Corporate bonds intended to inject liquidity into markets profited companies engaged in deforestationSome of the world’s biggest central banks are unwittingly helping to finance agri-business giants engaged in the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon, according to a report published on Wednesday.The Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are among the institutions that have bought millions of dollars in bonds issued by companies linked to deforestation and land-grabbing, according to the report Bankrolling Destruction, published by the rights group Global Witness. Continue reading...

Unlike most of the media, the Guardian resists political or commercial influence in order to keep the climate crisis front and centre

While there are questions about the pace of Labour’s proposals, criticism in rightwing newspapers is bizarrely wide of the markLabour’s ambitious plan for zero-carbon power by 2030 raises legitimate questions – which we’ll come to shortly – but the commentary in rightwing newspapers is bizarrely wide of the mark.Perhaps the strangest was a Daily Telegraph editorial that claimed Labour’s plan “would make the country more dependent on imported gas, not less”. As should be obvious, the opposite is true. Continue reading...

We paid a deposit for solar panels with Green Energy Together but all we’ve got is scaffoldingWe had solar panels fitted in 2019 as part of the Solar Together initiative, and this year wanted to add to them. We chose Green Energy Together as it had done Solar Together projects with our council. We paid a £1,340 deposit. There was then a rather odd silence, but finally scaffolding and two installers appeared. The installers hadn’t been told the panels had to be fitted in addition to those already there, so the kit they had brought was inappropriate. Since then, in spite of daily phone calls and promises from the company that someone would ring back, nothing has happened.We eventually cancelled our order by phone and email, and asked for the return of our deposit and the removal of the scaffolding. Again, there has been silence, even from the company director we emailed directly. We are concerned that this company has over-reached itself while holding on to our money (and that of a lot of other people, if Trustpilot is to be believed). We are also concerned that the scaffolding is still on our house and is a security risk. Continue reading...

Annastacia Palaszczuk says state is facing a ‘climate emergency’ while unveiling $62bn energy plan

There are many reasons to suggest a deal to save the natural world is possible in Montreal, if division can be overcome and the Brazilian president doesn’t cause problemsWe are at the beginning of a busy end to the year. The summer holidays are over in the northern hemisphere, the world economy is creaking into recession, war is raging in Ukraine and there is the small matter of the most important biodiversity conference in more than a decade: Cop15.Money will ultimately decide the fate of the summit and the ambition of the final text in Montreal this December, as will the mood after the climate Cop27, which ends two weeks earlier.In a series of dispatches ahead of the Cop15 UN biodiversity conference in Montreal in December, we will be hearing from a secret negotiator who is from a developing country involved in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework negotiations. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Birkbeck, University of London, is first institution to blacklist firms ‘most responsible for destroying the planet’Fossil fuel companies have been banned from recruiting students through a university careers service for the first time. The new policy from Birkbeck, University of London, states its careers service “will not hold relationships of any kind with oil, gas or mining companies”.The decision follows a campaign, supported by the student-led group People & Planet, to cut off recruitment pathways to fossil fuel companies. The campaign is now active in dozens of UK universities. Continue reading...

State of the World’s Birds report warns human actions and climate crisis putting 49% in decline, with one in eight bird species under threat of extinctionNearly half of the planet’s bird species are in decline, according to a definitive report that paints the grimmest picture yet of the destruction of avian life.The State of the World’s Birds report, which is released every four years by BirdLife International, shows that the expansion and intensification of agriculture is putting pressure on 73% of species. Logging, invasive species, exploitation of natural resources and climate breakdown are the other main threats. Continue reading...

Both parties opposed the measure on energy permits, which critics said would gut environmental protectionsThe US Senate has voted to advance a funding bill to avert a federal government shutdown, after a tense standoff over a controversial energy-permitting provision proposed by the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin ended with its withdrawal.A procedural vote on Tuesday to move forward with the funding bill succeeded easily, 72-23, after Democrats announced that the West Virginia senator’s proposal, which faced opposition from both parties, would be stripped from the final legislation. It was clear that, with Manchin’s plan included, Democrats were falling far short of the 60 votes needed to proceed, as most Republicans objected to it. Continue reading...

Ursula Von der Leyen warns of ‘strongest possible response’ to attacks on European energy infrastructureSabotage is the most likely cause of leaks in two Baltic Sea gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, European leaders have said, after seismologists reported explosions around the Nord Stream pipelines.A seismograph on the Danish island of Bornholm, near where the leaks occurred, twice recorded spikes on Monday, the day on which the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines underwent dramatic falls in pressure, the German geological research centre GFZ said. Continue reading...

