DoJ says decision to approve project in northern Alaska was ‘reasonable and consistent’ and should be allowed to go aheadJoe Biden’s administration is facing an onslaught of criticism from environmentalists after opting to defend the approval of a massive oil and gas drilling project in the frigid northern reaches of Alaska.In a briefing filed in federal court on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said the Trump-era decision to allow the project in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska’s north slope was “reasonable and consistent” with the law and should be allowed to go ahead. Continue reading...

Nature’s financial value must be considered to avoid ‘irreversible’ degradation to biodiversity and landThe world needs to quadruple its annual investment in nature if the climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises are to be tackled by the middle of the century, according to a new UN report.Investing just 0.1% of global GDP every year in restorative agriculture, forests, pollution management and protected areas to close a $4.1tn (£2.9tn) financial gap by 2050 could avoid the breakdown of natural ecosystem “services” such as clean water, food and flood protection, the report said. Continue reading...

Court and investor defeats over carbon emissions a historic turning point, say campaigners and lawyersA “cataclysmic day” for three major oil companies in which investors rebelled over climate fears and a court ordered fossil fuel emissions to be slashed has sparked hope among campaigners, investors, lawyers and academics who said the historic decisions marked a turning point in efforts to tackle the climate crisis.A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered Shell to cut carbon emissions from its oil and gas by 45% by 2030. A tiny activist investor group simultaneously won two places on ExxonMobil’s board and Chevron’s management was defeated when investors voted in favour of forcing the group to cut its carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Study finds change would shrink emissions by 127m tonnes, helping country meet climate targetsThe introduction of a four-day working week with no loss of pay would dramatically reduce the UK’s carbon footprint and help the country meet its binding climate targets, according to a report.The study found that moving to a four-day week by 2025 would shrink the UK’s emissions by 127m tonnes, a reduction of more than 20% and equivalent to taking the country’s entire private car fleet off the road. Continue reading...

Oil-producing nation aims plant powered by wind and solar energy to be at full capacity by 2038Oman is planning to build one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the world in a move to make the oil-producing nation a leader in renewable energy technology.Construction is scheduled to start in 2028 in Al Wusta governorate on the Arabian Sea. It will be built in stages, with the aim to be at full capacity by 2038, powered by 25 gigawatts of wind and solar energy. Continue reading...

Jane Gilbert urges greater federal and state response to lethal threat posed by rising temperaturesMiami’s new chief heat officer has called for greater federal and state action on the lethal threat posed by rising temperatures after becoming the first official in the US appointed to focus solely on heatwaves.Jane Gilbert, who has been tasked by Miami-Dade county with coordinating and accelerating efforts to protect lives from extreme heat, said that more focus was needed on what has been called the “silent killer” of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Rising ocean temperatures caused by climate crisis increasing number of cyclones and intensity of storms, say expertsIndia’s cyclone season is being made more intense by the rapidly heating Indian Ocean, scientists have warned.Last week India was battered by Cyclone Tauktae, an unusually strong cyclone in the Arabian Sea, resulting in widespread disruption. This week, another severe storm, Cyclone Yaas, formed in the Bay of Bengal, leading to more than a million people being evacuated into safe shelters. Continue reading...

Nestlé and UK supermarkets sign open letter calling for G7 nations to show leadership this JuneMajor packaging producers and environmental charities have called for the G7 summit to agree to a global treaty on plastic to tackle the waste crisis.Nestlé, one of the largest creators of plastic waste, has joined the supermarkets Aldi, Iceland and the Co-op as signatories in an open letter that supports a binding worldwide treaty to tackle plastic pollution. Continue reading...

Industry laments a missed opportunity to put Britain at the forefront of a growing movement towards alternative protein

Eight teenagers, along with 86-year-old nun, launched case to prevent the approval of a massive coalmineThe federal court of Australia has found the environment minister, Sussan Ley, has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis in a judgment hailed by lawyers and teenagers who brought the case as a world first.Eight teenagers and an octogenarian nun had sought an injunction to prevent Ley approving a proposal by Whitehaven Coal to expand the Vickery coalmine in northern New South Wales, arguing the minister had a common law duty of care to protect younger people against future harm from climate change. Continue reading...

Taxes of €325m a year should be used to fund zero-carbon aviation technology, report suggestsClimate-heating emissions from private jet flights have soared in Europe since 2005, according to a report. It calls for wealthy fliers to pay ticket taxes of €325m a year to fund the acceleration of zero-carbon aviation technology.Carbon emissions from private flights rose by 31% from 2005-19, the report says, and private aviation had rebounded to pre-pandemic levels by August 2020, when 60% of public flights were grounded. Continue reading...

