Our reporters give you the inside story on what’s happening at the biodiversity summit in MontrealFriday, 16 December• As the flocons fell on Montreal, two officers of the SPVM, the city police, were busy making a miniature snowman outside the Palais des congrès security barricade, using twigs for arms. A few others amused themselves poking gentle Quebecois fun at some of the out-of-country delegates arriving in inappropriate footwear. As they say, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just breathable trainers. Continue reading...

Despite backing calls to protect 30% of world’s land and sea by 2030, UK has no such target in its own plansThe UK’s environment targets are a missed opportunity to protect Britain’s rainforests, cold water coral reefs, chalk streams and peat bogs, environmentalists have said, amid accusations of hypocrisy over the government’s position at Cop15.On Friday, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, announced the government’s legally binding targets at the UN summit in Montreal, where the world is negotiating this decade’s agreement to protect biodiversity on Earth, with talks expected to conclude on Monday. Continue reading...

Their sit-down protests caused chaos on roads and made them a target for tabloid ire and drivers’ fury. Then an energy crisis hit – and now the government is playing catchup as we shiver in our draughty homesShortly before 8am on 13 September 2021, 92 people gathered in small groups at five junctions along the M25, the busy motorway that encircles most of Greater London. It was a warm day and adrenaline ran high.Cameron Ford, a 31-year-old carpenter, was at junction 3, in Kent. The protesters gathered at the side of the road and prepared for the crucial moment. They did a group meditation on a grassy layby, rush-hour traffic roaring in the background. Louise Lancaster, a 56-year-old teacher with sharp blue eyes, was at junction 31, in Essex. They had amassed in a car park, and everyone took turns running into a nearby shopping centre to use the toilet. David Nixon, a 36-year-old care worker from Yorkshire, had woken early that morning feeling sick. As the group huddled together at junction 14, in Surrey, he found himself completely overwhelmed. Continue reading...

Enshrining the curriculum in law insulates the subject from budget cuts and culture wars related to the climate crisisStarting next July, Connecticut will become one of the first states in America to mandate climate change studies across its public schools as part of its science curriculum.The new law passed earlier this year comes as part of the state’s attempts to address concerns over the short duration – and in some cases, absence – of climate change studies in classrooms. The requirement follows in the footsteps of New Jersey, which in 2020 became the first state to mandate K-12 climate change education across its school districts. Continue reading...

Energy minister Chris Bowen says the batteries – shared between four states – will increase capacity tenfold to help stabilise the grid

Modelling shows that if we continue on current trajectory, global heating will drive a cascade of extinctions in plants and animalsEarth could lose more than a tenth of its plant and animal species by the end of the century on current trends, according to new research which comes as nearly 3,000 scientists call for action from governments to stop the destruction of nature in the final days of negotiations at Cop15.The climate crisis will drive an accelerating cascade of extinctions in the coming decades, as predators lose their prey, parasites lose their hosts, and temperature rises fracture Earth’s web of life, according to the researchers, who warn of the risk of co-extinctions in a paper published on Friday in Science Advances. Continue reading...

Environment secretary disappoints campaigners by failing to set overall targets for river health and protected habitatsThe UK government has undermined talks at the Cop15 biodiversity conference by failing to set targets for water quality or habitat protections in England, campaigners have said.Environmental experts have been disappointed by the delayed legally binding targets mandated by the 2021 Environment Act, which were released on Friday, six weeks after the deadline. Continue reading...

Research suggests climate crisis may contribute to increased gun violence by pushing temperatures beyond normal rangesAlmost 8,000 shootings in US cities in recent years were attributable to unseasonably warm temperatures, according to a new study. The researchers said the work suggested the climate crisis could be contributing to increased gun violence by pushing temperatures beyond the normal ranges.Shootings were already known to peak in summer, when people are outside more and when heat can increase aggression. But the new research took account of the season and showed that above average temperatures at any time of year increased the risk of shootings. Continue reading...

In the past 12 months I have learned that the mass extermination of the Amazon is a climate catastrophe – and much moreI thought it was a blood moon at first. The dark orange glow appeared at dusk on the far side of the shimmering silver band that is the Xingu River. It was just before 8pm, after the parrots had squawked back to their nests and the insects and frogs were noisily starting the forest nightshift. A flash of lightning from a cloud appeared above almost the same location but the rest of the sky was clear. How could there be a storm? I peered more intently and took a photograph that I could magnify. And there was the answer – a fire, which grew fiercer as I watched, the flames spreading sideways and upwards, flickering red and yellow, billowing smoke into the sky, sparking flashes of lightning every couple of minutes.I felt sick to the stomach. The Amazon rainforest was being destroyed in front of my eyes. I have been writing about the climate crisis for 16 years, always with a sense of horror but until now, mostly with a sense of distance. This was the first time I had seen it from my home, and it was stranger than I expected. I had not realised until that moment that fire can create its own lightning storms, by creating pyrocumulonimbus, which scientists describe as “the fire-breathing dragon of clouds”. Continue reading...

