Environment | The Guardian

‘Good old days’ of low gas prices long gone making role as ‘transition fuel’ unfeasible, Grattan Institute reports

A Japanese tradition could replace sparkly paper this festive season as lockdown prompts a green rethinkChristmas wouldn’t be Christmas without mountains of glittery wrapping paper covering the floor on 25 December. Or would it?A rise in interest in crafting, coupled with a greater awareness of the environment under lockdown, has led to a surge in interest in furoshiki – the Japanese art of fabric wrapping – this year. Continue reading...

Farm to supply skins to make handbags and shoes would be one of the biggest in Australia under plan approved by Northern Territory governmentThe high-end French fashion brand Hermès wants to build one of Australia’s biggest crocodile farms in the Northern Territory that would hold up to 50,000 saltwater crocodiles to be turned into luxury goods such as handbags and shoes.But the proposal has come under fire from animal welfare groups, who say other fashion brands have moved away from using exotic animal skins on cruelty grounds. Advocates told Guardian Australia they had concerns about the welfare of the crocodiles, and that farming animals for luxury goods was “no longer fashionable.” Continue reading...

Storm forecast to hit the country on Sunday morning with winds of up to 150 kphVietnamese authorities have ordered 460,000 people in the country’s central region to be ready for evacuation ahead of Typhoon Vamco, after the storm killed at least 42 people and left 20 others missing in the Philippines, state television reported.The typhoon, which is forecast to hit Vietnam on Sunday morning, could pack winds of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour as it approaches the country’s already flood-battered central coast, according to the national weather agency. Continue reading...

PM to announce measure amid raft of new environmental policies, reports sayBoris Johnson is understood to be planning to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars within a decade, with reports that the ban will be brought forward by five years.It follows the prime minister moving the cut-off date from 2040 to 2035 in February. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson has promised that every home will be powered by offshore wind by 2030Offshore windfarms risk harming delicate landscapes and vulnerable wildlife habitats if the government fails to coordinate the planning system in its push for a big expansion of clean energy, green campaigners have warned.The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has promised that every home will be powered by offshore wind by 2030, which will require dozens of new sites for large turbines around the coast. Continue reading...

Accreditation process putting off builders and installers from plan to improve energy efficiency of homes in EnglandThe government’s plan to insulate England’s draughty homes is faltering because builders and installers are failing to sign up, leaving thousands of households unable to access the £3bn green home grants.Offering up to £5,000 – or £10,000 for those on low incomes – for energy efficiency measures such as insulation and heat pumps, the scheme is intended to help people save on gas and electricity bills and cut carbon emissions, as well as creating thousands of green jobs. It was unveiled in July as part of an economic rescue package for the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Research reveals how ground-nesting birds frequently scared from nest by off-lead canines

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including Exmoor ponies and mongoose wars Continue reading...

People encouraged to stay at home for Hindu festival, with Delhi particularly affected

UK overseas territory Tristan da Cunha’s new marine protected area will be fourth largest sanctuary of its kindA community of 250 people on one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth has made a significant contribution to marine wildlife conservation by banning bottom-trawling fishing, deep-sea mining and other harmful activities from its waters.The government of Tristan da Cunha, a volcanic archipelago in the south Atlantic and part of the UK’s overseas territories, has announced that almost 700,000 sq km of its waters will become a marine protected area (MPA), the fourth largest such sanctuary in the world. Continue reading...

Hopes rise that the Flow Country, the world’s largest carbon store, could become first peatland to win the statusAndrew Coupar has crouched down by a small pool, its surface peppered with the small stalks of bogbean. In autumn its dark green oval leaves echo the muted browns, greens and ochres of the surrounding peatland.In spring, however, the bogbean’s pink-fringed white flowers put on a remarkable display, carpeting the cluster of pools that mirror the blue skies and light clouds above and, along the horizon to west, the mountains of Sutherland. Continue reading...

Couple finds areas that once required ice-breaking ship have become open waterWhen the Arctic researchers Jacqueline Grebmeier and Lee Cooper made their annual scientific pilgrimage to frigid seas off Alaska last month, what they found was startling.Areas that were previously accessible at that time of the year only with an ice-breaking ship had become open, wavy water. Continue reading...

Swingeing cuts and lack of support hinder meaningful action, says Green councillorThe woman behind the first climate emergency declaration by a UK council says swingeing cuts and a lack of support from central government have hampered local authority attempts to tackle the escalating problem.Bristol Green party councillor Carla Denyer proposed the UK’s first climate emergency motion two years ago, committing the city council to go carbon neutral by 2030. Since then three-quarters of local authorities across the UK – as well as universities, the UK parliament and scores of other organisations – have followed suit with their own climate emergency declarations. Continue reading...

