Climate

India promised to burn its trash mountains and safely turn them into electricity. But a New York Times investigation found hazardous levels of toxic substances around homes, playgrounds and schools.

Record carbon emissions, melting ice sheets and the return of the former US president will all be under the spotlight at this week’s climate summit

It has been a remarkable year for meteorological mayhem with intense heatwaves and storms of extreme intensity battering many parts of our planet. Last month these culminated in the devastating floods that struck eastern Spain and killed hundreds.

Ahead of this week’s Cop29 summit, scientists believe disasters like these are becoming more frequent because major changes in our climate are occurring as emissions from the burning of fossil fuel continue to rise.

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John Podesta, President Biden’s clean energy adviser, said agencies were racing to deliver money from the 2022 climate law before Donald Trump arrives.

The right funding now can protect the frontlines of the climate crisis from the worst effects of extreme weather events

As we approach Cop29 in Baku, world leaders are due to set a new climate finance goal – a sum set aside to help poor countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of the climate crisis. Their negotiations take place against a backdrop of increasingly severe weather events. This year alone, we have witnessed deadly heatwaves across north Africa, Mexico, India and Saudi Arabia; a historic drought across southern Africa; catastrophic wildfires in the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands; record-breaking hurricanes in the Caribbean and the US; and plenty more. The climate emergency knows no borders and spares no one.

These events serve as stark reminders of the pressing need for world leaders and all of us to protect vulnerable communities on the frontline of the climate crisis. For many developing countries, particularly in Africa, the cost of climate impacts is staggering. African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP because of climate extremes, while some are diverting as much as 9% of their national budgets to overcome the fallout from them. The latest report by the World Meteorological Organization estimates that Africa south of the Sahara alone will need $30bn-$50bn annually over the next decade just to meet the costs of protecting communities facing unprecedented climate-related disasters. We will not be able to reduce poverty, eliminate hunger and build a prosperous and resilient global community without addressing the climate crisis.

Ban Ki-moon is a former secretary general of the United Nations and co-chair, Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens

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The fire drew almost 100 firefighters, the commissioner said. The cause was not immediately determined.

More than 130 structures destroyed in two days by ferocious Mountain fire, as thousands remain under evacuation order

Firefighters in southern California made progress in their effort to contain a wildfire that destroyed more than 130 structures in two days as fierce wind gusts that were fanning flames eased on Friday.

The Mountain fire, which started on Wednesday morning in Ventura county, had grown to 20,630 acres (about 8,349 hectares) with 14% contained as of Friday evening.

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President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team for climate and the environment is considering relocating the E.P.A. out of Washington and other drastic changes.

The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on the responsibility one has to dispose of an outmoded appliance.

The new president’s disruptive policies will challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s green goals. But with strong leadership he could enhance Britain’s global influence

Donald Trump’s electoral earthquake in America will complicate Sir Keir Starmer’s plans. Nowhere will the shock of Mr Trump’s win be more intensely felt than in environmental policy. His stance on climate – advocating a US exit from the Paris climate agreement and rallying behind “drill baby drill” – is more disruptive than constructive. This should concentrate Sir Keir’s mind as he heads to Cop29, the UN’s annual climate summit, in Baku, Azerbaijan.

At last year’s conference, world leaders agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels in a just and orderly manner for the first time. Mr Trump, however, dismisses the climate crisis as a hoax. With this year likely to be the hottest on record, the devastating effects of global heating are undeniable, as extreme weather batters the planet. Mr Trump may ignore the facts, but the trail of climate-related chaos and destruction speaks for itself.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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The US election, the aftermath of the floods in Valencia, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and the Maa festival in Kenya: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

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Elnur Soltanov recorded speaking with fake oil and gas group that asked for deals in exchange for sponsoring talks

The chief executive of Cop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at the climate summit.

The recording has amplified calls by campaigners who want the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists to be banned from future Cop talks.

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New modelling finds risk to global economies much worse than previously thought, but group of central banks says even this may be an underestimate

The physical shocks caused by climate breakdown will hit global economic growth by a third, according to a risk assessment by a network of central banks.

The rise in the estimated hit to the world’s economies as a result of the shocks from flooding, droughts, temperature rises, and mitigating and adapting to extreme weather was the result of new climate modelling published this year.

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The Tesla billionaire is a key figure in the president-elect’s orbit. One question is whether his views on climate and clean energy will have any sway.

Los demócratas atacaron los vínculos de Donald Trump con el proyecto de derecha que busca remodelar el gobierno federal. Varios de los autores del plan trabajaron en su gobierno.

Prospects of strong outcome appear dim but there is hope the talks will address pressing issue of climate finance

More than 100 heads of state and government are expected to land in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, over the next few days and the first thing they are likely to notice is the smell of oil. The odour hangs heavy in the air, evidence of the abundance of fossil fuels in this small country on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Flaring from refineries lights up the night sky, and the city is dotted with diminutive “nodding donkey” oil wells raising and lowering their pistons as they draw from the earth. Even the national symbol is a gas flame, epitomised in the shape of three skyscrapers that tower over the city.

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Government must take urgent steps to change UK travel behaviour if carbon dioxide reduction goals are to be met

Europe-wide research has shown Britons are more willing than most Europeans to reduce their use of cars and aeroplanes – an essential requirement if carbon dioxide reduction targets are to be met.

During the Covid pandemic, consumption of petrol, diesel and paraffin plummeted as government restrictions forced people to stay at home – the UK had the third-largest reduction after Austria and Sweden.

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On the eve of Cop29 in Baku, António Guterres says dangers are underestimated as irreversible tipping points near

The world is still underestimating the risk of catastrophic climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse, the UN secretary general has warned in the run-up to Cop29, acknowledging that the rise in global heating is on course to soar past 1.5C (2.7F) over pre-industrial levels in the coming years.

Humanity is approaching potentially irreversible tipping points such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and the Greenland ice sheet as global temperatures rise, António Guterres has said, warning that governments are not making the deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit warming to safe levels.

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Country’s foreign minister says UN climate summits have produced ‘no results’ as Pacific nation takes the rare step of withdrawing from upcoming Cop29

Papua New Guinea’s decision to pull out of an upcoming UN global climate summit due to frustration over “empty promises and inaction” has prompted concern from climate advocates, who fear the move will isolate the Pacific nation and put vital funding at risk.

Prime minister James Marape announced in August the country would not attend Cop29 in “protest at the big nations” for a lack of “quick support to victims of climate change”. Then last week, foreign affairs minister Justin Tckatchenko, confirmed Papua New Guinea would withdraw from high-level talks at the summit, which begins on 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, describing it as “a total waste of time”.

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Mountain fire in Ventura county has destroyed 132 homes and damaged 88, and fire is 5% contained, officials say

A wind-driven wildfire roared through rural and residential communities north-west of Los Angeles, charring more than 20,500 acres and leveling scores of homes.

The Mountain fire in Ventura county, California, continued to burn on Thursday morning, as footage showed dozens of structures turned to smoldering ruins now lining the streets where neighborhoods once stood.

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As the world gathers for U.N. climate negotiations in Azerbaijan next week, here’s what we will be watching.