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Here are some of the standout images from the 2023 Nature Conservancy photo contest. Entries from more than 80,000 photographers in 191 countries and territories were judged across 12 categories

It has a complicated face, like an intricate chest of drawers, or a jewellery box: press on this part and it opens to reveal a mouth, on that, and an eye pops out

This is a recipe for moéche, the green, soft-shelled crabs that live in Venetian lagoons: mix a batter of flour, eggs, salt and parmesan cheese in a bucket. Drop live crabs into the batter, which must be cold so that the crabs will feel at home. For 30 minutes, the last of their lives, let the moéche scuttle around in the batter, eating it. Then drop them into a pot of boiling hot oil: self-stuffing crabs.

The moéche are crabs – “true crabs” – that have moulted: they have soft shells for just a few hours, before their exoskeletons turn hard. To climb out of their too-small skins, they fill themselves up with water, so that the carapace splits. Then, they pull every part of themselves from their own skins – from the tips of their legs to their eyeballs.

The first thing the intellect does with an object is to class it with something else. But any object that is infinitely important to us and awakens our devotion feels to us as if it must have been sui generis and unique. Probably a crab would be filled with a sense of personal outrage if it could hear us class it without ado or apology as a crustacean, and thus dispose of it. ‘I am no such thing,’ it would say, ‘I am MYSELF, MYSELF alone.’

A new report says many countries are increasing their oil and gas production. Delegates to Cop28 must confront this crisis

Let me see if I have this right.

A vast majority of the world’s best climate scientists have told us again and again that to maintain a stable and liveable planet, we, the human race, must reduce the burning of fossil fuels – and emissions of greenhouse gases – by half by 2030. And end emissions altogether by 2050. Knowing this, what are we on track to do?

Government assessment said extreme weather events mean country suffers a disaster every three weeks costing at least $1bn

The US is warming faster than the global average and its people are suffering “far-reaching and worsening” consequences from the climate crisis, with worse to come, according to an authoritative report issued by the US government.

An array of “increasingly harmful impacts” is hitting every corner of the vast country, from extreme heat and sea level rise in Florida to depleted fish stocks and increased food insecurity in Alaska, the new National Climate Assessment has found.

Research shows global heating creates ‘whiplash effect’ of erratic extremes – often in poorest countries

Extreme drought in northern Italy has doubled over the past two decades, creating a climate that increasingly mirrors that of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, research shows.

Analysis of satellite imagery and data by scientists reveals how global heating is creating a “whiplash effect”, creating erratic extremes. The analysis of climate data released by WaterAid and Cardiff and Bristol universities finds that under extreme climate pressures, areas that used to experience frequent droughts are now more prone to frequent flooding, while other regions historically prone to flooding now endure more frequent droughts.

Experts warn UK’s regulations now lag behind those of the EU and that Britons will be exposed to more toxic chemicals as a result

The government is to loosen EU-derived laws on chemicals in a move experts say will increase the likelihood of toxic substances entering the environment.

Under new plans the government will reduce the “hazard” information that chemical companies must provide to register substances in the UK. The safety information provided about chemicals will be reduced to an “irreducible minimum”, which campaigners say will leave the UK “lagging far behind the EU”.

Coal must be phased out seven times faster and deforestation reduced four times faster to avoid worst impacts of climate breakdown, says report

Coal must be phased out seven times faster than is now happening, deforestation must be reduced four times faster, and public transport around the world built out six times faster than at present, if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown, new research has found.

Countries are falling behind on almost every policy required to cut greenhouse gas emissions, despite progress on renewable energy and the uptake of electric vehicles.

Retire about 240 average-sized coal-fired power plants a year, every year between now and 2030.

Construct the equivalent of three New Yorks’ worth of public transport systems in cities around the world each year this decade.

Halt deforestation, which is happening to an area the size of 15 football pitches every minute, this decade.

Increase the rate of growth of solar and wind power from its current high of 14% a year to 24% a year.

Cut meat consumption from ruminants such as cows and sheep to about two servings a week in the US, Europe and other high-consuming countries by 2030.

Onlookers in Bingil Bay were stunned when an adolescent cassowary emerged from the ocean and shook itself off late last month. Mandubarra traditional owner and Bingil Bay Campground host Nikita McDowell sent video of the unexpected arrival to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service after a guest told her it was swimming about 200 metres offshore. The endangered bird 'will take to the water to cross from one side of a river to the other, or if they feel threatened by domestic dogs or another cassowary through a territorial dispute', QPWS officer Stephen Clough says. McDowell was advised that it would move on when it was ready. 'I went to make a coffee and when I returned, it was gone,' she says

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Nearly 300 sq miles of water on west of Caribbean island to be designated as a reserve for endangered animals

The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica is creating the world’s first marine protected area for one of earth’s largest animals: the endangered sperm whale.

