Environment | The Guardian

Investor-State Dispute Settlements are legal, huge and often hush-hush - and fossil fuel firms and others are using them to hold the planet to ransom

Meat and Livestock Australia says it has reduced emissions by 65% on 2005 levels but data analysis suggests figures underpinning claim are erroneous'

Diamondback Energy to buy Endeavor Energy Resources, after IEA warning against new fossil fuel developments

The huge leaks of the potent greenhouse gas will doom climate targets, experts say, but stemming them would rapidly reduce global heating It's impossible to breathe' - life by Delhi's towering landfills There have been more than 1,000 huge leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane from landfill waste dumps since 2019, the Guardian can reveal.Analysis of global satellite data from around the world shows the populous nations of south Asia are a hotspot for these super-emitter events, as well as Argentina and Spain, developed countries where proper waste management should prevent leaks. Continue reading...

Migrating animals are at risk from pollution, the spread of invasive species and the climate crisis, first report of its kind revealsMore than a fifth of migratory species under international protection are threatened with extinction, including nearly all nomadic fish, according to the first UN expert assessment.From humpback whales to Dalmatian pelicans, each year, billions of animals journey with the seasons over oceans, on land and in the skies. But a new report by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has found that many migratory species are at risk of disappearing, threatened by human pollution, the spread of invasive species and the climate crisis. Continue reading...

NSW environmental watchdog finds bonded asbestos fragments at Liverpool West public school and Campbelltown hospital

Lib Dems dismiss plan saying water fines need to go to consumers rather than to the TreasuryA new scheme to fine water companies for providing poor service to customers has been dismissed as nothing less than a gimmick" - as the money raised in fines will not go to consumers affected.On Monday, Ofwat unveiled sanctions for water companies that do not provide good communication and help to those who face problems such as having no running water. Continue reading...

From this week, developments must result in more or better natural habitat than before, in a move hailed as one of the world's most ambitiousEngland is launching a biodiversity credit scheme this week that attempts to force all new road and housebuilding projects to benefit nature, rather than damage it.The nature market", called biodiversity net gain (BNG), means all new building projects must achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity or habitat. If a woodland is destroyed by a road, for example, another needs to be recreated. This can happen either on site or elsewhere. Continue reading...

City's waffling on food scrap programs not only harms environment but also hinders participation in waste management schemesSteven Roig was excited to land a job trucking and processing compost in May of last year. After graduating from a jobs training program called Green City Force, he had spent much of his adult life making New York City greener through his work on green roofs, urban agriculture and landscaping. He especially loved working in compost, being part of the team at Big Reuse that processed 10,000lb of food scraps and yard waste from Brooklyn and Queens every week, helping the organic waste on its journey back to becoming healthy soil.It's a lot of hard work, but I enjoyed collecting the scraps, processing them and seeing them go through all the different cycles," he said. Continue reading...

Graham Usher urges Church of England to look into this often very ancient land', as it prepares to vote on increasing biodiversityChurchyards should be rewilded to increase biodiversity and to make them places of the living, not just the dead", a Church of England bishop has said.Local parishes are responsible for about 7,100 hectares (17,500 acres) of churchyards in England. The C of E also owns about 34,000 hectares of farmland, mostly let to tenant farmers, and 9,300 hectares of forestry. Continue reading...

Agency's draft report backs paraquat's safety but lawsuit's plaintiffs say EPA ignored evidence of Parkinson's riskThe US Environmental Protection Agency is doubling down on its controversial finding that a toxic herbicide is safe for use across millions of acres of American cropland, despite what public health advocates characterize as virtual scientific proof" the product causes Parkinson's disease.The agency in 2021 reapproved paraquat-based herbicides for use, but a coalition of agricultural and public health groups sued, charging that the EPA had ignored broad scientific consensus linking the substance to Parkinson's. Continue reading...

With less than nine months before an election, lobby group is yet to find an independent candidate who aligns with their values

Organiser of go-slow protest says farmers in Europe have shown us what can be accomplished'The organiser of a protest in which tractor-driving farmers caused traffic jams around the Port of Dover has said there could be more demonstrations.Road traffic in and out of the Kent town was disrupted by the go-slow demonstration on Friday night. Continue reading...