Leading scientists and campaigners say cutting emissions alone is not enough

Morrison government will establish a national disaster recovery agency to oversee federal bushfire, flood and drought bureaucracyThe Morrison government says it has accepted the 80 recommendations of the bushfire royal commission and will bring legislation to parliament that would allow it to declare a national state of emergency during times of natural disaster.It will also establish a national disaster recovery agency that will bring federal bushfire, flood and drought bureaucracy into a single agency by July next year. Continue reading...

US dropped the environmental ball under Trump, but Biden victory means the two countries can work together for a green recovery, says campaignerMa Jun experienced a strange role reversal during Donald Trump’s presidency. Over more than two decades as one of China’s top environmental campaigners, American encouragement for Beijing to cut carbon emissions and temper the damage of rapid industrialisation had been part of the background music. Ma never imagined he would see the US renege on environmental commitments while China began to face up to the challenge.“It’s been frustrating,” says Ma of the past four years as we speak on the phone, the bustle of Beijing audible in the background. “When it comes to environmental collaboration between the governments, it has been hard to do anything.” Continue reading...

Farmers found to be breaching new biosecurity rules face unlimited fines or three month prison sentencePoultry keepers across England, Scotland and Wales are facing tough new lockdown-style measures on their farms to control the spread of bird flu.It follows outbreaks of a “highly pathogenic” H5N8 strain of bird flu in Cheshire, Devon, Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire over the past two weeks. The outbreaks have been found in wild bird populations and two broiler chicken farms, where all the birds are being culled. Continue reading...

Clearwater Seafoods deal gives Mi’kmaq control of lucrative ocean stretch, as tensions remain high over First Nation fishing rightsFor generations, Indigenous peoples in Canada have watched, often in frustration, as commercial industries profit from the land and waters their ancestors once harvested. This week, however, excitement replaced irritation as a group of First Nations announced plans to scoop up one of the largest seafood companies in North America.Early this week, leaders of the Membertou and Miawpukek First Nations, both of which are Mi’kmaq communities, reached an agreement to buy Nova Scotia-based Clearwater Seafoods in a deal worth C$1bn (£580m). Heralded as the “single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada”, the landmark deal comes at a critical moment for Indigenous communities in the region, as tensions remain high over their treatied fishing rights. Continue reading...

Key goals include powering city buildings on renewables and curbing urban sprawlIt was another scorching summer this year in Tucson, Arizona, the second hottest city in the United States, where even plants adapted to the desert’s harsh conditions wilted amid record-breaking temperatures and scant rainfall.This summer was the state’s hottest on record, and in August the city clocked four days that were 43C (110F) or hotter and 26 that were over 37C (99F). Tucson temperatures are on average 2.5C (4.5F) warmer now than in 1970, a greater increase than in most other American cities, according to analysis of weather data by Climate Central. Continue reading...

Report identifies 935 firms finance industry needs to blacklist to meet Paris goalsAlmost half the companies involved in the thermal coal industry are expected to defy global climate commitments by deepening their coal interests in the coming years, according to a report.The study, by the green campaign group Urgewald, revealed that almost 1,000 companies should be blacklisted by investors because they remain tied to the thermal coal value chain almost four years after the Paris climate agreement came into effect. Continue reading...

Cambridgeshire project trials plants that thrive in more extreme weather, including sphagnum moss and bulrushA road deeply rutted by tractors and trucks winds its way across the Fens in Cambridgeshire, a flat, expansive landscape where trees are the exception, not the rule, and ditches rather than hedges divide the fields. This is England’s breadbasket, a huge food-producing region where the rich, dark soil nurtures potatoes, carrots, sugar beet and wheat.In among these intensively farmed fields are a handful of bare, black strips of land which are part of a unique trial to introduce paludiculture, or wet farming, to the UK. The Water Works project is testing new crops that could suit a future UK climate, when weather events are expected to be more extreme and rain arrives in a deluge. Using plants that thrive in saturated soil, it is setting out to show the commercial benefits of re-wetting these peatlands, a process that will also lock carbon into the ground. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chris Stark says cost is surprisingly low but criticises government for absence of a planReaching net zero carbon emissions in the UK is likely to be much easier and cheaper than previously thought, and can be designed in such a way as to quickly improve the lives of millions of people, a senior adviser to the government has said.Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, the UK’s independent statutory adviser, said costs had come down rapidly in recent years, and past estimates that moving to a low-carbon economy would cut trillions from GDP were wrong. Continue reading...

