Morrison government hails engineering milestone but researchers raise concerns and say it could increase emissions

The deal to build an electric car battery plant near Blyth will bring up to 3,000 jobs to the area by 2028The UK government will invest £100m in Britishvolt as the car battery manufacturing startup seeks to build Britain’s first large-scale “gigafactory” in the north-east of England.The government’s Automotive Transformation Fund will invest alongside asset management company Abrdn and its majority-owned property investment arm, Tritax, to fund a sale and leaseback deal for the huge building that will house the electric car battery factory, near Blyth in Northumberland. Continue reading...

Government considers scrapping scheme that pays for energy efficiency measures for poorer householdsMore than 30,000 jobs would be put at risk if the government were to scrap the energy bill levy that pays for home insulation improvements for poor households, the industry has warned.Ministers are mooting an end to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), a £1bn levy on energy bills that pays for energy efficiency measures for people on low incomes. The energy price cap is expected to rise by about £700 to £2,000 for the average household bill in April, after a surge in gas prices. Continue reading...

£140 might have been knocked off typical bill if rollout of projects had happened sooner, says industryBritain’s wind and solar farms could help to reduce households’ energy bills by paying back almost £800m to consumers by the end of the winter after gas and electricity market prices rocketed above their set subsidy levels.Households earned a £157m windfall from renewable energy generators for the first time in the final quarter of last year following record high market prices, according to official figures. Continue reading...

Some rightwingers claim renewables have increased costs, but Energy UK blames over-reliance on gasEnergy companies want the government to implement policies to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the industry’s leader has said, despite claims from some on the political right that high energy prices should spark a rethink.Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK, which represents the industry, said: “The government should press on with net zero policies. That’s something they still need to do. We are missing the carbon budgets.” Continue reading...

A fifth of those polled said they could reduce food waste if they knew more recipesAlmost £1.2bn worth of fruit, veg and bread is binned in the UK every year, with one in five consumers stating the reason they waste so much is they “don’t know what to cook”.Close to 76m items – an average of nearly three a household – are thrown away every week, according to data based on research by the Censuswide, which asked consumers how much food they threw away. The scale of the waste is staggering, with 914m potatoes, 733m tomatoes and 728m carrots ending up in dustbins each year. Continue reading...

Tim Westley takes up chef friend’s challenge to transform laughing gas litterThe little steel bulbs that litter parks, roadsides and city centres – the discarded canisters from Britain’s second favourite drug, laughing gas – cause misery to many communities. But now one blacksmith has found an innovative use for them: turning them into handmade kitchen knives.The prevalence of the canisters has prompted some councils to impose local bans, while the home secretary is keen to outlaw them nationally. But Tim Westley’s handmade kitchen knives are gaining a cult following among environmentally conscious foodies after being endorsed by chefs committed to low waste. Continue reading...

Scientists say find shows importance of mapping deep ocean where coral can escape effects of global heatingA huge coral reef has been discovered off the coast of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean’s “twilight zone”, offering hope that more pristine ecosystems are waiting to be discovered at unexplored depths.Stretching along the ocean floor for nearly 2 miles, the reef, covered in rose-shaped corals, is one of the largest such discoveries at depths of more than 30 metres, where sunlight levels are much lower. Continue reading...

If carbon emissions stay at current levels, just 0.02% of the desert tree would survive. Volunteers are now banding together to plant seedlingsThe trees are not exactly imposing. Slim and spiny, with limbs that grip small poms of sharp leaves, they look like something a child might dream up. Or maybe Salvador Dalí. Even the name, Joshua tree, sounds kind of awkward.On a wet and chilly December morning, I stood at a makeshift encampment in the Mojave national preserve in San Bernardino county, California, listening as a group of strangers fretted over the trees’ precarious future. Within the preserve is Cima Dome, a broad-sloping mound that, until recently, contained the densest Joshua tree forest in the world.The August 2020 Dome Fire in the Mojave national preserve burned more than 1m Joshua trees to varying degrees. Continue reading...

