Caribbean

World Bank forecasts modest growth for Latin America, highlights climate risks

BY ASAD HASHIM

  • - Climate effects - The World Bank also noted that El Nino "could further disrupt agriculture and hydropower and push up food and energy prices."
  • The World Bank on Tuesday forecast modest economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, warning that risks from high energy prices and the climate phenomenon El Nino could impact the region.
  • - Climate effects - The World Bank also noted that El Nino "could further disrupt agriculture and hydropower and push up food and energy prices."
The World Bank on Tuesday forecast modest economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, warning that risks from high energy prices and the climate phenomenon El Nino could impact the region.
In its biannual Regional Economic Update, the multilateral development organization upgraded its growth outlook for the area by 0.1 percentage point to 2.2 percent in 2026.
"Latin America and the Caribbean has the potential to achieve stronger and more ambitious growth," said Susana Cordeiro Guerra, the bank's regional vice president.
"Countries that have maintained sound macroeconomic frameworks, strengthened institutions, and advanced reforms are demonstrating that stronger growth is possible."
Still, risks to the region "are tilted to the downside," said a World Bank statement accompanying the report.
The organization cited energy price volatility as a key risk factor for inflation, with central banks likely to keep interest rates higher for longer to combat high prices.
The US-Israel war on Iran, launched in late February, has plunged the Middle East into violence and seen global energy prices skyrocket due to Tehran's retaliatory action.
Iran has targeted Washington's oil-producing Gulf allies and blocked a vital trading waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, affecting oil, natural gas and fertilizer supplies. 

Climate effects

The World Bank also noted that El Nino "could further disrupt agriculture and hydropower and push up food and energy prices."
El Nino is a natural phenomenon recurring every two to seven years owing to the warming of sea surfaces -- bringing worldwide changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
Global forecasters predict this year's event will peak at an intensity never observed in the modern era, compounding the effects of man-made climate change which drives extreme weather patterns.
The World Bank highlighted the diversity of economic outcomes and policies in the large Latin American and Caribbean region, pointing to El Salvador, Paraguay, Panama and the Dominican Republic as strong performers.
It also pointed to Argentina's economic recovery since it suffered a hyperinflation crisis, with the economy expected to post growth for three successive years to 2027 -- the first time it will have done so in nearly 20 years.
The region's largest economies -- Brazil and Mexico -- were growing at or below the average, "constrained by tight monetary conditions needed to continue disinflation, policy uncertainty, and fading public investment impulses."
The Bank's report said that the region "urgently requires new engines of productivity" and pointed to the potential of AI technology to help provide this.
"The region has significant talent and resources," said Cordeiro Guerra. "The priority now is to build on these strengths through consistent policies and investment that can raise productivity, create better jobs, and increase incomes."
aha/dw

climate

Tuvalu govt adviser says Australia overstepped in pre-COP visit

  • "Just because we signed the treaty doesn't mean they can take over our country and our sovereignty," the aide told AFP. "That's how it feels like."
  • A Tuvalu government adviser told AFP on Tuesday it felt like Australia had "taken over" the tiny country's sovereignty during a visit by leaders to the Pacific island.
  • "Just because we signed the treaty doesn't mean they can take over our country and our sovereignty," the aide told AFP. "That's how it feels like."
A Tuvalu government adviser told AFP on Tuesday it felt like Australia had "taken over" the tiny country's sovereignty during a visit by leaders to the Pacific island.
The official -- a senior government adviser who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to speak to the media -- said they were disappointed in Australia's handling of the visit.
The comments came during a visit by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other leaders to Tuvalu, which has become a symbol of the existential threat posed by rising seas and is a key partner in Canberra's Pacific strategy.
"Just because we signed the treaty doesn't mean they can take over our country and our sovereignty," the aide told AFP.
"That's how it feels like."
Australia and Tuvalu signed the groundbreaking Falepili Union in 2023, part of Canberra's efforts to blunt China's expanding reach in the region. Under that pact, Australia opened a new visa category specially set aside for adult citizens of Tuvalu.
The official also accused Albanese of disrespect in not wearing a traditional "fau" floral headpiece during a welcome ceremony.
"Why didn't he wear the Fau? That is so disrespectful to our culture," they said.
"Every other person wore the Fau."
Albanese's office declined to comment on the record when reached by AFP.
The trip took place on the sidelines of the Pacific "pre-COP" gathering hosted by Fiji aimed at drawing the world's attention to life on the frontline of global warming.
The South Pacific is among the regions of the world most vulnerable to global warming -- from rising seas jeopardising homes to increasing temperatures causing coral bleaching.
Tuvalu is deeply affected, already laying plans to relocate its population of 10,600 if the country is consumed by the ocean.
bes-oho/pbt

climate

Leaders visit Pacific's Tuvalu on frontline of climate change

BY BEN STRANG

  • "The objective of this Tuvalu event is for you, leaders, to experience and feel climate change first-hand, from being in the frontline of the impact of climate change," Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told visiting officials.
  • More than a dozen leaders visited the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu on Tuesday for a brief look at a once-vibrant ecosystem wiped out due to climate change.
  • "The objective of this Tuvalu event is for you, leaders, to experience and feel climate change first-hand, from being in the frontline of the impact of climate change," Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told visiting officials.
More than a dozen leaders visited the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu on Tuesday for a brief look at a once-vibrant ecosystem wiped out due to climate change.
The trip took place on the sidelines of the Pacific "pre-COP" gathering hosted by Fiji and aimed at drawing the world's attention to life on the frontline of global warming.
The meetings are a precursor to the larger UN-sponsored global climate summit -- known as COP31 -- to be held in Turkey next month.
The South Pacific is among the regions of the world most vulnerable to global warming -- from rising seas jeopardising homes to increasing temperatures causing coral bleaching.
Tuvalu is deeply affected, already laying plans to relocate its population of 10,600 if the island nation is consumed by the ocean.
A marine heatwave in 2024 wiped out an estimated 99.9 percent of the coral that built the remote Tuvalu islands.
"The objective of this Tuvalu event is for you, leaders, to experience and feel climate change first-hand, from being in the frontline of the impact of climate change," Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told visiting officials.
Only a handful of leaders, mostly from the Pacific, showed up to visit.
Among them was Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose country is head of this year's climate negotiations but has faced accusations of hypocrisy given its role as a major coal exporter.

'Escalating climate crisis'

With just a few hours on the remote archipelago before flying back to Fiji, there was a rush from organisers to get in as many events as possible.
Hundreds of people wearing traditional garments, floral headdresses and carrying umbrellas to shield them from the heavy rain gathered to greet the leaders, who were accompanied by a small media delegation including AFP.
The group then toured the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project, a landmark reclamation effort that aims to mitigate the impact of rising sea levels.
They also took part in a traditional dialogue session with locals.
"Our communities are not asking for charity," Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka of co-host Fiji told delegates.
"They are asking for a system that works with a speed required to deliver protection in the midst of an escalating climate crisis," he said.
"This is a global challenge that we must address."
Australia has taken a leading role in the pre-COP gathering and defended it as a critical diplomatic event in the face of criticism at home about the cost to taxpayers.
However, Albanese drew criticism from a Tuvalu government adviser, who accused him on Tuesday of disrespect by not wearing a traditional headpiece during an event and for overstepping during the running of the visit.
"Just because we signed the treaty doesn't mean they can take over our country and our sovereignty," the adviser told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"That's how it feels."

