Up to 300mm of rain could fall in places, while extreme downpours bring landslides and deaths in Nepal
Torrential rain and potentially damaging flooding are forecast in eastern Spain over the coming days, as cold upper air moves over the warm, humid surface air of the Mediterranean Sea, fuelling violent, slow-moving thunderstorms near Spain’s east coast. The weather pattern, known as a Dana, occurs most often in autumn.
Models show more than 100mm of rain could fall across the region on Friday, with 200-300mm possible in some areas. Cities including Valencia and Castelló de la Plana, are most at risk. Valencia has experienced several damaging floods in recent years. Catalonia has now put three towns under lockdown and Valencia has shut schools for nearly half a million children.
‘Day-to-day’ symptom of harmful emissions, which in turn can disrupt sleep, can be overlooked, say researchers
New research has found that increased air pollution is associated with more night-time coughing, leading to disturbed sleep.
Most air pollution research looks at symptoms that are severe enough for people to seek medical help, but day-to-day symptoms can be overlooked. Prof Cecilia Mascolo, who led the study from the University of Cambridge, said: “I come from an area in Italy with very high pollution and I am very aware of its not-talked-about effects.”
Each spring, thousands of solitary bees (Amegilla dawsoni), also known as Dawson’s burrowing bees, emerge from burrows scattered across Western Australia’s arid plains.
These bees, distinguished by their fluffy appearance and either white and maroon (females) or coffee (males) colouring, are on a quest to find flowers and a mate. They are just one of more than 1,700 native bee species that call Australia home – a figure steadily rising each year.
Tragically, Australia’s native bees face a conservation crisis. Wild bees are declining worldwide, under pressure from habitat destruction, invasive species, pesticide use and climate change. Due to a lack of funding and attention, few people recognise how much native bees are struggling. Even native bee researchers don’t have all the answers.
Our new study took a closer look at the major threats to Australia’s native bees and, by drawing on research from here and abroad, created a plan to conserve them.
Amegilla dawsoni, also known as Dawson’s burrowing bee, is one of Australia’s largest bees.Kit Prendergast
Why wild bees matter
Native bees play an indispensable role in ecosystems across Australia.
They pollinate many native plants that can’t be pollinated by introduced species, including valuable crops such as macadamias and mangoes. Native bees provide vital food and habitat for an array of Australian animals, including by pollinating eucalypts that feed koalas. In doing so, they help entire ecosystems thrive.
For First Nations communities, native stingless bees also hold significant cultural value. For thousands of years, First Nations peoples have used stingless bee honey and wax in gifts, food, and the making of tools. These bees also feature in many traditional stories such as The First Bees, an oral history from the Gunwinggu people of West Arnhem Land about ancient beings turning into stingless bees.
Three Tetragonula sp. bees found in Western Australia’s Purnululu National Park.Kit Prendergast
In Australia, scientists are discovering more native bee species each year, with more than 115 new species described last year. Examples include the devilish Megachile lucifer and 71 species of resin pot bees from the genus Megachile. Australia is also home to some of the tiniest bees in the world, including the miniscule Euryglossina clypearis, which grows to just 1.8 millimetres long.
A grid showing 20 different bee species of all shapes and sizes.Kit Prendergast and Scarlett Howard
However, conservation research is not keeping up. An influential paper from 2009 examined both the diversity of Australia’s native bees and the challenges they face. These include land clearing, disease, and competition with introduced plants and bees. But climate change and habitat loss remain the most pressing threats.
Since that study, research and funding for native bee conservation has been scarce. This lack of resources may be because few people recognise how important native bees are for keeping humans and ecosystems healthy.
While some native bees are crop pollinators, such as the buzz-pollinating Amegilla, many are not. Bees that do not pollinate crops typically attract less attention than other well known pollinator species, such as the introduced European honeybee (Apis mellifera).
However, bees that don’t pollinate popular food crops actually need the most help.
To better protect our native bees, Australia must accurately identify how many species are on the brink of extinction. Only three native bee species are listed on Australia’s national threatened species list, compared to six different native species identified by the global International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
Based on how much bee habitat was destroyed during the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires, 11 more species should sit on Australia’s threatened species list. However, listing requires us to have enough data on a species’ size and distribution, as well as a recognised scientific name. For many native bees we simply don’t have this information, so more research is urgently needed.
We must also invest in studies into native bee behaviour, such as how bees navigate, search for flowers, and identify their favourite plants. This information will help us understand how bees will cope with environmental threats such as climate change, and find ways to support them.
More research into native bee behaviour is urgently needed.Kit Prendergast
This increased knowledge will form the basis of conservation plans. Short-term plans may focus on regulating the use of pesticides that harm bees, or protecting native bushland. Long-term plans may rely on ongoing monitoring programs that bring together researchers, farmers, and community members. As bee researchers, we are also working on an Australian Native Bee and Pollinator Conservation Strategy with evidence-based guidance for everyone from landowners to local councils.
Community members can also spread the word about native bees. You could invite scientists to speak at your school, sport club, or community group. You can learn about flowering plants that support native bees in your local area by visiting council websites or reading books dedicated to Australia’s native bees. You may also make your backyard or garden more native bee friendly by building bee hotels, leaving bare ground for burrowing bees to nest in, or filling pots with rock gravel for nesting bees.
Scarlett Howard received funding for this work from the Australian Research Council, the Hermon Slade Foundation, and the Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. She is also a co-host for Einstein A Go-Go on 3RRR community radio.
