PM’s commitment to green targets questioned as top climate adviser calls decision ‘absolutely indefensible’Opening a new coalmine when the world stands on the brink of climate catastrophe is “absolutely indefensible”, in the words of the UK government’s independent climate adviser, the chair of the Climate Change Committee and the former Conservative minister Lord Deben.The £165m mine in Cumbria will produce coking coal for steelmaking, which the government has said will still be needed, even though steelmakers must move to low-carbon production in the next 13 years. Two of the UK’s existing steel companies have rejected the new coal, which means much of it will be exported to a world already awash with fossil fuels. Continue reading...
Some argue it’s a low-carbon alternative to importing coal, but others say Woodhouse Colliery would damage UK’s climate reputationA new coalmine, the Woodhouse Colliery, has been proposed at a site near Whitehaven in Cumbria, with £165m investment and a production capacity of about 2.8m tonnes of coal a year. The proposal has been mooted for more than two years. Continue reading...
Michael Gove greenlights £165m project that will produce estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a yearThe UK will build its first new coalmine for three decades at Whitehaven in Cumbria, despite objections locally, across the UK and from around the world.Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, gave the green light for the project on Wednesday, paving the way for an estimated investment of £165m that will create about 500 new jobs in the region and produce 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year, largely for steelmaking. Continue reading...
Cut-price deals at Aldi, Lidl and Sainsbury’s come despite concerns over rising costs for UK farmersAldi, Lidl and Sainsbury’s have kicked off the annual price battle on Christmas vegetables, offering bags of sprouts, carrots, parsnips and potatoes for just 19p.The price deals, which include swedes and cabbages at 19p each, come despite concerns about rising costs for farmers in the UK amid inflation on labour, fertiliser and fuel for tractors and other vehicles. Continue reading...
Star Trek prepared me to feel a connection with the universe. Instead, I felt terrible grief for our planet. At Cop15, our leaders must negotiate to protect itLast year, at the age of 90, I had a life-changing experience. I went to space, after decades of playing a science-fiction character who was exploring the universe and building connections with many diverse life forms and cultures. I thought I would experience a similar feeling: a feeling of deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration. A call to indeed boldly go where no one had gone before.I was absolutely wrong. As I explained in my latest book, what I felt was totally different. I knew that many before me had experienced a greater sense of care while contemplating our planet from above, because they were struck by the apparent fragility of this suspended blue marble. I felt that too. But the strongest feeling, dominating everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced. Continue reading...
by Daniel Hurst Foreign affairs and defence correspon on (#66KEC)
Australian Security Leaders Climate Group says measures needed to contain climate change will be disruptive, but better than ‘existential threat’ of the alternative
Pressure is increasing on world leaders to make progress at the UN biodiversity summit – but the pile of unfinished tasks is mountingAll procrastinators know the feeling: an enormous task is not close to being finished, time is slipping away and the pressure to act has become impossible to ignore. But despite the mounting unease, there is still not yet enough pressure to take action, and it is unclear if there ever will be.At the Palais des congrès de Montréal convention centre at Cop15, after more than two years of delays, there is a sense that governments tasked with agreeing this decade’s targets for protecting life on Earth are in just such a situation. Continue reading...
by Phoebe Weston, Elena Morresi, Katherine Stephens a on (#66KAH)
Fighting the climate emergency is only one side of the story. Science tells us we must tackle the biodiversity crisis at the same time as addressing global heating to save the planet from further catastrophe.Both crises centre on carbon. Burning carbon in the form of fossil fuels has led to global heating, and that needs to stop, but biodiversity – nature – is also built on carbon and it can be part of the solution.The Age of Extinction reporter Phoebe Weston explains how the Cop15 summit in Montreal is a once in a decade chance to stop the loss of biodiversity and bend the curve to help save Earth.
