Teck Resources’ surprise decision drew outrage from politicians in oil-rich Alberta and cheers from environmental groupsA Canadian mining giant has withdrawn plans for a massive C$20.6bn ($15.7bn) tar sands mine, days before the federal government was to decide on whether to approve the controversial project.Teck Resources’ surprise decision to withdraw from open pit Frontier Mine project landed as a bombshell on Sunday night, prompting outrage from politicians in oil-rich Alberta and cheers from environmental groups. Continue reading...

Conservation groups are fighting the creation of 3,500 gas wells in Wyoming that threaten a 170-mile pathThe Path of the Pronghorn is a 170-mile migration route that the antelope-like creatures have traveled annually for 6,000 years. It is one of North America’s last remaining long-distance terrestrial migration corridors.And it is at risk. This week conservation groups filed a legal petition challenging the Trump administration’s plan to allow 3,500 new gas wells in south-western Wyoming that would block the route. Continue reading...

Environment Agency issues warning as snow and rain force closure of 250 schoolsSerious flooding from swollen rivers will threaten parts of England for several days, the Environment Agency has warned, as adverse weather continues to cause disruption.The warnings came as more than 250 schools were closed across northern England on Monday because of heavy snow and rain. Continue reading...

Ahead of the release of its technology roadmap, the Coalition tries to ramp up pressure on Labor over its net zero emissions targetScott Morrison has acknowledged there are “costs associated with climate change” but has declined to spell out what 3C heating would do to job creation and economic growth in Australia.Ahead of the release of its technology roadmap, the federal government is attempting to ramp up political pressure on Labor over its commitment to a net zero target by 2050, blasting the opposition for adopting a target without a fleshed-out strategy to meet it, and pointing out that CSIRO research cited positively by Labor assumes a carbon price of more than $200 to drive the transition. Continue reading...

Government MPs lash out at Labor over its emissions target before the parties spar on climate and more in question time, which begins with tributes to Hannah Clarke and her children. This blog is now closed

Negotiations over a 10-year agenda for nature are about to begin. Our ecological future depends on the engagement of every global citizenThe year 2020 has been designated a “super year for nature”, when the global community will rededicate itself to halting biodiversity loss with a 10-year action agenda, scheduled for agreement at the conference of the parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Kunming in China in October.On 13 January we published an initial “zero” draft of an action framework, which will be considered at negotiations being held in Rome from 24 February. Continue reading...

Given the madness in the political debate over a 2050 target, let’s establish some basic factsIt’s not news to observe that as soon as anyone mentions climate change policy in Australia, madness generally follows. A fresh outbreak of stupidity in the political debate has been triggered by Labor’s decision last week to sign up to a net zero target by 2050.Given the madness, let’s look at net zero, and establish some basic facts. Continue reading...

Organisation says it is frustrated with government’s use of vouchers in scheme that takes away farmers’ ‘dignity and choice’

75mph winds expected to bring more torrential downpours to one of wettest Februarys everA storm is expected to bring further bands of torrential rain to flood-hit communities as it sweeps across Britain.Forecasters have issued a yellow weather warning as the 75mph storm brings a fresh deluge of rain, up to 50mm (2in) in some places. Continue reading...

Environment secretary says there are ‘no plans’ to change law to clinch US trade dealThe environment secretary has refused to give a firm guarantee that the government will not allow chlorine-washed chicken to be imported into the UK as part of a trade deal with the US.While stressing that chlorinated chicken was currently illegal in the UK, and that the government was committed to maintaining high standards, George Eustice’s declaration that the government had “no plans” to change the law was more equivocal than assurances given by his predecessor, who said the current law would stay. Continue reading...

Energy board says renewables growth will cut electricity prices, but warns extreme weather and ageing coal plants a threat to energy securityRetail electricity prices are tipped to fall by 7.1% by 2022 – an average saving of $97 per household – according to the Energy Security Board.In its latest report on the health of the national electricity market, to be released on Monday, the ESB credits new low-cost renewable generation for driving down wholesale prices and warns that severe weather and ageing coal power plants are threatening reliability of supply. Continue reading...