The state and the Biden administration have agreed to open federal waters off central and northern coasts to new windfarmsCalifornia has taken a major step towards launching the first commercial offshore wind energy program on the west coast, a project that would open the state’s waters to hundreds of floating turbines and could eventually power 1.6m homes.The state announced an agreement with the US government on Tuesday that would open federal waters off California’s central and northern coasts to new windfarms, and put the state and the country in a better position to meet ambitious climate targets. Continue reading...

Exxon loses two board seats to activist hedge fund

Campaigners say bill that ministers call ‘ambitious’ fails to protect green spaces, air quality or wildlife, and is ‘riddled with loopholes’Ministers have been accused of hypocrisy in bringing forward a “toothless” environment bill that will fail to protect against developers concreting over valuable green space, lack provisions for improving air quality, and contain what campaigners said were inadequate protections for wildlife.The government voted down amendments to its flagship environment bill on Wednesday that would have strengthened the powers of a watchdog, given local communities more say over planning and development, and expanded protections for habitats. Continue reading...

Ecuador confirms turtle found two years ago on Fernandina Island is a Chelonoidis phantasticus speciesEcuador has confirmed that a giant tortoise found in 2019 in the Galápagos Islands is a species considered extinct a century ago.The Galápagos national park is preparing an expedition to search for more of the giant tortoises in an attempt to save the species. Continue reading...

Environmental body calls for investment in nature-based solutions to stem rise in dischargeThere will be a rise in the scale of sewage discharge into rivers and waterways due to extreme weather events as a result of climate change, MPs have been told.Nature-based solutions must be a top priority for the government and the water regulator, Ofwat, when it comes to water companies’ investment over the coming decades. By 2050, MPs heard, the English sewerage system would face a 55% increase in water flowing through the network as a result of increased urbanisation and the removal of natural surfaces, which help water drain away. Continue reading...

Oil giant told plans should be brought into line with Paris climate agreementA court in the Hague has ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by the end of 2030 compared to 2019 levels, in a landmark case brought by Friends of the Earth and over 17,000 co-plaintiffs.The oil giant’s sustainability policy was found to be insufficiently “concrete” by the Dutch court in an unprecedented ruling that will have wide implications for the energy industry and other polluting multinationals. Continue reading...

Firm announces plan to expand renewables business overseas in run-up to Glasgow hosting Cop26SSE has promised to spend about £2bn on low-carbon energy projects over the next year and expand its renewable energy business overseas.As the UK prepares to host the UN climate change conference in Glasgow, Cop26, in November, the energy company set out its plan for the next “pivotal year” for climate action alongside better-than-expected annual results, after limiting the financial toll of the coronavirus pandemic to £170m for the year. Continue reading...

Explosion and fire that caused widespread power outages occurred in one of the state’s youngest coal-fired plants, CS Energy’s Callide power station, which is expected to be closed for a yearThe power plant explosion and fire that caused widespread blackouts in Queensland occurred in one of the state’s youngest coal-fired generators, which broke down eight separate times last year.Queensland government-owned power company CS Energy says one of two units at the Callide C power station – a “supercritical” plant built in 2001 that is often championed as newer and cleaner than older stations – suffered “major damage” from the fire. Continue reading...

More than 3,000 animals die on the country’s BR-262 road each year, but legal action by activists is forcing authorities to take noticeThe last time Schwartz’s tracking monitor registered his location, he was standing at the edge of the “highway of death”. A massive male giant anteater, he was roaming his habitat in the Brazilian Cerrado – a vast tropical savanna that neighbours the world’s largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal – when he disappeared next to the federal highway officially known as the BR-262. No more GPS datapoints, collected every 20 minutes, were recorded.But biologists and veterinarians from the Institute for the Conservation of Wild Animals’ (ICAS) Anteaters and Highways Project, who had placed the collar on him, were sure of what happened. Continue reading...

MP leads call for amendment to environment bill to root out illegal deforestation from supply chainsBritish banks provided at least £900m in finance last year to companies involved in deforestation overseas, research has shown, putting pressure on the government to include financial institutions in plans to force companies to root out illegal deforestation from their supply chains.The environment bill will be debated in parliament on Wednesday and will include requirements for consumer goods companies to carry out due diligence on their suppliers, to ensure they are not selling goods linked to deforestation overseas. Continue reading...

