Major commitment with deadline of 2030 is big advance towards reaching 1.5C goal set out in Paris agreementThe US and the EU made a joint pledge on Friday to cut global methane emissions by almost a third in the next decade, in what climate experts hailed as one of the most significant steps yet towards fulfilling the Paris climate agreement.The pledge came as the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned of a “high risk of failure” at the vital UN climate talks, Cop26, set for Glasgow this November. Continue reading...

People living amid toxic fumes hope ruling will force Walleys Quarry to make urgent changesWhen she returned to her home in the village of Knutton, outside Newcastle-under-Lyme, after a trip to London on Thursday, the landfill fumes hit Helen Vincent like a brick wall. “We were saying to each other: ‘Oh how nice was the fresh air in London?’ You won’t hear many people say that,” she laughed.Vincent had been in London for a landmark high court ruling which ordered the Environment Agency to do more to protect five-year-old Mathew Richards from the landfill’s hydrogen sulphide fumes, which doctors said were shortening his life expectancy. Continue reading...

Overfishing, a heating planet, pollution and habitat destruction have devastated reefs, scientists warnThe world’s coral reef cover has halved since the 1950s, ravaged by global heating, overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, according to an analysis of thousands of reef surveys.From the 1,430-mile (2,300km) Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Saya de Malha Bank in the Indian Ocean, coral reefs and the diversity of fish species they support are in steep decline, a trend that is projected to continue as the planet continues to heat in the 21st century. Continue reading...

With Cop26 on the horizon, activists are finding new ways to make politicians and public pay attentionA new wave of climate activism, during which motorways have been blocked and politicians confronted by young people, is attempting to put pressure on the UK government before the UN Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow later this year.Insulate Britain staged its first protest on Monday and has since brought large sections of the UK’s busiest motorway to a standstill to demand action to tackle the escalating climate emergency. Continue reading...

Nine sea turtles hatch on beach in Jesolo, Veneto, in what scientists describe as ‘exceptional’ eventEggs that were laid on a sandy beach in northern Italy by a loggerhead sea turtle, or Caretta Caretta, have hatched in what scientists describe as an “exceptional” event possibly brought on by global heating. It was the first time that the hatching of Caretta Caretta sea turtle eggs had been recorded along the northern Adriatic coast.Nine sea turtles were born on Wednesday night on the beach in Jesolo, a popular seaside resort close to Venice where their mother had deposited 82 eggs, about 25 metres from the sea, overnight on 9 July. Continue reading...

Fifteen finalists chosen for providing innovative solutions to environmental challenges facing the planetThe first finalists in the Duke of Cambridge’s ambitious £50m global Earthshot prize to help repair the planet over the next 10 years have been announced and include a schoolgirl, a city and a country.The prestigious global environment prize is designed to encourage solutions on climate change. The 15 inaugural finalists – three in each of the prize’s five categories – were chosen by experts and the prize council members. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including an ambush bug, friendly frogs and a rescued orca Continue reading...

Members of Oil and Gas Authority hold shares in fossil fuel firms, raising conflict of interest concernsCampaigners have warned that close links uncovered between the oil and gas industry and the UK’s North Sea regulator, which is responsible for licensing new fields, risk overly “cosy” relationships that might affect the decision making process.Three of the 13 members of the board of directors and senior management team of the Oil and Gas Authority hold sizeable shareholdings in oil companies, amounting to about £225,000, and eight of the 13 previously worked in the oil and gas industry, the news site the Ferret has found, in an investigation funded by the Uplift campaign against fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Nuclear submarine deal with Australia draws mixed response, plus message in a bottle found after 37 yearsDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.The US and Britain are battling to contain an international backlash over a nuclear submarine pact struck with Australia amid concerns that the alliance could provoke China and prompt conflict in the Pacific. Continue reading...

