Environment | The Guardian

Ministers and experts say disputes between co-hosts unlikely to disrupt efforts to reach deal on protecting natural worldMore than 10,000 scientists, government officials and activists will gather in Montreal this week for the world’s most important biodiversity conference, eager to hammer out a deal to stem habitat loss around the world and preserve sensitive ecosystems.The UN Cop15 biodiversity summit opens on Tuesday, and will see countries negotiate this decade’s targets for protecting nature after more than two years of pandemic-related delays and just over two weeks since the end of the Cop27 climate meeting in Egypt. Continue reading...

The variety is a cross between commercial and wild wheats – bred in a bid to develop crops that are more resilient to the climate crisisA new drought-tolerant variety of durum wheat has been created as part of an international breeding programme to boost climate resilience in the food system by increasing crop diversity.Durum wheat is used to make pasta, pizza crusts, and flatbreads such as pitta and chapatis, as well as for couscous, bulgur and pastry for desserts such as baklava. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ted O’Brien’s Time to Talk Nuclear website was registered by business that helps US reactor company

Protesters take to luxury beds and sofas in London store to call for action on ‘sky-rocketing’ energy billsJust Stop Oil activists tucked themselves into a Harrods display bed as part of a national day of action on fuel poverty in the UK on Saturday.Footage of the “warm up” demonstrations also showed security guards confronting protesters lying on sofas inside the shop in Knightsbridge, London. Continue reading...

Tory party’s most respected figure on climate says mine will damage UK’s international reputation as well as environmentTory division over green policy deepened last night when the party’s climate change champion said a proposed new coalmine on the outskirts of Whitehaven in Cumbria would send “completely the wrong signal” about the fight against climate breakdown.Before an imminent decision on the mine’s future, expected this week, Alok Sharma, whose presidency of Cop26 ended last month, made clear his opposition to any move to approve the venture. Continue reading...

Underground greenhouses are helping people to take back control of their nutrition and ease farming amid the climate crisisNear the southern border of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a curved translucent roof peeks out a few feet above the dusty plains. It’s a blustery November afternoon and the last remaining greens outside are fading fast. But below ground, at the bottom of a short flight of stairs, the inside of this 80ft-long sleek structure is bursting with life – pallets of vivid microgreens, potato plants growing from hay bales and planters full of thick heads of Swiss chard and pak choi. Two people bend over the pallets, using scissors to harvest delicate sprouts of microgreens.This is an underground greenhouse, or walipini, and the harvesters are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. It is one of at least eight underground greenhouses that, over the past decade, have been built or are being constructed on the reservation – which has one of the highest poverty rates in the US. Some hope they can help solve the interconnected problems of the lack of affordable, nutritious food and the difficulties of farming in the climate crisis. Continue reading...

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would provide $1.3bn annually for wildlife and could speed up completion of a crucial wildlife corridor in one US stateBeyond the dirt tracks and swamps of the Florida Everglades lies a narrow, unremarkable strip of land that has taken on outsize importance in the battle to save the state’s critically endangered panthers. Barely 11 miles (18km) long and a mile wide, Chaparral Slough occupies a forgotten corner of south-west Florida, where cattle roam, cowboys still ride the prairie and birds of prey soar overhead.This tract of ranchland and wilderness was recently acquired as part of the Florida Forever state conservation programme, which buys, or pays landowners to preserve, parcels of land rich in natural resources or habitat critical to the survival of threatened wildlife species. It is a small but crucial piece in the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a 17.7m-acre network of interconnecting landscapes that allows many of the state’s 131 imperilled animals, including panthers and bears, to roam freely. Continue reading...

Once common in England and Wales, the species was hunted to local extinction about 300 years agoWith their striking long beaks and elegant white plumage, the spoonbill looks like it belongs somewhere far more exotic than the windswept saltmarshes of the UK.But the large wading bird is enjoying a boom in numbers as landowners across the country improve wetland habitats and tree cover. Continue reading...

