Labour is the only major party with viable plans to tackle the our environmental emergency, says Diana Heeks. Plus, Steven Pollard on the Tory candidate’s absence from a climate hustings in Portsmouth SouthBrexit doesn’t matter. Jeremy Corbyn’s likability doesn’t matter. What matters above all is that the planet that is our only home remains habitable. Australia, California and Amazonia are on fire, the Victoria Falls are a mere trickle, the oceans are deoxygenating, the thawing Arctic tundra is belching methane. In Europe, once-thriving Alpine ski resorts are left to rot for lack of snow, and here in the UK flooding is starting to become endemic. Catastrophic feedback loops, points of no return, are inevitable unless we change our way of living quickly.Labour is the only major party with viable plans to tackle this. Their Green New Deal would be good for the planet’s health and ours too. Investment in green technologies like wave and tidal power will provide us with unlimited clean energy. The expertise and equipment of this technology could be exported around the world, creating jobs and wealth for us. Continue reading...

Climate Analytics suggests Australia has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cutsAustralia’s plan to use an accounting loophole to meet its commitment under the Paris climate agreement has no legal basis and suggests it has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cuts once a global deal was reached, a new report says.An analysis by Climate Analytics, a Berlin-based science and policy institute, found there were no grounds for Australia to claim credit towards its Paris emissions target for having beaten targets under its predecessor, the Kyoto protocol. Continue reading...

Rooftop solar capacity to double or even triple to replace existing thermal generation, new assessment by the energy market operator predictsAustralia’s ageing coal-fired power plants could be shuttered earlier than expected if competition from renewable generators and carbon budgets render them uneconomic, according to a new assessment by the Australian Energy Market Operator.Aemo will, on Thursday, publish a new draft integrated system plan which snapshots the unfolding revolution underway in Australia’s energy market. The energy market operator predicts rooftop solar capacity will double or even triple, providing up to 22% of total energy by 2040. Continue reading...

Teen activist lauded by magazine for starting an environmental campaign which became a global movementGreta Thunberg, the teen activist from Sweden who has urged immediate action to address a global climate crisis, was named Time magazine’s person of the year for 2019 on Wednesday. She is the youngest person to have ever received the accolade.Thunberg, 16, was lauded by Time for starting an environmental campaign in August 2018 which became a global movement, initially skipping school and camping out in front of the Swedish parliament to demand action. Continue reading...

Many activists who are too young to vote are working hard to get message across to those who can

Energy park of one or more islands would be able to supply up to 10 million householdsDenmark is pursuing plans to build one or more artificial islands surrounded by offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 10 gigawatts, capable of supplying up to 10 million households, the climate and energy ministry has said.The country, which produced 41% of its energy from wind power in 2018, the highest level in Europe, last week passed an ambitious climate act which commits it to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 70% of 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with new, legally binding targets every five years from 2020. Continue reading...

In the 1980s, black New Orleanians were encouraged to buy houses built by the city on top of a toxic landfill. Three decades later it is one of Louisiana’s worst cancer hotspots, but residents of Gordon Plaza are still fighting to be relocatedIn 1988, Jesse Perkins was 27 years old and trying to get his piece of the American dream. Continue reading...

State’s powerful advisory body has recommended development of Wollar and Hawkins-Rumker coalfieldsFarmers and activists in NSW’s Bylong Valley say they are concerned about the damage to water quality and prime agricultural land in the area if development of two coalfields is given the green light by the state government.The NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro, has confirmed to locals Guardian Australia’s report in October that the state’s powerful advisory body for strategic release has recommended opening up for development two coalfields in the area: Wollar and Hawkins-Rumker. Continue reading...

Some 134 species of eucalypts had drops in numbers of at least 30% and the endangered Rose Mallee declined by more than halfA global assessment of all 826 known species of eucalypt trees – of which some 812 grow only in Australia – has found almost a quarter are threatened with extinction.The figures are revealed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s update of its “red list” of threatened species. Continue reading...

Thinktank report deems Morrison government ‘an increasingly regressive force’Australia is the worst-performing country on climate change policy, according to a new international ranking of 57 countries. The report also criticises the Morrison government for being a “regressive force” internationally.The 2020 Climate Change Performance Index, prepared by a group of thinktanks comprising the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch, looks at national climate action across the categories of emissions, renewable energy, energy use and policy. Continue reading...

NSW environment minister splits with federal Coalition to urge immediate emissions reduction, saying weather conditions are exactly what scientists warnedThe New South Wales environment minister Matt Kean has split from his federal Coalition counterparts, arguing climate change is behind the bushfire crisis and calling for greater emissions reduction.Kean’s intervention piles pressure on Scott Morrison to do more on emissions reduction and disaster management after his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull urged him to step up his government’s response to the “national security issue” and former emergency services chiefs pushed for a national summit. Continue reading...

