The Guardian

Analysis of insurance payouts by Christian Aid reveals three-quarters of financial destruction occurred in US

The world’s 10 most costly climate disasters of 2024 caused $229bn in damages and killed 2,000 people, the latest annual analysis of insurance payouts has revealed.

Three-quarters of the financial destruction occurred in the world’s biggest economy, the US, where climate denier Donald Trump will become president next month.

Exclusive: Report finds poorer areas particularly affected by varying availability and cost of charging electric cars

The UK is at risk of a drastic slowdown in its transition to electric cars because of big disparities in the availability and cost of charging points, especially in poorer areas, a report says.

The study, by the consultancy Stonehaven, argues that given rapid advances in batteries and car range, persuading more people to move to electric vehicles is now less an issue of technology than one of “urban management and social equity”.

Protests, Taylor Swift and chubby penguins are all part of the best images from the wire agencies in 2024

The Desertas Island land snails have been set free to roam on the uninhabited island of Bugio, near Madeira

More than 1,300 tiny, critically endangered snails have been set free to roam on an island off the coast of Morocco after a breeding programme rescued two obscure species from the brink of extinction.

The Desertas Island land snails had not been recorded for more than 100 years and were believed to have disappeared from their natural habitat on the windswept, mountainous island of Deserta Grande, close to Portugal-owned Madeira.

Experts at the Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza (IFCN) rediscovered minute populations of two species of the snail, each consisting of fewer than 200 survivors, in conservation expeditions between 2012 and 2017 amid fears that invasive predators might have eaten the pea-sized molluscs into oblivion.

Birmingham City University thinktank imagines new approach to urban areas and land use across the region

“When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor,” says landscape architecture professor Kathryn Moore with a smile.

She is pointing at a map of the West Midlands. But instead of buildings, roads and a sprawling canal network, this map shows the natural hills and undulations that lie below the human-made architecture.

Call for illicit market to be taken out of hands of criminals as numbers continue to fall drastically due to poaching

International trade in rhino horns should be legalised, a leading wildlife expert has urged.

Writing in the research journal Science, Martin Wikelski argues only carefully monitored, legitimate transactions in horns can save the world’s remaining species of rhinoceros.

Conservationists issue warning as figures show three-quarters of SSSI sites have had no recent assessments

Conservationists have said wildlife could be “disappearing in the dark” after figures showed that three-quarters of England’s most precious habitats, wildlife and natural features have had no recent assessment of their condition.

The warning follows the publication of figures covering assessments of protected natural sites known as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) in the last five years. SSSIs are legally protected because they contain special features such as threatened habitats or rare species, and together they cover more than 1.1m hectares (2.7m acres), about 8% of England’s land area.

Several days of snow brought avalanche risk at Christmas, as wintry weather also caused four deaths in India

A snowstorm developed across the Alps on Saturday 21 December due to a low-pressure system situated over the Adriatic Sea. This depression allowed relatively warm and moist air to push into the Alps, condensing and falling as snow as it met the much colder alpine air mass. Snowfall continued for several days, with well over 1 metre of snow on some peaks and significant snowfall across many ski villages. Consequently, there was a significant avalanche risk over the Christmas period.

Ski resorts in Bulgaria also experienced significant snow starting on Christmas Day, which caused disruption in the mountainous west, where ski resorts had to temporarily shut down due to road closures. Towns such as Troyan, Samokov and Teteven were particularly badly affected with snowdrifts and power failures.

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

Analysis shows fossil fuels are supercharging heatwaves, leaving millions prone to deadly temperatures

The climate crisis caused an additional six weeks of dangerously hot days in 2024 for the average person, supercharging the fatal impact of heatwaves around the world.

The effects of human-caused global heating were far worse for some people, an analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central has shown. Those in Caribbean and Pacific island states were the hardest hit. Many endured about 150 more days of dangerous heat than they would have done without global heating, almost half the year.

Grant will go towards repackaging food that would go to waste and delivering it to shelters, food banks and charities

Labour ministers have backed plans for a £15m fund to redistribute food from farms that otherwise go to waste, particularly around Christmas.

Grants starting from £20,000 will be handed to the not-for-profit food redistribution sector in England to repackage farm food and deliver it to homeless shelters, food banks and charities.

Charity says unstable weather patterns caused by the climate crisis had a ‘devastating impact’ in 2024

There have been alarming declines this year in some insect species including bees, butterflies, moths and wasps, while many seabirds have also been “hammered” by unstable weather patterns caused by the climate emergency, a conservation charity has said.

In its annual report on the impact of the weather on flora and fauna, the National Trust highlights that numbers of bees and butterflies have “crashed” in some areas of the UK in 2024.

Number hits record level but rate of growth slows as installers face delays to government funding

The UK installed a record number of public electric car chargers in 2024, although the rate of growth slowed as installers contended with delays to government funding.

Numbers rose by more than a third to reach 73,421 by 20 December, according to Zapmap, whose data the government uses. The increase of 19,600 was nearly equivalent to the total number of chargers at the end of 2020.

Strips of native plants on as little as 10% of farmland can reduce soil erosion by up to 95%

Between two corn fields in central Iowa, Lee Tesdell walks through a corridor of native prairie grasses and wildflowers. Crickets trill as dickcissels, small brown birds with yellow chests, pop out of the dewy ground cover.

“There’s a lot of life out here, and it’s one of the reasons I like it, especially in these late summer days,” Tesdell said.

Potential IPCC rule changes could award planned carbon savings from burning US wood pellets to the exporter, not the importer

The UK government is gambling with its own climate targets on claims that the Drax power plant will create “negative emissions” because new rules could hand the carbon savings to the US, campaigners say.

The owners of the North Yorkshire power plant have promised ministers that a key project to capture the carbon emissions created from burning biomass wood pellets imported from US forests will count as negative emissions in Britain’s carbon accounts.

Group says people in rural areas have to walk on roads without pavement, which can be very dangerous

Give people the right to walk around the edges of privately owned fields, say campaigners seeking to open up more paths in the British countryside.

Slow Ways, a group advocating for more access to the countryside, said people in rural areas often have to walk on roads that do not have pavements, which can be extremely dangerous.

Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,000 cemeteries and recorded 10,000 species

Churchyards are vital havens for rare wildlife including dormice, bats and beetles, according to an extensive audit of burial grounds around the UK.

The conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,325 cemeteries, with 800,000 wildlife records submitted and more than 10,800 species recorded.

A rise in the number of remarriages and a baby boom in the years since 2004 gave hope to survivors and helped them cope with the tragedy

It was Mahyuddin’s mother who had pestered him to go out on Sunday morning, 20 years ago. Dozens of relatives were visiting their small coastal village in Indonesia for a wedding party, but a powerful earthquake had struck just before 8am. Buildings in some areas had collapsed. He should go and check on his employer’s office to see if they needed help, his mother said.

As he drove into town, he found chaos and panic. The road was heavy with traffic: cars, motorbikes, trucks, all rushing in the same direction. People were running, shouting that water was coming.

Campaigners jubilant after government heeded warning 2031 cutoff would mean loss of precious footpaths

A deadline for registering historic rights of way is to be scrapped after a warning that the looming cutoff date could result in the loss of thousands of miles of footpaths.

The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map, after abandoning a previous commitment to scrap the policy.

Evaluation could lead to limits or bans on substances commonly used in the production of plastic and rubber

The Environmental Protection Agency is launching a formal review of five highly toxic plastic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, the notorious compound at the center of the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck fire.

The move could lead to strong limits or bans on the substances.