United Kingdom

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Several major coal-using nations have pledged for the first time to phase out their use of the heavily-polluting fossil fuel or to speed up existing plans to do so, while others announced commitments to end investment in new coal-fired power plants.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The dramatic drop in carbon dioxide emissions from the pandemic lockdown has pretty much disappeared in a puff of coal-fired smoke, much of it from China, a new scientific study found.

A group of scientists who track heat-trapping gases that cause climate change said the first nine months of this year put emissions a tad under 2019 levels. They estimate that in 2021 the world will have spewed 36.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, compared to 36.7 billion metric tons two years ago.

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to halt the suspension of a member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party who was found to have broken rules on paid lobbying, instead backing an overhaul of the process of investigating politicians.

A Committee on Standards report said Owen Paterson committed an "egregious case of paid advocacy" by repeatedly using his position to promote two companies, who together paid him nearly three times his annual parliamentary salary. 

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received a degree from the University of Cambridge on Wednesday, warning that the world risked falling into a spiral of crises unless it put critical thinking and truth back to the centre of global discourse.

Cambridge conferred a honorary degree of Doctor of Law on Guterres, recognising his work and the work of the United Nations, founded in 1945 as a way bring peace after the horrors of World War Two.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Over five days abroad at two global summits, President Joe Biden showed a new willingness to openly confront China over climate change and its lack of leadership on the global stage.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Over five days abroad at two global summits, President Joe Biden showed a new willingness to openly confront China over climate change and its lack of leadership on the global stage.

GLASGOW, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The developed world's $100 billion climate financing target could be met a year earlier than expected, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said on Tuesday, citing new commitments made earlier in the day by Japan.

In 2009, the developed countries most responsible for global warming pledged to provide $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing nations deal with its consequences. That commitment is currently not expected to be met until 2023.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — More than 100 countries pledged Tuesday to end deforestation in the coming decade — a promise that experts say would be critical to limiting climate change but one that has been made and broken before.

Britain hailed the commitment as the first big achievement of the U.N. climate conference known as COP26 taking place this month in the Scottish city of Glasgow. But campaigners say they need to see the details to understand its full impact.

GLASGOW, November 1. /TASS/: World leaders need to be on "a war-like footing" and launch a "vast military-style campaign" in order to tackle the climate change crisis, Prince Charles said in his address to the climate summit in Glasgow on Monday.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us just how devastating a global, cross-border threat can be. Climate change and biodiversity loss are no different — in fact, they pose an even greater existential threat, to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing," the Prince of Wales said.

GLASGOW, November 1. /TASS/: Both the developed counties and emerging economies should create coalitions on decarbonization and a stage-by-stage abandonment of coal use, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said speaking at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"I urge developed countries and emerging economies to build coalitions able to create the financial and technological conditions to accelerate the decarbonization of the economy and the phase out of coal," he said.