Human rights groups around the world express outrage over ‘disproportionate’ punishment of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco

The group was awarded $1.8m and praised as an ‘inspiring women led program’ using First Nations knowledge to protect land and sea

London mayor’s demand comes as civil rights campaigners criticise PM’s promise to increase police powersThe London mayor has demanded the state response to Just Stop Oil remain “within the law”, as civil rights campaigners warned over the prime minister’s suggestion he would grant police new powers to contain the group’s protests.After a meeting of police leaders and ministers in Downing Street on Thursday, Rishi Sunak promised police whatever powers they need to “clamp down” on the “completely unacceptable” disruptions by the climate activist group. Continue reading...

Nicknamed ‘Green Jesus’, Canada’s environment minister once scaled the CN Tower in a climate protest. Ahead of efforts at Cop15 in Montreal to stop the destruction of nature, he explains why he approved a controversial oil projectA young boy in rural Canada learns the forest he loves will be chopped down, so he scales one of the trees and refuses to leave. He fails in his mission – but the destruction resonates deeply. In his adolescence, he studies politics and theology, fascinated by questions of power and moral obligation. As an adult, he scales the world’s tallest building – which was then the CN Tower in Toronto – to protest the destruction of the climate, only leaving when he’s escorted down in handcuffs. He rejects owning a car, cycling through the pounding rain, sleet and ice of a Quebec winter. A local newspaper calls him “Green Jesus”.Fast forward to April 2022 and that same man, Steven Guilbeault, greenlights a controversial oil-drilling project off the coast of Newfoundland in his role as Canada’s minister of environment and climate change. Continue reading...

Fears of shortages early next year as farmers say they are having to ‘tear up’ sowing and harvesting timelinesThe mild autumn has caused much of the UK’s green vegetable and potato crops to grow early, leading to a glut and a large amount of waste, and fears of shortages early next year.Cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli that were supposed to be ready later in December or in January are ready to harvest now, with some having grown to huge sizes because of the exceptionally mild autumn. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Trees standing alone and in small groups worth billions to UK, which researchers say justifies spending to protect them

Local people call for rethink on £12.7m city centre project, and dismiss saplings plan as a ‘greenwash’

Campaigners cite previous court rulings against shareholders, such as in the case of Northern Rock bankParliament could renationalise the water industry in England without being obliged to compensate shareholders, according to previous UK court judgments cited by campaigners.Activists are putting mounting pressure on the government and opposition parties to look again at the privatised water system after criticism that the industry is not acting in the public interest. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a singing robin, a swimming buck and a praying mantis Continue reading...

Lawyers for Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco, who stopped traffic for 25 minutes in April, say it is ‘outrageous’ their client was refused bail before an appeal next year

Ministers urged to act as study shows average block of cheese or loaf of bread makes farmers less than a pennyUK farmers are receiving negligible profits for many items as food prices rise and supermarkets boast record takings.An average block of cheese or loaf of bread produces less than a penny for farmers, and fruit producers do not fare much better, making just 3p from each kilo of apples. Continue reading...

Shayleen Thompson of the Clean Energy Regulator had ‘robust’ exchange with Wentworth Group director

Weeks before Cop15 in Montreal, leaked letter to EU shows host tried to water down deforestation regulationsThe Canadian government has been accused of putting its domestic timber industry ahead of the global environment, following a leaked attempt to water down the world’s most ambitious regulations on deforestation-free trade.Weeks before the United Nations biodiversity conference, Cop15 in Montreal, the host nation sent a letter to the European Commission asking for a reconsideration of “burdensome traceability requirements” within a proposed EU scheme that aims to eradicate unsustainably sourced wood products from the world’s biggest market. Continue reading...

Eleventh month in a row of above-average temperatures means 2022 almost certain to set new markThe UK remains on track for its warmest year since records began, after November became the 11th month in a row of above-average temperatures.In order not to break the record, temperatures in December would have to drop to almost unprecedented lows, after an average mean temperature of 8.2C over November, the Met Office said. Continue reading...

Criticism of past 12 years comes as minister admits fresh delay to post-Brexit farm payment schemesLandowners have told the environment secretary they are “running out of patience” with the Conservative government after 12 years of the rural economy being “stifled” and delays to nature-friendly farming payment schemes.At a conference organised by the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the largest rural landowner group in the country, Thérèse Coffey announced that the review into the new land payments schemes had concluded, but admitted that farmers and other land managers would remain in the dark with regards to detail on payment and standards until next year. Continue reading...

