Yearly Archives: 2024

Global fossil fuel use hits record level, despite more clean energy production – report

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https://www.energymonitor.ai/news/global-use-fossil-fuels-increased-in-2023-according-to-the-energy-institute

Fossil fuel use increased, despite a significant uptick in renewable power generation. Credit: Tatiana Grozetskaya/Shutterstock.

The developing world is still reliant upon coal, gas and oil for the majority of its energy needs, according to the Energy Institute.

Global consumption of fossil fuels such as coal and oil climbed to a record high last year, causing emissions to rise above 40 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide for the first time, said a report released by the Energy Institute.

Fossil fuel consumption rose by 1.5% to 505 exajoules, despite a concurrent rise in the use of renewable energy in 2023.

While advanced economies may have reached peak emissions from the energy sector, developing economies are continuing to increase their use of coal, gas and oil, according to the report.

Fossil fuels made up 81.5% of the world’s total consumption of energy, down from 82% a year before.

Oil consumption was up 2% to above 100 million barrels for the first time.

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https://www.energymonitor.ai/news/global-use-fossil-fuels-increased-in-2023-according-to-the-energy-institute

Continue ReadingGlobal fossil fuel use hits record level, despite more clean energy production – report

More than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die amid temperatures approaching 52C in Mecca

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/more-than-1000-hajj-pilgrims-die-in-mecca-as-temperatures-hit-high-of-51c

Pilgrims using umbrellas for shade as they arrived at the base of Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the hajj. Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

Saudi authorities said they sent away unregistered pilgrims but many appear to have taken part without access to cooler spaces

The death toll from this year’s hajj has exceeded 1,000, with more than half of the victims unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

The new deaths reported on Thursday included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims.

About 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once.

The hajj, whose timing is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, fell again this year during the oven-like Saudi summer.

The national meteorological centre reported a high of 51.8C (125F) this week at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

A Saudi study published last month said temperatures in the area were rising by 0.4C each decade.

Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims try to join the hajj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly official permits.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/more-than-1000-hajj-pilgrims-die-in-mecca-as-temperatures-hit-high-of-51c

Continue ReadingMore than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die amid temperatures approaching 52C in Mecca

Sellafield pleads guilty to criminal charges over cybersecurity failings

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/20/sellafield-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-charges-over-cybersecurity-failings

Sellafield’s lawyers have said that cybersecurity requirements were not ‘sufficiently adhered to for a period’. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

UK nuclear site pleads guilty to IT security breaches from 2019 to 2023

The UK’s most hazardous nuclear site, Sellafield, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to cybersecurity failings brought by the industry regulator.

Lawyers acting for Sellafield told Westminster magistrates’ court on Thursday that cybersecurity requirements were “not sufficiently adhered to for a period” at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria.

The charges relate to information technology security offences spanning a four-year period from 2019 to 2023. It emerged in March that the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) intended to prosecute Sellafield for technology security offences.

Late last year the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation revealed a catalogue of IT failings at the site dating back several years.

Sellafield pleaded guilty to a charge that it had failed to “ensure that there was adequate protection of sensitive nuclear information on its information technology network”, the Financial Times reported.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/20/sellafield-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-charges-over-cybersecurity-failings

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Record high temperatures sweep US north-east as tropical storm hits Texas

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/us-heatwave-record-high-temperatures

Heatwave leads to record daily highs in New York and Maine, as US south-west sees wildfires and excessive rainfall

The United States continues to suffer extreme weather as a heatwave baked millions across the upper midwest and north-east and a tropical storm soaked Texas and northern Mexico.

The National Weather Service said the heatwave was expected to peak in the eastern Great Lakes, New England, the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic over the coming weekend.

“Widespread daily record high temperatures are likely. Heavy to excessive rainfall will be associated with thunderstorms forecast to move across parts of the northern Plains and Upper Midwest,” it said in a weather advisory on Thursday.

A tropical cyclone building in the Gulf of Mexico named Alberto is forecast to bring heavy rain, flooding threats and gusty winds to south Texas but “gradually decrease” as it makes landfall in Mexico and dissipates.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/us-heatwave-record-high-temperatures

Continue ReadingRecord high temperatures sweep US north-east as tropical storm hits Texas

Rishi Sunak floats sanctions on young people for refusing national service

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/20/rishi-sunak-floats-sanctions-on-young-people-for-refusing-national-service

PM suggests curbs on finance or driving licences for 18-year-olds who refuse service during challenging Question Time leaders’ special

Rishi Sunak has indicated that young people might face restrictions on access to finance or driving licences if they refuse to do national service, as he faced a TV quizzing from voters.

Asked during a BBC Question Time special what sanctions people could face for declining to take part in the Conservative policy of compulsory national service for all 18-year-olds, the prime minister pointed to “driving licences, or the access to finance, all sorts of other things”.

Questioned on whether this could mean denying young people bank cards, he replied: “There’s lot of different models around Europe.”

In his half-hour slot on the show, following Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney, the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National party leaders, Sunak was also repeatedly challenged on why the public should trust the Tories after 14 sometimes chaotic years in office.

He received shouts of “shame” after refusing to say he would keep Britain in the European convention on human rights.

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/20/rishi-sunak-floats-sanctions-on-young-people-for-refusing-national-service

Continue ReadingRishi Sunak floats sanctions on young people for refusing national service