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Less arguing, more action: will Brazil’s unorthodox approach to Cop30 work?

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/08/brazil-unorthodox-cop30-approach-no-agenda

People meeting during the Cop30 local leaders’ forum at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro . Photograph: Tita Barros/Reuters

Host uses Indigenous concepts and changes agenda to help delegates agree on ways to meet existing climate goals

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From the very beginning, Brazil poured wide-ranging diplomatic effort into using the event to forge connections and foster climate networks, drawing on the Brazilian concept of the mutirão. Adapted from Indigenous practice, a mutirao “refers to a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building, or supporting one another”, said André Corrêa do Lago, the Cop30 president.

“By sharing this invaluable ancestral wisdom and social technology, the incoming Cop30 presidency invites the international community to join Brazil in a global mutirão against climate change, a global effort of cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity.” (Writing to participants, he could not resist mentioning another of Brazil’s passions: “As the nation of football, Brazil believes we can win by virada. This means fighting back to turn the game around when defeat seems almost certain.”)

Dozens of senior diplomats, community leaders and statespeople from around the world were recruited to be Cop30 envoys and ambassadors; as were a “circle” of previous Cop presidents, including the UK’s Alok Sharma; a circle of finance ministers; a people’s circle for Indigenous communities; and special envoys for energy, agriculture and business.

“Brazil have put a lot of preparation into this Cop over two years,” says Nicholas Stern, an economics professor at the London School of Economics. “Whatever comes out will be more considered than a rush job would have been. They have taken very important steps [in bringing experts together].”

Some of the circles have already borne fruit; the finance ministers’ meeting facilitated introductions not only among countries, but in some cases between finance and environment ministers within the same government. “Some of them appeared not to have known each other before,” one participant observed.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wanted social issues high on the agenda, so his environment minister, Marina Silva, set up an initiative called the global ethical stocktake (GES), which will pursue climate justice. Bringing together Indigenous people – who have been promised a much bigger role in this summit than previous ones – and representatives for poor communities, vulnerable people, workers and marginalised groups, the GES aims to ensure fairness and equity are key considerations in any climate policy.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/08/brazil-unorthodox-cop30-approach-no-agenda

Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue ReadingLess arguing, more action: will Brazil’s unorthodox approach to Cop30 work?

How thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists got access to UN climate talks – and then kept drilling

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North Sea oil rigs in Cromarty Firth, Scotland. Credit: joiseyshowaa (CC BY-SA 2.0)
North Sea oil rigs in Cromarty Firth, Scotland. Credit: joiseyshowaa (CC BY-SA 2.0)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/07/fossil-fuel-lobbyists-cop-un-climate

Exclusive: Research shows oil, gas and coal firms’ unprecedented access to Cop26-29, blocking urgent climate action

More than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to the UN climate summits over the past four years, a period marked by a rise in catastrophic extreme weather, inadequate climate action and record oil and gas expansion, new research reveals.

Lobbyists representing the interests of the oil, gas and coal industries – which are mostly responsible for climate breakdown – have been allowed to participate in the annual climate negotiations where states are meant to come in good faith and commit to ambitious policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The roughly 5,350 lobbyists mingling with world leaders and climate negotiators in recent years worked for at least 859 fossil fuel organizations including trade groups, foundations and 180 oil, gas and coal companies involved in every part of the supply chain from exploration and production to distribution and equipment, research shared exclusively with the Guardian has found.

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The 30th UN climate summit (Cop30) opens on Monday in Belém, a city in the Brazilian Amazon – the world’s largest rainforest, which is being destroyed by ever-expanding fossil fuel exploitation, industrial agriculture and mining, among other extractive industries.

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Growing anger at the lack of meaningful action by the world’s wealthiest, most polluting countries has been compounded by revelations that the fossil fuel industry appears to be granted greater access to the climate talks than most countries.

Last year, 1,773 registered fossil fuel lobbyists attended the summit in Azerbaijan – 70% more than the total number of delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined (1,033).

