Advocates deride $224.5m funding pledge given one study suggests $2bn a year needed to recover 2,000 threatened plants, animals and ecological communities

Plastics campaigners call it ‘astounding’ that multinational they say is world’s top polluter has sponsored key UN climate meetingA sponsorship deal between this year’s UN climate conference and Coca-Cola, which has been described as the “world’s top polluter” by an environmental group, has been branded “greenwash” by campaigners.Cop27, to be held in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from 6-18 November, is the world’s primary forum for governments, businesses and environmental organisations to tackle the climate emergency. Continue reading...

Our cooks say you can use up that residual heat for baking, roasting, drying out bread and herbs, toasting nuts – or just to warm plates• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.comI don’t want to waste the residual heat from my cooling oven. What can I cook or bake in there?

British women beat 6,000 applicants to spend five months working on Goudier IslandIt was one of the strangest of job alerts: a call to run the world’s most remote, coldest post office – on an island with no permanent residents – and count penguins in almost continuous daylight.But bizarre or not, it struck a chord: 6,000 people applied for the four jobs on Goudier Island in Port Lockroy, and now the winners have been announced: a newlywed, who will leave her husband behind for what she is calling a “solo honeymoon” and three other British women, who are equally thrilled by the adventure ahead. Continue reading...

Several African leaders at last month’s UN general assembly left dismayed after their calls for action on the climate crisis were overshadowed by the Ukraine war. One was Kenya’s new president, who writes here about why priorities must changeThere is almost no facet of society that will be left untouched by the ravages of the climate crisis and how we respond to it. The crisis poses fundamental questions for the economy; it affects public health and jobs, and its threats range from food security to national security. That is why it will be among the central concerns of my government and why I believe any responsible world leader must make it a priority.Climate change drives the droughts that affect the provision of water; destroys lives and livelihoods; cripples food production, and destroys our homes and infrastructure. Extreme temperatures affect migration patterns and exacerbate conflicts as hundreds of thousands flee to seek alternative livelihoods for survival. Continue reading...

Renewables, decarbonisation, activism, cooperation … The challenge is immense, but the situation is far from hopeless

Study finds minority ethnic people make up nearly half of populations in areas with very high NO or PM2.5 levelsPeople of colour in England are more than three times more likely to live in neighbourhoods with very high air pollution, putting them at disproportionate risk of heart attacks, cancer and strokes, according to research.Minority ethnic people make up nearly half the populations living in areas where average levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO) or small particulate matter (PM2.5) were double World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, research based on official statistics showed. Continue reading...

‘Very significant’ weather systems to move across state this week, with warnings also for northern Victoria and southern Queensland, bureau says

Group will also develop more rental and resale options as it aims to be more sustainableJohn Lewis has pledged to have “buy back or take back” schemes operating in every product category by 2025 and to develop more rental and resale options as it steps up efforts to be a more sustainable business.The group, which runs Waitrose supermarkets as well as a string of department stores, will also invest £2m over the next five years to restore and protect nature in Norfolk, a key source of meat, cereal and vegetable products, and in India’s Noyyal and Bhavani river basins, where it sources cotton, under a partnership with the wildlife charity WWF. Continue reading...

Priority targeting includes many of Australia’s best-known native animals but will also help others in the same habitats, environment minister says

Speaking at a conference fringe event, business secretary dismisses those who oppose practice as ‘socialists’

Unusual diplomatic intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zeroThe Egyptian government, host of the next UN climate summit, has warned the UK against “backtracking from the global climate agenda”, in a significant intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero.The warning before the Cop27 conference, which will take place in just over a month in Sharm el-Sheikh, to the host of Cop26, which took place in Glasgow last November, is highly unusual in diplomatic terms. The hosts of successive Cops are responsible for a smooth handover of the talks. Continue reading...

Business efforts to get pro-fossil fuel material into classrooms experience opposition due to role in climate change

EU’s meteorological agency warns La Niña weather pattern makes cold, still and dry snap more likelyEurope is likely to experience a colder, drier and less windy early winter, according to forecasting models compiled by the EU’s meteorological agency, as the UK energy regulator warned there is a “significant risk” of gas shortages this winter.The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) cautions that predicting winter conditions are “notoriously difficult” in early October. But it says a cold, still and dry snap in November and December, which would worsen the cost of living crisis, is more likely, because of this year’s La Niña – a powerful weather pattern influenced by cooler temperatures in the Pacific. Continue reading...