Nearly 300 sq miles (800 sq km) of royal blue waters on the western side of the island nation that serve as key nursing and feeding grounds will be designated as a reserve, the government announced on Monday.

Report says cutting emissions should still be key priority as it cautions against mass monoculture tree-planting

Forest conservation and restoration could make a major contribution to tackling the climate crisis as long as greenhouse gas emissions are slashed, according to a study.

By allowing existing trees to grow old in healthy ecosystems and restoring degraded areas, scientists say 226 gigatonnes of carbon could be sequestered, equivalent to nearly 50 years of US emissions for 2022. But they caution that mass monoculture tree-planting and offsetting will not help forests realise their potential.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X, formerly known as Twitter, for all the latest news and features

Scheme would involve abstracting water from the River Thames at Teddington and replacing it with treated sewage

Thames Water is facing a public backlash over a multimillion-pound water “recycling” scheme promoted as a solution to tackling climate crisis-induced droughts.

The technology involves using effluent from sewage treatment works, putting it through a further layer of treatment and releasing the treated water into a river, in order to replace the same amount of water that is abstracted off for drinking water.

Credits sourced from carbon project that was centred on biomass power plant in Xinjiang, investigation finds

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BP and Spotify were among companies who bought carbon credits at risk of being implicated in potential Uyghur forced labour, an investigation has found.

The credits were sourced from the Bachu carbon project, which was developed by South Pole, the world’s largest carbon consultancy. The project focussed on a biomass power plant in Xinjiang, China, which said it would lower global carbon emissions by using waste cotton stalks from nearby fields to generate electricity.

Sunshine Coast locals have spent days on their hands and knees picking polystyrene balls off the beach. More than a week has passed since the balls were discovered, yet it is still unclear which government agency is responsible for leading the cleanup and investigating the cause.

Reports from volunteers indicate the balls spread over at least 5km of coastline and riverbank

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• Volunteers left to fill void as Queensland agencies deny responsibility for ‘toxic’ polystyrene beach spill

Donald Trump said it so it must be true

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‘My two precious pythons have been safely returned to me,’ the woman wrote on social media on Monday

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A Sydney woman has been reunited with her two pet pythons after they were allegedly dumped on a Coogee street by her ex-partner more than three weeks ago.

The owner took to social media in October requesting community help to find the 2.5-metre snakes named Bagel and Mango. They were allegedly discarded on a main street in Coogee by her ex-boyfriend on 21 October.

German and EU officials say the treaty between Australia and the Pacific island country should spur global cut to emissions

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Australia’s residency offer to citizens from the low-lying Pacific country of Tuvalu must spur the world to dramatically cut emissions, two senior European officials have declared.

Germany’s climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, said the deal “puts a very clear pointer on what’s at stake” as the negotiators prepare for next month’s UN climate summit, adding that “all countries have to scale up their ambition for 2030”.

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This month’s Cop28 climate summit will focus on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Governments need to take note

One of our era’s great and inconvenient truths is that global food production and the climate emergency are intimately linked. Drought, flood and other extreme weather events threaten farming ecosystems across the world. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture play a major role in global heating. We know that the default western diet, with its heavy emphasis on meat and dairy, is harming the planet. Eating habits in wealthy countries will have to change, and livestock numbers be reduced, if climate targets are to be met and vulnerable food systems saved.

At the end of the month, this message will be heard front and centre in the next round of the UN climate negotiations. At Cop28 in Dubai, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization will foreground the need to transform patterns of consumption and production if the goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C is to be met. The emphasis on the impact of food systems is welcome and overdue. For various reasons it has been badly neglected at previous summits.

Delegates in Nairobi for talks in what experts say could be most important multilateral treaty since Paris accord

Government delegations will gather in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out details of what could be the first global treaty to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

A key focus for the discussions on Monday will be whether targets to restrict plastic production should be decided unilaterally or whether states should choose their own targets; this is, say environmentalists, the “centre of gravity” for the treaty’s ambition.

The French president has called for action at a climate summit in Paris attended by heads of state and scientists before Cop28

France will spend €1bn (£880m) on polar research between now and 2030, amid rapidly rising scientific concern over the world’s melting ice caps and glaciers.

A new polar science vessel will spearhead the effort, and France is calling for a moratorium on the exploitation of the seabed in polar regions, to which the UK, Canada, Brazil and 19 other countries have so far signed up.

Cambridge University scientists develop a device to ‘defossilise’ the economy using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide

Automated floating factories that manufacture green versions of petrol or diesel could soon be in operation thanks to pioneering work at the University of Cambridge. The revolutionary system would produce a net-zero fuel that would burn without creating fossil-derived emissions of carbon dioxide, say researchers.

The Cambridge project is based on a floating artificial leaf which has been developed at the university and which can turn sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into synthetic fuel. The group believe these thin, flexible devices could one day be exploited on a industrial scale.