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...

Exclusive: Gap between actions and beliefs threatens green recovery from pandemic

Frustrated by postponement of UN talks, young people have organised their own virtual conferenceLike many young climate activists around the world, 14-year-old Lavinia Iovino was exasperated when Cop26, the annual UN climate summit due to take place in Glasgow in November, was postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.“I was very disappointed because it showed that political leaders think we can give ourselves a year more, when we just can’t do that; the climate crisis is happening right now,” she said. Continue reading...

International Energy Agency expects green electricity to end coal’s 50-year reign by 2025

Small bird with unusually large genitals receives a boost as competition is also rocked by vote-rigging rowThe competition to elect New Zealand’s bird of the year has intensified with a vote-rigging scandal and an adult toy store endorsing a small, polyamorous bird with unusually large genitals.The annual competition, which began 15 years ago to draw attention to native birds, many of which are endangered, has grown into a national obsession. Different types of birds have their own campaign managers and the competition is so fierce that this year has seen record early voting – with 40,000 ballots cast so far and five days still remaining Continue reading...

MP says he remains supportive of Anthony Albanese’s leadership, but he is open to throwing his hat in the ring if ‘drafted’ by colleagues• Follow the latest developments liveJoel Fitzgibbon has made good his threat of stepping down from the shadow cabinet after a protracted internal dispute over climate policy, declaring he regrets not running for the party leadership in 2019.Fitzgibbon’s announcement on Tuesday morning followed a significant argument in shadow cabinet on Monday night, which was preceded by a boilover in the left caucus about the shadow resources minister’s constant frontrunning of the climate policy debate. Continue reading...

Climate policy experts say Australia needs to set a more ambitious 2030 climate commitment to reach a carbon neutral economyAustralia could become a carbon neutral economy by 2050 thanks to an abundance of cheap solar and wind energy but will need a more ambitious 2030 climate target to get there, according to a report from international climate policy experts.A path to net zero emissions is technically and economically feasible for Australia, the report says, and would align the country with the Paris climate agreement it signed in 2016. Continue reading...

Native millet found to be easy to grow, harvest and turn into flour and ‘significantly more nutritious’ than wheatNative grasses could be grown for mass consumption, a one-year feasibility study has found, after researchers tested 15 different species “from paddock to plate” in north-west New South Wales.Native millet, or panicum, turned out to be the best all-rounder: easy to grow and harvest, easy to turn into flour and “significantly more nutritious” than wheat, lead researcher Dr Angela Pattison from the University of Sydney said. Native millet is also gluten free, she added. Continue reading...

Gladys Berejiklian’s government says it will support 12 gigawatts of wind and solar and 2 gigawatts of energy storageMore renewable energy will be built in New South Wales than in Victoria and Queensland combined after the Berejiklian government committed to support 12 gigawatts of wind and solar and 2 gigawatts of energy storage, the state’s energy minister says.Matt Kean said a 20-year NSW electricity infrastructure roadmap released on Monday would lower the cost of electricity, create jobs in regional areas and avoid the state having to rush to build new generation as ageing coal plants closed in the years ahead. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak says disclosures will be mandatory within five years as part of net-zero plansLarge companies and financial institutions in the UK will have to come clean about their exposure to climate risks within five years under the terms of a tougher regime announced by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak.In an attempt to demonstrate the government’s commitment to tackling global heating, Sunak said the UK would go further than an international taskforce had recommended and make disclosure by large businesses mandatory. Continue reading...

Animals have ventured back into areas largely emptied of people by Boko Haram insurgencyA herd of hundreds of elephants that have returned to north-east Nigeria are under threat from jihadist groups and increasingly in conflict with thousands of refugees whose crops they have trampled weeks before harvest.More than 250 elephants ventured last month from Chad and Cameroon into Kala-Balge, a district in Nigeria’s Borno state. Continue reading...

Former senior officers of renewable energy agencies say government’s bill would undermine Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s independenceFormer leaders of Australia’s renewable energy agencies have called on MPs to reject the Morrison government’s changes to the publicly owned green bank that would explicitly allow it to fund fossil fuel projects.Under the changes, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) would take responsibility for a long-promised $1bn “grid reliability fund” to underwrite new electricity generation, including fossil fuel power plants that run on gas. Continue reading...

