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Proposed expansion would cover about 4,000 hectares and involve clearing of habitat for the koala, greater glider and other threatened species

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Activists say a proposal from BHP to extend a metallurgical coalmine in Queensland by up to 93 years is “delusional”.

The company has applied to expand its Peak Downs mine in the Bowen basin, which it operates in a joint venture with Mitsubishi.

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Experts claim deadly spillovers of disease between livestock and wildlife are increasing with the growth in intensive methods

Catastrophic declines in the number of birds and other wildlife are likely if countries do not act urgently to change the way animals are farmed, wildlife health scientists have warned.

The unprecedented die-off of seabirds from highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) being witnessed in breeding colonies across Europe, North America and Africa has been traced back to a commercial goose farm in southern China where a relatively mild bird disease mutated into a killer in 1996.

After spilling into wild bird populations in 2007, HPAI has spread around the world, killing millions of birds and showing no sign of stopping.

After nearly a decade of stalling and delaying on climate action, Australia has a new government that promises new policies and has set new emissions reduction targets – 43% by 2030. But the key question now is whether or not that will be enough. Guardian Australia has been tracking progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and documenting the consequences of the global heating that has already occurred

• Tracking Australia’s progress on the climate crisis and the consequences of global heating
  

'People are saying the climate crisis is real, only because it has knocked on the door of the global north,' says Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist.

Africa accounts for 15% of the world’s population but 4% of greenhouse emissions – compared with 23% by China and 19% by the US. 

More than 18m people in the Horn of Africa risk starvation after years of drought, but the countries suffering the worst effects of climate change did not cause this global crisis. 

Here Nakate speaks about this climate injustice, ahead of next month's Cop27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, when countries from across the global south will call for billions of dollars of  financing for adaptation, the transition to green energy, and climate reparations.

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In its role as president, China has sent invitations only to ministers and NGO heads, raising fears it is downplaying the crucial talks

China has not invited world leaders to a major nature summit being held this year, raising concerns Beijing is downplaying the crucial Cop15 meeting in order not to embarrass Xi Jinping.

In December, governments will finalise a UN agreement to halt the destruction of the natural world at a summit organised by China but hosted in Canada. Because of Beijing’s zero-Covid policy and after several delays, Cop15 was moved to Montreal, the seat of the UN convention on biological diversity. It was meant to take place in Kunming, Yunnan province, in 2020.

Met police confirm arrest of 25 climate campaigners for blocking road in central London

Twenty-five supporters of Just Stop Oil have been arrested after blocking traffic in central London, on the sixth consecutive day of protest by the group.

At about midday on Thursday, two groups of protesters with the climate activist campaign walked into the road and stopped traffic at the roundabout by Trafalgar Square.

There are strong synergies between the solutions needed to the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis, but are the campaigns talking to each other? We spent time with people most affected by austerity, strikers on the picket lines and disruptive climate campaigners to find out if their messages are aligning or if there is still work to do  

Campaigners say marine protected area set up to save UK’s only fan mussels exists merely as a ‘paper park’

New underwater footage taken by environmental campaigners in Scotland has revealed severe damage to marine life and habitats wreaked by scallop dredgers in “marine protected areas” (MPAs).

The Scottish government designated the seabed around the islands of Canna and Rum, on Scotland’s west coast, as the Small Isles MPA in 2014, to conserve Britain’s only colony of rare fan mussels and other features. The islands host a large breeding colony of black guillemots.

Young campaigners from the continent most affected by the climate crisis face financial and accreditation difficulties for Cop27

African climate activists from some of the countries most affected by global heating say they are struggling to get access to the UN climate talks in Egypt in November.

Cop27, which has been termed “the African Cop”, threatens to take place without African activists advocating for communities devastated by drought, floods and fossil fuel projects in the negotiations when life-or-death decisions about climate finance will be made.

He’s spent his life sniping from the sidelines. Now he has the power to make radical environmental reforms to the monarchy

So King Charles won’t be going to COP 23, by order of Liz Truss https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/01/king-charles-abandons-plans-to-attend-cop27-following-liz-trusss-advice; an inauspicious start for a monarch with pretensions to remain an influencer and be known as the first “green” king.

