"There is no cause for mad optimism" that there will be a good outcome to address the climate crisis at the Cop26 global summit next month, Irish Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan has said.
The chancellor acknowledged that her efforts to counter climate change were "not sufficient" and gave a cautious welcome to an agreement with the Biden administration to avoid US sanctions over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The prospect of limiting a rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees – a key target of the Paris climate change agreement – "is now almost comprehensively lost unless there is a revolution across the world", a UN official has said.
Oxygen in the world's oceans is depleting at an unprecedented rate, leaving species gasping for breath and devastating marine habitats, a report issued at the annual UN climate talks in Madrid has warned.
