Exclusive: Natural Resources Commission to consider the standards needed to practice sustainable logging in burnt forestThe New South Wales government is planning a review of forestry operations in bushfire-hit coastal regions as tensions mount between the environment regulator and Forestry Corporation.The review, which is still to be formally commissioned, will probably be carried out by the state’s Natural Resources Commission (NRC), government sources have told Guardian Australia. Continue reading...

Remaining UK coal plants, including Drax, supply 6% of grid’s electricity to cover power supply drop and colder weatherBritain has fired up some of its last remaining coal power plants to help keep the lights on as the country’s wind turbines slow over a few days and the demand for electricity rises.Three of the UK’s last coal power plants, operating at Drax, West Burton, and Ratcliffe, were called on to supply 6% of electricity on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

UN warns about consequences of not conserving water and tackling climate crisis

With the world 1C warmer, modelling shows there is still a risk of corals bleaching from heat stress this summerA global weather phenomenon that would typically keep ocean temperatures lower across the Great Barrier Reef may not be enough to stop another mass coral bleaching this coming summer, according to the marine park’s chief scientist.Global heating now meant the risk of corals bleaching from heat stress was present even in a summer influenced by the La Niña climate phenomenon, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Dr David Wachenfeld told Guardian Australia. Continue reading...

Springwatch presenter adds to warnings of threat to Welsh countryside if non-native species get outParts of the Welsh countryside could become permanently damaged if creatures used in I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! escape, conservationists have warned, amid growing calls to ban the use of live animals on the show.North Wales police said it had advised the ITV show on “set management and biosecurity” following fears cockroaches, whip scorpions, mealworms and crayfish used in bushtucker trials might have escaped, after concerns were first raised by TV presenter and naturalist Iolo Williams. Continue reading...

Personal and home care sectors use an estimated 122bn sachets a year and few are recycledEnvironmental campaigners have joined forces with politicians and business leaders in demanding urgent action to tackle the distribution of billions of plastic “personal care” sachets.In an open letter published online, a coalition called A Plastic Planet is calling for so-called “sample” sachets – which can contain products such as detergent, shower gel or perfume – to be included in wider UK and EU single-use bans. Continue reading...

When the bird who dominated Oakland’s rose garden turned violent, the question of his fate caused ‘rifts that will never heal’The turkey locked eyes with her from across the park.Like many Oaklanders, sixteen-year-old Jojo Thompson had heard plenty of stories about Gerald, the “feisty” turkey harassing visitors in the city’s rose garden. But before visiting the seven-acre public park with a friend on a recent October afternoon, she thought the tales had been exaggerated. Continue reading...

New Zealand singer says Donald Trump, Great Thunberg and California wildfires spurred her to visit before it turns ‘to slush’The singer Lorde has written an impassioned entreaty for the world to face the climate emergency head-on after visiting Antarctica.Lorde said Donald Trump, California wildfires and the advocacy of Greta Thunberg spurred her to “head south” in a bid to visit the frozen continent before it turned “to slush”. Continue reading...

Denial of permit to controversial Pebble gold and copper delights environmental and indigenous rights activistsThe Trump administration on Wednesday denied a permit for a controversial gold and copper mine near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in south-west Alaska.The army corps of engineers said in a statement that the permit application to build the Pebble Mine was denied under both the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. Continue reading...

New infrastructure bank and emissions-trading scheme are insufficient, say campaignersA new infrastructure bank, to be based in the north of England, and an emissions-trading scheme covering large portions of industry were proclaimed by Rishi Sunak as evidence that the government is aligning its aim of rescuing the UK economy from the Covid-19 slump with its goal of cutting emissions to net zero by 2050.But for the most part, experts said the chancellor’s spending review and infrastructure strategy failed to give the kickstart to the green recovery that economists have been advising and green campaigners have urged. Continue reading...