Move follows report saying online retailer generated 210,000 tonnes of packaging that ended up in oceansAmazon is under pressure to reduce its plastic footprint, as shareholders prepare to vote on Wednesday on a resolution calling for it to disclose how much of its plastic packaging ends up in the environment.The resolution, co-proposed by the activist shareholder group As You Sow, calls on the world’s largest online retailer to provide a report by December 2021 showing how much plastic packaging is attributable to its activities, and what actions it has taken to tackle the issue. Amazon’s board of directors have recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal. Continue reading...

Managing verges for nature would create combined area the size of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh for wildflowersRoad verges covering 1.2% of Great Britain, an area the size of Dorset, could be used to grow wildflower meadows and create habitat for wildlife, a study says.In a report outlining the scale of road verges in England, Scotland and Wales, researchers from the University of Exeter used Google Earth and Google Street View to estimate that verges account for about 1,000 sq miles (2,579 sq km) of the UK’s land. Continue reading...

Vicious circle of climate impacts, trauma and depression must be broken, say scientistsThe climate crisis is damaging the mental health of hundreds of millions of people around the world but the huge costs are hidden, scientists have warned.Heatwaves are increasing rates of suicide, extreme weather such as floods and wildfires are leaving victims traumatised, and loss of food security, homes and livelihoods is resulting in stress and depression. Anxiety about the future is also harming people’s mental health, especially the young, the scientists said in a report. Continue reading...

The Lowy Institute’s annual survey of sentiment on climate action found strong support for net zero emissions by 2050 and a ban on new coalminesThe Morrison government is under increasing pressure to act on the climate crisis, with a new poll showing seven in 10 Australians want the Coalition to lock in stronger commitments in the lead-up to this year’s Glasgow summit.The Lowy Institute’s annual survey of sentiment on climate action finds strong domestic support for Australia committing to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and majority support for a ban on new coalmines. Continue reading...

Renewables are getting cheaper, but fossil fuels are still more lucrative. To reach net zero, we’ll need radical interventionLast week, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world’s leading energy authority, laid bare the scale of the challenge in keeping the world on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050: a massive acceleration in renewable energy development and, starkly, no new oil, gas or coal development. None.For as long as coal remained cheapest, the IEA consistently predicted that it would continue to be the dominant energy source in electricity generation. Now that renewables, and solar in particular, generate electricity as cheaply – and often cheaper – than hydrocarbons, the IEA considers a rapid energy transition more achievable. It finds encouragement in the cost of the respective energy types: in economic terms, the IEA’s is a “cost-centric” worldview. Continue reading...

Shutting Turów lignite mine would cause thousands of job losses, says development ministerPoland’s government has defied an injunction by the top European Union court that ordered the immediate closure of a major brown coalmine, with officials saying it would shake the nation’s energy system and lead to the loss of thousands of jobs.The country’s development minister, Jarosław Gowin, said Poland would not shut the lignite mine in Turów, on the border with Germany and the Czech Republic, but instead was engaged in “very intensive diplomatic and law-related efforts” to secure undisturbed operation of the mine and connected power plant that generates 7% of Poland‘s energy. Continue reading...

Renowned urban farmer Karen Washington coined the phrase ‘food apartheid’. Now the Bronx-based activist says a shift of power is urgentKaren Washington is a New York-based community activist and urban farmer who coined the term “food apartheid” to describe the structural inequalities in America’s food system. It’s by design not accident, she argues, that people of color are denied access to nutritious affordable food, farmland and business opportunities in the food industry.For more than 35 years, Washington has pushed the predominantly white food justice movement to tackle the root causes of these inequities through transformative grassroots action and political pressure. She is the co-founder of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, the Black Urban Growers and most recently the Black Farmer Fund, a community wealth building organization investing in Black food entrepreneurs. Continue reading...

Increasing blanket of mucus-like substance in water threatens coral and fishing industryWhen seen from above, it looks like a brush of beige swirled across the dark blue waters of the Sea of Marmara. Up close, it resembles a creamy, gelatinous blanket of quicksand. Now scientists are warning that the substance, known as sea snot, is on the rise as a result of global heating.The gloopy, mucus-like substance had not been recorded in Turkish waters before 2007. It is created as a result of prolonged warm temperatures and calm weather and in areas with abundant nutrients in the water. Continue reading...

