Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’
The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation.
Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on improving gross national happiness rather than just GDP, Tshering Tobgay told the Guardian.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/18/2025 - 10:00
11/18/2025 - 08:00
Decade after officials promised to cut flood risks, Edgemere residents and experts say it continues to be vulnerable
This article was produced in partnership between Floodlight, New York Focus and the Guardian.
Baba Ndanani has lived in one of New York City’s most flood-prone neighborhoods for more than 20 years, and he knows the risks all too well.
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11/18/2025 - 08:00
Reintroducing the apex predator would control deer populations, and maintain healthy ecosystems and bolster biodiversity, rewilding group says
Last summer, a wildlife photographer saw, or believed he saw, a mountain lion in South Burlington, Vermont. While it’s possible, it is also remarkable: the apex predator was rendered extinct in northern New England in 1881 and the nearest confirmed breeding population is in North Dakota, 2,000 miles away.
But there could be in years hence more definitive sightings if Mighty Earth, a US-headquartered rewilding organization, convinces state and local authorities, along with Vermonters in general, that returning the top-level predator – known in various regions as the cougar, puma, panther and, in the north-east, catamount – to the region.
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11/18/2025 - 07:55
Planned route linking Cambourne to Cambridge will go through one of county’s last traditional orchards
A £160m busway scheduled to be built through one of Cambridgeshire’s last traditional orchards would cause irreversible ecological harm, a public inquiry has been told.
The plans being examined for an off-road busway linking Cambourne to Cambridge follow a route through Coton Orchard, a 24-hectare (60-acre) orchard and nationally recognised priority habitat. A public inquiry, held by planning inspectors appointed by the transport secretary, is examining the scheme until 21 November.
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11/18/2025 - 07:14
So-called “mutirão decision” text provides first look at potential outcomes of UN climate summit – but don’t call it a cover text, say Brazilians
We should not fear the forces of denial and delay, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has warned, because “they are losing this fight”.
Speaking to delegates at Cop30, the Labour politician acknowledged the existence of climate deniers and delayers across the world – including in the UK – and described them as “well funded, well organised, and determined”.
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11/18/2025 - 07:00
‘Forever chemicals’ sprayed on almonds, grapes, tomatoes and other crops as activists warn of ‘obvious problem’
California farms applied an average of 2.5m lbs of PFAS “forever chemicals” per year on cropland from 2018 to 2023, or a total of about 15m lbs, a new review of state records shows.
The chemicals are added to pesticides that are sprayed on crops such as almonds, pistachios, wine grapes, alfalfa and tomatoes, the review of California Department of Pesticide Regulation data found. The Environmental Working Group nonprofit put together the report.
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11/18/2025 - 06:31
Prime minister says fight over hosting rights jeopardises global unity needed for action to help Pacific islands
Cop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of the climate talks in Brazil
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Anthony Albanese has said Australia will not stand in the way of Turkey hosting next year’s Cop31 climate summit, insisting the interests of Pacific Island countries should be prioritised amid a deadlock over where the 2026 event should take place.
As this year’s Cop summit enters its final days in Brazil, Albanese said Australia wanted to win the hosting rights, but conceded the risk of the event defaulting to Germany would present a poor outcome for global action on climate change.
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11/18/2025 - 06:10
Exclusive: Experts urge water companies to update plants to avoid another catastrophe, as analysis reveals scale of use
At least 15 sewage plants on England’s south coast use the same contaminated plastic beads that were spilled in an environmental disaster in Camber Sands, Guardian analysis can reveal.
Environmental experts have urged water companies to update these old treatment plants to avoid another catastrophic spill, which can lead to plastic beads being permanently embedded in the environment and killing marine wildlife.
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11/18/2025 - 06:00
It is one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks, but this tropical rainforest is losing out when it comes to climate policy and funding
In October 2023, leaders, scientists and policymakers from three of the world’s great rainforest regions – the Amazon, the Congo, and the Borneo-Mekong basins – assembled in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. They were there to discuss one urgent question: how to save the planet’s last great tropical forests from accelerating destruction.
For those present, the question was existential. But to their dismay, almost no one noticed. “There was very little acknowledgment that this was happening, outside of the Congo basin region,” says Prof Simon Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Leeds and University College London, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI).
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11/18/2025 - 03:00
Lobbyists representing industry responsible for a quarter to a third of global emissions participated in key talks at the UN climate summit
More than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists have participated at this year’s UN climate talks taking place in the Brazilian Amazon, where the industry is the leading cause of deforestation, a new investigation has found.
The number of lobbyists representing the interests of industrial cattle farming, commodity grains and pesticides is up 14% on last year’s summit in Baku – and larger than the delegation of the world’s 10th largest economy, Canada, which brought 220 delegates to Cop30 in Belém, according to the joint investigation by DeSmog and the Guardian.
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