Environment | The Guardian

Coronavirus lockdown was final straw for fracking pioneer Chesapeake EnergyThe collapse of Chesapeake Energy, one of the pioneers of the US shale industry, took few people by surprise. The embattled fracker slumped into bankruptcy weeks after the darkest month in oil market history, in a financial mess of missed interest payments, looming bond deadlines and crippling debts.Its collapse is not the first bankruptcy to hit the oil industry in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, nor will it be the last. But the fall of a company once considered one of the shale revolution’s brightest stars may mark a crucial watershed for an industry in flux. Continue reading...

Fiona Kotvojs is ‘more conservative’ than Tony Abbott on climate change, one campaigner has warnedClimate and LGBT equality campaigners have rounded on the Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro, Fiona Kotvojs, in the lead-up to Saturday’s byelection, with one warning she is “more conservative” on climate change than Tony Abbott.Matthew Nott, the founder and president of Clean Energy for Eternity, made the comparison in reference to comments Kotvojs made at a meeting with the local climate group ahead of the 2019 election that Australia’s contribution to global emissions is “minute”. Continue reading...

Land groups say plan could lift economic output by $5.7bn and focus on areas hit hardest by coronavirus shutdownAn alliance of more than 70 conservation, farming and land management organisations is lobbying the Morrison government to dedicate $4bn of stimulus spending to employ more than 50,000 people to help repair the environment.According to a report by professional services firm Ernst & Young commissioned by the groups, it could create 53,000 jobs over four years planting trees, removing weeds and restoring rivers, wetlands and coastal habitats. It is estimated it would reduce welfare costs by about $620m and increase economic output by about $5.7bn. Continue reading...

Green campaigners and housing experts warn Boris Johnson’s recovery plan could swiftly become a liabilityBoris Johnson’s plan to build tens of thousands of new homes risks locking in high carbon emissions for decades to come, if they are built to today’s poor efficiency standards instead of being designed for net zero carbon.The prime minister’s plans to “build, build, build” form the centrepiece of his “new deal” to lift Britain’s economy out of the coronavirus recession. About £12bn will go to building 180,000 new homes to relieve the housing crisis, while new hospitals and schools will be constructed to improve degraded public services. Continue reading...

Plan will be fodder for election-year attacks from Republicans who will frame it as economy-killing and a grab-bag of Democratic social policiesHouse Democrats on Tuesday released an ambitious and wide-ranging climate crisis plan on par with what scientists say the world will have to do to avert catastrophic warming.But the US government remains far from ready to seriously tackle the problem, and the action plan will be fodder for election-year attacks from Republicans who will frame it as economy-killing and a grab-bag of Democratic social policies. Continue reading...

Such deadly heat may become regular occurrence later this century, scientists findThe likelihood of the UK experiencing deadly 40C temperatures for the first time is “rapidly accelerating” due to the climate crisis, scientists have found.The research shows that such searing heat could become a regular occurrence by the end of the century unless carbon emissions are cut to zero. Global heating has already made UK heatwaves 30 times more likely and extreme temperatures led to 3,400 early deaths from 2016-19. Continue reading...

Firm follows BP in facing impact of oil price collapse in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak

Energy provider is first major Australian company to connect executive pay to net-zero goalAustralia’s largest domestic emitter of greenhouse gases, the energy provider AGL, is the first major company in the country to link managers’ bonuses to lowering emissions.AGL announced on Tuesday that metrics including the amount of power the company generated from renewable sources would be linked to the pay incentives of key managers from the next financial year, starting in July 2021. Continue reading...

$100m to be spent on conservation after critics expressed concerns for Kosciuszko national parkScott Morrison has announced federal approval for the Snowy 2.0 project in the closing days of the Eden-Monaro byelection campaign, declaring Snowy Hydro would spend $100m on measures aimed at allaying environmental concerns.The prime minister told reporters on Tuesday he was excited to announce “the thumbs-up, green light for the Snowy 2.0 project to now move to its full implementation phase” with construction to begin over the next two years. Continue reading...

