Environment | The Guardian

‘Outrageous financial demands will have serious repercussions across the renewables sector’Labour has accused the government of holding back clean energy projects in the UK by allowing energy networks to impose “outrageous” charges on renewables developers.This week, two of the six companies that run the country’s local electricity grids began making green energy firms pay for an estimate of how much it will cost to connect their solar and windfarms. Continue reading...

Hundreds of geese spotted in grasslands around roads in east Netherlands, with some birds swooping into paths of vehiclesThe emergence of the Netherlands as the most popular place in Europe for geese has prompted an urgent call for Dutch drivers to watch out for hundreds of birds breeding on the grassy junctions and motorways verges.

Exclusive: Plans for a network of hydropower plants in three countries would cause ‘chain reaction’ for endangered species, report warnsNearly one in 10 of Europe’s fish species will be pushed to the brink of extinction by a constellation of hydropower plants planned in the western Balkans, new research has found.Eleven endemic species would be wiped out, seven more would be critically endangered, four types of sturgeon would be devastated and the number of endangered species would double to 24, according to the University of Graz report. Continue reading...

Two new island fish farms given the go-ahead in spite of Scottish parliamentary report warning of possible environmental impactsTwo new salmon farms are to be built off the Scottish island of Skye after receiving permission from the Highland council, despite opposition from residents over the possible environmental impacts and a lack of guarantees the farms will remain organic.The two sites on the north-east of the island are among the first to be approved since MSPs warned that the continued expansion of the industry could cause “irrecoverable damage” to the environment. Continue reading...

Authorities grant whalers a quota to hunt the endangered fin whale this summer after a two-year pauseIcelandic fishermen will resume their hunt for the endangered fin whale this year after a two-year pause and have set a target of 191 kills for the season.An apparent loosening of Japanese regulations on Icelandic exports had made the resumption of the hunting commercially viable again, the country’s only fin whaling company, Hvalur, announced. Continue reading...

At twice the size of a regulation basketball court, the enormous replica will be used to work out an ambitious water-diversion plan

As climate scientists predicted, glaciers are vanishing due to rapidly warming temperatures.

Some 79% of seafood range is sustainable, according to survey which shows supermarkets are selling more ‘blue label’ products than everThe discount grocer Aldi has been named the best British high street supermarket for sustainable fish, according to a new league table.Some 79% of the seafood range stocked by the fast-growing German discounter is certified sustainable, the annual survey from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) found. This year’s results also show that supermarkets are selling more sustainable seafood than ever before – a 60% rise over the last two years. Continue reading...

Kaveh Madani had been seen as symbol of Rouhani government’s attempt to reverse brain drainA top Iranian environmental scientist wooed by Hassan Rouhani’s administration to return home from the UK has left Iran amid a crackdown on environmentalists and pressure from hardliners.Kaveh Madani had been persuaded to leave his position at Imperial College London last year to serve as the deputy head of Iran’s environment department.

UK’s largest coffee shop chain has pledged to recycle up to 500m cups a year by 2020 – a fifth of the total used in the countryThe UK’s largest coffee chain is to become the first to commit to recycling the same volume of takeaway cups used by its customers every year in a bid to stop hundreds of millions needlessly ending up in landfill.Costa Coffee has pledged to recycle up to 500m coffee cups a year by 2020 – the equivalent of its entire annual use of takeaway cups and one-fifth of the total 2.5bn takeaway coffee cups used in the UK each year. Continue reading...

The Indonesian national park boasts some of the world’s best dive sites and spectacular marine life, but illegal fishing and unsustainable tourism is threatening its Unesco statusIt was the unusual thrashing on the water that caught their attention. As those onboard the dive boat in Indonesia’s Komodo national park drew closer, it became clear it was a green turtle entangled in rubbish and thick fishing net.The divers managed to lift it out of the water, cut the blue bind from its shell and then set the turtle free, but dive operator Ed Statham says it is just one of the increasing and alarming signs the Unesco heritage site is fast being destroyed. Continue reading...

Party announces it will campaign for application to be made to Unesco in bid to stop drillingThe Greens have launched a campaign to give the Great Australian Bight world heritage protection – but such a move would need the government’s support.

Environmental and legal groups warn of potential huge effects on Indigenous people and the environment• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon The “new global gold rush” over deep-sea mining holds the same potential pitfalls as previous resource scrambles, with environmental and social impacts ignored and the rights of Indigenous people marginalised, a paper in the Harvard Law Review has warned.A framework for deep-sea mining – where polymetallic nodules or hydrothermal vents are mined by machine – was first articulated in the 1960s, on an idea that the seabed floor beyond national jurisdiction was a “common heritage of mankind”. Continue reading...