Group’s first ever reference to global heating signals growing economic concerns over climate changeThe G20 group of the world’s wealthiest nations have agreed for the first time to collectively sound the alarm over the threat to the financial system posed by the climate emergency.Overcoming objections from Donald Trump’s US administration, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Saudi Arabia over the weekend agreed to issue their first ever communique with references to climate change, according to reports from Reuters. Continue reading...

Campaigners seek to embarrass Bank over role of Tullow Oil executive Dorothy ThompsonEnvironmental groups have called into question the Bank of England’s commitment to tackling the climate emergency while it retains one of Britain’s most senior oil company executives on its governing board.Greenpeace joined with Friends of the Earth and the campaign group Oil Change International (OCI) to condemn the role played on the Bank’s board of directors by Dorothy Thompson, the executive chair of Britain’s largest independent oil company, Tullow Oil. Continue reading...

Labor leader tells ABC he is open to a donations cap and says ALP zero emissions target could revive the NegAnthony Albanese has given in-principle support for a cap on political donations, citing the record $83m donation from Mineralogy to Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party as an example of “obscene” donations that must be curbed.In a wide-ranging interview on ABC’s Insiders, the Labor leader also confirmed the opposition’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 will include all sectors of the economy and could be achieved in part by adopting the Turnbull-era national energy guarantee in the electricity sector. Continue reading...

Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman gives emotional account of daughter’s battles with autism and an eating disorder

Several people hospitalized in Pasadena after Africanized bees emerge from hotel’s eaves: ‘Something set them off’A swarm of as many as 40,000 Africanized bees sent several people to hospital and closed a street in California, after swarming from the eaves of a Howard Johnson Inn.Related: Ursus urbinus: 'elderly' 400lb bear spotted roaming Los Angeles suburb Continue reading...

The city has fared badly in the recent storms, with long-suffering businesses taking another hitAt Plonkers wine bar in York city centre, brass plaques on the bare brick walls show how high the floodwaters have risen over the years.The highest was 17ft 8in in 2000 – “Here it comes”, the plaque reads. The lowest is 2012’s 16ft 7in, captioned “Here again”. Another plaque from 2015 says “Keep on smiling” and records a height of 17ft 2in. Continue reading...

Penned in by freeways, LA’s big cats face extinction – but a new wildlife crossing might be the answerThe lingering stench from putrefying deer carcasses is so powerful in Richie King’s pickup truck that his neighbours once reported him to the police. The suspicious plastic boxes behind our seats are empty today, he promises, chuckling, as we drive into California’s Sierra Azul mountains.But we are both hoping the smell of fermenting roadkill proves irresistible for an elusive predator in these hills: mountain lions. Continue reading...

Candidate has offered few details on how he would he achieve goals as climate plan lags behind Democratic rivalsMike Bloomberg has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to environmental advocacy causes, but his campaign is coming under fire for a climate plan that lags far behind the other Democratic candidates for president.In the latest televised Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night, Bloomberg said he wouldn’t “go to war with China” over its highest-in-the-world carbon emissions. He called fracked gas a “transition fuel”, and said that “we want to go to all renewables, but that’s still many years from now”. But, he added: “The world is coming apart faster than any scientific study had predicted. We’ve just got to do something now.” Continue reading...

Losing 2013 plebiscite on buying back utility grid appears to have enhanced SPD’s local prospectsAs with Brexit in Britain, the outcome of a referendum in Hamburg came as a blow to the establishment. By the slimmest of majorities, voters defied the status quo, and the party that did the best job convincing the public it would honour their will collected the political rewards.The dynamic unleashed by the 2013 plebiscite on buying the local utility grids back from private providers helps to explain why the city state is expected to buck national trends at this Sunday’s elections. Continue reading...

Researchers say their synthetic system reproduces tree’s ability to desalinate waterA novel approach to removing salt from water, inspired by mangrove trees, has been revealed by researchers who say the system could offer an unusual approach to clearing up flood water.Mangroves, like other trees, employ a system of water transport: it is thought evaporation of moisture from their leaves produces a negative pressure in their water-conducting tissues that helps to draw water into their roots and up their trunks. Continue reading...