A charge on electric cars is ‘completely incongruent’ with states’ targets of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, Dr Jake Whitehead saysVictoria’s planned road user tax for electric vehicles will significantly hold back clean car use, according to research that found it could lead to a 25% lower share of sales in 2050 than otherwise expected.The Andrews government plans to impose a 2.5c a kilometre charge on electric vehicles (EVs) and a 2c/km charge on plug-in hybrid cars from July. South Australia is also planning an EV road user charge, but is yet to announce the rate. Continue reading...

The miner has not revealed which parts of the Pilliga forest will be cleared and what it means for groundwater and threatened speciesOpponents of Santos’s $3.6bn Narrabri gas project say it should not have been approved given the company has not explained which parts of the Pilliga forest will be cleared or finished investigating what it would mean for local groundwater.The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, announced on Tuesday the government had approved the controversial development, which would involve up to 850 gas wells being drilled in grazing land and forest in northern New South Wales. Continue reading...

Tesco, Lidl, Asda, McDonald’s and Nando’s all source chicken fed on soya from Cerrado tropical biome region

Squirrel seen swaying in video after woman put old pears from her fridge in her garden for wildlife to eatA squirrel in Minnesota has enjoyed an early and especially festive start to the holiday season by being videoed apparently drunkenly feasting on pears that had fermented and become alcoholic.The inebriated squirrel was caught swaying on camera by Katy Morlok of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, who had put out an old pear from her fridge in her garden for local wildlife to eat. She saw one of the squirrels – whom she dubbed Lil Red – snatch the pear and take it up a tree. Continue reading...

Experts says technology alone will not get close to solving aviation’s emissions problemsBoris Johnson’s “jet zero” goal of a commercial transatlantic flight producing no carbon emissions by 2025 is a “gimmick”, according to experts, who say technology alone cannot solve the impact of global aviation on the climate crisis.Such a flight would not be impossible, the experts said, but could only be a one-off and would encourage the view that other measures such as taxing jet fuel and frequent fliers were not needed to tackle aviation’s carbon problem. Continue reading...

But independent review criticises wildlife fund’s inconsistent approach to human rightsA long-awaited report into allegations that conservation rangers supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) committed violent abuses in several countries, including murder, has cleared the organisation’s staff of complicity but criticised it for serious shortcomings in oversight.But even as the report was released, campaigners for tribal rights – including Survival International, which has long been a critic of WWF – suggested the report had failed to investigate some of the most serious issues and that it had been released two days before the US Thanksgiving holiday in an attempt to bury the news. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former finance minister’s pitch pushes ‘zero net emissions as soon as possible’, which contradicts record while in Australian governmentAustralia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann is continuing to talk up the importance of a “collective green recovery” on the campaign trail to be the next secretary general of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.In a “vision statement” for the position obtained by Guardian Australia, Cormann says undertaking “effective global action on climate change is a must and we must get to zero net emissions as soon as possible”. Continue reading...

Marathon parliamentary sitting wraps up, passing legislation experts say will help turn NSW into a renewable energy superpowerNew South Wales upper house MPs have finally passed renewable electricity legislation after a marathon parliamentary sitting in which almost 250 One Nation-proposed amendments were rejected.The government upper house leader Damien Tudehope on Tuesday suspended the Legislative Council’s midnight adjournment to work through the 249 amendments to the electricity infrastructure investment bill. Continue reading...

Hiring of investor to advise on environmental regulation for banks looked into by watchdogThe EU did not properly consider conflicts of interest when it hired the US investment manager BlackRock to advise on environmental regulation for banks, an influential watchdog has said.The European ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, said the European commission, the EU’s executive arm, should strengthen its conflict of interest rules in light of the findings, in a judgment published on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Labor presses Coalition to explain what it knows about delays as pricing agency says Beijing appears to be ‘singling out’ Australian importsMore than 60 ships carrying Australian coal have been stranded at sea – some for months – while waiting to enter Chinese ports, according to analysts, with the Morrison government being urged to clarify the long delays.Dozens of vessels are being kept waiting, according to the global commodity and energy price reporting agency Argus, which has been tracking the situation. Continue reading...

