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The Guardian view on climate politics: net zero must stay as policy | Editorial
In Britain and America unprincipled politicians are shredding policies to stop global heating – even as temperatures soar
The danger posed by heatwaves in Europe should be taken more seriously. On the continent, the headlines are about forest fires. In the UK, the story is about the country grinding to a standstill. Both views mask a deadly truth. High levels of heat are a killer, one seen retrospectively in the data on excess deaths and hospital admissions. It was only in 2008 that statisticians concluded that as many as 70,000 people died as a result of a heatwave in Europe in 2003. By foolishly telling people to “enjoy the sunshine” Dominic Raab, the UK’s deputy prime minister, proved that there is no challenge he would not rise to.
It is disappointing that the next UK prime minister will be chosen by a Tory party membership that cares very little about dealing with the climate emergency. Global heating will make lethal summer temperatures more common and more extreme. In the cabinet, Alok Sharma remains a rare Tory voice of reason. It is a worry that at least one of the contenders in the Tory party leadership race thinks that the choice for Conservatives is either to be a party of net zero or a party of low taxes.
Continue reading...Court orders UK government to explain how net zero policies will reach targets
Green activists brought challenge, arguing climate change strategy did not spell out how carbon emissions cuts would be achieved
The high court has ordered the government to outline exactly how its net zero policies will achieve emissions targets, after a legal challenge from environmental groups.
Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project had all taken legal action over the government’s flagship climate change strategy, arguing it had illegally failed to include the policies it needed to deliver the promised emissions cuts.
Continue reading...DRC comes under pressure to drop oil exploration and drilling
VCM Report: Nearby core-carbon underpins floor in market as contango holds
Strategy Lead, Carbon Removal, Origen – US (Remote)
Climate action is fighting back against big polluters. We don’t need to end Australia’s climate wars – we need to win them | Jeff Sparrow
There is no ‘peace’ to be brokered with fossil fuel companies who stand to make billions. Effective policy is to threaten their gains
Anthony Albanese has repeatedly pledged to “end the climate wars”.
He won’t.
Continue reading...Labor says it won’t put ‘head in the sand’ as it releases ‘shocking’ environment report
Australia’s list of threatened species grows as ecosystems show signs of collapse due to climate crisis and habitat loss, report finds
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The health of Australia’s environment is poor and has deteriorated over the past five years due to pressures of climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining, according to a government report that warns the natural world holds the key to human wellbeing and survival.
The state of the environment report – a review completed by scientists last year but held back by the Morrison government until after the federal election – found abrupt changes in some Australian ecosystems over the past five years, with at least 19 now showing signs of collapse or near collapse.
Since 2016, 202 animal and plant species have been listed as threatened matters of national environmental significance, following 175 being added to the list between 2011 to 2016. This has happened while the rate of discovery and description of new species has slowed considerably over the past decade. There remain many more species that are unknown than those known.
While a government threatened species strategy had improved the trajectories of 21 priority species, many others did not show improvements. The list would increase substantially in coming years as the impact of the catastrophic 2019–20 bushfires – which killed or displaced between 1 billion and 3 billion animals – became clearer.
Australia has lost more mammal species than any other continent, and has one of the highest rates of species decline in the developed world. More than 100 Australian species have been listed as either extinct or extinct in the wild. The major causes of extinction were introduced species and habitat destruction and clearing.
Continue reading...Climate-crisis anxiety denial is everywhere. But this week it’s impossible to ignore our worries | Zoe Willliams
With the country melting I can no longer distract myself from my fears about global heating. But speaking to activists has shown me how to counter this terror
I was chairing a Zoom event last week about carbon bombs, and how to defuse them. All over the world, as governments broadcast warm words to a warming planet, corporations are planning and lobbying for fossil fuel projects, which, if they get off the ground, will sail us casually past our carbon targets – almost as if democracy itself were just a beach-body diet that everybody talked about and nobody intended to stick to. How to stop this nihilistic corporate greed? Legal avenues, direct action, political routes, or everything all at once?
