Seeing retreating ice in mountains inspired PM to push for net zero emissions by 2050Theresa May has said she was won over to the cause of tackling the climate emergency on her Swiss walking holidays.In 2017 the prime minister decided to call what would prove to be a disastrous snap general election while on a walking holiday in Wales. Continue reading...

Long-awaited review says government should consider farming interests before listing threatened speciesThe environment minister should consider farming interests before deciding whether to list threatened species, according to a long-delayed government review of how conservation laws could better serve the agriculture industry.The review, completed in September but not made public until Thursday, also recommends setting up a $1bn trust fund to help farmers to protect the environment and inviting the public to have a say before threatened species are assessed by a government-appointed scientific advisory committee. Continue reading...

Germany imposes speed limits on highways while schools in France remain closedEuropean cities are taking exceptional steps to limit the impact of a historic early summer heatwave as temperatures across the continent approached monthly and, in some places, all-time records.Authorities have warned that temperatures could pass 40C and reach 45C in parts of the continent by Saturday as a plume of hot air moves north from the Sahara, sucked northwards by a stalled storm over the Atlantic and high pressure in central Europe. Continue reading...

Governments have abrogated responsibility with woefully inadequate policies, says letterMore than 1,000 doctors including 40 professors, several eminent public health figures and past presidents of royal colleges are calling for widespread nonviolent civil disobedience in the face of the environmental crisis.In a letter to the Guardian, the doctors say government policies are “woefully inadequate”, and call on politicians and the media to face the facts of the unfolding ecological emergency and take action. Continue reading...

Chlorpyrifos, a chemical used to treat pest infestations, was banned from residential use in 2000 but is still used in agricultureElisa Rivera’s face swelled up, her eyes watered and soon she was struggling to breathe.The 39-year-old first started to feel ill when the smell of pesticides drifted from nearby Fresno county fruit orchards on a recent afternoon: “We experience this all the time … People get used to it.” Continue reading...

Tata-owned Cheshire plant to turn 40,000 tonnes of CO a year into useful productsThe UK’s biggest carbon capture project will soon block thousands of tonnes of factory emissions from contributing to the climate crisis, by using them to help make the chemicals found in antacid, eyedrops and Pot Noodle.Within two years a chemical plant in Cheshire could keep 40,000 tonnes of carbon from the air every year, or the equivalent of removing 22,000 cars from the UK’s roads. Continue reading...

Climate Coalition and Greener UK rally urges MPs to act over critical loss of natureThousands of people, including primary school children and members of the Women’s Institute, have lobbied MPs, calling for urgent action to tackle the climate emergency and critical loss of nature.About 12,000 people gathered in Westminster on Wednesday to put pressure on politicians, according to the organisers the Climate Coalition and Greener UK, whose members include aid agencies, social groups and conservation organisations. Continue reading...

Scotland’s major environment and conservation bodies call for legislation to tackle the climate emergency. Plus letters from Penelope Maclachlan, Charles Young, Dr Joseph Hanlon and Neil BlackshawScotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has acknowledged that our planet faces a climate emergency. Inextricably linked to this is the growing ecological crisis. We must not let Brexit derail us from tackling these global challenges head-on. Whatever the outcome of the political uncertainties, we need robust, binding targets for the recovery of Scotland’s natural environment to safeguard both nature and people. This is why we have come together from across Scottish society to ask the first minister to bring forward a new Scottish environment act.Ensuring our world is rich in nature is the best insurance we have against dangerous climate heating. Protecting, restoring and enhancing Scotland’s natural environment would help limit temperature rises and help us adapt to changes that we cannot avoid. It would also give us so much more. Continue reading...

The spat over VAT on solar batteries shows how Brussels-bashing is taking precedence over urgent social priorities

Residents of Reserve, Louisiana, met with environmental groups and stakeholders in Denka in their campaign for clean airResidents of Reserve, Louisiana, have travelled to Tokyo to confront the executives and shareholders of a Japanese company which runs a chemical plant they say is responsible for a spike in cancers and a litany of other diseases in their home town – the town at the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxicity anywhere in the US, according to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).Their trip involved a series of public and private meetings with environmental groups and stakeholders in the chemicals giant Denka, which operates the Pontchartrain Works facility in Reserve. It marks a significant escalation in the residents’ campaign for clean air. Continue reading...

