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António Guterres tells leaders ‘global climate fight will be won or lost in this crucial decade – on our watch’

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

Humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”, the UN secretary general has warned, saying the fight for a liveable planet will be won or lost in this decade.

António Guterres told world leaders at the opening of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Monday: “We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing … And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.

The former UK prime minister attended a New York Times event at the UN climate conference in Egypt on Monday, saying 'now is not the moment to go weak on net zero' after suggesting that the discussion over the war in Ukraine had distracted from the climate crisis and was having 'all sorts of bad effects'. 

Johnson said global leaders should not back away from promises made at the previous climate summit in Glasgow. He said he was attending the summit in a 'purely supportive role' before Rishi Sunak's appearance on Monday afternoon. Sunak had originally said he was unable to attend the event because of commitments to tackle the cost of living crisis

• Cop27: Boris Johnson tells summit now is ‘not the moment to go weak on net zero’ – live

Attendees say they are unable to visit Human Rights Watch and other sites needed during climate talks

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

Attendees at the Cop27 climate meeting have found that the conference internet connection blocks access to the global rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as other key news websites needed for information during the talks.

HRW is due to lead a panel discussion at Cop27 along with Amnesty International, whose website is accessible on the conference wifi. The list of blocked sites also includes the blogging platform Medium, Egypt’s lone independent news outlet, Mada Masr, and the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.

Developing countries hope to make progress on this problem because we are already suffering the effects

Cop27 had not even officially opened, and already we delegates found ourselves staying up all night wrangling over important issues. In this case, it was loss and damage – and there may be many more late nights to come on that issue.

At the official start of the conference of the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), the conference must first of all achieve consensus on the agenda.

The Secret Negotiators are representatives of developing countries involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, and who will be attending the Cop27 climate conference.

The 27th Cop on climate change is taking place over the next two weeks in the resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt

The US and China are showing the ‘can-do promethean’ spirit that can get us to net zero. We need to “put the electric throttle to the floor”.

Glasgow was a high point, a moment at which the ‘clouds of despair’ momentarily parted. But then Putin invaded Ukraine and the fight against climate change was one of the most important collateral damages.

Rich countries ‘not living up to obligations’, says Andrew Steer, in charge of $10bn environmental fund

Billionaires can not be expected to make up for climate finance gaps left by rich countries that fail to deliver on promises to the developing world, the head of the Bezos Earth Fund has said.

The Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, created a $10bn (£8.8m) grant to protect the Earth’s environment in 2020. Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, oversees this alongside the billionaire, his partner Lauren Sanchez and the fund’s board.

Many farmers in south-western Bangladesh use floating rafts made from invasive water hyacinths to grow vegetables during the monsoon season – when dry land is scarce – to ensure food security in the low-lying country, which has recently been experiencing prolonged floods and waterlogging as a result of the changing climate

Scotland Yard accuses climate action group of planning harmful and ‘reckless action to obstruct the public on a large scale’

The Metropolitan police have launched a “significant” operation to identify and arrest climate change protesters suspected of planning “reckless and serious” motorway disruption as Cop27 gets under way.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said three people were arrested on Sunday evening who were suspected of planning public disruption. Police were expecting to make more arrests.

Analysis examining carbon impact of billionaires’ investments published as Cop27 talks get under way

The super-rich emit greenhouse gases at a level equivalent to the whole of France from their investments in carbon intensive businesses, according to analysis published on the opening of the Cop27 UN climate talks in Egypt.

Examining the carbon impact of the investments of 125 billionaires, the research found they had a collective $2.4tn stake in 183 companies. On average each billionaire’s investment emissions produced 3m tonnes of CO2 a year; a million times more than the average emissions of 2.76 tonnes of CO2 for those living in the bottom 90% of earners. In total the 125 members of the super-rich emitted 393m tonnes of CO2 a year – equivalent to the emissions of France, which has a population of 67 million.

Ex-PM to contrast optimism at Cop26 last year with failures of governments – including UK – to follow through

Boris Johnson will attack the “corrosive cynicism” on net zero that is hampering UK, and global, efforts to tackle the climate crisis, in a speech at the UN Cop27 climate summit on Monday.

In a swipe at members of his own Conservative party, the former UK prime minister will contrast the success and spirit of optimism at Cop26 in Glasgow last November with the failures of governments – including the UK – to follow through on promises since.

Government guidance would empower consumers, helping them save on bills, says thinktank

A public information campaign to encourage consumers to cut their gas usage this winter could save households nearly £400 and the Treasury £9bn, a study has shown.

An analysis by the cross-party thinktank the Social Market Foundation found that households could save between £250 and £400 a year if a UK campaign similar to Germany’s national energy-awareness drive were launched.

Winner of government tender was unveiled at Cop26 as one that would ‘stand the test of time’

It was meant to join the red phone box, the London bus and the black cab as a symbol of modern Britain. Yet a so-called iconic design for a UK electric car charger commissioned by Grant Shapps, then transport minister, is likely to remain on the drawing board after the government admitted it may never be made.

The government put out the tender for the contract in June last year and revealed the winning design, by the Royal College of Art and PA Consulting, at the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow a few months later.

