Climate change and reparations for the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade are “on the agenda” as leaders of the Commonwealth group of nations meet for a summit in Samoa, Reuters reports. The article notes that “more than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small states, many of which are low-lying island nations at risk from rising sea levels due to climate change”. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), King Charles will be shown the impact of rising sea levels, which are forcing people from their homes in Samoa, according to the newswire. Patricia Scotland, the Labour peer and departing secretary general of the Commonwealth, tells the Guardian that she thinks the group has an important role in tackling climate change. Scotland, who was born in the Caribbean nation of Dominica, took up the role just after tropical storm Erica destroyed 95% of the island’s GDP and she tells the newspaper that one of her priorities in office has been to secure financing for climate action in developing countries. 

ABC News reports that several Pacific island nations are ramping up pressure on Australia about the issue of climate change during CHOGM. It says leaders from Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Fiji gathered to launch a new report by the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which finds that Australia, Canada and the UK are responsible for more than 60% of emissions generated from extraction across Commonwealth nations since 1990. The article says Tuvalu’s prime minister, Feleti Teo, singled out Australia, in particular, as being obliged to phase out fossil fuel exports to help protect his nation from climate change. A piece in the Conversation says Teo and others have “reserved special criticism for Australia…because Australia is now second only to Russia based on emissions from its fossil fuel exports”.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that UK prime minister Keir Starmer has told journalists on the flight to the meeting in Samoa that he does not want to discuss reparations for slavery and would focus instead on “current future-facing challenges”, such as climate change. “Whether it’s the Caribbean or the Pacific islands, climate is a very real problem right now,” Starmer said, according to the newspaper. It adds that Starmer will face questions at the Commonwealth meeting about the UK government’s plans to cut its foreign aid budget, due to the rising cost of dealing with asylum seekers at home. This news is reported in a separate Financial Times article, which says the upcoming budget will not match the previous Conservative government’s “top-ups” to compensate for some of the aid spent on asylum seekers. It says this could lead to aid spending “slump[ing] to its lowest level in 17 years”. (This is relevant for the UK’s contributions to climate finance for developing countries, which are drawn from the aid budget and have already been affected by the government diverting away aid money, as Carbon Brief has reported.) In more climate-finance coverage, Climate Home News reports that the European Central Bank (ECB) is “standing in the way” of a plan by African and Latin American development banks to “re-channel” a type of financial asset known as special drawing rights (SDRs), which could be used to tackle climate change in developing countries.

Finally, in more UK finance news, the Guardian reports that chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week a plan to change the nation’s debt rules – allowing the government to spend up to £50bn extra on infrastructure projects. While the piece says the Treasury has “hinted” it would not initially take advantage of these changes, “sources said energy and transport projects would be a particular focus of capital spending in the budget on 30 October”, the newspaper adds.

The world currently faces a $942bn shortfall in investment needed to deliver global nature restoration targets for the end of the decade, according to analysis released by BloombergNEF (BNEF) as nations gather for the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, BusinessGreen reports. It notes that the funding gap has “widened in recent years as investment has failed to keep pace with inflation”. BNEF estimates that the world needs around $1.15tn in biodiversity finance in 2030 to meet the targets agreed by nations in the landmark UN Global Biodiversity Framework treaty at COP15 in Canada two years ago, the article continues. The Financial Times has an article with “five takeaways on the state of biodiversity finance”. (Last week, Carbon Brief published an analysis of new ODI data focused on how much biodiversity finance nations have contributed so far, relative to their “fair shares” based on historical responsibility for biodiversity loss.)

Separately, the Guardian covers new research suggesting that biodiversity is declining faster within key protected areas than outside them. Scientists say this is a “wake-up call” to global leaders discussing how to stop nature loss at COP16, the newspaper explains. As for the negotiations themselves, Agence France-Presse reports that the Colombian COP16 president Susana Muhamad has said she expects “major announcements” soon. The Times of India says India and Bangladesh have called for a more “transparent and inclusive” mechanism for biodiversity financing, raising concerns about existing procedures. Vox has a piece about how the US is the only nation in the world, apart from the Vatican City, that has failed to join the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

