Environment | The Guardian

Arizona senator – who once led the state Green party – has refused to specify which parts of the $3.5tn budget bill she objects toWildfires, deadly heat, drought and flooding show how climate change has “already arrived” in Arizona and action is desperately needed, according to climate and progressive advocates who helped elect Kyrsten Sinema to represent the state in the Senate.Many of them are wondering why their senator seems to have “turned her back” on her background in environmental politics and is now blocking Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar legislation to address climate change. Continue reading...

Water sources used by millions of humans as well as wildlife poisoned with ‘forever chemicals’Last year, residents in Campbell, Wisconsin, a four-square-mile island city in the Mississippi River, learned disturbing news: toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” used in firefighting foam at a neighboring airport had probably been contaminating their private wells for decades.As state and local leaders search for a solution, residents now use bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth. Yet the situation represents more than an enormous inconvenience. Some strongly suspect that the seemingly high rate of cancer, Crohn’s disease and other serious ailments that have plagued the island’s residents stem from the dangerous chemicals. Continue reading...

Professional and environment groups tell parliamentary hearing scheme needs reform to manage conflicts of interestEnvironmental offset policies are failing to halt the decline of wildlife and certain habitats should now be off limits to development, a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry has heard.MPs have also been told the NSW government needs to reform a scheme that allows for the financial trade of environmental offset credits on private land so that there are clear rules for managing conflicts of interest and the potential for insider trading, after revelations in a Guardian Australia investigation. Continue reading...

Abandoning of polluting vehicles has accelerated since expansion of ultra-low emission zone announcedDrivers in London have abandoned diesel cars six times faster than those in the rest of the UK since Sadiq Khan announced plans for a massive expansion of the London’s clean air zone.Research released days before London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) is rolled out across the capital shows there are about 128,000 fewer diesel cars on the city’s roads than in 2017, when the mayor announced plans to create one of the biggest clean air zones in Europe. Continue reading...

With government support, councils can lead the way in generating clean energy, insulating housing and reskilling staffAt Cop26 this year, we’ll hear about diplomats and heads of state negotiating over targets, but when a river bank bursts or a storm hits, it’s our local councils that are left to clear up the mess. When Storm Frank lashed the north-east of Scotland over the new year of 2016, it was council binmen, engineers, housing officers, social workers and home carers who worked day and night mobilising volunteers to evacuate homes and find temporary accommodation for some 300 households.In the weeks and months afterwards, Aberdeenshire council had to deal with a mile stretch of destroyed road, three washed-away footbridges, and damage to several bridges. This is on top of the clean-up operation and returning families to their homes. Despite financial assistance from the Scottish government, the council was left with a bill of around £15m. This is the less glamorous, but very real work, that goes into responding to climate change. Continue reading...

Forestry England among agencies still buying peat, which is UK’s biggest natural store of COGovernment agencies are still buying peat-based compost even though the environment secretary is planning to ban it, new data has revealed.Peatlands occupy about 12% of the UK’s land area, and are the country’s largest natural carbon dioxide store, locking in an estimated 3.2bn tonnes of COas well as providing habitats for birds, insects and plants. For years they have been neglected and dug up, and currently just 20% of UK peatlands remain in a natural state. Continue reading...

Global heating affects fertility, immunity and behaviour – often with lethal results – and the problems are getting worseSweating, headaches, fatigue, dehydration – the ways heat exhaustion affects the human body are well documented. As temperatures inch up year by year we need to change the way we live, creating cooler places that provide refuge from heat.But what about wildlife? We know mass die-offs are becoming more common as heatwaves sweep terrestrial and marine ecosystems, but incremental increases in temperature, which are much harder to study, are harming almost all populations on our planet. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology has forecast more potentially severe thunderstorms across much of the state

Young’s Seafood joins calls for sustainable quotas of mackerel, herring and blue whiting to be agreed in line with scientific adviceThe UK’s largest seafood processor is threatening to stop sourcing fish from the north-east Atlantic unless coastal states, including the UK and countries in the EU, reach a suitable agreement on managing populations this month.Young’s Seafood has joined Tesco, Co-op, Princes, Aldi, Asda, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and other retailers and suppliers in calling for urgent action from ministers to manage populations of mackerel, herring and blue whiting more sustainably. Continue reading...