 Impact of climate change

Tuvalu is one of the world's least visited countries, and the highest point in the capital Funafuti is just two metres (6.6 feet) above sea level.
Rising waters have already largely swamped two of Tuvalu's nine atolls, or ring-shaped coral islands, and scientists fear the entire archipelago could be unliveable by the end of the century.
"You can swim for hours and hours along the reef in the lagoon, just skeleton after skeleton. It's all dead," said marine biologist Austin Bowden-Kerby, who visited last year and documented the devastation.
"The very system that created the islands has died. It wasn't pollution. It wasn't overfishing. Just a direct result from climate change."
Local scientist Rajneel Singh told AFP climate change was already affecting the food sources that have long sustained Tuvalu's population.
"Elders used to fish for red snappers and other things," he said.
"It's no longer frequent in the catch. And the sizes of the fish has been reduced as well."
bes-oho/pbt

UN

COP31 eyes modest steps as climate disasters multiply

BY NICK PERRY AND JULIEN MIVIELLE

  • Governments need to make concrete headway in negotiations, though there may not be dramatic outcomes this year," Waskow told AFP. Nations are not expected to adopt new binding commitments to reduce the burning of fossil fuels -- the leading cause of climate change.
  • Nations reeling from a year of climate devastation gather for COP31 next month but negotiations are not expected to deliver major progress in cutting the fossil fuels driving the crisis.
  • Governments need to make concrete headway in negotiations, though there may not be dramatic outcomes this year," Waskow told AFP. Nations are not expected to adopt new binding commitments to reduce the burning of fossil fuels -- the leading cause of climate change.
Nations reeling from a year of climate devastation gather for COP31 next month but negotiations are not expected to deliver major progress in cutting the fossil fuels driving the crisis.
The conference follows deadly heatwaves and fires in Europe, catastrophic floods in Nepal and record temperatures around the world, testing whether the United Nations-backed talks can keep pace with reality.
As leaders meet in Turkey, an exceptionally powerful El Nino pattern will be approaching peak strength, threatening to amplify weather chaos worldwide and drive global heat to unprecedented highs.
Concerns over energy security will also loom large, with no end in sight to the Middle East war that has sent oil and gas prices soaring and hit fossil fuel-importing nations hard.
With a new agreement on fossil fuels unlikely, Turkey is rallying support for a voluntary "electrification" pledge it says could cut heat-trapping emissions and reduce reliance on energy imports. 
"In many ways, the defining contexts for this year's climate summit will be heat and Hormuz," said David Waskow from the World Resources Institute, referencing the vital strait that carried one-fifth of the world's hydrocarbons before the Iran war.
Unusually, Turkey must navigate these complexities with Australia, a major fossil fuel exporter, after both countries agreed to share COP31 duties following a bruising hosting battle.
Australia's Climate Minister Chris Bowen, who is leading the negotiations in Antalya starting November 9, said this year's extreme events "show climate change is not a future challenge". 
"It is a present reality... and the costs of inaction are rising," he said.
A "pre-COP" meeting began Monday in the climate-vulnerable Pacific with a leaders' retreat in Tuvalu and government meetings in Fiji.
 

Stalemate

 
Unlike recent COPs -- where nearly 200 nations forged landmark pacts on phasing down coal or moving away from fossil fuels -- the negotiation agenda at COP31 is light on big-ticket items.
There are more than 100 items on the table but many deal with technical matters, like approving indicators to track progress on climate adaptation.
"Much of the Antalya summit will be a 'roll up the sleeves' effort. Governments need to make concrete headway in negotiations, though there may not be dramatic outcomes this year," Waskow told AFP.
Nations are not expected to adopt new binding commitments to reduce the burning of fossil fuels -- the leading cause of climate change.
Countries agreed in 2023 to move away from coal, oil and gas but since then efforts to negotiate concrete targets or timelines for that transition have gone nowhere.
At last year's summit, fossil fuels were not mentioned by name in the final agreement after oil and gas-producing nations prevented consensus on the issue.
"Everyone agrees there will be no real gain at the multilateral level at the moment," Marta Torres-Gunfaus from the IDDRI think tank told AFP.
Fossil fuel emissions, meanwhile, hit record highs in 2025.
In September, the UN conceded that the milestone 1.5C climate target will be missed in a matter of years.
Nations frustrated at the COP gridlock have sought progress elsewhere.
Nearly 60 countries attended a fossil fuel phaseout conference without UN involvement this year. 
France, the Netherlands and Germany have published "roadmaps" with explicit deadlines for quitting coal, oil and gas.
UN Climate chief Simon Stiell has defended the negotiations while acknowledging their limitations: "No single COP can fix this global crisis, but each takes meaningful steps forward," he said.
 

Pressure

 
Turkey says it is not realistic to expect all countries to move at the same pace.
"Any proposal that fails to reconcile our climate objectives with social and economic realities will be doomed to fail," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey is curating an "action agenda" alongside the negotiations that encourages countries to support non-binding pledges on issues from artificial intelligence to waste management.
There is broad support for its centrepiece goal: raising the share of global energy demand met by electricity from around 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035.
The electrification target does not state how that extra power should be produced. One-third of electricity is generated by coal, and there are concerns the target could provide cover for expanded fossil fuel use.
The Nepal floods would also put "a huge amount of pressure" on western countries to increase financial support for climate disaster recovery, said Ajay Mathur, a former Indian government negotiator.
"We did not create this crisis, yet we are paying for it," Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah said.
np-jmi/lt/cw

court

Young Canadians sue government over alleged climate failures

BY MATHIEU GORSE

  • The 20-year-old said she and her family "had to pack up everything we could into our car and leave our home," driving 18 hours south to safety.
  • When a wildfire threatened her northern Canada home three years ago, Kira Young packed what she could and fled. 
  • The 20-year-old said she and her family "had to pack up everything we could into our car and leave our home," driving 18 hours south to safety.
When a wildfire threatened her northern Canada home three years ago, Kira Young packed what she could and fled. 
Later this month, she'll be in court, suing Ottawa over allegations it is failing to respond to climate change.
Young is one of 15 people from across the country, all aged 17-24, pursuing a case unprecedented in Canadian legal history.
Over five weeks of hearings beginning on October 26, the group will argue that successive governments have violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and security by not sufficiently cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The trial in the west coast city of Vancouver is part of a growing global movement of environmental activists using courts to force government action on climate change, with major victories already recorded internationally.
Young is from Yellowknife, a city a few hundred kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, where a wildfire forced an evacuation order for all nearly 20,000 residents in the summer of 2023.
The 20-year-old said she and her family "had to pack up everything we could into our car and leave our home," driving 18 hours south to safety.
The message of her lawsuit is that climate change "is a challenge we can address. There is hope," she said.
Lauren Wright, a co-plaintiff, told AFP that devastating events fueled by rising global temperatures "can't just keep happening."
"It can't just be a 'oops, we missed (our emissions targets) again because we were looking somewhere else,'" the 22-year-old said.
"There has to be accountability and Canadians deserve that."

Long legal battle

The ongoing legal battle by the 15 young Canadians began in 2019. Their case was initially dismissed, but in 2023 a federal appeals court ruled they were entitled to a trial.
A victory would add to a series of legal successes for climate activists.
In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of retired Swiss women, who argued Switzerland had not done enough to confront climate change, the first decision of its kind.
The following year, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that states are obligated to protect the climate for present and future generations, guidance that could influence legal processes in several jurisdictions.
But a setback for the climate movement came in the United States last year, where a federal judge rejected an argument from young plaintiffs claiming President Donald Trump's pro-fossil-fuel policies violated their fundamental rights.

Canada 'backsliding?'