Claim by academics, including former integrity chair of Australia’s carbon credit scheme, raises further doubts about system

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Projects meant to regenerate Australia’s outback forests to store carbon dioxide have been awarded millions of carbon credits – worth hundreds of millions of dollars – despite total tree and shrub cover in those areas having declined, a new analysis has found.

It is the latest claim that raises doubts about the integrity of Australia’s carbon credit system, which the federal government and polluting businesses rely on to meet targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Greta Thunberg thinks the summit is about ‘greenwashing, lying and cheating’, however it could force the Albanese government to back rhetoric with new pledges

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Greta Thunberg is not a fan of Cop27, the climate conference that got under way in Egypt overnight on Sunday. She reckons it’s just a chance for the powerful to get away with “greenwashing, lying and cheating”, and that the annual summits of national governments, policy experts, spruikers and hangers-on aren’t working. She’s not going.

She might be right not to go. As a privileged middle-aged man from a generation that has failed to do enough to address the climate crisis – more than half all historic emissions have been in the past 30 years – I’m not here to say she’s wrong.

Contentious opening to UN climate conference as delegates struggle to reach agreement on discussion of loss and damage

The Cop27 UN climate summit has made a delayed start after delegates tussled late into Saturday night and on into Sunday morning over what should be discussed at the conference.

At the heart of the disagreement was the vexed question of loss and damage, which refers to the devastating consequences of climate breakdown suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable countries, and how to help them.

Report at Cop27 shows the world is now deep into the climate emergency, with the 1.5C heating limit ‘barely within reach’

The past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded, a new UN report has found, indicating the world is now deep into the climate crisis. The internationally agreed 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely within reach”, it said.

The report, by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sets out how record high greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving sea level and ice melting to new highs and supercharging extreme weather from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are at record levels in the atmosphere as emissions continue. The annual increase in methane, a potent greenhouse gas, was the highest on record.

The sea level is now rising twice as fast as 30 years ago and the oceans are hotter than ever.

Records for glacier melting in the Alps were shattered in 2022, with an average of 13ft (4 metres) in height lost.

Rain – not snow – was recorded on the 3,200m-high summit of the Greenland ice sheet for the first time.

The Antarctic sea-ice area fell to its lowest level on record, almost 1m km2 below the long-term average.

After Johnson’s weak energy plan and Truss’s scepticism to net zero, we have Rishi Sunak who didn’t even want to attend

“Unless we take urgent action, we will get 3C hotter,” Boris Johnson told the UN climate talks in 2020. “As a country … we must now act.” The former prime minister’s words were a rallying cry to galvanise the government into taking action on global heating.

Johnson’s administration had been under heavy fire for its lacklustre approach to the climate crisis. But fast forward a year to Cop26, and not much had changed. Johnson’s appearance was criticised as much as his policies; he was described as “a clown” after comparing the climate emergency to James Bond wrestling with a ticking bomb. His comments were in keeping with the travelling circus act that he has been performing ever since he first entered politics – even the future of the world was a joke.

Cybersecurity experts warn that official Cop27 climate app requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emails

There are mounting fears over the surveillance of delegates at the Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, with cybersecurity experts warning that the official app for the talks requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emails upon downloading it.

The revelation, as more than 25,000 heads of state, diplomats, negotiators, journalists and activists from around the world gather at the climate summit that starts in Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday, has raised concerns that Egypt’s authoritarian regime will be able to use an official platform for a United Nations event to track and harass attendees and critical domestic voices.

The climate summits do serve a purpose even while avoiding facing up to some awkward realities

The Cop is a strange beast – an annual event that everyone claims to hate but no one wants to miss. This year’s Cop is even weirder: it’s in a famous Red Sea seaside resort renowned for its warm blue seas and coral reefs, but the diving centres are closed for security reasons and in any case few of us will have time to so much as dip a toe in the sea.

We will spend all our hours inside a conference centre with little daylight, and only see the sun as we try to dash in our formal clothes from air-conditioned hotel to air-conditioned conference hall without getting covered in sweat.

The Secret Negotiators are representatives of developing countries involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, and who will be attending the Cop27 climate conference.

This is a column against niceness. Chuck out the nice cup of tea, bin off your biscuits, tell your neighbour exactly what you think of their drive, the project has failed… Hear me out. There were two things this week that got me reconsidering the concept, even as I screamed upstairs telling the children to share their toys. Even as I smiled at strangers and clicked the button to donate to charity and performed all the small domestic kindnesses that make up the winter fat of my life. The first thing was James Corden.

James Corden, whose documented rudeness to a waiter has surfed the news cycle like a plastic bottle, washing up again and again on our shores. For those of you who have managed to avoid the scandal, here is what happened: his wife’s “egg yolk omelette” arrived with some egg white in it. When they replaced the order, it came, not with the requested salad but instead, chips. “You can’t do your job!” Corden told their waiter. And, “Get us another round of drinks this second.” The owner of the restaurant banned him, the internet threw rocks at him, the story took on water, bobbing in and out of the headlines, and last week on his talkshow he apologised. “It was an unnecessary comment,” he admitted. “It was ungracious.” It was over. But it was not over.