As for the approaching COP29 climate summit, which will take place next month in Baku, Azerbaijan, veteran climate campaigners and geopolitical experts have voiced criticism to Climate Home News about a “COP truce”, championed by the Azerbaijan presidency. In theory, this would lead to a pause in conflicts around the world, but experts say it is a “performative…PR exercise” and a “distraction” from a separate UN-supported push to strengthen climate action in conflict-affected regions, the article says.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will “formulate an action plan for green and low-carbon development of the manufacturing industry”, which aims to “promote comprehensive green transformation in economic and social development”, state news agency Xinhua quotes MIIT spokesperson Tao Qing saying during a press conference on Wednesday. Industry news outlet BJX News also covers the press conference, reporting that Tao also said that 50 new national green data centres were established this year and that the “environmental equipment manufacturing industry” is expected to reach an annual output value of around 1tn yuan ($140bn). Xinhua says that China will commission 647 projects worth 200bn yuan ($28bn), covering areas including “disaster relief” and “ecological conservation and restoration”, in next year’s investment plans. The National Energy Administration (NEA) says it will increase “green electricity and certificate services” for data centres to support their low-carbon transformation, BJX News reports. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) covers “rumours” that China will issue new rules to “curb oversupply and a price war” in the solar industry, possibly in the form of restrictions on solar consumption or stricter requirements for utilisation rates of production capacity. China Electric Power News publishes an article by the NEA’s chief engineer, Xiang Haiping, saying that China needs to expand wind and solar generation, promote energy storage and extend green hydrogen and ammonia value chains to “ensure both energy and developmental security”.

Elsewhere, a total of 145 thermal power projects are “being planned or under construction” across China as of the third quarter of this year, as electricity demand “surged” in the country during the peak summer period, according to calculations by BJX News. International Energy Net reports that Sinopec has successfully connected a “mid-deep geothermal power demonstration project” to the local grid, in China’s “first pilot project combining heat, power and helium”.

Finally, state-run newspaper China Daily quotes Liu Yu, chairman of the newly established state-owned enterprise China Resources Recycling, saying that the group will establish a “nationwide platform for the utilisation of renewable resources” and “ramp up efforts to continue expanding the range of recycled materials”. Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) official Guo Yijun says the MEE will “strengthen environmental oversight of the dismantling and disposal of power batteries, solar panels and wind turbine blades”, the state-supporting newspaper Global Times reports.

Governor Roy Cooper has announced that the flooding and destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina likely caused at least $53bn in damages, making it what he calls the “deadliest and most damaging storm ever to hit” the state, the Associated Press reports. North Carolina state officials have reported 96 deaths due to Helene, the article notes. Cooper told journalists that the state’s previous record for storm damage was $17bn from Hurricane Florence in 2018. In an article penned for the Los Angeles Times, Andra Garner, an associate professor and climate scientist at Rowan University, writes that “the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has made it abundantly clear that the consequences of climate change are here”.

Meanwhile, in other extreme weather news, at least 24 people have died and two million more have been impacted after Tropical Storm Trami made landfall in the Philippines, triggering floods and landslides on the main Luzon island, according to Sky News. There have been thousands of evacuations and cancellations of trains and flights as Cyclone Dana approaches the coasts of India and Bangladesh, the Hindustan Times reports. Hurricane Kristy strengthened into a Category 4 storm in the Pacific Ocean and is expected to affect portions of the west coast of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico this week, according to the Associated Press. Several northeastern states in the US “have been put under a red flag fire warning after experiencing unseasonably warm weather and dry and windy conditions,” the Daily Mail says. Finally, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has told parliament that the wildfire-plagued nation has suffered its worst year of climate conditions in four decades, according to Agence France-Presse.

Elsewhere, an article in the Guardian about the record 12.4m cases of dengue fever in 2024 so far makes the link with climate change. “Changes in climate not only help the mosquitoes to survive in new areas, but may cause extreme weather events such as flooding, creating new breeding grounds. Heatwaves can speed up reproduction cycles,” the article explains.

Tesla has announced an unexpected rise in profits in a “sign of rebounding demand for electric cars”, according to the Daily Telegraph. It says the Elon Musk-led company reported an increase in sales and a 17% increase in net income in the third quarter, as it aims to “hang on to its position as the world’s most popular electric car manufacturer”. Tesla has seen profits decline in the previous two quarters and has struggled with dampened demand for electric cars and growing competition from established car manufacturers and Chinese companies, the article adds. The firm attributes the rebound to lower vehicle production costs, growth in vehicle deliveries and lower operating expenses, the Times reports.

