Merged Australian-UK firm will convert Porsche 911s, Mini Coopers, Land Rovers and Land Rover Defenders into EVs

Company struggling to find investors willing to fund effort to build giant £3.8bn ‘gigafactory’ in north-eastThe UK government-backed battery startup Britishvolt is on the brink of entering administration with the potential loss of almost 300 jobs, after it struggled to find investors willing to fund its effort to build a giant £3.8bn “gigafactory” in north-east England.The company had considered an administration as early as Monday, two sources with knowledge of Britishvolt’s operations told the Guardian. Britishvolt has lined up the accountancy firm EY to carry out the administration if it goes ahead. Continue reading...

Situation ‘under review’ after days of criticism and revelation Boris Johnson is seeking to attend

Order, which applies to all captive birds, comes into force on 7 November amid UK’s largest outbreakLegal requirements for poultry and other captive birds to be housed indoors are to be extended to all areas of England amid the UK’s largest ever outbreak of avian influenza.The mandatory measures are to be introduced from midnight on 7 November. Continue reading...

Before Cop27, Lee White also says broken promises on funding leave sense of betrayalThe world will only take meaningful action on the climate crisis once people in rich countries start dying in greater numbers from its effects, Gabon’s environment minister has said, while warning that broken promises on billions of dollars of adaptation finance have left a “sense of betrayal” before Cop27.Lee White said governments were not yet behaving as if global heating was a crisis, and he feared for the future he was leaving to his children. He said the $100bn of promised climate finance from rich nations was not reaching poor countries, which was driving distrust in the UN climate process. Continue reading...

Joe Biden will fly to Africa to attend the Cop27 talks in Egypt but the US funnels billions to dirty projects in the continentJoe Biden will head to Egypt next week to tout America’s re-emergence as a leader on the climate crisis at the Cop27 talks. But he will be landing in a continent that the US continues to pour billions of dollars into for fossil fuel projects, with seemingly no end in sight despite the president’s promises.The US government has funneled more than $9bn (£7.7bn) into oil and gas projects in Africa since it signed up to restrain global heating in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a tally of official data shows, committing just $682m (£587m) to clean energy developments such as wind and solar over the same period. Continue reading...

They are weather balloons and they look like hundreds of miniature moonsIf there were no moon, our days would be short – between half and a quarter of the length they are now – and our nights would be dark. The Earth’s tilt would change, which would change the seasons. The seas, the oceans, the lakes would not fall flat, but they would be flatter, milder: lower high tides, higher low tides.This makes me think of the Jorie Graham lines: “And the black ocean shows itself in infinite detail because of the moon. / No matter that all is not lit. Much remains because much remains hidden.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s moon is, “suffused o’er all the sapphire Heaven, / Trees, herbage, snake-like stream, unwrinkled Lake, / Whose very murmur does of it partake.” Continue reading...

Assam, Nagaland and Manipur officials also confiscate catapults and nets to ensure birds can recuperateOfficials in north-east India have banned the use of guns and airguns and confiscated catapults and nets in an effort to safeguard the small Amur falcons that make an autumn pit stop on their way to sunny South Africa.Forest officers were patrolling areas of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur states to make sure no one disturbs the long-distance travelling raptors who stop briefly in India. Continue reading...

Visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh also face extensive searches and video surveillance in taxisAcross Sharm el-Sheikh, a slim strip of manicured resorts, asphalt and concrete near the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, teams of workers are putting the finishing touches to preparations for the UN’s Cop27 climate conference.Sparkling new buses are ready to drive down the enlarged highways that cut across desert landscape, flanked by smooth shiny new walkways adorned with angular sculptural arches. A field of glittering solar panels run by a company with ties to the Egyptian military will be online in time for the conference, as well as a new shopping mall. Continue reading...

Sixteenth tropical cyclone to affect the Philippines this season caused deadly floods and landslidesTropical Storm Nalgae swept through the Philippines on Saturday with sustained winds of 60mph.Heavy rain caused the most damage, with significant flooding and landslides. Dozens of people have died and 170,000 sought shelter in evacuation centres. Continue reading...

