Environment | The Guardian

The Cop15 conference in Canada brings together representatives from all over the world with an urgent mission: preventing the breakdown of Earth’s natural habitats and the extinction of the many species we rely onFor thousands of years, the history of humanity can also be viewed as a history of biodiversity destruction. As tools, weapons and industry advanced, so did our ability for environmental destruction. Now the natural world is at a crisis point. Fueled by the climate crisis, we are heading into an age of extinction unless current trends can be reversed.This week at the Cop15 conference in Montreal, Canada, delegates from across the globe have been meeting in an attempt to agree ambitious new targets. As Phoebe Weston tells Michael Safi, the topmost target is the so-called “30 by 30” pledge: a global target to protect 30% of the planet for nature by 2030. But that in itself is proving controversial: Indigenous communities are suspicious of landgrabs by over-reaching governments. And the 30% figure could be easy to game by declaring lands as national parks without addressing the underlying issues. Continue reading...

Cutlery, plates and polystyrene cups reportedly set to be banned in England after a consultationSingle-use plastic items including cutlery, plates and polystyrene cups are reportedly to be banned in England by the UK government after a consultation.Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, is poised to unveil plans to phase out the items and replace them with biodegradable alternatives in the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported. Continue reading...

Negotiators say divisions mean risk is growing of a weak final agreement similar to Denmark summit in 2009Talks to halt the destruction of nature “very much hang in the balance”, sources have said, as environment ministers from around the world begin to arrive in Montreal amid concerns about a lack of Chinese leadership of the Cop15 talks.At the halfway stage of the summit in Canada, negotiators at the UN biodiversity summit have said divisions are contributing to the growing risk of a “Copenhagen moment”, referring to the 2009 UN climate summit when talks ended with a weak final agreement in the Danish capital, not the “Paris moment for nature” leading environmental figures had been calling for. Continue reading...

Dozens of people injured after heavy rain destroys houses and ruins roads in DRC’s capitalAt least 100 people have been killed and dozens injured in widespread floods and landslides caused by heavy rain in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kinshasa.The prime minister, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, said officials were still searching for more bodies. Continue reading...

Lawyers for landowner Alexander Darwall argue camping is not explicitly mentioned in lawsThere has never been a legal right to wild camp on Dartmoor, lawyers for a landowner have argued in an attempt to overturn the ability for people to sleep on his property – and the whole national park.Despite an assumed right for decades, enshrined under both the 1949 National Park and Access to the Countryside Act and the 1985 Dartmoor Commons Act, a barrister acting for Alexander Darwall, a hedge fund manager, argued that no such right exists as camping is not explicitly mentioned in these laws and does not count as outdoor recreation. Continue reading...

In a moment scientists have dreamed of for 50 years, a single reaction has proved that star power can be harnessed here on EarthThis is a moment that scientists have dreamed of for well over half a century. The US’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) has smashed the longest-standing goal in the quest for carbon-free energy from fusion, the nuclear process that powers stars.Researchers from NIF used the world’s most energetic laser to fire 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy into a millimetre-sized capsule of hydrogen fuel. Reaching temperatures many times those found in the sun’s core and pressures 300bn times those normally experienced on Earth, a wave of nuclear reactions ripped through the fusion fuel, releasing 3.15 MJ of fusion energy – 1.1 MJ more than was put in – over a few tens of nanoseconds. Continue reading...

Fossil fuel subsidies are a stupid idea. We aren’t so much decarbonising our economy as turbocharging its carbon intensityJust as a fish can’t taste the water it swims in, it is hard for Australians to notice how bizarre our climate and energy policy debates have become. We have seemingly abandoned economics, climate science and even opinion polling when it comes to identifying options for reform. The only way forward is what the fossil fuel industry tells us to do. Imagine if we had taken that approach to tobacco control.Think I’m exaggerating? Well, before I try to explain the absurdity of the Albanese government’s latest plan to subsidise the coal and gas industries, let’s take a quick tour of the climate and energy policy options that dare not speak their name. Continue reading...

Generators likely to receive lion’s share of payments worth more than $500m after commonwealth said producers could be paid if costs exceed $125 a tonne

Scientists fear an ecological disaster is playing out in parts of the river because of ‘alarmingly’ low dissolved oxygen levels

Proponents say lasers can be used to generate energy but others say fusion power unlikely to ‘save us from climate change’

BEIS says strategy will reduce replacement costs but cautions there is no guarantee homes will ultimately run on the gasMinisters are considering requiring that all new domestic boilers be “hydrogen-ready” from 2026, as they announced £100m for nuclear and hydrogen projects.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched a consultation on improving boiler standards, and has argued there is a strong case for introducing hydrogen-ready boilers in the UK from 2026. Continue reading...

