In a landmark decision, the United Kingdom’s energy secretary Ed Miliband has announced the banning of new coal mines in Britain, as part of the country’s drive to reach net zero.

The UK government has committed to introducing legislation to restrict the licensing of future coal mines by amending 1994’s Coal Industry Act, a press release from the UK Government said.

“Coal mining powered this country for over 140 years and we owe a huge debt to workers who kept the lights on for homes and businesses across the country. Now the UK is in prime position to lead the way in phasing out coal power around the world, which remains the single largest contributor to global emissions,” said Energy Minister Michael Shanks in the press release. “By consigning coal power to the past, we can pave the way for a clean, secure energy system that will protect billpayers and create a new generation of skilled workers.”

At its peak, coal-fired power generation supported more than one million jobs in the UK, reported The Telegraph.

Coal is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions from energy worldwide. The phasing out of the dirty fuel is an important part of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, reducing dangerous air pollution and tackling the climate crisis.

Earlier this year, Britain closed its last coal-fired power plant in Ratcliffe on Soar after 50 years, becoming the first major economy in the world to stop using coal energy.

“As the coal age ends, the clean energy age is ramping up, with the government committing to unprecedented investment in homegrown clean energy in the UK including carbon capture and hydrogen,” the press release said. “It comes after the independent National Energy System Operator (NESO) confirmed last week that achieving clean power by 2030 is achievable and can unlock cheaper, more secure electricity.”

The UK recently confirmed 21.7 billion pounds for the funding of carbon capture projects in Northeast and Northwest England, which are set to support as many as 50,000 jobs. More than 2.3 billion pounds will go toward the first set of contracts to produce electric hydrogen.

This week at the COP29 United Nations Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK’s Clean Industry Bonus will offer offshore wind developers 27 million pounds per gigawatt if they invest in the country’s coastal areas, oil and gas communities and industrial heartlands.

“It follows confirmation that 120,000 former mineworkers will receive a 32% boost to their pensions, as £1.5 billion of money that was kept from their pensions is handed over to their schemes, ensuring those who powered the country for decades finally get the just rewards from their labour,” the press release said.

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The planet is in the midst of a climate crisis of epic proportions, with unparalleled extreme weather, flooding, drought and wildfires. In the face of these calamities, the global average temperature has continued to rise, with “no improvement” seen since 2021.

A new report from Climate Action Tracker (CAT) — released on Thursday at the United Nations COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan — has found that, under current policies, the world is on track toward 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century.

“We are clearly failing to bend the curve,” said lead author of the report Sofia Gonzales-Zuñiga, senior climate policy analyst with Climate Analytics, in a press release from CAT.

This year has shown “minimal overall progress,” with nearly no new net zero pledges or national climate targets, the press release said. Fossil fuel emissions continue to rise, despite repeated promises by governments to strengthen their targets for 2030 and align them with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Gonzales-Zuñiga said the 2.7 degrees Celsius median warming estimate had a 50 percent likelihood of being lower or higher.

“But our knowledge of the climate system tells us that there is a 33% chance of our projection being 3.0°C — or higher — and a 10% chance of being 3.6°C or higher, an absolutely catastrophic level of warming,” Gonzales-Zuñiga added.

The good news is that renewables and electric vehicles (EVs) have reported record progress. Investments in green energy and EVs are now twice those of fossil fuels. At the same time, fossil fuel subsidies have reached an all-time high. Fossil fuel project funding quadrupled from 2021 to 2022.

According to CAT projections, fossil fuel emissions will peak by 2030, but at a substantially higher level than in 2021.

“Rising emissions while renewables boom is not a paradox. In recent years fossil fuels won the race against renewables, leading to increasing emissions. But renewables surprise us each year with faster growth faster than expected, exponential growth that will soon see them crowd out fossil fuels. It allows much faster decline in emissions after 2030 than we thought only three years ago,” said Professor Niklas Höhne, a climate policy expert with the NewClimate Institute, a CAT partner organization, in the press release.

An initial calculation by CAT of the predicted impact of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 planned repealing of climate policies estimates an increase in global heating of approximately 0.04 degrees Celsius, if the actions are limited to the United States. Permanently abandoning the country’s net zero goal, if accompanied by other nations delaying action or changing their climate policies, could have a larger negative effect.

“Clearly, we won’t know the full impact of the US elections until President-Elect Trump takes office, but there is a clean energy momentum in the US now that will be difficult to stop. While the Trump administration will undoubtedly do its best to throw a wrecking ball into climate action, the clean energy momentum created by President Biden, being actioned across the country, is likely to continue at significant scale,” said Bill Hare, Climate Analytics CEO, in the press release. “The key issue is whether countries stick together and continue to move forward with action, a Trump rollback of US policies, as damaging as it is, can be overcome.”

CAT said putting the planet on track for a downward trajectory of emissions begins with the greatest emitters.

In conjunction with its report, CAT released its recommended targets for 2035 for seven of the planet’s biggest emitters: the U.S., China, India, Australia, the European Union, Japan and Indonesia, as well as Troika countries Azerbaijan, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.

