12 h. ago Thousands march in Glasgow to protest against climate crisis

A banner leading the march read "a better world is possible", and Extinction Rebellion campaigners marched with a portable sound system.

Events

13 h. ago Thousands hit streets of Belém to call for action during crucial Cop30 summit

Funeral for fossil fuels held as part of Great People’s March calling on governments to step up climate effortsThousands of people have turned out in the streets of Belém to demand urgent action on the climate crisis.It was the first major protest outside the annual climate talks since Cop26 four years ago in Glasgow, as the last three gatherings were held in locations with little tolerance for demonstrations – Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan. Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago Indigenous lands must be recognised as part of climate policy, says Brazilian minister

Sonia Guajajara tells Cop30 the rights of traditional communities must be maintained in the face of exploitation by the mining industryCountries must recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as a key component of tackling the climate crisis, and civil society must help in the defence of such lands against mining interests, Brazil’s minister for Indigenous peoples has said.Sonia Guajajara, a longtime Indigenous activist before being appointed a minister by President Lula da Silva, said: “[Among the goals of the Cop30 summit is] a request that countries recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as climate policy.” Continue reading...

Politics

39 h. ago Yellow fever and dengue cases surge in South America as climate crisis fuels health issues

Disease outbreaks from South America to Europe have been worsened by rising global temperatures, experts saySurging cases of yellow fever and dengue in South America highlight the growing assault on people’s health from the climate crisis, with infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes and deadly heat also now pushing into temperate regions such as Europe, experts have warned at the Cop30 climate summit.There have been 356 cases of yellow fever in South America and 152 deaths so far this year, largely in the Amazon region, according to Pan American Health Organization figures. Apart from a large spike in 2017 and 2018, this is the largest number of yellow fever cases for any year in the continent, bar one, since 1960. Continue reading...

Society

45 h. ago Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage | George Monbiot

The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very richIf this were just a climate crisis, we would fix it. The technology, money and strategies have all been at hand for years. What stifles effective action is a deadly conjunction: the climate crisis running headlong into the epistemic crisis.An epistemic crisis is a crisis in the production and delivery of knowledge. It’s about what we know and how we know it, what we agree to be true and what we identify as false. We face, alongside a global threat to our life-support systems, a global threat to our knowledge-support systems.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Events

61 h. ago Poorer nations call on rich countries to open their wallets at Cop30: ‘Clean up the mess you are making’

After a year of aid cuts from the US, UK and around Europe, Nick Ferris speaks to African nations about the help they desperately need to fight the climate crisis. But there are few signs that richer countries are willing to step up

Politics

62 h. ago Despite America’s absence, Trump’s influence looms large over Cop30

In this week’s newsletter: Fear of retribution from the unpredictable president has left climate summit negotiators feeling nervous and vulnerable• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereUnder Donald Trump, America has not only jettisoned any effort to deal with the climate crisis, but has also attempted to stymie moves by other nations to shift to cleaner forms of energy, such as solar and wind.The climate crisis is “the greatest con job perpetrated by the world”, Trump told the UN in September, urging other governments to stick to oil and gas (preferably drilled in the US, of course) and ditch the “scam” of renewable energy.World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report findsFossil fuel projects around the world threaten the health of 2bn peopleChina’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis findsCalifornia governor calls Trump ‘an invasive species’ at Cop30 climate talksTussles break out between protesters an...

Politics

63 h. ago Guns, gangs and drought: how crime and the climate crisis are reshaping Haiti

Cities in the grip of urban warfare are being pushed to collapse by an influx of people fleeing hunger in rural areas as crops failÉmile Charles fled Kenscoff in September when armed men overran his land. Leaving everything he owned behind, the farmer found refuge above Turgeau, one of the few neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince still beyond the gangs’ reach.New arrivals to Haiti’s capital climb ever-high to claim a few square metres and throw up a makeshift shelter of planks and rusty corrugated iron. To reach his, Charles scrambles up a steep path. Glasses perched on his head, he gazes across the hills at scattered shacks. “They arrived without warning and burned our crops,” he says. “We ran for our lives. Those who didn’t leave were killed. Two of my brothers were murdered.”Émile Charles, who fled his land when it was overrun by armed men Continue reading...

Events

2 d. ago Building apartment projects near public transit helps address housing crisis, combat climate change

Quantavia Smith, who was often homeless for a decade, now has a studio apartment in Los Angeles with easy access to public transit

Society

3 d. ago Al Gore wonders if ‘bullying’ Trump prompted Bill Gates to backtrack on climate

Exclusive interview with ex-US vice-president at Cop30 also reveals his hope around much-maligned climate summitFear of being bullied by Donald Trump may have prompted Bill Gates to row back on the climate crisis, Al Gore has speculated, as he slammed the billionaire’s new position as “silly”, and the US president for his anti-climate stance.Trump, “the most corrupt president in American history”, was “badly damaging the US economy” by pulling away from renewable energy and promoting fossil fuels, the former US vice-president warned. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Cop can be torturous and tedious – but here’s why it’s worth paying attention

In this week’s newsletter: Critics have yet come up with an alternative that would truly bring all countries together to work to solve the climate crisis• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWorld leaders – or at least about 50 of them – flew away from preliminary Cop meetings in the Amazonian city of Belém last week, where they met to discuss the climate crisis, the ravages committed on the planet’s biggest rainforest only too apparent beneath them, if they chose to look.Deforestation, drought and the climate crisis are pushing the Amazon to what could become a “tipping point”, where it changes state from a rainforest to a savannah ecosystem, and from a massive absorber of carbon to releasing carbon into the atmosphere, which would have devastating consequences for the whole world.‘It will never be forgiven’: UN climate chief warns world to act or face disasterTyphoon Fung-Wong becomes second in a week to hit the PhilippinesI wish we could ignore Bill Gates...

