Conservatives seek to examine latest techniques, citing rising energy costsMinisters have paved the way for a reconsideration of the moratorium on fracking in England by commissioning a new study to examine safety concerns about the controversial practice.In an effort to decrease Britain’s reliance on imported energy given spiralling costs, the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said it was “absolutely right that we explore all possible domestic energy sources”. Continue reading...

Calls for report to be released before election so voters know ‘official state’ of environment under Morrison government

Money pledged without explanation for cost blowout as some investors withdraw, believing Emu Swamp Dam project now unviable

Researchers say slaughter of wild dogs comes down to misinformation as some graziers consider how to co-exist with native dingoes

If you think wind turbines are ugly, try living near a power station, writes Dr Michael Symonds, while Terry Leary wonders why tidal power is being overlookedSince when has something being an “eyesore” been a good reason for not constructing more wind turbines (Boris Johnson blows cold on onshore wind faced with 100-plus rebel MPs, 5 April)? Living close to the second largest emitter of CO in the country – the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station – I can testify to what an eyesore it is. Not to mention the knowledge that every time plumes of vapour are emitted from its vast cooling towers, yet more carbon is being released from burning coal. The regular flooding of local properties due to the frequent torrential rain that we now experience is another eyesore.

Experts say criticism of oil and gas’s ‘climate-blocking activities’ cut from final draft, reflective of industry’s power and influenceThe fossil fuel industry and its influence over policy was the major elephant in the room looming over the release of the third and final report, out this week, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading climate authority. The major source of contention: how do you talk about mitigating climate change without confronting the fossil fuel industry? “It’s like Star Wars without Darth Vader,” says environmental sociologist Robert Brulle, of Brown University.The first two reports, both released over the last year, highlighted the physical science on climate effects and countries’ vulnerability to further warming. But this third report deals more with the potential solutions, which have been a focal point of controversy in recent years for both the fossil fuel industry and the governments of oil-rich nations.This story is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of news outlets strengthening coverage of the climate story Continue reading...

Scientists’ concerns come after Jacob Rees-Mogg declared ‘every last drop of oil from the North Sea’ should be exploitedThe UK government is moving too slowly to tackle the climate emergency, leading scientists have said in the wake of the latest IPCC report.This comes after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit minister, declared that he supported “exploiting every last cubic inch of gas from the North Sea” the day the report was released. Continue reading...

Analysis: Renewable Energy Foundation says it does not see renewables as a large part of net zero strategy

Do you go for the efficiency, cleanliness and response of induction, or the char-ability of gas – or both? We ask some of our favourite cooks what they prefer

Lincolnshire county council’s Colin Davie has vowed to ‘restart old fights’ and oppose new onshore wind

Overall new car sales fall slump as petrol and diesel prices soar in Ukraine crisisBritish drivers bought more electric cars in March alone than in the whole of 2019 even as the broader market slumped, according to figures that underline the accelerating pace of the UK’s transition away from internal combustion engines.There were 39,315 new battery electric vehicle registrations during the month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. In 2019 there were 37,850 electric sales. Continue reading...

A Norwegian oil company wants to drill 73m barrels a year off the coast of Newfoundland – the equivalent of adding 7m gas cars to the roadCoal and other fossil fuels are “choking humanity”. Those were the words of António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, in response to the sobering recent International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which warned that the world has a small window remaining to act before irreversible and catastrophic impacts are locked in.People around the world are already paying the price with their lives and livelihoods. In 2021, the 10 biggest extreme weather events cost $170bn in damages.Conor Curtis is a digital communications coordinator for the Sierra Club Canada Foundation and a researcher on climate change impacts and policy that affect his home province of Newfoundland and LabradorTzeporah Berman is the international program director at Stand.earth and the chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative Continue reading...

Narrower definition excludes chemicals in pharmaceuticals and pesticides that are generally defined as PFASThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) department responsible for protecting the public from toxic substances is working under a new definition of PFAS “forever chemicals” that excludes some of their widely used compounds.The new “working definition”, established by the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, is not only at odds with much of the scientific world, but is narrower than that used by other EPA departments. Continue reading...

