Exclusive: Ministers will now back a target of 65% by 2035, meaning ambitious rhetoric is being supported by firm action, say expertsThe UK has reversed its opposition to tough EU recycling targets and will now back a goal of recycling two-thirds of urban waste by 2035, the Guardian has learned. The nation’s recycling rate has stalled and it is set to miss its current target of 50% by 2020.

*To watch the 360 video, click this link*Every spring, ponds around the UK start stirring and frogs come out of their winter slumber to mate. Here's a unique perspective on an event that’s been happening since the age of the dinosaursViewers watching this video on Google Chrome may need to update their browser. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Excluding unreliable land-use data, 2017 greenhouse emissions were again highest on recordAustralia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 were again the highest on record when unreliable data from sectors including land clearing and forestry are excluded, according to consultants NDEVR Environmental.Even including land clearing, overall emissions show a continued rising trend, which began in about 2011, putting Australia’s commitment under the Paris agreement further out of reach. Continue reading...

Assessment to include climate science and threatened species impacts, ministers sayFederal Labor is promising to revisit and fix any logging agreements with state governments that are not based on “proper, independent and full scientific assessments”.In a pledge that could have implications for the rollover of nine agreements due to expire in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia over the next three years, the shadow minister for agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon, and shadow minister for environment and water, Tony Burke said; “Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA [regional forestry agreement] outcomes as part of the agreed framework. Continue reading...

Maya Bay, on Koh Phi Phi Leh, will be shut down by Thai authorities for four months to help recover damaged coral reefs and sea lifeAuthorities in Thailand have ordered the temporary closing of the beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach to halt environmental damage caused by too many tourists.Maya Bay, on the island of Koh Phi Phi Leh in the Andaman Sea, will be closed to all visitors for four months annually starting this June to allow for the recovery of the island’s battered coral reefs and sea life. The decision to keep visitors away was made on Wednesday by Thailand’s national parks and wildlife department. Continue reading...

Researchers from Australia’s leading marine science agency respond to criticism by two academics that doubts much of their workScientists at Australia’s leading marine science agency say an attack on the integrity of their research into threats to the Great Barrier Reef was flawed and based on “misinterpretation” and “selective use of data”.The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) researchers were responding to accusations made in November 2017 in a journal Marine Pollution Bulletin that claimed much of their work “should be viewed with some doubt”.

50% of Coalition voters and 67% of Labor voters want to phase out coal, and majority also support striving to cut greenhouse gas emissionsA majority of Australians would support phasing out coal power by 2030, including half the people in a sample identifying as Coalition voters, according to a survey by a progressive thinktank.The research funded by the Australia Institute says 60% of a sample of 1,417 Australians surveyed by online market research firm Research Now supported Australia joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance to phase out coal power by 2030. Continue reading...

Forestry Tasmania’s total cash losses were $454m over 20 years, with a write-down of $751m in value of forest estateThe first Tasmanian regional forest agreement, signed between the state and the commonwealth in 1997, was supposed to start an era in which forestry was both ecologically and economically sustainable.In fact the last 20 years have been a financial disaster for forest management in Tasmania. Continue reading...

Readers respond to Michael McCarthy’s article about the devastation caused by modern farming to insects and birdsMichael McCarthy is quite wrong when he says most people are unaware of the destruction of Britain’s wildlife (We’ve lost half our wildlife. But the damage can be reversed, 26 March). Even if you never visit the countryside, if you have any kind of garden you will be painfully aware of it. Twenty years ago my bird feeder nearly always had numerous birds on it (eight at a time was the record, I seem to remember). Now the peanuts wither and go black in the feeder. Then, we had many species; now, one pair of blackbirds, one pair of robins and a couple of greedy pigeons. Twenty years ago I saw a mother hedgehog parading through the garden trailing several babies. Now, I haven’t seen a hedgehog for at least a decade.Up until a couple of years ago the frogs in my garden pond had their riotous mating ceremony around St Valentine’s Day, followed quickly by masses of spawn and then by innumerable tadpoles. Now the date has become variable but results in very little spawn, which after a couple of weeks collapses into featureless slime. The number of pond species has steeply declined and if you put (say) daphnia into a jar of pondwater, they all die instantly. The problem is, what do I do about it apart from writing letters to the Guardian? The government is quite obviously either totally uninterested or completely in the grip of the big chemical firms and the farming lobby. I am delighted to be told that the problem is reversible, and I’m sure it is, but not without a political revolution, of which I see absolutely no sign.

