Environment | The Guardian

Countries asked to flag plans for net zero emissions by 2050, but so far Australia is only talking about its 2030 targetThe United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has written to all heads of state asking countries to outline their plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but at this stage the Australian government is only engaging on commitments to 2030.Ahead of a climate action summit in New York on 23 September, Guterres has reportedly asked leaders to flag plans they will set next year for 2030 emissions reduction commitments, and their plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Continue reading...

Narendra Modi claims the programme will showcase India’s ‘beautiful mountains and mighty rivers’, in the latest in a string of choreographed media appearancesIndia’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will appear with Bear Grylls in a wilderness survival television programme, the latest in a series of Putin-style media appearances in which the 68-year-old leader projects himself as a man of action and a champion of the environment.A trailer for the programme, Man vs Wild, which will air in India on 12 August, shows the two men cutting through forests, sniffing animal dung and floating down a river on a makeshift raft. In one scene, Modi holds an improvised spear and tells Grylls: “I’ll hold this for you.” Continue reading...

No 10 says inquiry into Mark Field’s conduct was a matter for the previous PMBoris Johnson has dropped the Whitehall investigation into Mark Field, the Tory MP who was caught on camera manhandling a Greenpeace activist out of a black-tie dinner.Johnson has sacked Field from his role as a Foreign Office minister since taking over as prime minister and decided that the investigation was no longer needed. Continue reading...

Studies highlight risk to health of humans and wildlife from toxic particles in meat• Letter: Use safe alternative to toxic lead gunshotWaitrose, Britain’s largest retailer of game, is to ban the sale of birds shot with lead, as experts call on the government to ban its use.The move has been welcomed by the government’s independent expert group, which concluded that there was no way to reduce the risk to human health and wildlife from lead shot other than by using alternative, non-toxic ammunition instead. Continue reading...

Teenage activist to travel to US on racing yacht to cut environmental impact of travel

Prime minister describes 30% surge after conservation efforts as ‘historic achievement’India’s wild tiger population has increased by more than 30% in four years, raising hopes for the survival of the endangered species.A census found 2,967 tigers, up from 2,226 four years ago, in what the prime minister called a “historic achievement”. Continue reading...

Minister tells parliament he requested briefings because of constituents’ concerns, not family business interestsA conversation with an unnamed Yass farmer, not the interests of his farming family, had spurred the minister for energy, Angus Taylor, to seek briefings from the environment department about a listing to protect native grasslands, he told parliament on Monday.In a personal explanation to the House of Representatives, Taylor sought to deflect further questions and a possible Senate inquiry into meetings he had with bureaucrats on the grasslands laws in 2017. Continue reading...

MSC may have to remove sustainable certification from cod as report calls for catches to be cut by two-thirdsNorth Sea cod could soon be coming off the menu for environmentally conscious diners as a decision is expected by the end of this month on whether fish populations are too low to support sustainable fishing.Cod from the North Sea is designated as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which examines fish stocks and certifies those that can support more fishing without significant harm. But that designation is now in serious doubt, as the world’s leading body on the health of fish stocks has warned that the North Sea populations of cod have fallen to critical levels. Continue reading...

IFM Investors calls for focus on long-term revenue growth, and supports BHP’s pledge to curb carbon emissionsThe head of IFM Investors says the $140bn investment powerhouse will be pushing Australian company bosses to work on growing their businesses instead of focusing on cutting costs.The chief executive, Brett Himbury, said IFM, which invests on behalf of Australian industry super funds and like-minded international pension outfits, also supports mining giant BHP’s new pledge to do more to curb carbon emissions. Continue reading...

When a fellow protester against a dam that was polluting our water was killed, I left with my young son on a migrant caravanI am seeking asylum in the US because of a hydroelectric dam. I fled Honduras fearing for my life after being teargassed and arrested by police when our community resisted a dam which contaminated the water we rely on for drinking, cooking and washing.Related: Mexican man feared dead after falling into mass of polluted suds Continue reading...