Across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, scientists are developing alternative sustainable solutions to the golden tide of SargassumThe Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, first detected by Nasa observation satellites in 2011 and now known to be the world’s largest bloom of seaweed, stretches for 5,500 miles (8,850km) from the Gulf of Mexico to the western coast of Africa.Millions of tonnes of floating Sargassum seaweed in coastal waters smother fragile seagrass habitats, suffocate coral reefs and harm fisheries. And once washed ashore on Mexican and Caribbean beaches, this foul-smelling, rotting seaweed goes on to devastate the tourist industry, prevent turtles from nesting and damage coastal ecosystems, while releasing hydrogen sulphide and other toxic gases as it decomposes. Continue reading...

Critics say PMs promise to ‘build back greener’ is not delivered by plans revealed so farBoris Johnson is to set out a “new deal” for jobs and infrastructure on Tuesday, painting himself as a “Rooseveltian” prime minister lifting Britain out of the biggest recession in centuries, and a pledge to use the coronavirus crisis to tackle unresolved challenges such as health, education and regional inequalities.“To that end, we will build build build,” he is expected to say. “Build back better, build back greener, build back faster, and to do that at the pace that this moment requires. Continue reading...

Nigel Wilson criticises ‘confusion’ created by prioritising HS2 and Heathrow expansionThe head of the UK’s largest fund manager has criticised the UK government for creating “confusion” around the country’s climate commitments by prioritising projects such as expanding Heathrow airport and pushing ahead with HS2.Nigel Wilson said government priorities were “not necessarily consistent” with climate crisis objectives and sending mixed messages to investors and the financial services industry. Continue reading...

Analysts predict more struggling shale energy firms could fold or be bought up by rivalsThe bankruptcy of Chesapeake, the pioneer of using fracking to mine shale gas and oil, could mark a new, straitened era for the oil industry, according to analysts.The Oklahoma City-based company said on Sunday that it had been forced to enter chapter 11 protection to reduce the size of its debt pile from $9bn (£7.3bn) to $2bn. A grace period for paying bondholders had been due to expire on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s firm will initially pay $400m deposit for plastics and chemicals unitsBP has sold its petrochemicals business for $5bn (£4.1bn) to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos, in a deal that will boost the oil company’s under-pressure balance sheet.Ineos will pay BP a deposit of $400m, followed by $3.6bn when the deal completes and then another $1bn in three instalments by June 2021. Continue reading...

French president announces measures following ‘green wave’ in local electionsEmmanuel Macron has promised an extra €15bn (£13.7bn) for measures to combat the climate crisis over the next two years and a referendum on whether to introduce the crime of “ecocide” for harming the environment.The measures were announced just hours after environmental candidates sparked a green wave across France with major gains in local elections in which the president’s governing party failed to make its mark. Continue reading...

Unsafe boating activity, delays to environmental projects and changes in public policy are putting the gentle giants at riskThe apparent environmental upside of Covid-19, such as lower pollution and emissions, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Just ask manatee conservationists in Florida.Keeping this threatened species safe has increasingly been an uphill battle – especially since manatees were controversially downgraded from “endangered” in 2017. But conservationists are facing unexpected challenges in the face of coronavirus. So far, the pandemic has led to more unsafe boating activity, delays to environmental project launches and even changes in public policy – none of which favor these gentle giants. Continue reading...

Influential committees call for bold investments to recover and grow in ‘cleaner and greener way’MPs have joined growing calls from business leaders and environmentalists for the government to use its post-coronavirus economic recovery plan to accelerate investments aimed at tackling the climate crisis.The chairs of two influential cross-party select committees have warned the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, that time is running out to “avert an even greater future global crisis caused by climate change”. Continue reading...

Evidence from NGOs suggests fleet of up to 192 Iranian vessels could be one of the largest illegal fishing operations in the worldA large fleet of Iranian fishing vessels has been identified operating illegally in Somalian waters for over a year, depleting fish stocks in a country where one in three people face acute shortages of food.The Somali government, which is unable to police its vast coastline, has expressed concern over food and maritime security and has called on Iran to investigate. Continue reading...