The buzz phrase aims to emulate the success of ‘net zero’ in climate campaigning. Yet some fear it is too vague, and open to greenwashingOn the wall of the “nature positive by 2030” pavilion at Cop15 in Montreal, children have written notes asking leaders to save turtles, frogs, swallows and wetlands. The message is clear. People don’t want more of the same: “stop the same” and “same is lame”.They are simple, optimistic words that are also popping up in adverts, company pledges and the draft of the globalbiodiversity framework (GBF), which is the text outlining the next decade of UN targets to protect the natural world. Yet some are concerned the term “nature positive” is so hard to define that it opens up another frontier for greenwashing. Continue reading...

Head of offsetting standard rubbishes minister’s claim of Cumbrian mine’s carbon neutrality as ‘absurd’Michael Gove’s justification for approving the UK’s first coalmine in three decades is “obviously nonsense” and has no climate justification, according to the carbon offsetting standard whose credits could be used to make the operation “net zero”.Last week, the levelling up secretary gave the green light for the new mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, which will produce 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year from mining operations alone, not counting the emissions produced when the coal is used. Continue reading...

UK Green Building Council has laid out a three-point plan for the government to considerInsulating Britain’s draughty houses, overhauling the planning system, and preventing housebuilders from selling sub-standard homes would all cut people’s energy bills and help set the UK on track to net zero greenhouse gas emissions, green building experts are to tell ministers.The UK Green Building Council (UKGCB) has laid out a three-point plan for the government to consider, which would reduce energy waste and carbon dioxide, and will present it to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on Tuesday. The charity has assessed current polices on buildings and judged most to be “red-rated”, meaning detailed policy frameworks are missing, flawed, or do not put the UK on track to meeting net zero. Continue reading...

Cross-party report highlights need for greater access to natural world when deciding how to divide up landAccess to green space needs to be prioritised when deciding how to use land, a report from the House of Lords has said.Peers from the cross-party House of Lords land use in England commission have laid out their priorities for a land use framework, which would divide up the land in England and decide where is best for different types of agriculture, as well as carbon sequestration, nature restoration and recreation. Continue reading...

Michael Gove’s decision to approve a new mine is greeted with anger and frustration by Steven Schofield, Keith Fitton, Dr Chris Haughton, Gary Nethercott and Liz FairhurstThe fact that a new coalmine will be the source of massive carbon emissions in a region that has experienced some of the worst floods in living memory, attributable to global heating, is a terrible indictment of generational policy failures (UK’s first new coalmine for 30 years gets go-ahead in Cumbria, 7 December).Cumbria should have been the centre of a vibrant renewable energy sector, recognising the historical decline of both nuclear and coal. Instead, local working people are turned into economic conscripts for a dead industry. Continue reading...

Olivia Blake says not enough of Yorkshire Water’s £242m profits used for infrastructure after gas network floodedA private water company responsible for maintaining a 50-year-old asbestos-cement pipe that burst and left thousands of people in Sheffield without gas should spend “much more” of its £242m annual profits upgrading its infrastructure, an MP has said.With snow on the ground and temperatures below zero, at least 200 households in the area of north-west Sheffield were still without gas on Monday, 11 days after Yorkshire Water’s mains pipe burst and flooded the gas network with more than 1.5m litres of water. About 2,000 homes were initially affected. Continue reading...

Data shows 2.2% of all new UK jobs are classified as ‘green’ – but one-third are in London and south-eastThe number of jobs being created in the renewable energy industry is growing four times faster than the overall UK employment market, it has emerged.Data shows that 2.2% of all new UK jobs have been classified as “green”, although concerns are rising over London’s dominance in the sector. Continue reading...