A federal government report released last month said that since 1970 temperatures in Canada have risen nearly twice as fast as the global average.
Wildfires made more common and severe by global warming have scorched record amounts of land in recent years.
For Albert Lalonde, a 24-year-old plaintiff in the Vancouver case, "young people are confronted with the question of how to plan ahead, how to build a life in a world that is going through collapse."
He argued the current policies of Prime Minister Mark Carney's government are making things worse.
Carney has voiced support for increased oil production, citing the industry as a key tool to help reduce Canada's economic reliance on the United States.
He has also conceded the ambitious climate targets set by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, are not feasible.
"We could never have imagined that our lawsuit would take place in the current context of backsliding on every front of the climate and environmental question," Lalonde told AFP.
"We are literally going back to the 1970s," he said, voicing hope the trial will "send a signal."
mg-bs/pnb

law

US Supreme Court considers bid to shut the door on climate suits

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Liberal Justice Elena Kagan pushed back, describing the case as "chapter three" in the story of corporate accountability lawsuits, where earlier chapters were litigation against the tobacco industry and against pharmaceutical companies that pushed opioids. 
  • The US Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a crunch climate case, with justices wrestling over whether it followed the well-worn path of corporate accountability lawsuits or was instead a backdoor attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Liberal Justice Elena Kagan pushed back, describing the case as "chapter three" in the story of corporate accountability lawsuits, where earlier chapters were litigation against the tobacco industry and against pharmaceutical companies that pushed opioids. 
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a crunch climate case, with justices wrestling over whether it followed the well-worn path of corporate accountability lawsuits or was instead a backdoor attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The outcome of Suncor v. Boulder has the power to end dozens of similar lawsuits brought by jurisdictions nationwide, seeking damages from fossil fuel companies for their role in global warming and for allegedly carrying out deception campaigns to conceal their products' harms. 
Outside the court, activists waved placards and decried the rising costs of climate catastrophes, calling on "Big Oil" to be held accountable for their "climate lies."
The city and county of Boulder, Colorado, sued ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in 2018 for damages, claiming they "knowingly caused and contributed to the alteration of the climate" while "concealing and/or misrepresenting the dangers" of oil and gas.
They contend they have suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from wildfires, flooding and other weather extremes stemming from climate change.
But Kannon Shanmugam, representing the oil giants, told justices the case "involves an unprecedented effort to use state law to regulate global conduct."  Under Boulder's theory, he argued, they could "sue me on a nuisance claim for refilling my car and thereby contributing to global climate change." 
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan pushed back, describing the case as "chapter three" in the story of corporate accountability lawsuits, where earlier chapters were litigation against the tobacco industry and against pharmaceutical companies that pushed opioids. 
 
- Three scenarios - 
 
The companies lost bids to have the case dismissed in state court and at Colorado's Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump's climate skeptical administration filed a brief urging the US Supreme Court to take up the case, and the justices agreed.
The court is considering whether federal law preempts Boulder's claims, whether the Constitution itself bars such suits, and whether it can review the case before a trial has taken place -- a question notably raised by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas in court Monday.
Judges may also have to weigh the Trump administration's recent decision to overturn the landmark "Endangerment Finding," with the executive now arguing Congress did not give it the power to regulate greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act. 
Questioning Department of Justice attorney Sarah Harris, Chief Justice John Roberts showed some skepticism towards the government's position, saying "there are a lot of familiar situations where conduct outside of a state has broad effects among other states" and state litigation is permitted. 
But Roberts also pressed Kevin Russell, the attorney for Boulder, telling him the suit "is an effort to reduce emissions."
"No, it is not an effort to reduce emissions," replied Russell, arguing that under Boulder's deception theory the companies "can continue to produce as much fossil fuels as they like" so long as consumers are properly informed.
Michael Gerrard, a professor of environmental law at Columbia University, told AFP there were three possibilities. First, the court could decide the case is too premature and sends it back down. Second, it could block the damages claims but leave the deception claims alone, and the third is it blocks the case entirely. "That basically wipes out all of the similar cases that are out there," he said. A decision is expected by next June.
 
- 4-4 split possible - 
 
The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects.
New York's was struck down by a federal judge last month, and an adverse Supreme Court ruling could shut the door to it being revived on appeal.
Ahead of the hearing, ultraconservative Justice Samuel Alito recused himself after critics called on him to step aside over his oil and gas stock holdings, reducing the number of judges down to eight and leaving a 4-4 split possible  -- which would leave the Colorado ruling in place and let the case proceed to trial.
Congress could also render the case moot. Republican lawmakers are attempting to pass an immunity shield that would void all such lawsuits.
ia/mjf

climate

Intense heat puts births in jeopardy, UN tells Fiji talks

BY BEN STRANG

  • "Climate-driven extreme heat during pregnancy is increasingly linked to premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight, and maternal complications," he said.
  • Extreme heat is increasingly linked to problems such as premature births or underweight babies, the UN climate chief warned on Monday as Fiji hosted talks ahead of a major summit.
  • "Climate-driven extreme heat during pregnancy is increasingly linked to premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight, and maternal complications," he said.
Extreme heat is increasingly linked to problems such as premature births or underweight babies, the UN climate chief warned on Monday as Fiji hosted talks ahead of a major summit.
This week's meetings in the city of Nadi and on the atoll nation of Tuvalu are aimed at drawing the world's attention to life on the frontline of climate change in the Pacific.
They are a precursor to the larger UN-sponsored global climate summit -- known as COP31 -- to be held in Turkey next month.
Highlighting the need for urgent action, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell cited a new survey showing more than two-thirds of health professionals across five continents had seen complications caused by intense heat in the past five years.
"Climate-driven extreme heat during pregnancy is increasingly linked to premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight, and maternal complications," he said.
The Plan International charity said in a separate report on Monday that climate disasters were also increasing the risk of child marriage and teen pregnancies, in part through their impact on the health and education services on which girls depend.
The South Pacific is among the most vulnerable regions in the world to global warming -- from rising sea waters jeopardising homes to increasing temperatures causing coral bleaching.
Fiji's climate minister Lynda Tabuya called for commitments from developing nations to a "just transition", with support for "countries in the world that suffer the most".
A UN report released in August found developing countries needed $310 billion-$365 billion to adapt, yet had only $26 billion in adaptation finance available in 2023.
"We rely on and we appeal to countries to commit to climate finance," Tabuya said.
Australia -- the head of this year's climate negotiations and a major coal exporter -- faces accusations of hypocrisy. Its sales of the fossil fuel have boomed on the back of demand caused by the Middle East conflict.
Tabuya told journalists there had been "frank discussion" on Monday with Australian counterpart Chris Bowen and Pacific officials.
"Yes, we have sentiments expressed from certain countries," she said, when asked if she backed calls from other Pacific leaders for Australia to halt expansion of coal and gas projects.
"But for the Pacific, it's important at this pre-COP that we find common ground. There will be things that we disagree on, but we can agree to disagree," Tabuya said.
 

Focus on 1.5 degrees

 
Also high on the agenda is a push by Pacific leaders for the world to stick to a target of limiting global warming to 1.5C and give more attention to the impact on oceans.
"Keeping 1.5 alive means hope -- hope for Tuvalu, hope for Kiribati, hope for small island atolls around the world," Bowen told journalists.
"We can actually come to this conversation and say, 'as a fossil-fuel exporting nation, we can bring something different to the table'," he said.
Sea levels are also rising at a record pace, driven by warming oceans and glacier melt, according to the August UN report.
Up to 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050, with Pacific island countries experiencing sea level rise at twice the global average, it said.
Regional leaders have pitched the pre-COP as a chance to bring the world to the Pacific and they are keen to show the impact climate change is having on the region.
 

'Don't forget'

 
In Naidiri Village, a marine protected area an hour's drive south of Nadi, locals described efforts to combat coral bleaching and improve ocean health.
"Countries that don't cause climate change are being affected," Joseva Kunagado, 21, told AFP.
Manoa Duwai, who set up Naidiri Village's marine protected area more than a decade ago after realising the damage wrought by overfishing, said they were experiencing climate change "every day".
"The sea level is rising, and a heat wave earlier this year," he said.
"A message to the developed countries: do remember, don't forget."
Delegates will also take a one-day trip on Tuesday to low-lying Tuvalu, which is already laying plans to relocate its population if it is consumed by the ocean.
Bowen confirmed on Monday that 14 leaders -- the majority from the Pacific -- would make the trip.
Tuvalu is one of the world's least visited countries and the highest point in its capital, Funafuti, is just two metres (6.6 feet) above sea level.
bes-oho/jm/lga/pbt

climate

Brazil's Indigenous back Lula as El Nino fuels forest fires

BY ORLANDO JUNIOR

  • El Nino provoked exceptional drought and wildfires in Brazil in 2024.
  • As wildfires sparked by El Nino smolder in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, Indigenous chief Waldemir da Silva voted for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the candidate "who defends nature."
  • El Nino provoked exceptional drought and wildfires in Brazil in 2024.
As wildfires sparked by El Nino smolder in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, Indigenous chief Waldemir da Silva voted for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the candidate "who defends nature."
The leftist leader is running for a fourth term against right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, and the choice is clear for Brazil's climate-conscious Indigenous groups.
The Tres Unidos village of 120 people sits on the banks of the Rio Negro, an important tributary flowing through the Amazon rainforest.
The Kambeba people have spent the last few weeks inhaling the smoke of forest fires, which authorities warn will worsen as the El Nino weather pattern advances.
"The fires are damaging air quality. Children and elderly people are at risk of death; several residents have suffered from coughing or vision problems," Da Silva, 67, told AFP.
Tatiane Costa can't stop worrying about her daughter, a student in the city of Manaus.
The capital of Amazonas state spent several days under a thick cloud of smoke last month.
"She called me to say she wanted to go back to the village because she had inhaled a lot of smoke," Costa, 38, said as jewelry made of red seeds jangled around her neck.
Tres Unidos residents clambered onto boats to travel to a nearby village to vote on Sunday. 
Some of the passengers made an "L" sign with their hands on the way, in a gesture of support for Lula.

