The Guardian

Ireland and Sweden join countries calling for moratorium on extraction of metals from seabed as UN-backed authority prepares for crucial talks

The list of countries calling for a pause on deep-sea mining continued to grow this week ahead of a key moment that mining companies hope will launch the fledgling industry, and its opponents hope could clip its wings, perhaps for good.

Ireland and Sweden became the latest developed economies to join critics, including scientists, environmental organisations and multinationals such as BMW, Volvo and Samsung. The carmakers have committed not to use minerals mined from the seabed in their electric vehicles.

US Treasury secretary says Beijing could have greater global impact if it worked with global climate institutions

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has pressed China to do more to support international climate institutions that are helping finance green initiatives around the world, urging deeper cooperation in addressing the “existential threat” of global heating.

“Climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively,” Yellen said on Saturday in Beijing during a meeting with Chinese and international sustainable finance experts. “I believe that if China were to support existing multilateral climate institutions like the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds alongside us and other donor governments, we could have a greater impact than we do today.”

Any words?

The UN secretary general has said that 'climate change is out of control', as an unofficial analysis of data showed that average world temperatures in the seven days to Wednesday were the hottest week on record.

'If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation,' said António Guterres after reports emerged about the world temperature records being broken on Monday and Tuesday.

The average global air temperature was 17.18C on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01C reached on Monday

• UN says climate change ‘out of control’ after likely hottest week on record

In a ‘message of hope’ the animals have been brought in from Namibia to establish a group in their historical homeland

After an epic 36-hour journey, the first native giraffes to be returned to an Angolan national park arrived from Namibia this week, in what many hope to be the first of multiple translocations to return the animals to their historical homeland.

The giraffes, seven males and seven females, travelled more than 800 miles (1,300km) from a private game farm near Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa region of central Namibia to Iona national park in the south-west corner of Angola.

While South Korea offers official support, China and other voices in region continue to express concerns over discharge from nuclear plant

The publication this week of the UN nuclear watchdog’s positive assessment of Japanese plans to pump more than 1m tonnes of water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean has failed to placate opponents.

China is fiercely opposed to the plans, despite a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) backing the scheme, while the support of the government of South Korea has failed to quell widespread public opposition to the idea in the country.

International Maritime Organization agreement is inadequate to decarbonise sector, say campaigners

Attempts to impose a levy on greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, in order to fund climate action, have been delayed but not extinguished at the conclusion of talks among 175 governments.

Greenhouse gas reduction goals for international shipping were agreed, in a toughening of previous targets, but were criticised as inadequate by campaigners.

Exclusive: Aid NGOs criticise government and Labour after Guardian reveals flagship climate pledge is almost impossible to meet

Keir Starmer has been accused of “wavering on climate commitments” after the Labour party refused to commit to the £11.6bn climate funding pledge made to the world’s poorest nations.

Aid NGOs have criticised the government and the Labour party after the Guardian revealed that under current plans, meeting the flagship pledge made at Cop26 to protect vulnerable countries against the climate crisis is almost impossible.

Applications to mine the seabed in our ocean commons can be made from 9 July, allowing a few corporations to profit from ecological disaster

Sunday 9 July threatens to be a momentous day for the global economy, one that marks the beginning of the biggest gold rush in history, and one that could lead to unprecedented ecological damage. Yet few people seem to be taking much notice. The British government has been silent.

To understand the impending drama, a little history is required. In 1982, after 25 years of torturous negotiations, the United Nations passed Unclos (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). It involved the biggest enclosure in history, turning more than 138m sq km (53m square miles) of seabed into national exclusive economic zones (EEZs) available for exploitation by coastal countries.

Conservationists say reintroduction of reptile could contribute to restoring ancient biodiverse wetlands

The European pond turtle could be swimming in British rivers and lakes again thanks to a new crowdfunded campaign as conservation scientists seek sites for an experimental reintroduction.

Global heating is believed to be making Britain increasingly suitable for the enigmatic species, which may have vanished because of global cooling thousands of years ago but is now threatened by droughts in southern Europe.

Rising temperatures are leaving governments scrambling to prepare – a federal body could help them share best practices, experts say

Record-breaking temperatures. Millions under heat alerts. Hikers dying on hot trails.

As large swaths of the US bake under sweltering heat, some advocates and officials say the Biden administration should consider appointing a “heat tsar” to manage a response.