It is disappearing from our countryside, but what is the real story behind its inclusion in the famous carol?“On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…” I bet you’re already singing the next line: “a partridge in a pear tree!” The Twelve Days of Christmas is one of our best-known Christmas carols, even if its repetitive format does sometimes drive us round the bend.But what of the partridge itself? When I was growing up on the edge of London, the grey partridge was, if not exactly common, a fairly regular sight. If I took a trip to East Anglia, they were ten a penny. Nowadays, I struggle to find them anywhere. Continue reading...

Scale and speed of loss much higher than predicted, threatening inundation for hundreds of millions of peopleGreenland’s ice sheet is melting much faster than previously thought, threatening hundreds of millions of people with inundation and bringing some of the irreversible impacts of the climate emergency much closer.Ice is being lost from Greenland seven times faster than it was in the 1990s, and the scale and speed of ice loss is much higher than was predicted in the comprehensive studies of global climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to data. Continue reading...

Ten species with improved numbers in IUCN red list unveiled amid call for more biodiversity focus at COP25The Guam rail, a flightless bird typically about 30cm long, usually dull brown in colour and adorned with black and white stripes, has become a rare success story in the recent history of conservation.Previously extinct in the wild, the bird has been saved by captive breeding programmes and on Tuesday its status was updated on the IUCN red list of threatened species to critically endangered, along with nine others whose numbers have recently improved. Continue reading...

Alberta’s oil sands produce one of the dirtiest oils on the planet. If the Teck mega mine is approved, the damage to our planet will be colossalThis week, the Canadian government is in Madrid telling the world that climate action is its No 1 priority. When they get home, Justin Trudeau’s newly re-elected government will decide whether to throw more fuel on the fires of climate change by giving the go-ahead to construction of the largest open-pit oil sands mine in Canadian history.Approving Teck Resources’ Frontier mine would effectively signal Canada’s abandonment of its international climate goals. The mega mine would operate until 2067, adding a whopping 6 megatonnes of climate pollution every year. That’s on top of the increasing amount of carbon that Canada’s petroleum producers are already pumping out every year. Continue reading...

Almost 3,000 firefighters deployed across New South Wales as more than 80 bushfires continue to burn. This blog is now closed• Morrison rejects calls for more bushfire help, saying volunteer firefighters ‘want to be there’

UN experts say it is impossible to rule out that cattle raised on illegally deforested land end up in supply chain of Minerva

Investigation showing Brazilian beef industry tied to Amazon destruction prompts demands for firms to scrutinise supply chains

Exclusive: email exchanges show senior employees knew Michigan residents might risk being poisoned by tap water months before city admitted to problemExecutives at one of the world’s largest utilities companies knew that families in Flint, Michigan, might be at risk of being poisoned by lead in their tap water months before the city publicly admitted the problem, according to internal company emails.Email exchanges in February 2015 between executives at Veolia and a city contractor show some senior employees were aware that lead from the city’s pipes could be leaching into drinking water. They argued that city officials should be told to change Flint’s water supply to protect residents. Continue reading...

Working group comes as new federal drought coordinator Shane Stone refuses to be drawn on climate change’s impact on droughtAgriculture ministers have agreed to establish a new drought working group to better coordinate the country’s assistance to farmers, amid criticism that the current system is too confusing.Following a meeting of state and territory agriculture ministers in Moree in NSW on Tuesday, federal drought minister David Littleproud announced the new working group would be set up and would report back to government in February. Continue reading...

Energy firm once labelled western Europe’s top polluter sets ambitious 10-year targetAn energy company once labelled western Europe’s biggest polluter is planning to become the world’s first carbon-negative business within 10 years.The owner of the Drax power plant, once a coal-fired behemoth, is the first company in the world to set out plans to absorb more carbon emissions from the air than it creates by 2030. Continue reading...

‘This is an issue that needs leadership,’ Malcolm Turnbull tells ABC panel showMalcolm Turnbull has called on Scott Morrison to step up his response to catastrophic bushfires fuelled by climate change, declaring that emergency management in Australia needs to be restructured because the threat is now a “national security issue”.Before a speech to an energy conference on Tuesday where he is expected to lament that climate change has become “a political battlefield”, Turnbull told the ABC on Monday night the Morrison government had to provide hands-on leadership and coordinate a national response to a bushfire emergency, which has claimed six lives and destroyed more than 680 homes, and is expected to intensify in coming days as summer temperatures breach 40C. Continue reading...

Young activists including Greta Thunberg put pressure on negotiators to break deadlock

UK homes using new smart-energy tariffs urged to take advantage of record windfarm powerThousands of households were paid to use extra renewable electricity over the weekend as windfarms generated unprecedented levels of clean power.Homes using a new type of smart-energy tariff were urged to plug in their electric vehicles overnight and set their dishwasher on a timer to take advantage of the record renewables in the early hours of the morning. Continue reading...