Researchers say trend could lead to supply problems and hinder efforts to promote healthy eatingThe UK is increasingly reliant on fruit and vegetables imported from countries most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis, which could lead to supply problems, experts say.A study published in Nature Food on Monday found that the proportion of fruit and vegetables supplies in the UK that was grown domestically dropped from 42% in 1987 to 22% in 2013. At the same time, the proportion imported from “climate-vulnerable” countries – those worst hit by climate breakdown – increased from 20% to 32%. Continue reading...

Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to assaulting a Guardian reporter, has previously tried to strip environmental protectionsAdmirers of national parks and world-class trout streams in the state of Montana have expressed alarm over the election of a new Republican governor and his environmental plans.The governor, former software developer Greg Gianforte, has in the past sought to strip protections from 700,000 acres of wilderness, and his conservative “Montana Comeback Plan” election platform promises to “streamline” permitting processes to increase logging, coalmining, and oil and gas production. Continue reading...

In wake of Covid, leading figures call for bold green measures to boost economyWorld leaders are running out of time to forge a green recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, with only a year to go before a crunch UN summit that will decide the future of the global climate, leading experts have warned.Progress on a green recovery, which would reduce emissions while repairing the damage from the pandemic, has been hampered by the need for an emergency rescue of stricken economies around the world and the resurgence of the coronavirus in Europe, the US and some other countries. Continue reading...

The climate won’t wait for us to sort out coronavirus, but rich people are still destroying it

Liberal MP says there is ‘real concern’ if the Coalition signed up for the net zero commitment as the PM continues to field questions on climate policyScott Morrison says Australia would like to achieve a net zero emissions reduction ambition “as quickly as possible” – but one of his own backbenchers has declared signing up to net zero would be an act of “political suicide”.The Australian prime minister has faced sustained questions about the government’s climate commitments since Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the American presidential election at the weekend. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Australian Conservation Foundation also finds growing delays in processing requests by departments and agenciesAustralia’s freedom of information system is increasingly hiding documents about climate and other environmental issues from the public, a trend driven by skyrocketing refusal rates, widespread delays and rising costs, an audit has found.The audit, conducted by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), examined five years of FOI requests for environment-related documents across federal and state departments and agencies. Continue reading...

Most Britons see their car as more important now and would not choose greener alternative

Physicist has spent the past two years as the CSIRO’s chief scientistCathy Foley has been appointed Australia’s next chief scientist, taking over from Alan Finkel when his five-year tenure ends in December.The physicist, who has spent the past two years as the CSIRO’s chief scientist, is the second woman appointed to the role. She has been at the national science agency for 36 years. Continue reading...

Roadmap could increase share of renewable energy in state from 16% today to more than 60% by 2030The New South Wales government is promising a $32bn private investment boom in renewable energy in regional areas under a plan to transform the state’s electricity infrastructure.The state Coalition says an electricity infrastructure roadmap would support 12 gigawatts of renewable energy and 2 gigawatts of energy storage, with a focus on pumped hydro, over the next decade. Continue reading...

Ed Miliband wants Britain’s ‘green recovery’ plan brought forward ahead of Cop26Labour is urging the government to seize on Joe Biden’s presidency to redouble Britain’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis by bringing forward a multibillion pound “green recovery” plan in the run-up to next year’s Cop26 summit in Glasgow.“You can’t overstate the impact a Biden presidency will have on the climate issue,” the shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, told the Guardian. “There are so many issues on which this is going to make such a big difference. Internationally, climate is top of the list. Continue reading...

Biden’s presidency could help reduce global heating by about 0.1C if plans fulfilled, say expertsThe election of Joe Biden as president of the US could reduce global heating by about 0.1C, bringing the goals of the Paris agreement “within striking distance”, if his plans are fulfilled, according to a detailed analysis.Biden’s policy of a target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and plans for a $1.7tn investment in a green recovery from the Covid crisis, would reduce US emissions in the next 30 years by about 75 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalents. Calculations by the Climate Action Tracker show that this reduction would be enough to avoid a temperature rise of about 0.1C by 2100. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson pledged to put environment at centre of post-Covid strategy, but report says funding needed is so far badly lackingBoris Johnson’s government is investing only 12% of the funds needed to tackle the climate emergency and the growing threat to nature, according to a new report that will raise fresh international concerns about the UK’s commitment to the green agenda.The study – released before an expected major speech on the environment by Johnson – says ministers need to commit £33bn each year of this parliament to green causes. So far only £4bn a year has been pledged. Continue reading...