'Strength of the jaguar'

On the eve of the election, Da Silva hosted a ritual of song and dance to give the incumbent "the courage and strength of the jaguar."
Lula, who enjoys broad support from Brazil's Indigenous communities, created a ministry dedicated to them in 2023.
He also reinstated the recognition of Indigenous reserves when he returned to office that year, which had been halted when ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro -- Flavio Bolsonaro's father -- was in power.
Deforestation in the Amazon increased sharply during the senior Bolsonaro's mandate.
The family of right-wing politicians "is a threat to me and my family," Costa said.
"We Indigenous peoples suffer greatly from environmental impacts," said Tainara da Costa.
The 22-year-old adorned with face paint voted for Lula because "he defends our territory and nature," she told AFP.

Charred iguanas

Footage shot Friday by an AFP journalist showed scorched swaths of land in the Iranduba municipality close to Manaus.
The burnt earth contrasts starkly with the emerald green trees in the surrounding area, and firefighters were still struggling to extinguish countless hotspots on Sunday.
Charred iguanas and ashes littered the ground around them.
The Amazonas state endured 3,726 fires in September, over four times the number of outbreaks the same month last year, official figures showed.
El Nino provoked exceptional drought and wildfires in Brazil in 2024.
In July, the government announced funds worth almost $250 million to go towards fighting the effects of the weather pattern.
The phenomenon, which warms surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and causes worldwide changes to wind and rain patterns, is predicted to be stronger than ever this year.
Speaking at a ministerial meeting in September, Lula said Brazil had never done so much to face El Nino.
"We still don't know whether we'll manage it, because we still don't know how intense it will be, but we have never acted so quickly to prevent the population from suffering," he said.
str-lg/cc/jgc

weather

Two dead in Catalonia due to torrential rains: Spanish officials

  • Overnight, rescue services assisted several people trapped in their vehicles due to flooding on the streets in Granollers, north of Barcelona, and elsewhere.
  • Two people have died and one is missing near Barcelona due to torrential rains in the northeastern Spanish province, authorities said on Sunday, warning that the extreme weather was moving north to the neighbouring province of Girona.
  • Overnight, rescue services assisted several people trapped in their vehicles due to flooding on the streets in Granollers, north of Barcelona, and elsewhere.
Two people have died and one is missing near Barcelona due to torrential rains in the northeastern Spanish province, authorities said on Sunday, warning that the extreme weather was moving north to the neighbouring province of Girona.
They warned of flooding in Girona -- between Barcelona and the border with southwestern France -- urging residents to stay at home in areas around the Ridaura and Daro rivers, which had burst their banks.
Persistent downpours and storms this weekend have battered eastern Spain and parts of the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, where a 102-year-old woman died as a result on Saturday.
The Spanish Meteorological Office (AEMET) said the storms had begun to ease in the Barcelona region around midday on Sunday but were moving northwards.
"There are two fatalities and at least one person missing," David Borrell, head of the Catalonia region's fire service, told a press conference.
One person died when a wall at a campsite in Tordera collapsed and the other drowned in a flooded garage in Montornes del Valles -- both towns in Barcelona province in northeastern Spain.
Overnight, rescue services assisted several people trapped in their vehicles due to flooding on the streets in Granollers, north of Barcelona, and elsewhere.
Authorities have cancelled public events in the most high-risk areas.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Sunday the situation in Catalonia remained "very complicated".
He urged locals to "avoid non-essential journeys" and follow instructions given by the emergency services, reiterating advice given by Catalonia regional leader Salvador Illa.
Rescue services said more than 200 millimetres (more than eight inches) of rain had been recorded in several locations in the Barcelona region.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the Mediterranean storms that typically pummel eastern Spain in autumn because the sea is absorbing increasing heat during the summer, leading to greater evaporation and heavier rainfall.
du/pc/gil/rmb

rivers

Cry for help as French-Swiss lake dries up

BY ELODIE LE MAOU

  •   - 'It's unbearable' -   Every day Yvan Durig, owner and captain of the Lac des Brenets navigation company, measures the level of the remaining basin of water which is shrinking away at the very deepest bit of the lake.
  • The picturesque Lac des Brenets between France and Switzerland has dried up after a record-breaking hot summer, leaving locals crying out for help to save the lake.
  •   - 'It's unbearable' -   Every day Yvan Durig, owner and captain of the Lac des Brenets navigation company, measures the level of the remaining basin of water which is shrinking away at the very deepest bit of the lake.
The picturesque Lac des Brenets between France and Switzerland has dried up after a record-breaking hot summer, leaving locals crying out for help to save the lake.
Indeed, the words "HELP" and "SOS" have been scratched out in the weeds now flourishing on the exposed lake bed.
The drought has ruined pleasure boat tourism, while some question whether the lake will ever return to enduring full health.
"It's absolutely heartbreaking. It really is emotionally devastating, because it's utter despair: no more lake," said amateur local historian David Favre, who lives in the Swiss village of Les Brenets.
"As children, we used to spend all our summers swimming at the beach, having fun by the water, diving, jumping in and sometimes even fishing," the 76-year-old told AFP.
But "since the last drought in 2018, it's been a disaster. Unfortunately, the lake empties out every couple of years, or soon, perhaps every year," he added, saying he felt the authorities have "completely abandoned" the lake.
The Doubs river rises in the French Jura mountains and normally forms a lake at Les Brenets, where it begins to mark the border between France's Franche-Comte region and Switzerland's Neuchatel canton.
 
The lake ends at 27-metre-high waterfall, which has now stopped flowing.
The lake has dried up due to a combination of factors, including geological fissures that drain water underground, below-average rainfall and repeated heatwaves.
The months of June, July and August were each the hottest ever recorded in Switzerland since measurements began in 1864.
 

'It's unbearable'

 
Every day Yvan Durig, owner and captain of the Lac des Brenets navigation company, measures the level of the remaining basin of water which is shrinking away at the very deepest bit of the lake.
 
"Normally, we have 25 or 30 metres of depth here," but now there are only nine metres of water left, and within it "the fish are really chock-a-block", he said.
While locals are used to periods of low water, this particular spell is alarming, with the record low of 1906 set to be surpassed imminently.
A task force was set up by French and Swiss authorities in 2022, notably to explore ways of limiting the water draining into the fissures, but has not resulted in decisive action.
"We had to halt boat operations on July 20," said Durig.
"Just imagine: having to stop right in the middle of the season like that. It's unbearable for a company like ours," he said.
"Normally, these are times when we transport 200 to 300 people a day," said Durig.
Pontoons and dozens of boats lie stranded on the dry lake bed.
 