Don’t buy the greenwash. Shell’s initiatives, which have won over many conservation groups, are dwarfed by its investment in oil and gasIt is hard to believe it needs stating, but it does. The oil industry is not your friend. Whatever it might say about its ethical credentials, while it continues to invest in fossil fuels, it accelerates climate breakdown and the death of the habitable planet. You would think this point was obvious to everyone. But over the past few weeks, I have spoken to dozens of environmentalists who appear to believe that Shell is on their side. I’ve come to the bizarre conclusion that there is more awareness of the oil industry’s agenda within the arts than there is among conservation groups.Related: With its links to BP, I can’t stay in the Royal Shakespeare Company | Mark Rylance Continue reading...

UK’s dirty air still ‘a public health emergency’ despite dramatic fall in death rates

Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia call for embargo suspension to allow sale of hugely valuable stockpilesSouthern African leaders have renewed calls for a lifting of the ban on the ivory trade as debate over the “unfair” embargo escalates.At a wildlife economic summit in Zimbabwe, leaders of the five countries that make up the Kavango-Zambezi conservation area – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia – raised the issue ahead of the August conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva, Switzerland. Continue reading...

Fund managers call on world leaders to bring in carbon pricing and phase out coal power ahead of G20Superannuation funds and investors representing US$34tn in assets – nearly half of the total under management across the globe – have called on world leaders to bring in carbon pricing and phase out coal power to limit global heating to 1.5C.Released ahead of a G20 leaders meeting in Osaka, Japan, the statement by 477 institutional investors urges world leaders to accelerate their response to the climate crisis to ensure the goals of the 2015 Paris climate deal can be met. Continue reading...

DNC has declined to hold a climate-specific debate even as Democratic voters rank rising temperatures as a top priorityDozens of young climate protesters crowded outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC on Tuesday, demanding a debate focused on the crisis as presidential candidates prepare to face off this week over two nights in Florida.The DNC has declined to hold a climate-specific debate, even as Democratic voters rank rising temperatures – and the worse disasters and economic instability they bring – as a top priority. Continue reading...

Stark warning comes as UK commits to net zero emissions target for 2050France is falling behind on tackling the climate emergency despite ambitious promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a new report has found, saying Paris is worryingly far from delivering its goals.The stark warning from France’s independent advisory council on climate comes at a key moment, as the eurozone’s second-biggest economy attempts to present itself as a world leader on the climate emergency. Continue reading...

Biffa Waste Services found guilty of exporting unsorted waste to China it said was paperOne of the UK’s biggest waste firms has been convicted of sending used nappies and other contaminated materials to China illegally.Biffa Waste Services Ltd was found guilty of exporting unsorted household waste that it said was paper. The company was prosecuted by the Environment Agency after investigators stopped seven 25-tonne containers from leaving Felixstowe in Suffolk over suspicions about the content. Continue reading...

Company must pay back £123m to customers over ‘shocking’ failures at sewage treatment sitesSouthern Water faces prosecution by the Environment Agency after being handed a record £126m penalty by the water regulator over “shocking” failures at its sewage treatment sites that polluted rivers and beaches in southern England.The package imposed by the regulator, Ofwat, includes compensation of £123m to customers over five years and a £3m fine. The company’s 4.2 million customers will each receive £61 off their bills – £17 in 2020-21 and £11 in each of the following four years. Continue reading...

Angie Zelter, 68, wanted judge to take ‘urgency of the climate emergency’ into accountThe first person to face trial over the Extinction Rebellion protests in April has been found guilty of a minor public order offence for blocking a road in central London.Angie Zelter, 68, was given a conditional discharge at Hendon magistrates court on Tuesday after being arrested for lying in the road near Parliament Square on 17 April. She had been taking part in protests in which thousands of people blocked key sites across the capital over 10 days to highlight the escalating climate emergency. Continue reading...

Secret filming at three Moy Park farms in Lincolnshire shows birds that are lame, struggling to breathe and surrounded by carcassesOne of the UK’s biggest chicken producers has been keeping chickens in cramped conditions on three farms in Lincolnshire, including in enormous “double-decker” multi-storey buildings, where secretly filmed footage shows chickens that are lame, struggling to breathe and surrounded by dead birds.From across their sites in Northern Ireland and England, Moy Park supplies 30% of the British poultry market, including Tesco, Ocado and Sainsbury’s. The supermarkets have told the Guardian they they are now investigating their supply chains after the footage was sent to them. Continue reading...

Ex-US vice-president says only big solutions can offset impact of systemic shifts and avert disasterAl Gore has said the global economy requires a fundamental upgrade to become more sustainable in order for the world to survive an environmental crisis and widening social divides.The environmentalist and former US vice-president said the world was in the early stages of a “sustainability revolution” that had “the magnitude of the Industrial Revolution and the speed of the digital revolution”. Continue reading...

