The Guardian Climate Change

More than 21,500 US deaths over last two decades were connected to heat, top medical journal finds

As record-breaking heatwaves continue across parts of the US, a new report shows that heat-related deaths in the country rose by 117% between 1999 and 2023.

The report, released on Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), found that from 1999 to 2023, there have been more than 21,500 heat-related deaths recorded in the US.

Open letter to Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, says biomass plants are putting forests and biodiversity at risk

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More than 40 green groups have called on Ed Miliband to scrap plans to pay billions in subsidies to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire for it to keep burning wood pellets imported from overseas forests.

In an open letter to the energy secretary, 41 groups from across Europe and the US said they were “deeply concerned” about the government’s plans to foot the cost of extending the subsidy scheme, which supports the UK’s most polluting power plant from 2027 until the end of the decade.

The post-growth movement says GDP is the wrong way to measure progress and we need a radical economic rewiring

In the run-up to the UK general election, the Labour party’s central offer to the public was a “laser-like” focus on economic growth. Its leader, Keir Starmer, promised to “take the brakes off Britain” and repeatedly said “ensuring economic growth will be fundamental”.

In the weeks since the party was elected, it has regularly been grilled about whether the required growth is possible, or how it could be achieved. But to the dismay of ecological economists and climate experts, there has been almost no debate about what sort of growth it should be, who it would benefit – or even whether the aim of perpetual growth on a planet with finite resources is either possible or desirable in the midst of an escalating climate crisis.

Groups challenging emissions limits in key sectors including agriculture, waste and transport

The EU is being sued for failing to set ambitious climate targets in sectors that contribute more than half of the bloc’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) argue that climate targets laid out for agriculture, waste, transport and small industry in the 27 EU member states until the end of the decade are not based on the best science and are therefore “grossly inadequate”.

Speaking during the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga, the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said fossil fuels must be phased out and all G20 countries must pursue a 'drastic reduction of emissions'. Asked whether he believes it is acceptable for a country like Australia to be continuing to approve new coal and gas projects, Guterres said the 'situation of different countries is different' but there should be no 'illusion'. 'Without a phase-out of fossil fuels in a fair and just way, there is no way we can keep the 1.5 degrees alive,' Guterres said in a reference to the Paris climate agreement goal of holding temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels

• Albanese government accused of trying to ‘bury bad news’ about health of Great Barrier Reef

António Guterres calls for a ‘massive’ increase in finance and support for the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels

Pacific island nations are in “grave danger” from rising sea levels and the world must “answer the SOS before it is too late”, the UN chief has warned during a visit to Tonga.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, urged the world to “look to the Pacific and listen to the science” as he released two new reports on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s most important annual political gathering.

The end of winter tends to lift spirits as colour returns to gardens. But the too-soon blooms have become worryingly consistent

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Kangaroo paws normally flower in late September in Cranbourne, south-east of Melbourne. This year they bloomed in July.

The Western Australian plant has since been joined by a host of spring-blooming flowers, attracting animals who would typically wait for warmer months.

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Major report released at 4pm on Friday with no media release or a press conference from Tanya Plibersek

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A leading conservation group has accused the government of trying to “bury bad news” about the health of the Great Barrier Reef by releasing a major five-yearly outlook report on Friday afternoon.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s 600-page report said the “window of opportunity to secure a positive future” for the reef was “closing rapidly” and the outlook for the ecosystem was “very poor”.

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António Guterres to attend Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) in Tonga with climate crisis and unrest in New Caledonia among issues to watch

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, will attend a Pacific leaders’ summit this week in Tonga with a focus on climate change in the region, one of the world’s most vulnerable to rising sea levels and temperature changes.

The annual meeting of leaders is the top political decision-making body of the region. The week-long summit culminates in the leaders’ retreat, where key decisions are made, which may include an endorsement of a regional policing initiative promoted by Australia. The future for New Caledonia is among other big issues to be addressed at the Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) which began in Tonga on Monday.

Greenpeace among 150 groups expressing outrage after preemptive arrests led to cancellation of protest camp

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have accused police of acting as “private security” for the UK’s biggest carbon emitter after dozens of pre-emptive arrests forced the cancellation of a climate protest camp near Drax power station.

In a statement signed by almost 150 groups, they called the operation against activists who had spent months planning the camp near the wood-burning power station “an unreasonable restriction of free speech”.

Exclusive: Levels of education and sanitation predicted to massively improve if creditors reduced payments

Reducing the debt payments made by poor countries to more sustainable levels could help 5 million more children attend school and provide access to clean drinking water to 17 million people, according to research.

A study by academics at the universities of St Andrews and Leicester said there would be “huge benefits” – including saving the lives of 60,000 children and mothers – from slashing the size of repayments.

