Secretary general says climate action ‘central to every aspect’ of UN’s work, as leaders depart Cop31 and talks go on
Tackling the climate crisis is central to all of human life and must be at the forefront of global governance, the outgoing UN secretary general has said in an emotional farewell address at the Cop31 climate summit.
“You cannot build peace on a burning planet,” António Guterres said at his final climate press conference as secretary general on Friday. “You cannot eradicate poverty when climate disasters keep throwing people back into it. You cannot promise young people a better future while destroying the natural systems on which that future depends.”
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/13/2026 - 12:00
11/13/2026 - 11:31
Newsom is the most prominent US politician at Cop31, a process the Trump administration continues to boycott
The leader of the world’s fourth biggest economy, California governor Gavin Newsom, has explicitly endorsed a global phase out of the fossil fuels that drive climate breakdown.
Newsom told the Guardian that California is “100%” behind the efforts of the so-called Santa Marta coalition, a group of more than 50 countries that includes many of the world’s largest economies, to transition away from oil, gas and coal toward solar, wind, batteries and other non-carbon energy sources.
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11/13/2026 - 10:27
Exclusive: Government in ‘private meetings’ about removing cost cap protections under Aarhus convention
UK politics live – latest updates
The government is considering stripping back legal protections that limit the costs community groups face when challenging planning decisions that threaten nature.
The Aarhus convention, an environmental treaty that was signed into law by the UK in 2005, guarantees the legal right to participate in democratic processes on environmental matters – such as sewage pollution, new roads or datacentre developments.
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11/13/2026 - 09:00
Siberian rubythroat was thousands of miles off course from its route to winter in south or south-east Asia
A bird that flies south from its breeding grounds in Siberia to winter in south and south-east Asia has been found thousands of miles off course in Cumbria. Regrettably, it was found by a cat.
Chris Hind, Cumbria’s county recorder for birds, said it was “extraordinary” that a Siberian rubythroat was found on his patch, albeit dead. There have been only 17 recorded instances of the bird in the UK, 15 of those in the northern Scottish isles.
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11/13/2026 - 08:37
Increase reported by Aviva after Hastings Direct said claims were up 140% in August and Axa said it had been a ‘surge year’
The UK’s largest insurer has been hit by a rise in subsidence claims after an extremely hot summer left households across the country grappling with the fallout from the growing climate crisis.
Aviva said on Friday it had experienced the jump amid an industry-wide surge in households filing subsidence claims with their insurers to cover repairs, which typically are needed to address cracks, sloping floors, and off-kilter doors and windows.
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11/13/2026 - 07:30
One company is proposing elongating the life of the dump, pungent smell and all, several more decades
As a visual representation of how New York is running out of places to put its waste, the largest active landfill in the state is a striking one. The hulking Seneca Meadows landfill is already the height of the Statue of Liberty and its operators are seeking to raise it even further, to the consternation of nearby residents.
The landfill, situated in the scenic Finger Lakes region in the northern reaches of New York state, has grown since the 1980s to now sprawl across 350 acres of deposited trash, mounded up to the height of around 300ft – roughly the same height of the Statue of Liberty.
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11/13/2026 - 07:13
Delegations outnumber those of some countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, such as Nepal, which suffered glacier collapse
Cop31 live – latest updates
More than 100 corporations and industry groups linked to fossil fuel interests have sent delegations to the UN climate talks in Turkey, according to an analysis.
The Cop31 climate summit in Antalya is thought to be the largest ever in the three decades of the annual gatherings, with more than 92,000 delegates registered to attend talks aimed at shifting the world away from the fossil fuels that are dangerously overheating our planet.
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11/13/2026 - 07:00
Water temperatures are climbing the charts, high tides are swallowing the shoreline and vital parts of the food web that feed ocean diversity are disappearing
On a picturesque autumn afternoon last week, the beaches of California’s Monterey Bay were teeming with life and death.
A cadre of shorebirds charged and retreated in a synchronized dance with the raging surf. Nearby, the receding tides had deposited lifeless bundles of feathers and bone, tangled in piles of glistening kelp. Swollen sea lion carcasses, their teeth bared in a quiet grimace, dotted the sand as beach picnickers and dog walkers enjoyed the warm, cloudless day.
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11/13/2026 - 07:00
Effects of extreme weather expected in countries that already have high maternal and newborn death rates
El Niño stokes a higher risk of death in childbirth for millions of women in the world’s harshest crisis zones, midwives have warned.
Converging waves of weather – floods, cyclones and extreme heat – forecast to peak in the coming months will prove fatal for many, especially pregnant women, who face being cut off from hospital when in labour.
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11/13/2026 - 03:49
Heavy rain and strong winds have also caused disruption across British Columbia, Canada, over the last week
Storm Charles has brought destructive weather to the Iberian peninsula this week, particularly in Portugal and the far south of Spain. Heavy rain and strong south-westerly winds arrived first in the Portuguese island of Madeira, before the system headed towards the mainland on 11 November. A wind gust of 84.5mph (136 km/h) was recorded at Funchal airport, alongside rainfall totals reaching 355mm (13.97in) in 12 hours. In Lisbon, 183 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, about a third of its normal daily traffic, while Madrid Barajas airport had 155 cancellations.
After causing widespread flooding in Spain and Portugal, the system moved on a north-easterly track through southern France and then towards northern Italy. This resulted in significant flooding in parts of Cannes, some of which caused rock falls and led to the closure of roads along the French Riviera. The Italian weather service issued a red rainfall warning, its highest level, for the area extending from Tuscany to Venezia. Further heavy rain is expected to fall in Italy and the Balkans over the next few days, with the latest forecast models indicating an additional 100mm could accumulate widely, while totals close to 200mm are likely in more mountainous areas.
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