Venture offers outfits on loan from £39 for five days in cheaper, greener way for customers to change their lookMarks & Spencer is to begin hiring out capsule wardrobes of 10 different outfits for up to a month, promising a more environmentally friendly and economical way for shoppers to regularly change their look.The five-, six- or seven-piece womenswear collections – with names such as Comfy Cool, which includes faux leather leggings, a hoodie and baseball cap, and Monochrome Moments, featuring a black-and-white print dress and black padded gilet – can be rented via the specialist site Hirestreet from £39 a capsule for five days. Continue reading...

Single-use plastic straws, cutlery and cotton buds will be among items banned from Tuesday

Figure is 4.6 percentage points higher than previous record from September and compares with maximum of 30% five years ago

Swedish climate activist says the UN’s climate conference will be ‘used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention’Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she will skip next month’s Cop27 talks in Egypt, criticising the global summit as a forum for “greenwashing”.“I’m not going to Cop27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited,” she said during a question and answer at the launch of her latest book at London’s Southbank Centre.This article was amended on 31 October 2022: an earlier version stated that Thunberg had criticised Greenpeace for not signing a human rights petition, but that is not in fact the case. Continue reading...

Operation under way to rescue aquatic animals in danger of suffocating after record rainfall produces ‘hypoxic blackwater’

Rare alpine species captures narrow win over kororā penguin after campaign marked by controversyThe pīwauwau rock wren, a diminutive mountain-dwelling underdog, has come out on top in New Zealand’s annual bird of the year competition after a hard-fought campaign again marked by controversy.The rare alpine species – which weighs less than 20g, about as much as a MallowPuff biscuit – beat out a number of higher-profile and charismatic competitors. Continue reading...

PM accused of ‘washing his hands’ of leadership on international climate action with decision not to attend talksRishi Sunak’s decision to snub the Cop27 UN climate talks, and to keep King Charles from attending, has angered and upset countries around the world, risking the UK’s standing on the world stage and raising concerns over his government’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.Several developing countries told the Guardian of their dismay. Carlos Fuller, Belize’s ambassador to the UN, said: “I can understand why the king was asked not to attend – keeping him out of the fray. However, as the principal UK policymaker and the Cop26 president, the PM should have led the summit. Continue reading...

Sam Adventure Baker went up the cliff with his father, but some climbers say method known as ‘jugging’ is not true climbingAn eight-year-old boy has become the youngest person to ascend the terrifying sheer rock wall of El Capitan in America’s Yosemite national park, his father said in a Facebook post.Sam Adventure Baker had been going up the huge cliff with his father since Tuesday. The duo are part of a four-person team, where one person climbs ahead and sets the ropes for others to follow. Nights are spent sleeping on the rock face. Continue reading...

A renewable-dominated system is comfortably the cheapest form of power generation, according to researchWe should be wary of simple declarations about the increasingly rapid transformation of the electricity grid.The government has been given a sharp reminder of this after leaning too heavily on pre-election modelling that suggested its policies to boost renewable energy could lead to a $275 cut in bills by 2025. You never know when a Vladimir Putin-shaped villain might disrupt international fossil fuel markets, wreck your assumptions and leave you accused of breaking an election pledge. Continue reading...

Norwegian firm wants to develop Rosebank field in North Sea but Sunak’s tax break for fossil fuel producers could cost UK dearThe government faces making a loss of more than £100m if drilling at the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field is approved, according to new research examining a tax break introduced by Rishi Sunak.Sunak performed a dramatic U-turn last May when he introduced the “energy profits levy” as chancellor – effectively a windfall tax on energy producers. However, he also introduced a very generous tax break for fossil fuel producers to ensure that “the more investment a firm makes, the less tax they will pay”. Continue reading...

Criticism of group comes as advocates warn environmentalists should not downplay concerns about Egypt’s human rights recordGreenpeace has been accused by human rights defenders of “greenwashing” the Egyptian government’s image and discouraging other activists from forcefully raising the country’s abysmal human rights record ahead of Cop27, the UN climate summit that will be held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh next week.Criticism of the global conservation group comes as human rights advocates have warned that environmentalists should not downplay concerns about Egypt’s human rights record out of fear that it could curtail their access to the global summit or that it might take attention away from achieving climate objectives. Advocates argue that meaningful climate action can only be achieved if scientists, activists and journalists are free to pressure governments to transition away from fossil fuels. Continue reading...