In one of the largest claims in English legal history, 200,000 people affected by the 2015 incident will have their case heard this weekMore than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster are seeking compensation in a UK court this week, in one of the largest group claims in English legal history.The claimants, including representatives of Krenak indigenous communities, are fighting to get compensation for the devastation caused by the Mariana dam disaster in November 2015. The £5bn lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP. Continue reading...

Opposition in cabinet as well as on backbenches to expansion of turbines in England widely seen as an eyesorePro-green cabinet ministers are frustrated by Boris Johnson’s decision to back away from ambitious onshore windfarm plans for England, as it emerged more than 100 Tory MPs are lobbying against the policy behind the scenes.The prime minister, who is to announce his energy strategy later in the week, will announce big targets for increasing nuclear power and offshore wind, as well as exploiting more North Sea oil and gas. Continue reading...

Rodents, cockroaches and insects take refuge in people’s homes while mozzies ‘breed like crazy’, pest experts warn

NSW upper house member Catherine Cusack claims prime minister has ruined the Liberal party and says she will not vote for re-election of Coalition government

Of 57 species sampled, 35 decreased in number by 50% over four decades, with climate crisis likely factorBird populations in a Central American tropical rainforest are suffering severe declines, with likely factors including climate breakdown and habitat loss.Scientists from the University of Illinois tracked species of birds in a protected forest reserve in central Panama to determine if and how populations had changed from 1977 to 2020. Continue reading...

Governments have hitherto been far too hesitant to take on vested interests and are all too ready to protect historic investments in fossil fuelsThe continued heating of the planet means that this year will probably be one of this century’s coolest. As the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear, current climate pledges by governments would not keep global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels – the target promised in the 2015 Paris agreement. Instead greenhouse gas emissions are rising. During the past decade, on average annually they were at their highest levels in human history.The world is on a pathway to temperature increases of more than 3C in the coming decades. This would make large parts of the world too hot to work in. Severe harvest failures will become common. Disappearing ice caps would submerge major cities. Governments have hitherto been far too hesitant to take on vested interests and are all too ready to protect historic investments in fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Scientists find fish that could normally tolerate low oxygen levels among those killed in Richmond river

Miner says it’s ‘fully compliant’ with obligations to protect species, department rejects accusations

The IPCC finds that emissions could be halved globally by 2030 at affordable costs if action is taken right across the boardEnormous opportunities to cut emissions deeply are there, the time to act is now, and it can be done at affordable cost.That would be the shortest possible summary of the thousands of pages of careful assessment in the world’s definitive stocktake of how to limit future climate change.Frank Jotzo is a professor at the Australian National University. He is a lead author of the sixth assessment report of Working Group III of the IPCC, and co-author of its summary for policymakers. Continue reading...

Monitors identify 70 individuals in 2021, with 114 newborns since launch of repopulation scheme in 1996A scheme to reintroduce brown bears to the Pyrenees is showing signs of success, with 70 individuals identified in 2021, the highest number for a century.The population has increased from 52 in 2018, according to figures produced by the cross-border group that monitors the bears in France and Spain, with half the creatures living in the Catalan Pyrenean regions of Vall d’Aran, Pallars Sobirà and Alta Ribagorça. Overall, the population is thinly spread over an area of 6,500 sq km. Continue reading...

Just Stop Oil campaign, calling for moratorium on new fossil fuel projects, continues after weekend of actionEnvironmental activists have blocked a major oil terminal near Heathrow airport, as protesters’ blockades of fuel distribution facilities around England enter a fourth day.About 30 members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) arrived at the Esso West facility in west London at about 4am, where they erected two bamboo lock-on structures, XR said. Continue reading...

Putin’s war has caused an energy crunch. The response should be a robust FDR-style program and aggressive steps toward a fossil-free futureJoe Biden has taken a firm stand against Vladimir Putin and announced a ban on Russian oil imports. “This is war,” Senator Joe Manchin said when he supported Biden’s ban, which is likely to push energy prices higher. “For better or worse, Americans need to understand that this is the price we all pay for a safer world,” said former Obama Council of Economic Advisers chairman Jason Furman. The president himself announced: “Defending freedom is going to cost.”There is even some bipartisan support, at least for now. Across the aisle, Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski signed on to sanctions. So did Mitch McConnell: “Ratchet the sanctions all the way up.”Meg Jacobs teaches history and public affairs at Princeton University and is author of Panic at the Pump, about the 1970s energy crisis Continue reading...

