Once one of western Europe’s biggest landfill sites, Thurrock Thameside is now a thriving haven for wildlifeStanding on top of the visitor centre at Thurrock Thameside Nature Park, you could be forgiven for being disappointed by the view: a large field of brambles. But just 10 years ago, the same view would have been even more disappointing: mountains of rubbish heaped up on one of Europe’s largest landfill sites.For 50 years, the site absorbed waste belched out by Londoners. Now the only reminder of its past life is the odd piece of discarded metal. Continue reading...

Activists aim to raise awareness of sustainable design and the need to reduce emissions from flightsActivists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) blocked traffic outside a London fashion week venue on Saturday and also staged a protest at Gatwick airport.Dozens of demonstrators prevented traffic from passing through a busy intersection leading to the Strand in Westminster, where the fashion trade show was being held. Continue reading...

Unilever-backed Loop launches ambitious bid to deliver refills of staple goods to householdsThe home delivery model pioneered by milkmen is getting a 21st century makeover as part of the war on plastic. A major new online service backed by the world’s biggest brands will deliver products ranging from soft drinks to washing powder and shampoo in refillable containers to your front door.The Loop, which launches next month, is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to eliminate plastic waste from the weekly shop. It is backed by major consumer goods companies Unilever and PepsiCo, who have created eco-versions of popular brands including Tropicana, Persil and Hellmann’s, to sell via the website. Continue reading...

Forceful declaration calls for governments to set short-term zero emissions target to avoid catastrophic warmingThe megafires of Australia’s summer “are a harbinger of life and death on a hotter Earth”, a climate summit has said in a forceful declaration for urgent and dramatic climate action.The Climate Emergency Summit, held in Melbourne this week and of which Guardian Australia was a partner, released a declaration saying the warming world was a clear threat to Australian society and civilisation. Continue reading...

IEA welcomes appointment of Alok Sharma but others worry about nature of his dual roleBoris Johnson must put the climate crisis at the top of his government’s agenda if crunch UN talks this year are to be a success, leading international figures have told the Guardian.Alok Sharma was appointed on Thursday as the business secretary and president of Cop26, the UN talks on the climate crisis to be held this November in Glasgow. Some climate experts are concerned that he won’t be able to stand up to governments reluctant to make strong commitments to cut greenhouse gases, while at the same time supporting British businesses struggling in the turmoil of Brexit. Continue reading...

Scientists say it’s the poppies’ fat and protein, not their narcotic alkaloids, that keep the birds coming back for moreTasmanian farmers have reported their poppy crops are being ravaged by cockatoos, but experts say it is likely that it is a taste for the fatty seeds, and not an addiction to opiates, that is attracting the birds.Tasmanian farmer Bernard Brain told the ABC on Tuesday that flocks of about 300 white cockatoos had decimated his harvest by ripping capsules from his poppy flowers and eating them, leading him to believe that the native birds were addicted to the alkaloid found in the seed. Continue reading...

Art, culture, nature and property prices are tempting people away from the capital

Airline is committing $1bn over next 10 years to mitigate all emissions from its global businessDelta announced an ambitious plan on Friday to become the first US airline to go carbon neutral, committing $1bn over the next 10 years to mitigate all emissions from its global business.The move by Delta will put pressure on other airlines to follow suit at a time when the UN is warning that airplane emissions of carbon dioxide will triple by 2050. Continue reading...

In UK, students march on first anniversary of nationwide protests by young people

UK’s largest water firm opts not to join rebellion against Ofwat’s crackdown on profit levelsThames Water has backed down from the water industry rebellion against the regulator by accepting Ofwat’s toughest crackdown on profits.The UK’s largest water supplier gave “careful consideration” to joining the industry’s first rebellion against Ofwat, in which three major water utilities plan to challenge the regulator. Continue reading...

New chief executive sets out strategy at bank bailed out by the government in 2008Royal Bank of Scotland’s new chief executive is renaming the group NatWest in a corporate overhaul designed to put its 2008 government bailout, and the fallout from a a string of scandals, behind it.The lender said it was ditching the 293-year-old RBS company name, saying it was the right time to make a change at the parent company and reflect that NatWest is its biggest brand. However, the existing RBS bank branches – most of which are in Scotland – will keep their name, as will Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

If a company that made its name in oil wants us to believe it can be part of the climate solution, it needs to stop drillingBP’s got a new boss, Bernard Looney. He doesn’t wear a tie, he’s on Instagram and he’s going to shrink its carbon footprint to “net zero” by 2050. Is this for real?It’s a sign the tide is turning. Maybe not enough to save us from catastrophic sea-level rises, but a turn nonetheless. The oil industry is incredibly savvy when it comes to public opinion, and can see the steady erosion of its “social licence to operate” (a company’s ability to go about its business without too much challenge). It has been struggling to recruit young people for years, well before the school climate strikes started. Continue reading...