Right to life is likely to be undermined alongside the rule of law, special rapporteur saysThe world is increasingly at risk of “climate apartheid”, where the rich pay to escape heat and hunger caused by the escalating climate crisis while the rest of the world suffers, a report from a UN human rights expert has said.Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of people, but also democracy and the rule of law. Continue reading...

Exposure to potentially toxic substances that are part of modern life only adds to the many anxieties of parenting. Here’s what action you can takeFrom strapping zip ties on to cabinets to popping plastic covers into outlets, new parents do what they can to control their newborn’s environment. But beyond the visible, there are more obscure health concerns from additives and contaminants found in unexpected places.Exposure to our environment begins even before birth. Studies have shown that some chemicals, like PFAS and flame retardants, in everyday products can pass from mother to fetus through the umbilical cord, and after birth through breast milk. Socioeconomic status and race also affect lifetime exposure. Minority and low-income individuals are disproportionately affected by pollution and toxic chemicals. Continue reading...

Pop-up store will also sell water in recyclable aluminium cans and refillable bottles at festivalSandwiches in 100% compostable packaging will go on sale at Glastonbury festival which starts on Wednesday, as part of a trial launched by the Co-op.In what it claims is a first for a national food retailer, the convenience chain says all elements of the packaging – from the base card to the transparent film and the label – are compostable. Continue reading...

Open letter calls on the prime minister to block all new coal and gas projects, including AdaniMore than 150 religious leaders have called on Scott Morrison to acknowledge the world faces a climate emergency and block all new coal and gas projects, including Adani’s Carmichael mine.In an open letter headed “no faith in coal”, the leaders say the climate crisis is a profoundly moral problem and Australia’s response will be crucial in addressing it. Continue reading...

Major economies pledged a decade ago to phase out all aid for fossil fuelsG20 countries have almost tripled the subsidies they give to coal-fired power plants in recent years, despite the urgent need to cut the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis.The bloc of major economies pledged a decade ago to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies. Continue reading...

Treasury proposes rise from 5% to 20%, while the tax on coal will stay at lower rateHomes hoping to shrink their carbon footprints by installing a solar-battery system face a steep VAT increase from October under new laws proposed by HMRC.The Treasury put forward legislation on Monday to raise VAT for home solar-battery systems from 5% to 20%, on the same day that MPs are debating the government’s new net zero carbon target for 2050. Continue reading...

John McDonnell says Bank would monitor City firms’ progress on carbon emissions

Greater Manchester’s Bee Network has just £160m of the cash it needs, unlike a junction near BedfordAlmost exactly a year ago, Chris Boardman – the Olympic champion turned walking and cycling commissioner – unveiled a bold vision: Greater Manchester was to turn itself into a Dutch-style cycling paradise by building a 1,000-mile network of walking and biking routes called Beelines, after Manchester’s civic symbol, the worker bee.A year on, the scheme has changed its name to the Bee Network after a rather embarrassing copyright infringement, and has expanded to cover 1,800 miles. Yet so far, work has only begun on one tiny section – a bit of towpath in Wigan known as the “muddy mile” – and the first wodge of money has already gone. Continue reading...

Maarten van der Weijden tackles daunting course not used for skating in 22 yearsAs Europe braces for a heatwave this week, a Dutchman is swimming the route of the country’s most famed ice skating race, which has not been held for two decades as the climate crisis bites.Instead of skating the 121 miles (195km) of the daunting Elfstedentocht (11 cities race), the Olympic gold marathon swimmer Maarten van der Weijden is ploughing his way through its canals. Continue reading...

Chain will charge 5p, 7p or 10p for various sizes of paper bag, with profits going to charityBoots will phase out all plastic bags from its stores by 2020, replacing them with brown paper bags.The health and beauty chain will remove 40m plastic bags a year from use, amounting to more than 900 tonnes of single-use plastic. Continue reading...

Conservationists urge Sussan Ley to get her priorities right, saying her job is to protect species, not industriesVictoria’s faunal emblem, the tiny Leadbeater’s possum, will keep its critically endangered listing after the environment minister, Sussan Ley, rejected a push by Coalition MPs and the forestry industry to downgrade its conservation status.But Ley has been criticised for suggesting a long-delayed recovery plan for the possum should also consider the needs of the timber industry. Continue reading...

Until recently we didn’t know how much plastic was piling up around us. When we found out, the picture wasn’t pretty

Rangers and scientists and a white cartoonist converge for the night parrot but where is the night parrot???