Data compiled from rubbish collected by volunteers aims to encourage industry to control plastic pollution at the sourceAustralians are battling against a tide of millions of pieces of discarded plastic debris at beach clean-up events all across the continent, according to two years of data analysed by Guardian Australia.Some 2,651,613 pieces of debris were collected from beaches and recorded in a database during 2016 and 2017, with about three-quarters of items made from plastics. Continue reading...

The 56,000 sq km reef is thought to contain dozens of undiscovered species, in an area where a French company intents to drill for oilScientists aboard a Greenpeace ship have discovered a massive and unique coral reef near the mouth of the Amazon, in an area where the French company Total intends to drill for oil.The 1,000km long and 56,000 sq km Amazon coral reef is a biome thought to contain dozens of undiscovered species that environmentalists say would be irreparably damaged if drilling for oil began – a vision at odds with the wish of oil companies hoping to explore the area’s vast estimated reserves. Continue reading...

Tucking in to less popular meats could help preserve those breeds, according to a farming charity. Here are six varieties it thinks might benefitWhen you think about Britain’s endangered animals, hedgehogs, small tortoiseshell butterflies and puffins may spring to mind. But rare breeds of farm animals and horses face extinction, too.The Rare Breed Survival Trust (RBST) published a list of endangered breeds this week. At a critical point are vaynol cattle, with only 12 breeding females remaining. The suffolk horse is similarly threatened, with 80 breeding females left. Many breeds of cow, sheep and pig make the list. The solution? According to the RBST, we should eat them. Continue reading...

Daniel Webb accrued a mountain of plastic – including many packets of Hula Hoops – and made it into a mural, now on display at Dreamland in Margate. We are overproducing and overconsuming, he says, and recycling is not the answerWe all know, in theory, that we ought to use less plastic. We’ve all been distressed by the sight of Blue Planet II’s hawksbill turtle entangled in a plastic sack, and felt chastened as we’ve totted up our weekly tally of disposable coffee cups. But still, UK annual plastic waste is now close to 5m tonnes, including enough single-use plastic to fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls; the government’s planned elimination of “avoidable” plastic waste by 2042 seems a quite dazzling task. It was reported this week that scientists at the University of Portsmouth have accidentally developed a plastic-eating mutant enzyme, and while we wait to see if that will save us all, for one individual the realisation of just how much plastic we use has become an intensely personal matter.One early evening in mid-2016, Daniel Webb, 36, took a run along the coast near his home in Margate. “It was one of those evenings where the current had brought in lots of debris,” he recalls, because as Webb looked down at the beach from his route along the promenade he noticed a mass of seaweed, tangled with many pieces of plastic. “Old toys, probably 20 years old, bottles that must have been from overseas because they had all kinds of different languages on them, bread tags, which I don’t think had been used for years …” he says. “It was very nostalgic, almost archaeological. And it made me think, as a mid-30s guy, is any of my plastic out there? Had I once dropped a toy in a stream near Wolverhampton, where I’m from, and now it was out in the sea?” Continue reading...

Anti-palm oil campaigner Nazildo dos Santos Brito is the third victim in four weeks as land conflicts increase in the country’s Pará stateBrazil’s Amazonian state of Pará has added to its reputation as a killing ground for land activists with the murder of an anti-palm oil campaigner.Nazildo dos Santos Brito – a leader of a Quilombo Afro-Brazilian community formed by runaway slaves – was killed at the weekend. It was the third assassination in four weeks in the north-eastern corner of the state, which also saw more killings over territory and the environment than any other last year. Continue reading...

Researchers predict energy use for air conditioners and refrigeration to jump 90% on 2017 levelsA burgeoning middle class and a warming world will result in energy demand for cooling overtaking that for heating by the middle of the century, researchers have predicted.Energy use for air conditioning, refrigeration and other cooling appliances will jump 90% on 2017 levels, experts estimated, posing a challenge for energy grids and efforts to curb climate change. Continue reading...

The government pledged in 2016 to enshrine a zero target in law to meet its Paris commitments, but has yet to pass any legislationThe UK is to review its long-term target to cut climate emissions as part of global efforts to curb rising temperatures, the government has announced.The announcement by clean growth minister Claire Perry during the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) raises the possibility the UK could implement a target to reduce emissions to “net zero” by 2050, tightening the existing goal to cut greenhouse gases by 80% by that date. Continue reading...

Judge dismisses claims by Polish government that logging was necessary to protect ancient forest from outbreak of bark beetlesThe EU’s highest court has ruled that Poland’s logging in the Unesco-protected Białowieża forest is illegal, potentially opening the door to multi-million euro fines.At least 10,000 trees are thought to have been felled in Białowieża, one of Europe’s last parcels of primeval woodland, since the Polish environment minister, Jan Szyzko tripled logging limits there in 2016. Continue reading...

