The Guardian

Exclusive: Sultan Al Jaber says progress means ‘unprecedented outcome’ is possible

An “unprecedented outcome” that would keep alive hopes of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C is within reach, the president-designate of the UN Cop28 climate summit has said – and even Saudi Arabia is expected to come with positive commitments.

Significant progress has been made in recent weeks on key aspects of a deal at the crucial meeting that starts in Dubai this week, with countries agreeing a blueprint for a fund for the most vulnerable, and reaching an important milestone on climate finance.

The climate crisis, invasive species, overexploitation of resources and pollution could break down crucial ecosystems. We asked experts to lay out the risks and offer some solutions

The continued destruction of nature across the planet will result in major shocks to food supplies and safe water, the disappearance of unique species and the loss of landscapes central to human culture and leisure by the middle of this century, experts have warned.

By 2050, if humanity does not follow through on commitments to tackle the five main drivers of nature loss critical natural systems could break down just as the human population is projected to peak.

Treasurer Tim Pallas says government is working to determine who needs to be paid back after high court’s EV ruling

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Victorian electric vehicle drivers will be repaid millions of dollars collected under an unconstitutional tax but it could take months for the cash to flow.

The high court last month found the Victorian government’s electric vehicle impost to be constitutionally invalid, as states do not have the power to impose excise taxes on consumption.

British PM to tell UN summit of plans for rainforests and new national park – but green groups remain sceptical

Rishi Sunak is to announce a new package of green measures as the Cop28 UN climate summit begins in Dubai, including a search for a national park, a strategy on British rainforests and landscape recovery projects with farmers.

But green groups have told the Guardian the package is greenwashing and an attempt by the UK prime minister to “reset” his reputation after previously opposing environmental measures.

The success of this week’s UN climate summit will depend on one man who must know that a favourable result would be bad news for the industry he represents

History was made in Glasgow in 2021 when “fossil fuels” appeared in the Cop26 declaration. It was the first time they had ever been mentioned in the text of a Cop agreement – officially recognising the taproot of a human-led climate emergency. Two years is a long time in geopolitics. This year’s Cop28, which begins on Thursday in Dubai, will be presided over by Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of the state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, which has the largest net-zero-busting expansion plans of any fossil fuel business in the world.

It was already doubtful that Mr Al Jaber was fit to lead global climate negotiations while responsible for planet-wrecking activities. This week’s revelations that he planned to lobby on oil and gas deals during meetings with foreign governments ahead of Cop28 further damage his credibility as an honest broker in climate negotiations. Mr Al Jaber had a hard enough job without hustles making a mockery of his independence.

The UAE will have its moment of glory while the UK press worries more about petrostate money buying the Telegraph

“A petrostate hosting a climate conference” sounds like a situation shouted out at an improv night, after they’ve done the ones about a fox hosting a henhouse and Jimmy Savile hosting Jim’ll Fix It. Arguably, though, the fact the president of this week’s Cop28 climate conference in Dubai is also the CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil firm crosses the fine line between mirthless joke and extinction-level distress signal. Happily for Sultan Al Jaber, this metaphorical flare will be obscured by all the actual flares caused by oil companies still cheerily burning waste gas across the Gulf. Maybe the various Emirati governments will order the oil firms to lay off this toxic practice – ineffectually outlawed by the UAE 20 years ago – for the duration of the conference, a bit like the Chinese government ordered many Beijing factories to shut down during the 2008 Olympics so that a pea-souper didn’t prevent enjoyment of the dressage. If not, international dignitaries flying into Cop28 on private planes will be able to look out of their windows at the oilfields and consider how nice it is to be welcomed by a roaring fire.