“What on earth are we doing in this gathering?” Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama asked other heads of state at COP29 on Wednesday, as The Guardian reported. “What does it mean for the future of the world if the biggest polluters continue as usual?”

The world’s seven biggest emitters produced 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally in 2022. The three Troika nations — who released their Roadmap to Mission 1.5°C — all have plans to keep extracting fossil fuels. Together, the 10 nations produce 63 percent of the world’s emissions.

“Developed countries need to continue to supplement their domestic action with significant financial and other support for developing countries to constitute an equitable contribution to the 1.5°C limit,” said co-author of the report Ana Missirliu, a climate policy analyst with the NewClimate Institute, in the press release. “Many developing countries can only achieve sufficient climate action with significant financial and other support. COP29 is where we need to see this financial commitment.”

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The most recent Global Carbon Budget report has found that the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels reached a record high in 2024, pushing the planet further off track from avoiding the most destructive impacts of global heating.

The 2024 Global Carbon Budget — produced by the Global Carbon Project team of 120-plus scientists from around the world — projects that emissions from fossil carbon dioxide will reach 37.4 billion tonnes in 2024, an increase of 0.8 percent over the previous year, according to a press release from the Global Carbon Project.

“The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly dramatic, yet we still see no sign that burning of fossil fuels has peaked,” said lead author of the study Professor Pierre Friedlingstein of Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, in the press release. “Time is running out to meet the Paris Agreement goals – and world leaders meeting at COP29 must bring about rapid and deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions to give us a chance of staying well below 2°C warming above pre-industrial levels.”

Total carbon dioxide emissions for 2024 are projected to be 41.6 billion tonnes, with 4.2 billion tonnes coming from deforestation and other land-use changes. Last year’s total emissions were 40.6 billion tonnes.

Over the course of the past decade, fossil carbon emissions have increased while carbon dioxide emissions from land-use changes have gone down on average, leaving total emissions approximately level for that period. In the past 10 years, overall emissions from land-use changes have gone down 20 percent.

This year, however, global emissions from both land-use changes and fossil carbon dioxide are in a position to rise. Drought conditions exacerbated emissions from deforestation, fires and forest degradation during the 2023-2024 El Niño climate event.

“Emissions from fires in 2024 have been above the average since the beginning of the satellite record in 2003, particularly due to the extreme 2023 wildfire season in Canada (which persisted in 2024) and intense drought in Brazil,” the press release said.

The permanent removal of carbon dioxide through new forests and reforestation offsets roughly half of emissions from permanent deforestation.

“Despite another rise in global emissions this year, the latest data shows evidence of widespread climate action, with the growing penetration of renewables and electric cars displacing fossil fuels, and decreasing deforestation emissions in the past decades confirmed for the first time,” said Professor Corinne Le Quéré, a research professor at University of East Anglia’s School of Environmental Sciences, in the press release.

Dr. Glen Peters, co-author of the report and a senior researcher with Oslo’s CICERO Center for International Climate Research, pointed out that, for a peak in the world’s fossil fuel emissions to occur, more countries must speed up the pace of their emissions cuts.

“There are many signs of positive progress at the country level, and a feeling that a peak in global fossil CO2 emissions is imminent, but the global peak remains elusive. Climate action is a collective problem, and while gradual emission reductions are occurring in some countries, increases continue in others,” Peters said in the press release. “Progress in all countries needs to accelerate fast enough to put global emissions on a downward trajectory towards net zero.”

The scientists found that emissions from the United States — which represent 13 percent of the world’s total — are predicted to decrease by 0.6 percent this year. Meanwhile, India’s emissions — eight percent of the total — are projected to climb 4.6 percent. Emissions from the European Union — which make up seven percent — are likely to go down by 3.8 percent. The rest of the planet’s emissions — 38 percent of collective emissions overall — are projected to rise by 1.1 percent.

“Until we reach net zero CO2 emissions globally, world temperatures will continue to rise and cause increasingly severe impacts,” Friedlingstein added.

Another finding of the report was that current technology-based carbon removal only accounted for roughly one-millionth of fossil fuel carbon emissions.

Ocean– and land-based carbon sinks combined made up about half of total carbon dioxide removal in 2024, despite the negative impacts of climate change.

“Solar and wind is displacing fossil fuels in some countries, but then you have other countries where the economies are growing too strongly for renewables to keep up,” Peters said, as The New York Times reported. “When you put the whole global sum together, fossil fuels are still winning. An emissions peak could be around the corner, but we haven’t seen it yet.”

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At the COP29 United Nations Climate Conference, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that the United Kingdom would slash greenhouse gas emissions 81 percent by 2035.

The UK’s new target follows recommendations by the Climate Change Committee, who said the goal should exceed the country’s current 78 percent emissions reduction, in comparison with 1990 levels, reported Reuters.

“At this COP, I was pleased to announce that we’re building on our reputation as a climate leader, with the UK’s 2035 NDC (nationally determined contributions) target to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels,” Starmer said at a press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, as Reuters reported.

