Fast action in global gigafactory race is happening outside UK, as Swedish pacesetter showsIn a fantasy world, the would-be rescuer of Britishvolt would be a consortium that included a car manufacturer or two. The ailing startup would instantly get what it needs most after six months of crisis: endorsement for a battery product that is still in development, plus some , future customers.At that point, the big political claims made about Britishvolt, its planned gigafactory in Northumberland and “the UK’s place at the helm of the global green industrial revolution”, as the former prime minister Boris Johnson put it a year ago, would start to sound more credible. Continue reading...

Hundreds of climate activists barricaded themselves in a camp at an abandoned village in western Germany in an anti-coal protest. About 700 demonstrators occupying the deserted village of Lützerath in North Rhine Westphalia clashed with officers after eviction orders were issued by a local court. Environmentalists say bulldozing the village to expand the nearby Garzweiler coalmine would result in huge greenhouse gas emissions. The government and utility company RWE say the coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security

Animal has been evading capture from Rochford fishing lake since mid-DecemberA seal trapped in a fishing lake has “found himself in a branch of Waitrose” and has no incentive to escape, according to an expert.The animal has evaded multiple attempts at capture since first being spotted at Rochford Reservoir, in Essex, almost a month ago, the BBC reported. Continue reading...

Campaigners say most sites cannot cope with amount of wastewater, raising risk of raw discharges into riversInvestment into expanding sewage treatment works by Thames Water falls far short of what is needed to stop raw sewage discharges into rivers, according to a campaign group.Campaigners analysed 106 treatment works in the upper Thames area, which stretches from the Chilterns into the Cotswolds. A treatment works is where wastewater is stored and treated, before being released to the environment. The research suggested three-quarters of the works examined did not have enough capacity to cope with the amount of wastewater from the population. If a treatment works is over capacity, it increases the likelihood of raw sewage being released to the environment. Continue reading...

Seas dominate global weather patterns and the climate crisis is causing profound and damaging changesThe world’s oceans were the hottest ever recorded in 2022, demonstrating the profound and pervasive changes that human-caused emissions have made to the planet’s climate.More than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed in the oceans. The records, starting in 1958, show an inexorable rise in ocean temperature, with an acceleration in warming after 1990. Continue reading...

Australian billionaires had backed $30bn Sun Cable venture designed to help power Darwin, Indonesia and Singapore but the company has gone into voluntary administration

George Eustice says adapted kerosene boilers can run on ‘hydro-treated vegetable oil’ and cut emissions by 88%A proposal to incentivise households in rural areas to run their heating systems on vegetable oil is to be put to parliament.The former environment secretary George Eustice will introduce a bill proposing the removal of duties on renewable liquid heating fuels and incentives to replace kerosene in existing boilers. Continue reading...

Startup firm making 7.5 tonne truck at Essex facility after receiving European type approvalThe truck startup Tevva has become the first company to start high-volume production of electric lorries in the UK.The company has started making its 7.5 tonne electric truck for customers at a facility in Tilbury, Essex, after receiving European type approval – the regulatory clearance required by all volume manufacturers. Continue reading...

The pilot program that ran in 2013 was cancelled by then agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce and the results never released

PM accused of wasting taxpayers’ money with ‘extravagant’ flight rather than taking the trainRishi Sunak has been accused of undermining the government’s green credentials and wasting taxpayers’ money after it emerged he travelled from London to Leeds on a 14-seat RAF jet.Sunak used the jet to travel 200 miles to the Rutland Lodge medical practice on Monday, which he visited alongside the social care minister, Helen Whately. The trip was organised to publicise the government’s announcement of £200m to buy thousands of extra care home beds. Continue reading...

Supermarket’s switch from glass to aluminium cans expected to halve carbon footprint per drinkWaitrose is canning the mini wine bottle in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of takeaway drinks.The supermarket plans to switch all of its 187ml glass wine bottles – except those containing champagne, prosecco, cava and rioja because of restrictions imposed by those particular appellations – to aluminium cans by next week. The cans will come in 187ml, 200ml and 250ml sizes. Continue reading...