Group of leading vets claim research, not published for two years, shows the mammals would have been unlikely to infect cattleA group of eminent vets claim that the rationale for expanding the badger cull has been undermined by a pair of studies commissioned by the government that ministers have been sitting on for two years.The government says new cull zones should be introduced where there is evidence that badgers are an important factor in spreading bovine TB to cattle, a potentially ruinous scenario for farmers. Continue reading...

Experts say they believe the US president-elect will exert significant pressure on Australia to lift its climate commitments

Transmitter attached to dorsal fin of shark with Twitter following had not sent a definitive message for a year and a halfKatharine, a 14ft-plus great white shark with a Twitter following, appeared again off the US east coast this week. A transmitter attached to her dorsal fin had not sent out a definitive message for a year and a half.The transmitter that was attached off Cape Cod in August 2013 is roughly half the size of an iPhone and is meant to ping whenever the shark breaks the ocean surface. Continue reading...

Action comes after group postponed mass protest due to second England lockdownA teenage Extinction Rebellion protester has climbed a crane in Norwich after the movement postponed a mass demonstration due to the second national lockdown.Alex Sidney, who scaled the crane in Duke Street early on Saturday morning while carrying a sleeping bag and supplies, has vowed to stay put until he has “mild hypothermia”. Continue reading...

Campaigners say visit was ‘media propaganda’ as officials failed to stop at any devastated rainforest areasEnvironmentalists have criticised a three-day tour of the Amazon that the Brazilian government staged for foreign ambassadors as a “sham” and “media propaganda” after it failed to stop at any environmentally devastated areas.The tour ended on Friday and focused on better-protected areas of the northern Amazon. “The government prepared an itinerary that does not show the reality of the Amazon – the abandonment of indigenous peoples, the land grabbing, the illegal mining and the uncontrolled deforestation. It is a sham,” said Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, an umbrella group of environmental NGOs. Continue reading...

About 40 Extinction Rebellion protesters moved on by police from state Liberal council in Hobart

Rescuers reach remote mountain village in Guatemala where people were buried in their homes

Australian Medical Association, Unilever and Atlassian among groups supporting Zali Steggall’s bill in newspaper adsThe independent MP Zali Steggall has called on Australia’s chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, to issue a clear opinion on whether the country should commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.Steggall is due to present to parliament on Monday long-promised climate change legislation that would include a target of net zero by 2050 that could be ratcheted up in line with changing scientific evidence. Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world, including walruses in Russia and a great fox-spider

Sars-CoV-2 has jumped from humans, mutated and crossed back to cause new infections

Wolves were hunted and trapped to extinction in state in the 1940sColoradans have voted to reintroduce wolves, which were hunted and trapped to extinction in the 1940s, to the state by 2023. Continue reading...

Exclusive: public health and environment at risk as water companies overuse emergency overflows, says pressure groupWater companies discharged raw sewage into bathing water beaches almost 3,000 times in the past year, polluting the environment and risking public health, new analysis shows.Related: Face masks and gloves found on 30% of UK beaches in clean-up Continue reading...

Population of crustaceans at one national park has exploded amid drop in tourist numbers

CSU Long Beach shark lab has tagged a record amount of white sharks, signaling a healthy ecosystem – and warmer watersChris Lowe is no longer surprised when he sees drone footage of juvenile white sharks cruising near surfers and swimmers in southern California’s ocean waters.Lowe directs the shark lab at California State University, Long Beach, and for the past 12 years he’s been monitoring populations of juvenile white sharks off the southern California coast with tags, drones and planes. This year, Lowe has already tagged a record 38 sharks, triple the number that were tagged last year. “Normally they’d be leaving by now, but instead we are seeing more sharks than ever.” Continue reading...