How a chance encounter with a ‘weird plant’ in the Drakensberg mountains led to a startling discoveryTowards the end of 2017, PhD candidate Ruth Cozien and her husband Dr Timo van der Niet were attending a citizen science workshop high up in South Africa’s Drakensberg mountains when they stumbled across “this weird plant with green flowers hidden beneath its leaves, a really strong scent and enough nectar to drown an insect”, Cozien recalls.While many people might have admired the plant and walked away the couple, both members of the Pollination Ecology Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, were intrigued. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sussan Ley uses national environment laws to refuse proposal to clear land at Kingvale StationSussan Ley has rejected an application for almost 2,000 hectares of land-clearing on Kingvale Station in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.The long-awaited decision was quietly published on Tuesday night at the same time as the federal government announced it had approved Santos’s Narrabri gas project in New South Wales. Continue reading...

Dick and Jillian Jardine said it was ‘the right thing’ to hand beautiful plot in Remarkables to national trust for conservationA New Zealand farming family has gifted 900 hectares of pristine land by the edge of Lake Wakatipu to the crown, saying it is “the right thing to do”.The stretch of land at the foot of the Remarkables range will become open to everyone in 2022, after being handed over to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for “the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders”. Continue reading...

It has fallen to the states to lead with more realistic targets, strategies and attempted policy responsesA colleague commented to me recently: “Where would we be without the states leading and driving the response to Covid-19?”It made me think. To cut through all the spin, point-scoring and blame-shifting. Sure, there was the national cabinet and Scott Morrison’s attempt to forge a national, collaborative response, but so much of the heavy lifting was actually done by the states. Continue reading...

Ninety-seven whales died and dozens more had to be euthanised by rescue workersA mass stranding on the far-flung Chatham Islands in the Pacific Ocean has resulted in the deaths of more than 120 whales.Ninety-seven pilot whales and three dolphins have died in the stranding, with 28 pilot whales and three dolphins having to be euthanised, said staff from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DoC). Continue reading...

One Nation MP moves hundreds of amendments in attempt to stop electricity infrastructure roadmap being passed this yearThe New South Wales parliament has been forced to sit around the clock in a bid to pass a landmark energy bill which the One Nation MP Mark Latham is seeking to block by moving hundreds of mostly procedural amendments.The Coalition’s electricity infrastructure roadmap promises to cut power prices in NSW and decrease the state’s reliance on coal-fired power generation by creating a $32bn private investment boom in renewables. Continue reading...

Rogue creatures from bushtucker trials including ‘ultimate survivor’ cockroaches could threaten Welsh countrysidePolice are investigating I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! over concerns non-native wildlife could have escaped into the Welsh countryside during bushtucker trials, the Guardian can reveal.Rural crime officers from north Wales police are looking into complaints that non-native creatures such as cockroaches, maggots, spiders and worms could threaten wildlife in the 100-hectare (250-acre) estate surrounding Gwrych Castle in north Wales, where the show is being held this year. Continue reading...

Hong Kong-based insurance company holds stake of at least $3bn in coal projectsTottenham Hotspur may be top of the Premier League for a change, but the climate credentials of its shirt sponsor AIA are among the lowest of any club in the country, according to a new report by fossil fuel divestment activists.The logo of AIA has been emblazoned across the chests of Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris and teammates since 2013. But campaigners say it risks becoming a source of shame for the club, because the Hong Kong-based insurance company holds a stake of at least $3bn in coal projects. Continue reading...

Administration seeks to transfer ownership of Arizona area to mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal siteSince January, San Carlos Apache tribal member Wendsler Nosie Sr has been sleeping in a teepee at a campground in south-eastern Arizona’s Oak Flat, a sprawling high desert oasis filled with groves of ancient oaks and towering rock spires.It is a protest in defense of “holy ground” where the Apache have prayed and performed ceremonies for centuries. Continue reading...

The approval is the final major regulatory hurdle for the project, but environmentalists and critics have vowed to keep fighting itThe controversial $3.6bn Narrabri gas project that would drill up to 850 wells in grazing land and forest in northern New South Wales has been given environmental approval by the Morrison government.The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said on Tuesday she was satisfied the biodiversity of the Pilliga forest would be safeguarded by conditions set for the project, proposed by Santos. Continue reading...

