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Treaty allows energy corporations to sue governments for billions over policies that could hurt their profits

• Explainer: what is the ECT?

A secretive investor court system poses a real threat to the Paris climate agreement, activists have said, as governments taking action to phase out fossil fuels face a slew of multimillion-dollar lawsuits for lost profits.

New data seen by the Guardian shows a surge in cases under the energy charter treaty (ECT), an obscure international agreement that allows energy corporations to sue governments over policies that could hurt their profits.

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Biologists heartened as 79 nests of endangered reptile recorded in Broward county this year after low of 12 in 2017.

The number of leatherback turtle nests found along some south Florida beaches reached record numbers this year, surprising biologists.

The 79 nests laid by endangered turtles along beaches in Broward county this year is nearly double the previous record, according to the South Florida SunSentinel. The previous record was 46 in 2012, and the record low for leatherback nests was 12 in 2017.

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The Guardian’s picture editors select recent images from UN climate change conference

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Rich countries will get most of the attention, but developing countries are on climate change's front line.

UK among countries at Cop26 vowing to divert funds to low-carbon energy from 2022

• Cop26 – live coverage

More than 20 countries and financial institutions will halt all financing for fossil fuel development overseas and divert the spending to green energy instead from next year.

The move marks a significant boost for the transition to clean fuels. The Guardian understands the countries involved include the US, UK, Denmark and some developing countries that would receive such finance, including Costa Rica. The European Investment Bank is one of the financial institutions involved.

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Climate activists were removed from a Rishi Sunak photo opportunity after questioning the chancellor on government deals with fossil fuel companies.

Fatima Ibrahim, the co-founder of the UK's Green New Deal movement, posted the moment on Twitter. 'Is he that scared of young people asking him questions?', she wrote

• COP26 summit: latest updates

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Conservationists say the move will protect migration routes for many endangered species.

World leaders' use of private jets to attend the climate summit has been called into question.

Three days into the COP26 global climate summit, and the mood is positive.

As many as 52% of the carbon credits generated by Indian wind farms under the Kyoto Protocol came from projects that would likely have gone ahead even without carbon finance, said a study released Wednesday.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) prices see-sawed wildly on Wednesday morning after Virginia Republicans were projected to take control of both the governor’s office and House of Delegates in Tuesday’s election, though it remains uncertain whether the GOP could try to exit the regional cap-and-trade programme without Senate control.

Several developing countries have taken aim at the plethora of public and private net zero plans that rely on new technologies in the future to produce negative emissions while continuing to emit today.

EUAs climbed on Wednesday to test a major price level for the fifth time in the last fortnight, while energy prices also built on Tuesday's recovery.

Summit president’s comments on finance day accused of trying to commercialise climate activism

Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister and president of the Cop26 summit, has been accused of appropriating the climate activism movement after he told conference delegates “you are the new Swampys”.

Opening the summit’s finance day, which aims to channel cash towards transitioning global economies to net zero carbon emissions, Sharma recalled climate protests of the 1990s.

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With heads of state now largely gone, day 3 of COP26 in Glasgow turns its attention to finance while officials get busy in closed-session technical negotiations.

University of Melbourne research suggests India’s plans could make sizeable difference to projections

• What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guide

The pledges on greenhouse gas emissions on the tablet at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow would limit global temperature rises to below 2C, the first time the world has been on such a trajectory, according to research.

Plans by India, the world’s third biggest emitter, have made a sizeable difference to the global temperature estimate, research by the University of Melbourne has found.

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Trip to Glasgow was heavy on dire warnings but light on deep emissions cuts – and ended with him blaming China and Russia

Joe Biden returned to the US in the pre-dawn gloom on Wednesday to a climate agenda still held in frustrating limbo by Congress, following his high-profile cameo at crunch UN climate talks in Scotland that was heavy on dire warnings but light on deep cuts to planet-heating emissions.

The US president had aimed to arrive in Glasgow for the Cop26 summit with historic climate legislation in hand, which he could use to brandish at world leaders who still harbor resentments over four turbulent years of Donald Trump, where the climate crisis was variously ignored and mocked.

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With more than a third of the country’s greenhouse gases coming from farming, Dublin faces huge pressure over reduction aims

Up to 1.3 million cattle would have to be culled in Ireland to reach anticipated government targets for reducing greenhouse gases in the agriculture sector, a new report has concluded.

Irish farmers are expecting the worst after taoiseach Micheál Martin described the report by KPMG, commissioned by weekly newspaper the Irish Farmers Journal, as “scaremongering”.

The debate over agriculture’s role in reducing carbon emissions is a hugely controversial topic in Ireland, pitting Dublin against rural communities.

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Estimates that the global voluntary carbon market could be worth $100-180 billion in 2030 are overly optimistic, with actual volumes and prices likely to stay well below the forecasts made by the private-sector Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM), a report said on Wednesday.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched at COP26 in Glasgow on Wednesday a partnership with Indonesia and the Philippines to help wean the two key Southeast Asian economies from their reliance on coal-fired power.