Countries hope big emitters will take more financial responsibility for emergency relief and damage claims

The outcome of an international court case on climate change obligations could strengthen the legal position of Caribbean islands claiming damages from developed countries after natural disasters, lawyers say.

Brought to the international court of justice (ICJ) by the UN general assembly, the case seeks clarification on what states can be held liable for in relation to climate change.

Team at University of Edinburgh using microbes to recycle lithium, cobalt and other expensive minerals

Scientists have formed an unusual new alliance in their fight against climate change. They are using bacteria to help them extract rare metals vital in the development of green technology. Without the help of these microbes, we could run out of raw materials to build turbines, electric cars and solar panels, they say.

The work is being spearheaded by scientists at the University of Edinburgh and aims to use bacteria that can extract lithium, cobalt, manganese and other minerals from old batteries and discarded electronic equipment. These scarce and expensive metals are vital for making electric cars and other devices upon which green technology devices depend, a point stressed by Professor Louise Horsfall, chair of sustainable biotechnology at Edinburgh.

Australia must urgently halt new fossil fuel projects and scale up investment in renewable energies such as solar and wind

My first visit to the Pacific Islands was in 1981 and, for two decades, I spent several months each year carrying out biodiversity surveys and conservation work there. Even in the 1980s, Pacific communities were acutely aware of climate change, experiencing it first-hand through rising seas and intensifying storms. Over time, their understanding of the role that climate pollution plays in worsening these impacts has deepened, leading to a highly organised movement to limit pollution from big coal and gas exporters such as Australia.

As the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) approaches, Australia must urgently align with the position of its Pacific neighbours and take decisive action to reduce climate pollution further and faster.

Hospitality venues across the Netherlands partake in a new scheme to combat high rates of deadly melanoma

Zand Katwijk doesn’t just serve food and drinks – this beachside restaurant offers “shots” of sunscreen too.

It is one of 160 hospitality venues around the Netherlands taking part in a new sunburn prevention scheme. The small, wet and windy country might not be known for its tropical climes, but the Dutch have one of Europe’s highest diagnosis rates for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

I see looming political and environmental threats – and too few willing to address them. Where is the urgency?

The world is on fire. At no time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 has the world looked so dangerous, nor has an end to its 56 conflicts – the highest number since the second world war – seemed so distant and so difficult to achieve.

Distracted by domestic election campaigns, preoccupied by internal divisions and blindsided by the seismic geopolitical shifts happening beneath our feet, the world is sleepwalking into a “one world, two systems”, “China v America” future. And the cooperation needed to firefight is proving so elusive that even now, an international agreement to prepare for and prevent global pandemics remains beyond our grasp. Nor, even up against the existential problem of climate change (the planet is on course for a temperature increase of 2.7C above pre-industrial levels), can many hold out hopes that Cop29 in Azerbaijan will be equal to the challenge. At a time when global problems urgently need global solutions, the gap between what we need to do and our capacity – or, more accurately, our willingness – to do so is widening by the minute.

We are at a global turning point, not just because crises are multiplying far beyond the very public tragedies of the Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, but because in a year when nearly half the world has gone to the polls, few political candidates have been prepared to acknowledge the altered geopolitical landscape. For three seismic shifts that are bringing to an end the unipolar, neoliberal hyperglobalised world of the last 30 years make a total rethink essential.

Gordon Brown is a former UK prime minister; he will give a keynote lecture at the Edinburgh international festival on Sunday 25 August

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Stings needing medical attention surge by 41% as rising sea temperatures due to the climate crisis boost reproduction

Costa Brava resorts in Spain’s north-east are struggling to cope with an influx of jellyfish as rising sea temperatures facilitate reproduction and drive species farther north.

Between May and August almost 7,500 people on the Catalan coast sought medical attention for jellyfish stings – a 41% increase on last year. The stings are painful and can have unpleasant consequences for anyone with compromised immunity.

Ukraine’s offensive in Russia, Israeli bombardment in Gaza, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and wildfires in Turkey: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

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Amid rising temperatures last year, unionized UPS workers made heat an issue – but despite a key contract win, workers say little progress has been made

Seth Pacic works as a United Parcel Service delivery driver in Dallas, Texas. In the summer, he has a second “full-time job”: staying cool.

Each morning, Pacic packs his cooler full of ice, water jugs and hydrating foods such as pickles and grapes. He straps frozen cooling packs to his wrists, hangs another around his neck and ensures he has powdered sports drinks and a battery-operated fan on hand.

August should mean peak snow depth, Jindabyne worker says, but early blast of spring threatens ‘catastrophic’ premature end to season

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Australia’s snow season has begun to melt away early as unseasonable warmth cuts snowfalls to almost half the average for this time of year, experts say.

A global-heating fuelled early blast of spring weather means the season may have peaked early, with snow fields melted by warm temperatures and washed away by showers.