Thirty years after the film highlighted their plight, thousands of whales and dolphins remain performing in entertainment parksAnyone who grew up in the 1990s may well remember this movie scene: a 3.6-tonne orca leaping to freedom over a harbour wall and swimming off into the sunset with his family. It was the closing scene of Free Willy, a film that captured the hearts of a generation, telling the story of an orphaned boy racing against time to free a killer whale from captivity before the creature is destroyed.It was 30 years ago this month that the film was released in the UK and it went on to spawn three sequels and a TV series. But it also helped to expose the dark side of orcas in captivity - not least the real-life story of Keiko, the whale who played Willy. Rescuing him took many years and millions of dollars - and even then the ending was not one that would have made the movie screens. Continue reading...

Housebuilders and campaigners warn of cold, damp homes and UK missing legally binding targetsLabour's slashing of proposed spending on home insulation will leave millions of people on low incomes in cold, damp homes and could prevent the UK meeting its legally binding carbon targets, campaigners and housebuilders have warned.The Federation of Master Builders criticised the drastic scaling back of Labour's low-carbon policies, announced by Keir Starmer on Thursday after months of speculation. Continue reading...

The Focus exhibition at the National Archives of Australia contains pictures drawn from its collection of almost 11m images. Government photography is usually associated with politics but the photographers also documented the lives of everyday Australians Continue reading...

Collapse in system of currents that helps regulate global climate would be at such speed that adaptation would be impossibleThe circulation of the Atlantic Ocean is heading towards a tipping point that is bad news for the climate system and humanity", a study has found.The scientists behind the research said they were shocked at the forecast speed of collapse once the point is reached, although they said it was not yet possible to predict how soon that would happen. Continue reading...

Investment in healthier, locally produced school foods gave author Lola Milholland a chance to give back to the school and Japanese American community that gave so much to herOn 14 May 2019, I went to my old school, Richmond elementary, in Portland, Oregon, for a special lunch. It was the first districtwide yakisoba day, when every school would serve wheat noodles tossed with roasted vegetables. And not just any noodles: they were from a recipe that I'd developed for the school system's 16,000-plus students who eat school lunch.As I helped dish our noodles on to trays, I could hear excited kids lining up. Soon, to my absolute wonder, I heard them chanting, Ya-ki-so-ba! Ya-ki-so-ba!" In that moment, I felt more connected to my community than I'd ever felt before. Continue reading...

Business secretary says people have latched onto' claims made in Nadine Dorries book that puts forward elaborate conspiracy theoriesBMA junior doctors' committee co-chairs Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said in a statement:We have made every effort to work with the government in finding a fair solution to this dispute whilst trying to avoid strike action.Even yesterday, we were willing to delay further strike action in exchange for a short extension of our current strike mandate.In a show of goodwill, the BMA provided the Health Secretary with an option to delay further strike action.She was asked to extend the current strike mandate for a short period - and thus allow talks to continue with the aim to achieve a resolution for this year's dispute. Continue reading...

Trump has made campaign promises to toss crucial environmental regulations - including dismantling the federal body with the most power to tackle the climate crisisDonald Trump and his advisers have made campaign promises to toss crucial environmental regulations and boost the planet-heating fossil fuel sector.Those plans include systemically dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal body with the most power to take on the climate emergency and environmental justice, an array of Trump advisers and allies said. It's a potential future that horrifies" experts. Continue reading...

Government adviser says water and telecoms privatisation is to blame for disfiguring streets with tarmacThe government must increase fines on utility companies that dig up pavements for roadworks, then pour in tarmac rather than fixing the mess, a government adviser has said.Telecoms and water companies are creating street scars" in a wasteful process" that is marring British high streets, Nicholas Boys Smith, who chairs the Office for Place in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has said in a report. Continue reading...

Experts say boarded-up communal space illustrates crisis in social housing funding and need to protect play areasFamilies in south London say their children have stopped playing outside after communal spaces and playgrounds were ripped out to make room for new homes and then left boarded up when Southwark council ran out of money.The council began tearing down large parts of the Bells Gardens and Lindley estates in Peckham last August but abandoned the build in January due to a funding crisis driven by rising interest rates. All that remains of the previous play area is a small pitch surrounded by hoardings and out of sight of the flats. Continue reading...

