MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The only emperor penguin known to have swum from Antarctica to Australia was released at sea 20 days after he waddled ashore on a popular tourist beach, officials said Friday.
The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on Ocean Beach sand dunes in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia — about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, the Western Australia state government said. He was released from a Parks and Wildlife Service boat on Wednesday.
The boat traveled for several hours from the state’s most southerly city of Albany before the penguin was released into the Southern Ocean, but the government didn't give the distance in its statement.
He had been cared for by registered wildlife caregiver Carol Biddulph, who named him Gus after the first Roman emperor Augustus.
“I really didn’t know whether he was going to make it to begin with because he was so undernourished,” Biddulph said in video recorded before the bird’s release but released by the government on Friday.
“I’ll miss Gus. It’s been an incredible few weeks, something I wouldn’t have missed,” she added.
Biddulph said she had found from caring for other species of lone penguins that mirrors were an important part of their rehabilitation by providing a comforting sense of company.
“He absolutely loves his big mirror and I think that has been crucial in his well-being. They’re social birds and he stands next to the mirror most of the time,” she said.
Gus gained weight in her care, from 21.3 kilograms (47 pounds) when he was found to 24.7 kilograms (54 pounds). He stands 1 meter (39 inches) tall. A healthy male emperor penguin can weigh more than 45 kilograms (100 pounds).
The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said, though some had reached New Zealand, nearly all of which is further south than Western Australia.
The government said with the Southern Hemisphere summer approaching, it had been time-crucial to return Gus to the ocean where he could thermoregulate.
Emperor penguins have been known to cover up to 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) on foraging journeys that last up to a month, the government said.
In this photo released by Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus, is released back into the ocean off the south coast of Western Australia, Wednesday Nov. 20, 2024. (Miles Brotherson/DBCA via AP)
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Countries at the United Nations climate summit amped up the pressure on themselves Friday by entering the last scheduled day of talks with no visible progress on their chief goals.
From the start, COP29 has been about climate finance — money that wealthy nations are obligated to pay to developing countries to cover damages resulting from extreme weather and to help those nations adapt to a warming planet. Experts put the figure at $1 trillion or more, but draft texts that emerged Thursday after nearly two weeks of talks angered the developing world by essentially leaving blank the financial commitment.
The talks often run into overtime as wealthier nations are pressed to pay for impacts caused largely by their emissions from centuries of burning fossil fuels. The late finish also adds pressure on Azerbaijan, the oil-rich nation presiding over this year's COP, or Conference of Parties.
In a statement late Thursday, the presidency struck an optimistic tone, saying the outlines of a financial package “are starting to take shape” and promised new draft texts on Friday.
“COP29 urges all parties to engage urgently and constructively in order to reach the ambitious outcome that we all need,” the statement said.
As negotiators, observers and civil society organization representatives waited for a new draft text to be released on Friday, many said they were frustrated and disappointed with the talks so far.
“No deal is better than a bad deal,” said Harjeet Singh of the climate advocacy group, Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty.
Singh said the key bottleneck is rich countries’ reluctance to say how much they are willing to pay for countries to transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, adapt to the drought, storms an extreme heat and pay for losses and damages caused by climate change. Independent experts put the figure needed at $1 trillion per year.
“Things are absolutely stuck," he said. “It’s negotiation in bad faith by developed countries.”
Bryton Codd, part of Belize's negotiating team, said there is a lot of frustration felt by participants at the climate talks.
“I’m just waiting to see if that (climate finance goal) will actually be presented,” he said.
“Year after year our people come here and we dance this dance and play this game. No one comes here out of excitement, we come because we have no choice. Because we cannot let this process fail," said Tongan climate activist Joseph Sikulu with the environmental group 350.org. “Nothing less than $1 trillion in grants per year will be enough to see those most impacted by climate change on a just transition towards a safe, equitable future.”
On Thursday, COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened a Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides. He promised to find “a way forward regarding future iterations” of the deal.
Panama's Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said the “lack of commitment transparency feels like a slap in the face to the most vulnerable."
"It is just utter disrespect to those countries that are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” he said. “Developed countries must stop playing games with our life and put a serious quantified financial proposal on the table.”
Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve seen little movement.
European nations and the United States criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
U.S. climate envoy John Podesta said he was surprised that “there is nothing that carries forward the ... outcomes that we agreed on last year in Dubai.” The United States, the world’s biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, has played little role in the talks as it braces for another presidency under Donald Trump.
Days earlier, the 20 largest economies met in Brazil and didn't mention the call for transitioning away from fossil fuels. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was at that meeting, said official language is one thing, but reality is another.
“There will be no way” the world can limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius "if there is not a phase out of fossil fuels,” Guterres said at a Thursday news conference.
Associated Press journalist Ahmed Hatem contributed to this report.
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The sun rises visible behind a transmission tower during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Dion George, South Africa environment minister, left, walks past a person in a dugong costume during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