Tower Hamlets removes play space in long-running row with parents over traffic near primary schoolAn east London council has sent construction workers in the middle of the night to dismantle a wooden structure protecting a “school street”.Children at Chisenhale primary in Bow arrived on Thursday morning to find the structure and play space outside the school entrance gone. Continue reading...

One official says the commonwealth is ‘flailing around in the dark’ while seeking a way to lower bills

What flew under the radar during the election campaign is actually one of the most ambitious climate goals of any place in the worldDuring the final weeks of the Victorian election campaign, Daniel Andrews took to wearing a State Electricity Commission jacket at press conferences, using it to highlight Labor’s flagship policy of supplying publicly owned renewable energy through a revived SEC.It got a lot of airtime, that jacket, and the promise it represented – a return to an era when governments owned big energy assets and jobs were for life. The premier spruiked the idea in his victory speech, adding that greedy energy companies were leaving the industry and “goodbye to them”, while volunteers in red shirts chanted “S-E-C! S-E-C!” – surely one of the more obscure political chants in memory. Continue reading...

As participants arrive in Montreal to negotiate this decade’s targets for protecting biodiversity, two themes are getting the lion’s share of attentionAfter more than two years of delays, Cop15, the once-in-decade global biodiversity summit, is about to begin. More than 10,000 participants from across the planet will start arriving in Montreal at the weekend to negotiate crucial goals for protecting biodiversity.There has been a coordinated push behind some targets, namely from a group of countries that want to protect 30% of land and sea for nature (30x30) by the end of the decade. The idea of “nature positive” is another theme being promoted in the pre-Cop15 rhetoric from NGOs and governments. Continue reading...

Customers pay on average 20% of their bill towards servicing debt and rewarding shareholders, says CMA

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Rough, a 37-year-old Centrica facility off east Yorkshire, has been reopened to prop up the energy grid“Do you hear that?” asks Chris O’Shea, putting a finger in the air and looking out over a tangle of pipes and workers in orange hi-vis overalls.A deep whirr punctures the calm of the east Yorkshire coast, as a huge engine powers up and prepares to suck thousands of cubic metres of gas from deep beneath the North Sea. Continue reading...

Exclusive: one university cites the industry as a ‘fundamental barrier to a more just and sustainable world’Three more UK universities have banned fossil fuel companies from recruiting students through their career services, with one citing the industry as a “fundamental barrier to a more just and sustainable world”.The University of the Arts London, University of Bedfordshire, and Wrexham Glyndwr University join Birkbeck, University of London, which was the first to adopt a fossil-free careers service policy in September. Continue reading...

And scientist Dr Peter Ridd from the IPA accuses the BoM and CSIRO of ignoring what he claims are the benefits of global heating

Jess Jeffery and family were looking for rentals when their belongings stored in Rochester were destroyed by floods, and have been excluded from relief as they lack fixed address

Australia has 18% of the world’s supply of vanadium, an element used in steelmaking and battery storage, but lacks the workforce to expand

City and Mississippi health department sign order agreeing to federal oversight of the failing water systemThe US justice department has taken drastic action regarding the crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, that has affected drinking water for its 150,000 residents for several months.On Tuesday, the city of Jackson and the Mississippi health department signed an order agreeing to federal oversight of the failing water system, in an attempt to restore clean and safe drinking water. Continue reading...

Tory backbenchers are among 40 parliamentarians who asked PM to ‘stand up for nature’ at talks

Guillaume Faury expresses concern at pace of investment in facilities producing alternatives to fossil fuelsThe launch of commercial flights of aircraft designed to reduce aviation’s damaging impact on the climate could be delayed by a shortage of net zero fuels, the chief executive of Airbus has warned.Speaking at a briefing about the European manufacturer’s emissions-cutting plans on Wednesday, Guillaume Faury said he had concerns about the pace of investment in facilities to produce “green” hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Continue reading...