More focus on non-English language reports would be good for conservation and help close the gap between global north and south, argue researchersValeria Ramírez Castañeda, a Colombian biologist, spends her time in the Amazon studying how snakes eat poisonous frogs without getting ill. Although her findings come in many shapes and sizes, in her years as a researcher, she and her colleagues have struggled to get their biological discoveries out to the wider scientific community. With Spanish as her mother tongue, her research had to be translated into English to be published. That wasn’t always possible because of budget or time constraints –and it means that some of her findings were never published.“It’s not that I’m a bad scientist,” she says. “It’s just because of the language.” Continue reading...

New rules could allow Arena to back developments that use CCS, such as that of ‘blue’ hydrogen made with gas, Senate hears

Carbon border adjustment mechanism would penalise companies and countries trying to evade responsibility for cutting emissionsHigh-carbon goods imported into the UK should be subject to new tariffs, to help ensure other countries are fulfilling their obligations to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions as well as the UK, an influential committee of MPs has said.A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would penalise companies and countries trying to evade responsibility for cutting emissions, the MPs said, and provide an incentive for certain industrial sectors to move away from environmentally damaging practices. Continue reading...

Blue-tongue lizards among species to get stronger international protections

A new Tourism and Conservation Alliance says doubling protected areas in the state will boost ecotourism and local economies

Talks stretch past deadline as governments are accused of trying to water down findingsThe world must abandon fossil fuels as a matter of urgency, rather than entrusting the future climate to untried “techno-fixes” such as sucking carbon out of the air, scientists and campaigners have urged, as governments wrangled over last-minute changes to a landmark scientific report.Talks on the final draft of the latest comprehensive assessment of climate science, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stretched hours past their deadline on Sunday. Continue reading...

BushBank scheme aims to revegetate parcels of private land to create habitat for endangered wildlife and capture carbon

Grant Shapps says invasion is ‘wake-up call’ but onshore wind plan seems to have been scaled downA cabinet minister has rejected calls for the UK to consider rationing energy, as a plan to drastically increase onshore wind power also appeared to be significantly scaled back.The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had been a “massive wake-up call” for western nations about their dependence on imported oil and gas, which European countries are now trying to wean themselves off. Continue reading...

What are the pleasures and pitfalls of driving an electric car from Sydney to Melbourne and back? Guardian Australia’s economics correspondent Peter Hannam goes for a test drive. Plus: we hear from a wrestling champ who can’t compete, and about a new island forming in the Pacific

Just Stop Oil activists have been climbing on to tankers and glueing themselves to roads since FridayMore than 100 people have been arrested as climate change protesters continued to block UK oil terminals as part of a campaign to disrupt the fossil fuel industry.Supporters of Just Stop Oil began the action in the early hours of Friday morning at refineries near London, Birmingham and Southampton by climbing on to tankers and gluing themselves to roads. Continue reading...

Species moving north into Scotland as climate heats have been given names, as well as others introduced into countryA host of warm weather species moving north into Scotland have been given new Gaelic names, reflecting the subtle but significant environmental shifts brought by climate heating.Following work by dozens of lexicographers, naturalists and Gaelic artists, the firecrest, one of the UK’s tiniest birds, now luxuriates under the delicate Gaelic words for flaming, wee, little thing, or crìonag lasrach. Continue reading...

Talks ahead of the key Cop15 summit on halting mass extinction of life were slow – and much has been asked of the developing worldFor talks that are meant to be about halting the mass extinction of life on Earth, the slow pace of negotiations in Geneva ahead of Cop15, the major biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, later this year, was not a hopeful sign that meaningful action would follow. As discussions drew to a close this week, little progress was made on the targets and goals that are meant to herald nature’s “Paris moment”.Rhetoric from rich developed nations about the need for ambition on halting biodiversity loss was not being followed through with resources, negotiators from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa complained. Continue reading...