Faroese have been killing whales since Viking times but many islanders now oppose annual slaughterIn a parked car overlooking the ocean sit two of the biggest whale killers in the Faroe Islands. They look exhausted, but not from hunting. Ólavur Sjúrðaberg, 75, and Hans J Hermansen, 73, have been on the phone constantly since a mass killing of 1,428 white-sided dolphins in the Faroe Islands on Sunday sparked international outrage and led the Faroes prime minister to announce on Thursday that the government would review the dolphin hunt.Neither Sjúrðaberg nor Hermansen participated in the killing, but they are the current and former chairman of the Faroese Whalers Association, founded in 1992 to explain and defend the traditional killing of whales in the islands, known as the “grind”, and ensure it is as efficient and respectful as possible. Continue reading...

Environmental groups accuse government of allowing ‘business as usual’ under 10-year roadmap for the $1bn industry

A volunteer with the New York City Audubon found nearly 300 carcasses littering the sidewalks below the World Trade CenterHundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city’s glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer’s tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses.This week’s avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the group’s associate director of conservation and science. Continue reading...

The Cop26 climate summit will be an opportunity to put fossil fuel companies on trial through the court of public opinionFossil fuel companies bear as much responsibility as governments do for humanity’s climate predicament – and for finding a way out. Our planetary house is on fire, and these companies have literally supplied the fuel. Worse, they lied about it for decades to blunt public awareness and policy reform.There’s no better time for ExxonMobil and other petroleum giants to be held accountable than at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. The Glasgow summit is more than just another international meeting. It is the last chance for world leaders to limit future temperature rise to an amount that civilization can survive. Doing so, scientists say, will require a rapid, global decline in oil, gas and coal burning. Continue reading...

Expert tells inquiry WCM’s plans are not legally compliant under UK’s and EU’s policy frameworksThe company seeking to open the UK’s first new deep coalmine in 30 years is gambling on the UK’s and EU’s failure to address climate change, the public inquiry into the mining plans has heard.An expert witness for one of the parties opposed to West Cumbria Mining’s (WCM) plans to dig up 2.7m tonnes of coking coal a year says the firm’s case for the mine rests on the assumption that UK and EU governments will breach their legally binding climate targets by using the coal to supply steelmaking over the coming decades. Continue reading...

Timing of defence deal, ahead of Cop26 summit where China will be key player, dismays campaignersThe timing of the new defence deal between the US, UK and Australia has dismayed climate experts, who fear it could have a negative effect on hopes of a deal with China on greenhouse gas emissions ahead of vital UN climate talks.The Aukus trilateral security partnership has been interpreted as seeking to counterbalance Chinese power in the Asia-Pacific region, and has been likened to a new cold war by China. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson warned the three countries to “respect regional people’s aspiration and do more that is conducive to regional peace and stability and development – otherwise they will only end up hurting their own interests”. Continue reading...

Residents of Shoal Lake 40 can drink from taps thanks to a new water treatment facility but dozens of communities lack accessResidents of a First Nations community in Canada, who were deprived of clean drinking water for nearly a quarter of a century, can now drink from their taps after a water treatment facility became fully operational earlier this week.Shoal Lake 40, a community on the Manitoba-Ontario border, has been under drinking water advisory since 1997. Continue reading...

Doctors say Mathew Richards’ life expectancy has been shortened due to exposure to hydrogen sulphide fumesThe high court has ruled the Environment Agency must do more to protect a five-year-old boy from landfill fumes that doctors say are shortening his life expectancy.In a landmark judgment on Thursday, a high court judge said he was not satisfied that the EA was complying with its legal duty to protect the life of Mathew Richards, whose respiratory health problems are being worsened by fumes from a landfill site near his home in Silverdale, near Newcastle-under-Lyme. Continue reading...

Online retailer also says it will ensure that 50% of managers are women, and 15% are from ethnic minoritiesAsos will target net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and will aim to match the general population in gender and ethnic diversity among its leaders as the fast fashion company responds to shoppers’ rising demand for ethical brands.Fast fashion retailers have faced persistent criticisms from campaigners over the environmental footprint of cheap clothing that is treated as disposable by many customers. It is estimated that fashion accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Continue reading...

