The Guardian Climate Change

Advocates believe governor is unfit for emergency planning due to policies that fuel the crisis worsening storms

• Hurricane Milton – live updates

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is back in the spotlight as he briefs residents on the arrival of Hurricane Milton, amid warnings it could be one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the state.

DeSantis, who dropped his presidential campaign in January, is as governor responsible for implementing Florida’s emergency plan by coordinating agencies, marshaling resources and urging residents to follow evacuation orders.

Climate disasters risk pulling society apart. To survive we need solidarity – and only one ticket in the US election offers that

Even as the good people of Florida’s west coast pulled the soggy mattresses from Helene out to the curb, Milton appeared on the horizon this week – a double blast of destruction from the Gulf of Mexico that’s a reminder that physics takes no time off, not even in the weeks before a crucial election. My sense is that those storms will help turn the voting on 5 November into a climate election of sorts, even if – as is likely – neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump spend much time in the next 25 days talking about CO2 or solar power.

That’s because these storms show not only the power of global heating (Helene’s record rains, and Milton’s almost unprecedented intensification, were reminders of what it means to have extremely hot ocean temperatures). More, they show what we’re going to need to survive the now inevitable train of such disasters. Which is solidarity. Which is something only one ticket offers.

The mining tycoon says his iron ore business will stop using fossil fuels by the end of the decade without carbon offsets or carbon capture and storage

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

About $45tn of global business revenue is covered by corporate “net zero emissions” pledges but the iron ore billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest thinks the whole net zero thing is “fantasy”.

“Now is the time to walk away from net zero 2050, that hasn’t been anything really but a con to maintain fossil fuels,” Forrest said last week.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Resources are stretched thin as the south-east grapples with hurricanes and the west swelters in high temperatures

It’s been a brutal week in weather-related disasters across the US. Large parts of the south-east are still grappling with the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, and another potentially catastrophic storm is barreling towards Florida. At the same time, much of the west has been sweltering amid scorching temperatures, which have elevated fire risks and fueled extreme fire behavior.

Hurricanes and fires aren’t abnormal in early autumn. But the climate crisis has turned up the dial and created more opportunities for catastrophes to overlap, ultimately adding strain on relief resources, emergency response, and those who have been impacted by the dangerous and destructive events.

Government criticised over list of potential countries for sourcing biomass, which also includes Afghanistan

A plan by the British government to burn biomass imported from countries including North Korea and Afghanistan has been described as “bonkers”, with critics saying it undermines the credibility of the UK’s climate strategy.

A bioenergy resource model, published in late summer, calculates that only a big expansion in the import of energy crops and wood from a surprising list of nations would satisfy the UK’s plan to meet net zero.

While Florida residents are being told to flee before the hurricane makes landfall, it may not be possible for all

On 7 October, as Hurricane Milton was just days away from making landfall in Tampa, Florida, the city’s mayor Jane Castor issued a dire warning to residents in evacuation zones: “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”

But leaving one’s home to avoid the category 5 hurricane is not possible for everyone.

Analysis shows Gulf’s heat that worsened Helene 200-500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating

As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, fueled by a record-hot Gulf of Mexico, a new analysis has shown how the Gulf’s heat that worsened last month’s Hurricane Helene was 200 to 500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating.

Helene, one of the deadliest storms in US history, gathered pace over the Gulf before crashing ashore with 140mph winds.

IEA says faster clean energy rollout being led by solar power in China with country set to boast half of world’s renewables by 2030

China is expected to account for almost 60% of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

The IEA’s highly influential renewable energy report found that over the next six years renewable energy projects will roll out at three times the pace of the previous six years, led by the clean energy programmes of China and India.

The Joides Resolution has contributed to our understanding of climate crisis, the origin of life, earthquakes and eruptions. But funding cuts mean it may have sailed its last expedition

In the early summer of this year, a ship set sail around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. But this wasn’t any ordinary ship. For almost 40 years the Joides Resolution drilled into the ocean floor to collect samples and data that helped scientists to study Earth’s history and structure. Expeditions on the vessel have made a vital contribution to our understanding of the climate crisis, the tectonic plates theory, the origin of life on Earth and natural hazards such as earthquakes and eruptions. Yet the two-month voyage around Svalbard was to be its last.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the US agency that provided scientists at Texas A&M University with funds for the ship, announced last year it would not give money for the drilling vessel past September 2024. It was a declaration that shocked the global scientific community and meant that Svalbard would be the ship’s final outing.