Loopholes in proposed post-Brexit laws could allow preventive use to continue, raising risk of resistance, says coalition of groups

Proposed laws to curb antibiotic use on UK farms contain loopholes that could undermine the fight against deadly drug-resistant bacteria, campaigners say, adding that they were drafted after closed-door meetings with industry.

The government published the draft legislation, designed to replace EU rules post-Brexit, after consultations with pharmaceutical, veterinary medicine and farming lobby groups, according to freedom of information requests filed by the investigative journalism site DeSmog.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a spectacled bear, roaming goats and marine iguanas

Many of those who drowned near Greece last month were escaping environmental crises in Pakistan. Across the world there is far worse to come

Before the Adriana, an overcrowded fishing trawler, left Libya on 9 June, Sajjad Yousef spoke to his father. His family had begged him not to make the treacherous journey from Pakistan to Europe. But Yousef wouldn’t listen. He wanted to leave the desolation of life in Pakistan far, far behind. It was hard, the journey would be rough, he knew that. His family had taken out loans in the millions of rupees to buy him space on that teeming trawler, and Yousef was ready to take his chance.

Most of the 750 people on board the trawler were Pakistani. They were migrants, fleeing poverty and lack of opportunity but also the ravages of the climate emergency, which is felt acutely in Pakistan. The men and women who risked their lives on the Mediterranean were escaping floods, droughts, glacial melt, crop damage and locust plagues, all of which Pakistan has suffered in recent years. It is a cruel fate to endure disaster after disaster; they were once described as “biblical” but have since become mundane, everyday occurrences.

Fatima Bhutto, the author of books including The Runaways and New Kings of the World, is currently teaching a class on how to write about climate issues

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After record breaking days on Monday and Tuesday, unofficial analysis shows the world may have seen its hottest seven days in a row

The UN secretary general has said that “climate change is out of control”, as an unofficial analysis of data showed that average world temperatures in the seven days to Wednesday were the hottest week on record.

“If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation, as the last two records in temperature demonstrates,” António Guterres said, referring to the world temperature records broken on Monday and Tuesday.

Next generation cells surpass limits of today’s cells and will accelerate rollout of cheaper, more efficient solar power

Solar power cells have raced past the key milestone of 30% energy efficiency, after innovations by multiple research groups around the world. The feat makes this a “revolutionary” year, according to one expert, and could accelerate the rollout of solar power.

Today’s solar panels use silicon-based cells but are rapidly approaching their maximum conversion of sunlight to electricity of 29%. At the same time, the installation rate of solar power needs to increase tenfold in order to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists.

World Athletics president says climate crisis and poor air quality may cause havoc to the sporting calendar

London will not be considered as a host for large sporting events such as the World Athletics Championships because of its poor air quality, Sebastian Coe has warned.

The World Athletics president and two-time Olympic gold medallist, who led the capital’s successful bid for the 2012 Games, added that rising temperatures would force sports bodies to change their calendar of events.

Gabriel Barajas and Malea Tribble thought ‘it was all over for us’ – but marine expert suggests shark was merely being ‘inquisitive’

A pair of paddleboarders raising money for charity had a frightening encounter with a hammerhead shark that circled them near Florida’s coast – and the entire incident was caught on video.

Gabriel Barajas and Malea Tribble were paddling from Florida to the Bahamas, an 80-mile journey, to raise money for cystic fibrosis awareness, WJZY reported.

The country generates more solar energy than all other countries combined, but burns half the planet’s coal. There are lessons here for the rest of us, though

Big numbers are a hallmark of China’s economy and now its energy transition: they thrill, they mystify, and at times they contradict, at least on the surface.

China’s solar capacity is now 228 gigawatts (GW), more than the rest of the world combined, according to Global Energy Monitor. And wind capacity, at a whopping 310GW, also leads the world. With another 750GW of new wind and solar projects in the pipeline, China will hit its 2030 target of 1,200GW – an unimaginable number when proposed just a few years ago – five years early.

Captain of tourist boat from Baja California, Mexico, says grey whales return repeatedly for ‘grooming’

Grey whales have learned to approach whale-watching boats to have parasites removed by human beings, it has been claimed.

Video footage documenting the behaviour in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, shows a grey whale having whale lice picked off its head by the captain of a small boat. “I have done it repeatedly with the same whale and others,” Paco Jimenez Franco told a US news site. “It is very exciting for me.”