Environment | The Guardian

Funds are needed to prevent Tidal Lagoon Power’s development consent expiring in JuneThe developers of a pioneering tidal power project in Swansea Bay have launched an 11th hour bid to raise over £1m to keep the project afloat.The company has just over three months to raise enough cash to pay for the development costs of the £1.3bn project before its funds risk running dry in March. Continue reading...

Wet Tropics Management Authority offers grim assessment of impacts on region’s biodiversity and economyClimate change is escalating as “the most significant threat” to Australia’s wet tropics world heritage area, with an update to parliament reporting the outlook for the bioregion is a cause of “great concern”.The grim assessment of the critical north Queensland rainforest region is outlined in an annual snapshot of the protected area prepared by the Wet Tropics Management Authority, which urges greater national and international effort to address the causes of climate change. Continue reading...

John McDonnell rejects claim, saying thinktank is taking ‘nakedly ideological stance’Labour’s plan to renationalise large chunks of the economy risks years of disruption that could delay Britain’s transition to a low-carbon economy, a thinktank has said.The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that taking water, energy companies, the Royal Mail and railways under state control would be costly, complex and risky and said Labour might do better to tighten regulation instead. Continue reading...

Climate activist heading to COP25 in Madrid after crossing Atlantic on family’s yachtThe climate activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in Lisbon after a three-week catamaran voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from the US.The Swedish teenager now plans to head to Spain to attend the UN climate conference in Madrid. Continue reading...

Diverting rangers is a way to direct federal resources to the border without the need for congressional approval

World Meteorological Organization says 2019 is likely to be second or third warmest year everThe last decade has been one of “exceptional” heat around the world, and was almost certainly the hottest on record, while the oceans have also warmed to record levels and grown markedly more acidic, the World Meteorological Organization has said.Temperatures for the years from 2010 to 2019 were about 1.1C above the average for the pre-industrial period, showing how close the world is coming to the 1.5C of warming that scientists say will cause dramatic impacts, extreme weather and the loss of vital ecosystems. Continue reading...

Federal minister David Littleproud responds to mounting pressure with water sharing review by Mick KeeltyThe leader of the New South Wales Nationals, John Barilaro, and the water minister, Melinda Pavey, have demanded a major rewrite of the Murray-Darling Basin plan, including that the state be excused from recovering further water for the environment, or the state will pull out.With a drought wreaking havoc on rural economies, particularly in NSW, the two Nationals ministers have upped the ante and set out a list of demands including that evaporation losses count toward water for the environment. Continue reading...

Tesco and Asda are among 67 firms and investors who have written to President BolsonaroTesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and the UK’s largest asset manager are among 67 major companies and investors who have written to Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, urging his government to stop further deforestation of the Amazon for soy production.The preservation of the Amazon rainforest, a vital sink for carbon dioxide, is widely considered by scientists and activists to be a priority in responding to the climate crisis. However, the Brazilian soy farmers’ association Aprosoja has mounted a campaign to end a voluntary ban on trading crops harvested from newly cleared land. Continue reading...

More than 10% of forest in NSW national parks destroyed by fire this season, with the damage to Gondwana rainforest a ‘global tragedy’

More than 370 species were gathered during a six-year mission to widen the gene pool and ensure future food securityThe seeds of more than 370 wild crop species have been collected as part of a six-year Indiana Jones-style mission to widen the gene pool of staple crops and ensure future global food security in increasingly unpredictable growing conditions.A hundred scientists from 25 countries travelled by horse, canoe and even elephant to reach remote corners of the world in search of wild species of common agricultural crops such as rice, barley, beans and potatoes that billions of people rely on for basic nutrition. Continue reading...

Special episode of the ABC show featuring Pacific leaders was dominated by climate crisis and Australia’s responseThe former prime minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, who hosted Pacific leaders including Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern at the Pacific Islands Forum in August has told a special Pacific edition of Q&A he was “taken aback” by Scott Morrison’s behaviour in the diplomatic meetings.“Unfortunately prime minister Scott Morrison of Australia [was] expressing views that completely denies there is climate change happening already in the Pacific. As chairman I was taken a little bit aback,” he said. Continue reading...

People will wonder why there is so much the government wants to conceal, says GreenpeaceThe government has heavily redacted a secret report into the fracking industry after it was forced to comply with a court order for its release.The Whitehall report on the UK shale gas sector emerged on Monday after a years-long battle to uncover the hidden documents – but with three quarters of its pages blacked out. The 48-page report, seen by the Guardian, includes 37 pages that are entirely blacked out and only one – the front cover – that was left uncensored. Continue reading...