But he should take heart: Truss may not be long for No10, and Charles may look at recent events and conclude that no-one listens to her anyway. If so, there are plenty of opportunities now for him to turn the archaic House of Windsor into an institution fit for an age of climate breakdown, poverty and deep inequalities.

John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor

Environmental issues in low-income areas have long been ignored by activists who fail to grasp the importance of equity

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“Equity is not an issue for us. We’re here to save the world.”

From 1986 to 1990, I worked in an inner London borough as an environmental policy adviser. I worked on raising awareness of local environmental issues, paying special attention to those affecting the borough’s lower-income residents. There were very few jobs such as this in local government, and I was the only Black person employed in one.

Julian Agyeman is a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, and editor-in-chief of Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels and investors must stop funding it, say campaigners

Hundreds of coal companies around the world are developing new mines and power stations, according to a study. The researchers said the plans were “reckless and irresponsible” in the midst of the climate emergency.

Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels and its use must be quickly phased out to end the climate crisis. However, almost half the 1,000 companies assessed are still developing new coal assets, and just 27 companies have announced coal exit dates consistent with international climate targets.

Competition illuminates beauty of ocean and threats it faces. Ben Thouard’s winning image of surfer was chosen unanimously by the six judges

• Free outdoor exhibition, 5 October – 7 November, Tower Bridge, London

Good Car Company plans to run a batch-buy program that would source cars from Japan and the UK

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A philanthropic foundation backed by Mike Cannon-Brookes has invested $10m into Tasmanian startup the Good Car company to help slash the cost of secondhand electric vehicles in Australia.

The announcement from Boundless on Thursday follows months of signalling by Cannon-Brookes that he was prepared to invest large sums into businesses addressing aspects of the carbon transition.

The Australian conference supposedly devoted to ‘bold action’ from the right spent much of its time pouring scorn on any form of climate action

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Climate science is a fraud, according to one speaker; renewable energy has pushed up electricity prices for Australians and the case that carbon dioxide drives global warming is unproven, according to others.

Those were just some of the themes at last weekend’s annual conference in Sydney of the Conservative Political Action (CPAC) network – billed as the “largest and most prominent conference for conservatives and liberty lovers in Australia”.

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Particles breathed by mothers pass to their vulnerable foetuses, with potentially lifelong consequences

Toxic air pollution particles have been found in the lungs, livers and brains of unborn babies, long before they have taken their first breath. Researchers said their “groundbreaking” discovery was “very worrying”, as the gestation period of foetuses is the most vulnerable stage of human development.

Thousands of black carbon particles were found in each cubic millimetre of tissue, which were breathed in by the mother during pregnancy and then passed through the bloodstream and placenta to the foetus.

A lack of rain on the western coasts saw 65,000 dead salmon wash up on the creek

Tens of thousands of dead wild salmon scattered along a creek bed are the latest casualty of a drought that has gripped the province of British Columbia for more than a month and left communities bracing for more devastation.

In a video clip posted to social media, the carcasses of pink and chum salmon are seen piled near the community of Bella Bella.

Richer countries must do far more to help emerging nations cope with the destruction already wreaked by global heating

Speaking to the Guardian last month, Belize’s representative to the UN vividly described the havoc wreaked on his country by global heating. “Loss and damage is already occurring,” said Carlos Fuller. “Severe erosion is altering communities; drought and floods [are] affecting farmers and causing infrastructure damage; [there is] coral bleaching; salt water intrusion is affecting the water supply.” From the catastrophic recent floods in Pakistan to the ongoing drought emergency in Kenya, similarly disastrous impacts are blighting developing nations across the globe. Many lack the economic resources to cope with new climate threats, which are overwhelmingly the consequence of historic carbon emissions by the world’s richest countries.

As the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, stated this week, ahead of November’s Cop27 summit in Egypt, properly addressing this dimension of the climate crisis – the damage already being done – is a “moral imperative that can no longer be ignored”. In Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries pledged to deliver $100bn a year to vulnerable states hit by severe climate-linked impacts.

Scientists say behaviour, filmed in South Africa, has never been seen in detail before – and never from the air

Scientists have published findings confirming that orcas hunt great white sharks, after the marine mammal was captured on camera killing one of the world’s largest sea predators.

A pod of killer whales is seen chasing sharks during an hour-long pursuit off Mossel Bay, a port town in the southern Western Cape province, in helicopter and drone footage that informed a scientific study released this week.