The Guardian

Energy secretary seeks to reestablish UK as a global leader on the climate crisis with meeting of Cop presidents

Labour will honour a pledge of £11.6bn in overseas aid for the climate crisis, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told an unusual meeting of Cop presidents past and present on Friday, as he sought to reestablish the UK at the heart of international climate discussions.

As the Labour government prepares for this year’s climate change summit in November, Miliband hosted Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijan government minister who will lead Cop29, and Ana Toni, the top official on the climate for Brazil, which will host Cop30 in the Amazonian city of Belem in 2025 in a meeting to discuss what steps are needed to make a success of the next two UN climate Cops, as the “conferences of the parties” under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are known.

Communities affected by construction of renewable energy infrastructure ‘have the right to see the benefits’

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Labour will seek to persuade people living near proposed pylon routes and other renewable energy infrastructure that the developments are critical to bring down bills and tackle carbon emissions, the energy secretary said.

Ed Miliband promised to consider new benefits for communities affected by the construction of renewable energy infrastructure, and community ownership of the assets, which could include onshore windfarms and solar farms.

National Whale and Dolphin Watch organisers say data collected will help with research into marine mammals

Hundreds of wildlife enthusiasts are expected to gather along UK coastlines over the next 10 days to count and record whales and dolphins.

The National Whale and Dolphin Watch, taking place from 26 July to 4 August, is hosted by the Sea Watch Foundation and aims to get volunteers to observe and record sightings of the UK’s most impressive marine mammals.

Organisers hope dogs will mimic behaviour of wolves that in past would have helped disperse wildflower seeds

Backpack-wearing dogs are being enlisted to “act like wolves” to help rewild an urban nature reserve in the East Sussex town of Lewes.

Before wolves were persecuted to extinction in the UK in about 1760, they were known to roam large areas, typically covering 12 miles (20km) or more each night.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

From Los Angeles to Cairo, the global water crisis is escalating – but Valencia’s Tribunal de les Aigües could inspire a solution

Every Thursday at noon, outside the west door of Valencia’s cathedral, nine black-cloaked figures – one wearing a banded cap and with a ceremonial harpoon by their side – gather for their weekly meeting, as they have done for hundreds of years. This is the Tribunal de les Aigües (Tribunal of Waters) – a water court that may be the oldest institution of justice in Europe.

It may seem like a relic of the past, but in fact, in the midst of a global water crisis, the tribunal is more relevant than ever. We are a civilisation at risk of committing aquacide. Due to droughts caused by climate change, expanding industrial agriculture and growing urbanisation, one in every four people will be affected by water scarcity over coming decades, with cities from Los Angeles and Cairo to Melbourne and São Paulo facing acute shortages. Water conflicts are on the rise, both within and between nations – we are increasingly fighting over water rather than oil and land. Moreover, in countries such as the UK, private water companies are jacking up prices and siphoning off super-profits while dumping sewage in the rivers.

From an unexpected glimpse of a silky anteater to a tagged terrapin, here is a selection of this year’s winning, runner-up and commended images from the 2024 Mangrove photography awards, run by the Mangrove Action Project

Connection found between early exposure and bronchitic symptoms in adults without previous lung problems

Air pollution breathed in during childhood is one of the factors in adult lung health, according to a new study.

The origins of the study date back to 1992 when researchers began investigating the effects of air pollution on groups of children in California. Some of these children are now in their 40s.

Researchers say 650 tonnes on order for Paris Games is a potential stress on local and regional resources

From cold-water swimming to ice baths, deliberately freezing yourself has been hailed as a panacea for everything from menopause symptoms to arthritis, headaches and immunity conditions.

And for sportspeople, ice is widely used to aid recovery after exercise. But now researchers have said the clinical benefits of ice therapy are not evidence-based and its popularity is bad for the environment.

Secretary general said wealthiest countries are ‘signing away our future’ with more production and called for phase-out of fossil fuels

The world’s wealthiest countries are “signing away our future” by leading a “flood” of expansion in fossil fuel activity that threatens worsening heatwaves and other climate impacts that imperil billions of people, the head of the United Nations has warned.

António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, on Thursday called on countries to “fight the disease” of the world’s “addiction” to coal, oil and gas, warning that tumbling heat records this week must spur rich nations to lead the way in phasing out fossil fuels.