To the jolly old UAE, then, which can own our football clubs but not our newspapers, which should rather be squired by the right kind of meddling foreigners (Rupert Murdoch), criminal foreigners (Conrad Black), morality-vacuum island fort dwellers (the Barclays) or basic non-doms (the Rothermeres). Yes, the week’s other Emirati plotline is the hokey-cokey over the sale of the Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator titles, which look like they could be at risk of effectively going to an investment fund backed by the Abu Dhabi ruling family. At present, only a half-arsed government probe stands between civilisation and a desert ski-resort corporate retreat at which former Telegraph editor Charles Moore would be seated heavily down-table from Pep Guardiola, and possibly even Jack Grealish.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Cop28: Can fossil fuel companies transition to clean energy? On Tuesday 5 December, 8pm-9.15pm GMT, join Damian Carrington, Christiana Figueres, Tessa Khan and Mike Coffin for a livestreamed discussion on whether fossil fuel companies can transition to clean energy. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

Minister says aftercare must be included in targets, after concerns from woodland experts that many trees are dying

Housebuilders who “just shove trees in the ground” to meet planting targets will be made to ensure they survive by watering them properly, as part of plans being considered by ministers.

Under the government’s legally binding environment improvement plan targets, which replace EU nature rules, the aim is to increase England’s woodland cover from 10% to 16.5% by 2050. The government has therefore set tree planting targets and asked private businesses to contribute in return for funding or as part of a biodiversity net gain plan.

Evidence of Chemours-operated plant contaminating region is ‘alleged human rights violations’, say experts appointed by council

A new investigation by human rights experts appointed by the United Nations has expressed alarm at evidence of pollution from a North Carolina PFAS manufacturing plant, describing it as “alleged human rights violations and abuses against residents”.

The ongoing PFAS crisis in North Carolina has been linked to a Fayetteville Works plant operated by Chemours, a chemical giant that was spun off from DuPont in 2015.

Virgin Atlantic flight, partly funded by UK government, hailed by ministers but criticised by campaigners

• Can UK’s ‘jet zero’ hopes take off with a plane fuelled by used cooking oil?

The first transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner fully powered by “sustainable” jet fuel will take off from London Heathrow this morning.

The Virgin Atlantic flight, partly funded by the UK government, has been hailed by the aviation industry and ministers as a demonstration of the potential to significantly cut net carbon emissions from flying, although scientists and environmental groups are extremely sceptical.

Studies of cetaceans stranded in UK waters show high levels of toxins 20 years since global ban of most PCBs, say scientists

Nearly half of the whales and dolphins found in UK waters over the past five years contained harmful concentrations of toxic chemicals banned decades ago, an investigation has found.

Among orcas stranded in the UK, levels of PCBs, a group of highly dangerous and persistent chemicals that do not degrade easily, were 30 times the concentration at which the animals would begin to suffer health impacts, researchers said.

Exclusive: Experts ‘alarmed’ after potentially toxic chemicals detected in sources at 17 of England’s 18 water firms

Potentially toxic “forever chemicals” have been detected in the drinking water sources at 17 of 18 England’s water companies, with 11,853 samples testing positive, something experts say they are “extremely alarmed” by.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – a group of 10,000 or so human-made chemicals widely used in industrial processes, firefighting foams and consumer products – were found in samples of raw and treated water tested by water companies last year, according to the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), the Guardian and Watershed Investigations has found.

Gordon Brown leads those signing letter to Cop28 and G20 presidents calling for levy to help fill ‘loss and damage’ fund

The bumper revenues of oil-producing states should be subject to a $25bn levy to help pay for the impact of climate disasters on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, a group of former world leaders and leading economists has said.

Seventy international figures led by the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown signed a letter calling for the measure before a crucial UN climate summit, Cop28, that begins in Dubai on Thursday. The signatories include 25 former prime ministers or presidents.

Climate scientists say fossil fuel use needs to fall rapidly – but oil-rich kingdom is working to drive up demand

Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”.

Little was known about theoil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.

Three-year pause in fishing is the only way to prevent disappearance, researchers say

It is one of Sicily’s most popular dishes: spaghetti ai ricci di mare, or sea urchin spaghetti. Prepared with a simple base of oil and garlic, plates of the stuff are demolished every summer, particularly by the hundreds of thousands of tourists who descend on the island every year.