More than a thousand crows roost in Sunnyvale every night, ruffling locals’ feathers with caws and droppingsEach night, more than a thousand crows descend on Sunnyvale, California. In recent years a growing contingency of corvids have been roosting in the Silicon Valley town’s downtown district, filling the night air with a chorus of caws and painting the roads, Pollock-esque, with droppings.The spectacle has failed to charm residents and local business owners. Vice-Mayor Alysa Cisneros said constituents had been complaining about the crows since she began campaigning for office in 2019. “In terms of the kinds of complaints I get on a consistent basis, crows are a top concern, right after speeding drivers,” she said. Continue reading...

Delayed legislation includes ban on trophy hunting imports and stricter sentences for puppy thievesSome of the government’s most prized new animal welfare policies are being put on pause in what supporters see as a sneaky attempt to ditch the “woke” measures altogether.Senior sources in the Conservative party have confirmed to the Guardian that a series of policies including a ban on trophy hunting imports, stricter sentences for puppy thieves and a ban on live exports of livestock have been put on pause after a campaign led by Mark Spencer, the chief whip. Continue reading...

Retired salesman John Stimpson was so moved by the cries of birds unable to find nests, he decided to act. Now he has made enough boxes to house half the UK’s swiftsRetired salesman John Stimpson is 80 today. He will be celebrating with a cake at Slimming World this evening, followed by dinner with his family on Friday. Stimpson has one achievement in particular to mark: he has just completed his goal of building 30,000 swift boxes, which could house half of the UK’s breeding population of 60,000 pairs.Stimpson has been making these peculiarly shaped boxes for 13 years using three saws and three drills in his garage attached to his bungalow near Ely in Cambridgeshire. What started as a retirement hobby morphed into a full-time job after orders increased, and he sometimes works 13-hour days to get them all done. He sells them for £20, which is enough to cover his costs. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Officers say cuts and operational decisions have made England’s regulator ‘toothless’Staff at England’s Environment Agency say it has been cut back to such an extent that they cannot do their jobs and the regulator is no longer a deterrent to polluters.Three officers at the EA have described to the Guardian and Ends Report how they are increasingly unable to hold polluters to account or improve the environment as a result of the body’s policies. Continue reading...

There’s still much to learn about these ‘strange alien creatures’, but climate change likely to create ideal breeding conditions, expert says

Endangered coho salmon spotted returning to spawning grounds after well-timed precipitationThe heavy rains that soaked California late last year were welcomed by farmers, urban planners – and endangered coho salmon.“We’ve seen fish in places that they haven’t been for almost 25 years,” said Preston Brown, the director of watershed conservation for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (Spawn). Continue reading...

Northumbrian Water admitted two breaches of law after manhole collapse led to sewer blockageA water company has been fined £240,000 after a damaged manhole led to two unauthorised sewage discharges into a stream.Untreated sewage leaked into Coundon Burn in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on 13 March 2017. A member of the public rang Northumbrian Water after seeing effluent in the stream, and the firm – which had a turnover of £834.6m that year – sent workers to free a sewer blockage. Continue reading...

Tightening regulations and a growing eco-conscious workforce are major factors in heralding green office campusesAbout 40 miles south of San Francisco, three futuristic structures rise from the earth. With sloping roofs clad in thousands of overlapping tiles, the buildings could be mistaken for the world’s most architecturally advanced circus tent.They are, in fact, part of Google’s new Bay View campus, which is due to welcome employees this year – pandemic allowing – and is situated a few miles east of its existing HQ campus in Mountain View. Continue reading...

Customers saddled with paying 600 times the usual price for energy as regulators are accused of being too close to the industry they monitorWhen Neil Crittenden heard that an extreme winter storm was about to hit Oklahoma last winter, he did what officials advised him to do and kept his heat on and water running so that his pipes wouldn’t freeze. The 40-year-old Oklahoma City resident even used hair dryers to keep them thawed.What Crittenden didn’t know at the time was that the energy he used was going to cost him significantly. As winter storm Uri swept across the south central US last February, utilities that weren’t prepared scrambled. The storm caused blackouts in several states and resulted in the deaths of at least 223 people. Continue reading...