The UK’s climate laws forged a path for others to follow. But as progressive nations commit to zero emissions, it must reclaim its leading role, writes Sweden’s deputy prime minister

‘Crowd dispersal unit’ among measures to keep out tourists during six-month shutdownThe Philippines is to deploy hundreds of riot police to the holiday island Boracay to keep out tourists and head off potential protests ahead of its six-month closure to visitors.Rodrigo Duterte has described the tiny central island and its white-sand beach as a “cesspool”. The Philippine president ordered visitors to be kept away from 26 April to enable facilities to treat raw sewage to be set up and illegal structures to be torn down. Continue reading...

Concerns about welfare of 261 abandoned cattle cited as Asic obtains court order• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonConcerns about the welfare of a herd of 261 cattle abandoned on a Queensland farm as part of a failed investment scheme run by a bankrupt Brisbane property developer has finally prompted action by authorities.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Tuesday obtained orders from the supreme court of Queensland appointing Deloitte as provisional liquidators to three companies associated with Keith Batt and his wife, Margaret Letizia, who were behind the Nangus group of companies. Continue reading...

Poorest are hardest hit with many developing countries falling behind on cleaning up toxic air pollutionMore than 95% of the world’s population breathe unsafe air and the burden is falling hardest on the poorest communities, with the gap between the most polluted and least polluted countries rising rapidly, a comprehensive study of global air pollution has found.Cities are home to an increasing majority of the world’s people, exposing billions to unsafe air, particularly in developing countries, but in rural areas the risk of indoor air pollution is often caused by burning solid fuels. One in three people worldwide faces the double whammy of unsafe air both indoors and out. Continue reading...

The scale of growth of Australia’s natural gas industry is inconsistent with our Paris commitments

First exploration fracking expected next year but national parks and conservation areas will be protected

Most people willing to swap to supermarkets trying to improve farming standards, survey findsShoppers around the world overwhelmingly support high animal welfare standards for pigs, and most would also be prepared to change their supermarket habits in response, an international survey on pork consumption has found.Seven out of 10 people questioned said they found the manner in which pigs are reared for slaughter on some factory farms “upsetting”, “wrong” or “shocking”, after being shown photographs of some pig-keeping conditions in the online poll. The survey highlighted practices such as sows kept in small cages, antibiotic use, as well as tail-docking, teeth-grinding and castration, sometimes without pain relief. Continue reading...

Justin Trudeau is bailing out a Texas oil billionaire. He should be bailing out Canada’s workers and the climate.Last Saturday, Indigenous leaders stood arm-in-arm in front of the gates of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline worksite in Burnaby, British Columbia.For weeks before, hundreds of non-native people – environmentalists, federal parliamentarians Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart, even an engineer formerly employed by the Texas oil corporation – had marched to the same place. In each case, police approached, read aloud their violation of a no-go zone, and arrested and shackled them.

Purchase of a soundproof booth for EPA chief violates federal law that prohibits spending more than $5,000 on office improvementsAn internal government watchdog says the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for administrator Scott Pruitt to make private phone calls in his office.The Government Accountability Office issued its findings on Monday in a letter to Senate Democrats who had requested a review of Pruitt’s spending. Continue reading...

With Australia’s beaches and oceans covered in rubbish, Tangaroa Blue volunteers spend days trying to clean things up. While these images are not beautiful or professionally taken, they are the harsh reality of the world’s plastic pollution problem.• ‘Plastic is literally everywhere’: the epidemic attacking Australia’s oceans Continue reading...

PM says he is prepared to use taxpayer dollars to fund controversial expansion opponents say will have serious environmental consequencesJustin Trudeau has said Canada’s government is prepared to use taxpayer dollars to push forward plans for a controversial pipeline expansion, despite protests and efforts by a provincial government to halt the project on environmental grounds.

Biodiversity concerns prompt emergency plan to use ferrets to round up the few rabbits leftIt is not a pastime for which rabbits usually require much encouragement. But a mystery depletion in numbers on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog has led to an emergency effort to coax the local population into breeding … well, like rabbits.Ferrets are being deployed to chase the reluctant remaining animals out of their warrens and into the hands of conservationists, who are bringing them together, safe from the stress of predators, in the hope that romance will blossom. Continue reading...

Environmentalists call strategy ‘20th century response to a 21st century problem’Environmental leaders have dismissed BP’s new low-carbon strategy as “greenwash” and a lightweight response to climate change and the energy market’s rapid switch to renewables.In a strategy published on Monday, BP said there would be no increase in its carbon footprint over the next seven years because it will cut emissions from its oil and gas rigs, and offset the rest. Continue reading...

Oil companies? The government? The public? All of the above share the blame.

Former Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder says NSW ‘actively undermined’ Murray-Darling basin plan

Man in his 30s taken to Royal Perth hospital after being bitten on the leg while a 41-year-old surfer was treated at beach for minor injuriesTwo people have been bitten by sharks while surfing off the same stretch of Western Australia’s southwest coast on Monday.A 37-year-old man was bitten on the lower leg at Cobblestones beach in Gracetown, near the Margaret River Pro surfing tournament, just before 8am and managed to bodysurf back to shore. Continue reading...