Losing soul of Les Brenets

 
The water level monitoring station for the lake is now so far out of the remaining basin that Durig does the measurements manually.
The water line is dropping around 20 to 22 centimetres a day.
On October 1, it fell to an elevation of 735.34 metres above sea level -- fully 14.66 metres below where it should be.
Within days, it is expected to surpass the 1906 record drop of 15.35 metres.
A tiny stream now trickles through the weeds on the lake bed.
Maxime Fallet, who works at a Doubs riverboat excursion company, fears the lake is "destined to disappear", for lack of a plan to save it.
"The atmosphere in Les Brenets these days, when talk turns to the Doubs, is often tinged with a certain sadness, a melancholy at the thought that we could lose this lake -- a lake that has been part of the soul of Les Brenets for generations," he told AFP.
Durig feels time is running out.
"We must take action -- indeed, be proactive -- and seal the lakebed," he said.
"But this can no longer take years. That is simply not an option anymore."
elm/rjm-ag/giv

nature

'Act before it's too late': Tokyo residents fight for more trees

BY NATSUKO FUKUE

  • "Everyone says the summer has become more intense," but public awareness about Tokyo's lack of tree cover is low, Morimoto told AFP. Together with Susumu Nirasawa, a fellow resident in her western Tokyo neighbourhood of Nakano, the 66-year-old organises expert talks, shares temperature data on social media, and attends local council meetings where she petitions officials.
  • One sweltering day in Tokyo, Kaoru Morimoto told friends she wasn't sure she could endure another summer in her neighbourhood, where tree cover and the crucial shade it provides is dwindling.
  • "Everyone says the summer has become more intense," but public awareness about Tokyo's lack of tree cover is low, Morimoto told AFP. Together with Susumu Nirasawa, a fellow resident in her western Tokyo neighbourhood of Nakano, the 66-year-old organises expert talks, shares temperature data on social media, and attends local council meetings where she petitions officials.
One sweltering day in Tokyo, Kaoru Morimoto told friends she wasn't sure she could endure another summer in her neighbourhood, where tree cover and the crucial shade it provides is dwindling.
As Japan experiences ever more frequent extreme heat, tree cover that can help lower temperatures is shrinking rather than growing in Tokyo, bucking a trend among many major world capitals.
Morimoto wants that to change. Last year she launched a campaign urging officials to set a canopy cover target, a rare grassroots initiative focused on the issue.
"Everyone says the summer has become more intense," but public awareness about Tokyo's lack of tree cover is low, Morimoto told AFP.
Together with Susumu Nirasawa, a fellow resident in her western Tokyo neighbourhood of Nakano, the 66-year-old organises expert talks, shares temperature data on social media, and attends local council meetings where she petitions officials. Around 30 others in the community have joined the cause.
"We want the ward government to take the issue seriously," Nirasawa, 71, said.
Japan saw its hottest summer on record in 2025, with warmer days on the rise globally due to climate change.
This year, the country recorded almost 120 heat-related deaths between May and August, while more than 73,000 people needed emergency care.
Although experts say greater tree cover can help lower air temperatures, a University of Tokyo study in 2024 showed the city lost canopy cover equivalent to three and a half times the size of New York's Central Park in under a decade.
Thermometers and notebook in hand, Morimoto and Nirasawa take their own temperature readings in Nakano, hoping hard data will help unite their neighbours behind the cause.
We "measured the shade under trees with large canopies and under trees that had been more heavily pruned," said Morimoto. "There was about a three‑degree difference."

Extreme weather, narrow streets

In the 2024 study, University of Tokyo researcher and urban forestry expert Kinya Shiraishi found that canopy cover in central Tokyo fell to 7.3 percent in 2022 from 9.2 percent in 2013, a loss of 12 square kilometres.
By comparison, canopy cover in New York stands at around 23 percent, with the city aiming to raise it to 30 percent by 2040.
London aims for a 10 percent increase from its current 20 percent by 2050, while Paris also plans to boost coverage from about 18 percent.
"If we want to improve the quality of urban life, canopy cover is one of the key factors," Shiraishi told AFP, adding that trees also lower flooding risks and can help city dwellers feel calmer. 
He said the decline was driven largely by the loss of private residential gardens, with ageing landowners selling their properties and mature trees often felled as large plots are subdivided to meet housing demand in the capital.
Many roads in Tokyo are also narrow and have little space for greenery, while authorities are wary of trees toppling over in extreme weather.
A Tokyo metropolitan government official told AFP that the city "is currently working to expand tree canopies through careful pruning, focusing on roads where the pavements are wide and the trees can grow".
Without proper management, trees threaten the visibility of traffic lights and are at risk of falling during typhoons, he said, adding that Tokyo uses a benchmark for measuring greenery which includes farmland and grassland found in its outer reaches. 
But on a hot, sunny day in the city centre, there was little shade along a street home to the finance ministry. One plane tree stood almost bare, its upper branches cut back close to the trunk.
"Unless we promptly make efforts to increase canopy cover and shift our policies, we'll run out of time," said Eijiro Fujii, professor emeritus at Chiba University who specialises in horticulture, glancing at a group of heavily pruned trees in Tokyo's central district of Kasumigaseki.
Fujii blames overpruning, developed to manage trees in limited spaces, as well as the frequent rotation of public officials overseeing street greenery, for the decrease in canopy cover.
In Nakano, Morimoto and Nirasawa say the ward's mayor has recently begun to emphasise the importance of tree shade, but neighbourhood officials have so far failed to set a target for canopy cover.
"Deaths from heat stroke are rapidly increasing in Japan," Fujii said. "We need to act before it's too late."
nf/aph/ane/ceg

Australia

Pre-COP host Tuvalu at frontline of climate change

BY BEN STRANG

  • Just a direct result from climate change."
  • When leaders visit the coral atolls that form the Pacific nation of Tuvalu on Tuesday, they will find a once-vibrant ecosystem wiped out due to climate change.
  • Just a direct result from climate change."
When leaders visit the coral atolls that form the Pacific nation of Tuvalu on Tuesday, they will find a once-vibrant ecosystem wiped out due to climate change.
The pre-COP gathering, hosted by Fiji ahead of the annual UN climate conference in Turkey, has been billed as the Pacific's chance to show the world first-hand the damage wrought by climate change in the vast ocean region.
Leaders are also set to spend a day on low-lying Tuvalu -- a remote atoll over 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of Fiji.
There, scientists say, a marine heatwave in 2024 wiped out an estimated 99.9 percent of the coral that built theP remote Tuvalu islands.
"You can swim for hours and hours along the reef in the lagoon, just skeleton after skeleton. It's all dead," said marine biologist Austin Bowden-Kerby, who visited last year and documented the devastation.
"The very system that created the islands has died. It wasn't pollution. It wasn't overfishing. Just a direct result from climate change."
Rising sea levels have already largely swamped two of Tuvalu's nine coral atolls -- and scientists fear the entire archipelago could be unliveable by the end of the century.
Speaking at the UN last week, the nation's Prime Minister Feleti Teo warned "sea-level rise is not a future threat, it is a present reality".
Local scientist Rajneel Singh said climate change was already impacting the waters that have long sustained Tuvalu's population of 10,600.
"Elders used to fish for red snappers and other things," he said.
"It's no longer frequent in the catch. And the sizes of the fish has been reduced as well."

'Disbelief'

Bowden-Kerby said the lack of fish and the reduction in size is a serious concern for a country that lives off the sea.
"There are certain groups of fish that are dependent upon live corals," he said. 
"Those fish are basically gone, and that's the foundation of the food chain."
The scientists presented their findings to Tuvalu's fisheries minister in December last year and were met with disbelief.
"They didn't know," Singh said of the meeting.
"It was very difficult for him, to realise, to see photos and to listen about the situation."
A coral nursery is providing a faint glimmer of hope and has even seen the return of plankton-feeding fish.
Bowden-Kerby said they can't replant all the lost reefs of Tuvalu, but they can protect some heat-resistant corals.
That is if they have the money, which ran out at the end of September.
"We need more funds just to sustain these things," Singh said.