Deputy leader Richard Marles backs Anthony Albanese and says it is not the place for party members to call on frontbenchers to resignLabor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, has backed Anthony Albanese’s capacity to connect with blue-collar workers, and says Mark Butler should remain as the shadow climate change minister, after Joel Fitzgibbon escalated Labor’s internal warfare by demanding Butler be replaced in his portfolio.Fitzgibbon, who quit the frontbench this week after a protracted internal battle about climate change policy, is continuing to throw bombs as he moves to the backbench. Continue reading...

Climate finance goals declared but campaigners highlight omissions over fossil fuels and poor nations’ supportThe world’s publicly financed development banks have pledged to tie together their efforts to rescue the global economy from the Covid-19 crisis and the climate emergency, using their financial muscle to assist a green recovery for poor countries.But the banks stopped short of pledging an end to fossil fuel finance, and did not set out firm targets for how much funding they would devote to a green recovery in a declaration signed on Thursday by 450 development banks worldwide. Continue reading...

Roll-Royce gave an eye-catching pitch but the economics of nuclear power needs further inspection

Exclusive: The Dalai Lama warns of terrible consequences of climate inactionThe Dalai Lama has appealed to world leaders to take urgent action against climate change, warning of ecological destruction affecting the lives of billions and ruining the planet, including his birth country, Tibet.As a call to action he has brought out a new book declaring that if Buddha returned to this world, “Buddha would be green”. Continue reading...

Indian capital records highest single day rise in cases as monitor says pollution is at 14 times WHO safe level

Crucial fish stocks could disappear within five years without urgent action, so desperate fishers are using a new smartphone app to log alleged crimes

From Spain to South Korea, there are several global success stories in the drive to become carbon neutralWhile the world must wait to see whether US president-elect Joe Biden can fulfil his election promise of a $2tn Green New Deal, nations elsewhere in the world are setting carbon-neutral targets and pushing ahead with mega-programmes to cut emissions, create jobs and reduce energy prices. Here are some of the regional frontrunners. Continue reading...

Engineering firm is part of consortium pushing for government backingRolls-Royce says it can create 6,000 UK jobs within five years if the government backs its plans to build small nuclear reactors around the country.The engineering company is part of a consortium that is pushing for the government to commit billions of pounds to build 16 of the small modular reactors (SMRs) around the UK. Continue reading...

Bike-friendly measures introduced during lockdown have led rightwing populists to revive much-disproved mythsIf you’re a fan of the historical notion that progress doesn’t move as a straight, upward line but tends to be a bit more wiggly, then there was an article about cycling in this week’s Mail on Sunday that very much proved the point.Anti-cyclist pieces in the Mail are not exactly uncommon, but this one was notable because its key argument was that cyclists should “pay road tax”. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has vowed to return US to Paris agreement and result brightens prospects for Cop26Preparations for the next vital UN summit on the climate – one of the last chances to set the world on track to meet the Paris agreement – have been given a boost by the election of Joe Biden as president.The election caps a remarkable few weeks on international climate action, which have seen China, the EU, Japan and others commit to long-term targets on greenhouse gas emissions to fulfil the Paris climate agreement. Continue reading...

Experts accuse government of using EVs as ‘a scapegoat for falling fuel excise taxes’South Australia’s controversial new electric vehicle charge has been labelled “a big tax on not polluting” by policy analysts and the EV industry.It comes as MG launches the lowest price electric vehicle on the market in Australia yet – a $40,000 SUV crossover – that is about $10,000 cheaper than its nearest rival, the Nissan Leaf. Continue reading...

The shadow attorney general says his factional colleague represents only a ‘handful of views’ in the Labor partyMark Dreyfus has declared the former shadow resources minister Joel Fitzgibbon represents only a “handful of views” in the Labor party and insists Labor cannot opt out of taking action on climate change because “change is coming, and we can either drive the change, or … have it imposed on us”.The Victorian rightwinger and shadow attorney general blasted his factional colleague on the ABC on Wednesday after Fitzgibbon confirmed on Tuesday he would go to the backbench after a significant blow up in shadow cabinet on Monday night. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ‘Later development plan’ for Carmichael mine says Adani’s long-term goal is to ramp up production to 55m tonnes per year

Washington state scientists found about 500 live specimens in various stages of development inside the basketball-sized nestWhen scientists in Washington state destroyed the first nest of so-called murder hornets found in the US, they discovered about 500 live specimens in various stages of development, officials said Tuesday.Among them were nearly 200 queens that had the potential to start their own nests, said Sven-Erik Spichiger, an entomologist leading the fight to kill the hornets. Continue reading...