Protesters have blocked railways and barricaded ports in wave of dissent – and the pressure on Justin Trudeau has increasedAs armed Canadian police officers advanced through snow towards their camp, the group of Indigenous women was absorbed in a drumming ceremony to honour the spirits of missing and murdered Indigenous women across the country.Rows of red dresses hung from a fishing line slung across the road, and from pine and spruce trees in the surrounding forest – each one a memorial to the thousands of Indigenous women killed or disappeared in recent years. Continue reading...

Outgoing charity chief Craig Bennett says next generation ‘could not be more exciting’The school strikes movement will ensure an exciting and dynamic future for environmental activism for decades to come, the outgoing head of Friends of the Earth has said, as students across the globe leave classrooms on Friday to demand political action on the climate crisis.Speaking on the first anniversary of the movement in the UK, Craig Bennett said it was grassroots activism, not centralised politics, that was leading to change. Continue reading...

Environmentalist was in charge when UN climate change panel shared 2007 Nobel peace prize but career was marred by harassment claimsThe Indian environmentalist Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, under whose leadership a UN climate change panel shared the 2007 Nobel peace prize, has died after recent heart surgery. He was 79.Pachauri’s death was announced late on Thursday by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a research group he headed until 2016 in New Delhi. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison’s government has quietly told the station’s owners the money will likely be allocated in the 2020 budgetThe Morrison government has made it known to the owners of the Vales Point coal-fired power plant that they are likely to get an $11m grant to upgrade the facility in the May budget.Canberra buried the probable commitment to the coal project on page 12 of a 13-page $2bn agreement with the Berejiklian government to increase gas supply and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector. Continue reading...

With well-funded research, cold fusion has the potential to provide us with a sustainable source of energy, writes Prof Brian JosephsonTim Flannery (The age of the megafire is here, and it’s a call to action, Journal, 7 February) writes: “As far as swift climate action is concerned, all good choices have gone up in smoke”.That may not be the case, however. There has been abundant support by now for the claim made by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in 1989 to have observed nuclear fusion at ordinary temperatures, but the hope that such a fossil-fuel-free process might contribute usefully to energy production has not been fulfilled because it is very unpredictable, and we do not as yet know the conditions needed to produce large amounts of energy. Suitably funded research on a large scale might lead to a resolution of this issue.

Macron says protecting environment is ‘battle of the century’ on visit to ChamonixFrance is to restrict access to Mont Blanc in the Alps in an effort to halt reckless summit attempts and protect the biodiversity of the mountain and its surroundings.Emmanuel Macron announced the new rules during a visit to Chamonix on Thursday when he visited the famous Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) glacier, which has shrunk dramatically over the last 20 years. Continue reading...

Surprise choice has poor record on Commons votes affecting the environment

As governments dither and emissions rise, pressure will be on UK at UN climate summit

Anthony Albanese says he was unaware of factional dinner and his MPs are united on wanting action on emissions reductionLabor MPs have sought to downplay suggestions of a breakaway pro-coal group within the party, as the Coalition seized on the report to accuse the opposition of divisions over climate policy.Following a report by Channel Ten on Wednesday night that a group of about 20 right-aligned Labor MPs dined regularly to canvass policies in support of coal workers, attention shifted from the Coalition’s internal ructions over climate policy to Labor. Continue reading...

Plan to form coalition of developing countries at COP 26 to help support effortsThe UK is to spearhead a major global crackdown on illegal timber and deforestation, with plans to form a coalition of developing countries against the trade as part of its hosting of crunch UN climate talks this year.Deforestation is a leading factor in rising global greenhouse gas emissions, but many developing nations lack the means and institutions to combat illegal logging and regulate forest industries. The Department for International Development (DfID) will shortly lay out plans to help countries strengthen the rule of law, support the trade in responsible forestry and provide on-the-ground assistance to stamp out illegal logging. Continue reading...

Minister says he has ‘had enough’ of company’s failure to deal with waste dump that was almost breached by South Island floodsNew Zealand’s environment minister has threatened the mining conglomerate Rio Tinto with legal action over what he says is an “outrageous” failure to deal with toxic waste from an aluminium plant.Recent South Island floods – in which the waste’s storage facility was nearly inundated, bringing ecological and human tragedy – have infuriated locals in Mataura, where 10,000 tonnes of “ouvea premix” resides. Continue reading...

Cause of rise was ocean warming of less than 2C, which has major implications for future, researchers warnMass melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet, driven by warmer ocean temperatures, was a major cause of extreme sea level rise more than 100,000 years ago, according to new research.A research team, led by scientists at the University of New South Wales, examined the cause of high sea levels during a period known as the last interglacial, which occurred 129,000-116,000 years ago. Continue reading...