Vision of the future

Bleaching events since 2018 have caused widespread coral mortality, with the United Nations' World Ocean Assessment warning that 90 percent of reefs could disappear if global warming tops 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
What has happened to Tuvalu should serve as a lesson to others, scientists say.
Vanuatu and Samoa have moved to protect their corals from imminent bleaching.
Australia is being urged to take urgent action to protect its world-famous Great Barrier Reef.
Bowden-Kerby urged visiting Australians to see the dead reefs for themselves.
"You want to see what it looks like ten years in the future? Tuvalu is a time machine for Australia."
Only a handful of world leaders are expected to come to the pre-COP gathering in Fiji, let alone make the extra trip to Tuvalu.
"It does make you think nobody cares," Singh said. "It's very, very sad."
And those that do come will likely stay for a quick photo-op before jumping back on their planes.
"No one is actually going out getting their feet wet and seeing what's going on," Singh said.
"There's a 10-minute flyover of the lagoon and that's about it. There's no awareness of what's happening."
bes/oho/hol/ceg

paprika

Hungary's dwindling paprika producers battle to save signature spice

BY ANDRAS ROSTOVANYI

  • "I was absolutely convinced that we'd have to take on part-time jobs because they'd burn out," Pajsan Nagy, 44, told AFP, while selling her family's products at the annual town fair in Kalocsa, in southern Hungary.
  • Working from before dawn until midnight, farmers Nikoletta Pajsan Nagy and Laszlo Pajsan fought Europe's driest summer ever to save their red pepper harvest in Hungary.
  • "I was absolutely convinced that we'd have to take on part-time jobs because they'd burn out," Pajsan Nagy, 44, told AFP, while selling her family's products at the annual town fair in Kalocsa, in southern Hungary.
Working from before dawn until midnight, farmers Nikoletta Pajsan Nagy and Laszlo Pajsan fought Europe's driest summer ever to save their red pepper harvest in Hungary.
Unable to irrigate much of their two-and-a-half-hectare (six-acre) land because power lines run across it, they repeatedly loosened the soil around the plants, which are used to make the central European country's signature spice, paprika.
"I was absolutely convinced that we'd have to take on part-time jobs because they'd burn out," Pajsan Nagy, 44, told AFP, while selling her family's products at the annual town fair in Kalocsa, in southern Hungary.
"But somehow the crop turned out bigger and more beautiful than in previous years. It was a miracle," she said, recalling some 20-hour days in the field.
The couple see themselves as a dwindling profession, as cultivation of paprika -- an indispensable ingredient in traditional cuisine -- has declined over the past several decades in Hungary, with many small producers going out of business.
 

Squeezing producers

 
The area devoted to paprika peaked at 13,029 hectares in 1979 and had fallen to 1,410 hectares by 2024, according to official statistics.
While cheap imports from China and parts of South America are squeezing producers, climate change is making paprika production more difficult and costly, according to Robert Braj, an adviser at Dutch-owned BWA Kft, one of Hungary's top food-seasoning manufacturers.
"There are longer droughts, more extreme heatwaves, while new pests and diseases are spreading," Braj told AFP.
Along with some other EU nations, Hungary experienced its driest summer since records began in 1901 and its second-hottest on record, according to national weather service HungaroMet. 
Labour shortages are also a problem.
At the fair, paprika seller Agnes Toth recalled picking up peppers as a child, taking part in the family business.
"Back then, we grew paprika on six hectares. Now it's around three hectares because there aren't enough seasonal workers to harvest it by hand," the 44-year-old told AFP.
"A family couldn't make a living from this anymore... Everyone has a full-time job. I'm a teacher, my brother is a firefighter," she said.
Hungary's Agriculture and Food Economy Ministry told AFP it seeks to strengthen producers' competitiveness, but it is yet to announce any new measures.
 

'A wonder'

 
At last month's annual fair in Kalocsa, one of Hungary's main paprika-growing regions, the aroma of meat stews and fish soups laced with the vibrant scarlet spice filled the air as teams poured generous amounts into their cauldrons at a cooking contest.
"For us Hungarians, paprika is a wonder," one of the competitors, local fast-food restaurant owner Imre Zseni said, while stirring a beef stew.
Booths were adorned with strings of dried red peppers -- the raw ingredient used to make paprika -- recalling a sight once common on houses in the surrounding countryside every autumn.
Originating from the Americas, peppers found their way to Hungary's sun-drenched, fertile river plains around Kalocsa and Szeged in the 16th century.
The two historic paprika-production centres are now recognised with the EU's protected designation of origin status.
Ethnographer Imre Romsics said paprika became an important symbol of Hungarian identity during the 19th century, "alongside costume, folk art and other traditions".
But younger generations cook fewer traditional Hungarian recipes, and they prefer food "that is faster and easier to prepare," according to specialist Braj.
ros/jza/cms

Climate and Environment

Storms, flooding cause chaos on Greek holiday island of Crete

  • On the road between Ierapetra and Sitia, flooding trapped 23 people in their cars, state television channel ERT reported.
  • Floods after heavy storms trapped some people in their cars and forced the evacuation of some tourists on the Greek holiday island of Crete, local officials said Saturday.
  • On the road between Ierapetra and Sitia, flooding trapped 23 people in their cars, state television channel ERT reported.
Floods after heavy storms trapped some people in their cars and forced the evacuation of some tourists on the Greek holiday island of Crete, local officials said Saturday.
The force of the flooding washed some cars and trees into the sea.
"We had to evacuate a few tourists and a woman had to be taken to hospital as a precaution," the mayor of the Cretan port of Ierapetra, Manolis Frangoulis, told AFP.
The town, on the southeast coast of Crete, was hit by torrential rain Friday and Saturday, cutting off roads that had been filled with debris.
"We have cars in the sea and all the department is working to at least re-establish transport," Frangoulis.
On the road between Ierapetra and Sitia, flooding trapped 23 people in their cars, state television channel ERT reported.
Three tourists and their taxi driver had to abandon their vehicle after flood waters began to carry away their vehicle, ERT added.
At the port of Canea, a popular tourist destination, giant waves damaged seafront restaurants and tourist venues.
The civil protection agency called on residents of several towns to limit their movements.
The deputy governor of the Heraklion region, Nikos Syrigonakis, said emergency services were working to clear small landslides and remove debris from local roads.
They remained on high alert, monitoring the water levels of the streams and rivers, he told the Greek news agency ANA.
Between Friday and Saturday at 1550 GMT (6:50 pm), 42 cm of rain fell in the Canea department, said the Greek national observatory.
The wind speeds were reached up to eight and nine on the Beaufort Scale, said the EMY weather service.
bur-yap/jj/giv

politics

Judge pauses construction of border project in Texas national park

  • "Effective immediately and until the Court orders otherwise, Defendants SHALL NOT build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws," Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote in her order.
  • A US federal judge on Friday issued an emergency injunction blocking President Donald Trump's administration from restarting border barrier and road construction across the Big Bend region in Texas.
  • "Effective immediately and until the Court orders otherwise, Defendants SHALL NOT build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws," Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote in her order.
A US federal judge on Friday issued an emergency injunction blocking President Donald Trump's administration from restarting border barrier and road construction across the Big Bend region in Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to build vehicle barriers, patrol roads, lighting and detection technology in and around Big Bend National Park, known for its spectacular views and rich biodiversity, including hundreds of bird species, bobcats and black bears.
"Effective immediately and until the Court orders otherwise, Defendants SHALL NOT build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws," Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote in her order.
An underlying lawsuit filed by Friends of the Ruidosa Church, the Center for Biological Diversity, and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner challenges the federal government's decision to waive dozens of laws in order to fast-track the $1.7 billion project across Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park and the wider region.
"This is a historic victory," Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP. "The fight's not over, but today's injunction is a win for people and wildlife across West Texas and across the country, and it proves that no president can bulldoze a national park for political theater and expect to get away with it."
Bulldozers broke ground in August on the public lands that blend desert, river and mountain ecosystems and are home to the famed Santa Elena Canyon, before Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott announced a pause following fierce local opposition that crossed party lines.
But the CBP had said in a court filing this week that the pause had lapsed on September 30 and work would soon resume.
ia/pnb

law

US Supreme Court to hear high-stakes climate case

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws passed by New York and Vermont that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects.
  • The US Supreme Court hears a climate case Monday that could upend dozens of lawsuits aimed at making polluters pay for their role in global warming and allegedly deceiving the public about the dangers of fossil fuels.
  • The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws passed by New York and Vermont that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects.
The US Supreme Court hears a climate case Monday that could upend dozens of lawsuits aimed at making polluters pay for their role in global warming and allegedly deceiving the public about the dangers of fossil fuels.
Here is what to know about Suncor v Boulder. 