New bill will enforce fines on UK-based companies that fail to cut links to illegally deforested landTrade associations representing leading food suppliers have questioned the need for new regulations to protect forests overseas, which will come before parliament in the environment bill on Wednesday.The much-delayed bill will contain provisions to force UK-based companies to examine their supply chains in depth and ensure that they are free of links to land illegally deforested overseas. Continue reading...

Emissions from projects and companies backed by the City are nearly double those of the UKThe amount of CO2 production financed by Britain’s banks and asset managers is nearly double the UK’s annual carbon emissions, according to a new report.The study, published by environmental campaign groups Greenpeace and WWF, shows the City provided loans and investments for projects and companies that emitted 805m tonnes of CO2 in 2019. That is 1.8 times the UK’s own annual net emissions for the same year, which totalled 455m tonnes when discounting aviation and shipping, sectors that the UK government also does not include in its emissions calculations. Continue reading...

Bolsonaro’s ‘destruction package’ is seen as the greatest threat to the rainforest since he took powerBritish supermarkets will look at alternatives to Brazilian soy if president Jair Bolsonaro and congress passes new legislation this week to weaken protections for the Amazon rainforest.Retailers and industry groups told the Guardian they will seek different suppliers and accelerate efforts to find soy substitutes if Brazilian politicians pass bills to legitimise land-grabbing and loosen controls on new projects. Continue reading...

Study of Henderson Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands finds plastic acts as an insulator, making sand hotter and leading to more female turtle offspringAccumulated plastic debris on the beaches of two remote island groups increased local maximum temperatures by nearly 2.5C, new research has found.A study of Henderson Island in the South Pacific and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a remote territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean, found that plastic pollution acts as an insulator, increasing the temperature of the underlying sand. Continue reading...

Conservationists thrilled at the sighting of the wild predator, last seen in the country in the 1980s“It was a huge surprise,” said Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina. “I was incredulous. An incredible feeling of so much happiness. I didn’t know if I should try to follow it or rush back to our station to tell the others.”The cause of the excitement was the sighting, last week, of a wild giant river otter – an animal feared extinct in the country due to habitat loss and hunting – on the Bermejo River in Impenetrable national park, in north-east Argentina’s Chaco province. The last sighting of a giant otter in the wild in Argentina was in the 1980s. On the Bermejo, none have been seen for more than a century. Continue reading...

Court hears Coalition made a ‘legal error’ in how it approved plans for miner to pump 12.5bn litres a year from a Queensland riverA key approval for Adani’s Carmichael coal project has been overturned by the federal court, which ruled the federal government made a “legal error” in the way it assessed and approved plans for the miner to pump 12.5bn litres of water a year from a Queensland river.The court case – brought by the Australian Conservation Foundation – challenged the government’s decision not to apply the “water trigger” to its assessment of Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme. Continue reading...

More than half of offshore energy jobs could be in low carbon sectors, including wind and renewablesThe UK’s half-century legacy as a leading offshore oil and gas hub will be eclipsed by the North Sea’s fast-growing green energy industry within the next decade, according to new research.An academic study by the Robert Gordon University, based in the oil industry capital of Aberdeen in Scotland, has found that by 2030 most of the UK’s offshore energy jobs will be in the low carbon energy industry. Continue reading...

North Yorkshire power plant’s carbon-reduction plan could cost £31.7bn over 25 years, claims climate thinktankThe plan put forward by Drax to fit its wood-burning power plant with carbon-capture technology could cost British energy bill payers £31.7bn over 25 years, or £500 a household, according to research.The climate thinktank Ember said that Drax was already on track to earn £10bn in subsidies through energy bills by burning wood chips, and warned that the cost of supporting its future bioenergy plans could climb to more than the cost of subsidising Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant. Continue reading...

Complex slated for South Side’s Jackson Park prompts fears that low-income Black residents will be displacedConstruction of the Obama Presidential Center is expected to begin this fall in Chicago after years of debate over whether the complex will benefit low-income residents of the surrounding neighborhoods.It will be located in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago – one of the most historically significant parks in the city, and originally designed for the 27 million visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair. The roughly $500m Obama Presidential Center (OPC) will feature a museum, playground, public library and an open plaza. Continue reading...

Two big hurricanes, a paralyzing deep freeze, and now flooding rainfall – is Lake Charles’ year an omen of a deepening crisis?As biblical rains pounded Lake Charles in Louisiana last week, beleaguered residents could be forgiven for thinking they have lived in the most unfortunate city in the United States over the past 14 months.Related: Can recycled glass help restore Louisiana’s eroding coastline? Continue reading...