The government’s rejection of coal-mining in Northumberland is good news, says Marianne Birkby. Now they must follow up by rejecting plans for a new Cumbrian mineWhat fantastic news that the government has rejected plans for an opencast coal mine in Northumberland (Javid rejects plan for opencast coalmine, 24 March).This should put the nail firmly in the coffin of the plan for the first deep coalmine in the UK in 30 years. This would be at the proposed Woodhouse Colliery, which is north of Kendal (not south as wrongly located in your article) and under the Irish Sea off the beautiful coastline of St Bees. Continue reading...

It may be one of the largest wildcats ever recorded, but it still looks much like a very large tabbyName: The Beast of Clashindarroch.Age: Unknown. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The moles’ unlicensed mining and despoliation sends farmers, greenkeepers and gardeners madThe last snow lasted a few days but felt like weeks. It vanished in an instant: one spring-like afternoon it felt as if a conjurer had whipped away the tablecloth leaving everything standing.What had changed, and radically so, was the table. It was as if the ground under the snow had been through a strange transformation and some charm had been working invisibly, resurfacing the countryside. Sheep stared with beatific expressions at earthworks that had appeared around them. In the snow and bitter wind, the sheep had been in a trance and, woken by the vernal equinox, beheld the results of what Jack Kerouac described in The Scripture of the Golden Eternity as “Roaring dreams take place in a perfect still mind.” However, the roaring dreams were not those of sheep but belonged to underground minds of the workers John Clare called mouldiwarps, or “The Mole”, as a gamekeeper of my acquaintance would whisper murderously. Continue reading...

If you live in the UK we’d like to hear what you think about bottle and can deposit schemes near you

As spring arrives and campaigners in Sheffield win a temporary pause in tree felling, here’s a gallery of Friends of the Earth volunteers defending nature in local communities Continue reading...

Parties plan to introduce separate motions for individual affected regionsLabor and the Greens have launched a fresh attempt to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week, bowling up individual motions to boost the chances of scuttling at least part of the proposal.

Resources minister tells press club references to transition are really about job destructionMatt Canavan has backed greater exploitation of resources such as an expansion in oil and gas drilling, including in the Great Australian Bight, and land-clearing to develop agriculture in northern Australia.At the National Press Club on Wednesday, the resources and northern Australia minister gave an at-times fiery defence of coal, lashing opponents of burning fossil fuels for using the “highly objectionable” term of “just transition”, which he said was a euphemism for destruction of jobs. Continue reading...

Project Pressure is a charity that has been working with renowned artists in a pioneering project to document the world’s vanishing glaciers. This week it brought its touring photographic exhibition to the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Hong Kong, where visitors can experience the different types of glaciers found on each continent and take a video journey to see how glaciers are retreating Continue reading...

A green coalition demands a review of health and environmental impacts of intensive animal farming ahead of budget talks next monthThe EU is facing calls to overhaul its industrial farming sector by promoting more plant-based diets in the next common agricultural policy (CAP), as budget negotiations approach a crunch point.

The mild winter was followed by a good breeding season, boosting garden sightings of finches and titsFinches and tits have enjoyed a golden year, according to the results of this year’s RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.These small bird species suffer particularly badly in cold weather but in the past year benefited from a mild start to the winter that followed a good breeding season. Blackbird sightings in gardens were down – the result of plentiful food elsewhere – but a dearth of robins followed a poor nesting season. Continue reading...

Figures show that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply chain is redistributed annually to charitiesThe government is being urged to introduce a £15m fund to tackle hunger by preventing food which could be eaten from going straight into landfill, animal feed or anaerobic digestion.New figures from the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, reveal that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply chain is redistributed annually to charities. Continue reading...

The sale of the Kestrel mine makes Rio now the only major global company with no coal assetsRio Tinto has sold its remaining coalmine in Australia for $US2.25bn, making good on a pledge to exit the fuel.As the Australian resources minister, Matt Canavan, launched a taskforce to boost the coal industry, the deal leaves Rio as the only major global mining company to have no coal assets, the Royal Bank of Canada said. Continue reading...