News that the biggest mammal is returning in numbers to Antarctica signals a conservation triumph“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” Captain Ahab’s splenetic, dying declaration of defiance, as Moby Dick destroys his whaling ship and sends it below the waves of the Pacific Ocean, is among the most famous passages in Herman Melville’s extraordinary novel.In reality, such triumphs of the hunted over the hunter were a fantasy in the brutal world of industrial whaling. The biggest cetacean of them all, the blue whale, had all but disappeared from the Southern Ocean by the time a ban on hunting it was introduced in 1967. Continue reading...

Leaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says Earth is on unsustainable trajectoryThe world’s largest financier of fossil fuels has warned clients that the climate crisis threatens the survival of humanity and that the planet is on an unsustainable trajectory, according to a leaked document.The JP Morgan report on the economic risks of human-caused global heating said climate policy had to change or else the world faced irreversible consequences. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including chinstrap penguins and a koala up a tree Continue reading...

In homes metres away from the river, residents say they are constantly on alertKelly Ramsden hardly sleeps a wink when heavy rain is forecast. Last Saturday, when the army was deployed to Yorkshire’s Calder Valley to build flood defences in preparation for Storm Dennis, the 39-year-old was up half the night fretting.She doesn’t have to wait for flood sirens to know if she needs to switch from slippers to wellies. The window of her attic bedroom looks up towards the moors and she can gauge how soggy her kitchen will be by the amount of water rushing down the hillside towards the cobbled alley at the back of her house. From her living room, she can guess whether the River Calder, speeding along just 15 metres away behind a waist-high wall, is going to cause problems downstream in Hebden Bridge or Mytholmroyd. Continue reading...

Everything you need to know about the phasing out of the polluting domestic fuelsFrom next year, the UK will phase out sales of the most polluting domestic fuels: coal and wet wood. What will this mean for households, the environment and the traditional roaring open fire? Continue reading...

All new projects that enable fossil fuel growth are an affront to our state of climate emergency. It is a disgrace Canada is considering them

February is typically one of the wettest months in California, but the state is parched, and there’s no moisture in the forecastsSan Francisco and Sacramento have not seen a drop of rain this February, and climate scientists are expecting that disturbing dry trend to hold, in what is typically one of the wettest months of the year for California.“This hasn’t happened in 150 years or more,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “There have even been a couple wildfires – which is definitely not something you typically hear about in the middle of winter.” Continue reading...

WorkSafe Tasmania has threatened protesters with fines of up $500,000, but Bob Brown says activists won’t stopAnti-logging activists from the Bob Brown Foundation have been banned from protesting in Tasmanian forests by the state’s workplace safety regulator over “unsafe behaviour”, and threatened with fines as high as $500,000.But the veteran conservationist said protesters would not be deterred and has flagged legal action against the restrictions. Continue reading...

Wood burning stoves and coal fires are the single largest sources of PM2.5The sale of the most polluting fuels burned in household stoves and open fires will be phased out from next year to clean up the air, the government has said.Plans to phase out the sale of house coal and wet wood have been confirmed as part of efforts to tackle tiny particle pollutants known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into lungs and the blood and cause serious health problems. Continue reading...

Mathias Cormann says Coalition will ‘finalise longer-term target in time for Cop26’ but Angus Taylor commits only to ‘long-term strategy’Senior Morrison government ministers are publicly at odds about whether Australia will take a long-term emissions reduction target to global climate talks in November after Labor unveiled a target of net zero emissions by 2050.On Friday the finance minister Mathias Cormann confirmed the government “will be finalising a longer-term target in time for Cop26” but the emissions reduction minister would commit only to “a long-term strategy” despite repeatedly being asked about a new target. Continue reading...

