The Guardian

Roy Scholten has been interested in birds ever since he can remember. In his 50 Birds series, the Netherlands-based artist and printmaker has created handmade prints of local species including pied flycatchers, skylarks and blue-headed wagtails. Each print is made using Lego letterpress, combining individual building blocks into stamps to recreate the birds’ shapes and patterns, a technique perfected over the past decade by his frequent collaborator, the artist Martijn van der Blom. “Birds are daily reminders of the richness of our natural surroundings. They can fly! How cool is that!” says Scholten. “Sadly most species are in decline, which makes it all the more worthwhile to really look and appreciate them.”

• Works from Scholten and Van der Blom’s book Print & Play are on show at Grafisch Atelier Hilversum in the Netherlands until 4 February 2024

From emissions to road deaths, the trend for ever-bigger SUVs is a disaster. We need regulation to turn the car industry back to smaller vehicles

The United States is in the midst of a full-blown size crisis. No, I’m not talking about the mad rush for Wegovy, which is selling so swiftly that Denmark has to remove data relating to manufacturers Novo Nordisk to measure (the rest of) its economy properly. And no, I’m not talking about … something else. I’m talking about the enormous monstrosities filling up its roads. (Yeah, I see you on the streets of downtown Cleveland alone in your $85,000, 7,000lb Dodge Ram and I can tell you’re not a farmer … maybe that actually says something about the “something else”.)

There are lots of trends, ideas, music and films that cross the Atlantic. Some of them are good. This is not one of them. Neither are the 500 Krispy Kreme “points of access” the American chain is planning to open across France over the next year. (One, OK, fine, for the novelty, but 500 in the next year? In a country that exists in a completely different universe when it comes to pastries?)

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist

Stephen Gingell, 57, given six-month sentence for ‘interference with key national infrastructure’

A climate activist has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to taking part in a peaceful slow march protest on a London road.

The sentence handed to Stephen Gingell, 57, is thought to be the first jailing under a new law that critics say makes anyone walking in a road liable for prosecution for “interference with key national infrastructure”.

We can do this the easy way or the hard way

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

Exclusive: Sultan Al Jaber says Adnoc has to meet demand for fossil fuels, and hails ‘unprecedented’ Cop deal

The president of the Cop28 climate summit will continue with his oil company’s record investment in oil and gas production, despite coordinating a global deal to “transition away” from fossil fuels.

Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil and gas company, Adnoc, told the Guardian the company had to satisfy demand for fossil fuels.

The summit’s moves to intermesh nature and climate goals are welcomed by campaigners, but concerns remain

Conservation groups have hailed the inclusion of biodiversity and a 2030 global deforestation goal in the UAE consensus that emerged from Cop28, along with positive wording on the role of Indigenous communities.

Some hope the deal could help to intermesh nature and climate more closely, rather than treating the two as separate subjects. But many expressed concerns that tepid language on fossil fuel emissions would fail to control the global heating responsible for eroding forest resilience to drought, fire and disease, threatening to tip carbon-rich ecosystems into becoming a source of the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet.

Electric aviation and renewable energy among shifts needed for the Pacific to build a more sustainable tourist industry

• The price of paradise? Read our series on the environmental impact of tourism in the Pacific and how new approaches can make a difference

One of the biggest challenges in weaning off fossil fuels – and one that is often forgotten – is aviation. But for Pacific Island countries that poses a major conundrum. Right now, it would be effectively impossible to get to the Pacific islands without burning kerosene.

Aviation connects families across the region and allows for essential travel, including for health and education. Flights also form the backbone of the growing and vital tourism industry. Tourism is now the biggest economic sector in the Pacific and it can bring many development benefits.

Climate experts say lack of unambiguous statement is ‘tragedy for the planet and our future’

The failure of Cop28 to call for a phase-out of fossil fuels is “devastating” and “dangerous” given the urgent need for action to tackle the climate crisis, scientists have said.

One called it a “tragedy for the planet and our future” while another said it was the “dream outcome” for the fossil fuel industry.

Government says insufficient hydrogen production available to replace home gas supplies

A plan to test the use of hydrogen to heat homes in a village in the north-east of England have been abandoned after months of strong opposition from concerned residents.

The government said the Redcar “hydrogen village” scheme, which had been expected to start in 2025, will not go ahead because there would not be enough local hydrogen production for the trial to replace the home gas supplies with the low-carbon alternative.

I’ve been accused of being a ‘soyboy’ and ‘in the pay of Big Lettuce’ by one of the most destructive industries on Earth

Everything that makes campaigning against fossil fuels difficult is 10 times harder when it comes to opposing livestock farming. Here you will find a similar suite of science denial, misinformation and greenwashing. But in this case, it’s accompanied by a toxic combination of identity politics, nostalgia, machismo and the demonisation of alternatives. If you engage with this issue, you don’t just need a thick skin; you need the skin of a glyptodon.