But sea urchins’ status as a culinary delicacy is leading to their gradual disappearance from local waters, and last week researchers said the Sicilian sea urchin, which resides on the sea floor and feeds primarily on algae, could soon become extinct if urgent conservation policies were not implemented.

Leaked briefing documents for meetings with governments contained ‘asks’ from state oil firm

The host of the UN Cop28 summit, the United Arab Emirates, planned to use climate meetings with other countries to promote deals for its national oil and gas companies, according to leaked documents.

Cop28 begins on Thursday and will be run by Sultan Al Jaber, who is the chief executive of the national oil company Adnoc as well as the UAE’s climate envoy. This dual role has been criticised as a conflict of interest, and climate summit veterans said the new revelations undermined trust in Al Jaber’s presidency of Cop28, potentially threatening a successful outcome.

How does a species survive hundreds of millions of years unfazed? You must live in a shell – and it must grow with you, chamber by chamber

Where to start with the nautilus: at the centre of the spiral or its culmination? It is a cephalopod in a shell, a spiral no wider than the length of a ruler, ending in 70 tentacle-like wavy bits. Its eye works slowly, like a pinhole camera. It swims like a bellows. It can live for two decades, and its eggs take a year to hatch. The tentacle-like bits are called cirri, and they are very good at touch and smell.

One scientist describes it like this: “Right now everything’s in bloom, and, you know, you can smell the azaleas. But can you imagine if you could also say, ‘That azalea bush has 3,002 blossoms on it’.” (Their favourite things to touch and smell are not flowers but anything rotting).

United States projected to extract 12.9m barrels of crude oil as countries at Cop28 to push for agreed fossil fuels ‘phaseout’

The United States is poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before in 2023, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded, providing a daunting backdrop to crucial United Nations climate talks that hold the hope of an agreement to end the era of fossil fuels.

The US’s status as the world’s leading oil and gas behemoth has only strengthened this year, even amid warnings from Joe Biden himself over the unfolding climate crisis, with the latest federal government forecast showing a record 12.9m barrels of crude oil, more than double what was produced a decade ago, will be extracted in 2023.

Phrases such as ‘green economy’ turn voters off, it seems – and Labour has already reframed its language

• Roger Harrabin is a former BBC climate correspondent

As Cop28 approaches, the Swiss solar aviator and environmentalist Bertrand Piccard says he will be given a platform at the conference to argue that we need to rethink the words we use to discuss climate change. He says many climate terms can numb people with fear instead of inspiring them into action, and proposes new language that will reframe our situation as an opportunity, rather than a crisis.

Take the key phrase “green economy”: Piccard says this motivates environmentalists but repels those who discern an assault on their lifestyle or a rise in their bills. Why not, he says, rechristen it the “clean economy”, because no one likes “dirty”. Likewise “clean energy” instead of “green energy”. He has come up with an entire list of terms in common use that he believes need a rebrand.

Roger Harrabin is a fellow at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and a former BBC correspondent

A termite-snatching drongo, cows wading through flood water and a coral glowing like a Christmas tree are among this year’s winners. From CIWEM and WaterBear, and presented by Nikon in association with MPB and supported by Arup, the 16th year of the contest showcases global environmental photography to inspire change and climate action. The six winners primarily come from climate-vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, India, and Argentina

Five-year project to reduce environmental impact of industry has ‘all but failed’, report finds

British retailers and seafood companies have been accused of making misleading claims over “responsibly sourced” scampi or langoustines, according to campaigners, who say a five-year project to reduce the environmental impact of the £68m industry appears to be failing.

The companies, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose, Young’s and Whitby Seafoods – the last of which is currently the largest supplier of breaded scampi to UK pubs, restaurants and fish and chip shops – are all part of a fishery improvement project (FIP) aimed at making the UK langoustine industry more sustainable.