Kit Prendergast is the Vice-Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Wild Bee Specialist Group. She has received funding from the Australian government's Bushfire Recovery Grant program and the Forrest Research Foundation for her PhD research.
Heatwaves in the United Kingdom, vast forest fires in Canada and flash flooding in Nepal – the evidence of climate change is everywhere. And no region faces a more existential threat than the Pacific, where residents of low-lying nations are witnessing the seas creep higher.
On Monday, leaders and delegates from countries including Australia, Germany, Mexico and Thailand will meet in the Pacific nations of Fiji and Tuvalu. Their discussions aim to highlight the climate threats faced by small island nations and the need to rein in carbon emissions.
These meetings are a curtain-raiser for the annual United Nations climate summit known as COP31, being held in Turkey (also called Türkiye) in early November. It’s fairly unusual for a pre-COP meeting to take place in a different part of the world to the main UN summit.
Australia will jointly host and lead these Pacific climate meetings with Fiji, as part of a compromise deal struck at last year’s COP30. This deal will also see rival bidder Turkey host the UN summit in the city of Antalya in November.
So, what will be on the agenda during the Fiji meeting and the main COP31 event in Turkey? And why does it matter?
Remind me, what is COP?
The Conference of the Parties, or COP, is the annual UN summit that brings countries together to negotiate climate goals. The figures added to the name reflect how many times the UN meeting has been held since its inception; this year is COP31.
The summit will determine the climate actions nearly 200 nations, which have all signed up to the UN Paris Climate Agreement, are expected to take in the coming years. Decisions coming out of the COP reflect political consensus on the way forward, but are generally not binding on countries or enforceable through international litigation.
This year’s co-hosting arrangement has divided the responsibilities between the two nations: Turkey’s Environment Minister Murat Kurum is COP31 President-Designate, while Australia’s Minister for Climate and Energy Chris Bowen will be President of Negotiations.
In practice, this means Turkey will ensure compliance with UN procedural rules, including setting the agenda and adopting decisions. Australia will steward the negotiations, affording it substantial political and technical leadership, but not necessarily control over the overall outcomes of the summit.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese walks with Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and the Minister for Defence Pat Conroy at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in Palau in early September.Saeed Khan/Getty
Conflict or consensus?
This unprecedented co-hosting arrangement between Australia and Turkey raises questions about how power should be shared between the two parallel roles.
Leadership through consultation forms the foundation of official UN communications from the COP31 summit. In the event of any difference of opinion, both countries will be expected to hold talks to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion.
However, there is little detail around what this will actually look like. This risks slowing the pace of negotiations, even creating a stalemate if Australia and Turkey fail to reach an agreed decision. Controversial issues could be put off to the next session or sidelined altogether. That happened last year when Saudi Arabia declared any mention of fossil fuels in the decision outcomes an unacceptable “red line”.
What’s at stake?
A recent UN report found the world will likely overshoot the target of holding global warming to 1.5°C, with every increase bringing more extreme weather and environmental harm. But if we substantially increase global efforts to phase out fossil fuels and reduce emissions, peak warming could be limited to 1.8°C.
Carbon removal methods, such as conserving or planting forests, in theory could then bring temperatures back to 1.5°C or below this century. But to achieve this, nations must agree – and follow through – on urgent commitments to cut emissions.
At the heart of the November climate negotiations will be the question of who should pay for a “just transition” away from fossil fuels – one that ensures a fair distribution of the economic burdens and benefits.
With the UN declaring climate finance must reach US$1.3 trillion (almost A$1.9 trillion) a year by 2035, the spotlight is on heavily polluting rich countries to deliver on finance promises.
What will be top of the agenda?
Negotiations at COP31 are likely to focus on implementing countries’ existing commitments. It is the start of the next cycle of the global stocktake – the Paris Agreement process for assessing progress on climate action – which will wrap up in 2028.
The last stocktake in 2023 concluded there was a big gap between countries’ policies and the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals. Whether countries are beginning to bridge that gap depends on how seriously they aim to fulfil their emissions reduction pledges.
Climate finance, as always, is likely to be a major issue of dispute. That’s especially true given funds for loss and damage finance are running low, while countries such as Nepal suffer catastrophic damage from climate disasters.
Why is the Pacific so important?
Australia’s initial bid to host COP31 was made in partnership with the Pacific, to give voice to small countries in the region. Yet Australia continues to face Pacific criticism for failing to shift its economy away from fossil fuel production.
Many Pacific leaders were disappointed at Australia’s acquiescence to Turkey’s bid. But in the face of criticism, Bowen and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insist they have attracted more high-profile leaders to the Fiji-Tuvalu pre-COP meeting than ever before.
The power of this global climate summit
As a leading voice in the upcoming negotiations, Australia must demonstrate a real commitment to robust climate policies and good-faith relations with its Pacific neighbours.
In previous years, initiatives launched at COP for greater renewable energy deployment and energy efficiency attracted strong support and have helped drive action on the ground. The Turkey and Australian COP31 presidencies will be hoping their 35% electrification target by 2035 has similar cut-through.
If successful, the two countries’ shared leadership model could pave the way for international actions that spotlight the needs of the developing and low-emitting countries that have the most to lose from the climate crisis.
Jacqueline Peel receives funding from the Australian Research Council for her Laureate Program on Global Corporate Climate Accountability. She is affiliated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, serving as a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group III (mitigation) for the Seventh Assessment Report.
A Gold Coast school is using its greenhouse to grow food and teach maths and science, with research suggesting the hands-on approach can improve attendance and engagement.
