The Guardian

Mukhtar Babayev is named president-in-waiting of UN climate summit to be held in November

Cop29, the next round of UN talks to tackle the climate crisis, will be led by another veteran of the oil and gas industry.

Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, has been appointed the president-in-waiting for the Cop29 climate talks when they take place in the country in November.

Other families have spread on to the finest beaches – but how often do you travel an inner-city waterway and happen upon ‘bats, bats, bats, and more bats’?

• This is part of a series in which great Australian writers tell us about their summers away from the beach

My son and I drive 10 minutes from home to the venerable Fairfield Park boathouse. We study a list of river-faring craft and choose a two-seater kayak. He likes sitting at the front, he tells me, so he can pretend he’s alone. I like sitting at the back so I can watch him grow before my eyes.

On the river we make a show of synchronised paddling but, when we’re out of sight, we let ourselves drift downstream. Eucalypts overhang the water and we float through reflections of twisting branches, making them ripple. Ducks come and race us. Parrots skitter through the trees that line the banks. Only the appearance of a bridge connecting the Eastern Freeway reminds us we’re mere kilometres from Melbourne’s city centre.

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Cost of sugar surges to highest level since 2011 after extreme dry spell in India and severe drought in Thailand threaten crops

The climate crisis has been previously identified as a threat to coffee and beer, and its impact could now be stretching to another of life’s joys: dessert.

The global cost of sugar has surged to its highest level since 2011 following concerns of overproduction rates from India, which has experienced an extreme dry spell that has threatened crops, and Thailand, which is facing a severe drought. The two countries are the largest exporters of sugar, after Brazil.

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

Climate thinktank says Britain could be left trailing in global race to develop low-carbon energy

Labour’s independent energy advisers have warned the party against watering down its £28bn green spending plans in advance of its promise to create a zero carbon electricity system by 2030.

Experts at the climate thinktank Ember, which provided the independent analysis underpinning Labour’s green targets, said growing international competition for low-carbon investment from the US and EU could leave the UK lagging in the global race for low-carbon energy.

Stalled growth in electric vehicles comes despite government goal to phase out petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles by 2035

The number of new cars registered in the UK has jumped by nearly 18% but electric vehicle demand is flatlining, prompting the industry to call for a VAT cut to stimulate sales.

Annual figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Friday show 1.9m new cars were registered last year, well up on the previous year’s figure of 1.6m and the highest level since the 2.3m registrations of 2019.

The only problem with being a refuse hunter is that once you start, it’s hard to stop – you could find a unicorn

When I was a child, the highlight of visiting my grandmother was being allowed to take her rubbish to the communal refuse room. The room had a chute that you could drop tied bags of household rubbish into, and they would travel down to a furnace somewhere.

My brother and I took it in turns to push the bag in, leaning over to try and watch it travel the length of the silver chute. Sometimes we’d try and pretend we could see the flames as the bag hit the furnace.

Spider measuring record 7.9cm across is almost as big as largest female collected in 2021, which was named Megaspider by Australian Reptile Park

With fangs that could pierce a human fingernail, the largest male specimen of the world’s most venomous arachnid has found a new home at the Australian Reptile Park where it will help save lives after a member of the public discovered it by chance.

The potentially deadly Sydney funnel-web spider dubbed “Hercules” was found on the Central Coast, about 80km north of Sydney, and was initially given to a local hospital, the Australian Reptile Park said in a statement.

Eco-friendly British produce could become unaffordable luxury if low quality imports still allowed, say farmers

Tightening environmental standards for British farmers while importing food produced to lower standards risks making eco-friendly food an unaffordable luxury item, farmers have said.

At the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday, the environment secretary, Steve Barclay, announced that the government would consult on a new labelling scheme that would single out food produced to UK standards, allowing consumers to choose more environmentally friendly food.

Ministers have previously claimed oilfield development will improve domestic energy security and help consumers

The UK government has admitted that oil from the controversial Rosebank field will be sold on the international market rather than to UK consumers.

Ministers have repeatedly claimed developing the huge oilfield off Shetland will improve UK energy security and help UK consumers, overriding concerns from climate experts and their own advisers.

Several species have vanished across swathes of the continent – and scientists say their disappearance holds unknown risks for humans

Africa’s birds of prey have experienced a widespread population collapse that risks unforeseen consequences for humans, according to a new study.

