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The COVID-19 pandemic is “a warning from the planet that much worse lies in store unless we change our ways”, a leading UN environment figure has said, ahead of the publication of the biggest climate report in almost a decade.

“While the climate crisis, together with biodiversity loss and pollution, has indeed been under way for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought this triple planetary crisis into sharp focus,” Joyce Msuya, assistant secretary general of the United Nations and deputy executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today.

“The pandemic is a warning from the planet that much worse lies in store unless we change our ways.”

Joyce Msuya addressing the Opening Ceremony for 54th Session of the IPCC and 14th Session of the Working Group I. Pic: IPCC
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Joyce Msuya addressing the Opening Ceremony for 54th Session of the IPCC and 14th Session of the Working Group I. Pic: IPCC

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Ms Msuya was speaking to mark the finalisation of the most comprehensive assessment of global warming of its kind since 2013.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group I has compiled its latest update on the science behind climate change, assessing the impacts of global warming and warning of future threats.

Its researchers will now spend the next two weeks talking representatives of 195 governments through their findings, before the report is published on 9 August.

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The need for such a wide-reaching study has been thrown into sharp focus by a spate of climate change-linked environmental disasters suffered the world over, from flooding in Europe to famine in Madagascar. Siberia burned while swathes of the US and Brazil suffered record heat and drought.

It will set the scene for the all-important COP26, crucial climate negotiations taking place just three months later in Glasgow. The aim of the talks is to get governments to agree on how to limit emissions and limit global warming ideally to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

The spread of the fires is graphically clear from the air. Pic: Anastasya Leonova
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The Kremlin blamed the unprecedented Siberian wildfires on climate change

With 100 days to COP26, what are these climate talks and why are they so important?

Ms Msuya added: “After years of promises but not enough action, it is a warning that we must get on top of this crisis that threatens our collective future.

“As I speak it is clear that extreme weather is the new normal. From Germany to China to Canada or the United States, wildfires, floods, extreme heatwaves. It is an ever-growing tragic list.

“And as countries invest unprecedented amounts of resources into kickstarting the global economy, as we all call for this recovery to be green, we need the IPCC more than ever.”

Hot topics in the report could be humanity’s impact on the climate, feedback loops and the impacts of climate change already happening, the role of forests and oceans as carbon sinks or potential carbon sources.

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How to prepare for extreme weather

What is the IPCC?

For more than three decades the UN’s climate science body, the IPCC, has provided politicians with assessments on the global climate, publishing a series of reports every seven years, as well as special interim reports.

IPCC reports have historically underpinned global climate action and influenced decisions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Its 2013 assessment that humans had been the “dominant cause” of global warming since the 1950s set the stage for the landmark climate accord known as the Paris Agreement in 2015.

In 2018, the IPCC released a special report on keeping global temperature rise under 1.5C, which changed public discourse on climate.

The global atmosphere is already 1.2C warmer than the preindustrial average.

A further two reports in this assessment cycle are on track to be published next year.

Working Group II, slated for February, will calculate the vulnerability of humans and nature to the climate crisis and subsequent adaption. Working Group III, to follow in March, will assess ways of keeping to global temperature targets, including options on renewable energy or carbon capture and storage.

Subscribe to ClimateCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Spreaker.

Sky News has launched the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.

The Daily Climate Show is broadcast at 6.30pm and 9.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

Hosted by Anna Jones, it follows Sky News correspondents as they investigate how global warming is changing our landscape and how we all live our lives.

The show also highlights solutions to the crisis and how small changes can make a big difference.

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Weather latest: Strong winds batter UK as millions set to hit roads over Easter weekend

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Weather latest: Strong winds batter UK as millions set to hit roads over Easter weekend

Winds of up to 70mph have battered the south coast, along with hail and thunder, as millions are set to hit the roads for Easter getaways.

The weekend is set to be “unsettled” but “bright and breezy”, according to the Met Office forecast.

Drivers are being warned of long delays on roads as more than 14 million Easter getaway trips are expected.

Find out the forecast for where you live

A ferry arrives at the Port of Dover in Kent during rough seas. Pic: PA
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A ferry arrives at the Port of Dover in Kent during rough seas. Pic: PA

The RAC and transport analysis company Inrix commissioned a survey which suggested 2.6 million leisure journeys by car will be made on Good Friday.

Meanwhile, at least three major airports have said that the coming days will be their busiest-ever Easter weekend while 493 different pieces of planned engineering works are set to take place on the railways.

Yellow weather warnings for rain and strong winds were issued across parts of the south of England and Northern Ireland respectively on Thursday.

The caution for the south of England expired at 11.59pm on Thursday while the warning for Northern Ireland said “a few” homes and businesses could be flooded and is in place until 3am on Friday.

The unsettled conditions are expected to continue into Easter, as the bank holiday weekend leads into a two-week break for many schools.

Pic: Met Office
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Pic: Met Office

Traffic in Dover as Easter weekend begins. Pic: PA
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Traffic in Dover. Pic: PA

Sky News weather producer Joanna Robinson said Good Friday will be less windy than Thursday, with a few showers around on Saturday and Easter Sunday, along with pleasant sunny spells.

Temperatures of up to 15C (59F) are expected in west London and 14C (57.2F) in Manchester on Sunday, which is typical for the time of year.

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File pic: PA
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Rain is then set to return to the south on Easter Monday.