Wood burning is causing dirty air from the UK to Australia, but a study shows incentives to switch can workIn 2010, air pollution scientists from three of Europe’s biggest cities – Paris, Berlin and London – sat down together. Our data showed a new and consistent pattern. Air pollution from wood burning had returned to our cities. Biomass energy schemes were subsidising new wood burners in schools and offices and wood was being burned in power stations, too, but the additional air pollution in our cities was coming from homes. We wrote a paper warning that biomass subsidies to reduce climate emissions may be leading to increased acceptability and popularity of home wood burning in stoves and fireplaces too.By 2016, home wood burning was the second-largest source of particle pollution emitted in London. By 2018, it was responsible for nearly half the emissions across Europe. Continue reading...

Power costs zero or negative for one-sixth of the September quarter, energy operator says

Treasury hails scheme ahead of Cop26 summit, but personal finance experts say better investments are availableA “world first” green savings bond from National Savings and Investments (NS&I) goes on sale today, giving people the chance to back the government’s environmental projects and join the fight against climate breakdown.But at 0.65% fixed for three years, the interest rate prompted widespread disappointment, with the MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis labelling it “pants” and “paltry”. Continue reading...

Environment groups decry plan to use site regeneration years after operations end at Glencore’s Mangoola mine as offsets

American plastics industry, described by experts as ‘the new coal’, releasing at least 232m tons of gas annuallyThe plastics industry in the United States is on track to release more greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than coal-powered electricity generating plants by the end of the decade, according to a new report released on Thursday.The report, by Bennington College’s Beyond Plastics project, found that the American plastics industry is releasing at least 232m tons of GHG annually, the equivalent to 116 average-sized coal-fired power plants. Continue reading...

The Biden administration has released three reports on security and humanitarian disasters that could strike as world heats upThe climate crisis is likely to intensify cross-border clashes, aggravate conflicts over water and migration and cause instability, especially in developing countries, in ways that could threaten global security, the Biden administration warned on Thursday.A clutch of simultaneously released reports by the White House, the US intelligence community and the Department of Defense paint a grim picture of the raft of security and humanitarian disasters that could strike at once as climate disaster continues to set in. Continue reading...

State officials called one of the most aggressive steps in the US to protect public health and safety from the dangers of drillingCalifornia’s oil and gas regulator on Thursday proposed that the state ban new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals to protect public health in what would be the nation’s largest buffer zone between oilwells and communities.It’s the latest effort by Democratic governor Gavin Newsom’s administration to wind down oil production in California, aligning him with environmental advocates pushing to curb the effects of climate change and against the powerful oil industry in the nation’s seventh-largest oil producing state. Continue reading...

Oxford English Dictionary found between 2018 and 2020 use of ‘climate crisis’ increased nearly 20-foldWhen people spoke of a “climate refugee” in the 19th century, they would be describing someone who had moved to a place where the climate is healthier or more congenial.But in modern parlance, the meaning has shifted to reflect current global crises – now climate refugees are those who are forced to move in response to extreme weather or rising sea levels. Continue reading...

Dan Tehan says he has spoken with government MPs about the risks to key industries from ‘protectionist forces’ in some countries

Viktor Orbán claims bloc’s approach is ‘utopian fantasy’ that will increase prices and ‘destroy the middle class’European Union leaders have exposed their differences over how to tackle a surge in energy prices, as Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, dismissed some of the bloc’s plans to confront the climate emergency as “utopian fantasy”.Ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Glasgow, EU leaders plan to issue a declaration saying it is “essential to keep the 1.5C global warming limit within reach” and calling on all countries “to come forward with, and implement, ambitious national targets and policies,” according to a leaked draft of the summit communiqué. Continue reading...

Retirement of Najin, 32, leaves her daughter Fatu as the only egg donor in embryo implantation schemeOne of the world’s last two northern white rhinos is being retired from a breeding programme aimed at saving the species from extinction.Najin, 32, is the mother of Fatu, who is now the only donor left in the programme, which aims to implant artificially developed embryos into another more abundant species of rhino in Kenya. Continue reading...

Officials from fossil fuel firms may attend fringe events but campaigners hail lack of official roleFossil fuel firms have been given no official role in the Cop26 climate summit, it can be revealed, against a background of growing concern among UK officials that big oil’s net zero plans do not stack up.Private emails from civil servants in the Cop unit, seen by the Guardian, show doubts about one oil major’s net zero plans, with an official saying BP “[does] not currently fit our success criteria for Cop26” and another noting “it’s unclear whether [its net zero] commitments stack up yet”. Continue reading...