Committee on Climate Change says nation is highly likely to miss 2030 carbon reduction goals because of lack of plans to reach themNicola Sturgeon has been warned Scotland’s highly ambitious climate targets are “in danger of being meaningless” because her government still has no clear plan to meet them.The UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC), an official advisory body, said the Scottish government would almost certainly miss its world-leading carbon reduction targets for 2030 by a substantial margin, despite Sturgeon’s repeated promises of radical action on the climate.Despite pledging to stop the sales of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, sales of electric cars in Scotland had fallen behind England.Scotland’s plans to rapidly decarbonise heating in buildings “were still wholly inadequate” despite recent funding increases.Scottish ministers were failing to tackle high levels of meat and dairy consumption, key causes of CO emissions from farming.Scotland was meeting only half its target to restore 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of peatland a year.Scottish ministers were failing to work collaboratively with other UK governments on shared climate strategies. Continue reading...
Leaders announce partnership to reduce global dependence on Russian energyJoe Biden has agreed a deal to ramp up gas exports from the US to the UK as part of a joint effort to cut bills and limit Russia’s impact on western energy supplies.Sunak and Biden announced an “energy security and affordability partnership” and set up a joint action group, led by Westminster and White House officials, with the aim of reducing global dependence on Russian energy. Continue reading...
The flight takes less than one hour and yet there are few environmentally friendly alternativesIf a flight is so short you don’t have time to finish your complimentary cheese and biscuits before having your rubbish whisked away for landing, chances are there’s a more environmentally friendly and convenient way of getting to where you’re going.The French government’s recent decision to ban short-haul domestic flights between cities that are connected by a train or bus trip of less than two and a half hours has sparked some energetic debate this week about whether Australia could follow the French in moving away from short-haul flights. Continue reading...
António Guterres calls for end to destruction of nature as Canada pushes proposal to protect 30% of EarthHumanity has become a weapon of mass extinction and governments must end the “orgy of destruction”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said at the beginning of the biodiversity Cop15.“We are out of harmony with nature. In fact, we are playing an entirely different song. Around the world, for hundreds of years, we have conducted a cacophony of chaos, played with instruments of destruction. Deforestation and desertification are creating wastelands of once-thriving ecosystems,” he said. Continue reading...
Labour’s motion calling on the government to release all documents and advice relating to contracts awarded to PPE Medpro has also now passedLabour received £4.7m in donations between July and September, more than any other party, PA Media reports. PA says:The sum received by Labour is significantly greater than that donated to the Conservatives, which, according to Electoral Commission data, received £2.9m over the same period.The Liberal Democrats recorded about £1.7m, according to returns submitted to the Electoral Commission, with more than £11m in total donated to 19 separate UK political parties.Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said the government was to blame for not allowing the train companies to make an offer acceptable to his members. He said:The government are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what is going on. They have held back even these paltry offers to the last minute.He claimed the rail companies were not losing out from strike action, because they were subsidised by the government, and he described this system as “perverse and corrupt”. He explained:They get indemnified for every day of strike action. They are paid the money that they would otherwise have lost, and the only people that lose are my members who lose their wages and the public and these businesses in hospitality who lose their income as well, while the people I negotiate with lose no money whatsoever.It is the most perverse and corrupt system we have ever seen in British business where those people that are conducting the dispute make no losses whatsoever and the taxpayer subsidises those people by money given directly from the DfT [Department for Transport].He said the timing of the latest strikes was “unfortunate”, but he claimed the union was forced to act. He said:We have to respond to what the companies are doing, and they’re doing that very deliberately. They’re seeking to ratchet up the dispute.He accepted that, although the additional strikes were over Christmas, when rail services were very minimal anyway, they would create further disruption for passengers. In the past Lynch had said the RMT wanted to avoid strike action over Christmas.He defended the RMT’s decision to object to a move to driver-only trains. Driver-only operation was “less safe”, he said. Women and disabled passengers wanted to see guards on trains, he said, because they felt that was safer and more welcoming. When the presenter, Justin Webb, put it to Lynch that driver-only trains still had another member of staff on board, and that they just did not have a staff member operating the doors, Lynch said that was wrong. He said most of these services did not have anyone else on board, apart from the driver. Continue reading...