As I was doing this, a message popped up in the chat from Kjell Kühne, an academic and activist and one of the panellists: “Stop biting your nails please.” “Huh,” I thought, “weird thing to say to 846 people. How does he know they’re all biting their nails?” Then I realised it was a private message just to me. I considered messaging back: “Chum, when you stop making this incredibly compelling case about the climate apocalypse, I’ll stop biting my nails.” Then I remembered I was supposed to be chairing and got my head back on task.
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Brussels considers temporary relaxation of environmental constraints in energy-saving effort – leaked draft
Humanity faces ‘collective suicide’ over climate crisis, warns UN chief – video
António Guterres issued a dire warning that the global warming limit of 1.5C agreed under the 2015 Paris climate accord was slipping further out of reach as more people around the world are hit by extreme floods, droughts, storms and wildfires. The UN secretary general made his remarks at the 12th Petersberg Climate Dialogue conference, which started on Monday in Berlin
Continue reading...Kemi Badenoch backs net zero in Tory leadership climate U-turn
MP joins the four other candidates in saying they would not unpick UK’s environmental commitments
Kemi Badenoch has backed the government’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and vowed not to unpick current climate commitments in an apparent U-turn at the Tory leadership environment hustings.
The MP for Saffron Walden had previously likened the target to “unilateral economic disarmament” but under questioning from Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, at the hustings in parliament on Monday she said she backed it.
Continue reading...Green groups in last-ditch bid to block UK’s Australia trade deal
Activists file formal complaint alleging government has breached international law in signing deal
Environmental campaigners have launched a last-ditch legal bid to prevent or delay the UK’s trade deal with Australia, owing to concerns over its impacts on the climate and the natural world.
A group of seven environmental and farming organisations has filed a formal complaint alleging that the UK government breached international law in signing the deal, which they fear is about to pass into law without any further in-depth parliamentary scrutiny.
Continue reading...Push for post-Brexit trade deals may threaten UK pledges on deforestation
Government criticised over ‘indefensible’ proposal that could undermine climate efforts while yielding benefit of only £1.38m
The UK government may be undermining its commitments to end deforestation overseas because of conflicts over trade policy, the Guardian has learned.
A war of words is raging within the government over deforestation and trade, with green campaigners warning that a proposed policy could have dire consequences for efforts to stop illegal logging.
Continue reading...This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather | George Monbiot
Dangerous heat will become the norm, even in the UK. Systems need to urgently change – and the silence needs to be broken
Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Everyone knows, however carefully they avoid the topic, that, beside it, all the topics filling the front pages and obsessing the pundits are dust. Even the Times editors still publishing columns denying climate science know it. Even the candidates for the Tory leadership, ignoring or downplaying the issue, know it. Never has a silence been so loud or so resonant.
This is not a passive silence. It is an active silence, a fierce commitment to distraction and irrelevance in the face of an existential crisis. It is a void assiduously filled with trivia and amusement, gossip and spectacle. Talk about anything, but not about this. But while the people who dominate the means of communication frantically avoid the subject, the planet speaks, in a roar becoming impossible to ignore. These days of atmospheric rage, these heatshocks and wildfires ignore the angry shushing and burst rudely into our silent retreat.
Continue reading...UK outlines plan to reduce gas influence on electricity market
ANALYSIS: More than 100 mln sovereign forest credits set to reach VCM by autumn
How a conservative US network undermined Indigenous energy rights in Canada
Internal documents explain why oil and gas interests would benefit from a key Indigenous declaration being ‘defeated’
A US-based libertarian coalition has spent years pressuring the Canadian government to limit how much Indigenous communities can push back on energy development on their own land, newly reviewed strategy documents reveal.
The Atlas Network partnered with an Ottawa-based thinktank – the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) – which enlisted pro-industry Indigenous representatives in its campaign to provide “a shield against opponents”.
Continue reading...Euro Markets: Midday Update
Crypto carbon venture to delay launch amid market turmoil -media
UK heatwave: Why is it so hot in the UK?
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