Environment | The Guardian

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...

Parents and grandparents are the most likely to try to minimise their environmental footprintYoung people are often dubbed “Generation Green” – millennials and teenagers championing climate action and environmental values, often with a well-aimed dig at older generations who have failed to prevent a climate catastrophe.Yet it is their baby boomer parents and grandparents who are most likely to act in support of green issues, according to a national survey. Continue reading...

Stage hands, technicians and joiners sign up to retrofitting scheme to tackle climate crisis

New road user charges sends a very strange signal and will set back efforts to reduce emissions from the transport sector

Aboriginal title holders are alarmed that Fortune Agribusiness is seeking to use more than 40,000 megalitres of water each year for irrigationA private agribusiness is seeking to use more than 40,000 megalitres of water each year in arid central Australia to irrigate what it says will be one of the country’s biggest fruit and vegetable operations.If granted, it would be the single largest private water licence allocation in the Northern Territory, which does not currently have a water pricing regime and does not charge developers for water. Continue reading...

Administration finishing off regulatory moves to lock in drilling, loosen wildlife protections and roll back pollution standardsDonald Trump is using the dying embers of his US presidency to hastily push through a procession of environmental protection rollbacks that critics claim will cement his legacy as an unusually destructive force against the natural world.Related: Trump officials rush plans to drill in Arctic refuge before Biden inauguration Continue reading...

Photovoltaic panels pay off for those who get feed-in tariffs but home installations have dried up without incentivesThis year’s electricity output from the solar panels on the house roof is already well past the previous record since their installation 10 years ago. Part of the reason is the exceptionally sunny spring, plus the lack of pollution following lockdowns. Particularly significant in Bedfordshire is the curtailment of air traffic that in certain weather conditions used to leave contrails crisscrossing an otherwise clear blue sky.A decade ago photovoltaic solar panels were expensive and generous government feed-in tariffs were needed to encourage the industry. Those who took the plunge should have got their money back by now and, if my local estate agent is to be believed, added several thousand pounds to the value of their property. Solar panels give a home an income, often more than £1,000 a year. Continue reading...

Objection to virtual meetings threatens next year’s conference in China, say environmental campaignersBrazil has been accused of obstructing global efforts to protect nature following a row over the use of virtual meeting technology to overcome Covid-19 restrictions.The dispute threatens a key United Nations conference in Kunming, China, next year, which aims to set new targets to protect the Earth’s natural life support systems. Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world, including baby bears and a stowaway owl Continue reading...

Pork giant Smithfield has settled with North Carolina residents who sued over stench, flies and truck traffic from Kinlaw FarmsA US judge has issued a blistering condemnation of industrial farming practices. The judgment comes as one US meat giant finally settles after a six-year legal battle with plaintiffs who sued the company over the stench, flies, buzzards and truck traffic coming from its industrial swine farms in North Carolina.J Harvie Wilkinson III, one of the judges in a case that pitted locals against the Smithfield subsidiary formerly known as Murphy-Brown, decried the “outrageous conditions” at Kinlaw Farms, the operation at the center of the lawsuit – “conditions that there is no reason to suppose were unique to that facility”. Continue reading...

Climate experts say UK should aim to cut emissions by more than 70% as crucial summit loomsBoris Johnson is facing a fresh test of his green commitments as the UK prepares to submit its national plan on future carbon emissions, before crucial UN climate negotiations.Pressure is growing on the prime minister to come up with an ambitious national target – known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC) – on cutting emissions substantially by 2030, because the UK will host the postponed Cop26 summit next year. Continue reading...

Ancient lungwort translocated from fallen oak to nearby trees in trust’s largest-ever moveJust as an art gallery would protect its collection of fine and rare paintings, the National Trust is attempting to save one of England’s rarest lichens.The lungwort, a survivor of the ancient wildwood that grew in Britain after the last ice age, has been painstakingly transferred from a fallen oak to nearby trees. Continue reading...

Research finds young people in England feel growing distress about the future of the planetMore than half of child and adolescent psychiatrists in England are seeing patients distressed about the state of the environment, a survey has revealed.The findings showed that the climate crisis is taking a toll on the mental health of young people. The levels of eco-anxiety observed were notably higher among the young than the general population, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which has just launched its first resources to help children and their parents cope with fears about environmental breakdown. Continue reading...

Premier will revert to old land-clearing laws until Coalition can draft new policyGladys Berejiklian has sacked a parliamentary secretary for voting against her government’s controversial land clearing bill and said she will revert to old koala protection laws until a new policy can be drafted.The New South Wales premier made the comment on Thursday night after the Liberal MP Catherine Cusack crossed the floor to send the local land services amendment (miscellaneous) bill to a committee to debate proposed amendments, delaying its passage until next year. Continue reading...

Business secretary urged to lead by example before UN climate talks in GlasgowLabour has accused the government of being reckless with Britain’s international climate credibility by continuing to consider financial support for overseas fossil fuel projects before UN climate talks in Glasgow next year.The shadow climate minister, Matthew Pennycook, called on the government to end all financing for new foreign fossil fuel projects immediately or risk undermining its own commitment to tackling the global climate crisis. Continue reading...

Climate groups plan to camp in Washington DC in protest of Biden’s hires of key staff with connections to the oil and gas industryProgressive climate activists plan to occupy the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC today in protest of Joe Biden’s early hires of key staff with connections to the oil and gas industry. Continue reading...

Farmers must still destroy animals before midnight, despite health ministry saying variant has not been found since SeptemberThe Covid-19 mink variant that led to a cull of all mink in Denmark and the resignation of the country’s agriculture minister on Wednesday, is “very likely extinct”, said Denmark’s health ministry.The cull was sparked by research from one of Denmark’s public health bodies, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which showed that a mink variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus called C5 was harder for antibodies to neutralise and posed a potential threat to vaccine efficacy. Continue reading...

After single sighting in 20 years of surveys, new expedition and analysis bring 58When the Antarctic blue whale – the largest and loudest animal on the planet – was all but wiped out by whaling 50 years ago, the waters around South Georgia fell silent.Twenty years of dedicated whale surveys from ships off the sub-Antarctic island between 1998 and 2018 resulted in only a single blue whale sighting. But a whale expedition this year and analysis by an international research team resulted in 58 blue whale sightings and numerous acoustic detections, raising hopes that the critically endangered mammal is finally recovering five decades after whaling was banned. Continue reading...

Lord Goldsmith says Britain, the second biggest per capita producer of plastic waste, could play leading role in tackling crisisBritain has thrown its weight behind a new global agreement to tackle the plastic pollution crisis, which Lord Goldsmith said would go “far beyond” existing international agreements.This week, the Guardian revealed there is growing support for such a treaty internationally, but that neither the UK nor the US, the world’s biggest per capita producers of plastic waste, had yet pledged their support. Continue reading...