The environment secretary tells MPs it is ‘not the role of government to provide free food’ or to intervene in marketsThe government has ruled out making any intervention in the market to help farmers or consumers with high food prices, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has said.Food prices have soared in the past year, in part owing to higher input prices such as energy, fertiliser and animal feed. Last month, food price inflation hit a fresh high of 12.4%, with poorer households hit hardest. Continue reading...
Expected approval for coalmine opening could provoke backlash from party’s many opposing voicesMichael Gove could green light the first UK coalmine in a generation as soon as Wednesday, in a move likely to open up new dividing lines among Conservatives.A number of high-profile Tories have previously spoken out against the plans for a new mine outside Whitehaven in Cumbria, including former cabinet ministers Kwasi Kwarteng, Alok Sharma, Robert Buckland and Tobias Ellwood. Continue reading...
Activists and experts say green light for coal would show UK’s ‘posturing, double standards and broken promises’For the UK to open a new coalmine would be “hypocritical”, would “send the wrong message”, and makes “a mockery” of climate action, developing country activists and experts involved in global climate negotiations have said.A decision on whether to go ahead with a new coalmine in Cumbria is expected from the UK government as soon as Wednesday. Continue reading...
Just Stop Oil’s Hannah Hunt and Eden Lazarus found guilty after glueing themselves to Constable’s The Hay WainTwo climate protesters have been ordered to compensate the National Gallery after they were found guilty of causing more than £1,000 of damage to the Hay Wain, probably John Constable’s best-known painting.In July Just Stop Oil supporters Hannah Hunt, 23, and Eden Lazarus, 22, taped printed posters of a dystopian reimagining of the landscape over its canvas, before glueing their hands to its gilt frame. Continue reading...
Plans to redevelop 72 Upper Ground ignore material and climate impact, detractors sayDevelopers have been urged to “stop demolishing youthful concrete towers at whim” on the opening day of a planning inquiry which will examine plans to replace ITV’s former headquarters on London’s South Bank with a £400m office complex.Objectors say the plans for 72 Upper Ground, nicknamed “the Slab”, will generate more carbon emissions in its construction than if the 4,000 officer workers it is designed to house were to drive in from Surrey for 30 years. Continue reading...
Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to opt for reusable cups, plates and bowls for their food and drink from next yearDeutsche Bahn passengers will be able to get their coffee in a porcelain cup from next year, the German rail operator has announced, as it seeks to cut waste.Travellers would be able to choose a “high-quality porcelain or glass” option when ordering food and drink on its intercity and high-speed services, the company said in a statement. Continue reading...
Regulator calls spending on network improvements ‘extremely disappointing’ after companies undershot budgetsOfwat has criticised water companies for failing to invest enough in treatment plants to stop the overuse of raw sewage discharges.The water regulator for England and Wales said on Tuesday that water and wastewater companies were falling behind on their investment plans, leaving promised service improvements behind schedule or undelivered. Continue reading...
Cattle on Ireland’s most south-westerly island face starvation and humans extreme isolation if aerial link does not run, warns farmerIf Ireland’s only island cable car is not quickly repaired, cattle on the Dursey face starvation and humans may abandon it for the first time in 420 years, locals have warned.Martin Sheehan, a third-generation farmer on Dursey, delivered the stark warning this week after a delay in fixing the cable car put a question mark over the habitability of Ireland’s most south-westerly island. Continue reading...
by Words by Patrick Greenfield. Graphics by Lucy Swan on (#66J22)
Nature is under threat as never before, but what does that actually mean? We explain what is at stake – and why action at Cop15 is more crucial than everDespite humanity’s many technological advances, we can only manage a well-informed guess at the true extent of life on Earth: 8.7 million species, according to the most commonly cited figure, with other estimates ranging between 5.3 million and one trillion.There is greater certainty about the decline of biodiversity that human behaviour is driving, with species dying off as much as 1,000 times more frequently than before the arrival of humans 60m years ago, as one study suggests. Continue reading...