Two people injured by broken glass as 1m litres of water pour out of 14-metre-high tankA freestanding cylindrical aquarium housing about 1,500 exotic fish burst in Berlin on Friday morning, causing a wave of devastation in and around the tourist attraction.Glass, chairs, tables and other debris were swept out of the DomAquarée complex, which includes a Radisson hotel, a museum, shops and restaurants, as 1m litres of water poured out of the 14-metre-high (46ft) tank shortly before 6am. Continue reading...

Decimated by relentless drought, the population of the common Australian insect is recovering but remains fragile

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including hungry puppies, a snow leopard and migratory birds Continue reading...

With only two instances of the word ‘ocean’ in the latest 5,000-word working agreement, delegates fear marine biodiversity is being sacrificedThe ocean may cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and contain much of its animal life, but you might not get that impression from the UN discussions in Montreal to save global biodiversity, with some delegates fearing marine protections could be severely watered down or dropped entirely.Although overfishing, global heating and acidification are considered an existential risk to what has been called “the lungs of the planet”, so far there are only two mentions of the word “ocean” in the latest 10-page, 5,000-word working agreement at Cop15 –let alone specific demands to curtail fishing, protect coral reefs or stop deep-sea mining. Continue reading...

The Bronx River Foodway, the only legal place to forage in New York, celebrates the end of a seasonOn a crisp November day in the South Bronx, more than 300 people made their way from Westchester Avenue below the clamor of the 6 train down a tree-lined path leading to Concrete Plant park. This is the home of the Bronx River Foodway, a quarter-acre food forest full of edible, mostly native plants. What looks like a stretch of land dotted with trees appears at first glance to be overrun by weeds, but the wild foliage has been intentionally planted by the Foodway. It is the only legal foraging site in New York City.Neighbors young and old poured on to the grassy banks of the Bronx River to celebrate the end of the season and the foliage of the Bronx, including an array of snacks made from foraged ingredients: ginkgo cheese and acorn crackers, and pickled mushrooms and herbal ales made at recent four-part cooking series put on by the Foodway over the last two months. Continue reading...

Labor revokes Abbott government move which allowed energy from burning wood waste to be counted with solar and wind

Conservationists say amount is ‘nothing like what’s needed’ to achieve 30x30 target and address nature crisisThe UK has announced it will give nearly £30m to support developing countries in delivering the target to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030, an amount conservationists criticised as being “nothing like what’s needed”.The announcement was made on Thursday as the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, started international negotiations at Cop15 in Montreal. The £29m pledge – £24m of which is new money – is being allocated to support developing countries in delivering the 30x30 target, which is a negotiating priority for the UK at the UN summit. Continue reading...

Brazil’s incoming president adds voice to demand as Montreal talks restart after series of walkoutsBrazil’s incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has backed calls for rich nations to provide more money to protect Earth’s ecosystems at Cop15 as talks restarted in Montreal after a series of walkouts.More than 100 environment ministers have arrived at the biodiversity summit in Canada before a weekend of intense negotiations on this decade’s UN targets to protect the natural world. Continue reading...

US star, who was also in Succession, urged leaders at biodiversity conference to take more forceful action to end nature crisisThe US actor James Cromwell revisited his old role in Jurassic Park with a modern twist in a protest against inaction on the nature crisis. He urged leaders at Cop15 to “Stop the Human Asteroid” as he stood in front of a model dinosaur surrounded by pictures of world leaders’ heads as bits of rock flying into Earth.The 82-year-old actor – known for his roles as Ewan Logan in Succession and the farmer in Babe – staged the protest near the Cop15 convention centre in Montreal, where more than 10,000 people have gathered to create the next decade of targets to bend the curve on biodiversity loss. He told the Guardian: “With all the history of the Cops, we have achieved nothing, absolutely nothing, and they know that. I don’t know how they look at themselves in the mirror in the morning.” Continue reading...

Eladio Fernandez was rewarded after an arduous hike up a Haitian mountain, following in the footsteps of the Swedish botanist who last saw the fragrant flower in 1925“Imagine the privilege of smelling a wonderful perfume that no one else alive on Earth has smelled before,” says the conservation photographer Eladio Fernandez. This year, Fernandez had that pleasure. After a challenging search in the cloud forests of northern Haiti, he located several Magnolia emarginata, a critically endangered tree with white flowers that hadn’t been seen (or smelled) for almost a century.“Magnolia have two attractive characteristics: their beautiful white flowers and their unique fragrance,” he says. Continue reading...

Regenerative gardening predicted to take off next year as people future-proof spaces for extreme climateSeaweed compost supplements and “manure” made of beans will be among the top garden trends of 2023, the Royal Horticultural Society has predicted.As regenerative gardening becomes fashionable, experts in the horticulture charity’s gardens have been demonstrating how to tend beautiful plants in a more eco-friendly way, protecting the soil rather than extracting from it. Continue reading...