Corporate responsibility lawsuit begun by NGOs accusing Evian brand owner of ‘failing’ to address environmental footprintDanone, the French yoghurt and bottled water company, is being taken to court by three environmental groups who accuse it of failing to sufficiently reduce its plastic footprint.The company behind Evian and Volvic mineral water was failing in its duties to act under a groundbreaking French law, the groups said. Continue reading...

Disasters costing at least $1bn killed 474 people last year, government figures showThe US endured a particularly painful year as communities wrestled with the growing impacts of the climate crisis, with 18 major disasters wreaking havoc across the country as planet-heating emissions continued to climb.Storms, floods, wildfires and droughts caused a total of $165bn in damages in the US last year, $10bn more than the 2021 total and the third most costly year since records of major losses began in 1980, according to new US government data. Continue reading...

Hundreds of protesters prepare to defy police at abandoned village of Lützerath in North Rhine WestphaliaHundreds of climate activists who have barricaded themselves in a protest camp on the site of an abandoned village in western Germany have said they are prepared to risk their lives to prevent it from being mined for coal.Lützerath in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) has been emptied of its residents, who have all been relocated. An estimated 700 anti-coal protesters, who started occupying the deserted village and surroundings two and a half years ago, squatting in empty houses, outbuildings and farmland, are preparing for a showdown with police after eviction orders were issued by a local court that are valid from Tuesday. The number of protesters has grown in recent weeks as hundreds of activists from Germany and around the world join the protest. Continue reading...

I grabbed my friend’s arm, frozen, and imagined my tombstoneWhen you are a child, the first letter of your name will associate you with one animal or another. Mine was, inevitably and to my great disappointment, a hippo: an animal of thick, grey skin, whiskers sprouting from its cheeks, feet that were far too small for its body. Hippos weren’t even cute, I knew this: their strange mouths, cheeks at the end of a long nose, hid (where? how?) vast discoloured teeth which they used to chomp anything from antelope to zebra. I wanted my name to start with an elegant lowercase h: a letter that also happened to be the shape of a miniature giraffe. Instead I was H for Hippo, stocky and sturdy, like a Kalabari mask from Nigeria.Hippos eat grass instead of fish, according to Kikuyu legend, because of a deal with God: the hippo wanted to swim in waters cooled by the snow from Mount Kenya but God worried he would eat his little fishes, which were very dear to him. (And why wouldn’t they be? Little silver fish, quick and made of light.) So the hippo promised that, at night, he would emerge from the water “every time that food passes through my body, and I will scatter my dung on the earth with my tail”. Continue reading...

Cornwall Insight warns reduction in support could curb businesses’ ability to invest in reducing fossil fuel emissionsThe reduction in government support for companies’ energy bills could threaten their efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions, a leading consultancy has warned.The Treasury announced on Monday that it plans to slash the support available to “non-domestic” energy customers – including businesses, schools, hospitals and charities – from April in a bid to reduce the cost to the government. Continue reading...

Continent records hottest ever summer as analysis shows temperatures rising twice as fast as global averageTwelve European countries broke monthly temperature records in 2022 as the continent recorded its hottest ever summer, new analysis shows.Of 27 European countries analysed by the Guardian, 12 recorded their highest ever temperature anomaly for at least one month in 2022. In each case, the anomalies were more than 1.9C above the average temperature recorded between 1991 and 2020 for at least one month. Continue reading...

Experts say extreme weather is a growing danger to displaced people and could force more to flee homesGovernments must get to grips with the links between the climate crisis and the plight of migrants around the world, experts have said, as increasingly extreme weather is a mounting danger to already vulnerable displaced people, and is potentially pushing more people to flee their homes.Migrants and displaced people number more than 100 million around the world, mainly in developing countries, and are among the populations most at risk from extreme weather. Continue reading...

Talks on rescue deal for battery startup led by DeaLab, which has been involved in fossil fuel transactionsThe battery startup Britishvolt is in talks with an Indonesia-linked oil and gas investor for a £160m rescue deal that would almost wipe out the value of existing shareholders’ stakes.The investor consortium is led by DeaLab Group, a UK-based private equity investor that has been involved in several fossil fuel and renewable energy transactions in Indonesia, and an associated metals business, Barracuda Group. Continue reading...