Politics

4 d. ago How Scotland's forests can deliver future prosperity with higher wages, affordable homes and more

Planting more trees and using the wood to build energy-efficient homes would help tackle climate change and the biodiversity crisis, while creating jobs and wealth

Society

4 d. ago It’s the BBC v Trump, Farage and co. Who in their right mind would want to be its new boss? | Marina Hyde

Public life is a minefield and the best and brightest just don’t want to know. How convenient for foes of the most trusted news organisation in the worldListen, I hate to ruin a yarn wall but I don’t think it’s at all helpful to start framing the current crisis at the BBC as a giant conspiracy or coup by dark rightwing forces, and get stuck in the weeds of that. The fact is, the three mistakes that form the bulk of Michael Prescott’s explosive leaked memo about impartiality – the Panorama edit, issues with coverage of the transgender issue and bias in the BBC Arabic service – happened and are bad. Given their spectacular fallout and the highest-level scalps that have been claimed, the opportunity to now deal with them might as well be taken by what is, let’s not forget, the most trusted news organisation in the world.There is no news organisation in the United States that reaches more than 25% of people in a week. BBC News reaches 74% of UK adults in a week. There is vastly more dis...

Politics

4 d. ago ‘She rang me to say there was water coming into the house’ – This is climate breakdown

His mother had lived in the same house for 83 years. When the floods came, no one was ready. This is Paul Gilbert’s storyLocation Chesterfield, UKDisaster Storm Babet, 2023Paul Gilbert’s mother, Maureen, lived in Chesterfield. In 2023, Storm Babet claimed seven lives across the UK, led to more than 10,000 people being evacuated from their homes and caused in excess of £450m in property damage. Extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, and experts have linked some of the damage caused by Storm Babet to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Society

4 d. ago Top UN official warns inaction on climate crisis ‘will never be forgiven’ as Cop30 opens in Brazil

Simon Stiell told ministers from nearly 200 countries in Belém that governments dragging their feet on cutting fossil fuel use would be held responsible for famines, conflicts, and economic turmoil

Events

5 d. ago ‘It will never be forgiven’: UN climate chief warns world to act or face disaster

Faltering governments will be blamed for famine and conflict abroad, and face stagnation and inflation at home, says climate chief at start of Cop30Governments failing to shift to a low-carbon economy will be blamed for famine and conflict abroad, and will face stagnation and rising inflation at home, the UN’s climate chief warned on Monday at the start of the Cop30 climate talks.Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, addressed the gathering of ministers and high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries, in a stark portrayal of the price of failure on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Rich countries have lost enthusiasm for tackling climate crisis, says Cop30 chief

Brazil’s André Corrêa do Lago says countries should follow China’s lead on clean energy as conference beginsCop30: what are the main issues?Net zero to NDCs: your Cop30 jargon busterRich countries have lost enthusiasm for combating the climate crisis while China is surging ahead in producing and using clean energy equipment, the president of the UN climate talks has said.More countries should follow China’s lead instead of complaining about being outcompeted, said André Corrêa do Lago, the Brazilian diplomat in charge of the Cop30 conference, which begins on Monday. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Swinney calls for swift and decisive action in tackling climate crisis

Gillian Martin is representing Scotland at the Cop30 summit in Brazil.

Events

6 d. ago ‘Existential and urgent’: what impact will ICJ climate ruling have on Cop30?

Decision by international court of justice hailed as a gamechanger for climate justice and accountabilityIn July 2025, the international court of justice delivered a landmark decision that clarified that all states were bound under international law to tackle the human-made climate crisis, which the judges unanimously concluded posed an “urgent and existential threat” to the planet’s life-sustaining systems and therefore humanity itself.The ICJ advisory opinion built on rulings from hundreds of climate lawsuits across the world over the past decade or more, and added further legal weight to strong decisions from the inter-American court of human rights in July 2025 and the international tribunal on the law of the sea in May 2024. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Amid squabbles, bombast and competing interests, what can Cop30 achieve?

Climate summit in Brazil needs to find way to stop global heating accelerating amid stark divisions“It broke my heart.” Surangel Whipps, president of the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, was sitting in the front row of the UN’s general assembly in New York when Donald Trump made a long and rambling speech, his first to the UN since his re-election, on 23 September.Whipps was prepared for fury and bombast from the US president, but what followed was shocking. Trump’s rant on the climate crisis – a “green scam”, “the greatest con job ever perpetrated”, “predictions made by stupid people” – was an unprecedented attack on science and global action from a major world leader. Continue reading...

Events