Norilsk Nickel suspends workers at metals plant who dumped the water in ‘flagrant violation of operating rules’A Russian mining giant said on Sunday it had suspended workers at a metals plant who were responsible for pumping wastewater into nearby Arctic tundra.Independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta published videos from the scene showing large metal pipes carrying wastewater from the reservoir and dumping foaming liquid among nearby trees. Continue reading...

The Oklahoma City-based company helped turn the US into a global energy powerhouse but ran up huge debts in the processChesapeake Energy, the shale gas drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection.The Oklahoma City-based company said on Sunday that it had been forced to enter chapter 11 protection because its debts of $9bn were unmanageable. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Poll comes as 350 union, business and religious leaders issue call for fair and green recovery

Decarbonising the economy by investing in renewable energy, clean buildings, clean transport and manufacturing could help fight the recessionHundreds of thousands of jobs could be created in Australia by hurrying the shift to zero greenhouse gas emissions, a study backed by business and investment leaders has found.The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates 835,000 jobs have been lost since the coronavirus pandemic shutdown began in March. A report by Beyond Zero Emissions, an energy and climate change thinktank, says practical projects to decarbonise the economy could create 1.78m “job years” over the next five years – on average, 355,000 people in work each year – while modernising Australian industry. Continue reading...

Forums speak of hundreds of tonnes of plastic and other waste discarded by public

Governments and carmakers press on with hydrogen fuel cells to power cars, buses, trains and even aircraftMore than 50 years ago hydrogen fuel cells helped put Neil Armstrong on the moon, but mainstream usage of the technology has remained elusive since.Now there are signs that may be changing, with a spate of new investments even amid the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Environmentalists have welcomed news that the 43-year-old Fessenheim reactor will close, nine years after it was first plannedFrance’s oldest nuclear power plant will shut down on Tuesday after four decades in operation, to the delight of environmental activists who have long warned of contamination risks, but stoking worry for the local economy.The Fessenheim plant, opened in 1977 and already three years over its projected 40-year life span, became a target for anti-nuclear campaigners after the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima in Japan in 2011. Continue reading...

Climate change campaigner said after UN summit, Angela Merkel queued up for a selfie

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will now have a working majority in Irish parliamentIreland’s next government will be formed on Saturday after the Green party voted resoundingly to enter a coalition with two larger rivals.Members of the environmental party decided by a 76% majority to form an administration with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, a party statement on Friday evening said. Continue reading...

If the ALP loses Eden-Monaro next Saturday, it will be a significant blow to morale and a green light for internal mischiefWe are going to track back to the week’s developments on energy policy, but I want to open this weekend in Eden-Monaro, with voters in the seat heading to the polls next Saturday.The truisms of federal byelections are well known. Governments don’t normally win. Usually, voters use these contests as an opportunity to “send a message to Canberra” – often the message is “up yours”. Continue reading...

Audit of offsets to approve developments suggests usage is worsening impact of endangered species, not reducing itThe Morrison government is being urged to fix the use of environmental offsets to approve developments after an audit found major flaws in a system supposed to help protect threatened species from extinction.Scientists said the scathing audit of how the federal environment department administered national conservation laws suggested the use of offsets was worsening the impact on endangered species, not reducing it. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including a perky grasshopper and a sleepy turtle Continue reading...

For many Americans across the US, water bills are becoming unaffordable. That poses a threat to health, housing and familiesWater is essential to life. Yet running water is becoming unaffordable across the US, in cities large and small. Water bills weigh heavily on many Americans as utilities hike up prices to pay for environmental clean-ups, infrastructure upgrades and climate emergency defenses to deal with floods and droughts. Federal funding for America’s ageing water system has plummeted, and as a result a growing number of households are unable to afford to pay their bills; millions of homes are being disconnected or put into foreclosure every year.As we’ve seen during the coronavirus pandemic, unaffordable water poses a threat to individual and public health, housing and families. It also poses a threat to water quality: if people can’t afford to pay their bills, utility companies can’t raise the money needed for clean-ups. Continue reading...

