4 h. ago Disabled man who has visited more than 50 countries reveals how he travels the world despite being wheelchair

From riding a camel in the Sahara dessert to paragliding in the Swiss Alps to trekking through the Amazon rainforest, Cory Lee has not let his disability stop him from seeing the world.

Politics

52 h. ago We delivered a clear message at Cop30: the delayers and defeatists are losing the climate fight | Ed Miliband

For all its flaws, the Brazil conference underlined the wish by a global majority for clean energy and climate action – and the UK will keep leading the wayEd Miliband is the secretary of state for energy security and net zeroSweaty, maddening, sleepless. That’s what it was like to be part of Cop30 in Brazil. And yet more than 190 countries came together in the rainforest of the Amazon and reaffirmed their faith in multilateralism, the Paris agreement and the need to redouble our efforts to keep global warming to 1.5C.We went to Cop because working with other countries to tackle the climate crisis is the only way to protect our home and way of life. We know the UK produces just 1% of emissions, which is why, as the prime minister said in Belém, our government is “all-in” on working with others to reduce the remaining 99%.Ed Miliband is Labour MP for Doncaster North and secretary of state for energy security and net zero Continue reading...

Society

3 d. ago UN climate conference nears conclusion with critics unhappy over proposal

United Nations climate talks are nearing a conclusion, but the outcome might disappoint those seeking stronger action against fossil fuels

Politics

4 d. ago Brazil hails US tariff rollback as ‘significant progress' and seeks more exemptions

Brazil's Vice President Geraldo Alckmin says U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to remove additional import tariffs on some Brazilian agribusiness products marks significant progress

Politics

5 d. ago Cop30 conference centre evacuated as fire breaks out – as it happened

UN secretary-general António Guterres earlier used speech at Belem summit to urge countries to find compromises in final hours of negotiationsInside the halls of Cop30 you see people from all around the world, and it can be easy to forget that there are many people who remain unrepresented.On Thursday morning, Magne Tony was standing with compatriots from French Guiana outside the entrance to the conference centre, trying to push pieces of paper into the hands of arriving delegates and observers headed: “Our Amazon is dying”.The main problem is that France are in 9,000 kilometres from Amazonia, from South America, and they’re taking decisions. [But] they don’t really know what is the problem really. They’re taking the decisions from their own mind and the problem is that they’re far from reality.That’s why we decided to alert the people in the world about [our] problems: water coming up, getting enough to eat, more heat – in some parts of French Guiana, people don’t have water.These...

Events

5 d. ago Cop30 live: current climate pathway ‘a death sentence for many’, says UN secretary

António Guterres uses speech at Belem summit to urge countries to find compromises in final hours of negotiationsInside the halls of Cop30 you see people from all around the world, and it can be easy to forget that there are many people who remain unrepresented.On Thursday morning, Magne Tony was standing with compatriots from French Guiana outside the entrance to the conference centre, trying to push pieces of paper into the hands of arriving delegates and observers headed: “Our Amazon is dying”.The main problem is that France are in 9,000 kilometres from Amazonia, from South America, and they’re taking decisions. [But] they don’t really know what is the problem really. They’re taking the decisions from their own mind and the problem is that they’re far from reality.That’s why we decided to alert the people in the world about [our] problems: water coming up, getting enough to eat, more heat – in some parts of French Guiana, people don’t have water.These crises, a consequence of Wes...