‘Urgent’ coordinated action to tackle overconsumption, farming subsidies and the climate crisis also needed to halt biodiversity lossExpanding national parks and protected areas will not be enough to halt the destruction of nature, warn leading scientists, who say urgent action on overconsumption, harmful subsidies and the climate crisis is also required to halt biodiversity loss.Governments are expected to commit to a Paris-style agreement for nature at Cop15 in Kunming, China, later this year, with targets that include protecting at least 30% of the oceans and land by 2030. Continue reading...

New solar capacity in Australia grew by 10% in 2021, a third less than expected, but nation still leads the world with 17GW of installed panels

Federal water minister allocates $126m to Murrumbidgee Irrigation for works it says will save just 7.4 gigalitres of water

Special bricks could attract mites or encourage spread of disease if not cleaned properly, say some expertsAn initiative in Brighton aimed at helping protect the bee population could do more harm than good, scientists have warned.The council in Brighton has passed a planning condition that means any new building more than five metres high will have to include swift boxes and special bricks with holes known as bee bricks. They will provide nesting and hibernating space for solitary bees.There are about 270 species of bee in Britain, just under 250 of which are solitary bees that live alone, although often nest close to one another.Solitary bees in Britain are highly diverse, and so are their nesting habits. Most British species nest in the ground, excavating their own nest.The honeybee is probably the best-known bee. They live socially and are led by a queen and serviced by male drones and female worker bees.The bee population is thought to have declined in the UK since the 1970s. For example, the number of managed honeybee hives in England dropped by 50% between 1985 and 2005, and 67% of common widespread moth species have declined since the 1970s.Since 1900, the UK has lost 13 species of bee, and a further 35 are considered under threat of extinction.The decline in population is thought to be because of changes in land use, which has led to habitat loss. Other issues affecting bees include disease, pesticides, pollution and climate change.One of the best ways of helping bees is thought to be by planting flowers rich in nectar. Continue reading...

Investment fund manager says firms that do not plan for a carbon-free future risk being left behindLarry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund manager, said pushing climate policies was about profits, not being “woke”.In his annual letter to CEOs , Fink said businesses, cities and countries that do not plan for a carbon-free future risked being left behind. He argued that the pursuit of long-term returns was the main driver behind climate policies, after being criticised for seeking to influence companies. Continue reading...

Country at risk becoming ‘the dirty corner of Europe’ without more ambitious targets, say campaigners Continue reading...

America’s largest oil firm claims its history of publicly denying the climate crisis is protected by the first amendmentExxonMobil is attempting to use an unusual Texas law to target and intimidate its critics, claiming that lawsuits against the company over its long history of downplaying and denying the climate crisis violate the US constitution’s guarantees of free speech.The US’s largest oil firm is asking the Texas supreme court to allow it to use the law, known as rule 202, to pursue legal action against more than a dozen California municipal officials. Exxon claims that in filing lawsuits against the company over its role in the climate crisis, the officials are orchestrating a conspiracy against the firm’s first amendment rights. Continue reading...

Study calls for cap on production and release as pollution threatens global ecosystems upon which life dependsThe cocktail of chemical pollution that pervades the planet now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends, scientists have said.Plastics are of particularly high concern, they said, along with 350,000 synthetic chemicals including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibiotics. Plastic pollution is now found from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans, and some toxic chemicals, such as PCBs, are long-lasting and widespread. Continue reading...

Assessment contains inadequate surveys of threatened species habitat and fails to identify that project could cause flooding of 284km of waterways, officials say

Government offices will relocate to province of East Kalimantan, easing burden on Java metropolis as it battles environmental problemsIndonesia plans to name its new capital Nusantara, which translates as “archipelago”, when government offices are relocated to the province of East Kalimantan from Jakarta, on the island of Java.President Joko Widodo first announced the plan to move Indonesia’s capital in 2019, in an effort to relieve the huge environmental challenges facing Jakarta, and to redistribute wealth. The move has been delayed due to the pandemic, but could go ahead in 2024. Continue reading...

Mayor says air pollution and climate crisis are issues of ‘social justice’ in capital and across the globeMotorists across the whole of London could be charged for every journey from 2024 under plans being drawn up to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality.The mayor, Sadiq Khan, said London should be a global leader in introducing smart road pricing, as a report found car journeys in the capital needed to be cut by more than a quarter to meet net zero emissions targets by 2030. Continue reading...