Press Council says News Corp paper’s article ‘Mega-mine’s future in hands of greenies’ failed to meet standardsThe Courier-Mail breached the press watchdog’s standards for accuracy, fairness and balance in a report headlined “Mega-mine’s future in hands of greenies” about Adani’s Carmichael mine in Queensland.The News Corp paper claimed that the Threatened Species Recovery Hub was an “anti-coal group” made up of “greenies” who had been “hand-picked by the Palaszczuk government to review one of the mine’s environmental management plans”. Continue reading...

There are fewer than 200 Devils Hole pupfish on Earth, so it’s a good thing they employed some survival tacticsDevils Hole pupfish – among the rarest fish on earth – know a thing or two about earthquake safety. After all, they managed to ride out a huge wave triggered by the recent tremors in California.Found only inside an inconceivably deep, sweltering geothermal pool called Devils Hole near Death Valley, and numbering fewer than 200, Devils Hole pupfish are endangered, but not helpless. Continue reading...

I have spent five years investigating state efforts to roll back clean energy laws. Ohio just passed the worst legislation yet

Our vulnerability to global heating could signal even hotter spells than witnessed last weekThe blistering heat that last week brought travel chaos and record temperatures to Britain reveal the nation’s vulnerability to changes in weather patterns in regions far from our shores.That was a key message outlined by climate experts after the nation recorded its hottest ever July – thanks to the arrival of heated air carried on atmospheric currents from Africa to the British Isles. Continue reading...

Moral movement leader travels to Reserve, Louisiana, town with America’s highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxinsThe social justice and moral revival campaigner Rev William Barber has called on 2020 presidential candidates to visit Reserve, Louisiana, the town with America’s highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxins. Continue reading...

Trying to reuse plastic is hopelessly inefficientWe have been going the wrong way with plastics for the last 30 or more years (“Waste no more? Plan to turn plastic into fuel for homes”, News). The effort of collecting, transporting and cleaning them for possible recycling has largely failed, created much more pollution and contributed massively to climate change. The idea of burning plastics and using the energy to heat our homes was proposed by the plastics company Dow more than 30 years ago: it suggested treating all plastics as “borrowed oil”. At that time, ordinary domestic waste had a calorific value of low-grade coal, so the suggestion was that this waste should be burned in efficient plants with heat recovery and treatment of the gases produced, perhaps even trapping the carbon dioxide produced, rather than trying to recycle the complex (and dirty) mix of plastics.Today, with higher use of more complex plastics, this makes even more sense. Mixed plastics cannot really be recycled: they are long-chain molecules, like spaghetti, so if you reheat and reprocess them, you inevitably end up with something of lower performance; it’s called down-cycling. Newsprint is what happens when you recycle paper: low strength is inevitable. Of course, this idea doesn’t deal with all the plastic already in our environment, even in our purified drinking water. Quite simply, this cannot be removed and, apart from some distressing images of trapped animals, seems to be causing little impact on human or animal life. Continue reading...

Senator says it became ‘an area of concern’ after reading reports by the Guardian of FOI documents into the matterSenator Rex Patrick has announced Centre Alliance will support an inquiry into controversial meetings between Angus Taylor and the environment department over endangered grasslands.The reversal ups pressure on the energy minister after a week of Labor and the Greens targeting Taylor in parliament over whether he stood to personally benefit from lobbying to water down environmental protections for the grasslands. Continue reading...

Taxpayers are still on the hook, and renewable options are still being overlookedThe government’s new funding model at the heart of its plan for a nuclear renaissance is an improvement since it struck a deal three years ago to support Hinkley Point C in Somerset. This is the best that can be said for the new strategy, outlined by officials in a consultation last week. It is also very faint praise.EDF Energy’s deal to build Hinkley Point C, Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation, has been dubbed the world’s most expensive power plant of all time, a “white elephant” in a changing energy landscape, and a risky and expensive gamble with taxpayers’ money. Continue reading...

‘All-in’ model would mean charge added to plastic, glass, aluminium and steel containersAlmost three-quarters of Britons would support a nationwide deposit return system for plastic and glass drinks bottles and aluminium cans, a survey has found.The results follow the announcement last week during a speech at London’s Kew Gardens by Michael Gove, then environment secretary, in which he expressed support for a comprehensive deposit return system. In his speech, Gove suggested that “an ‘all-in’ model will give consumers the greatest possible incentive to recycle”. Continue reading...

Stuart Burge, who gave the go-ahead for Angus Taylor’s company to spray pesticides, also wrote a report now being used to head off an inquiry into the sprayingAn expert who gave the go-ahead for a company owned by Angus Taylor to spray pesticide on fields containing critically endangered grasslands wrote a report for NSW Farmers Association about how the environmental listing of the same species was impeding agriculture.Stuart Burge, a board member of the Local Land Services South East, conducted the paddock assessment for the company Jam Land, in which energy minister Angus Taylor has an interest, in 2016 just before it was sprayed. Continue reading...

Excess detergents from homes that drain into streams feeding the Valsequillo reservoir caused suds to accumulate, authorities sayA Mexican man is feared dead after he posed for a photograph alongside a 6m-high (19.7ft) mass of soap suds on a heavily polluted stream – and apparently fell into the quivering mass.Emergency teams in the central state of Puebla are still looking for the man, who fell into the mass of suds earlier this week. Continue reading...

Party calls for heat-free leave for workers to cope with record high temperaturesGermany’s Green party has proposed stay-at-home working to help the nation cope with record temperatures.Just as other Europeans have found themselves struggling to deal with unprecedented heat levels, Germans have also been trying to find ways to cool off. “Heat-free home office days” are the latest suggestion. Continue reading...

EU’s lending arm financed oil, gas and coal projects in 2018 with more than €2.4bnThe European Investment Bank has vowed to end its multibillion euro financing for fossil fuel projects by the end of next year in order to align its strategy with climate targets.The EU’s lending arm has drafted plans, seen by the Guardian, which propose cutting support for energy infrastructure projects which rely on oil, gas or coal by barring companies from applying for loans beyond the end of 2020. Continue reading...

Readers share their views on how to move global heating higher up the political agendaOur political system has been hijacked by a cabal of ideologically driven free marketeers with no democratic mandate. Air pollution and climate change, the two most urgent issues confronting society, are nowhere mentioned in the bubbles of bombastic rhetoric generated by our new prime minister. Boris Johnson’s main contribution to air quality as mayor of London was to cancel the western extension of the congestion zone. As for climate change, he presided over a 60% reduction in climate attaches as foreign secretary and subsequently accepted an expenses-paid trip to the US courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute, a fossil-fuel supporting free-market thinktank partially funded by the Koch brothers. I no longer recognise our leadership as embodying British values. I feel I’m living in a foreign dictatorship consumed by profit and self-interest.

Mobile phone video of incident goes viral as one of nine people attacked dies of injuriesIndian police have arrested four people after a mob of villagers brutally beat to death a tiger that had attacked local people.Mobile phone footage of the incident went viral on social media, and officials said one of nine people injured by the animal earlier had died in hospital. Continue reading...

This week: a swimming adder, feeding polar bears and stranded whales Continue reading...

Low river levels may lead to temporary measures in parts of county and Isle of WightHomes in the south of England could face the country’s first hosepipe ban since 2012 due to falling river water levels in Hampshire.Southern Water, which supplies 2.3 million customers, applied to the Environment Agency for a drought permit amid soaring temperatures across the UK this week. Continue reading...

London art and design museum praises environmental group’s distinctive visual identityA year ago, the climate activist movement Extinction Rebellion did not even exist. Now, just nine months after its first public action, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has acquired a number of artefacts associated with the group, saying the visual impact of its campaigns can be compared to that of the suffragettes.A green, blue and pink flag printed with the movement’s distinctive extinction symbol, two printing blocks used by activists early in the campaign to make their own protest banners and an already rare pamphlet from the first print run produced by the group will join the V&A’s permanent collections as part of its “rapid response” programme to put contemporary and newsworthy objects on display. Continue reading...

The company, which handles about half of the state’s recycling, is in financial crisis and has told local councils it can no longer accept materialMore than half of the Victorian rubbish usually handled by stricken recycling operator SKM will be sent to the tip after the company told 30 local councils it could no longer collect material from them.Victorian minister for the environment, Lily D’Ambrosio, said other operators had the capacity to absorb about 40% of the approximately 300,000 tonnes of recycling handled by SKM every year, leaving about 180,000 tonnes destined for landfill. Continue reading...

More than 60 news outlets worldwide have signed on to Covering Climate Now, a project to improve coverage of the emergencyFor a week this September, dozens of news organizations in the US and around the world will join forces to devote their front pages and airwaves to a critical but under-covered story: the global climate emergency.This unique media collaboration, timed to coincide with landmark UN Climate Action Summit in New York, is the first initiative of Covering Climate Now, a project co-founded by The Nation and the Columbia Journalism Review, in partnership with The Guardian, which aims to kickstart a conversation among journalists about how news outlets can improve their coverage of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Scientists suspect warming temperatures might explain the animals’ presence in California’s Monterey BayA group of young great white sharks has taken up residence along the central coast of California, enthralling beachgoers, residents, local media outlets and scientists.Marine biologists are working to understand why the sharks – the largest predatory fish in the world – have ventured up to California’s Monterey Bay. Continue reading...

Activists say move means there are now no Australian insurers willing to underwrite new thermal coal developmentsAustralian insurance giant Suncorp will no longer invest in, finance or insure new thermal coal mines and power plants, and will not underwrite any existing thermal coal projects after 2025.This is the latest in a series of pledges by banks and financial services companies that they will not support projects that mine or burn coal used for electricity generation, in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Continue reading...

Highs in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium exceeded for second time in 24 hoursGermany, the Netherlands and Belgium have recorded all-time national temperature highs for the second day running and Paris has had its hottest day ever as the second dangerous heatwave of the summer sears western Europe.The extreme temperatures follow a similar heatwave last month that made it the hottest June on record. Scientists say the climate crisis is making summer heatwaves five times more likely and significantly more intense. Continue reading...

Other mining companies urged to follow suit after contractors at Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG plant spend seven years relocating faunaEnvironment contractors who relocated 30,000 animals during the construction of the Wheatstone LNG plant in Western Australia have called on other mining companies to take a similar approach to protecting native fauna.The native animals, mostly reptiles and frogs, were removed from the 1,000ha construction footprint over seven years. Many were found curled up inside termite mounds which were carefully dismantled, first by excavators and then using hand tools to ensure none of the animals were crushed. Continue reading...

Belgium, Netherlands and Germany join Paris in experiencing their hottest day ever, amid climate crisis concerns and health warnings as Europe swelters6.37pm BSTThat’s all from us for this evening. Here’s a summary of the day’s developments:Related: All-time temperature records tumble again as heatwave sears Europe6.06pm BSTTwo young adults and a child had to be rescued from the sea off Lincolnshire after drifting away from the shore on inflatables.Skegness RNLI launched the lifeboat off the town’s busy central beach to rescue two people on a small inflatable dingy, some 600 metres from the shore. Once the lifeboat arrived alongside the dinghy the passengers were visibly shaken and suffering from early signs of shock.This is another serious incident involving inflatables on our stretch of coast, something we’ve seen rise rapidly in recent months. It’s an alarming trend and we’re trying hard to reduce this through education and safety messages. Inflatable rings, lilos and dinghies are simply not safe or suitable for use in the sea, even with the best of intentions, the risks are just not worth the consequences – leave them at home. Continue reading...

Data confirms fears that Jair Bolsonaro’s policy encourages illegal logging in BrazilDeforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has surged above three football fields a minute, according to the latest government data, pushing the world’s biggest rainforest closer to a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover.The sharp rise – following year-on-year increases in May and June – confirms fears that president Jair Bolsonaro has given a green light to illegal land invasion, logging and burning. Continue reading...

Rapid rise in renewables combined with nuclear generated 53% in 2018Low-carbon energy was used to generate more than half of the electricity used in the UK for the first time last year, according to official data.A rapid rise in renewable energy, combined with low-carbon electricity from nuclear reactors, made up almost 53% of generation in 2018, the government’s annual review of energy statistics revealed. Continue reading...

