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Noticing massive historical and geographical disparities in carbon emissions is not enough. Big polluters must be stopped

From luxury yachts to private jets and supercars, the enormously destructive travel and leisure habits of the super-rich are to the fore in the latest research on the carbon gap that divides the world’s wealthiest people from everyone else. Calculations by Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and others reveal that the richest 1% produced as much carbon pollution in one year as the 5 billion people who make up the poorest two-thirds of humanity. Though they number just 2,600, the combined wealth of the world’s billionaires is greater than the GDP of all but two countries – the US and China. The impact on the environment of their carbon‑intensive behaviour is colossal.

But as this week’s Guardian series, the great carbon divide, has shown, outsized emissions are not only the work of this minority of the ultra-wealthy. Nor are they confined to the far larger number of individuals with a net worth of at least $1m, combined with energy‑intensive lifestyles, who social scientist Dario Kenner calls the “polluter elite”. In fact, half of all emissions are produced by the top 10% – that is, the much bigger group of about 800 million people who earn at least $40,000. While in their own countries these people are regarded as middle income or middle class, their consumption and emissions far outstrip those of 90% of the world’s inhabitants.

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The EU and Canada established on Friday a Green Alliance to strengthen their climate cooperation, including an aim to cover over half of global emissions with carbon pricing policies.

EU member states could avoid spending billions on climate change-related costs by the end of this century if they spend roughly 4% of their GDP per year on measures to reduce emissions 90% by 2040, according to a study by a Dutch consulting firm.

A Dutch company plans to reforest degraded cattle lands in Paraguay to sequester 30 million tonnes of CO2e over the project’s 30-year lifetime, one of the largest ARR projects of its kind to be registered by Verra, it announced on Friday while flagging co-benefits of creating seedcake for cows and biofuel for planes and vehicles.

Tanzania has urged East African heads of state to take a common stance ahead of COP28 in opposing the dominance of foreign firms in the region’s carbon trading activities, according to domestic media sources.

The European Commission will put forward an action plan for upgrading the bloc's electricity grids in which it estimates €584 billion in investments are necessary by 2030 to deal with the influx of renewable energy, according to a leaked document seen by Carbon Pulse.

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg’s pioneering research in the 1990s found increasing sea temperatures would damage the world’s coral reefs, killing them faster than they could recover. Hoegh-Guldberg speaks with Guardian Australia about being labelled an alarmist while championing one of the world’s richest ecosystems.

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This video is part of Weight of the World: a climate scientist's burden. The series features three pioneering Australian climate change scientists - Graeme Pearman, Lesley Hughes and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. The series tells the story of how the three scientists made their discoveries, how they came under attack for their science and the personal toll it has taken on them. And importantly, how they stay hopeful.

• See the other pieces in our series Weight of the world: a climate scientist’s burden

• Listen to the Weight of the World podcast series

• Watch Graeme Pearman and Lesley Hughes share their stories

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The existential battle against global heating requires connecting science, politics and community life, often much harder than it looks

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A lot of the time, politics feels incremental. But every now and again, a big thing happens suddenly. Chris Bowen made it clear this week the government intends to transform the fundamentals of Australia’s energy grid. Labor has been saying this for ages of course, but this week, words were matched by a concrete plan of action.

Bowen unveiled a radical expansion of a capacity scheme intended to reshape the national electricity market. Coal is coming out, renewables moving in and taxpayers will underwrite the transformation. This is the biggest strategic shift Australians have seen in this policy area for a decade or more.

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The Philippines has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a local climate tech firm which will help the nation to build an ITMO registry, setting the stage for the country to enter the carbon market, local media reported Friday.

The Global Investor Commission on Mining has been backed by 82 investors with over $11 trillion in assets collectively under management, with the aim of making the sector more socially and environmentally responsible by 2030.

Study’s author says ‘we need to reduce exposure in order to ensure men who want to conceive are able to without interference’

Exposure to several widely used insecticides probably decreases sperm concentration and may have profound effects on male fertility, new US research finds.

The George Mason University paper analyzed five decades of peer-reviewed studies to determine if organophosphates and carbamate-based pesticides exposure correlated with decreased sperm concentration.

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European carbon prices advanced for a second day, giving rise to speculation that the month-long decline fuelled by speculative selling may have come to an end as the expiry of the December contract approaches, while energy markets were slightly weaker as the weather outlook remained uncertain.

Global fall averaged 4.2% between 2010 and 2022 but would have been far more if vehicle sizes stayed same

Emissions from the motor sector could have fallen by more than 30% between 2010 and 2022 if vehicles had stayed the same size, a report has found.

Instead, the size of the average car ballooned as the trend for SUVs took off, meaning the global annual rate of energy intensity reductions – the fall in fuel used – of light-duty vehicles (LDV) averaged 4.2% between 2020 and 2022.

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Project aims to release hundreds into lochs and streams after centuries of habitat loss and exploitation

The medicinal leech is one of nature’s least loved hunters. Armed with three strong interlocking jaws and with a taste for blood, they will swim hungrily towards humans, deer or cattle that wander into their ponds to bathe, fish or drink.

Yet this small predator is the focus of an unlikely reintroduction programme by conservationists working in a small laboratory deep in the Scottish Highlands, at a wildlife park best known for its polar bears, wildcats and wolves.

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Trading volume in China's carbon market plunged over the past week despite stable allowance prices, as most major Chinese emitters have fulfilled their obligations now that the primary compliance deadline set by the government has passed.

Revenues from carbon pricing mechanisms reached $93 billion last year, slightly lower than the prior year, with more than half of this total specifically redirected towards climate activities, according to a report from a group of climate economics researchers.

More than 50 people dead in Tigray and Amhara regions while UN warns of ‘crisis-level hunger or worse’ in Somalia

The regions of Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia have continued to experience severe drought conditions with more than 50 people dead, as well as 4,000 cattle.

While northern Ethiopia suffers from droughts, the southern and eastern parts of the country, along with Kenya and Somalia, have been hit by flooding. Somalia suffered the worst of the flooding, with 50 people reported dead. According to the Somali disaster management agency almost 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

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South Korea may push back the timeline for the release of a basic plan underpinning the next phase of the domestic carbon market, which has been hampered by an oversupply of emissions permits, local media reported. 

The federal government of Pakistan is considering a cap-and-trade model for its imminent carbon market, an official said according to local media.

European Environment Agency says half of deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to recommended limits

Dirty air killed more than half a million people in the EU in 2021, estimates show, and about half of the deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to the limits recommended by doctors.

The researchers from the European Environment Agency attributed 253,000 early deaths to concentrations of fine particulates known as PM2.5 that breached the World Health Organization’s maximum guideline limits of 5µg/m3. A further 52,000 deaths came from excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide and 22,000 deaths from short-term exposure to excessive levels of ozone.

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