Focus Climat

Environment minister has 28 days to appeal historic ruling that carbon emissions from coalmine should not cause young people ‘personal injury or death’

After a century of wielding extraordinary economic and political power, America’s petroleum giants face a reckoning for driving the greatest existential threat of our lifetimes. An unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aim to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way.

Warming Stripes for GLOBE from 1850-2020 Data: Berkeley Earth, NOAA, UK Met Office, MeteoSwiss, DWD, SMHI, UoR, Meteo France & ZAMG

The nations that make up the G7 have pumped billions of dollars more into fossil fuels than they have into clean energy since the COVID-19 pandemic, despite their promises of a green recovery. A new analysis reveals that the countries attending committed $189 billion to support oil, coal, and gas between January 2020 and March 2021. In comparison, the same countries spent $147 billion on clean forms of energy. The support for fossil fuels from seven of the world’s richest nations included measures to remove or downgrade environmental regulations as well as direct funding of oil, gas and coal.

Major airlines have claimed in recent years that they can offset emissions by supporting forest conservation projects, yet a new investigation reveals that the systems used are deeply flawed. One of the main offset accreditors, Verra, whose ‘avoided’ deforestation scheme is criticised in the investigation for lacking credibility

the court found that one million of today’s Australian children are expected to be hospitalised because of a heat-stress episode, that substantial economic loss will be experienced, and that the Great Barrier Reef and most of Australia’s eucalypt forest won’t exist when they grow up. It found this harm is real, catastrophic, and – importantly from a legal perspective – “reasonably foreseeable”.

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International lawyers, environmentalists and a growing number of world leaders say “ecocide”—widespread destruction of the environment—would serve as a “moral red line” for the planet.

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Rising consumption by the affluent has a far greater environmental impact than the birth rate in poorer nations

Michael Moore presents Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road — selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America. This film is the wake-up call to the reality we are afraid to face: that in the midst of a human-caused extinction event, the environmental movement’s answer is to push for techno-fixes and band-aids. It's too little, too late.

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A short glossary of the changes we’ve made to the Guardian’s style guide, for use by our journalists and editors when writing about the environment

Pétition à nos représentants parlementaires

Industry funds ‘grassroots’ resistance to tougher rules while touting green credentials, study shows

For the last three decades, environmental groups have diligently lobbied their governments to slow carbon and methane emissions. Activists have put pressure on industry too. They’ve been smart, full of energy and creative. Yet, despite several big international treaties — especially the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement — and some impressive accomplishments including holding up pipelines and getting institutional investors to divest from fossil fuels, the pollution and the warming have not stopped.

En tant qu'intellectuels et citoyens engagés, et juchés sur les épaules de géants -ces dizaines de milliers de citoyens et décideurs engagés depuis plus de 6 mois-, il est de notre devoir de contribuer à ce que les partis et candidats expriment leur programme politique et que les citoyens votent en âme et conscience.

A toutes les citoyennes et tous les citoyens de Belgique, Considérant que la communauté scientifique internationale nous alerte depuis 50 ans sur le fait que le mode de vie de nos sociétés industrialisées –et en particulier notre mode de vie en Belgique– dérègle notre climat, détruit nos écosystèmes, érode nos terres arables, surexploite nos ressources naturelles, extermine les espèces vivantes, pollue l’air, l’eau et les sols partout dans le monde.

On September 14, 1869, 25,000 people marched through New York to celebrate the centennial of the birth of German scientist Alexander von Humboldt.