Two nuclear plants’ lives extended as country copes with loss of Russian gas and shortage of French electricityGermany’s planned exit from nuclear power by the end of this year has been officially delayed in order to shore up energy supplies during an expected shortfall this winter, the economic minister, Robert Habeck, announced on Tuesday.The decision follows a shortage in supplies of electricity coming from France due to the fact that more than half of its nuclear power stations are offline, Habeck told journalists in Berlin. Continue reading...

Latest updates: the Labour party leader used his conference speech to spell out his plan for the UK. This blog is now closed

The details behind Keir Starmer’s proposed publicly owned energy company when Labour take powerThe key pledge of Keir Starmer’s Labour conference speech was the proposed launch of Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company to invest in clean UK power as part of the party’s commitment to “fight the Tories on economic growth”. But how does it work, and is it the same as renationalising energy? Continue reading...

Investor Group on Climate Change says clear price on carbon needed and removal of all fossil fuel subsidies by 2050

Task Force Hawk formed to address issues raised in an independent inquiry into floods earlier this year

Too many technical difficulties to overcome to make it a viable low-carbon heating fuel, say researchersHydrogen is unsuitable for use in home heating, and likely to remain so, despite the hopes of the UK government and plumbing industry, a comprehensive review of scientific papers has concluded.Hydrogen lobbyists are out in force at the Labour party conference this week, sponsoring several events in Liverpool, and will be plentiful at the Conservative party conference that begins this weekend. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer used his speech on the third day of the Labour conference in Liverpool to outline the party's plans for clean power in the UK. He said that within a year of being elected, Labour would set up Great British Energy, a new publicly owned company that would supply the UK with clean power.The Labour leader said it was time for the party to start a new chapter 'about how we build a fairer, greener, more dynamic Britain by tackling the climate emergency head on, and using it to create the jobs, the industries and the opportunities of the future'

Producers warn that unless crabs are curbed, mussel production in Normandy and Brittany may end within a decadeFrench mussel farmers have said voracious spider crabs that have infested the country’s western coast are destroying their shellfish and livelihoods as warming seas allow the migratory animals to spend more of the year offshore.Angry producers in Normandy and Brittany are demanding to be allowed to control crab numbers by killing them or using dredging nets to drag those ravaging their mussel “parks” further out to sea. Continue reading...

Activists interrupt party conference debate to criticise company’s wood-burning biomass operationsAn environmental campaigner has been ejected from an event sponsored by the power station operator Drax at the Labour party conference after criticising the company’s use of biomass.The owner of the North Yorkshire power station sponsored a debate on Tuesday on Britain’s net zero climate goals on the fringes of the political party’s conference in Liverpool. The company’s group director of corporate affairs, Clare Harbord, was on the panel. Continue reading...

UK government criticised for reviewing plan to pay farmers for environmental protectionOne of Liz Truss’s favourite rightwing thinktanks has criticised the government for considering ditching a much-vaunted new funding structure for farmers, calling the existing subsidy system “a massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to landowners”.Truss has announced plans to review the environmental land management scheme (Elms), where farmers would be paid for environmental protection, in order, potentially, to go back to largely area-based payments. The plans were criticised as being “deeply economically inefficient” and for encouraging “laziness” by the Institute of Economic Affairs. Continue reading...

Zoologists say they have never seen this low a number, after unprecedented hot weatherAs dewy dawns break across the UK’s pumpkin patches and allotments, gardeners across the land are waking up to the absence of at least one slippery pest. Slug numbers appear to have shrivelled as a result of the ongoing drought.“I went to survey a woodland site last week and it took me over 30 minutes to locate a slug. Usually, I would expect to find them under almost every log in that habitat,” said Jake Stone, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge. “I thought that there would be fewer around, but I’ve never seen this low a number. But I suppose that’s to be expected, because it’s rarely been this hot and dry.” Continue reading...

Matt Wrack of Fire Brigades Union says ‘historic cuts’ have angered and demoralised his membersA “horrible complacency” about the impact of the climate emergency on the fire service has left it under-funded and ill-prepared, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union has warned.Matt Wrack said firefighters were at the sharp end of tackling the impact of climate change and warned that this summer’s wildfires had to act as a “wake-up call” to the UK government to engage with those on the frontline. Continue reading...