11,000 sign petition saying rise of ‘mega ship’ tourism is unsustainable and undesirableMore than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for a limit of one cruise ship a day docking in Palma de Mallorca.About 500 giant cruise ships dock in the city on the south coast of the popular holiday destination of Mallorca each year, disgorging 2 million passengers. Continue reading...

Minister says evidence proves he was helping ‘constituents’ when he met officials about land-clearing controversy linked to his investmentsThe government has attempted to fend off a formal inquiry into controversial meetings between Angus Taylor and the environment department over endangered grasslands by producing a letter that purports to show the minister was acting in the interests of his constituents and not himself.But the letter, which was said to have come from a concerned farmer, was actually from a lobby group, the NSW Farmers Association, and was written nearly six months after the meetings were held. Continue reading...

Decision not to proceed with charges against Hugo Clément and colleagues comes after intervention by French ambassador to AustraliaQueensland police have dropped charges against four French journalists arrested while filming an Adani protest on Monday, after the French ambassador to Australia intervened on their behalf.Guardian Australia understands the ambassador, Christophe Penot, made direct representations to Queensland officials on behalf of the four men, who were charged with trespassing on a railway while filming the protest outside the Abbot Point coal terminal. Continue reading...

Weather may spark storms, travel delays and power cuts as temperatures head towards 39CBritain could bake under record-breaking heat as temperatures could potentially climb to 39C on Thursday.The scorching conditions may spark thunderstorms, which could trigger travel delays, flash flooding, and power cuts. Continue reading...

Profits from subsidy-free solar farms have helped to connect millions in Africa to cheap lightingA UK solar power pioneer has grown its profits eight-fold by investing in subsidy-free solar farms, a portion of which will help connect homes in Africa to small-scale solar-powered lighting systems.Solarcentury, one of the UK’s fastest growing renewable energy companies, will report profits of £14.4m for the year ending in March, compared with £1.5m the year before. Continue reading...

Wrap report finds 3.6m tonnes of food is thrown away or fed to animals each year in the UKMore than £1bn of food destined for UK supermarkets is thrown away or fed to animals before it leaves farms every year, according to a study highlighting the scale of the country’s waste problem.Crops rejected by retailers because they do not meet quality standards, fluctuations in demand or problems during storage or packing all contribute to 3.6m tonnes of waste in primary production, more than 10 times the amount thrown away by retailers, says a report by Wrap, the waste-reduction body. Continue reading...

Researchers call for urgent action to protect large species in international watersThe world’s shark populations are at increasing risk of becoming bycatch of international fishing fleets, which harvest them in open oceans where no legal protections exist, Australian researchers have said.Prof Rob Harcourt, from Macquarie University, said large sharks were more vulnerable to longline fishing and called for urgent action to protect them by implementing management strategies on the high seas. Continue reading...

New maximums set in Belgium, Germany and Netherlands, as citizens swelter across EuropeBelgium, Germany and the Netherlands have recorded their highest ever temperatures as the second extreme heatwave in as many months to be linked by scientists to the climate emergency grips the continent.The Dutch meteorological service, KNMI, said the temperature reached 39.2C (102.5F) at the Gilze-Rijen airbase near Breda on Wednesday afternoon, exceeding the previous high of 38.6C set in August 1944. Continue reading...

On band’s latest single, 16-year-old activist urges young people to act on climate emergencyGreta Thunberg has made her musical debut on a single by the 1975. On a track called The 1975, a version of which traditionally opens each of the British band’s albums, the 16-year-old environmental activist restates her position on the need to act on the climate emergency.Over minimal orchestral backing, Thunberg says: “We have to acknowledge that the older generations have failed. All political movements in their present form have failed. But homo sapiens have not yet failed. Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around.” Continue reading...

Locals in Reserve, Louisiana, the focus of a Guardian series, are fighting against toxic emissions from a nearby chemical factoryResidents in the town of Reserve, Louisiana have been diagnosed with cancer at “highly unusual” rates, according to a new academic study, which is set to further embolden local residents in their fight against toxic emissions from a nearby chemical factory.The report, released Wednesday by the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR), provides residents with the most detailed and comprehensive evidence to date that they are at an especially pronounced risk of cancer and other negative health effects due to toxic chemicals in the air. Continue reading...