The company involved says it does not expect the fish to damage the environment, but others disagreeAn outbreak of 50,000 Tasmanian farmed salmon could potentially “pollute” the marine environment, according to local environmentalists.The fish rushed to freedom after a fire melted part of their enclosure on Monday morning, and while the company involved said it did not expect the fugitive fish to damage the environment, others disagree. Continue reading...

Former PM says Scott Morrison needs to pivot his stance on foreign policy and climate change or risk Australia being seen as a ‘Trump-lite refuge’Malcolm Turnbull says Scott Morrison was “dazzled and duchessed” and went “full-in” with Donald Trump on foreign affairs and climate change, but now needs to change direction to avoid Australia being seen as a “Trump-lite refuge in the southern hemisphere”.In his latest commentary on the government he once led, Turnbull told a conference on Tuesday he was confident Morrison would set a target of Australia having net zero emissions in 2050, despite the government’s continued resistance. Continue reading...

Energy companies will compete for contracts in auction at end of 2021The government plans to double the amount of renewable energy it will subsidise next year after agreeing to include onshore wind and solar power projects for the first time since 2015.Energy companies will compete for subsidy contracts in a competitive auction to be held at the end of 2021, which could support up to 12GW of renewable energy, or enough clean electricity to charge up to 20m electric vehicles a year. Continue reading...

Global survey finds spending expected to double in five years in response to climate fears

Pollutants from farming, heating and vehicles beyond levels needed to ensure breathable airGovernments across Europe are failing to protect their citizens from toxic air pollution, with most Europeans still breathing filthy air in their cities, according to data.Pollutants from farming, domestic heating and vehicles are beyond the levels needed to ensure breathable air within World Health Organization guidelines, despite EU legislation, government pledges and years of campaigning. Continue reading...

Group stages debt and tax strikes to expose ‘political economy’s complicity’ in ecological crisisExtinction Rebellion is launching a campaign of financial civil disobedience aimed at exposing the “political economy’s complicity” in the unfolding ecological crisis.The group – which has staged some of the UK’s biggest civil disobedience protests over the past two years – is turning its attention to what it says will be a sustained campaign of debt and tax strikes. It is also asking people to “redirect” loans from banks that finance fossil fuel projects to frontline organisations fighting for climate justice. Continue reading...

Drop in emissions this year is a ‘tiny blip’ in buildup of greenhouse gases, UN agency saysClimate-heating gases have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has said.There is estimated to have been a cut in emissions of between 4.2% and 7.5% in 2020 due to the shutdown of travel and other activities. But the WMO said this was a “tiny blip” in the continuous buildup of greenhouse gases in the air caused by human activities, and less than the natural variation seen year to year. Continue reading...

The Biden transition team is facing pressure not to hire people with fossil fuel ties, like Obama’s energy secretary Ernest MonizIt was a deceptively low-key occasion on Capitol Hill: an older man in a dark suit, talking into a TV camera about an energy report.According to his firm’s 362-page analysis, the fastest path to California’s climate goals included continuing to rely on fossil fuels. The analysis was funded by gas companies and groups related to them, but he wasn’t a lobbyist or industry consultant. Quite the opposite, he was the Obama administration’s well-respected energy secretary, Ernest Moniz. Continue reading...

Former senior official warns of going back to the community unrest of the 70s and 80s over conservation issuesChanges to environment law planned by the Morrison government would spark a return to the “environmental confusion” of the 1970s and 1980s, when there was sustained community unrest over conservation issues, according to a former senior bureaucrat responsible for the legislation.Gerard Early, now a director with Birdlife Australia, told a Senate inquiry that history suggested a plan to change environment laws to hand greater responsibility for development assessments to the states would just increase risk and uncertainty over proposals, not reduce them as intended. Continue reading...

The species, mainly caught as bycatch but also prized by sports fishermen, is facing an alarming decline in numbersConservationists accused the EU and the US at negotiations of Atlantic fishing nations this week of blocking urgently needed plans to protect the world’s fastest shark species.The strength and speed of the shortfin mako, which can swim up to 43mph, makes it a target for sports fishermen, particularly in the US, while its highly prized meat and fins have led to the shark being overfished globally – and dangerously so in the north Atlantic. Continue reading...