Exclusive: report on species recovery shows how effective legal protection, habitat restoration and reintroductions can be• Back from the brink: how bison, bears and beavers returned to EuropeWolves, brown bears and white-tailed eagles are among the top predators making a comeback across Europe, according to a major report that looks at how some wildlife is rebounding.Researchers analysed data on 50 wildlife species whose population size and geographical distribution have expanded over the past 40 years to show how effective legal protection, habitat restoration and reintroductions can drive species recovery. Continue reading...

More than 24,000km of pipelines planned around world, showing ‘an almost deliberate failure to meet climate goals’More than 24,000km of new oil pipelines are under development around the world, a distance equivalent to almost twice the Earth’s diameter, a report has revealed. The projects, led by the US, Russia, China and India, are “dramatically at odds with plans to limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C”, the researchers said.The oil pumped through the pipelines would produce at least 5bn tonnes of CO a year if completed, equivalent to the emissions of the US, the world’s second largest polluter. About 40% of the pipelines are already under construction, with the rest in planning. Global carbon emissions must drop by 50% by 2030 to keep on track with internationally agreed targets for limiting global heating. Continue reading...

After centuries of hunting and habitat loss, wolves, whales, elk and other key species have made a comeback across the continent, a new report says• Wildlife making ‘exciting’ comeback in EuropeTop predators are making a comeback across Europe, according to a new report compiled by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council for Rewilding Europe. These are some of the top species making an “exciting” recovery: Continue reading...

Farm just minutes from centre of Wellington estimates it has lost about 60 kid goats in past few monthsMarauding feral pigs have blighted a central suburb in New Zealand’s capital, killing kid goats at an urban farm, intimidating dogs and turning up in residents’ gardens.The owners of a goat milk farm in the hills of the suburb of Brooklyn, 10 minutes from the centre of Wellington, has lost about 60 kid goats to pigs in the past few months. Often, all that is left of them are gnawed bone fragments and parts of the hooves or head. Continue reading...

Though they are the most well known, magpies are not the only Australian swoopers

German authorities have ‘no clarity’ as they try to establish if Russian-owned undersea gas line has leakAuthorities in Germany are trying to establish what caused a sudden drop in pressure in the defunct Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with a spokesperson for its operator saying it could have been caused by a leak.The pipeline has been one of the flashpoints in an escalating energy war between Europe and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that has pummelled western economies and sent gas prices soaring. Continue reading...

Finance minister says energy price rises to be capped at 15% as he outlines key elements of budget billThe French government plans to spend €45bn shielding households and businesses from energy price shocks in a budget focused on bringing down inflation.The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said the increase in the cost of gas and electricity would be capped at 15% from January. Gas and electricity price rises are currently capped at 4% until the end of the year in what is known as the bouclier tarifaire (tariff shield). Continue reading...

Prominent members of farmers’ union express dismay after comments by Minette BattersFarmers are threatening to quit the National Farmers’ Union after its leader said she supported the UK government’s apparent move to scrap post-Brexit nature subsidies.This weekend, the Observer revealed that the government was poised to abandon the “Brexit bonus”, which would have paid farmers and landowners to enhance nature, in what wildlife groups have described as an “all-out attack” on the environment. Continue reading...

Nature protection rules in proposed investment zones would in effect be suspendedThere was little room for doubt about the reaction to the prime minister’s plans to scrap environmental regulations this weekend. “Make no mistake, we are angry. This government has today launched an attack on nature,” tweeted the RSPB, its most forceful political intervention in recent memory.Liz Truss’s proposals to create investment zones, where green rules on nature protection would in effect be suspended, represented a step too far for some of Britain’s biggest environment charities. “As of today, from Cornwall to Cumbria, Norfolk to Nottingham, wildlife is facing one of the greatest threats it’s faced in decades,” the RSPB went on. Continue reading...

Exclusive: major supplier to brands including KFC and Nando’s used offshore companies allowing them to reduce UK tax payments, investigation suggestsThe global megacompanies supplying some of Britain’s most popular meat brands, including KFC, Nando’s chicken and Sainsbury’s organic range, appear to have been using offshore companies that allow them to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax in the UK.An investigation by the Guardian and Lighthouse Reports has found that two companies – Anglo Beef Processors UK and Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (owned by Brazilian beef giant JBS) – appear to have reduced their tax bill by structuring their companies and loans in a way that allows them to take advantage of different tax systems, in what one expert has described as “aggressive tax avoidance”. Continue reading...