Lawyers bring biggest class action of its kind in Britain against carmaker over emissions scandalVolkswagen has employed a range of “progressively more innovative” arguments to claim the software fitted to millions of its vehicles is not a defeat device designed to cheat emissions tests, the high court has heard.Lawyers representing more than 90,000 UK customers are bringing the biggest class action of its kind in Britain against the carmaker over the dieselgate emissions scandal. Continue reading...

Early births are associated with health and developmental concerns, adding to fears over climate crisisHot weather increases the risk of early childbirth, which in turn is linked to worse health and developmental outcomes for children, a major new study has found.The report could have fresh implications for the impact of global heating on human health. Continue reading...

Vended water is many times more expensive than tap water. And there isn’t much evidence to show customers are getting the quality they’re paying forCustomers stream into the parking lot of a San Diego strip mall, lining up behind a windmill-shaped vending machine that fills their jugs for 25 to 35 cents a gallon.“The water that comes from the tap, I don’t trust it, and it doesn’t taste good,” Miguel Martinez said on a recent afternoon, as he filled his bottle from the kiosk. Martinez lives in San Diego’s nearby Shelltown neighborhood, an area located minutes from downtown where many immigrant families have landed. Continue reading...

TCI threatens to dump stakes in firms that do not have plan to reduce emissionsThe activist hedge fund TCI plans to target directors of companies that fail to disclose their carbon emissions, in the latest sign that investors are putting more pressure on boardrooms to step up their disclosure on climate risks.

ALP concerned about repeat of flawed roll-out of government’s regional jobs schemeLabor has raised concerns that a new round of government drought grants could be politically exploited, as parliament’s audit committee agrees to examine the Coalition’s troubled regional jobs and investment scheme.On Monday, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit announced it had agreed to commence an inquiry into the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages (RJIP) program, along with the Australian Research Council’s administration of the national competitive grants program. Continue reading...

US insurers join retreat from European insurers meaning coal projects cannot be built or operatedThe number of insurers withdrawing cover for coal projects more than doubled this year and for the first time US companies have taken action, leaving Lloyd’s of London and Asian insurers as the “last resort” for fossil fuels, according to a new report.The report, which rates the world’s 35 biggest insurers on their actions on fossil fuels, declares that coal – the biggest single contributor to climate change – “is on the way to becoming uninsurable” as most coal projects cannot be financed, built or operated without insurance. Continue reading...

Report to Unesco by the federal and Queensland governments says key features have deteriorated since reef was listed in 1981Australia has conceded in an official report that the Great Barrier Reef’s unique values as a world heritage site have been adversely affected by climate change.In the report to Unesco’s world heritage committee, the Queensland and federal governments say the reef is “an icon under pressure with a deteriorating long-term outlook”. Continue reading...

Bimblebox Nature Refuge owners say mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin would destroy wildlife and impact graziersConservationists have launched a court battle against Clive Palmer’s proposed Queensland coalmine, saying it will destroy wildlife and impact graziers.The owners of the 8,000-hectare (20,000-acre) Bimblebox Nature Refuge in central Queensland filed an objection to Waratah Coal’s proposed mining project in the Galilee Basin on Monday in the land court in Brisbane. Continue reading...

‘We’ve got no leadership ... we’ve got nothing,’ says Melinda Plesman, who lost her house in Nymboida, near Grafton

Energy industry in particular fights back against planned new rules on green labellingFossil fuel lobbyists are trying to water down planned EU rules to stop “investment greenwashing’ by setting science-based criteria for any investment which lays claim to being environmentally sustainable.A report from lobbyist watchdog InfluenceMap has found that although some investors support the “green labelling” rules, 98% of Europe’s 50 largest investors are members of lobby groups trying to weaken the proposals. Continue reading...

Manifestos fall short of action needed to address biggest source of UK emissions, campaigners sayNone of the main parties in the general election has a coherent plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport, the biggest source of carbon in the UK, according to campaigners.The Conservative manifesto highlights the need to repair potholes, but the nearly £30bn pledge to be spent on roads is likely to add to greenhouse gases at a time when they need to be reduced drastically. Continue reading...