Flights at Germany’s busiest airport ‘gradually resuming’ on second day of coordinated ‘oil kills’ protests

Climate activists have disrupted flights at Frankfurt and Oslo airports on the second day of coordinated “oil kills” protests across Europe and North America.

Demanding an end to fossil fuels by 2030, supporters of Letzte Generation (Last Generation) briefly suspended flights at Frankfurt airport on Thursday morning. The activists said they had cut a wire fence, entered on bicycles and skateboards and glued themselves to the tarmac.

The storm has made landfall in Taiwan, unleashing torrential rain and strong gusts that have claimed at least three lives. Typhoon Gaemi also exacerbated rains in the Philippines, flooding the capital, Manila, and nearby cities, forcing authorities to shut schools, offices and prompting authorities to declare a state of calamity

• Typhoon Gaemi: three dead in Taiwan as storm unleashes torrential rain and strong winds

State of the UK Climate report shows sea surface temperatures 0.9C higher than the 1961 to 1990 average

The water near the UK’s coasts was hotter in 2023 than scientists have ever before recorded, a report has found, with children today experiencing a hotter and wetter climate than that in which their parents and grandparents grew up.

The sea surface temperature near coasts was 0.9C hotter and winter rainfall across the country was 24% greater over the last decade than the average from 1961 to 1990, according to the State of the UK Climate 2023 report. It found the number of “hot” (28C) days has more than doubled over that period, and the number of “very hot” (30C) and “extremely hot” (32C) days has more than tripled.

Scheme will use taxpayer money to develop parts of seabed owned by the royal family

Keir Starmer will promise to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, by using taxpayer money to develop parts of the seabed owned by the royal family.

The prime minister will announce details of the government’s energy generation company, known as Great British Energy, during a visit to the north-west designed to highlight the government’s promises on green energy.

Change equivalent to removing 200,000 cars for a year, with capital’s air quality improving at faster rate than rest of England

Levels of harmful air pollutants have dropped significantly since the ultra-low emission zone was enlarged to cover Greater London last year, according to a report from city hall.

Analysis covering the first six months since the Ulez expansion found that total emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from cars across London were 13% lower than projected had the scheme remained confined to inner London, while NOx from vans was 7% lower.

We’re making the case for 21st-century, modern public ownership that serves our communities

• Ed Miliband is the energy secretary

The public voted for change at the general election. Perhaps nowhere more than when it comes to energy. Every person and business has paid the price of our country’s energy insecurity. As Vladimir Putin sought to use energy as a weapon in his illegal invasion of Ukraine, bills went through the roof in a cost of living crisis unprecedented in modern times.

As the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently made clear, there is one obvious answer to preventing us being so exposed again – a sprint for homegrown clean energy. As it said in its progress report to parliament last week: “British-based renewable energy is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce vulnerability to volatile global fossil-fuel markets. The faster we get off fossil fuels, the more secure we become.”

Ed Miliband is the Labour MP for Doncaster North and secretary of state for energy security and net zero

Father says Grace Rohloff, 20, lost footing about three-quarters into 400ft cables descent and slid down mountain

A father-daughter hike that began with an Arizona college student checking off a bucket list item ended tragically when she was killed after falling down Yosemite’s Half Dome earlier this month.

Grace Rohloff, a 20-year-old hiker, and her father, Jonathan Rohloff, were descending the cables at Yosemite’s summit when she slipped and fell on 13 July, as reported by SFGate. The 14- to 16-mile round-trip hike to Half Dome is known for its difficulty and requires hikers to obtain permits in advance.

Campaigners say sudden sale suggests Abrdn’s use of Scottish countryside was ‘get-rich-quick scheme’

A Scottish estate that became a lightning rod for disputes over wealthy “green lairds” buying up the Highlands has been unexpectedly put up for sale.

The Far Ralia estate in the Cairngorms has gone on the market for £12m, three years after it was bought for £7.5m by an investment trust run by Standard Life, now Abrdn, as a way to offset carbon emissions from its properties.

Data shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F compared with 62.76F on Sunday.

World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests.

Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), compared with 62.76F (17.09C) on Sunday.

Researchers uncover ‘remarkable new way in which trees provide a vital climate service’ by reducing emissions

Microbes in the bark of trees play a vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere, scientists have discovered.

The greenhouse gas is a product of agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels and is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time.