Oil-rich Gulf states have positioned themselves as both champions of climate innovation and guardians of fossil fuel interests — a balancing act experts warn could derail action at COP28 in Dubai. This year’s United Nations climate summit is being chaired and hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a country dubbed “an oil company with a...
Will climate change make Halloween pumpkins a thing of the past? US farmers say there’s ‘no future’ for their trade. “There’s no future after me,” says Colorado pumpkin farmer Alan Mazzotti. “My boys won’t farm.” He’ll keep farming pumpkins for a bit longer, but water shortages, climate change and spiralling costs are making his livelihood...
Can you talk about the health impacts of climate change without mentioning the burning of fossil fuels, its leading cause?An intergovernmental declaration on the health impacts of climate change led by the United Arab Emirates, which is presiding over this year’s global climate talks, and circulated among countries for their potential endorsement, does just that.Several...
Governments are being urged to stop granting new permits for coal, oil, and gas extraction, 10 nations are the ones producing more than three-quarters of the biggest CO2-emitting sites. While the focus is often on major energy companies, the responsibility for coal extraction projects also lies with` the states that authorize drilling. A small number...
Research on nature reserves and at an allotment has revealed how susceptible caterpillars are to climate change. The University of Cambridge study found the larvae are “really bad at temperature regulation” making them less likely to survive extreme weather. Dr Esme Ashe-Jepson said this could result in fewer “beautiful, charismatic butterflies”, impacting on pollination and...
Nepal has lost almost a third of its ice volume in 30 years, with glaciers melting 65 per cent faster in the last decade than in the previous one. “The rooftops of the world are caving in,” the UN chief said, warning that the “disappearance of glaciers altogether” looms even larger. “Glaciers are icy reservoirs –...
A sphinxlike term keeps popping up in discourse around phasing out fossil fuels: “unabated.” Easily overlooked, it’s an important modifier that changes an ambitious demand — stop burning fossil fuels — into phrases with more elusive meanings. The European Union has decided it will push for the phasing out of unabated fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai. More...
In the weeks leading up to COP28 in Dubai, the world’s largest climate change conference, Cape Town hosted a very different kind of event – Africa Energy Week (AEW) 2023. Billed as the “biggest energy event in Africa”, AEW was a four-day gathering of oil and gas executives, policy-makers, government officials and investors from around...
India is unlikely to sign onto a global pledge to reduce cooling-related emissions at the COP 28 climate meeting, citing the need for the world’s most populous country to have affordable cooling, two government officials told Reuters. The pledge to cut cooling-related carbon dioxide emissions by at least 68% by 2050 compared with 2022 levels...
G20 countries are failing to integrate air pollution into their climate plans, a new study finds. The authors want that fixed at COP28. When we think about the dangers of fossil fuels, we tend to imagine the climate consequences on a grand scale from wildfires to flooding. But there is, of course, a more insidious...