Exclusive: department’s brief said ‘coordinated national action’ was needed to ward off increasing disruptionsThe government was warned by the Department of Home Affairs after the May election that Australia faced more frequent and severe heatwaves and bushfires, and that livelihoods would be affected without effective action on climate change.The department’s incoming government brief to the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, warned of “disasters” exacerbated by climate change. Continue reading...

Lib Dem MP for Bath hits out at PM after rivers burst their banks across southern EnglandBoris Johnson has been criticised for not visiting flood-stricken communities at Christmas after it emerged he had no immediate plans to travel to areas hit by heavy rain.Families may be forced to spend the festive period away from their homes after rivers burst their banks in Kent, Cornwall, Sussex and Norfolk. The Met Office has 54 flood warnings and 141 flood alerts in place across the UK, including in the north of England and the Midlands, with some likely to remain active until Christmas Eve as more rain is forecast. Continue reading...

Mayor Sadiq Khan calls for government action to protect the capital’s waterwaysThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called on the government to provide more funding to clean up the pollution blighting London’s rivers, after a study highlighted the toxic effects on water from driving in the capital’s most congested areas.The River Brent in west London and the River Lea in the east, at 18 miles and 42 miles respectively, are worst affected by pollution from roads. Concern over pollution has concentrated on toxic air, which is killing and shortening the lives of tens of thousands of people every year, but road pollution is also damaging the water supply. Continue reading...

Residents of Parc Hadau in Pontardawe will generate more clean energy than they can useOne of the world’s first net zero carbon neighbourhoods will be constructed in Wales after Neath Port Talbot council approved the development of 35 homes able to generate more clean energy than they use.Development of the £8m project in Pontardawe in south Wales is expected to begin this spring. The residents of Parc Hadau will pay no energy bills because the development will use a mixture of renewable energy technologies to generate enough clean electricity to power its homes over the year. Continue reading...

Regional leaders call on Boris Johnson to act as Kent and East Sussex are hit by flooding

Australian government refuses to rule out new coal-fired generation as it ticks off gas plants in Queensland and VictoriaThe federal government has announced it will underwrite two new gas-fired power stations, with Scott Morrison saying it may still greenlight coal-fired generation for Queensland and New South Wales.Even as Australia suffers through a record-breaking heatwave Morrison said the government would continue to explore all power options and would not be deterred by “lots of shouting noises” and instead would listen to “those quiet still voices”. Continue reading...

PM says ‘we can all make better decisions on occasions’ as he again defends government position on climate change amid catastrophic bushfires• NSW and SA count cost of bushfires after Balmoral and Cudlee Creek devastation – latestScott Morrison has claimed climate change is “as important now” amid an extended bushfire crisis and a record-breaking heatwave as it was at the election and denied that the government is split over whether to improve Australia’s policy response.In a series of interviews on Monday Morrison cited family commitments as the reason for his decision to holiday in Hawaii during the crisis, comparing himself to a plumber forced to choose between a Friday afternoon job or seeing his family. Continue reading...

Which regions were most affected, what was the impact of flood defences, and what has the government pledged?Areas across England were flooded in the last two months, including in: South and West Yorkshire; Lincolnshire and the Rivers Trent and Derwent in the East Midlands; Birmingham, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire in the West Midlands; Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall in the south-west; and Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Sussex and Surrey in the south-east. Continue reading...

Energy giant Iberdrola predicts renewables will take ‘much more relevant position’ in Australia in coming years – and hopes to develop further projectsSpanish energy giant Iberdrola says it has decided to invest $500m in a wind and solar farm in South Australia as the first of a series of renewable power projects it hopes to develop in Australia.Iberdrola’s head of renewables, Xabier Viteri, said that in the new year the company would also probably increase its target for renewable energy from the “ambitious” target of 10GW by 2022. Continue reading...

So far £400,000 has been raised for charities that promote environmental solutions to climate crisisGenerous Guardian and Observer readers donated over £42,000 to the climate emergency charity appeal during the papers’ annual charity telethon on Saturday, pushing the overall total to more than £400,000.A team of journalists and editors, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, George Monbiot, Owen Jones, Gary Younge, John Crace and Marina Hyde took hundreds of calls from readers as the Guardian newsroom turned into a pop-up call centre between 10am and 6pm. Continue reading...