Former justice secretary defends police and crime bill as it reaches final stages in parliamentThe police, crime, sentencing and courts bill that has sparked “kill the bill” demonstrations across the country is a “proportionate” response to recent protests such as those by Insulate Britain, the former justice secretary Robert Buckland has said.Protesters took to the streets in cities across the UK at the weekend to rally against the police and crime bill, which is reaching its final stages in parliament and will be considered by the House of Lords on Monday. Continue reading...

In blow to climate campaigners, state encourages miners to ramp up output to avert winter gas crisisChina’s coal production reached record levels last year as the state encouraged miners to ramp up their fossil fuel output to safeguard the country’s energy supplies through the winter gas crisis.The world’s biggest coal producer and consumer mined 384.67m tonnes of the fossil fuel last month, easily topping its previous record of 370.84m tonnes set in November, after the government called for miners to work at maximum capacity to help fuel the country’s economic growth. Continue reading...

Chris Hohn’s TCI fund, known as one of the most aggressive activist investors, made a 23% gain in 2021The world’s 20 top performing hedge fund managers earned a record $65.4bn ($48bn) profit for their clients in 2021 after bets placed on rising stock markets paid off.The biggest winner was TCI, the fund run by British billionaire Sir Chris Hohn, which made a gain of $9.5bn last year, according to the annual rankings by LCH Investments. Continue reading...

After a late surge in donations, appeal remains open for a few more days as it aims to hit £1m mark

Seabed permits given to 17 projects from companies including Scottish Power, Shell, BP and SSEThe Scottish government is in line for a windfall of almost £700m after the largest ever auction of the country’s seabed plots attracted bids from big oil and renewable energy companies hoping to build next generation windfarms.Crown Estate Scotland has awarded oil companies including BP and Shell, and renewable energy veterans Scottish Power and SSE, permission to lease the Scottish seabed where they plan to build enough windfarms to power the equivalent of 23m UK homes a year. Continue reading...

Some families say purifiers turned down by heads prioritising cleaning and open windows in absence of DfE guidance

Fish Legal calls for Environment Agency to reveal details on 2,000 sites under investigationA campaign group is challenging what it says is an information blackout imposed by the Environment Agency on its investigation into suspected illegal sewage dumping in England.The inquiry began after water companies admitted to the agency they may have been illegally discharging raw sewage from treatment works into rivers and streams. Continue reading...

It’s been dubbed the perfect invader, but the marbled crayfish may offer a sustainable food source and even help prevent diseaseSmall, bluish-grey and speckled, it would be easy to overlook the marbled crayfish. Except for the fact it is likely to be coming to a pond or river near you soon – if it is not already there. The all-female freshwater crustacean has become a focus of fascination for scientists in recent years, due to its unique ability among decapods – the family that includes shrimps, crabs and lobsters – to clone itself and quickly adapt to new environments, as well as the fact that it has spread exponentially.The marbled crayfish was first recognised in 1995, when a biology student bought a bag of crayfish – sold to him as “Texas crayfish” – from American traders at a pet fair in Frankfurt. After becoming a burden to their new owner due to their inexplicably rapid rate of reproduction, he distributed them to friends who, in turn, dumped them in rivers, lakes and toilets, from where they spread rapidly, throughout Germany, much of mainland Europe and most profusely, the island of Madagascar, home to unique but extremely delicate freshwater ecosystems. Continue reading...

Independent tests find that a number of products on the market use oxidised oils, with the rancidity often masked by flavouringsMore than one in 10 fish oil supplements tested from among 60 large retail brands are rancid, while nearly half are just under the recommended maximum limit, according to independent tests.Conducted over several years by Labdoor, which analyses vitamins and supplements based on criteria such as purity, label accuracy and nutritional value, the tests measured common US-branded fish oils, available globally, against international voluntary standards of rancidity. Continue reading...

Crown Estate Scotland hopes amount of electricity generated in Scottish waters will double over next decadeScotland’s largest-ever auction of permits to construct offshore windfarms is expected to raise up to £860m when the results are announced on Monday.Crown Estate Scotland, which is running the auction, hopes that windfarms with as much as 10 gigawatts of new generating capacity will be built over the next decade, effectively doubling the amount of electricity generated in Scottish waters in a transition which has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs. Continue reading...