The town at the center of a Guardian series, where the cancer risk is 50 times the national average, is critical of a planned monitoring systemEnvironmental Protection Agency officials on Tuesday pleaded with community members in Reserve, Louisiana, to back a new air monitoring system being installed by the agency, which they claim will better measure pollutants from a nearby chemical plant emitting the likely human carcinogen chloroprene.Reserve, the subject of a year-long Guardian series, Cancer Town, is home to the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxins, according to EPA data, which found that a census tract next door to the plant has a cancer risk 50 times the national average. Continue reading...

Research shows abundance at sites in Europe has plunged by up to 80% in two decadesTwo scientific studies of the number of insects splattered by cars have revealed a huge decline in abundance at European sites in two decades.The research adds to growing evidence of what some scientists have called an “insect apocalypse”, which is threatening a collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. A third study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon criticises PM as officials look at London back-up for Glasgow summitThe government has warned that staging the COP 26 climate summit must represent “value for taxpayers’ money”, amid friction with the Scottish government over the policing costs of holding the event in Glasgow.It emerged on Wednesday that government officials have been scoping out the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands for the high-profile international summit, which the UK is due to host in November. Continue reading...

Europe’s biggest asset manager backs vote calling for bank to end services to energy firmsEurope’s largest asset manager is backing a shareholder vote urging Barclays to stop offering loans to fossil fuel companies.Amundi, an influential investor with more than €1.65tn (£1.4tn) in assets under management, is the latest shareholder to throw its weight behind a resolution calling on Barclays to phase out services to energy companies that fail to align with Paris climate goals. Continue reading...

Acting Lib Dem leader Ed Davey calls for action as he lambasts ‘shambolic’ approach to talksA cross-party committee of MPs, green campaigning groups, business leaders and climate experts is needed to advise the government on crunch UN climate talks later this year to put the UK’s hosting of the COP26 talks back on track, the Liberal Democrat acting leader, Sir Ed Davey, is expected to say.His call, which will form part of a speech on climate delivered at Birkbeck College in London on Thursday, comes after the energy minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, told a meeting of ambassadors that the UK could not afford to allow the talks to fail because of the additional pressures of Brexit. Continue reading...

MEPs support €29bn schemes, ‘locking Europe into burning fossil fuels for generations’The EU has given its formal backing to 32 major gas infrastructure projects in a move critics say will lock Europe into burning fossil fuels for generations.MEPs voted to support the European commission’s proposal by 443 votes to 169 on Wednesday, with 36 abstentions, provoking environmental groups to lament Brussels’ “hypocrisy” over the climate emergency. Continue reading...

Dams between Scotland, Norway, France and England ‘a possible solution’ to problemA Dutch government scientist has proposed building two mammoth dams to completely enclose the North Sea and protect an estimated 25 million Europeans from the consequences of rising sea levels as a result of global heating.Sjoerd Groeskamp, an oceanographer at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, said a 475km dam between north Scotland and west Norway and another 160km one between west France and south-west England was “a possible solution”. Continue reading...

Jonathan Watts breaks down the oil company’s statements on its plans to cut carbon emissions in the coming decadesBP’s new chief executive, Bernard Looney, has announced plans to make it a net zero company by 2050, and outlined its strategy in a document. The Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, examines what it says – and what it means:BP today set a new ambition to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero.The ambition is supported by 10 aims.

New CEO Bernard Looney reveals plan to invest more in low-carbon businessesBP’s new chief executive has set an ambitious target to shrink the oil firm’s carbon footprint to net zero by 2050 by cutting more greenhouse gas emissions every year than produced by the whole of the UK.Bernard Looney, who replaced Bob Dudley as chief executive this month, said it was clear that BP needed to change. He said BP would aim to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner by tackling “all the carbon we get out of the ground as well as all the greenhouse gases we emit from our operations”. Continue reading...

Johnson told MPs figure was £350m but sources say he made error in ‘car crash of an announcement’The government has earmarked £1bn for safe cycling and walking routes in the next five years – not £350m, as Boris Johnson mistakenly told parliament in what one expert called “a car crash of an announcement”, the Guardian has learned.But £1bn is still not enough to even build Greater Manchester’s 1,800-mile Bee Network of safe paths, according to its architect, Chris Boardman, a former Olympic cycling champion who is the region’s walking and cycling commissioner. He has asked Johnson for £1.2bn and says he will continue to do so. Continue reading...

Transport secretary’s disclosure of earlier target likely to rattle carmakersThe government could ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars in 2032, three years earlier than previously suggested, the transport secretary has said.A consultation launched last week suggested all cars with internal combustion engines could be banned from 2035 but Grant Shapps told BBC radio on Wednesday the ban could come within 12 years. Continue reading...