Dramatic changes in energy industry and EVs reducing fossil fuel use, but shipping, aviation and industry a long way from net zero

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

The once-endangered fish have returned in their thousands, giving hope to coastal communities and environmentalists who want to ensure it does not vanish againBuilt like a torpedo, weighing more than a male polar bear when fully grown and fetching prices in Japan of more than 2m for a single fish, the bluefin tuna was once an abundant apex predator in British waters. In the 1960s, these warm-blooded aquatic hunters disappeared - pushed to the brink of extinction in the eastern Atlantic by overfishing.But since 2014, the enormous migratory fish have returned in their thousands off the coast of south-west England after deep cuts to fishing quotas in the eastern Atlantic to revive the species. Nobody is really sure why they are back in such great numbers - with populations also recovering in the Mediterranean, where the vast majority are caught - but bluefin tuna is no longer listed as an endangered species in the UK, and is now often spotted hunting close to shore by wildlife photographers. With its return, minds have also turned to how to catch it without causing it to vanish from British waters again. Continue reading...

First study to tally asthma exacerbations with air pollution during pandemic finds numbers admitted to A&E fell 41% in 2020A new study in Oxford has found that emergency hospital admissions for asthma dropped by 41% in 2020 as air pollution from traffic fell due to Covid restrictions.Dr Suzanne Bartington from the University of Birmingham, who led the Oxford study, said: The Covid-19 pandemic led to a unique opportunity where we could study the impacts of rapid changes in human activities on air quality." Continue reading...

Two and a half years after it was announced, the policy is being dropped. Here is a timeline of key moments along the wayLabour has ditched its pledge to spend 28bn a year on green investment, blaming the Conservatives for crashing the economy".The policy, the main component of Labour's green prosperity plan, has been at the centre of a public and private struggle since it was announced, with factions inside the party arguing against moves to water it down. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer announces party will now spend less than 15bn on green projects a year if it wins election

Experts say utility companies should prioritize vulnerable communities in post-storm recovery effortsIn the days leading up to Hurricane Ian in 2022, Jeffrey Perdomo and his parents resisted increasingly stern calls from officials to evacuate their mobile home in Kissimmee, Florida.We don't have much and we wanted to stay on top of our things," said the 25-year-old, who works as a restaurant host at Disney's Animal Kingdom, just outside Orlando. The family's trailer was old and uninsured; Perdomo wanted to be around to address any damage as soon as it happened. If it ended up flooding, we would have very little recourse. We would become effectively homeless." Continue reading...

Supermarkets will ask customers to recycle scrunchable plastic food packaging for first time since REDcycle ended

Exclusive: Labour insiders say scheme singled out for attack by Tories this week will be major victim of U-turn over 28bn plans

As the photographer turns 80, we look back as some of his most striking images from around the world. A selection of his work can be seen at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London, 16 March to 15 April

A volcano in south-western Iceland has erupted for the second time this year, the country's meteorological office has said. Live images captured lava gushing out of a fissure, sending plumes of smoke and ash into the air. It the sixth outbreak on the Reykjanes peninsula since 2021, before when the volcano had been inactive for about 800 years. 'Reykjanes is fed by five volcanic systems, many of which come to life every 800 to 1,000 years,' said Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist at Lancaster University

Warming of the land surface increased from 1.48C after another year of data was added, annual climate statement reveals

Often overlooked in favour of larger, more charismatic cousins, we asked scientists to tell us about the smallest-known species, from a nano-chameleon to a miniature frogIn the 19th century, the German zoologist Christian Bergmann pondered a simple question: why are some animals so small? His answer, that a warm-blooded animal's size increases as its habitat cools, remains a rule in biology to this day.Bergmann pointed out that smaller species tend to live in warmer climes. This pattern is to do with surface area and volume: smaller animals lose heat faster and struggle to maintain their body temperature when it is very cold," says Dr Simon Loader, the principal curator of vertebrates at the Natural History Museum. Whatever the reasons, these small species are fascinating," he says. Continue reading...

Experts say the endangered insect numbers fell by 59% this year, blaming pesticide use and climate change for the reductionThe number of endangered monarch butterflies at their wintering areas in Mexico has dropped by 59% this year to the second lowest level since record keeping began, experts said, blaming pesticide use and climate change.The annual butterfly count doesn't calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of hectares they cover when they clump together on tree branches in the mountain pine and fir forests west of Mexico City. Monarchs from east of the Rocky Mountains in the US and Canada overwinter there. Continue reading...

Labour leader to say move is down to economic uncertainty caused by Tory government, sources revealKeir Starmer will announce on Thursday that he is scaling back Labour's 28bn green investment programme, in his biggest policy U-turn since becoming party leader.Senior Labour sources have told the Guardian that Starmer will finally confirm the party is no longer planning to spend 28bn a year on environmental schemes, given the economic uncertainty caused by the Conservative government. Continue reading...

