Global Heating News

The environmental and economic dilemmas he faces are formidable but, with a bold plan, he could set an example for leaders around the worldFor politicians of the centre-left especially, it’s the great dilemma of the age. How do you do what everyone can see is essential to save the planet from boiling – even as your voters demand action to get the economy growing and to make life more affordable? Plenty of activists will tell you there’s no contradiction, that tackling the climate crisis makes economic as well as ecological sense and, in the long term, you know they’re right. But you don’t live in the long term. You’re running the government right now and facing several unavoidable, binary choices.Andy Burnham is a prime example. This week, he addressed the Cop summit in Antalya, promising “a new era of British leadership” in the struggle against global heating. It’s important to him to talk that way: his political strategy relies on shrinking the appeal of the Green party, whose electoral success earlier this year helped remove his predecessor. But talk only takes you so far. Eventually the words have to be matched by action.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading…

António Guterres says climate action central to every aspect of UN’s work, as leaders depart Cop31 and talks go onTackling the climate crisis is central to all of human life and must be at the forefront of global governance, the outgoing UN secretary general has said in an emotional farewell address at the Cop31 climate summit.“You cannot build peace on a burning planet,” António Guterres said at his final climate press conference as secretary general on Friday. “You cannot eradicate poverty when climate disasters keep throwing people back into it. You cannot promise young people a better future while destroying the natural systems on which that future depends.” Continue reading…

Debate over climate science, transition away from fossil fuels, electrification and climate finance can begin in earnest as world leaders leave UN summitFar away from the conference centre, Norway’s supreme court has declared the state’s decision to award three permits for oil and gasfields in the North Sea invalid, as it had not accounted for the harm caused by burning the fuels.The decision, hailed as a win by climate campaigners, does not automatically revoke the permits or demand an immediate shutdown of the fields, but will force the government to consider the global impacts of pollution before awarding licenses. It comes two days after the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stør, told fellow leaders at Cop31 that “Norway will do its part” in a speech that did not mention the country’s ongoing expansion of oil and gas infrastructure. Continue reading…

Delegations outnumber those of some countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, such as Nepal, which suffered glacier collapseCop31 live – latest updatesMore than 100 corporations and industry groups linked to fossil fuel interests have sent delegations to the UN climate talks in Turkey, according to an analysis.The Cop31 climate summit in Antalya is thought to be the largest ever in the three decades of the annual gatherings, with more than 92,000 delegates registered to attend talks aimed at shifting the world away from the fossil fuels that are dangerously overheating our planet. Continue reading…

Water temperatures are climbing the charts, high tides are swallowing the shoreline and vital parts of the food web that feed ocean diversity are disappearingOn a picturesque autumn afternoon last week, the beaches of California’s Monterey Bay were teeming with life and death.A cadre of shorebirds charged and retreated in a synchronized dance with the raging surf. Nearby, the receding tides had deposited lifeless bundles of feathers and bone, tangled in piles of glistening kelp. Swollen sea lion carcasses, their teeth bared in a quiet grimace, dotted the sand as beach picnickers and dog walkers enjoyed the warm, cloudless day. Continue reading…