The vibration isolated television is attached to the drillpipe and is used to image the seafloor before drilling begins. Photograph: Lisa Crowder/IODP JRSO

Emma Pinchbeck will take over as chief executive of Climate Change Committee next month

The government’s official climate watchdog has appointed the head of the energy industry’s trade association to lead its work helping to drive the UK’s emissions to net zero by 2050.

Emma Pinchbeck, the head of Energy UK, will take up the role of chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) from early next month after four years at the helm of the trade association.

An entire family was killed less than a month before wedding day as Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida

As the country turns its attention to Hurricane Milton, which is expected to bring life-threatening conditions to parts of Florida after it makes landfall later this week, communities in much of the south-east US are still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene almost two weeks ago.

In western North Carolina, home to many mountain communities such as Green Mountain, entire towns were destroyed and washed away during the storm. Residents became isolated as roads became impassable. Electricity and cellphone service went out.

As Floridians prepare to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton, debris from Helene still litter swaths of the state

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene lashed the Florida coastline, an even more powerful hurricane is hurtling toward the state.

It’s the kind of double hit becoming more common as the climate crisis persists, further complicating hurricane preparation, experts say.

Complaint against NW Natural, the state’s biggest provider, marks first time a utility faces climate deception charges

Oregon’s most populous county has sued the state’s biggest gas provider for allegedly sowing climate doubt, marking the first time a utility has faced charges of climate deception.

Last year, Multnomah county sued 17 fossil fuel companies and interest groups for allegedly deceiving the public about the climate crisis. The lawsuit came two years after a record-shattering heat dome killed 69 people across the county.

Record emissions, temperatures and population mean more scientists are looking into possibility of societal collapse, report says

Many of Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”, a group of the world’s most senior climate experts have said.

More and more scientists are now looking into the possibility of societal collapse, says the report, which assessed 35 vital signs in 2023 and found that 25 were worse than ever recorded, including carbon dioxide levels and human population. This indicates a “critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis”, it says.

Demand for beef, soy, palm oil and nickel hindering efforts to halt demolition by 2030, global report finds

The destruction of global forests increased in 2023, and is higher than when 140 countries promised three years ago to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, an analysis shows.

The rising demolition of the forests puts ambitions to halt the climate crisis and stem the huge worldwide losses of wildlife even further from reach, the researchers warn.

• Sport England chair to deliver keynote speech
• Clubs encouraged to stop taking short-haul fights

Premier League clubs must step up and put themselves on the right side of history when it comes to climate change, Sport England’s chair, Chris Boardman, will warn on Tuesday.

In a keynote speech to the Sport Positive Summit, seen by the Guardian, Boardman will question why 10 Premier League clubs flew to the US for pre-season friendlies and Tottenham and Newcastle played a match in Melbourne three days after the final day of season.

Local people and businesses left ‘in lurch’ after council says it cannot afford to support or develop Alpe du Grand Serre

A large French Alpine ski resort has announced it is to close, citing a lack of funds to become a year-round destination, as low- and medium-altitude mountain areas around Europe struggle with a truncated season due to global heating and declining snowfalls.

Local councillors voted not to reopen Alpe du Grand Serre in the Isère this winter, saying they could no longer pay for the mountain lifts or pay to complete a programme to diversify as an all-year tourist destination.

World Meteorological Organization says water is ‘canary in the coalmine of climate change’ and calls for urgent action

Rivers dried up at the highest rate in three decades in 2023, putting global water supply at risk, data has shown.

Over the past five years, there have been lower-than-average river levels across the globe and reservoirs have also been low, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) State of Global Water Resources report.

The federal government, state governments and larger non-profits have had a slower – and, say some residents, insufficient – response

The first thing members of the Pansy Collective, based in Asheville, North Carolina, did following the start of Hurricane Helene was reach out to each other, ensuring that everyone was OK, and helping people who needed to evacuate. As soon as they were able to get down from the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Asheville is nestled, they drove more than 200 miles to Durham to gather supplies and bring them back to Asheville.

The Pansy Collective is just one of several mutual-aid disaster-relief organizations that have mobilized across Florida and the Carolinas since Hurricane Helene made landfall on 26 September.

Latest system forms in Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, with forecasters expecting upgrade to hurricane in a few days

Florida is expected to get walloped by another hurricane next week, just 10 days after it was hit by Hurricane Helene, which caused widespread storm surge and wind damage before it moved inland to cause devastating flooding.

The latest system, Tropical Storm Milton, formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. Forecasters expect the storm to quickly strengthen into a hurricane and rush toward Florida in the next few days.