The effects of global heating could soon reach a tipping point, but scientists fear that the meeting in Egypt will become bogged down in recriminationsIt has been an alarming time for climate scientists. One by one, the grim scenarios they had outlined for the near future have been overtaken by events: extreme storms, droughts, floods and ice-sheet collapses whose sudden appearances have outstripped researchers’ worst predictions. Catastrophic climate change is happening more rapidly and with greater intensity than their grimmest warnings, it transpires.Examples include this summer’s record high temperature of 40.3C in the UK, a massive jump of 1.6C on the previous hottest day; torrential rains that triggered the most severe flooding in Pakistan’s recent history; and last year’s Hurricane Ida, one of the most destructive storms to have struck the US. Continue reading...

Is there any point throwing soup at a Van Gogh painting and mashed potato at a Monet? Two activists give their viewsNothing’s worked. More diplomatically put: nothing has yet worked at anything like the pace required. Is it any wonder that desperation is growing? Continue reading...

A community turns on itself over the aptly named Mammoth solar project, a planned $1.5bn power field nearly the size of ManhattanWhen proposals for the largest solar plant ever conceived for US soil started to gather pace – a plan that involves spearing several million solar panels into the flat farmland of northern Indiana – something in Connie Ehrlich seems to have snapped.Ehrlich, 63, is part of a longstanding farming family in Pulaski county, the site of the new solar project, but doesn’t live in the county and previously only rarely dabbled in its usually somnolent local politics. She has carved out a comfortable life in a sprawling mansion set on 10 acres (four hectares) of land, just outside the city of Lafayette, and is known locally for her donations to medical research and her small fleet of deluxe cars with personalized license plates. Continue reading...

Global heating is warming waters, changing salmon and tuna migration – and hurting fisheriesThere is little at Shiogama seafood market to suggest that Japanese consumers could one day be deprived of their favourite seafood – from giant crab’s legs simmering in a winter nabe hotpot to spheres of salmon roe resting on a bed of rice wrapped in nori seaweed.Stalls heave with huge sides of bluefin tuna, expertly transformed into more manageable portions by knife-wielding workers, while early-morning shoppers pause to inspect boxes of squid, flounder and sea pineapples landed only hours earlier. Continue reading...

Ex-PM’s Cop27 visit is seen as snub to Rishi Sunak as Labour attacks government’s policy failures on environmental crisisA row over prime minister Rishi Sunak’s refusal to attend the Cop27 climate summit took an extraordinary twist on Saturday night as the Observer was informed that his predecessor but one – Boris Johnson – is planning to attend the event.Several sources said they had been told that Johnson is intending to go to the crucial meeting of world leaders in Egypt to show his solidarity with the battle against the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Storm in 2012 had devastating impact on US’s biggest city but insufficient government action risks a repeat, demonstrators sayIn marking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy smashing into New York City, campaigners are warning that insufficient action by governments to tackle the climate crisis risks a repeat of such damaging and increasingly fierce storms.Sandy made landfall with a huge impact on the New Jersey shore on 29 October 2012, before taking an unusual and destructive path into New York causing death, flooding and extended mass power cuts. Continue reading...

As a month of climate protests ends, environmentalists are split on whether disruption or moderation is best to galvanise changeNot for the first time this month, a protest by climate activists descended into acrimony and the threat of violence today. At midday, close to the Oval cricket ground in south London, a dozen or so Just Stop Oil activists brought weekend traffic to a halt.Irate motorists dragged protesters aggressively off the road. “Move out the fucking way,” shouted one driver. “[I] swear to God, I’m going to crack some of you in the fucking face.” Continue reading...

Videos posted by the group show drivers moving protesters, who keep returning to retake their placesMotorists dragged Just Stop Oil protesters out of the way as activists halted traffic flow across four central London roads on Saturday.The group said 61 Just Stop Oil supporters stopped traffic on Charing Cross Road, Kensington High Street, Kennington Road and Blackfriars Road, “demanding that the government halts all new oil and gas consents and licences”. Continue reading...

