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Governments focus on the climate when they have few other economic worries. That can no longer be the case

First it was the pandemic. Then it was the war in Ukraine. Next it could be the climate crisis.

On Monday last week the world registered its hottest-ever day but the record lasted only 24 hours before it was beaten by an even-more sizzling Tuesday. And while the temperature continues to warm up the global economy continues to cool down.

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Tory mismanagement of public finances will make the party’s task difficult if it wins power, and that is why we won’t pledge what we can’t deliver on

• Read more: Keir Starmer’s Labour is preparing for power

Friday in my constituency summed up for me the state of our country. Local headteachers I respect and admire were in tears as they described the challenges they are grappling with. The owner of a popular local chippy showed me his energy bill, up from £5,000 a quarter to £11,000, as he shared his fears for his business. A parent showed me a photo of his straight-A son beaten black and blue in the middle of his GCSEs and shared his frustration that he has put more work into the investigation than the police.

People are increasingly looking to Labour to get Britain out of this mess. Last week Keir Starmer set out the fifth of Labour’s five missions for government: to smash the class ceiling that holds back kids from working-class backgrounds like mine. Taken together with our ambition to build an NHS fit for the future out of the ashes of the worst crisis in its history, to make our streets safe, to deliver clean power by 2030 and to get our economy racing ahead of the world, with the benefits shared so that we’re all better off, Keir’s missions amount to an ambitious vision of what our country can look like in the 2030s.

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Economists failing to predict levels of inflation is bad enough but it’s deadly when weather forecasters miss the mark

Economic forecasting is not having a good time. Inflation has consistently come in higher than expected and the governor of the Bank of England has admitted “there are big lessons about how we operate”. MPs and others have been highly critical and an external review of the Bank’s forecasting approach has been commissioned.

But it’s not just economists in the forecasting business. Indeed, new research takes the “rubbish forecasts” heat off them by focusing instead on rather more famous forecasters: meteorologists. Predictions of sun or rain, rather than GDP or inflation, are understandably much more important parts of our daily lives.

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The PM acts as if he has some cunning plan, but even his own global heating advisers can’t see how

Rishi Sunak is focused on the big stuff, or what he repeatedly insists are our priorities: boats, economy, boats, hospital waiting lists, boats, inflation, boats. The naysayers would uncharitably point out that he’s failing, to which I repeat the PM’s own words: “I’m totally, 100% on it and it’s going to be OK.”

In this Mr Big Stuff vein on Tuesday it was reported that Sunak and his home secretary, Suella Braverman, would be meeting sports supremos and senior police in an effort to save the great British sporting summer from climate activists. Later that day, three sexagenarian Just Stop Oil protesters brought a couple of tennis matches to a standstill by sprinkling confetti and jigsaw pieces on court. One sporting supremo, at least, was philosophical: ‘‘You don’t want things to be disrupted but at the same time they will really be disrupted with climate change,” said Gary Lineker. Advantage activists.

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Experts are predicting that the developing El Niño is likely to make 2023 the world's hottest year.

Woman empties bag of orange confetti from union jack bag over former chancellor

The wedding of former chancellor George Osborne has been disrupted by a protest from environmental group Just Stop Oil.

About 200 people, including a number of well-known politicians and journalists, gathered in the Somerset village of Bruton on Saturday to mark the 52-year-old’s marriage to Thea Rodgers, 40, who worked as his aide during his time at the Treasury.

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As bankers in the 80s and 90s, we created safe, stock-market-listed companies. Then private equity moved in, but despite many warnings, Whitehall did nothing

As the chair of the Chichester Harbour Trust, one of the most beautiful and important natural harbours in the UK, I witness on a daily basis its now-rapid destruction, caused in large part by an extraordinary deterioration in water quality – thanks largely, in our case, to Southern Water.

I was involved – as a banker in the 1980s and 1990s working for Kleinwort Benson and Lazard – with the privatisation of many of the utilities. In the case of the water companies, most of them were privatised as sensibly capitalised plcs. As local monopolies, they were regulated by Ofwat with a view to protecting customers from monopolistic pricing behaviour.

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A trio of firms has announced a partnership to incorporate blockchain technology into efforts to develop a traceable method for carbon offsetting transactions within the maritime sector, bringing more integrity to the market.

A pioneering carbon removals firm is accelerating efforts to expand in the US.

Wind output records blown away on Friday night as a big weather system swept through southern states.

The post Wind energy smashes output record in big blow across southern states appeared first on RenewEconomy.

BlackRock's Akaysha Energy says it has struck a "first of its kind" revenue swap and risk hedging deal for the big Ulinda Park battery in Queensland.

The post BlackRock signs “first of its kind” risk hedging deal for big Queensland battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Garden designer says landlords have a responsibility to let renters improve outdoor space and help environment

Landlords have a responsibility to allow renters to garden, a top garden designer has said while exhibiting a “portable” wildlife courtyard at Hampton Court Palace garden festival.

Flatpack raised beds and a portable pond feature in Zoe Claymore’s garden, designed for the Wildlife Trusts, which aims to demonstrate that outdoor furniture can be as easy to move from home to home as the indoor kind.

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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.

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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.”

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Emitters entered an overall net long position in California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) for the first time since late February on a bullish outlook and a heat wave, emitters also extended their RGGI Allowance (RGA) net length, while financial entities added to current vintage holdings across both carbon markets, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Companies turning to insetting as a knee-jerk reaction to criticism about offsetting practices may not be pursuing an approach that is any more credible, a leading expert on carbon credit quality told a conference on Friday.

The WCI compliance instrument surplus bank continued to expand for the second consecutive quarter this year on larger offset issuances, while the cap-and-trade scheme’s allowance glut declined further despite subdued permit retirements over the three months, according to programme data published Friday.

Any words?

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Citigroup is considering investing some of its own money in carbon credits though would likely take a broader view than rival JP Morgan Chase’s approach, a conference heard on Friday from an executive at the US bank who viewed the voluntary carbon market’s current 'decline' as temporary.

The European Commission has missed an opportunity to engineer an international emission accounting standard in its draft implementing regulation for the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a think-tank claimed this week.