A blueprint based on ‘sacred geometry’ was designed to build Auroville, a perfect city of unity. But 50 years on the Galaxy Plan has created anger and divisionNestled deep in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, cocooned from the world by a young forest, lies a community that wants to change the world. Ask the residents, of Auroville, who come from more than 60 countries, what they are doing there and the answer will be much the same as it has been for more than five decades: “The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.”Auroville was founded in 1968, with a vision to build an international city to upend rigid class and caste systems and be free of the pollution, traffic, chaos, rubbish, social isolation and suburban sprawl that have poisoned modern urban environments. Continue reading...

The spill in the Timor Sea was one of Australia’s worst environmental disasters, with thousands of seaweed farmers claiming it destroyed their livelihoodsThe oil came without warning.One morning in September 2009 it was there, coating Daniel Sanda’s modest seaweed farm on the Indonesian island of Rote: a dark sheen across the water, waxy yellow-grey blocks floating in the sea. Continue reading...

Proponents say the ‘regenerative farming’ eating challenge encourages consumption of more sustainable animal products – but is it just greenwash?With Veganuary expected to reach more than 2 million sign-ups globally since its launch in 2014, the 31-day plant-based pledge is once again making headlines this January as food manufacturers, supermarkets and restaurants cater to the movement. But for people wanting to eat more sustainably, yet not willing to cut out meat completely, there is another consumer challenge to try: Regenuary.The idea for people to source as much food as possible from producers who use regenerative farming methods was hatched three years ago by Glen Burrows, co-founder of the Ethical Butcher, who was a vegetarian for 25 years because he didn’t like the way meat was produced. “Back in 1989, being a vegetarian was basically like being a Martian,” he says. “I became that awkward guy at dinner parties and slightly enjoyed that moral smugness, but then after a long period of time, I wasn’t that well. It wasn’t suiting me.” Continue reading...

Conservation groups appeal to EU to take action against slaughter they allege flouts rulesFinland is joining Sweden and Norway in culling wolves this winter to control their population, as conservation groups appeal to the European Union to take action against the slaughter.Hunters in Sweden have already shot dead most of their annual target of 27 wolves, while Finland is to authorise the killing of 20 wolves in its first “population management cull” for seven years. Continue reading...

Galanthophiles flock to Buckland Monachorum for 375 varieties of the flower that tells us spring is on the wayIn the winter sunshine they glinted and gleamed, bright white flowers dotted around the lawns and wooded slopes of a glorious garden on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon.And within minutes of opening its doors, the Garden House was busy with hordes of galanthophiles – snowdrop lovers – taking in the sight of a beloved flower that at this time of year provides a vivid reminder that warmer, cheerier seasons are ahead. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Studies show high temperatures and air pollution during pregnancy can cause lifelong health effectsThe climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children. Continue reading...

This weekend is the last chance to donate to our 2021 appeal supporting those on the frontline of the climate emergency

Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay are reeling from a historic heatwave with temperatures as high as 113FCities and towns across southern South America have been setting record high temperatures as the region swelters during a historic heatwave.“Practically all of Argentina and also neighboring countries such as Uruguay, southern Brazil and Paraguay are experiencing the hottest days in history,” said Cindy Fernández, meteorologist at the official National Meteorological Service. Continue reading...

Workers who tested positive to Covid were forced to wear yellow hairnets to identify themselves

Advise people not to drive or light wood burners rather than imposing restrictions on vulnerable, campaigners sayCampaigners have called on the government to urge people not to drive or light wood-burning stoves during toxic air peaks rather than telling the vulnerable not to exercise or go outside.London suffered its worst air pollution since 2018 on Friday, when experts predicted it would reach “band 10”, the highest level on the scale. Continue reading...

British Sugar has applied for ban exemption despite chemicals damaging bees’ ability to forage and navigateThe government has ignored the advice of its scientific advisers to allow sugar beet farmers to deploy a banned bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticide in 2022.British Sugar has successfully applied for an exemption to permit the banned pesticide, known as Cruiser SB, to be used in England this year because of the threat to sugar beet posed by a virus transmitted by aphids. Continue reading...