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Few economic and social benefits will come to Africans if processing is all done overseas, says Wanjira MathaiAfrica must take greater control in the industries it supplies with raw materials to lift its people from poverty and seize its own destiny in a low-carbon world, one of the continent’s leading environmentalists has urged.Wanjira Mathai, the managing director for Africa and global partnerships at the...

Anticyclonic conditions have allowed temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the countryMexico has been undergoing its first heatwave of the season. The heatwave started on Sunday 14 April, when Mexico City saw a new date record with a high of 32.9C, surpassing the previous record of 32C from 1998.Anticyclonic conditions over the region have been responsible for this heatwave by inhibiting cloud formation,...

Environmentalists fear focus on economy may undermine country’s climate transition – one of most radical in EuropePortugal has been among Europe’s more ambitious countries in terms of climate action, but the rise of the far right in recent elections could threaten the positive steps the country has taken.At the end of 2023, Portugal broke records as it went for six consecutive days relying solely...

Europeans are dying from hot weather 30% more than they did two decades ago, report findsScorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen.Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological...

Officials urge municipalities to begin emergency planning after major rivers and reservoirs threaten to overflowMajor rivers, waterways and reservoirs in China’s Guangdong province are threatening to unleash dangerous floods, forcing the government to enact emergency response plans to protect more than 127 million people.Calling the situation “grim”, local weather officials said sections of rivers and tributaries at the Xijiang and Beijiang river basins are...

Notorious for drawing large crowds, Emerson was removed by officials who were surprised to find him back in Victoria in a weekLast week, gun-wielding conservation officers stuffed a 500lb elephant seal in the back of a van, drove him along a winding highway in western Canada and left him on a remote beach “far from human habitation”.The plan was to move the young seal...

Annual watchlist raises concern for native chicken, duck, geese and turkey populations as well as rare pig breedsAll of the UK’s native breeds of chicken, duck, geese and turkey are under threat because of bird flu, a report from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) has found.The disease, which has swept the globe after it originated in poultry farms in Asia, has caused devastating...

El Niño weather phenomenon depletes reservoirs and limits output at hydroelectric plantsEcuador has begun to ration electricity in the country’s main cities as a drought linked to the El Niño weather pattern depletes reservoirs and limits output at hydroelectric plants that produce about 75% of the nation’s power.“We urge Ecuadorians to cut their electricity consumption in this critical week,” the ministry of energy said...

Removal of nearly 500 barriers last year will help restore disturbed waterways to their natural state, says Dam Removal EuropeEurope removed a record number of dams and other barriers from its rivers in 2023, a report has found, helping to restore its disturbed waterways to their natural states.Nearly 500 barriers were taken out of European rivers last year, according to figures compiled by Dam...

Bogotá brings in water rationing with El Niño weather phenomenon meaning city could run out in under two monthsCouples in Bogotá are being asked to shower together as water supplies are rationed in the Colombian capital.Major neighbourhoods were cut off from the water grid on Thursday to preserve dangerously low water levels at reservoirs that have been starved of rain by the weather phenomenon...

Advocates fear situation could escalate in Javari valley, a region plagued by violence and poor healthcareMore than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.The valley, where Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were killed in 2022, is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in...

Gusts of more than 70mph recorded on Irish Sea coast, as temperatures rose above 30C in mainland EuropeStorm Kathleen brought strong winds to Ireland and the UK at the weekend, causing travel and power disruption. The storm, named by Met Éireann, developed in the Atlantic on Thursday, deepening explosively as it pushed northwards to the west of Ireland.Peak wind gusts of 40-60mph (65-95km/h) were...

Federal emergency declared in Orenburg region and at least 6,000 homes inundated after Ural River overflowsFlood waters were rising in two cities in Russia’s Ural mountains on Sunday after Europe’s third-longest river burst through a dam, flooding at least 6,000 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee.The Ural River, which rises in the Ural Mountains and flows into the Caspian Sea, swelled several...

Sydney expected to be badly affected as further downpours and strong winds forecast to lash New South Wales coastSouth-eastern Australia has been experiencing heavy rain since Thursday night, which will continue until Saturday morning local time. New South Wales will be particularly badly affected, with cumulative rainfall totals of 150-200m along coastal stretches.Hourly totals are expected to reach 10-20mm at times, with the worst-affected...

Governments across region grappling for response as temperatures soar to unseasonable highsThousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist...

Emmerson Mnangagwa says country needs $2bn of aid as severe dry spell caused by El Niño afflicts southern AfricaZimbabwe has declared a national disaster over a drought caused by the climate event known as El Niño and President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said the country needs $2bn in aid to help millions of people who are going hungry.The severe dry spell is wreaking havoc across...

Meteorologist says bears were not aggressive but they fired signal gun to scare them awayKatarzyna Kudłacz was preparing a breakfast of scrambled eggs at a research station on Svalbard when she looked up to see she had three unexpected guests.Shocked and in awe, the meteorologist immediately alerted her colleagues to the female polar bear and her two cubs peering into the Polish research station...

Exclusive: Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivableIn a dilapidated warehouse in Rafah, Soha Abu Diab is living with her three young daughters and more than 20 other family members. They have no running water, no...

World’s fossil-fuel producers on track to nearly quadruple output from newly approved projects by decade’s end, report findsThe world’s fossil-fuel producers are on track to nearly quadruple the amount of extracted oil and gas from newly approved projects by the end of this decade, with the US leading the way in a surge of activity that threatens to blow apart agreed climate goals, a...

Just 2% of continent’s gas capacity has planned retirement date despite pledges to decarbonise, study showsEurope’s “tone-deaf” expansion of fossil gas is accelerating climate breakdown and increasing reliance on hostile regimes, campaigners have warned.Just four of Europe’s gas-fired power plants have a retirement plan and new projects will increase the continent’s gas generation capacity by 27%, according to analysis from the campaign group Beyond...

Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in IberiaBrazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in...

Year of devastating wildfires meant Canadians were breathing worse air than southern neighbours for first time everCanada’s pristine air quality has been long praised by its citizens and prized by its government. But the thick plumes of smoke and miles of haze released by a record-breaking season of wildfires deteriorated the country’s air so much that it has fallen behind the United States for...

Revised corporate sustainability directive, first agreed in December, draws criticism from environmental campaignersEU countries have slashed the scope of a law to make companies hunt down human rights abuse and environmental harm in their supply chains.The EU’s corporate sustainability directive, which was agreed in December but nearly scuttled after a minor coalition partner in the German government withdrew its support, was approved by member...

Britain spent about £26bn in three years on low-carbon measures, less than Italy, Germany, France and Spain, Greenpeace findsThe UK spends less on low-carbon energy policy than any other major European economy, analysis has shown, despite evidence that such spending could lower household bills and increase economic growth more than the tax cuts the government has planned.Spending on low-carbon measures for the three years...