Electricity-producing firms ask regulator to change rules that could penalise them if gas supplies run outGreat Britain’s energy regulator has warned there is a “significant risk” of gas shortages this winter, which could also hit electricity supplies.Ofgem’s head of wholesale market management, Grendon Thompson, said a gas supply emergency could impose “load shedding” on the largest consumers, forcing gas-fired power stations to close. Continue reading...

Documents show zones with ‘liberalised’ planning laws could get go-ahead even in the most environmentally protected areasInvestment zones with “liberalised” planning laws to accelerate development could be designated within national parks and in the most environmentally protected areas of the UK, government documents reveal.Details of the government’s new zones to increase housebuilding and commercial development reveal councils can apply for zones in national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, (AONBs) sites of special scientific interest, (SSSIs) and green belt land.A national park.An area of outstanding natural beauty.A site of special scientific interest, or equivalent designation.The buffer zone of a world heritage site.Designated green belt. Continue reading...

Activists from global south demand recompense for damage from countries most responsible for crisisYoung people from some of the countries most affected by climate breakdown have warned they are not victims but a force to be reckoned with in the run-up to a UN climate conference in Egypt.Led by climate groups across Africa and the Middle East, hundreds of activists from countries that are the least responsible for the crisis but are experiencing the worst impacts have gathered in Tunisia to prepare for what they say will be a collective fight for justice for their countries and communities, which they will take to Cop27 next month. Continue reading...

Oxfam research suggests up to 40% of bank’s reported climate-related spending cannot be accounted forThe World Bank has come under fire for failing to show that its claimed spending on the climate crisis is real, in a report suggesting up to 40% of its reported climate-related spending is impossible to account for.Of $17.2bn that the World Bank reported it spent on climate finance in 2020, up to $7bn cannot be independently verified, according to research by Oxfam. Continue reading...

Thames, Southern and nine other firms penalised after missing targets on pollutionThames Water, Southern Water and other companies will be forced to cut tens of millions of pounds from consumers’ bills after the regulator said they had missed pollution targets.Eleven water companies will have to return about £150m to customers in the form of lower bills in the 2023-24 financial year, the water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, announced on Monday. Continue reading...

Climate Change Committee chair says measures needed to cut energy bills will also help reach net zeroTackling the cost of living crisis requires insulating British homes as a matter of urgency and deploying renewable energy generation faster, the chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said.Lord Deben, a Conservative former environment secretary, said the measures needed to bring down energy bills were the same as those needed to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...

Economic analysis suggests any proposal to allow fracking in Queensland basin would not be commercially viable

Loss-making venture led by Amit Gudka eyes continent as countries move towards using renewable powerThe co-founder of collapsed energy supplier Bulb is planning to expand his loss-making battery storage venture into Europe as the energy crisis escalates.Amit Gudka hopes to develop Field Energy, the business he set up after leaving Bulb in February 2021, on the continent as countries attempt to switch toward renewable power. Continue reading...

Wildlife charities accused of trying to ‘upset people’ by urging members to condemn environment policiesTory MPs have criticised the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), accusing it of using claims of a government attack on nature as a “marketing strategy”.The bird charity, one of the UK’s oldest and most respected conservation organisations, has joined the country’s other largest environment NGOs, including the Wildlife Trusts and National Trust, to condemn mooted plans to create investment zones – which would weaken environment protections – and to get rid of the post-Brexit nature-friendly farming subsidy. Continue reading...

Farmers are increasingly being forced to sell off parts of herds and seeing cows perish as drought conditions worsen

Burgundy insect farm ramps up production to offer a meat-free futureIn a box-like building on an out-of-town industrial estate in Burgundy, trays of Alphitobius diaperinus – otherwise known as the lesser mealworm – are being fattened up by robots then cooked, dried and turned into protein-rich powder and oil.This is the headquarters of Ÿnsect a French company that is building the world’s largest insect farm, to open at the end of the year in preparation for what the French company believes will be a large increase in demand for a healthy alternative to meat. Continue reading...