In the UK, we face a long, cold winter without these travellers and I cannot wait for their returnDuring the summer, as swallows hawk for insects high over our Somerset home, they are a daily embodiment of hope and joy. When they disappear, for the colder, darker half of the year, they leave a corresponding gap in our hearts.We often say that swallows fly south for the winter. Yet, although they do travel 6,000 miles to South Africa, it is only our winter they miss – when they arrive, they enjoy a second spring and summer. Continue reading...

Prime minister tweets that US and UK share priorities on climate crisis and CovidBoris Johnson has spoken to Joe Biden to congratulate him on his victory over Donald Trump and allay fears Brexit could damage the Northern Ireland peace process, as world leaders lined up to speak to the US president-elect.Johnson was the second world leader to reveal he had spoken to Biden, after the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, did so on Monday. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said they had also received a call on Tuesday. Continue reading...

At least 40 parrots returned to a remote breeding site in Tasmania so far this year following intense efforts to boost numbersScientists are cautiously celebrating the best year in a decade for what may be the world’s most critically endangered parrot after at least 40 birds returned to a breeding site in remote Tasmania.Orange-bellied parrot numbers have fallen so sharply in recent years that scientists consider it at risk of extinction within five years. Just 23 birds arrived at the species’ breeding site at Melaleuca, deep in the Tasmanian world heritage wilderness area, last spring. Continue reading...

Research shows birds also flock to waste centres on weekdays when rubbish is deliveredSuper-smart gulls flock to school playgrounds shortly before break times in order to hoover up the scraps, a study has shown. The birds also target rubbish dumps, but mainly on weekdays when fresh waste is being delivered.Having a snack snatched from your hand by a greedy gull is already a common, if unwelcome, occurrence. But the latest research shows the birds are even smarter than thought: they know where and when their meals are being served. Continue reading...

Tally of culled animals 2.5 million and rising, as confusion mounts over bid to stamp out Covid variant among animalsDenmark’s prime minister has admitted the massive mink cull she authorised last week was illegal, as opposition parties called for the resignation of the agriculture minister who has been overseeing the policy.Mette Frederiksen announced last week that all the country’s mink would have to be culled due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines. Continue reading...

Oil company aims to create clean-burning gas using wind power at German refinery

The opposition leader’s comments follow Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the frontbench in a dispute about climate policyThe federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has declined to say whether Labor will articulate a medium-term emissions reduction target before the next federal election.Albanese’s sidestep followed Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the Labor frontbench on Tuesday after a lengthy internal dispute about climate policy that culminated in a blow-up at shadow cabinet on Monday night. Continue reading...

Three tourists boiled dinner in national park, leading to fines, a ban and some apt punsWhen it comes to unthinking human behavior in America’s premier nature preserve, the retired Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey can reel off the examples.There is the tourist who took a selfie in front of a bison only to be tossed in the air by it. There is the drone that crashed into bubbling park waters. And then there’s the latest story, which has driven him both to vexation and to punning. Continue reading...

Spending on green infrastructure likely under Biden, but any hopes for climate requirements for businesses much farther offClimate advocates rejoicing at Joe Biden’s presidential victory are also quietly absorbing the blow of Republicans possibly keeping control of the US Senate – which would kneecap significant efforts to fight globe-heating pollution.If Joe Biden is president and Congress is still divided, there will probably still be large-scale spending on green infrastructure, like renewable power, electric vehicles and transit. But any hopes for climate requirements for businesses, like a clean energy standard, would feel much farther off. Continue reading...

Water biodiversity is on the brink, with dire consequences for the region known for the zebra and wildebeest migration, says WWFFish are being driven to extinction in the Mara River basin, putting the livelihoods of more than a million people in Kenya and Tanzania in jeopardy, according to WWF.A report by the wildlife NGO details how farming, deforestation, mining, illegal fishing and invasive species could sound a death knell for the transboundary river. Continue reading...

Former PM says Murdoch media has become ‘pure propaganda’ and is doing enormous damage to the world’s ability to respond to climate changeMalcolm Turnbull says News Corp has become an organisation for “pure propaganda” that has done enormous damage through its promotion of climate change denial.In a heated exchange on Monday night’s Q+A, the former prime minister and the Australian’s editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, clashed over the media organisation’s treatment of climate science. Continue reading...

Report warns of ‘yawning gap’ between government rhetoric on environment and reality of years of underfundingThe government’s conservation watchdog has been “cut to the bone”, with staff underpaid, undervalued and overworked and feeling unable to protect England’s most valuable wildlife sites, according to a new report and testimony from workers.Natural England, which is sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has a range of responsibilities, including monitoring and protecting the country’s most valuable habitats such as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and national nature reserves (NNRs). It also works with farmers to protect biodiversity and advises the government on environmental policy, planning and licensing. Continue reading...