BP, Shell, Chevron and Exxon accused of making huge profits while ‘passing the buck’ on climate changeBP, Shell, Chevron and Exxon have made almost $2tn in profits in the past three decades as their exploitation of oil, gas and coal reserves has driven the planet to the brink of climate breakdown, according to analysis for the Guardian.The scale of their profits is revealed as experts say the fossil fuel boom is coming to an end, with big oil entering a “death knell” phase, according to one prominent Wall St commentator. Continue reading...

Buying up unused fabrics and repurposing old stock is part of the designer’s sustainability missionGabriela Hearst, a favourite fashion designer of Oprah Winfrey and the Duchess of Sussex, describes her business model as “cooking with leftovers”.Cashmere leftovers, that is. With her husband, John Augustine Hearst, scion of the magazine empire, the fashion designer has a net worth estimated at £1.5bn, and has made it her mission to develop a sustainable methodology for the fashion industry. Continue reading...

The beach that lost some 20,000 cubic metres of sand to large swells last year has been battered again“Devastating” erosion at Newcastle’s Stockton beach has put the future of surfing and surf live saving in jeopardy, as anxious residents await further damaging swells at the end of the week.The director of education at the Stockton surf life saving club, Willow Forsyth, said 3,600 cubic metres of sand that was injected into targeted areas of the beach in December had been swept away, and even more damage done by this week’s storms. Continue reading...

Nationals MP also calls for expansion of Australia’s coal seam gas industryThe new minister for resources, Keith Pitt, says he sees no case to increase the level of taxation on the booming gas industry, despite concerns from experts that large multinationals are avoiding paying tax, and the budget is missing out on valuable revenue.The Queensland National, who replaced Matt Canavan in the portfolio after Canavan resigned to back Barnaby Joyce’s unsuccessful tilt at the party leadership, told Guardian Australia: “I think the taxation levels are reasonable where they are, and it will be steady as she goes.” Continue reading...

Energy companies have leased 9.9m acres from the administration – and the fossil fuels extracted could equal half a year of emissions from China

A report shows that when bike lanes are built, people cycle more and drive lessIf you took a time machine back to John Dobson Street in central Newcastle in 2013, you’d be struck by its transformation in the years since.An inhospitable dual carriageway has been replaced by a single carriageway with wider pavements and a 400m bike lane. The result: a fourfold increase in people cycling along the route. Continue reading...

Damage to environment could wipe £368bn a year from growth by 2050 and UK will be hard hit, WWF warnsLoss of nature will wipe £368bn a year off global economic growth by 2050 and the UK will be the third-worst hit, with a £16bn annual loss, according to a study by the World Wildlife Fund.Without urgent action to protect nature, the environmental charity warned that the worldwide impact of coastal erosion, species loss and the decline of natural assets from forests to fisheries could cost a total of almost £8tn over the next 30 years. Continue reading...

Menindee’s Graeme McCrabb, who raised awareness of mass fish kills, says he is heartbroken by the state government’s decisionThe New South Wales government has given the green light to irrigation farmers in the north-west of the state to harvest the recent rainfall, pleasing some but causing anger in towns such as Menindee and Wilcannia and on the lower Darling where the river has not flowed for a year.The lifting of the embargo for three days will be welcomed particularly by cotton farmers who have lobbied the NSW water minister, Melinda Pavey, warning that unless they are able to harvest the water their infrastructure will be damaged. Continue reading...

In the wake of destruction caused by wildfires, most recently in Australia, experts are seeking ways of limiting their impact by managing forests betterVast waves of fire have torn through Australia in recent months, leaving forests of skinned trees in their wake. The wildfires have been one of the most damaging in the country’s history – more than 11m hectares (27m acres) have burned, killing 33 people and decimating wildlife populations.But they are just the latest in a succession of destructive blazes that have been flaring across the planet – even in the Arctic circle – in the past five years. The response from authorities, in Australia, the Americas and the Mediterranean often seems scrambled and ineffective. Continue reading...

Power baron questions whether there is sound business case for project, saying government would need to indemnify itPolitically connected power baron Trevor St Baker says there is no way a new coal-fired power plant will proceed at Collinsville unless the Morrison government agrees to shield the project from a change of climate policy.A day after Scott Morrison left open the option of his government indemnifying a new coal plant in Collinsville from future carbon risk, St Baker told Guardian Australia no project at that scale could proceed without an indemnity from the commonwealth. Continue reading...

Burning gas, coal and oil costs global economy $8bn a day and particularly harms childrenAir pollution from burning fossil fuels is responsible for more than 4m premature deaths around the world each year and costs the global economy about $8bn a day, according to a study.The report, from Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, found that burning gas, coal and oil causes three times the number of deaths as road traffic accidents globally. Continue reading...