Workers have been fighting uranium mining for decades – the environment needs mass civil disobedienceWhat do Clive Palmer, Tony Abbott, Cory Bernardi, Barnaby Joyce, Mark Latham, Jim Molan, Craig Kelly, Eric Abetz and David Leyonhjelm have in common?No doubt many answers will come to to mind. But whatever else unites them, they all support nuclear power. Continue reading...

Event organisers have already gone to war on plastic bottles and diesel generators, with the full support of music fansWhen Chris Johnson first started putting on outdoor parties with his mates, they were small, impromptu and shambolic – or “really good fun”, as he puts it. Seventeen years later and he and the same four university friends are still pioneering in their field of partying, albeit Shambala is now a four-day festival in rural Northamptonshire with 15,000 people that has set an industry standard for its eco-credentials.“We’re a purpose-led organisation, the point of it existing is to contribute something to the world,” says Johnson, “and the environment is an important part of our outlook; we have a responsibility – but also an opportunity to experiment.” Continue reading...

Cold, rainy weather has meant severe planting delays for farmers from Ohio to Nebraska – and next week’s acreage report takes on heightened importanceIn his 32 years of farming, Steve Fourez says he’s almost never been so late planting corn and soybean crops on the 500 acres he farms in east-central Illinois.Normally by the start of May he’s finished planting corn, and soybeans are seeded soon after. This year, Fourez said, he wrapped up planting on 6 June, as cold, grey and rainy weather kept him idle. Fourez’s experience is playing out across the corn belt, a deeply fertile agricultural region stretching roughly from Ohio to Nebraska. Continue reading...

The government stands accused of failing to protect workers as it sold off projects to EDF and other foreign firmsIn the renewables sector, the Scottish government has been perfecting a form of political alchemy over the last decade. In this, Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers have succeeded in spinning mere optimism into hard political currency.The title of its manifesto for the 2011 Holyrood election asked voters to “Re-elect a Scottish Government Working For Scotland” and claimed that developing the low-carbon economy would create “around 130,000 jobs”. At the current growth rate of real jobs in this sector, you wouldn’t bet on that figure of 130,000 being reached before that big asteroid with Earth’s name on it finds its bearings. Continue reading...

Floating boom is designed to trap 1.8tn items of plastic without harming marine life – but broke apart last time

Activists consider legal challenge, saying rules related to source aquifer have been compromisedThe Queensland environment department may have acted “unlawfully” when it approved of Adani’s groundwater plan, in the process backing down on a longstanding requirement that the miner provide definitive proof about the source of an ancient desert spring.Environmental groups are now considering a legal challenge to the approval, partly because the state’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) appeared to negotiate a last-minute compromise with Adani rather than applying strict conditions. Continue reading...

Nation suffering disproportionately from climate emergency to phase in ban, believed to be world first, by DecemberIt is but a tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean, but the island state of Vanuatu is leading the global fight against plastic waste. The nation, which has already introduced one of the toughest single-use plastic bans in the world, is believed to be the first to propose a ban on disposable nappies, to be phased in at the end of this year.At a meeting in London this week, chaired by Patricia Scotland, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Vanuatu was hailed as a “champion” nation, one of 12 who are forging ahead in tackling ocean and climate emergency challenges. Continue reading...

Scores of wildfires mean 2019 has already broken the record set during last year’s heatwavePlant aspen trees, avoid eucalyptus, and have a word with your lazy neighbour if you want to protect your property against wildfires, gardeners have been warned, as the UK faces an increasing risk of blazes from global heating.This year has already been the worst for wildfires in the country in the last decade, perhaps longer, and comes on top of a significant rise in the number and extent of fires during last summer’s record-breaking drought and heatwave. Continue reading...

Five Democrats say Trump officials have failed to ensure chemicals used in everyday products and materials are safe for humansSenate Democrats are charging that the Trump administration has gone “dangerously off the rails”, in failing to implement landmark legislation meant to protect people from toxic chemicals. Continue reading...

Janet Barker recounts assault by suspended MP and says it will not stop her activism

Police investigate reports of assault as video shows Field forcefully removing womanMark Field has been suspended as a Foreign Office minister after a video showed him pushing a female Greenpeace activist against a pillar and grabbing her neck while she protested at the chancellor’s Mansion House speech.Police are investigating third-party reports of assault made against Field, who has since apologised to the protester. The MP for the Cities of London and Westminster said he had felt threatened when the protester walked past him and was worried she might have been armed. Continue reading...

I’m leaving the RSC because of its sponsorship deal with the fossil-fuel giant. What would Shakespeare have made of this?

Actor says Royal Shakespeare Company deal helps oil firm ‘obscure reality of its activities’