Wildlife Services kills thousands of animals at ranchers and farmers’ behest. But it operates with little oversight – and critics describe it as out of controlThe call came over Tony Manu’s police radio one March day in 2017: some sort of pipe had exploded in the hills outside Pocatello, Idaho and the son of a well-known local doctor was hurt, or worse.Related: Protests target Spanish colonial statues that 'celebrate genocide' in US west Continue reading...

When Onon the common cuckoo took off from Mongolia last June no one expected him to make a 26,000km round trip to southern AfricaWhen Onon took off above the rolling hills of the Khurkh valley in Mongolia last June, researchers had no idea if they would see him alive again. Along with one oriental cuckoo and three other common cuckoos, each fitted with a tiny tracking device, he was about to embark on an epic journey to southern Africa.Last month, he was the only bird to return safely with his tracker intact. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guy Abrahams wrote to CBA for clarity on how four recent investment decisions stack up against its own climate policiesActivist shareholders claim the Commonwealth Bank has breached its own climate policies by making a series of recent loans to projects that expand the global gas sector.The bank says its financing of new gas projects – including the massive Permian Highway gas pipeline in the United States – is consistent with its “unequivocal” support for the Paris climate agreement, on the basis that gas is a “transition” fuel that can supplant coal-fired power generation. Continue reading...

Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh face up to 15 years in prison after delivering box of plastic pellets found as pollutionEnvironmental activists opposing a plastics manufacturing facility in Louisiana have been booked with a felony for “terrorizing” an oil and gas lobbyist by delivering a box of plastic pellets found as pollution in bays on the Texas coast.Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, turned themselves into the Baton Rouge police department on Thursday, as first reported by the Times-Picayune. Continue reading...

In a letter to the Japanese company, activists call for rapid transition to products sourced from plantations and recycled fibreMore than 40 environment groups have called on Japan’s Nippon Paper Group to remove timber logged in Victoria’s native forests from its supply chain in the aftermath of bushfires and a landmark judgment that found a government forestry agency repeatedly breached conservation regulations.It comes as a legal injunction halted VicForests’s operations in a further 14 coupes in the state’s central highlands and amid growing pressure for a statutory review of Australia’s national environment laws to reconsider the industry-wide exemption for logging. Continue reading...

Government advisers have set a course through the pandemic to net zero. Is Boris Johnson capable of following it?The colossal challenge facing human civilisation, of ending our reliance on fossil fuels in short order, has almost certainly been made harder by the pandemic. Ever since scientists discovered that the Earth was warming as a result of human activity, it has been a struggle to get people, governments and businesses to do anything about it. Even in those countries least resistant to the evidence of rapidly approaching danger, something else was usually seen as more important. In the past few months, once again, the climate emergency has been knocked off the top of world leaders’ to-do list by the more immediate threat of the virus.Recognising this, the environmental movement came up with the excellent idea of a green recovery. The annual report published on Thursday by the Committee on Climate Change, which provides official advice to the UK government, is a crucial, national component of that global effort. It sets out to tell Boris Johnson, his ministers and the British public how we can embed the lessons of Covid-19 in the next phase of carbon cuts. Continue reading...

The azure pool only appears after heavy rains, but cold, wet weather hasn’t deterred locals from taking a dipOn kunanyi/Mount Wellington, 200mm of rainfall has transformed a rocky patch of forest into a striking pool. It’s freezing cold, but the water is clear and blue.The Disappearing Tarn appears only after a heavy downpour. It’s shrouded in a layer of mystery among visitors and scientists alike: geomorphologist Kevin Kiernan speculates its arresting blue colour may be a result of fine sediments in the water as it pools over depressions in the land. At the bottom of this basin, organic matter rots and occasionally releases bubbles. Continue reading...

Australia’s central bank joins 60 others, including the Bank of England, to warn of climate risk to the economy and financial sectorMore than 60 central banks, including the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of England, have warned that global GDP could fall by 25% by 2100 if the world does not act to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.They suggested if the world acted to limit emissions to net zero by about 2070, giving a 67% chance of limiting global heating to 2C above pre-industrial levels, the impact of the climate crisis on global GDP could be about 4%. Continue reading...