Tropical raptor species including the martial eagle, the bateleur and the dark chanting goshawk have vanished from swathes of the African continent over the past 40 years, new analysis shows, as many wild areas were converted to farmland. Several African birds of prey are on track to become locally extinct in many countries this century.

Expert says if you see a snake you should leave it alone and call for a professional catcher

When Tennille Bankes walked into a toilet cubicle in Goondiwindi, Queensland, she was greeted by the scaly tail of a spotted black snake peaking out beneath a closed lid.

The wildlife carer and snake catcher was called by police to the public bathroom after a local, surprised by the reptile, summoned them for help.

Police call wildlife carer and snake catcher Tennille Bankes to a public toilet cubicle in Goondiwindi, Queensland, after a local is surprised by a spotted black snake in the toilet bowl. As Bankes lures the serpent out, she explains that they have a 'natural instinct to go into holes' and that toilets offer a place to cool down and the chance of a snack, due to the frogs that also take refuge there to escape the heat

Exclusive: Badger Trust analysis comes 10 years after government started culls in England against scientific advice

Improved cattle testing, better financial and mental health support for farmers, and cattle and badger vaccination will more effectively tackle bovine TB in cattle than culling badgers, according to a report.

The review of evidence by the Badger Trust comes after 10 years of culling in England killed 210,237 badgers, costing £58.8m, without a significant easing of cattle TB.

Data shows 2023 had second-highest record of rooftop solar installations as small-scale solar continues to grow

Quarterly installations of new solar panels reached a record at the end of 2023, with Australian households more than three times as likely to have a photovoltaic system as a back yard swimming pool.

Households and businesses added 921 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity in the December quarter, according to SunWiz, an industry data group.

Committee finds British consumers contributing particularly highly to destruction of world’s forests

UK consumption is having an “unsustainable” impact on the world, and contributing particularly highly to deforestation, a report by MPs has found.

Products such as soya, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather may be products of deforestation, and the environmental audit committee has found that the UK’s deforestation footprint per tonne of product consumed is higher than that of other countries including China, calling it “unsustainable”. A deforestation footprint is similar to a carbon footprint. It signifies how much deforestation occurs per tonne of product consumed. Scientists have worked out the deforestation footprints of various countries by analysing trade patterns for goods which are linked to high levels of forest destruction.

Heavy flooding plagued Loughborough in Leicestershire on Wednesday as hundreds of flood warnings were in place across the country. Dozens of homes were flooded when the Grand Union canal began overflowing. John Brailsford, 67, said: 'These are the worst floods I’ve seen in 38 years of living here. The river sometimes bursts its banks but that’s further away and we were told the canal would never flood. It’s very severe. I saw police, fire and ambulance crews all along the streets, some with dinghies which have been rescuing people'

• Man killed by falling tree as Storm Henk causes havoc in southern Britain

Vineyard Wind development, off Massachusetts coast, starts to deliver power to New England grid in moment hailed as ‘historic’

The US’s first large-scale offshore wind project, located off the coast of Massachusetts, has started producing power for the first time, delivering a boost to Joe Biden’s ambitions of a proliferation of coastal wind turbines to help combat the climate crisis.

The first wind turbine in the Vineyard Wind development started to whirr on Tuesday, delivering around five megawatts of power to the New England grid. The operator of the project said it expects to have five turbines operational in the early part of this year, before eventually having 62 turbines as part of the project, which will produce enough electricity to power 400,000 homes.

Researchers using AI and satellite imagery find 75% of industrial fishing is not being publicly tracked, while wind turbines now outnumber oil platforms

Researchers have created the first global map of the industrial use of the ocean, using space technology and AI to reveal the emergence of a “new industrial revolution”.

A study led by Global Fishing Watch (GFW) and published in Nature found that 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels, mainly operating in Africa and south Asia, are “dark” or not publicly tracked. More than a quarter of the activity of transport and energy vessels is also missing from public tracking systems, it found.

Exclusive: Figures show hundreds of millions of pounds from promised £2.4bn a year on agriculture not spent

The government has been accused of “breaking its promise” to English farmers, with hundreds of millions of pounds missing from the farming budget.

Ministers had promised that by the end of this parliament, they would spend £2.4bn a year on agriculture. This money was to replace the EU’s common agricultural policy, which paid farmers a hectare of land they managed. Instead, the government promised that farmers could improve the natural environment and be paid handsomely for delivering public goods, thus helping nature and keeping farms in business.