Accountability or regulation?

The city and county of Boulder, in the state of Colorado, sued ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in 2018, claiming they "knowingly caused and contributed to the alteration of the climate" while "concealing and/or misrepresenting the dangers" associated with their products. 
Suncor operates a refinery in Colorado, while ExxonMobil has deep ties to the Rocky Mountain state. The plaintiffs say they have suffered losses amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars from wildfires, flooding and other weather extremes and are seeking compensation.
It is one of around 40 similar lawsuits brought by cities, states, tribes and other local jurisdictions, modeled on successful litigation against tobacco and opioid producers. 
The companies contend such suits aim to impose an enormous "carbon tax" that could "bankrupt" the energy industry -- and are essentially asking the court to make them all go away.
Corey Riday-White, managing attorney for the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, disputes that characterization. "Truly, this is a corporate accountability case," he told AFP, citing the recent example of Meta, which reached a major settlement over teen social media addiction.
- Reversals common at top court - 
After failing to move the case to federal court, the companies lost bids to have it dismissed in state court and again at Colorado's Supreme Court. 
President Donald Trump's administration filed a brief urging the US Supreme Court to take up the appeal, and the judges agreed.
Sam Sankar, senior vice president of programs for the legal nonprofit Earthjustice, which filed a brief in the case supporting Boulder, was not overly optimistic. 
"If you won a decision and the Supreme Court takes your case, that's not a good day for you," he told AFP.
The court is being asked to decide whether federal law -- specifically the Clean Air Act -- bars Boulder's claims, whether the US Constitution itself prohibits this kind of lawsuit, and whether the court can review the case at this stage.
- The possibilities - 
If the justices focus on the last question, "that essentially just kicks the can down the road" since the wider questions would likely be raised later, Katrina Kuh, a professor of environmental law at Pace University, told AFP.
A ruling on the federal law questions, however, would matter for many pending suits.
"It could extinguish them entirely," said Kuh. Or, the justices could narrow them -- allowing Colorado for example to apply its state law only to emissions within the state.
The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws passed by New York and Vermont that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects. New York's was struck down by a federal judge last month, and an adverse Supreme Court ruling could shut the door to it being revived on appeal.
- A wrinkle and a recusal - 
The companies argue Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency sole authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act. 
But Trump's EPA in February overturned a scientific determination called the "Endangerment Finding" and said it had no such authority.
"It's certainly going to be tricky for the court to thread the needle," said Sankar, between upholding the administration's position and giving the oil companies what they seek.
Republicans in Congress are meanwhile attempting to pass an immunity shield that would also void such cases.
Ahead of the hearing, ultraconservative Justice Samuel Alito recused himself following calls from critics to step aside over his oil and gas stock holdings. 
Conservatives still hold a 5-3 majority with Alito out, but a 4-4 split is now possible -- which would leave the Colorado ruling in place and let the case proceed towards trial.
ia/mlm

California

Sea levels to rise in California as coastal wave surges up west coast

BY HUW GRIFFITH

  • "The general rule of thumb is that every two to four inches (5-10 centimeters) of sea level rise that we see in that background state essentially doubles your flood risk. 
  • Sea levels in California are set to rise by as much as a foot (30 centimeters) in the coming days as an enormous wave washes up the US West Coast.
  • "The general rule of thumb is that every two to four inches (5-10 centimeters) of sea level rise that we see in that background state essentially doubles your flood risk. 
Sea levels in California are set to rise by as much as a foot (30 centimeters) in the coming days as an enormous wave washes up the US West Coast.
The huge surge of energy, known as a "coastal trapped wave" or a "Kelvin wave," is part of El Nino, a months-long phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean that scientists say could generate powerful storms and floods in some parts of the world, while leaving others in drought.
The Kelvin wave is not anything like a tsunami; nor does it crash on beaches. Rather it is a sustained bulge of excess water up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) wide that will hug the coastline as it travels all the way up to Alaska.
Dillon Amaya, an oceanographer at North Carolina State University, said the elevated sea levels could collide with other natural phenomena to create problems for coastal communities.
"What this wave is doing is it's raising sea states, and then when... you combine this wave with things like storm surge from passing weather, large swells, or things like astronomically high tide....(you) elevate your risk for things like flooding and also beach erosion," Amaya told AFP by telephone.
"The general rule of thumb is that every two to four inches (5-10 centimeters) of sea level rise that we see in that background state essentially doubles your flood risk. 
"So it doesn't sound like a lot, but because it's over a huge volume of water, and it's combined with these other factors, you start to get the flood risk."
In recent weeks parts of Southern California have been hit by storm surges that have eaten away at beaches or damaged properties.
In Dana Point and Laguna Beach, south of Los Angeles, several houses have been left uninhabitable, and at least one has completely collapsed.
In Malibu, an enormous sink hole emerged in the driveway of a home belonging to Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage when pounding waves from a nearby hurricane eroded the coastline.

El Nino

The Kelvin wave is essentially both a cause and a symptom of El Nino, said Amaya, and originates in waters near Indonesia when trade winds die down.
"Those trade winds hold up a ton of really warm water in the Western Equatorial Pacific because they're pushing on the surface waters as they blow. 
"If they weaken for too long... water is then able to effectively slosh back along the equatorial strip from Indonesia all the way to South America."
As this wave makes it way over the Pacific, it suppresses the cold water that usually comes up from the deep ocean, making the surface temperature higher.
It is this ocean warming that we call El Nino.
"So these Kelvin waves are, in many ways, the driving force of El Nino. They help El Nino grow and mature over the course of several months," said Amaya.
As the equatorial Kelvin wave hits South America, the energy converts into a coastal Kelvin wave, and heads both north and south along the continents.
The wave going towards the US is currently somewhere north of Cabo, Mexico, and travelling around six miles (10 kilometers) an hour, said Amaya, who expects it to reach San Diego within the next week.
While Kelvin waves are common -- there are five or six during every El Nino -- this one arrives at a delicate time, said Amaya, with sea temperatures already elevated.
"When it gets really warm, that water expands... which causes sea levels to rise just because the water is warm, so you get an additional additive increase in sea level," he said.
"Southern California... just got battered by offshore tropical cyclones, which led to flooding events already and beach erosion, so there's lots of anxiety about extra flood risk coming from El Nino and these waves."
hg/ksb

Amazon

Amazon vows $1 bn for data center towns, decries 'myths'

  • In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centers and pay for any grid upgrades they require. arp/ksb
  • Amazon on Friday pledged more than $1 billion over five years for US communities that host its data centers, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fueled construction boom.
  • In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centers and pay for any grid upgrades they require. arp/ksb
Amazon on Friday pledged more than $1 billion over five years for US communities that host its data centers, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fueled construction boom.
The "Built Together" program, unveiled by Amazon Web Services chief Matt Garman in a 3,000-word blog post, will fund free community college degrees and trades training as well as energy-efficiency upgrades for schools and homes.
The company also announced a "Data Center Commitment," promising that its facilities will not drive up local electricity bills and that it will publish annual figures on energy and water use.
Garman said AWS would stop using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on its projects, a practice that has become a major flashpoint for the movement opposing data centers.
Microsoft made a similar move in March, the first major tech firm to do so.
Garman cast the buildout as a national security imperative on par with the 1950s interstate highway system.
He warned that with more than 100 local moratoriums under consideration nationwide, the United States "could be writing its own losing ticket" in the AI race and that "the consequences would last generations."
He also took aim at what he called myths about data centers, disputing as false arguments that they drive up power costs, deplete water supply and cause pollution from diesel fumes. 
Citing "widespread reports," Garman said some countries were deliberately seeding misinformation in the United States to slow construction -- an argument also made by the Trump administration.
Disinformation researchers and fact-checkers say such claims overstate the role of foreign influence campaigns in a grassroots movement that spans the political spectrum and nearly every US state.
President Donald Trump, a vocal champion of the buildout, has warned that communities rejecting the facilities would "end up being backwards and poor."
Amazon's rivals have made similar overtures. 
In January, Microsoft pledged to fully cover its data centers' power costs and stop requesting local tax breaks, and OpenAI promised that its Stargate data centers would not raise local electricity prices.
In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centers and pay for any grid upgrades they require.
arp/ksb