Wabtec shows off locomotive amid fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transportThe world’s first battery-electric freight train was unveiled at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday, amid a fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport in order to address the climate crisis.Wabtec, the Pittsburgh-based rail freight company, showed off its locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a new venture between the two organizations to develop zero emissions technology to help move the 1.7bn tons of goods that are shipped on American railroads each year. Continue reading...

Case, launched by two Melbourne EV drivers, will argue the levy is unconstitutional and ‘similar to the GST which is a commonwealth tax’

EPA data reveals that one of America’s biggest PFAS-making plants is second largest polluter of highly damaging HCFC-22 gasA new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data has revealed that PFAS chemicals – often known as “forever chemicals” due to their longevity in the environment – are contributing to the climate crisis as their production involves the emission of potent greenhouse gases.In recent years, an ever-expanding body of scientific research has shown that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are among the most toxic substances widely used in consumer products. Continue reading...

When residents in Union Hill, Virginia, decried the pipeline as a form of environmental racism, the energy company insisted it wasn’tAs fracked gas fields in West Virginia boomed over the past decade, energy companies jumped at the chance to build massive new pipelines to move the fuel to neighboring east coast markets. The 600-mile Atlantic Coast pipeline would have been the crown jewel.But Union Hill, Virginia – a community settled by formerly enslaved people after the civil war on farm land they had once tilled – stood in the way. Residents fought against a planned compressor station meant to help the gas move through the pipeline, arguing that because Union Hill is a historic Black community, the resulting air pollution would be an environmental injustice. Continue reading...

Sussan Ley’s decision denounced as a ‘betrayal of young people’ and follows a federal court ruling that she has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis

Creature was a dead spotted lanternfly – an invasive moth-like bug that has been causing massive damage to plants in eastern statesA young contestant’s proud entry at the Kansas state fair caused a flap when a judge saw the specimen submitted in the boy’s exhibition box – and it prompted a federal investigation.The show item was a dead spotted lanternfly the boy had discovered at his home – an invasive moth-like bug that has been causing massive damage to plants in US eastern states but had not previously been thought to have reached Kansas. Continue reading...

London-Glasgow flight run partly on sustainable fuel produces 62% less CO2 than a decade agoBritish Airways has operated its first passenger service directly powered by sustainable aviation fuel, a London to Glasgow flight that the airline said produced 62% less CO2 emissions than a similar journey a decade ago.The airline said the combination of the fuel – partly made from recycled cooking oil – with optimal flight paths, electrified airport vehicles and its newest plane slashed emissions. BA said it had offset the CO2 produced, making the flight carbon-neutral. Continue reading...

Coal plants being warmed up as market prices surge to £2,500 per MWh from a norm of £40A major fire has forced the shutdown of one of Britain’s most important power cables importing electricity from France as the UK faces a supply crunch and record high market prices.National Grid was forced to evacuate staff from the site of the IFA high-voltage power cable, which brings electricity from France to a converter station in Kent, where 12 fire engines attended the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Continue reading...

Scientist compares bloom caused by iron particles in smoke aerosols to ‘the entire Sahara desert turning into a productive grassland’

Despite protests from locals and Green councillors, wildlife haven will become hard courts at cost of £266,000A wildflower meadow containing 130 different flowering plants, dragonflies and rare bats that sprung up on Norwich’s last public grass tennis courts has been bulldozed.Despite protests from local people and Green councillors, all-weather hard courts with floodlights and fencing are being installed in Heigham Park, where species including whiskered and brown long-eared bats, pygmy shrews, hedgehogs and 18 species of dragonfly have been recorded. Continue reading...

Insulate Britain environmental campaigners target London traffic during morning rush-hourMore than 70 environmental protesters have been arrested after they blocked traffic on Britain’s busiest motorway for the second time in three days.Activists from Insulate Britain staged the demonstration at several sections of the M25 in London during the morning rush-hour on Wednesday, causing long delays. Continue reading...

