The Guardian

Record levels of heat were absorbed last year by Earth’s seas, which have been warming year-on-year for the past decade

“Astounding” ocean temperatures in 2023 supercharged “freak” weather around the world as the climate crisis continued to intensify, new data has revealed.

The oceans absorb 90% of the heat trapped by the carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, making it the clearest indicator of global heating. Record levels of heat were taken up by the oceans in 2023, scientists said, and the data showed that for the past decade the oceans have been hotter every year than the year before.

True, the Tories will accuse Keir Starmer of being spendthrift, but it’s better for the party to fight an election on its own terms

It’s official: 2023 was the hottest year since records began and by some distance. The Earth is now 1.48C warmer than it was before the dawn of the industrial age and rapidly approaching the target limit of 1.5C set by the international community in Paris in 2015.

The movers and shakers who will pitch up in Davos to attend next week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) are worried – as well they might be. The WEF’s global risks survey is unequivocal: in a highly dangerous world, the threat posed by the climate emergency is the one that gives most cause for concern in the long term.

Larry Elliott is the Guardian’s economics editor

Industry data shows almost 190,000 installed last year as well as record number of heat pump installations

The number of households and businesses installing rooftop solar panels has reached its highest level in 12 years, while heat pump installations climbed to record highs in 2023, according to the industry’s official standards body.

The figures showed almost 190,000 rooftop solar installations were carried out last year, the highest level since the government slashed its subsidy scheme in late 2011.

IEA report says 50% growth last year keeps hope of achieving Cop28 climate target of tripling clean energy capacity

Global renewable energy capacity grew by the fastest pace recorded in the last 20 years in 2023, which could put the world within reach of meeting a key climate target by the end of the decade, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The world’s renewable energy grew by 50% last year to 510 gigawatts (GW) in 2023, the 22nd year in a row that renewable capacity additions set a new record, according to figures from the IEA.

Winner says people can save water, help animals and free themselves from the tyranny of lawnmowing

It is not so much a lawn as a moonscape: pitted craters dug by bandicoots, exhausted tufts of withered yellow grass plucked by wallabies and pitiful plants shrivelled brown under the Australian sunshine.

But Kathleen Murray is the proud winner of the first World’s Ugliest Lawn competition after the Swedish contest to encourage water-saving, environmentally-friendly gardening went global.

Volcano-top orchid also named by scientists contending with extinctions caused by the human destruction of nature

Two types of tree and a palm that live underground are among the new plant species named in 2023 and highlighted by scientists at the Royal Botanical Garden Kew in the UK.

The palm is unique, as the only species known to flower and fruit almost exclusively underground, and was discovered in Borneo. The trees were discovered in the deep Kalahari sands of highland Angola, where the free-draining terrain has led a number of species evolving to live at least 90% underground.

Ministers hope to build fleet of reactors to meet quarter of electricity demand by 2050 but critics highlight long delays and rising costs

The government has set out plans for what it claims will be Britain’s biggest nuclear power expansion in 70 years, despite concerns about faltering nuclear output and project delays.

Ministers published a roadmap on Friday that recommits the government to building a fleet of nuclear reactors capable of producing 24GW by 2050 – enough to meet a quarter of the national electricity demand.

Scientists warn further spread could threaten fragile ecosystem, as tests show seals died of H5N1 on South Georgia island

A UK virology team has confirmed the first bird flu infections in elephant and fur seals in the sub-Antarctic region, as the highly contagious H5N1 virus continues to spread around the world.

Researchers previously reported the mass deaths of seals and that a number of elephant seals on South Georgia island – a UK overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean – had been exhibiting symptoms of avian flu. But while seabird cases were confirmed, the seal infections were classed as suspected, pending lab results.

Critics call cattle-raising project on Hawaii ranch ‘a billionaire’s strange sideshow’ and bad for the environment

The social media tycoon Mark Zuckerberg’s latest business venture raising “world-class” beef cattle on his sprawling luxury Hawaiian hideaway has been derided as out of touch and environmentally irresponsible.

The Meta billionaire posted a picture of himself on Wednesday eating a steak – medium rare, no sides – from his Ko’olau ranch, a 1,400-acre compound on Kauai, Hawaii’s oldest island.

Climate Council finds average Australian car needs more petrol to travel same distance as more efficient models common overseas

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The average Australian car needs more petrol to travel the same distance as more efficient models common overseas, with climate advocates saying inaction from the government on fuel efficiency standards is adding hundreds of dollars to the cost of road trips.

Analysis from the Climate Council has found that while drivers of battery electric vehicles charging their cars pay only a fifth of the cost of fuelling an internal combustion engine car, there is still a large discrepancy between how much it costs to run petrol-reliant vehicles of varying efficiency.

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James Meadway, once a Labour adviser and now a podcast host, says the separation between climate and economy has to end

James Meadway is an economist who is not at all impressed with economics. Formerly an adviser to John McDonnell when he was Labour shadow chancellor, Meadway has plenty to say about what mainstream economics gets wrong. But one of his central gripes is the way it treats the environment. “We cannot simply pretend that … the entire ecological crisis is a separate and distinct thing from what’s happening in the economy,” says Meadway, who now works on climate finance. And yet that is precisely what happens.

