at crunch UN climate talks this week.

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A day after incoming President-elect Trump's administration reportedly indicated its intent to eliminate electric vehicle (EV) tax credits in broad tax reform, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm expressed confidence that the credits – and other financing supporting nascent clean energy technologies – should be durable enough to withstand potential attack.

Some cafes and visitor centres to close with job losses while reserves in Suffolk and Hertfordshire among those in peril

The future of several RSPB nature reserves is in doubt as it introduces cuts, citing cost of living pressures.

The bird charity told its workers at an all-staff meeting on Thursday that cafes and visitor centres across some of its sites would be closing, and staff would be made redundant. It also said it was in the process of transferring ownership of some of its sites to other companies.

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The Canadian and Indigenous governments, together with a group of private donors, signed on Thursday an agreement set to unlock C$375 million ($270 mln) over the next 10 years for conservation efforts in the Northwest Territories (NWT).

Nearly half of companies globally continue to only use non-renewable electricity, according to a new report released on Friday.

A food and beverage multinational on Thursday told a webinar that making the business case for sustainability projects needs more than an internal carbon price to be financially viable, and so turns to a different set of metrics when evaluating which investments to make.

The Azerbaijani COP29 presidency launched a series of pledges on Friday to boost clean energy storage and infrastructure globally and in the Caspian region, in support of last year's commitment to triple renewables and double energy efficiency.

Some $42 billion has been spent was spent on the origination and development of 11,752 registered and pre-registered carbon credit projects globally, and about half of this, $22 bln, happened between 2021 and 2023, analysts estimate.

The French government has announced the launch of a national scheme for voluntary biodiversity credits, in an attempt to mobilise private financing towards nature conservation and restoration.

The government of Thailand will submit the draft climate change bill containing provisions for an emissions trading scheme and a carbon tax for cabinet approval by December, but expecting a final bill to be implemented only by 2026, a government official told Carbon Pulse.

Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) prices on the secondary market have surged to A$42 ($26.55), as buying activity continues to ramp up by facilities covered under the Safeguard Mechanism ahead of the March deadline.

BRICS members Russia and Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on low-carbon development at COP29 in Baku, local media reported on Thursday.

European carbon prices gave up a strong opening surge to a 10-week high, posting a 1.5% decline by midday on Friday, on the back of aggressive selling after front-month TTF natural gas fell back sharply from Thursday's one-year high, leaving Europe's benchmark carbon contract heading for a weekly decline.

A new Article 6 text published Friday after a late night of work in Baku has put talks on finalising international carbon trade rules firmly back on track, according to sources close to the negotiations, following a nervy reaction to a chaotic, 43-page previous draft.