It used to be that we celebrated the first snowfall, but that’s been replaced by talk of how to survive the winter without going bankruptIt’s pretty bracing, this snow, and I don’t mean literally. I’ve been consuming snow-related headlines and news coverage for decades: typically, they’d say, “Winter Wonderland”, followed by “travel chaos”; occasionally, “travel chaos leavened by magical snowy landscape”. Some years people would try to mix it up a bit – “Snowtravaganza” was a low point. You just felt bad for the poor sod who had to live with having written it.All that has been replaced this year with quite detailed instructions on how to survive the cold without going bankrupt: there was a news segment on the radio about how to turn down the internal temperature of your radiators, if you have a combi boiler. This was not information that lent itself naturally to an aural medium. It was like trying to learn how to remove your own appendix by podcast. Nobody panic – there’s also a website! Except, at the same time, everybody panic: it’s great to take judicious steps to economise in energy-straitened times, but it’s not in any way normal to read experts weighing the relative benefits of wearing a hat indoors and putting mini USB heaters in your shoes.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Country has scrambled to open up new sources of energy since start of Ukraine war

Most venomous creatures store their poison in a gland. Not the stingray, whose venom is in its very tissueWhere do you begin with an animal whose mouth looks like a face, whose face is split into two – half at the top, and half the bottom; who can breathe with either part – from spiracles behind the eyes, or gills behind the mouth; whose teeth are scales; whose scales are teeth-like (denticles)?When stingrays hunt, they lose sight of their prey – their eyes are bad, and their prey is often underneath them. To find and feel clams, mussels, crabs and fish, the rays rely on electroreceptors in their skin, or, as National Geographic puts it, “special gel-filled pits”. They literally inhale their food, gulping down the electric signal. As they do this, they breathe through the spiracles behind their eyes, which work less efficiently than their gills. Do they get a little light-headed, breathing as if through a towel, feeling the electricity brighten, speed up, then die? Continue reading...

The network of EV charging stations across rural NSW is expanding – but not everyone is completely happy about it

The Met Office has weather warnings in place and travel is disrupted, but how unusual is this for the time of year?Cold air from the Arctic has been pushed over the UK. This has been caused by a high-pressure weather system over Greenland and Iceland moving eastwards towards another high-pressure system over Russia. The result is a cold air mass in between being squeezed southwards and over the UK. Weather warnings from the Met Office are currently in place for the northern UK until Thursday. Continue reading...

The target is dominating at the biodiversity summit, but the problem of finding a balance between Indigenous peoples’ rights and conservation remains unresolvedJust as the climate conference focuses on 1.5C, the UN biodiversity conference appears to have found its north star – protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030. From the moment delegates landed at Montréal-Trudeau airport, adverts at the baggage carousel were frank about Canada’s aims for Cop15: achieving 30x30, the tagline for the proposal. The perceived success of the overall conference hangs on this single target, say those who support it.The science is clear that humanity must better protect key parts of the planet. The destruction of forests and other vital ecosystems must stop by 2030 if the world is to meet 1.5C, according to the IPCC. But 30x30 is actually just one of more than 20 targets being agreed at the Cop15 biodiversity conference in Montreal, and it also happens to be one of the most divisive issues on the agenda. Everyone at the summit has an opinion about the most high-profile target and what it should mean: for some it is not ambitious enough, for others it is impossible to enforce, but the main criticism is that area-based conservation violates human rights. Continue reading...

Curbs to protect Ireland’s bogs have gone up in smoke amid soaring costs – theft of trees and woodpiles in Germany also risingThis was supposed to be the year Ireland got serious about protecting its bogs but some of those hopes are wafting up in smoke as households burn peat to save on energy bills.The soaring cost of oil and gas has reinvigorated the ancient practice of cutting and burning turf, a fuel that hurts the environment but can save a family thousands of euros, especially as temperatures drop to freezing. Continue reading...

Three campaign groups challenge plans to award up to 130 new licences for explorationThe UK government is facing a fresh challenge in the courts over plans to award up to 130 new licences for North Sea oil and gas exploration, in the latest attempt to stop ministers’ proposed expansion of the country’s fossil fuel production.Three campaign groups have written to the business secretary, Grant Shapps, explaining the grounds on which they consider the latest offshore oil and gas licensing round to be unlawful. They call for the decision to award the new licences to be reversed, arguing that new oil and gas exploration and development is incompatible with the UK’s own rules and international climate obligations. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed

