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Former Great Barrier Reef marine park head calls for ban on new coalmines

Graeme Kelleher’s call comes before Australian government’s deadline for reporting to Unesco’s world heritage committee

The former head of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has called for a ban on all new coalmines in Australia, saying the move is needed to protect the Great Barrier Reef from climate change.

“I love the reef and I have worked to preserve it since 1979; I will oppose anything that threatens to destroy it,” said Graeme Kelleher, who was the first chief executive of GBRMPA, a position he held for 16 years. “The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the world.”

Related: Great Barrier Reef: third fatality in a week as British tourist dies on dive

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All the news you missed while you were freaking out about Trump

Zika virus is no longer a world threat, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was abandoned, Airbnb launched a new service and more news that you missed

The World Health Organization declared on Friday that Zika virus, shown to cause microcephaly in infants and spread by mosquitos, was no longer an international emergency. The virus causes a mild fever and flu-like symptoms in healthy adults but has been linked to malformed heads in newborns, and research has suggested possible links to other birth defects.

Related: Zika virus is no longer a global health emergency, UN health agency says

Related: Airbnb blocked discrimination researcher over multiple accounts

Related: Dakota Access pipeline: the who, what and why of the Standing Rock protests

Related: ‘I hate this beard. By God, I hate it’: Iraqi men celebrate their freedom by shaving

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Marrakech climate talks wind down with maze of ambition still ahead

It’s easy to get lost in the old Moroccan medina – just as disorientating as the UN climate process, where emission-cutting goals are being bartered too

Marrakech has an ancient heart — centuries old and unafraid to show it — and it has all the ingredients needed to disorientate an outsider. You get lost, often.

Lanes in the centuries-old medina are narrow and the walls are high, making it impossible to spot a landmark and get a fix on where you are.

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On climate change policy, neither time nor Trump are on Turnbull's side | Lenore Taylor

Australia cannot hail the Paris accord as a turning point and simultaneously rejoice in a great long-term economic future for coal

When Malcolm Turnbull was dumped by the Liberal party in 2009 because he refused to renounce support for emissions trading, the man now about to assume responsibility for implementing Donald Trump’s evisceration of US climate change policy was elated.

Myron Ebell, a veteran warrior against action on global warming, wrote on his “competitive enterprise institute” blog that “toppling Turnbull was a necessary step” in defeating Australia’s cap and trade scheme. And he understood exactly who deserved credit.

Related: Australia being 'left behind' by global momentum on climate change

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

Related: Trump administration could roll back US environmental protection, critics fear

Related: Matthew Canavan: 'rock star' Barnaby Joyce can lead Nationals to great things

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Hammond must avoid more North Sea oil subsidies in the autumn statement | Letters

Ahead of the autumn statement next week (Report, 18 November), we urge the chancellor not to answer calls from oil producers in the North Sea for another round of government subsidies. Instead, Philip Hammond should put an end to the taxpayer-funded bonus for oil and gas companies and set the UK on a pathway to a more prosperous, clean energy future. If the world is to deliver on the Paris agreement on climate change, most of the known oil, gas and coal reserves must remain untapped. Yet in spite of warnings about risks of stranded assets from the governor of the Bank of England, the UK continues to promote the production of yet more oil and gas.

The tax breaks introduced by former chancellor George Osborne in 2015 and 2016 have been costly. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that the Treasury will hand oil and gas companies a net £4.8bn in rebates between 2015 and 2021. These tax breaks have also failed to protect jobs. Even with current subsidies, North Sea oil and gas operators expect to lay off one in six UK-based workers this year. By contrast, a recent UK Energy Research Centre study found that similarly sized renewable energy projects create 10 times more jobs than their fossil fuel counterparts.

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Trump’s dilemma: to please his friends by trashing the Paris climate deal, or not? | Bill McKibben

If the president-elect sabotages last year’s agreement, he will own every disaster – every hurricane a Hurricane Donald, every drought a moment for mockery

It seems likely that the Paris climate accords will offer one of the first real tests of just how nuts Donald Trump actually is. For a waiting world it’s a public exam, his chance to demonstrate either that he’s been blowing smoke or deeply inhaling.

Related: Trump seeking quickest way to quit Paris climate agreement, says report

Related: Military experts say climate change poses 'significant risk' to security

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Poor nations pledge deep emissions cuts at Marrakech summit

Bangladesh and Ethiopia among 48 countries to pledge tougher carbon targets and a switch to 100% renewable energy

Some of the world’s poorest countries have pledged to dramatically cut their carbon emissions and rapidly move to 100% renewable power, as the UN climate summit in Marrakech drew to a close on Friday.

The announcement followed a final declaration by nearly 200 nations affirming their “highest political commitment” to combatting climate change, in a thinly-coded warning to the incoming US president, Donald Trump.

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Climate change with Amitav Ghosh and Aaron Thier – books podcast

Amitav Ghosh discusses the failure of literary culture to confront climate change, while Aaron Thier explains how his novel Mr Eternity reflects current fears

As the US electorate hands the keys of the White House to a man who thinks global warming is a Chinese hoax, the prospects for the environment have never looked so bleak. The world seems to be hurtling further into climate crisis – and yet the silence on the greatest single issue of our times from serious novelists is deafening.

The writer Amitav Ghosh explores why the tools of contemporary fiction are so unsuitable for tackling climate change, and how the extraordinary events of the Anthropocene challenge ideas of gradual progress that have formed the bedrock of western culture since the Enlightenment. Writers must throw off the constraints of realism, he argues, if they are to confront our slide into catastrophe.

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‘Africa is tired of being in the dark’: bank chief on plans to boost energy

At COP22, the African Development Bank’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, tells of strategies to improve energy supplies and fight the impact of climate change

“We lose 5% of our potential GDP every year, and African industries cannot be competitive without access to electricity,” says Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank. “I believe that’s why we can’t break away from reliance on exporting our raw materials – new industries will only go to where there’s power.”

He is speaking on the sidelines of the COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech, which ends on Friday.

Related: Morocco lights the way for Africa on renewable energy

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Global green movement prepares to fight Trump on climate change

Election of a climate sceptic as US president sparks outpouring of donations and a surge in planned protests and court challenges

The global green movement is preparing for the fight of its life against efforts by Donald Trump to rollback action on climate change, with a surge in fundraising, planned court challenges and a succession of protests.

Environmental activists said the election of a climate change denier as US president, along with the prospect of former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin and various oil billionaires holding senior posts, has prompted an “outpouring” of donations.

Related: Donald Trump presidency a 'disaster for the planet', warn climate scientists

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