Retailer also plans to slash carbon emissions and eliminate single-use plastics from its operations by 2027Primark has committed to making all of its clothes from recycled or more sustainably sourced materials within a decade, promising the strategy will not lead to price rises.The retailer has also pledged to make clothes that can be “recyclable by design” by 2027. Only a quarter of the clothing it sells is made from recycled or sustainably sourced materials. Continue reading...

National disaster declared as crops fail after poor rains and locusts, while ethnic conflicts add to crisisAn estimated 2.1 million Kenyans face starvation due to a drought in half the country, which is affecting harvests.The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said people living in 23 counties across the arid north, northeastern and coastal parts of the country will be in “urgent need” of food aid over the next six months, after poor rains between March and May this year. Continue reading...

CSIRO entomologist Bryan Lessard says the soldier flies look like ‘little gems buzzing around the forest floor’

Research disproves perception young people want to save planet while older people do not careA fake generational war over the climate crisis has distorted public thinking and political strategy, when in fact older generations are just as worried about the issue as younger people, according to new research.The idea that young people are ecowarriors, battling against selfish older generations is a common trope in representations of the environment movement. It has been stoked by instances including Time magazine naming Greta Thunberg their person of the year in 2019, for being a “standard bearer in a generational battle”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: study also shows ‘banana bread’ heard more in 2020 than ‘wind power’ and ‘solar power’ combined“Cake” was mentioned 10 times more often on UK television shows than “climate change” in 2020, data has revealed. The research showed “banana bread” was a more frequently heard term than “wind power” and “solar power” combined.The report, from albert, a Bafta-backed sustainability project, also found that individual action, such as recycling, was far more frequently featured than issues that are much bigger drivers of the climate crisis such as energy and transport. Continue reading...

New space technology will allow traditional owners to predict where cattle and buffalo are going and cull them or fence off important sites

Many Faroese horrified by what Sea Shepherd group claims was largest such massacre in the islands’ history• Story contains graphic image that some may find distressing.Even the staunchest defenders of traditional whaling in the Faroe Islands have condemned the “cruel and unnecessary” massacre on Sunday of a superpod of nearly 1,500 dolphins, which were driven into shallow waters of the Skálabotnur beach on the island of Eysturoy and left writhing for hours before being killed.The Sea Shepherd group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese “Grind” hunt since the 1980s, has claimed Sunday’s hunt was “the largest single killing of dolphins or pilot whales in the islands’ history”, with more animals perishing than in an entire season at the infamous “Cove” at Taiji, Japan. Continue reading...

Regions ‘disproportionately affected’ by climate risk but enhancing current emissions reduction programs would help, Ernst & Young analysis shows

National energy audit challenges Morrison government claim Australia doing more to combat the climate crisis than other nations

Australia should consider lifting unemployment benefits and greater cuts to emissions, 2021 economic survey says

To meet climate promises, Boris Johnson must redirect billions from biomass energy into real renewables, says Elly PepperI was pleased to read your article exposing government bias against genuine renewables (UK ministers ‘met fossil fuel firms nine times as often as clean energy ones’, 10 September). The dirty energy industry still has Boris Johnson’s government completely under its thumb, despite the climate and biodiversity crises we are facing.Over the past year, Johnson has repeatedly promised to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Yet the UK remains Europe’s top subsidiser of biomass electricity, which is made by logging our planet’s forests and burning the trees in power stations. Enormous sums of money flow to Drax and others because the UK has wrongly defined biomass energy as “green” despite the objection of scientists, communities and public interest organisations. The reality is that just like burning fossil fuels, burning trees for electricity pumps enormous amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and exacerbates climate change. It also results in the logging of forests that we need to suck up and store carbon, threatens wildlife, harms vulnerable communities and emits deadly air pollution. Continue reading...