Robin Hood-style shoplifting session at London supermarket ‘because poverty sucks’A new political party was launched in London on Thursday by a group of activists from Extinction Rebellion, who marked the event by shoplifting a haul of supermarket goods to highlight the instability of global food distribution.The stunt involved five members of the nascent Beyond Politics party walking out of Sainsbury’s in Camden with shopping trolleys filled with food but without paying. Continue reading...

‘Substantial increase’ in wind and solar power helped to generate 47% of Britain’s electricityRenewable energy made up almost half of Britain’s electricity generation in the first three months of the year, with a surge in wind power helping to set a new record for clean energy.The government’s official data has revealed that renewable energy made up 47% of the UK’s electricity generation in the first three months of the year, smashing the previous quarterly record of 39% set last year. Continue reading...

Staying home during the pandemic presents a unique opportunity to become better acquainted with wilderness in all its formsIn May, my partner and I had a daily ritual: he would send me a photo of the robin’s nest taking shape above the front door of his parents’ house, where he was sheltering in place. At first, it was more a pile of twigs than a structure, but slowly, it transformed into a woven bowl. Blue eggs appeared, and then chirping baby birds. A robin nested in that same spot the year before, but we were too busy to take such close stock, to notice the changes happening just outside the door.For many people, the outside world has shrunk in the last three months. City dwellers, with their notoriously cramped apartments and negligible backyard space, may feel especially cut-off from nature. But staying home during the first pandemic in over a century presents a unique opportunity to become better acquainted with wilderness in all its forms. Walk around the block, and you can behold scraggly neighborhood trees, birds roosting in apartment balconies, snails thriving in untended plots; under our sustained attention, these signs of life can begin to challenge our collective perception of what counts as nature. Continue reading...

As Covid-19 accelerates the shift towards renewable energy, Jonathan Watts hears how this change risks causing intergenerational injustice in AberdeenLike many young people in Aberdeen, Mike Scotland dreamed of a well-paid job on a rig in the North Sea, in the oil and gas field that has made his home town a boom town for most of the past 40 years.In February the 28-year-old landed the position he had wanted with Shell, and he was due to take a helicopter to the Shearwater platform in July once he had completed training. Continue reading...

Conservation groups call for independent environment regulator after scathing review of national lawsThe government has failed in its duty to protect the environment in its delivery of Australia’s national conservation laws, a scathing review by the national auditor general has found.The Australian National Audit Office found the federal environment department has been ineffective in managing risks to the environment, that its management of assessments and approvals is not effective, and that it is not managing conflicts of interest in the work it undertakes. Continue reading...

The region has made progress in getting people on to bikes, but where’s the ambition?When the mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, stood on an unlit section of towpath opposite what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse recently and hailed a “big summer for cycling and walking”, it was perhaps worryingly symbolic. That Friday, hours after Street invited us to “come cycle Birmingham’s canals”, at least two women were pushed into Birmingham waterways by a group of young men.The West Midlands is proud of its industrial heritage, but unlit, isolated towpaths are no replacement for a cycle network that safely takes people places they want to be. Continue reading...

Amateur beekeepers and scientists do ‘the whole CSI thing’ to stem the feared onslaughtIt took Moufida and John Holubeshen just a day of tracing alleged sightings and studying map coordinates before the two amateur detectives found their target.“We did the whole CSI thing,” says Moufida. “Plotting points and drawing lines, searching for where the middle of the circle – the nest – would be.” Continue reading...

Bayer’s US settlement over Monsanto’s weedkiller has given hope to litigants in AustraliaAustralia’s agriculture minister insists the common weedkiller Roundup is safe after its manufacturer agreed to pay almost $16bn to settle cancer lawsuits in the US.The pesticides giant Bayer agreed overnight to pay up to US$10.9bn (A$15.8bn) to settle about 95,000 cases claiming Roundup caused cancer. Continue reading...

Australian Energy Council’s support for Paris agreement will increase pressure on federal government to back pledgeAustralia’s major electricity and gas companies, including the owners of all coal-fired power plants in the national grid, have called on the Morrison government to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris agreement.In a statement on Thursday, the Australian Energy Council said it supported the 2015 Paris deal, and recognised it meant developed countries needed to reach net zero emissions by mid-century. Continue reading...