International funders join Pakistan PM and UN secretary general in Geneva to agree recovery plan following ‘monsoon on steroids’The international community has promised $10.5bn (£8.77bn) to help Pakistan rebuild after last summer’s catastrophic floods, described by UN secretary general António Guterres as a “monsoon on steroids.”The pledges were made on Monday at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by Pakistan’s prime minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Guterres. Continue reading...

Plan to restrict car journeys in Oxford becomes lightning rod for fears of global assault on freedomsJordan Peterson is rarely lacking in strong opinions, but even by the standards of the Canadian psychologist turned hard-right culture warrior, this was vehement stuff: a city is planning to lock people in their local districts as part of a “well-documented” global plot to, ultimately, deprive them of all personal possessions.Where was this? Not Beijing, or even Pyongyang. It was Oxford. In the days since Peterson’s tweet – viewed 7.5m times – officials in the city have fielded endless queries from around the world asking why they are imposing a “climate lockdown”. Inevitably, there have also been some threats. Continue reading...

Welsh government considers whether to block plan after experts say manure from intensive units is turning Wye into ‘pea soup’The Welsh government is under pressure to block a new mega chicken farm in the Wye catchment, in what campaigners call a “crucial moment in the life or death of the Wye”.The River Wye has become synonymous with the intensive poultry industry, with more than 20 million chickens in its catchment area, producing more manure than the land can absorb and turning the river the colour of “pea soup”. Continue reading...

It’s lost 73% of its water and is unable to sustain some wildlife – and could soon negatively affect human healthEmergency measures are required to avert a catastrophe in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which has been drying up due to excessive water use, a new report warns. Within years, the lake’s ecosystems could collapse and millions will be exposed to toxic dust contained within the drying lakebed, unless drastic steps are taken to cut water use.A team of 32 scientists and conservationists caution that the lake could decline beyond recognition in just five years. Their warning is especially urgent amid a historic western megadrought fueled by global heating. To save the lake, the report suggests 30-50% reductions in water use may be required, to allow 2.5m acre-feet of water to flow from streams and rivers directly into the lake over the next two years. Continue reading...

Members who set up group say past policies have been ‘trite’ and social justice case needs to be clearly madeLabour MPs have joined a lobby group in an attempt to push Keir Starmer into making nature and climate a key part of his election manifesto.Previous Labour nature policies have been “trite”, MPs have said, arguing that the social justice case for climate and nature needs to be made more clearly by the party. Continue reading...

Plan that is key to Albanese government’s 2030 target will focus on emissions intensity to encourage cleaner practices rather than cutting production

Scientists describe as ‘very alarming’ research that shows severe weather events were made more likely by climate changeRelentless drought in California, extreme rainfall in the UK, record heat in China – some of the most severe weather events that have occurred around the world in the past few years were made far more likely due to the climate crisis, new research has found.The analysis of extreme events in 2021 and 2022 found that many of these extremes were worsened by global heating, and in some cases would have been almost impossible in terms of their severity if humans had not altered the climate through the burning of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

The cost of hot water has risen dramatically, while environmental concerns are more pressing than ever. So just how short should your shower be?Name: The four-minute shower.Age: Over before you know it. Continue reading...

Most of atmospheric layer that protects planet from ultraviolet radiation likely to be fully recovered for most of world by 2040The hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, once the most feared environmental peril facing humanity, is set to be completely healed over most of the world within two decades following decisive action by governments to phase out ozone-depleting substances, a new UN assessment has found.The loss of the ozone layer, which risked exposing people to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, is on track to be completely recovered by 2040 across the world, aside from the polar regions, according to the report. The poles will take a little longer – the ozone layer will fully bounce back by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2066 over the Antarctic. Continue reading...

Tougher sentences to be imposed for those causing accidents but activists dismiss alcohol ban as ‘laughable’The French government has angered anti-hunt campaigners after refusing to ban hunting on Sundays during the season.Instead, it has declared a ban on drinking alcohol and taking drugs while hunting, a move activists say is unenforceable, and will set up a voluntary application for hunters to indicate where they are active. Continue reading...