Society

5 d. ago UN secretary general urges nations at climate talks to be flexible to get results

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is urging countries gathered for climate talks in Brazil to be willing to compromise to deliver results in the fight against climate change

Society

5 d. ago Cop30 live: ‘We need to think about how to live without fossil fuels’ Brazilian president Lula tells summit

Brazilian president underlines need to reduce emissions as Turkey set to host next year’s summitOne big piece of news out of Belém last night was that Turkey will host Cop31 next year, with Australia leading the actual negotiations, under a deal to end an unprecedented stand-off between prospective host countries.The unusual arrangement, which was being negotiated overnight and is expected to be officially announced today, would see the event take place in Antalya, a 2000-year-old Mediterranean city that has become the country’s tourism capital. Turkey would manage the event while Australia would preside over the diplomatic wrangling to stop the planet from heating and keep people safe from the breakdown of a stable climate. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Next year's UN climate talks set for Turkey, as Australia backs out of bid in compromise

Turkey is set to be next year’s host for the annual United Nations climate talks

Politics

6 d. ago Guterres and Lula to push negotiators at COP30 as deadline looms

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are jumping into the United Nations climate talks as they get to crunch time

Events

7 d. ago The Congo basin may be the world’s most important rainforest – why is it the least researched?

It is the second-largest tropical forest on Earth, and one of the most vital carbon sinks, but is losing out when it comes to climate policy and fundingIn October 2023, leaders, scientists and policymakers from three of the world’s great rainforest regions – the Amazon, the Congo, and the Borneo-Mekong basins – assembled in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. They were there to discuss one urgent question: how to save the planet’s last great tropical forests from accelerating destruction.For those present, the question was existential. But to their dismay, almost no one noticed. “There was very little acknowledgment that this was happening, outside of the Congo basin region,” says Prof Simon Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Leeds and University College London, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI). Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago The rainforest the world forgot: the Congo basin is the second largest on Earth, so why is it being neglected?

It is one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks, but this tropical rainforest is losing out when it comes to climate policy and fundingIn October 2023, leaders, scientists and policymakers from three of the world’s great rainforest regions – the Amazon, the Congo, and the Borneo-Mekong basins – assembled in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. They were there to discuss one urgent question: how to save the planet’s last great tropical forests from accelerating destruction.For those present, the question was existential. But to their dismay, almost no one noticed. “There was very little acknowledgment that this was happening, outside of the Congo basin region,” says Prof Simon Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Leeds and University College London, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI). Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago The spicy favorite that can help protect your vision and your heart

But eat the whole pepper at your own risk...

Politics

9 d. ago As nations push for more ambition at climate talks, chairman says they may get it

At the halfway point of annual United Nations climate negotiations in Brazil, it appears the talks may do more than just focus on implementing past promises, as some observers had expected

Politics

9 d. ago Brazil’s former human rights minister formally accused of sexual misconduct

Brazil’s federal police have formally accused former human rights minister Silvio Almeida of sexual misconduct

Politics

1 week ago Photos show Indigenous participants at the People's Summit held alongside the COP30 climate meeting

While delegates at a U.N. conference discussed how to fulfill past promises on fighting climate change, a boisterous gathering focused on the same topic from a very different perspective was taking shape.

Culture

1 week ago A flotilla kicks off the People's Summit for activists at UN climate talks

As United Nation climate talks get underway in Belem, a different kind of conference is kicking off: the People’s Summit, a gathering of activists, organizers, environmentalists and Indigenous groups from around the world

Politics

2 w. ago 'A big scandal': Outrage over Brazil cutting down 100,000 Amazon rainforest trees to build road for Cop30

US President Donald Trump has criticised the building of a new highway in the Amazon for the Cop30 climate summit

Politics

2 w. ago Violent reprisals after DRC whistleblowers discover profiteering in protected land

Environmentalists seeking to end logging, smuggling and pollution in DRC’s Mangrove Marine park faced threats, violence and rapePeople who have tried to expose unlawful ownership and profit-making from protected land in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have faced threats, violence and rape, an investigation has found.The DRC government hired the conservation worker Kim Rebholz in 2022 to safeguard the Mangrove Marine park, an internationally recognised nature reserve on the country’s tiny coastline. The Congo basin rainforest, to the east, is the largest rainforest after the Amazon. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Outrage as Amazon Rainforest is cleared of 100,000 trees to make way for climate summit

Both climate activists and skeptics have slammed the destruction of miles of the Amazon rainforest in order to build a road for a two-week climate change summit.

Politics