You will be vilified daily as a “soyboy”, a “hater of farmers” and a dictator who would force everyone to eat insects. You will be charged with undermining western civilisation, destroying its masculinity and threatening its health. You will be denounced as an enemy of Indigenous people, though generally not by Indigenous people themselves, for many of whom livestock farming is and has long been by far the greatest cause of land-grabbing, displacement and the destruction of their homes.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Rife deforestation 500 years ago aligns with western barbastelle slump, finds study of bat DNA

The examples of flora and fauna disappearing because of human excesses over the past 50 years are manifold, but research has found that the decline of a characterful bat began in the UK when its trees were felled for shipbuilding 500 years ago.

Experts from the University of Exeter and the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) have concluded that a 99% drop in Britain’s western barbastelle bat populations began when trees were chopped down in the early days of Britain’s empire building.

Investigations suggest a large share of ‘used’ cooking oil being imported could be wrongly labelled as demand outpaces supply

Tighter rules are needed to ensure that the imported “used” cooking oil that airlines hope will power cleaner flights is not in fact virgin palm oil, campaigners have warned.

About 80% of waste oil is imported to create biofuels that are mostly still used in cars, vans and lorries despite growing demand from aviation. About 60% of those imports come from China.

A female Mexican gray wolf that was part of reintroduction efforts for the endangered species has been recaptured by officials

A match made in the wilds of New Mexico?

An endangered Mexican wolf captured last weekend after wandering hundreds of miles from Arizona to New Mexico is now being readied for a dating game of sorts as part of federal reintroduction efforts.

Looming over this year’s climate talks was the spectre of Donald Trump regaining the US presidency

The climate emergency needs better than this. It has taken almost 30 years of climate talks for the world to call on nations to transition “away from fossil fuels” in a “just, orderly and equitable manner”. Cop28’s final text was stating the obvious but it needed saying, and not a moment too soon. Ahead of the Dubai summit, the UN said that under current policies, global temperatures were on track to rise 2.9C above pre-industrial levels – nearly double the goal cited in the climate summit final declaration.

The measures agreed – to triple renewable capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency – could limit warming to the 1.5C threshold. But this relies on an equitable climate financing deal for developing countries. On this key issue, the Cop28 outcome had little to say. A report for the UN has stated that developing countries – excluding China – would need $2.4tn a year. This is a lot of money, but then what is the price of saving the planet? The US is the richest nation on Earth. It should take the lead as the globe’s largest oil and gas producer. Instead it will expand fossil fuel extraction – reckless and inexcusable behaviour given Washington’s historical responsibility.

The agreement on fossil fuel phase-out is full of loopholes, but those of us fighting for climate justice won’t give up

As Cop28 ended after 14 gruelling days, many people were clutching at straws and looking for meaning in the mere mention in the text of a transition from fossil fuels. There will be headlines talking about what huge progress it is simply to say this – even without any requirement for real action.

This would have been very welcome 20 or even 10 years ago, but it wasn’t the gamechanger needed to prevent climate catastrophe, to end the era of deadly fossil fuels, or to save the north star of 1.5C. To claim that it is a triumph, or anything even close to that, is simply a lie.

Asad Rehman is executive director of War on Want

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Developing countries call agreement to transition away from fossil fuels ‘unfair’ and ‘inequitable’

As the leaders of the developed world hailed the Cop28 agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels as historic, Indigenous people, frontline communities and climate justice groups rebuked the deal as unfair, inequitable and business as usual.

The global stocktake (GST) – and the entire UN talks – were dominated by whether or not agreement could be reached to phase out or phase down fossil fuels – in order to curtail global heating.

Activists have highlighted what they see as loopholes and insufficient progress after UN climate negotiators directed the world on Wednesday to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a move the talks' chief called historic, despite the worries of critics. Within minutes of opening the session, Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber gavelled approval of the central document — the global stocktake that says how off-track the world is on climate and how to get back on — without asking for comments

• Cop28 landmark deal agreed to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels

• Good Cop, bad Cop: what the Cop28 agreement says and what it means

• Cop28 live – latest updates

Coalition alleges glyphosate, the most heavily applied herbicide in history, does not meet required safety standard set by federal law

Citing new scientific research, a coalition of farm worker, public health and environmental advocates on Wednesday filed a legal petition with US regulators demanding they immediately suspend authorization for the controversial weed-killing chemical called glyphosate.

The petition, filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), alleges that the chemical does not meet the required safety standard set by federal law and the EPA has “no valid assessment demonstrating otherwise”.

Climate change minister says deal is not perfect but ‘transition away’ from oil and gas sends clear message to investors

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Climate change minister Chris Bowen says the Cop28 climate summit sent a clear message that “our future is in clean energy and the age of fossil fuels will end”, but acknowledged it did not go as far as many countries wanted.

Nearly 200 countries agreed to a deal that for the first time called on all nations to transition away from fossil fuels to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis.