Money will go to Eastern Australia Agriculture – founded by energy minister Angus Taylor – for additional water to save rare wetlandsThe federal government is spending up to $2m buying water from Queensland agribusiness Eastern Australia Agriculture in a bid to keep an internationally significant wetlands from dying, despite paying $80m to the same company three years ago for water rights for the same purpose.The $80m purchase of overland flows from Eastern Australia Agriculture has been controversial and is now under scrutiny by Australian National Audit Office. Continue reading...

Protecting against coastal flooding, boosting recycling and ensuring water security are now high priority initiativesRising sea levels, water security and waste management are among the environmental challenges that Infrastructure Australia has, for the first time, elevated to the top tier of its priorities list.In its latest list, to be released on Wednesday, Infrastructure Australia said it was elevating environmental concerns because climate change was altering the water cycle and was projected to cause sea level rises of 0.4 to 0.6 metres. It also cited a renewed focus on “resilience” in the face of natural disasters. Continue reading...

Industry’s largest financier pledges to end loans to Arctic oil drillers and coalminersJP Morgan Chase is to end fossil fuel loans for Arctic oil drilling and phase out loans for coal mining under new climate initiatives.The world’s largest financier of fossil fuels set out its plans at an investor event on Tuesday, days after the bank’s economists warned that the climate crisis threatened the survival of humanity. Continue reading...

The home affairs minister declares Islamic terror is leftwing extremism after being blasted by Labor for applying false equivalencePeter Dutton has declared that “leftwing terrorism” includes Islamist extremism after being blasted by Labor for applying false equivalence in the national security debate.Dutton’s intervention on Tuesday was triggered by a speech by the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) Mike Burgess. On Monday night, Australia’s top intelligence chief warned the threat of rightwing extremism in Australia was real and growing. Continue reading...

PM blasts Labor for adopting same 2050 target as NSW premier, saying ‘we have a plan’Scott Morrison says he’s happy to work with the New South Wales government on its ambition to hit net zero emissions by 2050 because the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, “has a plan” – although the plan the prime minister referenced on Tuesday ends in 2030.Despite blasting Labor federally for adopting the same net zero target as the Berejiklian government, the prime minister told parliament circumstances were different in NSW because there was a strategy in place to deliver a transition. Continue reading...

ICAEW and other industry groups want climate risk to be integrated into company auditsThe world’s accountants must put the climate crisis at the forefront of their work to spur global companies to adopt green policies and help prepare them for the risks, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and other industry groups.They have called on a global alliance of accountants, representing more than 2.5 million professionals worldwide, to put their skills to use by helping companies prepare for a climate emergency. Continue reading...

Premier says overhaul will ‘take responsibility for our waste’ and help fix longstanding problemsThe Victorian government will double its $28m in grants for businesses to sort and process recycling as part of a $96.5m package to fix the state’s waste industry.Another $30m will be opened up for grants for technology to create new products from recyclable materials such as glass, plastic, organics, electronic waste, concrete, brick and rubber. Continue reading...

Norwegian oil company announces it has scrapped its $200m plan to deepwater drill in Great Australian Bight Marine ParkNorwegian oil giant Equinor has abandoned plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, declaring the controversial project did not make commercial sense.The company said on Tuesday it had told federal, South Australian and local authorities it had decided to scrap the $200m project to deepwater drill in the Great Australian Bight Marine Park. Continue reading...

Rapid climate change forced urgent upgrade of ‘failsafe’ doomsday storage facilityThe Arctic global seed vault has reached the milestone of having 1m varieties stored in its deep freeze. The new deposits are being made after unexpected flooding of its entrance tunnel in 2017 prompted an upgrade.Seeds from 60,000 crop varieties from across the world are being placed in the vault to back up those held in other seed banks. Continue reading...

Britain contributed only 3% of continent’s 2019 green spending, report saysBritish companies are lagging far behind their European neighbours in low-carbon investment after contributing only 3% of the continent’s €124bn (£104.2bn) green spending last year.A report has revealed that German-listed companies invested 11 times more in low-carbon investments such as electric vehicles, renewable energy and smart energy grids than UK firms. Continue reading...

Proterocladus antiquus carpeted seafloor 1bn years ago and was size of rice grainScientists have found in rocks from northern China what may be the oldest fossils of a green plant ever found: tiny seaweed that carpeted areas of the seafloor 1bn years ago and were part of a primordial revolution among life on Earth.Researchers on Monday said the plant, called Proterocladus antiquus, was about the size of a rice grain and boasted numerous thin branches, thriving in shallow water while attached to the seafloor with a root-like structure. Continue reading...

Companies would pay for damages caused by extreme weather such as floodsFossil fuel companies must pay for the damage caused by extreme weather due to the climate emergency such as the floods devastating parts of England, the Labour leadership contender Rebecca Long-Bailey has said.Long-Bailey, the most leftwing candidate in the contest, said she was calling for a “climate justice fund” to support affected households and communities, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies “responsible for knowingly heating our planet to dangerous levels”. This would include help towards affordable insurance for those suffering from repeated flooding, she said. Continue reading...

Companies spent $84m on congressional campaigns in 2018, analysis of votes and political contributions showsThe oil and gas industry substantially rewards US legislators with campaign donations when they oppose environmental protections, according to a new analysis of congressional votes and political contributions.Oil and gas companies spent $84m on congressional campaigns in 2018. Researchers found a correlation between an increase in anti-environment votes and an increase in contributions. They documented how lawmakers’ scores from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) dipped and then were followed by campaign funding from the industry. Continue reading...

Several members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk nation arrested in growing political crisis for Justin TrudeauPolice in Canada have removed Indigenous activists from a railway line in Ontario, where a two-week protest against a contentious natural gas pipeline has blocked train traffic and fueled a growing political crisis for prime minister Justin Trudeau.The Wet’suwet’en nation have lived on their territories in what is now British Columbia for thousands of years. They have never signed treaties or sold their land to Canada. Continue reading...

Environmental group’s lawyers said they knew boarding North Sea rig was in contempt of courtGreenpeace faces a heavy fine after admitting that its climate activists boarded a North Sea oil rig in defiance of a court order last year.Transocean, the US-based drilling contractor, has asked the court of session in Edinburgh to impose unlimited fines on Greenpeace UK and consider jailing its executive director, John Sauven, for contempt of court. Continue reading...

Latest fortnightly survey shows a majority of Australian voters support net zero either strongly or somewhatA clear and growing majority of Coalition voters support the Morrison government adopting a net zero target for 2050, with support for that proposition climbing 12 points in a month, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.The latest fortnightly survey shows a majority of Australian voters support net zero either strongly or somewhat (75%, up four points in a month), and 68% of Coalition voters in the sample hold that positive view. Last month, the proportion of supportive Coalition voters was 56%. Continue reading...

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...