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/07/fossil-fuel-lobbyists-cop-un-climate

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue ReadingHow thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists got access to UN climate talks – and then kept drilling

Brown brands child poverty the biggest cause of social division and threat to Britain’s long-term economic future

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/brown-brands-child-poverty-biggest-cause-social-division-and-threat-britains-long-term

 Former prime minister Gordon Brown speaks at a child poverty event, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (Cpag), at Somerset House, in central London, November 6, 2025

FORMER prime minister Gordon Brown piled pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves today to tackle the “shameful epidemic” of child poverty.

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Marking the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), he planned to say: “This is urgently needed to take half a million children out of poverty from April next year and to meaningfully tackle Britain’s shameful epidemic of child poverty.”

The Chancellor is expected to make changes to the two-child benefit limit in her Budget.

Reforms to gambling levies could generate the £3.2 billion needed to scrap both the two-child limit and benefit cap, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Official estimates say 4.45 million children were in relative low income households, after housing costs, in the year to March 2024 – the highest number since comparable records for Britain began in 2002/03.

CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: “Now more than ever with child poverty at a record high, we need decisive action from government and the first step must be full abolition of the two-child limit.

“Half-measures and compromises will not shift the dial. The policy must be removed in its entirety or a generation of children will grow up cut off from opportunity.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/brown-brands-child-poverty-biggest-cause-social-division-and-threat-britains-long-term

Keir Starmer says that his Labour Party is intensely relaxed about assaulting the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Keir Starmer says that his Labour Party is intensely relaxed about assaulting the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Continue ReadingBrown brands child poverty the biggest cause of social division and threat to Britain’s long-term economic future

Changes to windfall tax could see oil and gas giants handed billions

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/changes-windfall-tax-could-see-oil-and-gas-giants-handed-billions

 The sun rising behind a redundant oil platform moored in the Firth of Forth near Kirkcaldy, Fife, April 27, 2020

THE Treasury is considering changes to the windfall tax which could hand billions to oil and gas corporations, campaigners warned today. 

Proposals drafted by oil and gas lobby group Offshore Energies UK suggest removing the Energy Profits Levy at the end of this year, which would save the industry a mammoth £5.8bn in tax over the next decade.

Politico, which first reported the story, said that the Treasury was weighing up energy bosses’ proposals to scrap the tax as soon as next year.

At the same time, promised investment in energy efficiency to cut household bills could also potentially be slashed.

Sources told the Guardian that the government is looking at reducing obligations under which energy firms help pay for measures such as insulation and new heating schemes. 

Campaigners have suggested that the giveaway could effectively cut Britain’s energy efficiency budget by £6.4bn.

Uplift deputy director Robert Palmer said with firms already making billions while Britons struggle with unaffordable energy bills, considering scrapping measures to cut household bills while cutting taxes for profiteering oil companies would be deeply unfair.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/changes-windfall-tax-could-see-oil-and-gas-giants-handed-billions

Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describes his benefit to already filthy rich fossil fuel investors and how he hates poor people.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describes his benefit to already filthy rich fossil fuel investors and how he hates poor people.
Continue ReadingChanges to windfall tax could see oil and gas giants handed billions

Zohran Mamdani: a victory for the global left

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https://www.owenjones.news/p/zohran-mamdani-a-victory-for-the

In an age of resurgent fascism, the left can fight back and win

Zohran Mamdani’s triumph in the contest for the New York mayoralty is a historic moment. He has crushed Andrew Cuomo – but more importantly, the brand of politics that the Democratic Party establishment represents.

He now has the opportunity to ensure that it is the US left which assumes the leadership of the movement against Trumpism.

He has won over half the vote, defying the opinion polls, and he is the first mayoral candidate to win over a million votes since John Lindsay in 1969.

The socialist left – the authentic, real deal, unapologetic, loud and proud socialist left – will now take power in New York City, the biggest and important city in the United States. In age of darkness, one of the great centres of the Western world has elected a socialist who stands against capitalism, against racism, against genocide.

This is a historic moment – and the consequences will reverberate not just around the United States, but across the Western world and indeed beyond. There are so many lessons that we must now learn so that what is today triumphed in New York will tomorrow take power at national level across the West – and drive back the rising tide of fascism.

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Article continues at https://www.owenjones.news/p/zohran-mamdani-a-victory-for-the

Continue ReadingZohran Mamdani: a victory for the global left