Ali died of cancer last year. He was 21. It was the thick smoke from one of the world’s biggest oilfields that made him sick

A year has passed since my beautiful boy Ali Julood died. Not a day goes by when I do not think of him smiling and playing football with his friends outside. Those days are gone. As a father, that gives me great pain.

Ali was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 15. The cancer caused him to drop out of school, leave his football team and spend years undergoing painful medical treatment. He died at the age of 21 on 21 April 2023.

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Proposed global treaty to curb production represents challenge to producers of fossil fuels, from which most plastics are made

The number of fossil fuel and petrochemical industry lobbyists at UN talks to agree the first global treaty to cut plastic pollution has increased by more than a third, according to an analysis.

Most plastic is made from fossil fuels, via a chemical process known as cracking, and 196 lobbyists from both industries are at the UN talks in Ottawa, Canada, where countries are attempting to come to an agreement to curb plastic production as part of a treaty to cut global plastic waste, according to analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel).

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The cost of environmental damage will be six times higher than the price of limiting global heating to 2C, study finds

Average incomes will fall by almost a fifth within the next 26 years as a result of the climate crisis, according to a new study that shows the costs of damage are six times higher than the price of limiting global heating to 2C.

Rising temperatures, heavier rainfall and more frequent and intense extreme weather are projected to cause $38tn (£30tn) of destruction each year by mid-century, shows the research published in the journal Nature , which is the most comprehensive analysis of its type ever undertaken.

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The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% a week, scientists say

Global heating has pushed the world’s coral reefs to a fourth planet-wide mass bleaching event that is on track to be the most extensive on record, US government scientists have confirmed.

Some 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch said.

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Increase of 2% last year driven by plant expansion in China and slowdown in US and Europe closures

The world’s coal power capacity grew for the first time since 2019 last year, despite warnings that coal plants need to close at a rate of at least 6% each year to avoid a climate emergency.

A report by Global Energy Monitor found that coal power capacity grew by 2% last year, driven by an increase in new coal plants across China and a slowdown of plant closures in Europe and the US.

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Marine researcher ‘devastated’ by widespread event that is affecting coral species usually resistant to bleaching

Concern that the Great Barrier Reef may be suffering the most severe mass coral bleaching event on record has escalated after a conservation group released footage showing damage up to 18 metres below the surface.

Dr Selina Ward, a marine biologist and former academic director of the University of Queensland’s Heron Island Research Station, said it was the worst bleaching she had seen in 30 years working on the reef, and that some coral was starting to die.

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Fossil fuel exports were meant to fund a revolutionary leftist agenda. But the state’s move to drill in Tariquía reserve has led to bitter conflict and diminishing returns

• Photographs by Marcelo Pérez del Carpio

In the far southeast of Bolivia, the cloud forest of the Tariquía reserve is accessible only by a few dirt paths that quickly become impassable with heavy rain. Local people say that, not so long ago, it could be a two-day horse ride just to communicate with the outside world.

That remoteness helped preserve Tariquía. But this protected area is now the frontline for Bolivia’s extractive activities, as the leftist government of Luis Arce scours the country for gas reserves that could keep its fossil-fuel model of development running – whether or not communities welcome drilling.

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Ben van Beurden says firm is undervalued in UK and US investors are ‘more positive’ about fossil fuels

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Shell’s former chief executive has stoked fears that the oil company will quit the London Stock Exchange in favour of a New York listing because US investors are “more positive” about fossil fuels.

Ben van Beurden used his first public interview since stepping down as Shell’s boss in 2021 to echo concerns that the £180bn company is “massively undervalued” by the UK market compared with its US listed rivals.

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G20 countries spent $142bn in three years to expand operations despite a G7 pledge to stop doing so, study finds

The world’s biggest economies have continued to finance the expansion of fossil fuels in poor countries to the tune of billions of dollars, despite their commitments on the climate.

The G20 group of developed and developing economies, and the multilateral development banks they fund, put $142bn (£112bn) into fossil fuel developments overseas from 2020 to 2022, according to estimates compiled by the campaigning groups Oil Change International (OCI) and Friends of the Earth US.

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