In the UK, the Times reports that car production in the UK fell by over 20% in September, year-on-year, as the number of vehicles exported to other countries continued to decline. The newspaper notes that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the trade body that supplies the figures, said the decline was expected and could be attributed to “companies retooling their factories to focus on producing all-new zero-emission vehicles”. Separately, the Tony Blair Institute has called on the government to introduce a pay-per-mile road pricing system to replace fuel duty on petrol and diesel – in preparation for a future when electric cars dominate the roads, the Guardian reports. A new report from the thinktank says the change would “generate the same revenue as the Treasury expects to raise from an end to the 2022 temporary cut in fuel duty – and, thus, acting now could be less politically toxic than later”.

An editorial in the Washington Post considers the changing fortunes of nuclear power in the US. “In short succession over the past few weeks, three of the nation’s tech goliaths announced eye-catching investments in nuclear projects to secure low-carbon electricity for artificial intelligence data centres,” it says. The editorial suggests that these developments suggest that nuclear power, which was “long shunned as either too dangerous or too expensive”, could be an important part of the nation’s efforts to tackle climate change. It goes on to discuss the different technologies available, but concludes: “The technology itself matters less than the commitment to deploy it. That is essential for nuclear energy to rise again, which is, in turn, important for sustaining high standards of living as the world transitions off fossil fuels.”

In other news, the Guardian officially throws its support behind Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for the US presidency in the upcoming US election. “A Harris win, with a Democratic Congress, means a chance to restore good governance, create good jobs and lead the entire planet’s climate efforts,” it argues.

Robert Jenrick, one of the two remaining candidates to lead the UK Conservative party, has written an article for the Sun criticising the Labour government for reportedly planning to end the 14-year freeze on fuel duty. “British motorists already pay some of the highest fuel taxes in Europe. A hike at the budget would hammer millions of working people, as well as the most vulnerable who rely on cars to get around,” he writes. (Carbon Brief analysis has previously shown that the previous Conservative government’s successive fuel duty freezes increased UK carbon dioxide emissions by up to 7%.)  Jenrick attributes Labour’s plans to “net-zero zealotry” and makes the link to Labour’s plans to end the sale of new petrol and ­diesel cars from 2030 [a policy originally introduced by a Conservative government in which he served] and achieve a net-zero electricity grid by 2030. “Labour doesn’t seem to understand that there are no prizes for reaching net-zero zero first,” Jenrick says. He then takes aim at other policies, including the Climate Change Act itself and its carbon budgets, which he calls “mad policies that are bad for working people”. In related news, DeSmog reports that “Robert Jenrick’s pledge to repeal the UK’s landmark climate change law has won him the backing of some of the country’s most notorious climate science deniers”.

Separately, Patrick Hosking, the Times’ financial editor, has written an article about the need for road pricing to replace fuel duty. “Road pricing won’t be high on Reeves’s agenda next week. But an acknowledgement that it at least needs to be explored and costed is long overdue. For anyone wanting to be thought serious about either growth or fiscal rectitude, the time for ducking and denial is past,” he says. 

Polar bears were exposed to more disease-causing pathogens amid warming Arctic conditions over the past three decades, according to a new study. The researchers find that the prevalence of antibodies for five pathogens increased among Chukchi Sea polar bears in the Arctic Ocean between 1987-94 and 2008-17. Pathogen exposure could be a “compounding factor” in stressors facing the polar bears “in the face of rapid changes to their sea ice habitat”, the researchers write. They note, however, that there is “no evidence” that exposure to these pathogens has negatively impacted the health of the bears.

The net amount of CO2 that the world’s land area absorbed last year was the smallest since 2003, says a new study. In a “fast-track carbon budget” for 2023, the researchers find that land-based CO2 uptake north of 20 degrees latitude has “declined by half” since 2015. Meanwhile, the tropics “recovered from the 2015-16 El Niño carbon loss, gained carbon during the La Niña years (2020-23), then switched to a carbon loss during the 2023 El Niño”, the study says. Land regions exposed to extreme heat in 2023 “contributed a gross carbon loss”, the researchers note, “indicating that record warming in 2023 had a strong negative impact on the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to mitigate climate change”.