4 hours ago As Cop29 wraps up and the climate crisis gathers pace, Australia’s dash for gas is confounding | Bill Hare

Nearly all observers believe Chris Bowen is strongly committed to action. Most agree that can’t be said for his partyCop29 in Baku has concluded but its outcome is disappointing – in many dimensions. Its decisions on finance – agreeing that the developed world would provide US$300bn a year by 2035 – come nowhere close to what’s needed. Ultimately, it may even be poisonous because of its lack of ambition and muddled scope – it does not even cover loss and damage.Baku saw little sense of urgency or increased climate action, despite the universal message from scientific studies, including the Climate Action Tracker. Our global update this year found that in the last three years there’s been virtually no improvement in either action on the ground, nor ambition to take action in the future. ...

Society

6 hours ago ROSS CLARK: Poor countries exploit climate panic to press us for easy cash

On the basis that the new deal agreed at COP29 will mean a trebling in existing climate aid, we may presume that UK taxpayers are now going to be stumping up around £6 billion a year.

Politics

13 hours ago Cop29 climate finance deal criticised as ‘travesty of justice’ and ‘stage

Some countries say deal should not have been done and is ‘abysmally poor’ compared with what is neededThe climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is a “travesty of justice” that should not have been adopted, some countries’ negotiators have said.The climate conference came to a dramatic close early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement to triple the flow of climate finance to poorer countries. Continue reading...

Society

16 hours ago 'All Brit tourists need to heed my warning after my inclusive holiday to Turkey'

Ed Chapman took a £965 TUI all-inclusive holiday to Turkey to see if the tempting deal is worth the money - and his conclusion has surprised many people

Events

18 hours ago Irish climate minister says Cop29 deal ‘far from perfect but can be built on’

‘To walk away would have been unforgivable and shameful given the scale of the crisis we all face,’ Eamon Ryan said.

Politics

20 hours ago Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown | Ashish Ghadiali

Despite its imperfections the process of tackling the climate crisis will not be derailed, even in the face of US backtrackingIt was never an indication of great things to come when the chief executive of Cop29, Elnur Soltanov, was filmed attempting to broker gas and oil deals for Azerbaijan in the slipstream of the past fortnight’s UN climate summit in Baku.More than 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists have been operating in and around Cop29, outnumbering delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined. Many, including Greta Thunberg, now argue that the UN climate process has been entirely hijacked by corporate interests, reduced to a global stage for greenwash. Continue reading...

Politics

27 hours ago Ed Miliband says transition to clean energy is 'unstoppable' after £240BILLION Cop climate deal is finally struck

After two weeks of chaotic bargaining at Cop29 climate summit, nearly 200 nations agreed on the contentious finance pact in the early hours in a sports stadium in Azerbaijan.

Economics