Prime minister reportedly raised objections to him going during personal audience at Buckingham PalaceKing Charles III has reportedly abandoned plans to attend and deliver a speech at the Cop27 climate change summit on the advice of Liz Truss.The monarch, a veteran campaigner on environmental issues, had been invited to the 27th UN climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, next month. Continue reading...

Most now see opportunity instead of job losses – but Labor will have to match ambition with action if it’s to deliver on 80% renewables by 2035

Climate and cost of living campaigners converged in London protestsThousands of supporters of Just Stop Oil have blocked four bridges across the Thames.Protesters blocked Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge with sit-down protests after marching from 25 points around the centre of London. Continue reading...

Climate breakdown is far more intense in 2022 than even many scientists expected, yet the world still isn’t treating this like a crisisI became a climate activist 16 years ago. Back then, not many people cared about climate change. The eye rolls were audible. Media coverage was scarce, and what little there was glibly included “both sides”. It was frustrating and tragic to see such a clear and present danger and to know that it was still mostly avoidable, yet ignored by society.I assumed that intensifying, in-your-face climate disasters would serve as a sort of backstop to finally force action. I even hoped that humanity would listen to scientists and start acting before things got that bad. I didn’t think this was too much to expect; after all, the scientific fundamentals are easy enough to grasp.Peter Kalmus is a climate scientist and author of Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution Continue reading...

Hydroponics unit can produce saplings six times faster than it takes to grow them naturally outdoorsIt is a long way from the romance of a sun-dappled Highland glen. Picture instead a white cube equipped with the computer-controlled automation you would sooner expect to see in an Amazon or Ikea warehouse.Scotland’s state forestry agency believes this prefabricated structure, erected at an agricultural research centre near Dundee, could play a significant part in its quest to help combat climate heating by greatly expanding the country’s forest cover. Continue reading...

Ahead of the UN biodiversity conference, our reporter reflects on lessons of hope and change in three years reporting with the Guardian’s age of extinction teamSaying you’re a biodiversity reporter doesn’t mean much to a lot of people. “What do you actually write about?” they ask. And this is exactly why there should be more journalists on this beat. The nature crisis continues to fly under the radar.In 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there was a wave of enthusiasm about tackling the great environmental problems, and so governments set up three UN conventions to deal with climate change, biodiversity loss and desertification. Since then, the climate crisis has been treated as separate to the biodiversity crisis, yet there is huge overlap between the two. Continue reading...

African Parks, of which the prince is president, is one of three parties accused of rushing a mass translocation of the mammals

Exclusive: Revelation comes after agency’s chair told MPs in May the practice had only recently come to lightThe Environment Agency knew raw sewage was being illegally dumped into English rivers from wastewater treatment works a decade ago, a leaked report shows.However, the agency’s chief executive told MPs in May that the practice had only recently come to light. Continue reading...

Experts suggest maintenance robots may have planted bombs, as concern grows over methane buildupDenmark and Sweden have said leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”.The conclusions were made in a joint report by Denmark and Sweden which was delivered to the United Nations. The UN environment programme said on Friday the ruptures are likely to have led to the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded. Continue reading...

US researchers find human-induced global heating has increased intensity of downpours in powerful mega-stormHuman-induced climate change increased the extreme rainfall brought by Hurricane Ian, which has devastated parts of Florida, by more than 10%, according to a new preliminary analysis.Ian has caused widespread damage and at least 21 deaths since crunching into south-west Florida on Wednesday, tearing asunder cities such as Fort Myers and Cape Coral with winds that reached close to 150mph and a storm surge that in places reached 18ft. More than 2 million people have been left without power as the storm has rampaged across the state and moved northwards to the Carolinas. Continue reading...

In Harrogate, Green co-leaders pledge to target richest 1% and biggest polluters with ‘dirty profits’ taxThe Greens have kicked off their conference with a call for taxes on wealth and “dirty profits” to finance the transition to renewable energy – and a condemnation of Labour’s plans, unveiled last week, as woefully insufficient.At the gathering in Harrogate, days after a Labour conference based heavily around clean power initiatives, the Green party in England and Wales – the Scottish Greens are separate – repeatedly stressed policy differences not just over renewables but also areas such as support for strikers and public ownership. Continue reading...