This critique informs the podcast, Macrodose, which Meadway presents and which has recently turned one year old. Its tagline is “Your weekly fix of climate economics”. Every Wednesday, in 15 minutes or so, Meadway analyses the key economic stories of the week. Part of the aim is to make economics more accessible because, he says, it is often thought of as something so difficult that “you have to be really clever to do it”.

Alexander Darwall is challenging decision last year to overturn ban on wild camping on the moors

The right to wild camp on Dartmoor could be under threat again after the supreme court granted permission for a wealthy landowner to bring a case against it.

Last year, the Dartmoor National Park Authority won an appeal against a decision to ban wild camping on the moors.

Increased flooding blamed on years of government delays over ‘sponge cities’ rules

Increased sewage pollution, urban flooding and water supply interruptions are the result of a decade of failures by the Conservative ministers, according to water experts who are demanding an independent inquiry into water be set up by the next government.

The repeated failure of the Tories to implement rules to create “sponge cities” has led to much more visible sewage pollution, more flooding and increasing instances of water being cut off for householders and businesses, they say.

The sharp-tailed sandpiper migrates from Siberia to a Port of Hastings site that Tanya Plibersek last week blocked a state plan to develop

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A migratory shorebird that visits globally important wetlands the Victorian government wanted to dredge to make way for an offshore wind industry terminal is among eight birds added to the nation’s threatened species list.

The sharp-tailed sandpiper migrates from Siberia for the Australian summer and is now listed in Australia as vulnerable.

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Study of sounds and feeding habits shows animals organise into female-based groups of up to 20,000

Sperm whales live in clans with distinctive cultures, much like those of humans, a study has found.

Using underwater microphones and drone surveys, Hal Whitehead, a sperm whale scientist at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Canada, examined the sounds the animals made and their feeding habits and found they organised themselves into groups of up to around 20,000.

Scientists say mining could have devastating impact on marine life, but Norway claims it will help green transition

Norway is expected to become the first country in the world to open up its seabed for deep-sea mining with a highly contentious parliamentary vote on Tuesday.

The decision comes despite warnings from scientists who say it could have a devastating impact on marine life, and opposition from the EU and the UK who have called for a temporary ban on deep-sea mining because of environmental concerns.

Rapid reduction in fossil fuel burning urgently needed to preserve liveable conditions, say scientists, as climate damage deepens

2023 “smashed” the record for the hottest year by a huge margin, providing “dramatic testimony” of how much warmer and more dangerous today’s climate is from the cooler one in which human civilisation developed.

The planet was 1.48C hotter in 2023 compared with the period before the mass burning of fossil fuels ignited the climate crisis. The figure is very close to the 1.5C temperature target set by countries in Paris in 2015, although the global temperature would need to be consistently above 1.5C for the target to be considered broken.

More than 5% of global emissions are linked to conflict or militaries but countries continue to hide the true scale

Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe

In early 2022, journalists began to ask us how Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was affecting the climate crisis. While we could point to landscape fires, burning oil refineries and the thirst of diesel-hungry military vehicles, the emissions data they sought just wasn’t available. When it came to the reverberating consequences of Russia’s manipulation of Europe’s fossil fuel insecurity, or to the weakening of the international cooperation necessary for coordinated global climate action, our guesses were no better than theirs.

Two decades of international analysis and debate over the relationship between climate change and security has focused on how our rapidly destabilising climate could undermine the security of states. But it has largely ignored how national security choices, such as military spending or warfighting, can have an impact on the climate, and so undermine our collective security.

Two Siamang gibbons rescued from the illegal pet trade have been rehabilitated in a new Indonesian centre

The forest chorus of South Sumatra in Indonesia has some of its finest singers back: a pair of rare Siamang gibbons, rescued from the illegal pet trade, have been released into the wild.

Siamang gibbons (Symphalangus syndactylus) are known for their distinctive large throat sacs. But their powerful, haunting voices, used for communication and marking territory, are a blessing and a curse.

As floods, fires and storms escalate, it’s time for a body with the expertise and resources to protect people and the planet

In 1859 a Swiss businessman, Jean-Henri Dunant, travelled to northern Italy to discuss his investments in Algeria with the French emperor. The business meeting took place near the site of the battle of Solferino – a key confrontation in the war of Italian independence. Moved by the carnage and the sight of 40,000 wounded soldiers, abandoned on the battlefield, Dunant decided to dedicate his life to bringing humanitarian relief to war zones.

He was surprisingly effective. Thanks to his initiative, in 1863 the Red Cross was established, soon to be joined by the Turkish Red Crescent. In 1864, representatives of the main European powers signed the first Geneva convention “for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded in armies in the field”. In 1867 Dunant declared bankruptcy, his business interests entirely eclipsed by his philanthropic devotion.

Lorenzo Marsili is a philosopher, activist, author and director of the Berggruen Institute Europe