Pod of orcas in north Japan freed themselves as gaps between the ice grew, officials sayA pod of killer whales trapped by drift ice off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, have apparently safely escaped, officials have said.The orcas were initially spotted by a fisher who reported them to officials in the town of Rausu, on the north-east coast of Hokkaido, on Tuesday morning. Continue reading...

Ruling, specific to three dicamba-based weedkillers, is major blow to Bayer, BASF and SyngentaDealing a blow to three of the world's biggest agrochemical companies, a US court this week banned three weedkillers widely used in American agriculture, finding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law in allowing them to be on the market.The ruling is specific to three dicamba-based weedkillers manufactured by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, which have been blamed for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and natural areas across the midwest and south. Continue reading...

Investigators previously found blasts that damaged undersea pipelines in 2022 were an act of sabotageSwedish prosecutors have said they will end their investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in 2022, dodging the question of who destroyed the then new energy link between Russia and Europe shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.After a 16-month inquiry, the investigators concluded they did not have jurisdiction in the case because Sweden's citizens and interests had not been harmed. The conclusion of the investigation is that Swedish jurisdiction does not apply and that the investigation therefore should be closed," the Swedish prosecution authority said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Harvey Goldsmith's Earth Aid Live set to last 10 years and take place across multiple cities and continents, with lineups still to be announcedHarvey Goldsmith, the concert promoter who backed the London leg of Live Aid as well as numerous other charity events and major gigs, has announced a new multi-year project to benefit action on the climate crisis.Earth Aid Live will take place in six countries across five continents over one weekend in August 2025, including London, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, with lineups still to be announced. Goldsmith is planning similar events in 2030 and 2035, and will feature concerts in the metaverse as well as real life. Continue reading...

Company developing world's largest offshore windfarm in North Sea attempts to recover from turbulent year

City of Sydney promises to install more shark nets across city but says pollution remains the biggest obstacle'

Environmental Protection Agency sets lower limits on fine particle pollution, estimated to cause 85,000 to 225,000 deaths annuallyThe Environmental Protection Agency has finalized long-awaited new limits on soot, the tiny air pollution particles emitted by sources as varied as power plants, factories, car exhaust and wildfires.Today's action is a critical step forward that will better protect workers, families and communities from the dangerous and costly impacts of fine particle pollution," the EPA administrator, Michael Regan, told reporters on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The Biden administration suspended new permits for natural gas terminals. Can we see more of this kind of backbone?Ten days ago Joe Biden did something remarkable, and almost without precedent - he actually said no to big oil.His administration halted the granting of new permits for building liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, something Washington had been handing out like M&Ms on Halloween for nearly a decade. It's a provisional no" - Department of Energy experts will spend the coming months figuring out a new formula for granting the licenses that takes the latest science and economics into account - but you can tell what a big deal it is because of the howls of rage coming from the petroleum industry and its gaggle of politicians.Bill McKibben is the founder of Third Act, which organizes Americans over 60 for progressive action and which worked this fall to persuade the administration to stop granting the LNG permits Continue reading...

Campaigners argue in legal challenge that loophole has allowed poultry farmers to pollute riveroThe Environment Agency and the UK government failed to protect the River Wye from catastrophic decline by allowing pollution from industrial chicken farming to saturate the land and devastate the protected river, a legal challenge is to argue. Continue reading...

The Danish photographer Soren Solkaer first saw starling murmurations as a child near Wadden Sea in the south of the country. After photographing the phenomenon for three years in the marshlands of Denmark, Solkaer's new work, Starling, published by Edition Circle, expands his scope to trace the birds along their migration routes to the Netherlands and Italy Continue reading...

Committee says safeguard mechanism will help cut emissions and ban on projects emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 not needed

Huge disconnect' between employers' public ambitions on diversity and their actions, say workersWorkers at environmental charities have said bold words on inclusion are not being matched with action, as research shows the sector still lags far behind others in racial diversity.Only about one in 20 workers in the environmental charity sector identified as an ethnic minority last year, according to a survey of organisations, compared with one in eight in the wider UK workforce. Continue reading...

A huge retrospective of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work showcases the terrifying, but oddly beautiful marks we can leave on the planet Continue reading...