7 d. ago ‘History will remember who showed up’: Keir Starmer faces call to attend Cop30 summit

Response from leaders and key climate figures comes after PM’s aides advised non-attendance over concerns Reform may attack himLeading climate figures and Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party.Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “Cop30 is where leaders are expected to come and roll up their sleeves, make deals to help their nation’s economy transition faster, creating more jobs, and guide the world on what next steps we take together.” Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago The Guardian view on the climate crisis: green energy is booming – but fossil fuels need to shrink too | Editorial

The planet is nearing dangerous limits. Yet progress on clean energy shows what’s possible. With political will, cooperation can still avert the worst of the climate crisisAll is not lost, Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, told the Guardian last week. But the latest planetary health check from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is a brutal reminder of how close the Earth is being pushed beyond repair. Seven of the nine planetary boundaries are now breached, with ocean acidification added to the danger list. Yet the world has proved that cooperation works: the ozone layer is healing, air pollution controls are working. A decisive test looms at the end of the month, when governments must file new climate pledges, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). This is no time to ease off: the fossil-fuel era must end, and the clean‑energy transition must accelerate.There is real concern that big emitters, including China and the EU, will fall short of what is n...

Events

9 d. ago Genk chief brands Rangers a 'negative climate' as Europa League foe plots masterplan

Dimitri De Conde sees an opportunity lying if Genk can start fast and turn the Rangers fans against their team

Politics

1 week ago AI ‘carries risks’ but will help tackle global heating, says UN’s climate chief

Simon Stiell insists it is vital governments regulate the technology to blunt its dangerous edgesHarnessing artificial intelligence will help the world to tackle the climate crisis, but governments must step in to regulate the technology, the UN’s climate chief has said.AI is being used to make energy systems more efficient, and to develop tools to reduce carbon from industrial processes. The UN is also using AI as an aid to climate diplomacy. Continue reading...

Society

1 week ago ‘Something is working’: UN climate chief optimistic about green transition

Exclusive: Simon Stiell believes economic benefits will compel countries to speed up climate actionCleaning up industry and the global economy will produce massive economic dividends for countries that grasp the opportunity – as the example of China has shown, the UN climate chief has said, before a crunch summit of world leaders this week.In a last-ditch call to heads of government summoned to New York by the UN secretary general this week, Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said governments would almost certainly fail to come up with the climate commitments needed to fulfil the Paris agreement before a deadline this month, but they could still reset their economies to reap the advantages of low-carbon growth. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Unpaid wages, searing heat, long hours’: why workers are quitting the world’s largest renewable energy park

A vast migrant labour force is helping India meet its ambitious renewable energy goals, drawn by promises of good wages and perks. But many say they are forced to ‘escape’ without payA month into his new job at the world’s largest renewable energy park in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch, Anawar Alam was planning his escape. Hired along with 17 others who had travelled with him to work on the construction of a solar project, Alam had hoped that the promised pay and perks would support his family back home on the farm in Bihar. But within two weeks he was having second thoughts.“Nothing really prepared us for where we would be working or the fact that it was so far from the nearest village. The work was strenuous, the shifts were 12 hours, and we were living in makeshift tents,” says Alam. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Higher defence spending is pointless without climate aid, says UN chief

Achim Steiner says cuts to development budget are shortsighted in an interconnected global economySpending more on defence will be pointless unless western governments also tackle the climate crisis in poor countries, the UN’s departing chief of international development has warned.“The more you restrict your ability to act by simply focusing on what’s happening inside your country, the more vulnerable you become,” said Achim Steiner, who recently completed his second term as administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which works on overseas aid and lifting people out of poverty. “Vulnerability can then very quickly translate into a very real crisis scenario.” Continue reading...

Politics