Solar panels and cleaner-burning stoves have reduced dangers faced by residents of three camps“The camp has come from the dark into the light,” says Edson Sebutozi Munyakarambi, a refugee living in the Kigeme camp in southern Rwanda.“Before the solar-powered street lamps, the camp was dark. Some people would come and steal things from the houses,” says Munyakarambi, who chairs the committee that represents the 16,000 people in the camp. “But now no one can rob people on the street corners and the children can study or play outside while they wait for their dinner.” Continue reading...

Delayed strategy expected to focus less on onshore wind turbines in England amid Conservative backlashBoris Johnson wants his promised energy security strategy to “bet big” on nuclear despite Rishi Sunak’s reservations – but he has cooled on more onshore wind turbines in England amid a Conservative backlash.The prime minister is determined to press ahead with plans to build up to eight new nuclear power stations even though the chancellor has concerns about the cost, projected to reach more than £13bn. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Independent sources were seeing ‘a very concerning forecast’ at the same time as residents were headed for home

Activists climb on tankers and glue themselves to roads around London, Birmingham and SouthamptonHundreds of environmental protesters have blocked 10 oil terminals across the country as part of a campaign to paralyse the UK’s fossil fuel infrastructure.Early on Friday, supporters of Just Stop Oil began blockades at oil refineries around London, Birmingham and Southampton by climbing on top of tankers and gluing themselves to road surfaces. Continue reading...

Hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand is not believed to have made a political donation beforePriti Patel has accepted a £100,000 donation from a company run by one of the world’s most prominent oil traders.A new entry in the home secretary’s members’ interests register shows that she received the funds from Andurand Ventures Ltd. This company is run by Pierre Andurand, a leading oil trader. Continue reading...

Hundreds of climate change activists have blocked oil terminals across Britain, with some protesters climbing on top of oil tankers as part of their campaign to force the government to end the country's reliance on fossil fuels.Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil blocked refineries around London, Birmingham and Southampton on Friday.The protests are part of a planned series of protests against UK oil infrastructure. XR said the aim was to cause enough disruption 'to create a tipping point moment'

Russians leaving Chernobyl have taken Ukraine soldiers with them, say officials

African flamingo, who also goes by No 492, fled the Wichita county zoo in 2005 and was seen this month by a fishing guideIt’s been 17 years since Pink Floyd made a daring escape from a zoo in Kansas. Now the African flamingo – who also goes by No 492 – has been seen living the life of a fugitive 700 miles to the south, in Texas.The bird fled the Sedgwick county zoo in 2005 after keepers failed to clip its wings, the New York Times reported. The flamingo’s survival in the wild was unlikely – indeed, a buddy who also made it out, No 347, hasn’t been heard from since. But Pink Floyd, as No 492 was nicknamed by Texas officials, was spotted this month by a fishing guide, David Foreman, to his intense surprise.This article was amended on 1 April 2022. An earlier version said the flamingo had escaped from the Wichita county zoo. In fact it escaped from the Sedgwick county zoo, in Wichita. Continue reading...

Meghalaya state hopes for world heritage status for unique bridges, which can take decades to createIndia’s famous living bridges – the roots of trees coaxed and stretched into the form of a suspension bridge over a river – have been submitted to Unesco’s tentative list for the coveted world heritage site status.The mountainous state of Meghalaya in the north-east has more than 100 such bridges in 70 villages, unique structures created by a combination of nature and human ingenuity. Continue reading...

Range typically found in southern and central Europe is expanding north as climate warmsGiant orchids that can reach a metre tall have officially been found growing wild in the UK for the first time, having become established hundreds of miles north of their native range in the Mediterranean.The “stately” plants were discovered on a grassy slope near Didcot in Oxfordshire by Hamza Nobes, a 29-year-old trainee nurse, who wishes to keep the exact location a secret. Continue reading...

A band of 20-year-olds have made headlines disrupting football games, the Baftas and now oil facilities across the UK. But what do they want?

New law, which brings in fines of up to $22,000 and up to two years in jail, passes on extra sitting day of parliament

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a fluffy egret chick, escaped ostriches and migrating crabs Continue reading...