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My rage against the senator might consume me if I couldn’t set it down here

Late in the evening on Friday 15 October an alert appeared on my phone that seemed at last to portend the end of the world. Two weeks before the UN climate summit in Glasgow – a make-or-break moment for American leadership and international ambition – Senator Joe Manchin had decided to gut our country’s best, and perhaps last, attempt to save itself. With three decades left to decarbonize the global economy, and a window of Democratic control unlikely to recur for years, Manchin’s benefactors in the coal and gas industry had managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, killing the Clean Electricity Performance Program that would finally have brought their lucrative global arson spree under control.

It was hard not to feel like this was game over, a sensation I’d grown accustomed to after a decade working in the American climate movement. It was the same feeling I’d had after the collapse of the Copenhagen climate talks, and the defeat of the Waxman-Markey bill, and the election of a president willing to drown the world to buoy his ego. But though each of those moments felt crushing, the news on the 15th felt worse.

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Australia on Monday published legislation outlining a financial framework for its planned Indo-Pacific carbon market, after agreeing with Indonesia over the weekend to work together on offsets.

Address by leader of world’s biggest polluter will be uploaded to conference website

• Cop26 begins as world leaders descend on Glasgow – live

China’s president, Xi Jinping, will address the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow on Monday in the form of a written statement.

An official schedule said Xi’s statement would be uploaded to the conference website following addresses by world leaders, including his US and French counterparts Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron.

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Oil major BP has hired a veteran project originator and carbon trader to lead its carbon trading operations in China after losing most of its regional team to Glencore earlier this year.

Leaders and delegates from around the world are arriving in Glasgow for a crucial conference on tackling the climate crisis. Follow the latest here

World leaders are beginning to arrive at the SEC, where they are being greeted by UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

Many were disappointed when it was confirmed that the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, would not attend in person, as although he has not left China since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic some feared it might signal a lack of ambition from China.

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Australia has become the world’s first nation to officially approve a carbon capture and storage project to generate carbon credits.

As world leaders gather for COP26 in Glasgow, Prime Minister Boris Johnson says action is needed.

After a public outcry, the Tories are realising that effluent-dumping water companies need more than a ticking off

The groundswell of disgust over water firms dumping raw human sewage into England’s rivers and seas has grown into a roiling tsunami threatening to overwhelm the government. By their own confession, water companies say they dumped untreated sewage into English water bodies more than 400,000 times last year, for a total of about 3.1m hours.

As shocking as that seems, you can safely assume this figure grossly underplays the true picture because not all sewage discharges are recorded, and because the sector is allowed to self-report its spills, a practice that begs to be abused.

Rachel Salvidge is an environmental journalist and deputy editor of the ENDS Report

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Five things you need to know about COP26 - the United Nations climate change conference - on Monday.

New Zealand has for the first time released company-level carbon data for participants in its emissions trading scheme.

I have spent much of my career focused on the environment. I know we have the tools and technology to beat this crisis

The most important thing to say is that we can still beat the crisis – but we are against the clock. Emissions are piling up in the atmosphere every day that goes by, so we’re in a race against time to act. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

There is no moment in time when we go from a world that’s fine to a world that’s a disaster. But every action, by every person, matters. Every bit of heating you prevent reduces human and planetary suffering, because that’s really what this will come down to.

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As an environment writer, I have seen many setbacks – but also triumphs such as the tackling of acid rain

I’ve been covering climate and the environment for 17 years – it’s astonishing to me that so many positive things are happening in response to the crisis.

Of course, we should have been bringing down emissions much sooner, and lots of the things that should have happened didn’t. In particular, I’d point to energy efficiency, which we all thought would be a big win early on, and fossil fuel subsidies, which have not come down as fast as we would have hoped.

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Leaders say they hoped for more from talks in Rome and chances of staying below 1.5C are fading

The G20 is failing poor and vulnerable countries by not agreeing to a climate plan that would ensure their people’s survival, leading figures at the Cop26 climate talks have said.

Leaders representing more than a billion of the people most at risk from the climate crisis told the Guardian they were “extremely concerned” and had hoped for more from the G20 summit in Rome.

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Whatever the outcome of the UN’s latest high-stakes crapshoot, a lengthy and arcane process must be followed first

It’s not the expectation that is unbearable with Cop26; it is the hope. The world, faced with the urgency of the climate crisis, demands that this is the summit to surpass all summits. Those of us who have experienced (or endured) them know that won’t happen. There are seven stages to every Cop. This one is unlikely to be much different.

1 The arrival. Here we go again. Teams of jet-lagged lobbyists, diplomats, journos, bankers and business folk queue with delegations of indigenous peoples and youth groups, lawyers, NGOs and economists to enter the parallel universe that is a UN climate Cop. Within hours, the complaints will start about the price of coffee, the distance between meeting rooms, the Glaswegian accents, the rain, the trains, the traffic, the UN security, the heavy policing and the dearth of good restaurants.

John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor

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Government’s flagship home insulation scheme reached less than 7% of intended 600,000 households

The government’s flagship green homes grant scheme to help people install energy efficiency measures resulted in just 15,182 households on low incomes improving their property’s insulation, it has emerged.

The £1.5bn scheme was designed to improve 600,000 properties but, according to data uncovered by the Liberal Democrats, only a small number of homes benefited from funding for much-needed improvements.

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Love is a human survival adaptation, and it is the scaffolding for the new social networks on which we will depend

When things look especially bleak for humankind, it’s worth reminding ourselves who we are – what makes us such a special species. Beyond our machines and our buildings, beyond our fiery conquests, beyond all of it, we’re exceptional creatures because we are capable of love. And not just one to one and within our families, but on a massive scale.

This is especially pertinent as we face the climate crisis. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of our technological transition, which dominates the climate adaptation narrative. We are the technological ape, and our technologies will be vital in solving this crisis: windmills to decarbonise our energy systems, flood defences against rising seas, and air conditioners to survive brutal heatwaves. We will need many more technological fixes, and much faster.

Gaia Vince is an author, journalist and broadcaster. Her latest book is Transcendence: How humans evolved through fire, language, beauty and time

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Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), the clean energy subsidiary of Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), has signed a major green hydrogen supply deal with UK construction firm JCB and supply firm Ryze Hydrogen, it announced.

In the late 1990s, a mining company was planning to expand its Kakadu uranium mine into Jabiluka land. But the expansion ultimately failed, thanks to Yvonne Maragula and Jacqui Katona. Jacqui Katona, Lecturer, Victoria University Lily O'Neill, Research Fellow, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

National Cabinet approves ESB's suite of reforms for the NEM, but promises more work on capacity mechanism, including low-emissions focus.

The post No “big bang” as ESB confirms rethink on CoalKeeper design appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Battery electric cars are an ideal choice for light-duty and shorter commutes, but for long-haul trucks or buses, hydrogen fuel cells offer higher loads, shorter refuelling times and a longer range. Soheil Mohseni, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sustainable Energy Systems, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Alan Brent, Professor and Chair in Sustainable Energy Systems, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington James Hinkley, Senior lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.