Guardian unpicks complex web of investment firms, wealth funds and tax haven-based businesses that own most of sector

Guardian analysis reveals more than 70% of English water industry in foreign ownership

Minister confirms pollution penalties will be ringfenced for environment rather than going to TreasuryWater company fines for pollution are to be used to pay for environmental improvements in England rather than given to the Treasury, the government has said.Since 2015, the Environment Agency has concluded 56 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, securing fines of more than £141m. Most of these were from one company, Southern Water, which received a record penalty of £90m last year. Continue reading...

Show omits massive challenges to the industry posed by climate crisis, bycatch and bottom trawling, claims Our Seas alliance of 135 organisationsShot in fishing vessels on the high seas, amid crashing waves that threaten to sweep all on deck overboard, the long-running BBC documentary programme Trawlermen offers viewers an insight into how a crew navigates one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.However, the new series, Trawlermen: Hunting the Catch, launched in October, fails to mention “even briefly” the environmental and climate crisis challenges or problems with bycatch faced by the fishing industry, according to the Our Seas coalition of 135 conservation and fishing organisations. Continue reading...

Apra finds country’s banks may be more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face threefold increase in lending losses

Exclusive: Fatih Birol says claims that limit is dead are ‘factually incorrect and politically very wrong’The world can still limit global heating to 1.5C, and to claim that the target is now out of reach is to play into the hands of fossil fuel proponents, the world’s leading energy economist has warned.Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, the global authority on energy, slammed scientists and activists who have claimed that the recent Cop27 UN climate summit killed off hopes for the crucial 1.5C limit. Continue reading...

Days later, Harry and Meghan will head to New York for human rights award, with no plans for brothers to meetThe Prince and Princess of Wales will fly to the US on Wednesday hoping to shine a light on the climate crisis against a media backdrop obsessed with sibling rivalry and turf war with the Sussexes.In their first US trip in eight years, Prince William and Princess Catherine are visiting Boston to promote the prince’s environmental Earthshot prize. Continue reading...

Uninhabited Widi Reserve is in a marine-protected zone and being promoted as ‘one of the most intact coral atoll ecosystems left on Earth’The development rights to an entire Indonesian archipelago with more than 100 tropical islands is set to be auctioned next week, sparking concerns for the environmental impact on what Sotheby’s described as “one of the most intact coral atoll ecosystems left on Earth”.The uninhabited Widi Reserve is based in a marine-protected zone in the “Coral Triangle” area of eastern Indonesia, and will go on sale via Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions in New York from 8-14 December. Continue reading...

Japan’s prime minister is pushing for as many as 17 nuclear reactors to be switched back on, more than a decade on from the meltdown at FukushimaLook carefully through the trees, and it is just possible to catch sight of Onagawa nuclear power plant from its visitors’ centre, perched on a hill surrounded by thick woods.The plant’s supporters may have had its remote location, on a rugged peninsula in Japan’s north-east, in mind when they campaigned to bring nuclear power – and the promise of subsidies – to the town more than 40 years ago. Continue reading...

As flood waters surge into South Australia, ecologists say locals should give fleeing snakes a wide berth

Move could help restore drying lake, a former resort destination that has deteriorated into an environmental crisis amid droughtThe US government said on Monday it will spend up to $250m over four years to help mitigate an environmental health disaster that has been brewing in California’s Salton Sea for nearly two decades.The inland lake, which is fed by agricultural runoff and wastewater, has slowly been shrinking, exposing a powdery shoreline laced with arsenic, selenium and DDT. Dust from the drying lake has wafted into surrounding communities, exacerbating pollution and consequently respiratory conditions in one of California’s poorest and most environmentally burdened regions. Continue reading...

Lava, volcanic gas and smog are the main hazards from eruption of the world’s largest active volcanoHawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, is erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years – causing spectacular scenes, casting an eerie red glow over the island and shooting lava up to 200ft (60 metres) in the air.Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984. Its smaller, more active neighbor, Kilauea volcano, has been erupting continuously for more than a year since September 2021. Continue reading...

The climate activists claim to have targeted 4x4 owners in eight European and US citiesGuerrilla climate activists Tyre Extinguishers have claimed their “largest ever night of action against SUVs”, with 900 of the vehicles targeted around the world.“Last night (the evening of Monday 28 November and early morning of Tuesday 29 November), citizens in eight countries deflated tyres on nearly 900 polluting SUVs,” the activist group said in a statement. Continue reading...