FTSE4Good is ‘rewarding the most harmful activities in the corporate world’ – ShareActionSome of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, including Russia’s state oil giant Rosneft, have been added to the London Stock Exchange’s “ethical” investment lists.The FTSE4Good indices, run by the London Stock Exchange Group’s FTSE Russell subsidiary, are marketed to investors interested in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Continue reading...

PM says link between extreme weather and climate change won’t change policy. Victoria and SA still under bushfire threat as NSW surveys damage. This liveblog is now closed• Latest report: NSW devastation laid bare as 72 homes destroyed in SA

Campaigners against bloodsports hail ‘landmark decision’ by Yorkshire Water, the largest landowner in the county, to review leasesThe Glorious Twelfth may soon be a little quieter in Brontë country. Animal welfare groups are hailing a “landmark” decision by Yorkshire’s largest landowner to review the leasing of its land to grouse shoots.In addition to potentially spelling the end of shoots on land owned by Yorkshire Water, campaigners say it will improve the biodiversity and sustainability of the moors because gamekeepers will no longer burn heather to create the ideal conditions for the birds, something that can damage the underlying peat. Continue reading...

Harbingers of a diminishing ecosystem, the smelt are almost extinct. Now, forces within the Trump administration could usher them into oblivionOn a warm November morning, John Durand squints over the stern of a small research boat, and gestures toward gray-blue water, and the chaotic tangles of tube-like tule reeds.“Cache Slough right here had been known as a hotspot for delta smelt,” he says. But it’s been four years since Durand and his team of researchers from the University of California, Davis, have found the finger-length fish that gleam golden and “smell kind of like cucumber” in the brackish streams and sloughs of northern California’s bay delta. Continue reading...

Campaigners furious at American ban revealed by leaked documentsThe US has banned mention of the climate crisis in trade talks with the UK, an analysis of leaked documents has revealed.In negotiating a trade deal, the UK acknowledges that there will be pressure to ensure that any agreement meets its climate commitments. But to the anger of environment groups, analysis of a 451-page dossier leaked last month confirms that the Trump administration has told the UK that the climate crisis cannot be mentioned. Continue reading...

Region braces for more strong winds and heavy rain as storm hits Spain, Portugal and FranceThe death toll from a storm that battered Spain, Portugal and France rose to eight on Saturday as the region braced for more violent winds and heavy rain.A 32-year-old South Korean woman died Saturday, a day after being struck on the head by falling debris from a building in central Madrid, Spain’s regional interior minister said. Continue reading...

Global Greengrants UK, one of the four groups we are helping to fight the climate crisis, supports indigenous Brazilians

The Gospers Mountain fire has consumed hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and is now threatening towns and livesThe fire is two kilometres away, but the heat is already beginning to warm the faces of those who wait.The air is eerily still. There is no wind. There are no birds. There is no natural noise, just the distant chatter of helicopters in the sky, flying between water source and flames. Continue reading...

The plant has flowered for the first time in Britain, but the climate crisis is making such events rarer than everIt is famous for smelling like “a thousand dead elephants rotting in the sun”, its petals resemble decaying flesh, and it is so rare that outside its natural habitat in Papua New Guinea, few botanists in the world have ever seen it in flower.Now this highly pungent orchid – Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis – is in bloom for the first time in a glasshouse at Cambridge University Botanic Garden. Continue reading...

The big cats’ resourceful new behaviour was recorded by a WWF study on a remote island off the coast of BrazilA thriving population of jaguars living on a small, unspoilt island off the coast of the Brazilian Amazon has learned to catch fish in the sea to survive, conservationists have found.The Maracá-Jipioca Ecological Station island reserve, three miles off the northern state of Amapá, acts as a nursery for jaguars, according to WWF researchers who have collared three cats and set up 70 camera traps on the remote jungle island. Continue reading...

The family had brought the tree to their home and decorated it before they spotted the bird, who initially didn’t want to leaveA Georgia family got a real hoot from its Christmas tree: more than a week after they bought it, they discovered a live owl nestled among its branches.Katie McBride Newman said on Friday that she and her daughter spotted the bird on 12 December. They had bought the 10ft-tall tree from a Home Depot, brought it back to their Atlanta area home and decorated it with lights and, coincidentally, owl ornaments. Continue reading...