Sharp rise globally in the dirtiest fossil fuel investments reverses progress made after the Paris agreement, with tar sands holdings more than doubling in Trump’s first year in officeBank holdings in “extreme” fossil fuels skyrocketed globally to $115bn during Donald Trump’s first year as US president, with holdings in tar sands oil more than doubling, a new report has found.A sharp flight from fossil fuels investments after the Paris agreement was reversed last year with a return to energy sources dubbed “extreme” because of their contribution to global emissions. This included an 11% hike in funding for carbon-heavy tar sands, as well as Arctic and ultra-deepwater oil and coal. Continue reading...

Consumers to receive small cash sum for returning plastic, glass and metal drinks containersAll drinks containers in England, whether plastic, glass or metal, will be covered by a deposit return scheme, the government has announced.The forthcoming scheme is intended to cut the litter polluting the land and sea by returning a small cash sum to consumers who return their bottles and cans. Continue reading...

Many common frogs were trapped under ice in early March and some inevitably diedThe common frog Rana temporaria is having a difficult spring. The extreme cold at the beginning of March trapped many under ice. A lot continued to breathe through their skin, but after several days some died from lack of oxygen. The survivors then got breeding under way in many ponds, only for another three-day cold snap to halt proceedings. Some ponds still have no spawn, while in others the adults have already left piles of jelly to take their chance.Related: How to make your garden frog-friendly Continue reading...

Wildlife film-maker, author and conservationist best known for Tarka the Otter, which was voted one of the greatest family films of all timeDavid Cobham is best remembered for his classic films on British wildlife, including the 1979 cinema feature Tarka the Otter and his 1972 TV programme The Vanishing Hedgerows, the first explicitly environmental film broadcast by the BBC.Cobham, who has died aged 87, made The Vanishing Hedgerows for the corporation’s prestigious strand The World About Us. Presented by the author Henry Williamson, it was a powerful elegy to Britain’s disappearing farmland wildlife, with shocking scenes showing the fatal effects of pesticides on birds. Continue reading...

Scandinavian study finds bears responding to Swedish law banning hunting of family groups by keeping cubs close for an extra yearFemale brown bears have learned to protect themselves from being shot by spending more time caring for their young as they adapt to legislation banning the hunting of mothers with cubs.The finding, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, was made by a team of international researchers who spent 22 years studying data on the reproductive strategy and survival of Scandinavian brown bears. Continue reading...

Greenpeace wants health shops like Boots to follow the lead of Holland & Barrett and ditch products that threaten the pristine waters home to penguins, seal and whalesCampaigners are calling on high street retailers to stop stocking health products containing krill that have been caught in the pristine waters of the Antarctic.The Guardian reported earlier this month on the threat industrial krill fishing poses to animals like penguins, whales and seals. Continue reading...

Network thinks infrastructure and capacity can be in place a decade earlier in 2030National Grid would support the government bringing forward its 2040 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales by a decade.The company, which runs the UK’s national electricity network and wants to build superfast car charging points at motorway services, told MPs it could cope with the demands of an earlier surge in electric car numbers. Continue reading...

Ground rising and falling in region that has been ‘punctured like a pin cushion’ since the 1940s, new study findsOil and gas activity is contributing to alarming land movements and a rising threat of sinkholes across a huge swath of west Texas, a new study suggests.Related: 'Like thunder in the ground': Texans fear link between quakes and fracking waste Continue reading...

Parties have the option of redrafting the disallowance and resubmitting it as soon as WednesdayA first attempt by Labor and the Greens to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week has failed in the Senate after the government flipped the order of business and brought on the chamber debate.The Turnbull government on Tuesday night pulled its proposal to lower the tax rate for big business to 25% and abruptly changed the order of business in the Senate to force consideration of Labor’s disallowance motion on the marine parks. Continue reading...