Introduction of Glanville fritillary leads to emergence of three new species on to Baltic Sea islandWhen caterpillars of a beautiful butterfly were introduced on to the tiny island of Sottunga in the Åland archipelago, scientists hoped to study how the emerging butterflies would disperse across the landscape.But researchers did not realise that their introduction of the Glanville fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) led to the emergence of three other species on to the Baltic Sea island, which sprang out of the butterfly like Russian dolls. Continue reading...

Project to reverse Victorian-era reclamation creates rich, marshy land that can lock in carbonThe herons and little egrets have already begun to hunt in the muddy shallows and the hope is that within a few years, rarer wading birds such as curlew and mammals including otters and harvest mice will appear.But the project to allow river water from the Tamar, the iconic boundary between Devon and Cornwall, back on to a chunk of land that was turned into farmland in Victorian times, is about much more than attracting wildlife. Continue reading...

As the university sheds its fossil fuel investments, some argue it’s dangerous to limit leverage over oil and gas companiesEven as climate activists celebrated Harvard University’s promise to cleanse its multibillion-dollar investment fund of holdings in fossil fuel companies last week, others dedicated to the fight against the climate crisis wondered if the real winner was the oil industry.Harvard bowed to pressure from students and advocacy groups who likened their campaign to the push to divest from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. The group, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, described the decision as a “massive victory” and “proof that activism works, plain and simple”. Continue reading...

Prime minister confirms he will travel to Washington this month in first visit since Biden was elected

Peter Gabriel and Cara Delevingne also collaborate on picture stories to highlight species and ecosystem loss and fund projectsRicky Gervais is the latest celebrity to join an ambitious year-long storytelling campaign called Rewriting Extinction with the launch of a comic called Bullfight.Since it launched in June, more than 300 celebrities, environmental experts and storytellers have collaborated to design more than 150 comics that tackle issues such as deforestation and overconsumption. Gervais created Bullfight with the artist Rob Steen. “A beautiful animal, literally tortured to death as entertainment. Psychotic. Fuck anyone who enjoys or defends it,” said the actor and writer. Continue reading...

Report by climate groups found more than three-quarters of projects were discarded after the deal was signedThe global pipeline of new coal power plants has collapsed since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, according to research that suggests the end of the polluting energy source is in sight.The report found that more than three-quarters of the world’s planned plants have been scrapped since the climate deal was signed, meaning 44 countries no longer have any future coal power plans. Continue reading...

Global survey finds most 16-25 year olds worry a lot about the future, and many feel failed by governmentsFour in 10 young people around the world are hesitant to have children as a result of the climate crisis, and fear that governments are doing too little to prevent climate catastrophe, a poll in 10 countries has found.Nearly six in 10 young people, aged 16 to 25, were very or extremely worried about climate change, according to the biggest scientific study yet on climate anxiety and young people, published on Tuesday. A similar number said governments were not protecting them, the planet, or future generations, and felt betrayed by the older generation and governments. Continue reading...

Experts say effective subsidies for new gas boilers run contrary to government targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissionsEnergy bill-payers will be asked to subsidise the installation of tens of thousands of new gas boilers across the UK under government plans, at a time when experts say gas boilers should be urgently phased out.Experts said it was baffling that ministers should be promoting the installation of new fossil fuel boilers, instead of low-carbon dioxide alternatives such as heat pumps. Continue reading...

Plants called on to supply electricity amid fall in wind generation and surge in price of gasOwners of the UK’s last remaining coal power stations are in line to be paid record sums to keep the lights on as energy prices reach fresh highs, and could be pushed even higher by lower wind power.Coal plants have been called on to supply power steadily in recent months, through one of the least windy summers on record since 1961 and sharply rising prices in the wholesale energy market. Continue reading...

Washington state agriculture department to eradicate nest of Asian giant hornets, which can ‘slaughter’ a beehive in hoursA third Asian giant hornet nest was discovered in Washington state, a day after entomologists discovered a second.Related: 'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight Continue reading...