Company says it is hoping to secure long-term funding so it can build ‘gigafactory’ in Blyth, NorthumberlandThe battery startup Britishvolt is in talks to sell the majority of its shares to a consortium of investors, in a deal that could allow it to continue pursuing its goal of building a UK “gigafactory”.Britishvolt said it was hoping to secure long-term funding in the talks, which are thought to be with new investors. Bosses at the company have been looking for new funding for several months, after its efforts to build the giant facility near Blyth in Northumberland stalled amid a cash shortage. Continue reading...

Wine poured – or sipped – from cans is gaining in popularity, and drastically reducing emissions from the industryFirst came the shame. As fellow customers of my smart local Brooklyn wine shop perused the shelves with studious looks, I slithered over to the register. “I’m embarrassed to ask, but you don’t have any wine in cans, do you?” The clerk gestured to a small fridge right beneath my nose. Yes, they had loads of cans. Yes, they were proving super popular. No, he hadn’t tried the one with the fun vintage circus illustration on the label.The art on the 187ml can spoke to me, so I took it home, along with four others. Together, they cost around the same amount as the last bottle I’d bought. They tasted even better. Continue reading...

Hazelnut and walnut trees among cultivars becoming commercially viableNuts are being grown more than ever by English farmers as the climate heats, making the products more economically viable, growers have said.Nut trees are also helpful for biodiversity on farms, improving soil health as their roots improve the ability and capacity of soil to absorb water, reducing the risk of wind erosion. Continue reading...

Insect declines mean reduced yields of healthy foods like fruit and vegetables and increased disease in peopleThe global loss of pollinators is already causing about 500,000 early deaths a year by reducing the supply of healthy foods, a study has estimated.Three-quarters of crops require pollination but the populations of many insects are in sharp decline. The inadequate pollination that results has caused a 3%-5% loss of fruit, vegetable and nut production, the research found. The lower consumption of these foods means about 1% of all deaths can now be attributed to pollinator loss, the scientists said. Continue reading...

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Countries that fear losing competitive edge could benefit from bolder climate policies, says Nigel ToppingThe world could reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the early 2040s, substantially ahead of the mid-century climate target, if governments set more stretching goals and make bold policy decisions, the UK’s outgoing climate business expert has said.Nigel Topping served for two years as the high-level champion for the UK’s presidency of the UN Cop26 climate summit, passing on the role to Egypt’s Mahmoud Mohieldin late last year at the Cop27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. Continue reading...

Titan arum emits a foul smell to lure pollinators, but at the botanic gardens it attracts thousands of visitors to witness the rare flowering

Review dismissed claims the current system lacks integrity and is not delivering real cuts in emissions

Midlands and north-east of England also show strong demand, says supplier Octopus EnergyHouseholds in Yorkshire, the Midlands and the north-east of England are most willing to live near a windfarm in return for cheaper power, Octopus Energy has said.The energy supplier has said the public are increasingly open to windfarms being built near them, as the government appears poised to lift a seven-year ban on new onshore wind developments in England. Continue reading...

Research charity’s bid to raise money through a scheme that goes against its own principles sparks wrath of clean air campaignersThe British Heart Foundation (BHF), which has campaigned on the pollution risks of burning wood at home, is being urged to review a charity draw for a £3m London townhouse, with a fire pit on the garden terrace and open fires in the property.A promotional video shows wood being burned in the metal fire pit at the property in north London and an open fire next to a bath. “Take a soak in your sumptuous stone tub and relax to the crackling sounds of the roaring fireplace,” says the promotion. Continue reading...

Vessel that sank with more than 200 transported people onboard is being used to humanise the story of slaveryIn 2015, a delegation from the Smithsonian Institution travelled to Mozambique to inform the Makua people of a singular and long-overdue discovery. Two hundred and twenty-one years after it sank in treacherous waters off Cape Town, claiming the lives of 212 enslaved people, the wreck of the Portuguese slave ship the São José Paquete D’Africa had been found. When told the news, a Makua leader responded with a gesture that no one on the delegation will ever forget.“One of the chiefs took a vessel we had, filled it with soil and asked us to bring that vessel back to the site of the slave ship so that, for the first time since the 18th century, his people could sleep in their own land,” says Lonnie Bunch, now the secretary of the Smithsonian. Continue reading...