States with large meat and dairy industries also attempted to amend IPCC’s report, documents sayCountries that produce coal, oil, beef and animal feed have been lobbying to water down a landmark UN climate report, according to a leak of documents seen by Greenpeace’s investigation team.Days before Cop26, the international climate change negotiations taking place in Glasgow, the leaks show fossil fuel producers including Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Japan are lobbying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to remove recommendations that the world needs to phase out fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Activist says countries such as UK, US and China use ‘creative carbon accounting’ to augment green credentials

Emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor says commenting on draft IPCC report doesn’t equate to running interference, as Greenpeace claimsAustralia pushed back against a finding in a major climate report that fossil fuel power stations be urgently phased out, and requested the country be removed from a list of the world’s leading producers and consumers of coal, Greenpeace has said citing leaked documents.Australia was among a handful of major fossil fuel exporting nations that sought to weaken the conclusions of the report, Greenpeace’s investigative arm, Unearthed, said on Thursday.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

Like other rich nations, the UK is more talk than action on the climate crisis. Something needs to change in Glasgow• Greta Thunberg accuses world leaders of being in denial over climate crisisThe UN secretary general, António Guterres, called the recent IPCC report on the climate crisis a “code red” for humanity. “We are at the verge of the abyss,” he said.You might think those words would sound some kind of alarm in our society. But, like so many times before, this didn’t happen. The denial of the climate and ecological crisis runs so deep that hardly anyone takes real notice any more. Since no one treats the crisis like a crisis, the existential warnings keep on drowning in a steady tide of greenwash and everyday media news flow. Continue reading...

Barnaby Joyce says demands were not a captain’s call but most MPs were not given a copy of documents

As wildfires consume the American west, economic uncertainty plagues those tasked with containing themDuring his first season as a wildland firefighter with the Idaho Department of Land, Luke Meyer camped out in a decrepit building infested with rodents. It was 2017 and he was a 20-year-old rookie earning $11 an hour. In the rural community where he worked, outside Bonners Ferry, Idaho, housing was scarce and rent was a luxury he couldn’t afford.Meyers kept a mattress inside a tent on the floor of his temporary home, provided for free by his employer, to prevent mice from crawling across his chest as he slept. Continue reading...

Democrat Kathy Castor warns that even Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better bill ‘doesn’t really get us to net zero by 2050’The alarm bells are ringing. A code red has been declared. With no less than the future of the planet at stake, Kathy Castor, chair of the select committee on the climate crisis, has warned Democrats that there is precious little time left to enact the US president’s aggressive climate agenda and avert the most catastrophic impacts of global warming.“We just don’t have any more time to waste,” the Florida congresswoman said in an interview with the Guardian ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Scotland. “We have got to act now or else we’re condemning our children and future generations to a really horrendous time.” Continue reading...

Country hopes to ensure effects of climate crisis are always considered in business, investment, lending and insurance decisionsNew Zealand has become the first country in the world to pass a law forcing financial institutions to disclose and, the government says, act on climate-related risks and opportunities.“We have an opportunity to pave the way for other countries to make climate-related disclosures mandatory,” climate change minister James Shaw said. “New Zealand is a world-leader in this area and the first country in the world to introduce mandatory climate-related reporting for the financial sector.” Continue reading...

First minister believes seabed rights would allow the country to make best use of its wind and wave powerThe Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has said that devolving the crown estate to Wales could boost the country’s aspirations to become a world leader in renewable energy.One of the Labour-led government’s key strategies in tackling the climate emergency is to make the most of Wales’ extraordinary natural resources, including wind and wave power. Continue reading...

The claim landholders have done the ‘heavy lifting’ relies on the protocol being signed seven years before it actually was• Temperature Check is a weekly column examining claims about climate change made by governments, politicians, business and in the media

The strong comments from the French ambassador come as a report ranks Australia last on emissions reduction for developed nations

Treasury document suggests move to electric vehicles could hit poorer citizens hardestAnger is growing across the Conservative party over a Treasury document on the costs of the net zero strategy which MPs claim has been “neutered” – though sources insisted estimates had not been reliable enough to include.Alongside Boris Johnson’s strategy to end Britain’s contribution to the climate crisis by 2050, the Treasury released an assessment warning it may need to raise taxes or cut public spending to fund the strategy. Continue reading...

