Alex Thomson , Chief Correspondent

This week ministers announced they were bringing forward their target to phase out coal by a year, yet Cumbria County Council has just approved plans to build the country’s first deep coal mine for 30 years.

Boris Johnson has been accused of a lack of leadership on climate change, on the day he launched plans for the upcoming UN climate conference in Glasgow. 

Instead of pristine stretches of road, Britain’s motorways are being treated as a rubbish dump with verges covered in piles of discarded trash.

Farmers will get financial incentives for taking measures that protect the soil, the water and tackle climate change under plans being brought in by the government’s new Agriculture Bill.  

Australia’s Prime Minister was forced to cut short his visit to an area of New South Wales that’s been ravaged by wildfires – after he was barracked by furious residents over the government’s handling of the crisis.

Australia’s bushfires are taking more lives and communities. As temperatures in western Sydney climb towards 47 celsius.

The Australian Prime Minister has apologised for taking a family holiday in Hawaii as bushfires rage across his country. 

A seven day emergency has been declared across Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales – as the record hot temperatures continue to fan around a hundred wildfires.

There were some major defeats for the Democratic Unionists, including their deputy leader, Nigel Dodds who lost his seat to Sinn Fein.

For the first time, Northern Ireland now has more nationalist and republican MPs than unionists, with some major defeats for the Democratic Unionists – including their deputy leader. So what does this say about the future of the Stormont assembly, which has not sat since 2017 – and the failure by the two main parties to break the impasse?

In Northern Ireland, pro-Remain parties have been joining together in ad-hoc electoral pacts in an effort to remove Democratic Unionists.

Dozens of fires are burning across Australia, including one that’s being described as a ‘mega-fire’ which the authorities say is too big to put out.

The climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has been mobbed at the United Nations climate crisis conference in Madrid.

The news was expected – but nobody knew the figures. Just after midnight they came through: our global emissions are up. Just when they have to FALL radically to keep the promises made at the Paris Climate Agreement. No wonder protests are stepping up and frustration is growing at the UN climate crisis talks.

While world leaders have gathered in London for the 70th anniversary of NATO, over in Madrid delegates from 196 countries are convening for COP25, the UN convention on climate change.