Analysis shows ‘staggering’ 40% reduction in government spending in a decadePublic funding for environment bodies in Scotland has plummeted by 40% in a decade, placing already declining wildlife at risk, according to analysis of government budgets.Scottish Environment Link, a coalition of more than 35 wildlife, environment and countryside charities, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, WWF and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, estimates almost £100m has been slashed from the budgets of public agencies in Scotland between 2010-11 and 2019-20. Continue reading...

Rising demand and climate crisis threaten entire mountain ecosystem, say scientistsA quarter of the world’s population are at risk of water supply problems as mountain glaciers, snow-packs and alpine lakes are run down by global heating and rising demand, according to an international study.The first inventory of high-altitude sources finds the Indus is the most important and vulnerable “water tower” due to run-off from the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Ladakh, and Himalayan mountain ranges, which flow downstream to a densely populated and intensively irrigated basin in Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan. Continue reading...

Activists were left frustrated by the lack of urgency inside negotiating rooms in MadridWhat happened in week one?The COP25 climate talks in Madrid may have officially opened on Monday 2 December, but they only really started on Friday evening. That was when Greta Thunberg arrived to join a 500,000-strong march through the centre of Madrid, demanding that world leaders listen. Continue reading...

Demonstrators target key roads to demand government action to tackle deadly issueClimate change activists wearing gas masks have blocked a central London road to demand the next government tackles “deadly levels of air pollution” in the capital.Six Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed in hi-vis suits glued their hands to yellow breeze-blocks in the middle of Cranbourn Street, outside Leicester Square tube station. Continue reading...

Report says greenhouse gas emissions equal carbon footprint of a quarter of passenger carsGreenhouse gas emissions from shipping equal the carbon footprint of a quarter of passenger cars in Europe and stand in the way of countries reducing emissions and limiting runaway global heating, analysis reveals.Despite the scale of shipping emissions from both container and cruise ships, they are not part of emissions reduction targets made by countries as part of the Paris agreement on climate change. Continue reading...

US technology allows fruits to stay ripe for twice as long and reduces plastic packagingAvocados that stay ripe for twice as long as usual thanks to an edible coating on their skin made from plant materials will go on sale in Europe for the first time this week.Large supermarket chains in Germany and Denmark will stock the fruit, which is treated with a tasteless coating that has the potential to reduce fresh fruit and vegetable waste throughout the supply chain and cut the use of plastic packaging. Continue reading...

Ocean species endangered as black market trade devastates marine life across Puglia regionEvery night, dozens of wooden boats loaded with fishing equipment pass under the Punta Penna bridge and into the protected waters of the Mar Piccolo, a unique saltwater lagoon in the southern Italian port city of Taranto.Trawling nets, cage traps and even homemade bombs are deployed into the moonlit waters by those in search of lucrative prey. “It’s like my father picking lemons and making limoncello at home,” says Luciano Manna, a local activist who has been monitoring the illegal activity for five years. “It’s too easy.” Continue reading...

Intensively managed estates have created treeless landscapes with few animals and plantsConservation groups have called for Scotland’s grouse moors to be closed down and replaced by woodland to protect the country from the impacts of the climate emergency.A report for Revive, a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups, has found grouse moors cause significant ecological damage by burning heather, allowing heavy grazing by deer and sheep, and using intensive predator control. Continue reading...

Calls for ECT to be scrapped to stop fossil fuel firms using it to take governments to courtThe international energy treaty that threatens Labour’s energy nationalisation plans may also risk undermining the EU’s green new deal, according to Friends of the Earth.The environmental organisation is calling for parts of the energy charter treaty (ECT) to be scrapped to prevent fossil fuel companies from using the multilateral agreement to take governments to court over green policies. Continue reading...

Australian Energy Market Commission says prices will begin to fall next year and by 2022 will be $97 a year lowerThe price of residential electricity is estimated to start falling next year and continue to fall until 2022, the Australian Energy Market Commission says.The AEMC’s annual report on electricity price trends shows an overall falling price outlook over the next few years, mostly due to decreases in the wholesale cost from increased generation capacity, particularly from windfarms. Continue reading...

COP25 in Madrid criticised for focusing on details instead of agreeing deep cuts to emissionsUrgent UN talks on tackling the climate emergency are still not addressing the true scale of the crisis, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has warned, as high-ranking ministers from governments around the world began to arrive in Madrid for the final days of negotiations.Talks are focusing on some of the rules for implementing the 2015 Paris agreement, but the overriding issue of how fast the world needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions has received little official attention. Continue reading...