Dozens arrested in operation as officials warn of resurgence in trafficking of endangered elversSpanish police have arrested 29 people after seizing 180kg of critically endangered young European eels with a value on the hidden market of €270,000 (£237,000).The Guardia Civil said the operation, in collaboration with Europol, had also led to 20 arrests elsewhere in Europe. Continue reading...

Public health experts worry rising grocery costs could increase the risk for diet-related diseases in the long runIn April, Kimberly Hart made a resolution to lose some weight on the advice of her doctor. Hart, who is 61 and lives in New Haven, Connecticut, has high blood pressure and cholesterol. These factors, combined with her age and weight, put her at an elevated risk for developing diabetes, and she wanted to do whatever she could to prevent that from happening.One element within her control, Hart thought at the time, was her diet. She started seeing a nutritionist, a cost covered by Medicaid, and eating more healthily. But it wasn’t long before her efforts clashed with the reality of rising grocery costs. Continue reading...

The city joins a growing number across the US in limiting the use of artificial turf made with dangerous PFAS compoundsBoston’s mayor, Michelle Wu, has ordered no new artificial turf to be installed in city parks, making Boston the largest municipality in a small but growing number around the nation to limit use of the product because it contains dangerous chemicals.All artificial turf is made with toxic PFAS compounds and some is still produced with ground-up tires that can contain heavy metals, benzene, VOCs and other carcinogens that can present a health threat. The material also emits high levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and sheds microplastics and other chemicals into waterways. Continue reading...

Agreement raises concerns transition to lower emissions energy sector will be harder and more expensive

New name Beowa means orca in Thaua language and comes after consultation with Aboriginal and South Sea Islander communities

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including an injured pangolin, a trapped dragonfly and a sneaky pig

Cairngorms national park drawing up plans as RSPB says latest survey shows population at critical level of 540An emergency plan is being drawn up to save the capercaillie, one of the UK’s most elusive and threatened woodland birds, after its numbers plunged.The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the latest population survey found its estimated population had fallen from roughly 1,114 in 2015/16 to about 542 birds last winter, putting it at a critically low level. Continue reading...

YouGov survey for major charities finds 81% believe wildlife and environment are under threatA majority of the public believe nature is under threat and needs urgent action to protect and restore it, according to a YouGov poll.The poll for the National Trust, RSPB and WWF comes as they and other mainstream green groups are mobilising their millions of members to counter what they say is the government’s attack on nature. Continue reading...

In Surrey, the cost of living crisis could push voters away from the Conservatives and towards a progressive alliance

National Parks and Wildlife Service says threat ‘should be condemned by all Australians’

State officials accused of violating civil rights, which resulted in ‘persistently unsafe and unreliable drinking water’ for residentsThe NAACP filed a federal complaint on Tuesday accusing Mississippi state officials of violating civil rights law by repeatedly diverting federal funds meant for ensuring safe drinking water away from the state’s predominantly Black capital, Jackson, to smaller, white communities.Their conduct amounted to racial discrimination and a devastating loss of access to drinking water for more than a month for residents in Jackson, where more than 80% of residents are Black and a quarter are in poverty. Continue reading...

Scientists ‘shocked’ by rate of change as rapid sea-ice melt drives absorption of CO2 – with ‘huge implications’ for Arctic sea lifeAcidification of the western Arctic Ocean is happening three to four times faster than in other ocean basins, a new study has found.The ocean, which absorbs a third of all of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, has grown more acidic because of fossil fuel use. Rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic region over the past three decades has accelerated the rate of long-term acidification, according to the study, published in Science on Thursday. Continue reading...

With rising seas expected to submerge the nation by 2100, official says ‘we should always be able to remember Tuvalu as it is, before it disappears’

Planting trees, rainwater gardens and de-paving can mitigate effects of climate crisis, according to analysis of 2,000 citiesUrban greening initiatives such as planting street trees, rainwater gardens and de-paving can help mitigate the impacts of urban heating due to the climate crisis and urban expansion, according to a study that has found cities have been warming by 0.5C a decade on average.Scientists at Nanjing and Yale Universities analysed satellite data from across 2,000 cities and compared surface temperature readings between cities and rural areas from 2002 to 2021. Continue reading...