The call for technology before action is a specious distraction designed to paper over the plan to take no actionIf you’re committed to the Paris agreement – to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees – then at a minimum, logically, scientifically, you’re committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.So far, at least 77 countries have committed to the target, as has every state and territory in Australia. The fact that prime minister Scott Morrison is pushing back hard against the calls for such a target sends yet another strong signal that his government still denies the need to tackle climate change. Continue reading...

Thinktank says 70,000 new builds in high risk areas are not covered by government-backed schemeTens of thousands of families who bought new homes in flood-risk areas are facing “crippling” financial costs, as they are ineligible for cover under a government-backed insurance scheme, a study has found.Research by the liberal conservative thinktank Bright Blue found that 70,000 homes had been built on land at the highest risk of flooding in England since 2009, including 20,000 that were not protected by flood defences. Continue reading...

Letter offers scathing criticism of police’s tactics against Wet’suwet’en people amid growing protest over gas pipelineCanadian federal police had “no legal authority” to make ID checks and searches on activists seeking to block a pipeline project on Indigenous territory, according to newly released correspondence from the force’s oversight body.The nine-page letter written by Michelaine Lahaie, chair of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, offers scathing criticism of the police’s continued use of tactics against Indigenous people which she had previously warned against. Continue reading...

Millions of people rely on the 1,450-mile waterway as increasing periods of drought and rising temperatures reduce flow of riverThe flow of the Colorado River is dwindling due to the impacts of global heating, risking “severe water shortages” for the millions of people who rely upon one of America’s most storied waterways, researchers have found.Increasing periods of drought and rising temperatures have been shrinking the flow of the Colorado in recent years and scientists have now developed a model to better understand how the climate crisis is fundamentally changing the 1,450-mile waterway. Continue reading...

Labor leader to argue setting goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 ‘should be as non-controversial in Australia as it is in most nations’Labor has to take the initiative in defending Australia against the dangers of climate change because the summer of catastrophe has highlighted our national vulnerability and because business and the states are now demanding national leadership, according to Anthony Albanese.As revealed by Guardian Australia, the Labor leader will use a speech to a progressive thinktank on Friday to commit the ALP to adopting a net-zero target by 2050 if it wins the next federal election, without the use of carryover credits from the Kyoto period. Continue reading...

Brazil’s JBS says it can’t trace the origins of all stock, as concern grows over deforestation linked to beef industryThe world’s biggest meat company has frequently been accused of links to deforestation. Now JBS is facing growing pressure from Brazilian politicians and environmentalists to address the information gaps and transparency failings in its supply chain.Critics say these deficiencies mean JBS is unable to ensure it does not buy cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation over a decade after promising to do so. Continue reading...

Severe weather brought heavy rain and strong winds and flooded hundreds of propertiesFlooding and damage left in the wake of Storm Dennis, which swept across the UK on 15 and 16 February, is estimated to cost £225m in insurance claims, taking the total insurance costs from two February storms to £425m.The severe weather brought heavy rain and strong winds to England and Wales, which led to record high river levels and flooded hundreds of properties. Continue reading...

Ministers were planning to ban environmentally harmful practice of burning old heatherOwners of large grouse moors threatened to take legal action against government ministers who had started developing plans to ban repeated heather burning, Whitehall documents have disclosed.The landowners issued the threat after ministers started working on producing a law to ban them from carrying out the environmentally damaging practice on their moorland estates. The old heather is burned to expose new shoots – a source of food for grouse, whose numbers are boosted. The estates then charge people who want to shoot grouse. Continue reading...

Financial Reporting Council wants to ensure companies are being clear with investorsThe UK’s accounting watchdog has launched a major review into whether companies and their auditors are adequately reflecting the financial risks of the climate crisis in their accounts.The Financial Reporting Council, which sets reporting standards for all listed companies in the UK, plans to use the review to make sure companies are being clear with investors about their exposure to climate risks. Continue reading...