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Astrocomb breakthrough could help discover Earth-like planets

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Astrocomb breakthrough could help discover Earth-like planets

New Earth-like planets could soon be discovered after scientists made a technological breakthrough.

Physicists have developed an astrocomb that can analyse the blue-green light emitted by stars.

Astrocombs can detect tiny variations in a star’s light created by orbiting exoplanets (those beyond our own solar system) – potentially revealing one similar to Earth.

They have been mainly limited to the green-red part of the light spectrum, but the new system offers the chance to uncover even more space secrets.

The breakthrough was made by physicists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and Cambridge University.

“This is a really exciting development that will enable us to study smaller planets on longer orbits than ever before – with the aim of discovering the first ‘Earth-like’ planet orbiting around a nearby sun-like star,” said Dr Samantha Thompson from Cambridge.

Heriot-Watt Professor Derryck Reid said the shorter wavelength light the new system can examine is “rich in the atomic absorption features of interest to astronomers”.

More on Space

“Our new approach for the first time provides a continuous sequence of optical markers from the ultraviolet to the blue-green that serve as a precision wavelength scale in this part of the spectrum,” added Professor Reid.

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The technology is being developed for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

It will have a 39-metre primary mirror and be the largest visible and infrared light telescope in the world.

The UK team will also work on astrocombs for telescopes in South Africa and the Canary Islands.

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Horizon scandal: More than £1m claimed as Post Office ‘profit’ may have come from sub-postmasters

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Horizon scandal: More than £1m claimed as Post Office 'profit' may have come from sub-postmasters

More than £1m of unexplained transactions were transferred in to Post Office profit at the height of the Horizon scandal, leaked documents have shown.

The papers, seen by Sky News, show a snapshot of transfers from a Post Office “miscellaneous client” suspense account over a four-year period, up to 2014.

A suspense account is where unexplained, or disputed, transactions remain until they are able to be “reconciled”.

Unaccounted-for transactions were transferred out of the Post Office suspense account and into their profit and loss account after three years.

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Ian Henderson, director of Second Sight – the forensic accountants hired years ago by Post Office – said: “The Post Office was not printing money. It was accumulating funds in its suspense account.

“Those funds belong to somebody, either to third-party clients or to sub-postmasters, and part of the work we were doing in 2015 was drilling into that.”

Mr Henderson said they were sacked not long after asking questions about whether the Post Office profited from shortfalls paid for by sub-postmasters.

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Mr Henderson told Sky News that the money could potentially have come from sub-postmasters’ pockets

More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted due to faults with Horizon accounting software.

A letter from Alisdair Cameron, the Post Office’s chief financial officer, to Second Sight in February 2015 states some “postings cannot be traced” to “underlying transactions”.

He added: “We are not always able to drill back from the combined totals to itemise all the underlying transactions.”

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‘Compensation paid by summer’

Mr Henderson said the letter shows that “the Post Office was benefiting from this uncertainty due to, frankly, bad record keeping, but taking it to the benefit of their profit and loss account”.

He maintains that it’s impossible to prove for sure that sub-postmasters’ money went into Post Office profit because of a “lack of granularity”.

He says therefore that it is of “sufficient public interest” that a further independent review into the use of suspense accounts should happen.

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Post Office redress delay overshadowed by executive drama

Mr Henderson added: “It didn’t come from thin air, where did the money come from? That’s a fundamental question the Post Office has not answered.”

Meanwhile, separately, a secret recording obtained by Sky News indicates that the Post Office was trying to gag the independent forensic accountants.

The recording is of a meeting in January 2014 between Second Sight, a lawyer and a Post Office representative.

It took place over a year before the accountants were sacked.

In the conference call, there are signs the relationship between the Post Office and Second Sight was beginning to weaken.

There is discussion about a contractual confidentiality agreement, a “letter of engagement” between the parties.

In the recording, Ian Henderson says: “Either, you know, we have unfettered discretion and authorisation to just talk to MPs or we haven’t.

“At the moment, the way the document is drafted, we are prevented from doing that. That’s the issue.”

His colleague at Second Sight, Ron Warmington is heard agreeing.

In another part of the recording, there are more concerns raised that the investigators are being blocked from talking to MPs.

Mr Henderson says: “My point is we should not be gagging either the applicant or Second Sight in being able to respond, you know, fully and frankly to MPs who frankly sort of set this whole process in motion.”

The Post Office representative replies, saying they’re not trying to gag anybody.

Mr Henderson describes “a point of principle”: “In exactly the same way that when we were doing spot reviews, we disclosed to MPs, when they asked us a specific question, the information provided to us by Fujitsu and by Post Office.

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“And that’s why it’s so important to establish this principle that there should be no gagging of Second Sight in relation to being able to discuss our investigative work with MPs.”

In the same meeting, his colleague Ron Warmington said that if it later emerges that Second Sight have been “effectively gagged” in its dealing with MPs, “it’s not going to be Second Sight they are particularly annoyed with, it’s going to be Post Office”.

The representative responds directly with: “I think that’s something that the Post Office will have to deal with if – if it arises.”

Adding that “some of the terminology in terms of gagging is probably an exaggeration of what it is that is trying to be done here, and at the moment you haven’t signed anything.”

The Post Office released a statement in response to the findings, saying: “The statutory public inquiry, chaired by a judge with the power to question witnesses under oath, is the best forum to examine the issues raised by this evidence.

“We continue to remain fully focused on supporting the inquiry to get to the truth of what happened and accountability for that.”

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