A major £30m project will test trees, peat, rock chips, and charcoal as ways of removing climate-heating emissionsClimate-heating carbon dioxide will be sucked from the air using trees, peat, rock chips, and charcoal in major new trials across the UK.Scientists said the past failure to rapidly cut emissions means some CO will need to be removed from the atmosphere to reach net zero by 2050 and halt the climate crisis. The £30m project funded by UK Research and Innovation will test ways to do this effectively and affordably on over 100 hectares (247 acres) of land, making it one of the biggest trials in the world. Continue reading...

Call for environment bill returning to parliament to be strengthened to tackle global plastic waste crisisCampaigners are urging the UK government to ban the export of plastic waste to all countries, invest in a domestic recycling industry, and set a binding target for plastic reduction.Activists are pushing for the environment bill – which is returning to parliament on Wednesday – to be strengthened to tackle more effectively the global plastic waste crisis. Continue reading...

Legal & General Investment Management, Britain’s biggest fund manager, piles pressure on oil firmBritain’s biggest fund manager has piled pressure on Shell after joining a shareholder rebellion over the oil company’s carbon-cutting plans, saying that they lack credibility and the ambition required to combat global heating.It has emerged that Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), one of the oldest fund managers in the City of London, was among investors behind a significant shareholder vote against Shell’s climate transition targets at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Lobby group publishes ‘vision’ for decarbonising economy and creating 240,000 jobs

Fossil fuel and other emissions not linked to the land and agriculture increased by 7% over the past 15 years, analysis finds

Turkey is the latest country to reject the role of world’s dustbin. With their environment bill, ministers have a chance to end this vandalismThe international plastics recycling market is broken. It is doubtful whether it ever worked. For most of the last decade, China was the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials, some of which were used in manufacturing. But it banned these imports as part of a “beautiful China” policy aimed at improving the environment.Malaysia was the next country to fight back against being treated as the “dumping ground of the world” – as its environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, put it in 2019. More than 200 facilities were closed, and thousands of tonnes of waste returned, amid growing evidence of the involvement of organised crime in the global waste business. Now Turkey has rejected the role of international rubbish bin: after a Greenpeace investigation found plastics dumped in rivers, on beaches and in illegal waste mountains, it announced that most plastic waste imports (which included 209,642 tonnes from the UK in 2020) will be banned in six weeks’ time. Continue reading...

Rob Higgs alleges plainclothes officers turned up unannounced at his premises

More than 283,000 back call to rid Spain’s coastline of smoke and discarded cigarette buttsA petition signed by more than 283,000 people calling on Spain to ban smoking at all its beaches has been delivered to the country’s environment minister.For more than two years the organisation No Fumadores (No Smokers) has been gathering signatures aimed at transforming Spain’s 3,084 miles (4,964km) of coastline into areas free of cigarette smoke and discarded cigarette butts. Continue reading...

Scottish National party says tariff-free imports of hormone-treated beef ‘would represent a bitter betrayal of rural communities’The UK government was facing a backlash on Saturday over its plans for a trade deal with Australia, which have led to anger from farmers and environmentalists and calls for the Scottish secretary to resign.Farming unions said that proposals for a zero-tariff and zero-quota trade deal would drive farmers out of business, while green groups said allowing Australian hormone-treated beef would breach the Conservatives’ manifesto commitments. Continue reading...

Ford unveiled its new F-150 Lightning pickup this week – but the success of EVs in this car-loving nation is far from certainIn Detroit, auto plants have for decades churned out trucks built with Motor City steel and fueled by gasoline. But this week’s rollout of the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck offered a vision of the future in America’s automotive heartland: aluminum-clad pickups running off of electric powertrains with lithium batteries.Related: Ford launching electric F-150 truck in ‘huge’ shift for low-emission vehicles Continue reading...

Skinks and geckos saved from disaster on Mauritian islets have successfully bred in zooEndangered reptiles rescued from Mauritian islands that were contaminated by a devastating oil spill have bred successfully in captivity for the first time, raising hopes that populations can be restored to the wild.Bojer’s skink – a small, shiny reptile only found on tiny islets off Mauritius – has been bred by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust scientists at Jersey zoo. Two other imperilled species, the lesser night gecko and Bouton’s skink, have also been brought to the zoo, with the geckos breeding successfully as well. Continue reading...