This affecting documentary follows Swiss biochemist Jacques Dubochet as he turns the sudden fame provided by his Nobel win into a force for changeHere is an invigorating portrait of one of Europe’s most distinguished scientists, caught at the very point of morphing into a public intellectual and vehement campaigner. In 2017, Swiss biophysicist Jacques Dubochet won the Nobel prize in chemistry – jointly with Richard Henderson of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Joachim Frank of Columbia in New York – for his work on cryo-electron microscopy, freezing biomolecules in mid-movement and so rendering them visible for the first time; this was a great leap forward for pharmacy and medicine.The snowy-haired Dubochet, who did his important work at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg before returning to Lausanne, is shown to be at first bemused and a little flustered by the hordes of excitable photographers who descend on his tranquil campus, clamouring for interviews and demanding a soundbite explanation of his work for the TV news. But Dubochet is no innocent: he was a committed anti-nuclear campaigner in Germany in the “Atomkraft? Nein Danke” era of the 80s, and the film shows it dawning on Dubochet that he can use his new platform to campaign on the new issue that he’s passionate about – the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Aerial photos from reconnaissance mission reveal effort to smuggle excavators into Brazil’s largest Indigenous territoryThe surveillance plane eased off the runway and banked west towards the frontline of one of Brazil’s most dramatic environmental and humanitarian crises.Its objective: a clandestine 120km (75-mile) road that illegal mining mafias have carved out of the jungles of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territory in recent months, in an audacious attempt to smuggle excavators into those supposedly protected lands.

To succeed, the EPA will need to be truly independent and be given funding and powers to enforce the law across Australia

Jim Chalmers will say global investors increasingly see ‘a new harmony between profit and planet’

Exclusive: A string of protesters linked to Blockade Australia have been charged under the legislation

Moon’s severe injury, likely the result of a boat strike, is stark reminder of growing dangers for whales along Canada’s west coastOver the course of nearly three months, navigating ocean swells and currents, vast expanses of flat water and immense pain, Moon the humpback whale completed a journey of 5,000km (3,100 miles) from the waters of British Columbia to Hawaii – all with a broken back.Her crossing of the Pacific – and the likelihood that she will soon die – is a stark reminder of the growing dangers for whales along Canada’s west coast, as marine traffic clashes with the gentle marine giants. Continue reading...

Grey wolves from Oregon may now be thriving in California, after vanishing more than a century agoIn a year of environmental ups and downs, a hopeful story of recovery is afoot in California. A grey wolf pack gave birth to eight pups this spring, it was recently confirmed, offering signs of a remarkable comeback after wolves were wiped out in the state more than a century ago.The births in the Whaleback wolf pack, based in northern California’s Siskiyou county, happened in the spring but were only confirmed by California’s department of fish and wildlife in November. They may be a sign that wolves who entered the state from Oregon several years ago are thriving. Continue reading...

‘Red wall credentials’ suspected at Westminster as real reason for approval by Michael GoveSenior steel industry figures have rejected claims that their demand for coal has driven the government’s divisive decision to sanction the first new UK coalmine for 30 years.Levelling up secretary Michael Gove’s decision to approve the mine at Whitehaven in Cumbria last week has already faced a backlash in the UK and beyond, with John Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, warning he was closely examining the decision. Continue reading...

The government says the needs of UK steelmaking override the environmental impact. The industry thinks differently

Countries are negotiating a framework that will cover issues from pesticides to plastic, from soil to human-wildlife contactFrom nature restoration to sharing new information about diseases, the biodiversity agreement being negotiated at Cop15 in Montreal over the next two weeks covers a vast range of issues. Pollution, human-wildlife conflict and soil health are among the topics up for discussion as 193 governments wrangle over the “fate of the living world” in the negotiating halls, side rooms and corridors of the Palais des congrès.These are the key targets that could make the final agreement, known as the post-2020 biodiversity framework, which is due to be completed on 19 December. As always, everything could change in the last hours of negotiations. The final text will not be legally binding although the aims of the UN convention on biological convention are, so it will have significant teeth. Continue reading...

High court will rule next week on challenge brought by Alexander Darwall to remove right to wild camp on moorWild campers are planning to hold protests against a landowner’s attempts to outlaw sleeping under the stars on Dartmoor.Rallies attended by those who camp, and those who support the right to, will take place on Dartmoor on Sunday and outside the high court in London on Monday to express fierce public opposition to an attempt to legally overturn the right to camp in Dartmoor national park. Continue reading...

US climate envoy says he will publicly criticise UK’s approval of Cumbrian mine if it adds to emissionsJohn Kerry, the US climate official, has said he is closely examining the UK government’s approval of a new coalmine, over concerns that it will raise greenhouse gas emissions and send the wrong signal to developing countries.Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, said he was taking a close interest in the mine, the first to get the go-ahead in the UK for 30 years, and that he would speak out publicly against the approval if it did not meet strict criteria. Continue reading...