Veteran leftist Lula da Silva holds slender poll lead over Jair Bolsonaro as national divide grows before Sunday voteThe two political heavyweights vying to become Brazil’s next president have locked horns during the final television debate before a momentous election with profound implications for the Amazon rainforest, the global climate emergency and the future of one of the world’s largest democracies.The former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro faced off in Rio at the studios of Brazil’s biggest broadcaster, with eve of election polls giving Lula a slender but not unassailable lead. Continue reading...

The toxic ‘forever chemicals’ can stay in human blood for years, and are linked to cancers, kidney damage and heart diseaseNearly all participants in a new study looking at exposure to PFAS “forever chemicals” in the US state of North Carolina have multiple dangerous compounds in their blood, and most at levels that researchers say requires medical screening.The North Carolina State University study, which is among the largest ever conducted, checked about 1,500 blood samples from people living in the Cape Fear River basin over several years. It’s the first study to recommend screening for cancers, kidney damage, heart disease and other health issues linked to the chemicals, using newly developed physicians’ guidelines for PFAS exposure. Continue reading...

Exclusive: in a rare interview, Egyptian minister Sameh Shoukry says global tensions are making talks harder• Windfall tax must change in face of ‘excessive’ oil profits – Cop26 chiefThe goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “more fragile” than ever, as world leaders prepare to meet for crucial climate talks, the president-designate of the negotiations has warned.Sameh Shoukry, the foreign minister of Egypt, who will chair the UN Cop27 climate summit next month, said in a rare interview that forging agreement would be harder than at any other recent climate talks, owing to the “turbulent” global economy and “difficult” geopolitical tensions, stoked by the Ukraine war. Continue reading...

Exhibition at Halton Mill is part of a month of activities about the Amazon commemorating Phillips and PereiraAn exhibition in memory of the murdered Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira opens on Sunday ahead of an international conference on saving the Amazon rainforest which is being held next month.The two men were killed in Brazilian Amazonia in June 2022 while researching a book Phillips was writing called How to Save the Amazon. Continue reading...

October’s summery temperatures are ‘confusing’ plants and throwing off fragile ecosystemsBritain’s rare chalk grasslands and dormice are under threat from the mild weather this autumn, and some plants are “confused” and have flowered multiple times, experts have said.This October, the UK has experienced temperatures more normal for spring or summer, with highs of 19.5C recorded this week, and more warm weather forecast for coming days. Continue reading...

Remouillage is a super-thrifty stock made from the already boiled-down elements of a first stock, added to fresh vegetables and simmered again to make a flavourful soup baseWhen I worked at River Cottage, we’d instinctively make remouillage, or a second stock, from bones that had already been boiled for stock. The rich stock ingredients had heaps of flavour left in them even after being cooked and strained, so we’d refill the pot with water and make a second, weaker stock to use in soups, for boiling greens or to make boulangère potatoes. We’d also make fresh bone stock in remouillage rather than water, creating a very potent jus. Continue reading...

UN climate talks not ‘right occasion’ for monarch to attend, says Downing Street, adding Buckingham Palace has agreedKing Charles will not attend the Cop27 UN climate summit, Downing Street has said, as it is not the “right occasion” for him to do so.The former prime minister Liz Truss had asked the king not to attend the talks, and her successor, Rishi Sunak, had left that request in place, No 10 confirmed. Continue reading...

Wonnarua people want Ravensworth Homestead added to the state heritage register and to become a site of reconciliation

Legal observers also say police in the eastern states have been visiting the homes of climate activists in the leadup to the conference

Exclusive: Outgoing head of climate talks says UK needs to encourage investment in renewables, not fossil fuelsThe UK’s windfall tax on oil and gas profits must be changed to raise billions more and to stop companies using loopholes to invest in further fossil fuel extraction, the outgoing president of global climate talks has said.“These are excessive profits, and they have to be treated in the appropriate way when it comes to taxation,” said Alok Sharma, the president of the Cop26 UN climate summit. “We ought to be going further and seeing what more can be done in terms of raising additional finance [from the profits]. So far, at least, the level of money raised is obviously not significant.” Continue reading...