We just wanted the money to pay to have the circuit board repairedI am having the most absurd argument with E.ON after the power firm’s smart meter installation wrecked our five-year-old gas boiler and it then refused to pay for the repairs.It started when we moved our gas and electricity supply to E.ON in April. Our new tariff required us to get a smart meter for each and so in August E.ON’s contractor, Morrison Utility Services, arrived to install them. But when it turned the electricity supply back on after installation, our previously working boiler would not restart. Continue reading...

Audrey Zibelman says market has reached ‘inflection point’ and decision must be made on whether to have single, national market or five state marketsAustralian governments need to make a decision about whether they want a national electricity market, or five state markets, rather than “whinge” at one another about not making a decision, according to the system operator, Audrey Zibelman.Zibelman, the chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, told an energy summit on Monday the energy market had reached “an inflection point”. Continue reading...

Chris “pineapple” Hooper is a notorious barefoot anti-Adani activist who is now the mayor of an Adani stronghold! lol take that fossil fuelists!

Australian PM says government’s technology roadmap meets the commitment of Paris agreement signatories on long-term emissionsScott Morrison has told participants at the virtual G20 summit that safeguarding the planet is an “ongoing, long-term and collective responsibility” and nations “must pursue economic models that support growth and sustainability”.With the G20 communique released after the weekend talks noting signatories to the Paris agreement had agreed to communicate their long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies by 2020, Morrison set up the government’s technology roadmap as fulfilling that criterion. Continue reading...

Virtual summit an awkward swan song for Trump who skipped some sessions to play golfG20 leaders meeting remotely pledged on Sunday to “spare no effort” to ensure the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, but offered no specific new funding to meet that goal.The virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia was an awkward swan song for Donald Trump, who skipped some sessions on Saturday to play golf, paid little attention to other leaders’ speeches and claimed the Paris climate agreement was designed not to save the planet but to the kill the US economy. Continue reading...

Users will be taught how to operate and park the vehicle and share the road safelyThe AA is to give road safety lessons to e-scooter riders, as operators launch what is billed as the first theory test for the latest form of transport on Britain’s streets.Under the scheme, e-scooter riders will be taught how to operate and park the vehicles and share the road safely with cars, pedestrians and vulnerable users. Continue reading...

Scientists and conservationists say mammal should be officially listed as nationally threatened speciesThe amount of platypus habitat in Australia has shrunk by 22% in 30 years and the animal should now be listed as a nationally threatened species, according to new research.Scientists from the University of New South Wales, along with three of Australia’s largest environmental organisations – the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF-Australia and Humane Society International Australia – have jointly nominated the platypus for an official listing as vulnerable under national environmental laws. Continue reading...

Owner of Manchester and Stansted airports offers five years’ free landing fees as part of net-zero pledgeManchester Airports Group has offered a prize of five years’ free landing fees to the first airline to operate a zero-emissions commercial flight, as it pledged to become a net-zero carbon airport by 2038.Britain’s biggest airport group, which owns Manchester and Stansted airports, has upped the ante on the wider industry’s commitment to achieve net-zero by 2050, and a similar one-year incentive offered by Heathrow. Continue reading...

Three commoners explain why keeping 1,000-year-old farming practices alive is worth more than moneyPhotographs by Peter FludeA five-inch stack of old Telegraph newspapers is perched on the front seat of the bashed-up Subaru, while in the back is a long stick for fending off cows. At the wheel is Ann Sevier, a 13th generation commoner whose family has lived in the New Forest since 1650.“Hello everybody!” she yells to the livestock as she pulls up in the car. We are in Latchmore valley near Fordingbridge, where more than a hundred cows and horses have gathered in the cool breeze that tumbles off the surrounding hills, providing respite from biting insects (behaviour known locally as “shading”). It resembles a congregation of animals you might see around a waterhole, except the horses have letters branded on their backs. Continue reading...