Judgment in The Hague orders Netherlands to do more to protect Caribbean people in its territory from impacts of climate crisis
The Dutch government discriminated against people in one of its most vulnerable territories by not helping them adapt to climate change, a court has found.
The judgment, announced on Wednesday in The Hague, chastises the Netherlands for treating people on the island of Bonaire, in the Caribbean, differently to inhabitants of the European part of the country and for not doing its fair share to cut national emissions.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/28/2026 - 11:55
01/28/2026 - 10:40
People in south-west mop up after Storm Chandra and prepare for next bout of rain, with major incident declared
In the early hours, the Wade family’s boxer puppy began barking. Thinking it needed to be let out, they traipsed downstairs and opened the back door – to be greeted not by their neat garden but an expanse of water.
“It was like a sea out there,” said James Wade. Over the coming hours the water crept into their home on a modern estate in Taunton, forcing James, his wife, Faye, and their three children, six, 11 and 12, out and into emergency accommodation.
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01/28/2026 - 08:01
Superpower Institute report fleshes out 2024 call from Labor heavyweight Ross Garnaut to re-embrace carbon pricing 12 years after Tony Abbott axed it
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The Albanese government could make deep emissions cuts and restructure an ailing federal budget by taxing polluting companies more than $35bn a year for the damage they cause to the planet, according to a report backed by senior economists and ex-public servants.
The analysis by the Superpower Institute – overseen by the longtime Labor adviser Ross Garnaut and former consumer watchdog chair Rod Sims, and supported by ex-Treasury head Ken Henry – makes a case for the introduction of a “polluter pays levy” on companies that extract or import fossil fuels consumed in Australia.
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01/28/2026 - 07:00
A year into Trump’s second term, critics say the EPA is rolling back dozens of protections and giving a leg up to polluters
After a tumultuous year under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted a new, almost unrecognizable guise – one that tears up environmental rules and cheerleads for coal, gas-guzzling cars and artificial intelligence.
When Donald Trump took power, it was widely anticipated the EPA would loosen pollution rules from sources such as cars, trucks and power plants, as part of a longstanding back and forth between administrations over how strict such standards should be.
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01/28/2026 - 06:22
Rest of UK has resisted calls to make builders install bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birds
Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.
The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”.
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01/28/2026 - 06:00
Finding herself in charge of her sick husband’s clipper, a self-taught working-class teenager overcame storms, icebergs and a disloyal first mate to get her ship to safety
No one knows exactly what Mary Ann Patten said in September 1856 when she convinced a crew on the verge of mutiny to accept her command as captain. What is known is that Patten, who was 19 and pregnant, was a force to be reckoned with.
After taking the helm from her sick husband in the middle of a ferocious storm off the coast of Cape Horn, the notoriously hazardous tip of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago off southern Chile, she successfully put down the mutiny and navigated her way to safety through a sea of icebergs.
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01/28/2026 - 01:41
How long does it take for a Frosty Fruit to melt in a heatwave? Guardian Australia sacrificed three ice blocks in Melbourne, Sydney and Ouyen, where the temperature hit 48C on Tuesday. It was the fifth day in a row that temperatures have exceeded 40C, with four more forecast to follow
Explainer: What happens to the human body in 49C heat? Australians are finding out
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01/28/2026 - 00:00
Popularity of EVs in country is part of global trend of emerging markets spurning fossil fuel cars at surprising speeds
When Berke Astarcıoğlu bought a BMW i3 in 2016, he was one of just 44 people in a country of 80 million to buy a battery electric vehicle (BEV) that year. By the time he bought a Tesla in 2023, BEVs were no longer a complete oddity in Turkey, making up 7% of new car sales.
Fast-forward two years and electric cars are selling so fast that Turkey has caught up with the EU in its rate of adoption. Its market is now the fourth largest in Europe, behind Germany, the UK and France.
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01/27/2026 - 11:52
It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication
I know it’s almost impossible to turn your eyes away from the Trump show, but that’s the point. His antics, ever-grosser and more preposterous, are designed to keep him in our minds, to crowd out other issues. His insatiable craving for attention is a global-threat multiplier. You can’t help wondering whether there’s anything he wouldn’t do to dominate the headlines.
But we must tear ourselves away from the spectacle, for there are other threats just as critical that also require our attention. Just because you’re not hearing about them doesn’t mean they’ve gone away.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
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Through the heatwave haze, the hypocrisy of Australia’s fossil fuel policy shines bright | Clean Air
01/27/2026 - 09:00
The heatwave in Melbourne and Adelaide this week is likely to become the norm. We should prepare now
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On Tuesday, Australia’s second-largest city baked through one of its hottest days since modern instrumental records began in 1910. Several Melbourne suburbs topped 45C. The country’s fifth-largest city, Adelaide, reached that temperature on Monday. Its residents then suffered through their hottest night ever, with a minimum of about 34C.
Remote communities were even harder hit. It was 48.9C in Hopetoun and Walpeup in Victoria’s north-west, and 49.6C in Renmark, over the South Australian border. An out-of-control bushfire burned in the Otways region, south-west of Melbourne, near areas that just two weeks ago faced flash flooding.
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