Starmer’s announcement was in line with Britain’s goal of making itself an international destination for clean energy companies, particularly since President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to derail tax incentives that make the United States a draw for renewables, reported The New York Times.

“The race is on for the clean energy jobs of the future, the economy of the future,” Starmer said, as The New York Times reported.

Helen Clarkson, head of nonprofit organization Climate Group, stated in an email that the Starmer administration would need to come up with a plan for green energy companies that want to invest.

 “The economic prize on offer to the U.K is enormous,” Clarkson said in the email.

The UK’s target is one of the first NDCs to be announced at COP29, reported The Guardian. The goal is also expected to be among the most ambitious from the countries attending the summit.

NDCs are due in February of 2025.

To achieve its objective, the UK would decarbonize its power sector, expand offshore wind and invest in nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage.

Climate activists have referred to the NDCs submitted thus far by nations at the summit as “underwhelming.”

“With the warning signals flashing red, a planet battered by increasingly severe floods, storms and heatwaves, and the election of climate denier President Trump, the need for climate leadership by the UK has never been more urgent. Starmer’s 2035 carbon-reduction pledge is a step in the right direction but must be seen as a floor to the level of ambition, not a ceiling. Deeper, faster cuts are needed to help avert the climate collision course we are on,” said Rosie Downes, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, as The Guardian reported. “Furthermore, if these targets are to be credible, they must be backed by a clear plan to ensure they are met. The UK’s existing 2030 commitment is currently way off course.”

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Extreme weather is causing an increase in undocumented migration between the United States and Mexico, suggesting more migrants could put their lives at risk crossing the border as the climate crisis causes droughts, severe storms and other adversities, a new study has found.

The researchers discovered that people from Mexico’s agricultural regions were more likely to travel across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in the wake of droughts. And when extreme weather conditions continued, they were not as likely to return to their original communities.

“As the world’s climate continues to change, human populations are exposed to increasingly severe and extreme weather conditions that can promote migration,” the study’s authors wrote. “The findings… suggest that extreme weather conditions, which are likely to increase with climate change, promote clandestine mobility across borders and, thus, expose migrants to risks associated with crossing dangerous terrain.”

All over the world, human-caused climate change from the burning of fossil fuels like natural gas and coal is exacerbating extreme weather. Droughts are becoming drier and longer, high temperatures are becoming more deadly and storms are intensifying rapidly while unleashing record amounts of rain.

In Mexico, drought has dried up reservoirs, creating severe water shortages and greatly reduced corn production, which threatens livelihoods, reported Phys.org.

The researchers said Mexico — a country of more than 128 million people — has an average annual temperature that is predicted to rise as much as three degrees Celsius by 2060. Rural communities that depend on rain-fed agriculture are likely to be economically devastated by global heating.

Mexico and the U.S. have the largest flow of international migration on Earth, and scientists predict it will expand as the planet warms. In the coming three decades, 143 million people around the world are likely to be forced to relocate due to soaring temperatures, drought, sea-level rise and other climate disasters, a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said.

Migration “is not a decision that people take up lightly… and yet they’re being forced to make it more, and they’re being forced to stay longer in the United States” due to climate extremes, said co-author of the study Filiz Garip, a sociology and international affairs professor at Princeton University, as Phys.org reported.

Garip said advanced countries have contributed much more to the climate crisis than the developing nations that bear the brunt.

The research team looked at daily weather data and responses from 48,313 individuals surveyed from 1992 to 2018, focusing on approximately 3,700 people who crossed the border undocumented for the first time.

The team analyzed 84 Mexican agricultural communities where corn farming was weather-dependent. They linked an individual’s decision to migrate and return with abnormal temperature and rainfall changes in their communities of origin during the corn growing season, which runs from May to August.

The researchers discovered that drought-affected communities had higher rates of migration in comparison with communities with normal rainfall. People were also less likely to go back to Mexico after having migrated to the U.S. when their communities of origin were abnormally wet or dry. The same was true whether the migrants had recently arrived in the U.S. or had been there longer.

The finding that decisions to return to communities of origin had been delayed by extreme weather conditions is “important and novel,” according to Hélène Benveniste, a Stanford University professor in the department of environmental social sciences, as reported by Phys.org.

“Few datasets enable an analysis of this question,” Benveniste said.

Increased enforcement and surveillance along the border between Mexico and the U.S. makes returning, as well as traveling back and forth, harder, said Michael Méndez, an environmental policy and planning professor at University of California, Irvine, who was not involved with the study.

Once undocumented migrants cross the border into the U.S., they frequently lack healthcare, live in dilapidated housing or work in industries like agriculture and construction that expose them to additional climate impacts, Méndez said.

As the climate crisis threatens the world’s social, economic and political stability, experts said the study underscores a global need for collaboration concerning migration and climate resilience.

“So much of our focus has been, in a way, on the border and securing the border,” said Kerilyn Schewel, co-director of the Program on Climate, Resilience and Mobility at Duke University, as Phys.org reported. “But we need much more attention to not only the reasons why people are leaving, but also the demand for immigrant workers within the U.S.”

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