Conservation charities estimate cost of dealing with predators at £2bn a year, and warns this may spiral without strong prevention measuresInvasive species such as Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish and New Zealand flatworms must be subject to stronger safeguards after Brexit, a group of conservation charities has urged, or the cost of dealing with them may spiral.They fear that future increased international trade outside EU rules could threaten further invasions, while the status of safeguards under potential trade deals could be put in doubt. Continue reading...

With thousands of square miles of land already lost along the coast, Avery Island, home of the famed hot sauce, faces being maroonedAvery Island, a dome of salt fringed by marshes where Tabasco sauce has been made for the past 150 years, has been an outpost of stubborn consistency near the Louisiana coast. But the state is losing land to the seas at such a gallop that even its seemingly impregnable landmarks are now threatened.The home of Tabasco, the now ubiquitous but uniquely branded condiment controlled by the same family since Edmund McIlhenny first stumbled across a pepper plant growing by a chicken coop on Avery Island, is under threat. An unimaginable plight just a few years ago, the advancing tides are menacing its perimeter. Continue reading...

Barford Wood and Meadows, Northamptonshire: Yes, the trees have established beautifully, but a randomness to the planting pattern would be more aesthetically pleasingAgain the landscape is etched with snow. The footpath to Barford Wood and Meadows from Rushton village crosses first under the Midland mainline, emerging on to a wide and exposed field where the chilled wind bites, before passing over the Corby branch line and on to the nature reserve; a tapering wedge of land, bound on the west by the railway and by the thundering A43 on the east. Continue reading...

A row between state and federal ministers has thrown Victoria’s long-term native forest logging agreements into disarrayThe future of long-term native forest logging agreements in Victoria is uncertain because of a row with the federal government over the need to carry out fresh scientific assessments.Three of Victoria’s regional forest agreements (RFAs) – in east Gippsland, the central highlands and the north east regions – were extended on Monday on a short-term basis, to 31 March 2020. Continue reading...

Site owner appears to have no employees or premises and its phone is disconnectedPlans to mine a vast coal deposit in north Queensland have been quietly revived, despite the failed sale of the project last year and the collapse of an associated company.Guardian Australia understands that Wilton Coking Coal made two applications to the Queensland government for coal production permits in the Bowen basin in January. Continue reading...

The bill condemned by environmentalists would allow ethanol production, driving more deforestation and unravel protectionsA bill being rushed through Brazil’s senate would lift a ban on the cultivation of sugarcane for ethanol fuel in the Amazon, driving more deforestation and making it harder for the country to meet its commitments under the Paris Climate Deal.The bill, which has been roundly condemned by environmentalists, companies and even Brazil’s union of sugarcane producers (UNICA), marks the latest move by a conservative congress to unravel Amazon protections. Continue reading...

Oil firm says gas could account for 10% of global energy consumption by end of centuryPlanes and trucks powered by hydrogen will be a crucial part of efforts to cut carbon emissions to safe levels, according to oil giant Shell.For the first time, the Anglo Dutch firm, which is facing calls by activist shareholders to take stronger action on global warming, has mapped out how the world could hit the Paris climate deal’s target of keeping temperature rises below 2C. Continue reading...

Renewable energy also produced 40% more than gas and was exceeded only by black coalRenewable energy generated more electricity than brown coal during Australia’s summer for the first time in 2017-18, according to a new report by Green Energy Markets. Continue reading...

Labour’s vision to reshape the world order will require political will to end tax evasion and create a fairer global economyIn the foreword to Labour’s new policy paper, Jeremy Corbyn characterises the party’s vision for development as “a progressive, outward-looking, global view, driven by social justice and human rights”. So far, so expected.For those who remember the Blair-Brown era of Make Poverty History, the most exciting shift is the plan to tackle rising inequalities alongside the more familiar focus on reducing poverty, treating inequality and poverty as two sides of the same coin. Continue reading...

More than 3.2bn people are already affected and the problem will worsen without rapid action, driving migration and conflictLand degradation is undermining the wellbeing of two-fifths of humanity, raising the risks of migration and conflict, according to the most comprehensive global assessment of the problem to date.The UN-backed report underscores the urgent need for consumers, companies and governments to rein in excessive consumption – particularly of beef – and for farmers to draw back from conversions of forests and wetlands, according to the authors. Continue reading...