One of world’s biggest fertiliser producers calls for action as high gas prices force it to slash productionThe global energy crisis could escalate into a world food crisis leading to famine in vulnerable countries unless urgent action is taken, one of the world’s biggest producers of fertiliser has warned.Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Yara, which produces 8.6m tonnes of the key fertiliser ingredient ammonia annually, said high gas costs meant it was curbing production in Europe by 40%. Continue reading...

Our ridiculous addiction to acquiring more possessions is stuffing up the planet, so it’s time to call in the expertsAges ago, an old friend who was an early adopter of environmental concerns wanted a new kitchen. He asked an expert he knew from his work in woodland conservation what wood his new kitchen should be built with. He was startled to get a sharp response: “If you really care, then don’t come to me asking which wood to use; ask yourself if you really need a new kitchen.” Point taken, but not much acted upon, by him, me or anyone else I’ve come across.I’m so sick of stuff. Some of it is stuff I really need or that is at least genuinely nice to have, but a good 70% is useless stuff. Clothes I’ll never wear, books I’ll never read, kitchen utensils I’ll never utilise. Items big and small that presumably felt essential the day I bought them but turned out to be quite the opposite. I suppose that as I get older the 70% figure will grow and grow until the morning of the day I shuffle off this mortal coil. At this point the percentage of stuff I own that is useless to me will stand at a nice round 100, because, of course, I won’t be able to take it with me. But what I will be able to do is leave it to my children to bump up the percentage of stuff useless to them that they own. And so it goes on.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist

The units are expensive to install, and become less efficient at low outside temperatures, writes Gary Bennett. Plus letters from Frank Brown and Austen LynchIf you search online how domestic heat pumps work, you soon find out that they are expensive to install and generate a constant noise that could be a problem with close neighbours (£5,000 grants unveiled to support home heat pump installation, 18 October). What is less well known is that, although they might replace what gas and oil-fired domestic boiler systems do, they also start becoming less efficient and effective when the outside temperature is about 5C and lower – just the temperature at which you definitely need effective domestic heating.Also, there is no guarantee that the electricity used to power each unit comes from a renewable or truly zero carbon source. So why are we wasting our time with this “compromise”, and at a cost to us taxpayers of £5,000 a pop? Surely it couldn’t be for last minute Cop26 cosmetic reasons?

Government ‘nudge unit’ document published alongside net zero strategy before being withdrawn within hoursA blueprint to change public behaviour to cut carbon emissions, including levies on high-carbon food and a reduction in frequent flying, was published by the government alongside its net zero strategy on Tuesday but was withdrawn within a few hours.Recommendations in the blueprint are in contrast to Boris Johnson’s promise in the strategy foreword that transitioning to net zero could happen without sacrificing the things we love. “This strategy shows how we can build back greener, without so much as a hair shirt in sight,” the foreword stated. Continue reading...

Himalayan state of Uttarakhand suffers heaviest rain in more than 100 years, with Nepal also badly affectedMore than 150 people have died in devastating floods across India and Nepal, after some of the heaviest rainfall in over a century triggered flash flooding and landslides.In the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, at least 46 people died and 11 were missing after record-breaking rainfall caused by cloudbursts, an intense deluge of rain, on Monday and Tuesday. Continue reading...

Children’s rights body rejects landmark case by group of activists including Greta ThunbergA group of youth activists say they have been spurred to fight even harder after their landmark case arguing that countries perpetuating the climate crisis violate their human rights was rejected by a UN children’s rights body.Greta Thunberg and 15 other activists from around the world filed their case accusing Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey of violating their rights to life, health and culture under the convention on the rights of the child by failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions to levels that would restrict global warming to 1.5C, in accordance with the Paris agreement. Continue reading...

Gas company announces it has full environmental approval from Northern Territory government

West Virginia senator objects to bill that would steadily retire the coal industry which continues to provide ample financial support to himIn the tumult of negotiations over the most consequential climate legislation ever proposed in the US, there is growing scrutiny of the fossil fuel industry connections of the man poised to tear down the core of the bill – the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin.Manchin, a centrist Democrat, has objected to key provisions of a multitrillion-dollar reconciliation bill that would slash planet-heating emissions and help the US, and the world, to avert catastrophic climate breakdown. In a finely balanced Senate, Democrats need all 50 of their senators to vote for the bill, with no Republicans willing to vote for the climate measures. Continue reading...