Ahead of the election, we challenge the parties on the climate emergency, flying, rewilding, red meat and more

Conservatives, Greens, Labour, Lib Dems and SNP tackle the biggest climate and environmental issues

Conditions eased on Sunday morning but bureau forecasts heatwave as fire authorities say dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks

Gunmen opened fire on a group from the Guajajara tribe on a highway in Maranhão state, killing two and wounding othersTwo indigenous leaders have been shot dead and two others wounded in Brazil’s Maranhão state, in an attack not far from where a prominent tribesman who defended the Amazon rainforest was killed last month, authorities said.The attack on the members of the Guajajara tribe, which is known for the forest guardians who protect their territory against illegal deforestation, occurred on the margins of a federal highway near El-Betel village in the country’s north-east on Saturday. Continue reading...

Practice Architecture’s house is built from the plant growing in the fields around it. The project addresses a vital issue – the energy consumed and carbon emitted during constructionHere’s today’s fun fact: the word “canvas” is derived from “cannabis”. (And imagine if the two words had still been identical this past century or so: literature would speak of cannabis-covered deck shoes, of boy scouts enjoying their life under cannabis, of going cannabissing for your parliamentary candidate.) There is a simple reason for this etymology. Among the many uses of hemp, the plant from which the drug comes – uses that include ropes, clothes, food and medicine – was the fabric for the sails of ships.Once commonplace and useful, and hailed in the 1930s as a “billion-dollar crop”, hemp’s modern promise was cut short by its association with narcotics, which led its production to be taxed and outlawed across the western world. Call it paranoia, call it realism, but there’s a theory that billionaires with interests in plastics and paper pulp successfully lobbied the US government to have their rival product suppressed. A war on drugs, in this account, was whipped up in order to deepen the public’s dependency on petrochemicals. Continue reading...

Save the Children urges people taking part in its charity event to source sweaters through clothes swaps and vintage shopsSave the Children is calling on people to hold clothes swaps and scour vintage shops rather than buy new Christmas jumpers, after research found that 95% of the novelty items for sale contained plastic.The appeal for consumer “sustainability” comes ahead of the charity’s annual Christmas jumper day on Friday, when it encourages supporters to buy and wear festive pullovers. Research by the environmental charity Hubbub estimates that 12m jumpers will be bought this year, triggering huge amounts of plastic waste. Continue reading...

App equips players with skills to identify misinformation in real world and onlineA new game promises to act as a “vaccination” against climate crisis denial and fake news by teaching users about misinformation tactics.The Cranky Uncle app explains common science denial techniques, such as the use of fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations and cherry-picking data, equipping users with the skills needed to spot inaccuracies in the real world and online. Continue reading...

The state – which leads the way as US output of oil and gas is forecast to rise 25% in the next decade – is intensifying its production pipeline by pipelineIn the same month that Greta Thunberg addressed a UN summit and millions of people took part in a global climate strike, lawmakers in America’s leading oil- and gas-producing state of Texas made a statement of their own.Texas’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Act went into effect on 1 September, stiffening civil and criminal penalties specifically for protesters who interrupt operations or damage oil and gas pipelines and other energy facilities. Continue reading...

A judge has said the US-Mexico barrier, partially funded by an anti-migrant group, could damage a sanctuary and ecosystemThe construction of a private border wall partially funded by rightwing allies of Donald Trump continued with vigor in south Texas this week, seemingly in blatant violation of a court injunction ordering work to be suspended.On Thursday and Friday, within three days of a temporary restraining order being issued, the Guardian found construction crews with at least 10 heavy machinery vehicles moving soil, digging trenches and positioning tall metal posts along the US bank of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo county, which forms the border with Mexico. A 3.5-mile, privately-funded concrete barrier is planned on the site, near Mission, Texas. Continue reading...

One of southern Africa’s biggest tourist attractions has seen an unprecedented decline this dry season, fuelling climate change fearsFor decades Victoria Falls, where southern Africa’s Zambezi river cascades down 100 metres into a gash in the earth, have drawn millions of holidaymakers to Zimbabwe and Zambia for their stunning views.But the worst drought in a century has slowed the waterfalls to a trickle, fuelling fears that climate change could kill one of the region’s biggest tourist attractions. Continue reading...

The president announced he had issued an order to review water-saving regulations for bathroom facilitiesAmericans are in the midst of a toilet-flushing epidemic, according to the president.Speaking to the press on Friday, with the hammer of impeachment poised to fall and countless domestic and international crises to consider, Donald Trump took on a pressing enemy: poor water pressure caused by conservation laws. Continue reading...

Emissions expected to be 13% lower than 2005 by 2030 but government plans to use ‘carryover credits’ from Kyoto protocolThe federal government has released new data that suggests the Morrison government is on track to meet the emissions reduction target it set at the Paris climate conference, but only by including an accounting loophole.The emissions projections report suggests Australia will better its 2030 emissions target, a 26%-28% cut below 2005 levels, by 16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Continue reading...

Jeremy Corbyn says Tories have left people ‘isolated and stuck at home’