Council’s £2bn project to cut down thousands of dead, dying or dangerous trees put on holdSheffield city council has announced an immediate pause of its controversial tree-felling scheme after a barrage of criticism.Thousands of trees assessed as dead, dying, dangerous or diseased have been cut down under a £2bn project to improve the condition of the streets. Continue reading...

The UK’s pothole problem is getting worse and cyclists risk serious injury if they hit one. Here’s what to do if you find one and how to claim compensation if neededThe UK’s pothole problem is bad and getting worse, with a recent report by Alarm revealing 24,000 miles of road will need essential maintenance in the next year. While hitting one in a car may mean a trip to the garage, if you are cycling the outcome can be far worse.A BBC 5 Live questionnaire found half of almost 5,000 cyclists had suffered a pothole-related accident, with 1,516 injured as a result, 207 of those seriously. More than 10% of respondents said they missed work because of a pothole crash, and 31% were put off cycling. This survey was backed up by a mass freedom of information report from Cycling UK, which revealed cycling pothole crash compensation claims to councils in England and Wales are 10 times higher than motoring claims because of the higher risk of personal injury. Continue reading...

A new Starbucks provides convenience and caffeine to visitors, but to many it represents a trend of commercialism and 25,000 people petitioned to stop it from opening Continue reading...

Mayor of London and green groups call for swift action after new research suggests government cuts are putting wildlife protections under threatSadiq Khan has accused ministers of stalling over the setting up of a new tough environmental watchdog body post Brexit.

Dairy farms need female cows to produce milk but with little demand for male calves many farmers can’t afford to keep them beyond birthThe number of male calves being killed straight after birth is on the rise again, despite efforts by the dairy industry to end the practice known as ‘the dirty secret’.A Guardian analysis shows that it can cost a farmer up to £30 per calf to sell it on for beef or veal, while early disposal costs just £9. A growing number of farmers feel compelled to take the latter option, with 95,000 killed on-farm in the most recent set of figures.

Carpenter’s Lodge, Lincolnshire: Why was a kestrel so interested in the rising corner of a small rural overpass?The climbing bend of an overpass, in a frigid easterly wind, early. I’ve come because of an eye-hook bird I’ve often seen hovering here. A kestrel – static in the air as if on a pole, above this corner in precisely the same place. More recently, I’ve seen a red kite showing interest too, wheeling and listing and riding the wind like its namesake. If it was a child’s kite, its line would have been tied to the barrier of this bend.I’ve seen the kestrel for years, usually at dusk, against the sunset sky like a mad little spatter of dirt on a west-facing window. Wings frantic, head down, tail splayed. Watching. Continue reading...

Landslides close highway north of Cairns as more than 100 people call for helpCairns and Port Douglas were mopping up on Monday after torrential rain from ex-cyclone Nora caused flash flooding in Queensland’s far north.

Sawmillers say industry in ‘wind-down mode’ as state government discusses logging agreements extensionVictoria’s national parks and water catchments should be opened up for sustainable logging, according to a group of six Victorian sawmillers.The sawmillers – who call themselves the G6 – say the Victorian timber industry is in crisis. They want access to either more timber or exit packages. Continue reading...

We may be only a few years from hearing the purring of the last turtle dove in the UK, writes Jonathan WallaceThank you Jonathan Franzen (Why do birds matter? Where shall I begin? 24 March) for your wonderful paean to birds. They enrich our lives yet we continue to push birds towards oblivion. We may be only a few years from hearing the purring of the last turtle dove in this country, for example. There are many ways in which we harm bird populations, some easier to address than others. The outrageous persecution of birds of prey on some shooting estates could be stopped tomorrow with sufficient goodwill and government commitment. Slowing the general bleaching of wildlife from our countryside is less straightforward and will require creative thinking in order to balance the legitimate need for farmers to make a living and produce food with the need to protect wildlife, water supplies and soils. We must not shirk the challenge or Mr Franzen’s grandchildren will be denied the opportunity of experiencing anything but a fraction of the wonders he has enjoyed.

Management failings could affect safety at EDF power station if unaddressed, says inspectorThe UK nuclear regulator has raised concerns with EDF Energy over management failings that it warns could affect safety at the Hinkley Point C power station if left unaddressed, official documents reveal.