The efforts, including restoring grassland in the Georgian steppe, will work in cooperation with local communities to repair biodiversity hotspotsFrom the wilderness of the Finnish boreal forest to the busy Solent estuary, seven landscape restoration projects across Europe have been boosted by more than $26m (£21m) from the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP).The projects cover an area 18 times the size of Greater London and include returning nature to the Iberian Highlands, restoring grassland in the Georgian steppe, and replacing coniferous plantations with natural riverine and deciduous forests in the Rhodope mountains in south-east Bulgaria. Continue reading...

Scientists behind car number plate study say ‘potentially catastrophic’ decline must be reversedThe number of insects splattered on vehicle number plates in Britain fell by 64% between 2004 and 2022, according to a survey.Each summer citizen scientists record the number of insect splats on their number plates on an app after a journey. The latest Bugs Matter report, produced by Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife, found another drop in 2022 compared with 2021, with the long-term decrease jumping by five percentage points. Continue reading...

More than a million acres of state forest contain trees that have succumbed to stressors exacerbated by a multi-year droughtScientists have discovered a record number of dead fir trees in Oregon, in a foreboding sign of how drought and the climate crisis are ravaging the American west.A recent aerial survey found that more than a million acres of forest contain trees that have succumbed to stressors exacerbated by a multi-year drought. Images released by the US Forest Service show Oregon’s lush green expanses dotted with ominous swathes of red. Continue reading...

Report by Australia Institute finds a windfall profits tax could collect almost all this money for public use

Wildlife experts assessed the big cat’s health and said he will not be released back into the wild, with euthanization also an optionThe famous Hollywood-roaming mountain lion known as P-22 is drastically underweight and was probably struck and injured by a car, wildlife experts who conducted a health examination on the big cat said on Tuesday.The male cougar, whose killing of a leashed dog has raised concerns about its behavior, probably will not be released back into the wild and could be sent to an animal sanctuary or euthanized, depending on its health, the California department of fish and wildlife said. Continue reading...

Anton van der Merwe on the relative risks of coal-fired power stations and nuclear ones, and Alan Robertshaw on the local fuel used in his stoveYour article on the harmful effects of burning wood (‘Eco’ wood burners produce 450 times more pollution than gas heating – report, 8 December) highlights a broader problem with risk management in public health. Very different values are placed on human life, depending on the specific risk.The level of air pollutants considered acceptable by the World Health Organization is already dangerous, increasing mortality by 2%. In contrast, the level of radioactivity considered acceptable is 100-500 times below levels that cause a similar increase in mortality. What this means is that a life lost to air pollution is valued 100- to 500-fold lower than a life lost to exposure to radioactivity. Continue reading...

Furuviksparken zoo said the animals ‘tragically’ had to be put down because of the danger to the publicThree chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure in a Swedish zoo for several hours before being shot dead, according to Swedish media, while a fourth was wounded and a fifth was believed to have returned unharmed to the zoo of its own accord.“They are very strong animals and absolutely not domesticated,” Daniel Wikdahl, a police spokesman, told the public broadcaster SVT on Wednesday, adding that it had been the zoo’s decision to shoot the four because of the danger to the public. Continue reading...

Delegates from developing nations leave discussions as divisions grow over who should pay to protect biodiversityDivisions between developed and developing nations over who should pay to protect Earth’s ecosystems are threatening to derail a UN biodiversity summit after a group of developing countries walked out of discussions overnight.In echoes of last month’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt – where countries agreed to create a new fund to compensate loss and damage from global heating in vulnerable nations – countries from the global south left Cop15 talks on Wednesday due to disagreements over finance. Continue reading...

National Grid push to use devices such as washing machines and dryers at low-demand periods ‘paying dividends’Britons have saved almost £3m by using tumble dryers and other power-hungry devices at quieter times, under a scheme that aims to reduce the strain on electricity networks, National Grid has said.The electricity system operator (ESO) launched an initiative last month to incentivise consumers and businesses to reduce their energy use, by running appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers before or after particular designated periods when demand was expected to be heavy. Continue reading...

In Montreal, progress on biodiversity issues has been slow. We cannot go on like thisEven by the glacial standards of UN biodiversity negotiations, Cop15 has been slow. We have been in Montreal for more than a week and I am flabbergasted at the lack of progress, especially after how important several world leaders said the summit would be.There is still time to turn it around. But there is no political urgency behind the biodiversity crisis or any desire for transformative change, as far as I can tell. Greta Thunberg’s “blah, blah, blah” criticism of government negotiations on the environment is proving right as things stand, unfortunately. Continue reading...

National park argues attempt by landowner to stop people sleeping overnight could restrict other ‘sedentary pursuits’Banning wild camping on Dartmoor could also end up affecting birdwatching and rock climbing, lawyers for the national park have said, as a landowner tries to stop people sleeping overnight in the park.The judge hearing the case, Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the high court, has said he will give a judgment on the case early next year. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: US scientists this week announced progress on a potentially revolutionary source of renewable energy. But there’s still a way to go

Next year’s federal budget will include measures targeted at low-income households to improve energy efficiency

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...