As villagers in Somali region fall ill in unexplained circumstances, some locals fear gas exploration has tainted the local water supplyAt first, 23-year-old Khadar Abdi Abdullahi’s eyes began turning yellow. Then the palms of his hands did the same. Soon he was bleeding from his nose, and from his mouth, and his body was swelling all over. Eventually he collapsed with fever. He later died.A deadly sickness is spreading through villages near a Chinese natural gas project in Ethiopia’s Somali region, according to locals and officials who spoke to the Guardian. Many of Khadar’s neighbours have suffered the same symptoms. Like him, some died. Continue reading...

If ocean temperatures don’t drop in the next two weeks, heat stress could tip reef over into another widespread eventThe Great Barrier Reef could be heading for a third major coral bleaching outbreak in the space of five years if high ocean temperatures in the region do not drop in the next two weeks, scientists and conservationists have warned.Heat stress is already building across the world’s biggest reef system, with reports of patchy bleaching already occurring. But a major widespread event is not currently taking place. Continue reading...

Use of harmful chemicals is higher in poorer nations, according to data analysed by UnearthedThe world’s biggest pesticide companies make billions of dollars a year from chemicals found by independent authorities to pose high hazards to human health or the environment, according to an analysis by campaigners.The research also found a higher proportion of these highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) in the companies’ sales in poorer nations than in rich ones. In India, 59% of sales were of HHPs in contrast to just 11% in the UK, according to the analysis. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Anthony Albanese is expected to confirm in speech on Friday that Labor will oppose using Kyoto carryover creditsLabor has locked in behind a target of net zero emissions by 2050, and will oppose taxpayer funding of new coal-fired power plants, in the party’s first major decisions about climate policy for the next federal election.As well as adopting the clear 2050 target that Scott Morrison appears reluctant to sign up to, in part because of rolling combat within the Coalition, Guardian Australia understands shadow cabinet has also decided to oppose using carryover credits from the Kyoto period to meet future emissions reduction targets. Continue reading...

NSW government says relocation the priority but will not rule out some brumbies may be killed during largest removal of horses in park’s history

Deputy premier John Barilaro says the government’s priority is ‘getting new trees in the ground and strengthening the industry’The New South Wales government won’t proceed with privatising Forestry Corporation’s softwood plantation business after an unprecedented bushfire season.The government decided to forgo a long-term lease of the business after a five-month investigation which took into account recent damage to the state’s forestry assets. Continue reading...

Group of about 20 blocked Canadian National Railway Co rail line near Edmonton, capital of the western province of AlbertaDemonstrators opposed to a Canadian gas pipelinehave blockaded another railway line in the west of the country, adding to pressure on Justin Trudeau to solve a two-week protest.Freight traffic in eastern Canada has already been stopped for days after campaigners blockaded a main line in Ontario. Protesters across the country have taken up the cause of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people who are seeking to stop the C$6.6bn (US$4.98bn) Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project in British Columbia. Continue reading...

Number of properties built in high-risk areas has more than doubled in recent yearsOne in 10 of all new homes in England since 2013 have been built on land at the highest risk of flooding, official figures reveal, potentially leaving tens of thousands of people in greater danger from extreme winter storms.The number of properties built in these high-risk areas annually has more than doubled in recent years, with more than 84,000 new at-risk homes in total since 2013, according to a Guardian analysis of government data. Continue reading...

Study indicates human fossil methane emissions have been underestimated by up to 40%The oil and gas industry has had a far worse impact on the climate than previously believed, according to a study indicating that human emissions of fossil methane have been underestimated by up to 40%.Although the research will add to pressure on fossil fuel companies, scientists said there was cause for hope because it showed a big extra benefit could come from tighter regulation of the industry and a faster shift towards renewable energy. Continue reading...

Environmentalists and politicians at loggerheads after court order halts tree fellingGerman environmentalists and political leaders are at loggerheads over plans to build a Tesla electric car factory on the site of woodland outside Berlin, with the government casting doubt over the future of a project seen as key for its support of green technologies and regeneration in the east of the country.The economy minister, Peter Altmaier, said this week that delays could threaten the go-ahead of the so-called Gigafactory, which is expected to employ up to 12,000 workers making 50,000 electric cars a year. Continue reading...