Thérèse Coffey says targets underpinning nature recovery will not be published this monthThe government has delayed publication of clean water and biodiversity targets, putting it in breach of its Environment Act, ministers have admitted.Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, published a written ministerial statement on Friday confirming that the targets underpinning the country’s nature recovery would not be released on 31 October as promised. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including goats grazing in Kyiv and newborn seal pups in Norfolk Continue reading...

AAPA seeks leave to appeal against NT supreme court decision that found director is exempt from prosecution under state’s laws

Environment secretary defends Rishi Sunak’s decision not to go to climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh• UK politics live – latest news updatesKing Charles is free to decide whether or not to attend the Cop27 climate summit, the new environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has said as she defended the decision of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, not to go.Sunak, the third British prime minister in seven weeks, has come under scrutiny from opposition ministers and environmental groups, who called his decision not to attend Cop27 a “failure” and said it brought into question government commitments to prioritise net zero and tackle the climate crisis. Continue reading...

One farmer’s quest to find black oats has broadened into a project that could rediversify the country’s cereals and meet future climate challenges. Pictures and words by Alexander TurnerPods of oats fly into the air – shards of golden light caught on the sea breeze. Two septuagenarian farmers wobble precariously above the moving parts of an old reaper-binder as it chugs, not quite effortlessly, through an acre of heritage cereal crops.For Gerald Miles, 74, it’s the first time since he was a small boy that such an event has occurred on his clifftop farm on the coast of Pembrokeshire. For decades, Miles believed the once common black oats of Wales had been lost for ever. This belief, confirmed by an unanswered request for seed in Farmers Weekly magazine after he lost his own in a storm, set him on a mission of rediscovery that he calls “the search for the holy grain”.An ear of black oats harvested on Miles’s farm Continue reading...

Andrew Johnson tells Senate hearing ‘image rebrand’ followed research suggesting elderly and new immigrants were confused by term BoM

Extreme weather events mean once reliable sources of power can failWeather forecasting has become an important factor in keeping the lights on. It also enables producers of power to match their output to times of peak demand and so command the highest prices, boosting profits. However, climate change is making the whole process much more difficult. Extreme weather events – high winds, heatwaves, freezing rain, and loss of glaciers and snow pack mean once reliable sources of power can fail.The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says 87% of global electricity comes from nuclear, hydro and thermal fossil fuel plants that rely on water for cooling, and up to a third of these are in high water stress areas. Predicting droughts, stream flows and water availability is therefore vital for maintaining supply. Continue reading...

Increasing windfall tax would help plug £40bn fiscal hole and keep energy bills low, analysis showsA Norway-style windfall tax on energy companies could raise £33.3bn extra by 2027, plugging a hole in government finances and helping keep energy bills low, analysis has found.The new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is looking at extending the “sunset clause” in the energy profits levy by two years beyond 2025 as a result of the booming profits fossil fuel companies have been recording owing to the war in Ukraine. Continue reading...

Farm crop losses due to widespread flooding exacerbated by the rising cost of fertiliser, fuel and herbicides

Key UN reports published in last two days warn urgent and collective action needed – as oil firms report astronomical profitsThe climate crisis has reached a “really bleak moment”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe.Collective action is needed by the world’s nations more now than at any point since the second world war to avoid climate tipping points, Prof Johan Rockström said, but geopolitical tensions are at a high. Continue reading...

Dr David Harper says keeping BST in winter would mean using more electricity in the mornings, and Guy Ottewell suggests changing business opening times insteadProf Aoife Foley says that by keeping British summer time all year round, less heating and lighting would be needed (Save energy by not turning clocks back in October, says expert, 19 October). Alas, the amount of daylight is not changed by tinkering with the clocks.Most of England and Wales get only eight hours of daylight in December and January, while Scotland gets barely seven hours. If BST was kept during these months, the sun wouldn’t rise until almost 10am in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland. Homes, schools and businesses would need to keep their lights on until mid-morning. We have already tried the year-round BST experiment – 50 years ago. It was abandoned after three years.