The government has an opportunity to pivot in 2020 – to actually do something rather than pretending toIt’s hot as I write this final column for 2019, the day is creeping towards 40C. It’s dry. The ground is like concrete, and dust is obscuring yellowed grass on my parched suburban block. Bushfire smoke has rolled in and out of Canberra. Smoke is the last thing I smell before going to sleep and the first thing I smell as I wake up.With the summer stretching out in front of us and no significant rain forecast before April, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, December and January promises extreme weather, burning bushland, eerie blood-red sunsets. Towns are on the brink of running out of water. Instead of resting and recharging with their loved ones, emergency services workers are spending their days toiling in a hellscape. Continue reading...

Fresh evidence of the role played by trees in absorbing carbon, and increased rates of deforestation, have guided our choice of charities this yearThe role of nature in fighting the climate emergency has been one of the biggest environment stories of this year. That’s because scientists no longer believe that emissions reductions will be enough to limit global heating to the 1.5C to 2C promised in the 2015 Paris agreement. That means that as well as limiting future emissions, we must focus attention and resources on finding ways to draw greenhouse gases that have already been released out of the atmosphere.Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has long been viewed as an important tool. Increasingly, however, scientists believe that natural climate solutions could prove more effective than technological ones. A recent paper calculated that restoring nature could provide a third of the CO reductions needed by 2030 to keep heating below 2C, and in March the UN declared that 2021-30 would be a decade of ecosystem restoration. In the UK, the Committee on Climate Change advised the government that to meet its goal of net zero carbon by 2050, 107 hectares (267 acres) would have to be planted with forest every day: perhaps 1.5bn new trees in all. Continue reading...

Court rules Dutch government has duty to protect citizens’ rights in face of climate changeThe Netherlands’ supreme court has upheld a ruling ordering the country’s government to do much more to cut carbon emissions, after a six-year fight for climate justice.Related: Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment Continue reading...

Christmas is peak time for blockages and consumers are urged to be more careful about what they put down pipesIt looks like a 5ft-long grey sausage made of hundreds of scruffy pieces of fabric. On closer inspection, brightly coloured plastic, condoms and rubber bands can be identified in the bizarre-looking mass.This is known in the water industry as “rag”, the technical term for items that do not degrade once they have been flushed down the toilet. The greyish material that dominates the mass is wet wipes, now the scourge of the UK’s sewers. Combined with fat and grease that has been tipped down sinks, it is already starting to build up into a fatberg. Continue reading...

Airport blames Civil Aviation Authority for denying its request to quadruple spendingHeathrow has said its controversial plan to build of a third runway will be delayed by at least a year after the aviation regulator denied its request to quadruple spending before gaining planning consent.Heathrow had asked the Civil Aviation Authority for permission to boost spending from £650m to £2.4bn despite the fact it has not yet gained permission to expand. Heathrow said the decision not to greenlight the amount it had requested would delay a third runway being completed until between “early 2028 and late 2029”. Continue reading...

Persistent downpours cause transport disruption with weekend washout forecastHeavy rain and flooding have caused severe disruption in parts of southern England, forcing one rail operator to advise against travelling by train.Some areas in the UK have had more than 50mm of rain in a day and a half. The village of Cardinham in Cornwall had 52mm of rain in 36 hours, while an area further inland, outside Launceston, got 53.4mm. Libanus in the Breacon Beacons, south Wales, had 43mm. Continue reading...

Layoffs are common, shifts have been cut – and workers in America’s manufacturing and farming heartlands are losing hopeWinter has come to Davenport, Iowa. Temperatures, at 14F (-10C), are well below freezing. But it’s the cold winds of Donald Trump’s trade wars that worry Shaun Buckles.Related: 'He pulled the wool over our eyes': workers blame Trump for moving jobs overseas Continue reading...

