Simply being better than Scott Morrison-led predecessors is not good enough

Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has been asked to take over struggling summit negotiations over how to fund climate financing for poor countries at Cop27 in Egypt. It came on a day in which Australia’s climate change minister was effusively praised by the US climate envoy, John Kerry, and signed up to a global alliance that aims to massively expand offshore wind energy. But the Albanese government drew criticism for not including new funding or commitments in its national statement and resisted calls to join a pledge to end public support for fossil fuel projects overseas.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific said it was a missed opportunity to back up the government’s stated goal of supporting its Pacific neighbours on “the existential issue of loss and damage”. Shiva Gounden, Greenpeace Pacific adviser, said Australia was all talk but had delivered little action.
“The Australian government certainly sounds better than the previous government on climate, but a lack of action means they are failing to meet the promise of their talking points,” he said. “Simply being better than their Scott Morrison-led predecessors is not good enough.”

And the architects of the Paris agreement have urged world leaders to reach an ambitious sister deal for nature at the Cop15 biodiversity conference. They said that the December biodiversity summit in Montreal is an ‘unprecedented’ chance to turn the tide on nature loss, while warning that limiting global heating to 1.5C is impossible without protecting and restoring ecosystems.

Chris Bowen takes leadership role in Cop27 talks as John Kerry praises Australia’s climate U-turn
In a sign Australia has come in from the cold at climate talks after years of being criticised as a laggard, Chris Bowen has been asked to take a leadership role in the final days of faltering negotiations at the UN summit in Egypt. The Albanese government drew criticism for not including new funding or commitments in its national statement at the Cop27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh and resisted calls to join a pledge to end public support for fossil fuel projects overseas. Greenpeace Australia Pacific said it was a missed opportunity to back up the government’s stated goal of supporting its Pacific neighbours on “the existential issue of loss and damage”.

Paris agreement’ for nature imperative at Cop15, architects of climate deal say
The architects of the Paris agreement have urged world leaders to reach an ambitious sister deal for nature at the Cop15 biodiversity conference this December while warning that limiting global heating to 1.5C is impossible without protecting and restoring ecosystems.

Lula vows to undo environmental degradation and halt deforestation
President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has told the world that “Brazil is back” at Cop27, vowing to begin undoing the environmental destruction seen under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, and work towards zero deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Followed by a carnival atmosphere wherever he went on Wednesday, Lula told the climate summit that his administration would go further than ever before on the environment by cracking down on illegal gold mining, logging and agricultural expansion, and restoring climate-critical ecosystems.

We have no choice: Nation forced into Metaverse as it ‘disappears’
The tiny, low-lying Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu has delivered a spine-chilling address to world leaders at COP27, confirming climate inaction has forced it to become “the world’s first digital nation”. Tuvalu’s foreign affairs Minister Simon Kofe made the bleak address to the climate summit via a video from what appeared to be a natural island, before it panned out to reveal he was on a digitally recreated island in the Metaverse – what he believes is now the future of the nation.

UAE using role as Cop28 host to lobby on its climate reputation
The United Arab Emirates has been using its role as the host of next year’s UN climate conference to launder its international reputation, long before this year’s event – Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh – began. The Emirates, which will host Cop28 in November 2023, hired public relations and lobbying agencies specifically to promote its role as the future host before this year’s conference had begun, an unusual move that exceeded the promotional efforts of past host nations and suggests an increased Emirati role in this year’s Cop27 conference.

How does this plant-based burger stack up
You’re biting into a burger. Right away, you detect a subtle smokiness. The patty has a familiar rough texture. And as you chew down, you unlock those salty, fatty flavours, triggering a satisfying rush of dopamine. But this burger isn’t made of meat. Instead, it’s a finely-tuned concoction of rehydrated soy protein, vegetable oils and spices engineered to look, taste and smell like the flame-grilled patty from a fatty cut of beef. These days, it’s almost impossible not to notice this new generation of plant-based meat alternatives flooding into Australia’s shops, supermarkets and takeaway joints.

Utterly terrifying’: the moment a ‘wave of biblical proportions’ destroyed NSW town of Eugowra
Locals in Eugowra are calling it a tsunami, a “tidal wave of biblical proportions” that came as a “terrifying” wall of water from beyond the hills and obliterated the New South Wales town. Lenise Mantell’s home was tossed 400 metres down the road, spinning in the flood waters. She said she was lucky she wasn’t inside it, saying she just barely escaped.

Teals demand government scrap carve-out for native forest logging
Independent MPs are demanding the federal government revoke a carve-out from national protections for endangered species for native forest logging, creating a dilemma for Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek as she responds to a review of environment laws.

Large great white shark swims more than 10,000km in 150 days
Researchers from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and Deakin University have been tracking the movements of a 3.8-metre great white, which travelled more than 10,000 kilometres in just five months.