Bipartisan bloc aims to convince people that rapid action is required to halt carbon emissions within 30 yearsFormer US secretary of state and Democratic senator John Kerry has launched a new coalition of power-brokers, including top politicians, military leaders, and Hollywood celebrities, to fight for addressing the climate crisis.This coalition – named World War Zero, in reference to the national security danger presented by global heating – aims to convince people that rapid mobilization is required to halt the increase in carbon emissions within 30 years. According to United Nations scientists, global carbon emissions must be halved by 2030 – and eliminated completely by 2050 – to restrict warming to comparatively safe levels. Continue reading...

Pat Conroy lashes Greens’ decision to side with the Coalition as a ‘massive error’ with far-reaching consequencesAustralia’s carbon emissions would be more than 200m tonnes lower and electricity prices would be cheaper if the Greens had supported the carbon pollution reduction scheme a decade ago, the Labor frontbencher Pat Conroy says.Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the 2009 parliamentary defeat of Labor’s emissions trading system, Conroy has lashed the political failure to develop a national energy policy as “perhaps the most consequential policy failure of the modern era in Australia”. Continue reading...

Bank of England governor steps down in January and will replace Michael BloombergMark Carney has been appointed as UN special envoy for climate action and finance as he prepares to step down as governor of the Bank of England in January.Carney replaces billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the part time pro bono climate action role after the former New York mayor stepped down to focus on the US presidential race. Continue reading...

Rich should foot bill for impact on developing nations, report claimsA new international organisation should be set up to raise and distribute funds to nations who will suffer the worst impacts of global heating.That is the key conclusion of a UK report – Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change – that will be debated this week at the COP25 climate talks in Madrid. The authors argue that the cash raised by the new body should be used in addition to the $100bn a year rich countries have pledged to help poorer nations cut their carbon emissions and adapt to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

We compare the manifestos, from Labour’s £8.2bn a year to the Tories’ pothole fund

The minke whale was discovered on Friday by a patrol boat under Battersea BridgeAn eight-foot whale washed up on the shore of the Thames yesterday, where it was found by a patrol boat under Battersea Bridge.The minke whale was found on Friday evening at about 10pm by a Port of London Authority boat, but it is not yet known how it got there or why it died. Continue reading...

Jair Bolsonaro falsely accuses actor of funding deliberate destruction of rainforest

Genuine fascists remain on the political margins, but we can increasingly imagine the space that eco-fascism might occupyEarlier this year, when the fascist responsible for the El Paso massacre cited ecological degradation as part motivation for his killing spree, many considered him entirely deranged.Eco-fascism sounds oxymoronic, a mashup of irreconcilable philosophies. Continue reading...

Large turnouts in Madrid before UN summit, and in Sydney after deadly wildfiresHundreds of thousands of young people have taken to the streets from Manila to Copenhagen as part of the latest student climate strikes to demand radical action on the unfolding ecological emergency.School and university students around the world walked out of lessons on Friday with large turnouts in Madrid, where world leaders will gather on Monday for the latest UN climate summit, and Sydney, where protesters demanded action after devastating wildfires. Continue reading...

Mercedes-Benz owner aims to slash €1bn from wage bill in drive towards electric carsDaimler has announced plans to cut at least 10,000 jobs worldwide in the latest sign of stress in the German automotive industry as it invests billions in electric cars.Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz and also makes lorries, vans and buses, said on Friday it planned to cut thousands of jobs by the end of 2022, but later made it clear the toll would be higher. Continue reading...

Coldplay and Massive Attack have pledged greener tours – but is the billion-pound gigging industry compatible with eco activism?As they released their eighth album, Everyday Life, Coldplay announced last week that they would not be taking it on tour, instead performing the album just once on British soil at the Natural History Museum. Frontman Chris Martin expressed his concerns about the future of touring, highlighting the difficulties of reconciling flying with environmentalism and expressed a wish to see a Coldplay show run largely on solar power with no single-use plastic. Snark was instant – “Coldplay announces plan to spare planet the effects of future Coldplay concerts” ran one headline – but others lauded the move: the band’s previous tour featured 122 shows across five continents and generated £405m.Massive Attack also declared this week that “business as usual is over’’ as they begin working with the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre to map the carbon footprint of tours and work on a blueprint to reform the industry, a message similarly shared by Billy Bragg on his recent tour. Continue reading...