Iata director general Willie Walsh calls for greater production of sustainable aviation fuelAirline passengers face higher ticket prices as the industry moves towards its target of reducing emissions to net zero by 2050, the head of a global trade association said on Tuesday.Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, which includes most of the world’s big airlines, called for swifter action in Europe to drive up scarce production of greener sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Continue reading...
Lack of funding identified as biggest obstacle to planting and maintaining hedgerowsFarmers are urging the government to include hedge creation in its nature-friendly farming subsidy scheme in an attempt to increase biodiversity.Details about the post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s common agricultural policy have been scarce, with land managers simply told they would get payments for providing “public goods” such as protecting nature. Continue reading...
NFU warns farmers are struggling with soaring cost of fuel, fertiliser and feedThe government risks “sleepwalking” into a food supply crisis unless it provides crucial support for British farmers struggling with the soaring cost of fuel, fertiliser and feed, the National Farmers’ Union has warned.Rising costs could result in supply problems for energy-intensive crops including tomatoes, cucumbers and pears – which are on track for their lowest yields since records began in 1985 – and rationing at supermarkets as recently experienced with eggs, the union said. Continue reading...
Inger Andersen spells out the challenges facing the planet as Cop15 delegates gather inMontrealThe UN’s environment chief has warned that “we are at war with nature” and must “make peace”, as countries gather at Cop15 in Montreal to agree a deal to protect the planet’s biodiversity.“We’ve just welcomed the 8 billionth member of the human race on this planet. That’s a wonderful birth of a baby, of course. But we need to understand that the more people there are, the more we put the Earth under heavy pressure,” said Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN environment programme. Continue reading...
Campaign group calls for institutions to be accountable via short-term assessments after 59% missed goalsThe majority of UK universities have failed to meet their carbon reduction targets, figures reveal.The sector had a goal to reduce emissions directly controlled by institutions by 43% between 2005-06 and 2020-21. Continue reading...
Also under fire for sewage discharges and executive pay, company makes first-half profits of almost £500mThames Water has reported a boom in first-half profits to almost £500m, despite a surge in the number of burst pipes during the drought across the UK over the summer.The company, which instituted a hosepipe ban from August to September amid the summer heatwave, said the rise in leakage and supply interruptions due to mains bursting was the result of “hot weather and dry ground”. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#66GRH)
Increase for fourth consecutive month, with almost 143,000 new vehicles registered in NovemberSales of new cars in the UK have risen for the fourth month running, with purely electric vehicles accounting for a fifth of the total.In the best November for the industry since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, almost 143,000 new vehicles were registered. Continue reading...
Protests against oil and mining have been planned, as thousands of delegates arrive for UN biodiversity summitPolice in Montreal are bracing for their biggest operation in two decades, as thousands of visitors – including frustrated demonstrators – begin to arrive for the Cop15 global biodiversity summit.Officials are expecting more than 10,000 people, including scientists and senior bureaucrats, to attend Cop15 in the Canadian city. Continue reading...
Birdwatchers Mya, Arjun and Kabir have grown up seeing the effects of wildlife decline. They talk about what inspires them, their hopes for future action and how everyone can connect with the nature on their doorstep• Watch Mya and Arjun in Skyward, a Guardian Documentaries filmMore than 300 young people from around the world are gathering in Montreal for a two-day youth summit ahead of the Cop15 UN biodiversity conference. Here, three young naturalists in the UK tell the Guardian about their favourite wildlife experiences, as well as their hopes – and concerns – for Cop15 and beyond. Mya and Arjun, who feature in a new Guardian documentary, Skyward, which follows the daily life of the two young birdwatchers, and Kabir, another young naturalist from the UK, are fascinated by the natural world but are also alarmed at its decline. Continue reading...