Conservation volunteers find PPE items in nearly a third of areas targeted in annual drive

Study calls for more focus on farming and food waste, behind a third of greenhouse gas productionOur diets and agricultural production around the world are so carbon-intensive that emissions from the global food system alone would be enough to put the Paris climate goals out of reach, even if all the other major sources of emissions were closed down, research has shown.Farming and food account for about a third of global greenhouse gas production at present. The world’s food systems produced about 16bn tonnes a year of CO2 from 2012 to 2017. Continue reading...

Luxury car brand promises to shift business to become ‘end-to-end carbon neutral’Bentley, the luxury carmaker, will stop making fossil fuel cars by 2030 and aims to be completely carbon neutral at the same time, in one of the most ambitious plans of any UK car manufacturer in the transition towards electric vehicles.It will stop building cars with traditional internal combustion engines within six years, instead making hybrids and then its first battery electric cars in 2025. By 2030 it will sell only pure battery electric vehicles, with zero-carbon exhaust emissions. Continue reading...

Cylinder left in ice by 50 Years of Victory ship travelled 2,300 miles to county DonegalWhen the crew and passengers of the nuclear-powered icebreaker ship 50 Years of Victory reached the north pole in 2018, they placed a time capsule in the ice floe.The metal cylinder contained letters, poems, photographs, badges, beer mats, a menu, wine corks – ephemera from the early 21st century for whomever might discover it in the future. Continue reading...

Three separate species of banded langur have been identified after DNA analysis of their faeces, paving the way for targeted conservation strategiesAcross the world, conservationists, scientists and volunteers are racing to save thousands of endangered species. And for some, their efforts have not been wasted. A recent report found that conservation programmes have saved several bird and mammal species from extinction in recent decades.But the numbers of many data deficient species and sub-species continue to dwindle – and how do you save a species if it hasn’t even been recognised? Continue reading...

Latin experts say the miner’s new name is ‘sort of a Monty Python-Latin’ with most translations having negative connotationsMining company Adani has changed its name to a Latin word that means “crooked”, “deformed”, “mercenary or assassin”, after mistakenly thinking that it meant “brave”.The controversial mining group, which is responsible for the Carmichael coalmine in central Queensland, announced on Thursday it would change the name of its Australian operation to “Bravus”, a word identified by chief executive David Boshoff as the medieval Latin word for “courageous”. Continue reading...

Plan includes home insulation and replacing gas boilers to ensure country reaches its climate targetsA decade-long rollout of home insulation and heat pumps to replace gas boilers is urgently needed to enable the UK to meet its climate obligations and recover from the Covid-19 recession, campaigners say.A government scheme to insulate homes, requiring households to apply for green grants, began in September and is due to finish next March. That will leave tens of millions of homes still leaking energy and relying on fossil fuel heating, which must be phased out for the UK to meet its net zero carbon goal. Continue reading...

New battery near Geelong would be one of the biggest in the world, and is due to come on stream for next summerOne of the largest lithium-ion batteries in the world is planned for Victoria after the renewable energy company Neoen won a contract to build it near the regional city of Geelong.If constructed as promised, the battery will have a power capacity of 300 megawatts and a storage capacity of 450 megawatt-hours, making it more than twice the size of the battery at Hornsdale, South Australia, which was the biggest in the world when it began operating in 2017. Continue reading...

Mutated virus infects 12 humans, sparking concerns that effectiveness of future vaccine could be affected

Wind and solar displacing coal in the five states of the national energy marketWind and solar power pushing out fossil fuel generation has cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions more than the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis.Renewable energy’s share of electricity generation also hit a record 26.5% across the five states forming the national energy market in the 12 months to the end of September. Continue reading...

Government document reveals decline in seabed habitats with protected status due to the climate crisis and overfishingThe Scottish government has failed to meet its target for preventing damage to important marine life, according to a leaked report by scientists from Scotland’s nature agency that shows losses of vital underwater habitats.The draft report, seen by the Guardian, found that seabed habitats awarded “priority” status by the government to protect them have shrunk in five large areas in the period between 2011 and 2019. Continue reading...

Trump administration set US withdrawal in motion a year ago but it didn’t take effect until 4 November