Pupils to declare December vote a ‘climate election’ as data highlights urgency of crisisChildren and young people in more than 100 towns and cities across the UK are walking out of classrooms on Friday for the latest youth strike to highlight the escalating climate crisis.Strikers are focusing on the polls next month, which they have pledged to make a “climate election” by demonstrating the growing public concern about the ecological crisis. Continue reading...

With global heating damaging corals worldwide, experts find potential tool in ‘acoustic enrichment’ to recolonise reefsPlaying sounds of a healthy coral reef can attract fish back to reefs that have become degraded and abandoned, researchers have found.Global heating together with factors such as pollution are causing widespread damage to coral and harming delicate reef ecosystems. Continue reading...

Help has been slow to arrive to White Swan after severe flooding compounded long-standing social and economic inequalities

Agri-park high in the Andes preserves the expertise to breed strains fit for a changing climate

Students in Australia gathered in Sydney, Melbourne and other capitals as part of the global 29 November climate protestsA teenager whose family home burned down in the New South Wales bushfires has delivered a message to Scott Morrison at a climate emergency protest outside the Liberal party headquarters, saying: “your thoughts and prayers are not enough”.Shiann Broderick, from Nymboida, said government inaction on the climate crisis had “supercharged bushfires”. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson replaced by melting ice sculpture in debate on Channel 4 discussing climate crisis

Conservatives say they could review channel’s broadcasting remit if they win election

Labour says failure to share document raises doubts about Tories’ promise to halt frackingThe Cabinet Office has defied a court order to release a secret government report on the UK’s fracking industry.Officials were expected to hand over the report on Monday, days before Britain’s first general election leaders’ debate on the climate crisis, after the information tribunal ruled it was in the public interest to disclose its findings in full. Continue reading...

Jeremy Corbyn is proposing to double the requirement in place to tackle the climate crisisJeremy Corbyn has promised to plant 2 billion trees by 2040 to help arrest the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Conservationists say climate change threat must be addressed to avoid reef’s inclusion on ‘in-danger’ listConservationists say an official government report to the UN’s world heritage committee to be released next week must show Australia has fresh plans to attack the Great Barrier Reef’s two key threats – climate change and water quality.At a forum earlier this month environment ministers signed-off on the “state of conservation” report for the reef,which was then sent to Unesco’s world heritage committee. Continue reading...

Through careful planning, a commitment to energy-efficient design and sometimes necessity, these Australians have embraced life off the gridKathy Menzel says she used to be completely oblivious to power bills, “just running along in the hamster wheel like everybody else, you know, busy, busy, busy, spend, spend, spend”. She and her husband Bob, both IT professionals, did have an inkling they wanted something different though, yearning for a serene country lifestyle with no neighbours.When they finally found their dream block in the Adelaide Hills, reality hit home. “We’d been looking for five years for this great piece of land in the middle of nowhere but still easy to commute to the city,” she says. “But it was going to cost $450,000 to get on to the grid.” The cost of connecting was far more than the $238,000 for the 10 acre block, which was only 1.5km from a main road. Continue reading...

Staff at Mossgiel farm hope to promote a more sustainable model of dairy farming, including delivering milk in reusable glass bottlesLying in a field of grass among his herd of dairy cows, Ayrshire farmer Bryce Cunningham picks up and pretends to throw away a plastic carton of milk. This is what we want to get rid of on our farm, he says in a promotional video, as he explains his quest to become the UK’s first single-use plastic-free milk producer.

With more than a thousand mice per acre, an ecosystem is under threat. But poison could make things even worseThe Farallon Islands of northern California are one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots. These stark granite outcrops, which sit 30 miles (48km) off the coast of San Francisco, are home to 300,000 breeding seabirds, five species of seals and sea lions, and a type of cricket found nowhere else in the world.Scientists studying shark behavior or bird migration patterns flock here annually, but the islands have hosted other visitors for even longer: mice, tens of thousands of them. Continue reading...

One in three people in Cleveland and surrounds live in a food desert. But the desperation for healthy food has kicked off one of the biggest urban farming movements in the US

Genetic modification, banned in Europe, could have ‘great potential promise’Gene-modifying techniques could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, helping to feed the world while combating the climate emergency, scientists have said.“Conventional [genetic] selection is extremely powerful,” said Mike Coffey, a professor of livestock informatics at Scotland’s Rural College. “At this point in time, GM [genetic modification] is not allowed in Europe, but some of these technologies could have great potential promise.” Continue reading...