Canadair

Italy's firefighting planes return home after scorching summer

BY JULIETTE RABAT

  • Italy operates one of the world's largest fleets of Canadair amphibious aircraft -- part boat, part plane -- that can respond quickly to a fire because they do not need to land to take on water from lakes, reservoirs or the sea.
  • After a gruelling summer skimming lakes and coastlines to dump thousands of tonnes of water on wildfires across a parched Europe, Italy's fleet of bright yellow and red Canadair planes has finally returned home to a base near Rome for maintenance.
  • Italy operates one of the world's largest fleets of Canadair amphibious aircraft -- part boat, part plane -- that can respond quickly to a fire because they do not need to land to take on water from lakes, reservoirs or the sea.
After a gruelling summer skimming lakes and coastlines to dump thousands of tonnes of water on wildfires across a parched Europe, Italy's fleet of bright yellow and red Canadair planes has finally returned home to a base near Rome for maintenance.
Italy operates one of the world's largest fleets of Canadair amphibious aircraft -- part boat, part plane -- that can respond quickly to a fire because they do not need to land to take on water from lakes, reservoirs or the sea.
This summer brought Italy's fourth-largest fire season since 2006, with 113,800 hectares burned in 645 fires, according to data from the European EFFIS system, keeping the country's 18 water bombers busy.
But the planes were called to tackle wild blazes abroad too, as part of the European Union's shared firefighting resources, with the continent battling a historic fire season.
"At the start of the summer, we deployed to Portugal and Spain, where we faced two quite difficult situations," said Francesco Morgante, a pilot with Avincis, the company that manages the fleet on behalf of Italy's fire service.
Both countries saw devastating fires, threatening cities and tourist hotspots.
"After that, our own country required our full attention, particularly due to the emergency situation in northern Italy, which was quite unexpected and unusual this year," the 58-year-old Morgante told AFP.
The Canadair water bombers are manufactured exclusively by Calgary-based De Havilland.
Italy has the CL-415 model, but like many European countries is awaiting delivery of new-generation aircraft, the DHC-515, which comes with a price tag of around 100 million euros ($113 million).
 

'Ideal tool'

 
The Canadair is capable of scooping up over 6,000 litres of water in just 12 seconds without landing -- thanks to two intakes beneath the fuselage -- and dropping the load in three seconds, making it an "ideal tool" for firefighting, said Morgante.
"It is a versatile, flexible tool capable of tackling medium-to-large fires", and "enables a fire to be contained even when it is already fully developed," he said, from the cramped cockpit of one of the water bombers.
A vast, newly renovated hangar houses planes undergoing inspection, including one with its twin turboprop engines exposed.
The in-depth checks are performed on every aircraft in the fleet over a period of several weeks after summer, Maurizio Tomassi, head of maintenance operations at Avincis, told AFP, adding they hope to complete the maintenance by March. 
In the meantime, the closure of the last operational base in Calabria on October 31 will mark the official end of this year's summer season. 
 
- 'No weather break' - 
 
Western Europe has just recorded its hottest summer on record -- with some 540,000 hectares going up in smoke across the European Union between mid-June and early September.
That makes the issue of how many Canadair fleets are available to member states more pressing than ever.
Over the years, there has been "a slow, gradual increase in the need" for the bombers, said Morgante.
"Having a fleet that meets our needs at both national and European levels... is essential," he said.
For pilots, technical staff and operational coordinators alike, this summer will go down in the record books.
"We didn't get that moment when a summer storm rolls in, the temperature drops by three or four degrees, and you get a two-day break before things potentially pick up again -- if they pick up at all," Morgante said.
"That weather 'break' simply didn't happen." 
Alessandro Sette, the 50-year-old head of the operations room which handles incoming requests from the Italian Civil Protection agency, agreed it has been "an exceptional summer".
"Work started early in the morning because the planes took off at first light... and operations usually wrapped up at dusk, making for long, intense days," he said.
But on this quiet late-September morning, there is no movement on the screen used to track aircraft flight paths.
"Practically all the planes are on the ground," he said with satisfaction.
jra/ide/st

climate

World powers gather in Pacific to chart climate battle

BY BEN STRANG

  • Top delegates to the Pacific talks will hold a one-day retreat on low-lying Tuvalu, a small island nation laying plans to relocate the population if it is consumed by the ocean.
  • World powers are flying delegates to the Pacific to haggle over the fight against global warming, and to see the plight of island nations surrounded by a rising ocean.
  • Top delegates to the Pacific talks will hold a one-day retreat on low-lying Tuvalu, a small island nation laying plans to relocate the population if it is consumed by the ocean.
World powers are flying delegates to the Pacific to haggle over the fight against global warming, and to see the plight of island nations surrounded by a rising ocean.
Ministers, climate negotiators and a handful of leaders will meet in the Fijian city of Nadi for the October 5-8 talks.
They will be charting the course for a major UN-sponsored global climate summit, known as COP31, to be held in November in Turkey's Antalya province.
For Pacific nations, hosting the preliminary talks in their region offers an opportunity to draw the world's attention to life on the frontline of climate change.
Pacific leaders are pushing for the world to stick to a target of limiting global warming to 1.5C, enhance access to climate finance, and give more attention to the impact on oceans.
The sea level is rising at a record pace, driven by warming oceans and glacier melt, according to a UN report.
Up to 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050, with Pacific island countries experiencing sea level rise at twice the global average, said the report released in August.
It also highlighted a financing gap, with developing countries needing US$310-US$365 billion to adapt, yet having only US$26 billion in adaptation finance available in 2023.
Top delegates to the Pacific talks will hold a one-day retreat on low-lying Tuvalu, a small island nation laying plans to relocate the population if it is consumed by the ocean.
They will be shown Tuvalu's land reclamation efforts.
The island capital Funafuti's highest point is just two metres above sea-level, and two of its nine coral atolls are already largely swamped by rising seas.
 

'Act now'

 
"Sea-level rise is not a future threat, it is a present reality," Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the UN General Assembly ahead of the climate talks.
"Tuvalu's message is clear: the world must act now decisively, collectively, and with urgency to protect the future for generations to come."
Last year, Australia bowed out of a contest with Turkey to host the COP31 summit in a deal that let it preside over negotiations and bring the preparatory talks to the Pacific.
As leader of the climate talks, however, major coal exporter Australia has faced heat over the scale of its fossil fuel extraction.
Chris Bowen, the country's climate minister, says Australia is rapidly expanding its renewable energy sources, which are essential for a transition away from fossil fuels.
Bowen, president of the COP31 negotiations, also rejected media criticism that the pre-COP talks in the Pacific had failed to lure enough world leaders.
Fewer than a dozen world leaders have so far publicly confirmed that they will attend the meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu, mostly from the Pacific.
Fiji said last month it expected the heads of state for Antigua and Barbuda, Cape Verde, Thailand, the Maldives and Timor-Leste would attend.
"It's not normally a leaders meeting," Bowen told reporters in the run-up to the talks, which are usually held at the ministerial and senior-negotiator level.
 

'Very, very sad'

 
Organisers have not released detailed figures on attendance.
Bowen said last month 4,000 people from 60 nations would attend, without providing a full breakdown. 
Marine scientist Rajneel Singh -- part of a team that reported large-scale coral death around Tuvalu from a 2024 marine heatwave -- said he was disheartened by a perceived lack of attention to the climate challenge.
"It's very, very sad. There's no awareness of what's happening," Singh told AFP.
Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, has confirmed he will attend the Pacific climate meeting, after the August 26 Himalayan flood disaster.
A tsunami-like wall of water and debris triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-China border on August 26 killed nearly 1,500 and left 5,800 missing in the two countries.
"What we're trying to convey to the world is this: these issues of climate change are not theoretical anymore," Khanal told AFP in an interview in New York.
bes/djw/abs