For all its flaws, the Brazil conference underlined the wish by a global majority for clean energy and climate action – and the UK will keep leading the way
Ed Miliband is the secretary of state for energy security and net zero
Sweaty, maddening, sleepless. That’s what it was like to be part of Cop30 in Brazil. And yet more than 190 countries came together in the rainforest of the Amazon and reaffirmed their faith in multilateralism, the Paris agreement and the need to redouble our efforts to keep global warming to 1.5C.
We went to Cop because working with other countries to tackle the climate crisis is the only way to protect our home and way of life. We know the UK produces just 1% of emissions, which is why, as the prime minister said in Belém, our government is “all-in” on working with others to reduce the remaining 99%.
Ed Miliband is Labour MP for Doncaster North and secretary of state for energy security and net zero
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/23/2025 - 12:57
11/23/2025 - 12:46
Reaching agreement in divisive political landscape shows ‘climate cooperation is alive and kicking’, says UN climate chief
The world is not winning the fight against the climate crisis but it is still in that fight, the UN climate chief has said in Belém, Brazil, after a bitterly contested Cop30 reached a deal.
Countries at Cop30 failed to bring the curtain down on the fossil fuel age amid opposition from some countries led by Saudi Arabia, and they underdelivered on a flagship hope – at a conference held in the Amazon – to chart an end to deforestation.
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11/23/2025 - 09:00
The government has offered to make changes to the bill to both the Greens and the Liberals hoping to reach a deal on legislation that can pass the Senate
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Years of debate about environmental law reform have come down to a tense standoff in the final sitting week of federal parliament for the year, with Labor claiming it can do a deal that will pass the Senate by Thursday.
The government is still pushing to pass its major changes, despite not yet having reached an agreement with either the Greens or the Coalition.
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11/23/2025 - 03:00
Alison Gaffney believes her son’s rare leukaemia was caused by dumped toxic waste from the town’s steelworks
Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received the devastating news that their 17-month-old son, Fraser, had a rare type of leukaemia in 2018.
Two years of gruelling treatment followed, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, then aged three, made a “miraculous recovery” from the surgery, before doctors declared the cancer in remission.
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11/23/2025 - 03:00
Cross-party coalition behind proposals hope eco-friendly scheme for million people could begin before end of decade
In the next few years, spades could be in the ground for a city made of wood, in the middle of the largest new nature reserve created in England in decades, with four-bedroom homes on sale for £350,000.
It sounds too good to be true, but a cross-party coalition of campaigners is trying to make a “forest city” to house a million people a reality, with construction commencing by the end of this parliament. It would be the first such project in England since the purpose-built new town of Milton Keynes in the 1960s.
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11/22/2025 - 18:41
Australia may not be hosting Cop31, but the unprecedented Turkey partnership is a real chance to secure global influence and turbocharge a new green zeitgeist
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The Cop30 climate conference has finally come to an end, with Australia having lost out on the grand prize of hosting next year’s gathering. But Australia’s formal partnership agreement with Turkey nevertheless provides an opportunity to secure unparalleled global influence and turbocharge our own transformation to a net zero, green export economy. Here are three ways to make it happen.
First, Chris Bowen’s new role as Cop31 “president of negotiations” puts the climate and energy minister at the helm of the most complex and consequential multilateral process in the world.
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11/22/2025 - 11:50
Wealthy countries should triple funds for countries to tackle climate impacts, but deforestation and critical minerals blocked from final deal
The world edged a small step closer to the end of the fossil fuel era on Saturday, but not by nearly enough to stave off the ravages of climate breakdown.
Countries meeting in Brazil for two weeks could manage only a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase-out of fossil fuels, and they achieved this incremental progress only in the teeth of implacable opposition from oil-producing countries.
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11/22/2025 - 08:35
Migratory birds that fill North American forests with spring songs depend on Central America’s Five Great Forests far more than most people realize. New research shows these tropical strongholds shelter enormous shares of species like Wood Thrushes, Cerulean Warblers, and Golden-winged Warblers—many of which are rapidly declining. Yet these forests are disappearing at an alarming pace due to illegal cattle ranching, placing both birds and local communities at risk.
11/22/2025 - 07:25
After a series of all-night meetings and fears the summit could collapse, an agreement has been gavelled through at Cop30
We have some texts, but we do not have the big one yet (the global mutirão decision).
So far, we have the final versions on the mitigation work programme, the global stocktake, gender, loss and damage, and the global environment facility.
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11/22/2025 - 05:00
Trend is adding to ‘waste crisis’ owing to individual packaging and potential for unwanted items, campaigners say
The trend for Advent calendars aimed at adults is “superfluous consumerism” that adds to excessive and wasteful consumption, according to environmental groups.
While once children excitedly opened a door each day to see what festive picture lay behind it, adults can now count down the days to Christmas with calendars containing everything from luxury beauty products to instant mashed potato.
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