Trudi Warner on a year being pursued by government lawyers determined to prosecute her over a jurors’ rights protest Two days before Trudi Warner faced court under threat of a contempt of court prosecution, she fell off her bike and ruptured the tendons in her hand. Now the hand is black and blue, tightly bandaged, and requires surgery. It is an indication that 69-year-old Warner, who spent her working life as a child social worker and has committed her retirement to climate action, is not as tough and unflappable as her demeanour suggests ..read more

Claire O’Neill, a former climate minister, says PM’s move was to ‘try and create political division and dividing lines’ The UK government’s decision to weaken some of its climate commitments was a “retrograde step” that would set back vital cross-party action to cut carbon emissions, Claire O’Neill, a former Conservative climate minister, has said. O’Neill, who was known as Claire Perry when she served as a minister under David Cameron and Theresa May, said the rolling back of emission reduction efforts by Rishi Sunak appeared to be a ploy for political advantage ..read more

Louisiana State University allowed Shell to influence studies after a $25m donation and sought funds from other fossil fuel firms This story is co-published with the Lens, a non-profit newsroom in New Orleans For $5m, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company weigh in on faculty research activities. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with “robust” reviewing powers and access to all resulting intellectual property. Those are the conditions outlined in a boilerplate document that Louisiana State University’s fundraising arm circulated to oil majo ..read more

Chris Stark says populist response and culture war around the term is inhibiting environmental progress The concept of “net zero” has become a political slogan used to start a “dangerous” culture war over the climate, and may be better dropped, the outgoing head of the UK’s climate watchdog has warned. Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said sensible improvements to the economy and people’s lives were being blocked by a populist response to the net zero label, and he would be “intensely relaxed” about losing the term ..read more

Organizers at Columbia, Tulane and the University of Virginia write to attorneys general arguing schools’ investments are illegal Campus organizers at three universities filed legal complaints on Monday arguing that their schools’ investments in planet-heating fossil fuels are illegal, the Guardian has learned. The students from Columbia University, Tulane University and the University of Virginia each wrote to the attorneys general of their respective states calling on them to scrutinize their universities’ investments. They accuse their universities of breaching the Uniform Prudent Managemen ..read more

Stories of dismay but also resilience as crisis in food production builds after 18 months of exceptionally wet weather Farmers have been dealing with record-breaking rainfall over at least the past year, meaning food produced in Britain has fallen drastically. Livestock and crops have been affected as fields have been submerged since last autumn on account of it being an exceptionally wet 18 months ..read more

AustralianSuper says it has ‘ongoing concerns’ about how the country’s biggest oil and gas company will reach net zero emissions by 2050 Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Australia’s biggest superannuation fund has joined a protest vote against Woodside Energy’s failure to do more to address the climate crisis, saying it has unanswered questions about the fossil fuel company’s plans. AustralianSuper said it had spent “a lot of time reviewing and engaging” with Woodside on its climate transition plan before the company’s annual general meeting on Wednes ..read more

Results highlight the difficulties government faces in selling energy transition to sceptical public Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Voters have backed Anthony Albanese’s Future Made in Australia plan but are under the misapprehension that renewables are the most expensive form of power. Those are the results of Guardian’s latest Essential poll of 1,145 voters, illustrating the difficulty for Labor of selling the energy transition to sceptical voters. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news ro ..read more

Historic hearing will receive submissions from people whose human rights have been affected by climate change Julian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia’s Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinúa. Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are destroying the gulf’s delicate ecosystem and people’s li ..read more

Trudi Warner was accused of contempt for holding placard reminding jurors of right to acquit based on conscience A high court judge has thrown out an attempt by the government’s most senior law officer to prosecute a woman for holding a placard on jury rights outside a climate trial. Mr Justice Saini said there was no basis for a prosecution of Trudi Warner, 69, for criminal contempt for holding a placard outside the trial of climate activists that informed jurors of their right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience ..read more