Experts describe it as a ‘beautiful endemic rainforest species’, one of several that have not been seen for decades

Los Angeles’ resident big cat will have his health assessed after recent attacks on two chihuahuas and roaming too close to homesLos Angeles’s most famous mountain lion, known as P22, will be captured and studied in order to assess his health following recent attacks on two small dogs and close encounters with people near the park he calls home.Wildlife officials made the announcement on Thursday and said in a statement that, following the evaluation, California department of fish and wildlife veterinarians and National Park Service biologists will determine the best next steps for the animal while also prioritizing the safety of the surrounding communities. Continue reading...

The leak occurred in Washington county, Kansas, with the affected segment being ‘isolated’ and the drip containedAn oil spill in a creek in north-eastern Kansas this week is the largest for an onshore crude pipeline in more than nine years and by far the biggest in the history of the Keystone pipeline, according to federal data.Canada-based TC Energy estimated the spill on the Keystone system at about 14,000 barrels and said the affected pipeline segment had been “isolated” and the oil contained. It did not say how the spill occurred. Continue reading...

Documents show the fossil fuel industry ‘has no real plans to clean up its act’ and took steps to continue business as usualSome of the world’s largest oil and gas companies have internally dismissed the need to swiftly move to renewable energy and cut planet-heating emissions, despite publicly portraying themselves as concerned about the climate crisis, a US House of Representatives committee has found.Documents obtained from companies including Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron show that the fossil fuel industry “has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come”, said Carolyn Maloney, the chair of the House oversight committee, which has investigated the sector for the past year. Continue reading...

Conservationist groups hail legislation aimed at curbing private ownership of tigers and lions in US with little oversightConservation groups in the US have hailed a new law that will end what they call the “horrific” practice of keeping big cats such as tigers and lions as pets or as petting zoo amusements.Joe Biden is expected to swiftly sign the new legislation, which requires that only certified zoos and universities are allowed to hold lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars and other large cats, following its passage in the US Senate this week. The House of Representatives voted for the bill, called the Big Cat Public Safety Act, in July. Continue reading...

Invasive reptile scuttles into electric substation in Florida, frying power and itselfThis rebel reptile had volt-ing ambition – but definitely came down to earth with a bang.One of Florida’s notorious and plentiful green invasive iguanas wreaked chaos earlier this week in one city after scuttling into an electricity substation in Lake Worth Beach and somehow causing a huge power cut. Continue reading...

Unsustainable human activity putting dugongs, abalone shellfish and pillar coral at risk of disappearing, says latest IUCN updateIllegal and unsustainable fishing, fossil fuel exploration, the climate crisis and disease are pushing marine species to the brink of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, with populations of dugongs, abalone shellfish and pillar coral at risk of disappearing for ever.Marine life is facing a “perfect storm” of human overconsumption, threatening the survival of some of the world’s most expensive seafood, according to the conservation organisation, which publishes the most up-to-date information on the health of wildlife populations on Earth. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Despite demands from water campaigners, there will be no overall target for river healthWater pollution goals are to be weakened by the government next week, the Guardian can reveal, as Environment Act targets will give farmers three extra years to reduce their waste dumping into waterways.River campaigners have said the news is proof the government has not dropped its “attack on nature”. Continue reading...

Open Spaces Society secures re-registration of 116 hectares of ‘splendid’ moorland’ for common useMore than 100 hectares of some of the most stunning landscape in west Cornwall has finally been recognised as common land, protecting it for the public 140 years after it was threatened with enclosure.Lizard Downs was authorised for enclosure – the act of taking ownership of common land – in 1880 but the proposed fencing off never happened. Continue reading...

Female calf named Nessa will help efforts to protect species, of which fewer than 2,500 remain in the wildAn endangered Malayan tapir has been born at a UK zoo, in what the zoo said was an “important moment” for conservation.The female calf, which zookeepers have named Nessa, was born weighing 9kg on Wednesday at Chester zoo, one of only two places in the country to keep tapirs, a species related to the horse and the rhinoceros. Continue reading...

Built to Passivhaus standards, Goldsmith Street’s low-energy approach offers a pioneering approach to the housing crisisEven on the coldest day of the winter so far, tenants of a pioneering housing scheme say they do not need to turn on their heating. A blast of Arctic air has brought a dusting of snow to the Goldsmith Street housing scheme in Norwich, but inside “it’s like summer”, according to Jayed Abdas Samad, 32, a Just Eat delivery rider.At a time of health fears for more than 3 million households struggling to pay for heating, Jayed and his neighbours can provide a glimpse of how much better it would be if the UK’s homes were properly insulated and ventilated. Continue reading...