Thanks to a local vet and a group of concerned ecologists, the churra lebrijana breed has been rescued from extinctionEvery morning a trio of churra lebrijana sheep turn up eagerly for work, toiling away as children head to school and the rush-hour traffic grips the southern Spanish city of Seville. Shaggy, skittish and nearly extinct, the daily outing is an unconventional attempt to help save the rare breed – by putting them to work.Since the start of this year, these churra lebrijana sheep – a breed indigenous to Andalusia whose numbers had dwindled to about two dozen animals – have spent hours each day grazing and getting to know the visitors to San Jerónimo park. The project is the culmination of a decades-long conservation effort by local officials and a bit of left-field thinking by ecologists. Continue reading...

Study prompts call for reforms to safeguard conditions of fishers from countries including the Philippines, Egypt, Ghana and IndonesiaRacist insults, verbal abuse, long working hours with few breaks and pay below the legal minimum wage are “common workplace experiences” of migrant workers in the Irish fishing sector, says a new study.The report, conducted by Maynooth University’s Department of Law, comes four months after a damning assessment by the US state department over Ireland’s failure to combat human trafficking, which stated that undocumented workers on Irish vessels are vulnerable to trafficking and forced labour. Continue reading...

Cross-party group says regions could be devastated by a rapid switch to low-carbon technologiesUK public sector pension schemes could deepen divisions in society unless they use their billions of pounds of investment to cushion communities pivoting away from carbon-intensive industries such as steel and carmaking, MPs have said.The cross-party group argues towns and regions across Britain could be devastated by a rapid switch to low-carbon technologies, leaving them to face the same future as mining towns hit by pit closures in the 1980s, unless pension funds take account of the impact of investments on vulnerable households and businesses. Continue reading...

Despite pledges of action from many nations, almost none have policies to wind down production, report saysFossil fuel production planned by the world’s governments “vastly exceeds” the limit needed to keep the rise in global heating to 1.5C and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, a UN report has found.Despite increasing pledges of action from many nations, governments have not yet made plans to wind down fossil fuel production, the report said. The gap between planned extraction of coal, oil and gas and safe limits remains as large as in 2019, when the UN first reported on the issue. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, called the disparity “stark”. Continue reading...

Bad weather hits production across Europe as flowering seasons become earlier and shorterFrench beekeepers expect their worst harvest in decades as unseasonably cold and wet weather due to climate change has prevented bees from producing honey.Beekeepers association UNAF said that based on information received from regional associations it expects the honey harvest for 2021 to come in at 7,000 to 9,000 tonnes, or about a third of the 2020 harvest. Continue reading...

P&Cs raise thousands to buy air filter machines – only to have them knocked back by authorities

Government’s net zero plan wants to link energy upgrades to home financing, but policy details will be criticalIf you want to live in an energy inefficient home, expect to pay more for your mortgage. Or perhaps the implied message in the government’s net zero documents was starker: you won’t even get a mortgage unless you bring the property up to scratch.As nudges to homeowners and homebuyers go, it’s strong stuff. Quite right too, one might say: UK homes, on average, are shockingly leaky. And, since most home improvements happen soon after a purchase, one can see the logic in linking an energy upgrade to the mortgage process. Continue reading...

Department says falling income from levies that brought in £37bn last year could cause ‘significant and permanent fiscal pressure’New taxes may be needed to replace billions of pounds in lost income from fuel duty on petrol and diesel cars, the Treasury has warned, revealing concerns at the heart of government over risks to the public finances from the green transition.In documents released on Tuesday by Rishi Sunak’s department alongside the government’s net zero strategy, No 11 Downing Street said much of the £37bn raised last year from fuel duty and vehicle excise duty (VED) could be lost if drivers make the switch to electric cars, which have a low or zero tax rate to encourage take-up. Continue reading...

The plan to decarbonise Britain must be welcomed. But in key areas it falls shortIn a number of ways the net zero strategy published by the UK government on Tuesday falls short of what was hoped for, and perhaps even expected by more optimistic observers. The public investment that ministers have committed to is insufficient, their faith in private-sector solutions overblown.The combination is concerning. As the host of the upcoming Cop26 summit, and the first major industrialised country to put a net zero target into law, the UK is in a unique position. By significantly upping their ambitions with regard to emissions cuts, ministers had the chance to send a powerful message. Instead, they have hedged many of the new commitments in ways which risk undermining them. Continue reading...