Katharine Viner, Owen Jones and George Monbiot will be among those picking up the phonesWant to talk about the climate crisis with George Monbiot or discuss tumultuous recent political events with Polly Toynbee, Owen Jones or Marina Hyde? Or talk food and drink with Felicity Cloake, beauty with Sali Hughes, or movies with Peter Bradshaw?A team of Guardian and Observer journalists will be taking calls and donations at our annual charity telethon this Saturday. The cause is the climate emergency and we’re raising money for four charities that plant and protect trees, forests and woodlands. Continue reading...

MidCoast council tells residents, who are on level-four water restrictions, that water may be trucked in, if necessaryResidents in the New South Wales community of Gloucester have been told there is a risk the river that supplies their drinking water could run dry in the coming weeks – for the first time in recorded history.Gloucester’s town water supply comes from the Barrington River, which flows from the typically fertile Barrington Tops national park. Continue reading...

Senior official’s note also shows then environment minister Frydenberg wanted ‘how to’ on changing grassland rules

Proposed changes would allow owners to be prosecuted or fined for harming other speciesGrouse moor owners in Scotland face heavy fines or prosecution for failing to protect bird of prey and other species under new proposals to licence shooting estates.An expert report for the Scottish government has recommended ministers introduce mandatory licensing of grouse moors within five years because of their associations with the systematic persecution of eagles and other protected birds. Continue reading...

Data comes after renewables produced more electricity than any other source for first timeThe proportion of the UK’s power generation mix made up by fossil fuels has fallen to a record low after renewable energy became the UK’s largest source of electricity.Government figures showed the UK relied on renewables, such as wind and solar, for 38.9% of its electricity in the third quarter of this year, up from one-third in the same period in 2018. Continue reading...

Chemical manufacturer launched aggressive campaign instead of reining in pollution, according to documentsFacing public pressure to rein in its pollution, a Japanese chemical manufacturer has instead launched an aggressive, years-long campaign to undermine the science showing that its compounds could cause cancer, according to newly released documents reviewed by the Guardian.Chloroprene, the primary constituent of the synthetic rubber neoprene, is the major air pollutant in the town of Reserve, Louisiana, an area which according to the Environment Protection Agency has the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxins anywhere in the US. Continue reading...

Charities caution that ‘UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy’ if post-Brexit merger comes to fruitionA coalition of aid groups including the British Red Cross, Cafod and Oxfam GB has warned Boris Johnson that to abolish the Department for International Development would suggest Britain is “turning our backs on the world’s poorest people”.One climate diplomacy expert said it would be “political suicide” to merge DfID with the Foreign Office in 2020, the same year the UK is hosting the UN climate summit, since the move would tie up senior civil servants when they were most needed to tackle the response to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Temperatures are expected to be more than 1.1C above pre-industrial averageNext year is likely to be another of the hottest on record, with global temperatures forecast to be more than 1.1C above the pre-industrial average, according to estimates from the Met Office.The forecast for 2020 is based on observations of trends over recent years that have seen a series of years more than 1C above pre-industrial levels, and bearing what meteorologists said was the “clear fingerprint” of human-induced global heating. Continue reading...

EPA last revised pollution standards for thousands of meat-processing plants 15 years ago and some guidance dates back to 70sA coalition of conservation and community groups representing millions of people is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for refusing to update national water pollution standards for slaughterhouses.The EPA decision allows thousands of meat and poultry processing plants to continue using outdated pollution-control technology, which has been linked to the contamination of waterways across the US. Continue reading...

Bank of England to force firms to say how they would respond to temperature rise of up to 4CUK banks and insurers will be forced to reveal how exposed they are to the climate crisis and how they would respond to the effects of a temperature rise of up to 4C under the Bank of England’s first climate stress tests.The Bank has put forward proposals to test the performance and health of the UK financial system for a range of climate-linked financial risks, including the failure of governments and consumers to take action. Continue reading...

Carbon Market Institute survey finds 96% believe Australia should not delay transition to decarbonised economyAustralian businesses are calling for a more ambitious national climate policy, backing a target of net zero emissions by 2050 and raising concerns about the lack of a coordinated energy policy and the government’s proposed use of carryover credits.The findings are contained in a Carbon Market Institute survey of more than 200 businesses, to be released on Thursday, which reveals 96% of those surveyed believe Australia should not delay the transition to a decarbonised economy. Continue reading...