Everything you need to know about the once-in-a-decade chance to stop the loss of biodiversity – and how you can helpPlanet Earth is enduring the largest loss of life since the time of the dinosaurs, according to scientists. This loss is being driven by human behaviour, and governments are split on how to respond. At Cop15 in Montreal, many of these divisions will come to a head as they negotiate this decade’s UN biodiversity targets, known as the global biodiversity framework – or “GBF” if you are an insider. From the key players to what’s on the table, here’s what you need to know to make sense of the summit. Continue reading...
by Constance Malleret in Rio de Janeiro on (#66GK1)
President’s predecessor Bolsonaro unleashed record destruction and emboldened loggers, land grabbers and illegal minersLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s narrow victory over President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s October elections was hailed as the potential salvation of the Amazon, after four years of unbridled destruction which have brought the rainforest close to a tipping point, threatening the very survival of the Indigenous populations whose lives depend upon it.Lula has vowed to reverse the environmental destruction wreaked under his far-right predecessor and work towards zero deforestation by tackling crime in the Amazon and guaranteeing the protection of Indigenous rights. But the president-elect, who takes office on 1 January 2023, faces an uphill battle to meet these big promises he has made to the Brazilian people and the international community. Continue reading...
Letter says bioenergy is wrongly deemed ‘carbon neutral’ and contributes to wildlife lossMore than 650 scientists are urging world leaders to stop burning trees to make energy because it destroys valuable habitats for wildlife.In the buildup to Cop15, the UN biodiversity summit, they say countries urgently need to stop using forest bioenergy to create heat and electricity as it undermines international climate and nature targets. Instead, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar should be used, they say. Continue reading...
It is not fair for people to be paying such wildly varied prices for the same level of gas consumption – equity must be central to any market interventionThe treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is set to intervene in the gas market to push down high bills, likely through capping wholesale gas prices and also the price of coal.Various regulators and energy bodies will be providing advice about the best measures to take. But governments also needs to listen to those that are doing it tough paying their energy bills. Continue reading...
Deaths of endangered species probably happened a couple weeks ago, with the cause as yet unknownAbout 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said on Sunday.Regional officials initially reported on Saturday that 700 dead seals had been found on the coast, but the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment later raised the figure to about 2,500. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Dave Lewis, chair of startup hoping to provide 8% of Britain’s energy, tells how political turmoil has delayed undersea cable projectAn £18bn project to connect Britain with a huge wind and solar farm in the Sahara through an undersea cable has been delayed by at least a year because of political ructions in Westminster.The energy startup Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity supplies through a 3,800km (2,360-mile) cable linking Morocco with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030. Continue reading...
Laws across Australia have shifted significantly to limit protest and are being used to restrain or intimidate those who speak upYou don’t have to believe that Deanna Coco’s climate protest blocking traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was a good idea, or helped her cause. But being sent to prison until July and denied bail while she lodges an appeal against the sentence was a bad day for democratic expression in Australia.Coco, 32 years old and known as Violet, was part of a group of four protesters from the activist group Fireproof Australia who blocked a southbound lane on the bridge just before 8.30am on 13 April this year. While others held a banner and glued themselves to the road, Coco climbed on to the roof of a hired van and set off a flare. When police arrived, she resisted arrest. Continue reading...
Security footage shows animal drag child across lawn and sidewalk before father intervenesA coyote grabbed and injured a two-year old girl outside her Los Angeles home in a daytime attack before her father chased the animal off, her family said.Home security video obtained by KTLA-TV showed the animal grab and drag the toddler across her lawn and sidewalk, seconds after her father took her out of a car seat, set her down and turned back inside the vehicle to gather her toys. They had just arrived home from preschool. Continue reading...
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