“People do look tired, they look exhausted, as if they’re kind of wilting,” the Guardian’s Rome correspondent, Angela Giuffrida, tells Michael Safi. Italy, like many other countries, has been experiencing record-breaking heat. The Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, explains why we’re seeing these temperatures now and what we can expect in the future if we do not address the climate emergency. “This is the kind of heat that takes the breath out of you,” the Guardian US’s extreme weather correspondent, Gabrielle Canon, says. Canon has been reporting from Phoenix, Arizona,…
Tag: Climate crisis
John Kerry in China: climate crisis must be separated from politics
John Kerry has said climate change is a “universal threat” and has to be separated from politics during talks between the US and China. Kerry, the US climate envoy and former secretary of state, is in Beijing for talks with senior Chinese officials. The talks are hoped to repair relations between two sides – the world’s two largest economies and carbon emitters – before the COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of the year. On Wednesday he met with vice-president Han Zheng, saying in public remarks that the…
John Kerry aims to put China tensions aside at crucial climate talks
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, has called for more rapid action to confront the climate crisis in a crucial visit to China that is taking place against a fraught backdrop, with both countries currently baking under record heatwaves and Kerry facing hostile opposition from Republicans back home. Kerry’s meeting with Xie Zhenhua, his Chinese counterpart, for three days of formal talks in Beijing is the first substantive summit between the world’s two largest carbon emitters on the climate crisis since relations were frozen last August, when Nancy Pelosi, the…
Extreme temperatures recorded across northern hemisphere
Temperatures continued to reach extreme highs across many parts of the northern hemisphere on Monday, with the mercury in parts of Italy poised to hit 45C on Tuesday and wildfires raging in Greece and Spain signalling the latest fierce warning of the effects of the climate crisis. In Italy, where temperatures later in the week could push close to the European record of 48.8C, set in the Sicilian town of Floridia in August 2021, Italians were warned to brace themselves for “the most intense heatwave of the summer and also…
US climate envoy meets Chinese counterpart on hottest ever day in China
A remote township in China’s western Xinjiang region has set a nationwide temperature record of 52.2C, as the US climate envoy, John Kerry, held meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in Beijing. The temperature was reached on Sunday at Sanbao township in the Turpan Depression, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement. It broke a previous record of 50.6C, set in July 2017, the CMA said. Sanbao lies on the outskirts of the city of Turpan, where authorities have told workers and students to stay at home and…
Australia news live: Philip Lowe reportedly to be replaced as RBA governor; Wong meets top Chinese diplomat
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Janet Yellen urges China to boost funding to tackle climate crisis
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has pressed China to do more to support international climate institutions that are helping finance green initiatives around the world, urging deeper cooperation in addressing the “existential threat” of global heating. “Climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively,” Yellen said on Saturday in Beijing during a meeting with Chinese and international sustainable finance experts. “I believe that if China were to support existing multilateral climate institutions like the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds alongside us and other donor governments, we could…
As Beijing swelters, activists hope the heat will prompt climate action
As temperatures in the Chinese capital are forecast to creep back up to record-breaking heights this weekend, activists are hoping that overheated Beijingers will start thinking about the causes of, as well as the solutions to, such intense heatwaves. Last weekend the mercury soared past 40C (104F) for three consecutive days, the first time that the city has endured such prolonged heat since its weather station started recording temperatures in 1951. Surrounding areas also issued “red” weather warnings, indicating that the temperature could surpass 40C within 24 hours. While social…
Climate crisis linked to rising domestic violence in south Asia, study finds
As deadly heatwaves sweep through cities in India, China, the US and Europe amid the climate crisis, new research has found that rising temperatures are associated with a substantial rise in domestic violence against women. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday found a 1C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries. The study tracked 194,871 girls and women aged 15-49 from India, Pakistan and Nepal between 2010 and…
Beijing records hottest June day since weather records began as heatwave hits China
Beijing logged its hottest June day since records began on Thursday, the national weather service said, as swathes of northern China sweltered in 40-degree heat. On Friday the capital upgraded its warning for hot weather to “red” – the highest in a colour-coded alert system – saying most parts of the city could roast in temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Scientists say rising global temperatures – caused largely…