Water quality at Elwood and St Kilda upgraded from poor to fair on Sunday after swimmers previously reported being covered in oily substance

Torrential rains are driving rivers of mud and debris in the Golden State – but what exactly is ailing the parched west?More destructive downpours are in store for California next week as the sodden state continues to grapple with the effects of a very wet start to the year.The torrential rains have caused rivers and streams to overflow, sent cascades down street and highways, and submerged vehicles, homes, and businesses. Strong storms whipped waves to historic heights along the California coast, which was also pelted with wind-strewn debris and tossed trees. Tens of thousands lost power during the storm siege and six fatalities have been confirmed in the onslaught. Continue reading...

Proposal sets out lower limits for soot, which is estimated to cause early deaths of thousands of Americans each yearThe Biden administration is proposing lower limits for a deadly air pollutant, saying tougher standards for soot from tailpipes, smokestacks and wildfires could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year.A proposal released on Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency would set maximum levels of nine to 10 micrograms of fine particle pollution per cubic meter of air, down from 12 micrograms set a decade ago under the Obama administration. The standard for particle pollution, more commonly known as soot, was left unchanged by then president Donald Trump, who overrode a scientific recommendation for a lower standard in his final days in office. Continue reading...

Hurricanes responsible for more than half of the forced relocations, according to US Census BureauMore than 1.3% of the adult population in the US was displaced by natural disasters in the past year, with hurricanes responsible for more than half of the forced relocations, according to first-of-its-kind survey results from the US Census Bureau.The Household Pulse Survey results said that 3.3 million US adults were displaced by either hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes or other disasters. The two-year-old online survey asked for the first time about displacement from natural disasters in results released on Thursday. Continue reading...

Wind-powered electricity rose to 26.8% of 2022 usage while gas-fired power, at 38.5%, continued growth as largest single sourceWindfarms produced a record amount of Great Britain’s electricity last year, although gas-fired generation also increased, National Grid has said.Figures from the company’s electricity system operator (ESO) showed that wind-powered electricity accounted for 26.8% of generation in 2022, up from 21.9% the year before. Continue reading...

Conservative-majority court could soon decide on scope of Clean Water Act, dramatically affecting laws and wetlands countrywideA 15-year legal tussle over a tiny plot of land near a lake in northern Idaho could culminate in the US supreme court drastically reshaping clean water laws across the country, with a decision by the conservative-dominated court now looming.The case is the latest and perhaps most significant of the repeated challenges to the scope of the Clean Water Act, which has been the subject of 50 years of fraught argument over the federal government’s ability to prevent pollution seeping into America’s waterways. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National Lottery funds will help vulnerable coastal town combat effects of rise in sea-levelA coastal town in Cornwall where rising sea levels threaten to wipe out homes, beaches and businesses in a few decades’ time has been awarded £2m to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.The money awarded to the popular tourist destination of Bude, in north Cornwall, and 11 surrounding parishes, from the National Lottery’s climate action fund, comes as the area faces an existential threat from the heating planet. Continue reading...

Shareholders say lawsuits over PFAS compounds linked to cancer and other diseases represent growing threat to companies’ profitsInvestors from some of the world’s largest firms are pressuring chemical companies to end production of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, which shareholders say represent an enormous and growing threat to manufacturers’ bottom lines.PFAS are a class of about 12,000 compounds typically used to make products resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and are linked to cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders, birth defects and other serious health issues. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including fur seals, sandbar sharks and Thor the walrus Continue reading...

Ben Okri, Simon Schama, Helen Pankhurst and AL Kennedy among those saying they ‘stand with’ protestersBen Okri, Simon Schama, Helen Pankhurst and AL Kennedy are among more than 100 writers who have signed a letter in solidarity with UK climate protest prisoners.“That the UK now has political prisoners, incarcerated for defending sustainable life on Earth is yet another national disgrace,” Kennedy said. Continue reading...