Parents, teachers and anti-hunger advocates hail new free-meal system, saying it improves academic performance and wellbeingBefore California became the first state to implement a universal meals program for its 6.2 million public school students, Alyssa Wells would keep granola bars in her classroom for students who complained of being hungry.When the new program began in August at Foussat elementary school in Oceanside, California, which is primarily attended by Latino students from low-income families, the teacher noticed immediate changes in her students. “The kids are eating way more and they’re more focused, eager to learn and they’re just happier,” she said. “They’ve got one less thing to worry about.” Continue reading...

Movement aims to make the mass damage and destruction of ecosystems a prosecutable, international crime against peaceCalifornia winemaker Julia Jackson has long grasped the threats posed by the ongoing global climate change crisis, from more intense wildfires and hurricanes to rising sea levels. But for her, those ideas crossed over from the abstract to the tangible when her home was razed by the Kincade wildfire that devastated her native Sonoma county in 2019.“I lost everything – all my belongings,” Jackson said. “It shook me to my core.” Continue reading...

The power station has paid out millions over alleged overpollution in US south, investigation findsThe UK government has been accused of funding environmental racism by giving £2m a day in subsidies to an energy company that has paid out millions over claims it breached pollution limits in the US south.An investigation by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative unit, found Drax Biomass paid millions of dollars to US regulators over claims it exceeded limits on chemicals emissions at wood chip plants close to black and low-income communities.Sam Quashie-Idun is a journalist with Unearthed. Continue reading...

The deaths within days of 11 sturgeon, a species unchanged for thousands of years, have puzzled scientistsWhen the first spindly, armour-clad carcass was spotted in the fast-flowing Nechako River in early September, Nikolaus Gantner and two colleagues scrambled out on a jet boat, braving strong currents to investigate the grim discovery.Days later, the remains of 10 others were spotted floating along a 100km stretch of the river in western Canada. Continue reading...

Government says the 150-turbine windfarm could generate enough electricity to power 230,000 homes

Using hydrogen would add about 70% to home energy bills, according to a report by a renewable energy charity

Latest updates: all the developments from UK politics as the Labour party conference starts in LiverpoolQ: Does Labour support cutting the 45% top rate of income tax?Miliband says that cutting the 45% rate is the wrong thing to do.We’re going to be consistent in our election manifesto with our opposition to the 45p tax cut. We think it is the wrong thing to do for the country.No, we don’t think that should be reversed. Remember, we are talking about this basic rate cut. People start paying that at £12,500. Continue reading...

From the time it was created, the mechanism has been subject to obfuscation. Labor is about to try and make it work, but it won’t be smooth sailing

Experts say ditching concrete and creating mini wetlands could help water systems cope better with effects of extreme weatherThis year has seen one of the driest summers on record, with most of the country still officially in drought. Millions of people in England are under hosepipe bans because of water shortages, and reservoir and river levels remain low.The solution to this? People should flood their gardens and create bogs in order to stop the effects of drought and reverse biodiversity loss, according to the head of Natural England. Continue reading...

From fracking to bankers’ bonuses, we know where this government’s interests lie. It must be stopped

Wildlife groups concerned by apparent plans to loosen protections in 38 ‘investment zones’

David Malpass apologises after saying he ‘doesn’t know’ if he accepts climate scienceDavid Malpass, president of the World Bank, faces an uncertain future this week, after the White House joined a chorus of influential figures in condemning his apparent climate denialism.Malpass remains in post for now but under severe pressure, despite issuing an apology and trying to explain his refusal last week to publicly acknowledge the human role in the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Assistant treasurer says Labor can’t keep the fuel relief going, despite cost-of-living pressures. This blog is now closed

Warren and Wee Waa, in state’s north, expected to be inaccessible by road for days to comeThe ongoing flood emergency in New South Wales is expected to continue due to a new trough forecast to bring further wet weather across the state from Monday.The towns of Warren and Wee Waa, in the state’s north, are cut off by road and expected to remain that way for days. Emergency services are using aircraft to delivery water, medicine, food and other supplies to residents.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

Ian Gowrie-Smith says he was frustrated the Australian government did not respond to urgent funding request for turtle conservation

Labour pledges a revolution in green energy to ‘boost jobs and slash emissions’

World’s desire to wean off over-reliance on China could be a boon for local producers, according to the Australian PV Institute

RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and National Trust criticise plans to create 38 ‘investment zones’ across EnglandThe government has been accused of launching an “attack on nature” with its mini-budget, which conservationists warn could roll back environmental rules.Groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust have criticised plans, announced on Friday, to create 38 “investment zones” across England. Continue reading...