Massive petrochemical complex proposed in southern Louisiana opposed by activists angered by revelations of site’s significanceA proposed sprawling petrochemical complex in southern Louisiana will be built on land holding historic cemetery sites that experts believe were likely slave burial grounds, according to documents released Wednesday. Continue reading...

Three climate campaigners glued their hands to DLR train at Canary Wharf in April protestA jury has expressed its regret at convicting three Extinction Rebellion protesters who glued themselves to a Docklands Light Railway train at Canary Wharf.Cathy Eastburn, 52, Mark Ovland, 36, and Luke Watson, 30, were convicted at inner London crown court after halting DLR services in London’s financial district on 17 April, as part of a series of protests carried out by XR. Continue reading...

Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression, research suggestsPeople living with air pollution have higher rates of depression and suicide, a systematic review of global data has found.Cutting air pollution around the world to the EU’s legal limit could prevent millions of people becoming depressed, the research suggests. This assumes that exposure to toxic air is causing these cases of depression. Scientists believe this is likely but is difficult to prove beyond doubt. Continue reading...

US ranks seventh for overall deaths and is the ‘wealthiest’ nation to feature in top 10 with 197,000 lives lost in 2017The United States is among the top 10 deadliest countries for pollution-related fatalities, according to a landmark new global study, which warns that understanding the magnitude of the pollution crisis is being obstructed by “vested interests and overtaxed political infrastructures”.Related: Clean water group denounces Tucker Carlson's 'racist' litter comments Continue reading...

Saturday’s telethon will continue Christmas campaign to help environmental charities

Federal offshore petroleum regulator announces approval for Equinor as environmental groups signal likely legal challengeThe Norwegian energy giant Equinor has been granted environment approval for its controversial bid to drill to explore for oil in the Great Australian Bight.The decision, announced by the federal offshore petroleum regulator on Wednesday, means Equinor has cleared the second, and most significant, of four regulatory hurdles it needs to pass before it can start drilling. Continue reading...

As a case in the US alleges links between tech companies and child miners in Congo, the Guardian’s global environment editor assesses the dangers of element in high demand for batteriesIf the prophets of technology are to be believed, the best hope for solving the climate crisis is ever more efficient batteries. But the race to produce enough materials for this energy-storage revolution is creating a host of other environmental problems, as cobalt-producing nations like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Cuba are discovering.

PM should use his majority to push for investments, but he may lack the political braveryThe election is over, Boris Johnson has an 80-strong majority to wield, and many are now wondering what the prime minister will do with all this power over the next five years. So here’s an idea: let’s look at what he plans for everyday cycling.Cycling? Yes, cycling. In political terms it’s not exactly Brexit or the NHS, and if you were to list the average voter’s national concerns it would probably struggle make the top 100. But I’d argue that for Johnson it is a bellwether issue, one that will point to whether he plans to use his majority boldly or complacently. Continue reading...

PM told UK has ‘fallen short’ on its commitments to tackle greenhouse gasesBoris Johnson has been urged to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher by taking to the world stage to lead international action on the climate emergency – but to put the UK’s own emissions-cutting efforts back on track first.The prime minister was told on Wednesday that the UK had so far “fallen short” on its commitments to tackle greenhouse gases, in a letter from the committee on climate change (CCC). Continue reading...

Tuesday’s average maximum 0f 40.9C was Australia’s hottest ever and follows the driest and second warmest spring on recordAustralia has just experienced its hottest day on record and its worst spring on record for dangerous bushfire weather, according to data released by the Bureau of Meteorology.Preliminary analysis suggested that Tuesday was the hottest day on record for Australia, with an average maximum across the country of 40.9C. The temperature beat the previous 40.3C set on 7 January 2013, in a record going back to 1910. Continue reading...

Hunter Valley grapes at risk of taint from smoke, while extreme heat increases risk of sunburn for Barossa vinesThe Australian wine industry has experienced an “ominous” start to the growing season, with heatwave conditions in South Australia and Victoria, while grapes in the Hunter Valley are at increasing risk of being tainted by bushfire smoke.The most high-risk period for smoke taint and sun damage will not begin until late January, with the onset of ripening, or veraison. Continue reading...