Campaign against plan to remove chicks from their nests and rear them in captivity raises £25,000 in four daysA controversial plan to remove the chicks of endangered birds from their nests and rear them in captivity could be challenged in the high court after a crowdfunded campaign raised £25,000 in four days.Wildlife campaigner and author Mark Avery is leading an application for a judicial review of the hen harrier “brood management” plan, in which chicks will be raised in captivity and released into the wild. Continue reading...

Patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothingMuch has been written about the bicycle’s role as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But far less is known about another critical technology women used to forge new mobile and public lives – cyclewear. I have been studying what Victorian women wore when they started cycling. Researching how early cyclists made their bodies mobile through clothing reveals much about the social and physical barriers they were navigating and brings to light fascinating tales of ingenious inventions.Cycling was incredibly popular for middle- and upper-class women and men in the late 19th century, and women had to deal with distinct social and sartorial challenges. Cycling exaggerated the irrationality of women’s conventional fashions more than any other physical activity. Heavy, layered petticoats and long skirts caught in spokes and around pedals. Newspapers regularly published gruesome accounts of women dying or becoming disfigured in cycling crashes due to their clothing.

Aigas, Invernessshire and Uganda: Wintering wheatears were abundant in Uganda, looking exactly the same as they do when they arrive in the Highlands Continue reading...

Tony Abbott argues offsets are carbon trading but government says it could include them in energy guaranteeThe Turnbull government is hedging its bets on whether to allow energy companies to buy offsets to comply with their new 26% emissions reduction target.

How much rubbish could you collect from a suburban beach in 30 minutes? You may find the answer confronting. Guardian Australia joins Paul Sharp and Silke Stuckenbrock from the Two Hands Project to see just how prevalent plastics are on Australia's beaches Continue reading...

‘It never breaks down and goes away,’ say scientists struggling to understand the impact of widespread pollutionWhile heading down the Brisbane river, Jim Hinds once pulled aboard a drunken half-naked man just seconds from “going down for the last time”.

My friend Iain Reddish, who has died aged 72, had a varied career in which he was a parliamentary aide, teacher, public relations officer and sports executive before settling down to be an international environmental lobbyist with Greenpeace for more than a decade.He joined Greenpeace in 1995, moving to its Amsterdam headquarters, and worked on various projects, including the Save the Whale campaign. By the time he left in 2007, he had visited 149 cities in 38 countries. His final role was as European coordinator for Eurogroup for Animals, an organisation based in Brussels that seeks to improve the treatment of animals throughout the European Union, a job he held until retirement in 2012. Continue reading...

Citizens Advice says silence on energy efficiency plans will mean households lose outThe government’s failure to take action on insulating draughty homes has been criticised by the statutory body for energy consumers.Related: Smart systems key to future of cheaper and cleaner energy supply Continue reading...

Five surprising objects that contain plastic – with toxic implications for the environmentLast Tuesday, Waitrose announced plans to remove all disposable coffee cups from their stores by autumn of this year – customers will have to bring a reusable one of their own. Despite their cardboard appearance, coffee cups are actually lined with polyethylene and are hard to recycle. The cups gradually break down to form microplastics, which make their way into our waterways and food supply. Continue reading...

Firm joins PG Tips in dropping synthetic sealants as other major producers look to make bags 100% biodegradableThe UK’s longest-established Fairtrade tea brand has become the latest to ditch synthetic sealants in its teabags, amid mounting consumer pressure on manufacturers to help cut down on plastic pollution.Clipper Teas – which champions the unbleached teabag – hopes to introduce a new, fully biodegradable bag free of polypropylene, a sealant used across the industry to ensure bags hold their shape, by the summer. Continue reading...

Fund to be split into three pots to tackle ocean pollution, research and waste managementThe government has earmarked £61.4m from the public purse to fight the rising tide of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.Theresa May announced the fund ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London next week. Continue reading...

A combination of the beast from the east and a dismal bank holiday weekend has put the nation’s crops on holdLast year, asparagus growers were harvesting as early as 8 April. This spring, they are not expecting to harvest their open-field crop until the last week of April – a week later than the official start of the season, St George’s Day, 23 April. Welcome to just one of the consequences of Britain’s disastrously delayed spring.“We have had a very challenging time,” said Guy Smith, vice president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). “March breezed in with the ‘beast from the east’ and went out with the worst bank holiday on record.” For asparagus-lovers there is at least an upside. “The combination has to be right for the crowns to push through,” explained Per Hogberg, of grower Wealmoor. “The air temperature has to be at least 12C, while the soil temperature should be between 8C and 10C. With warmer weather expected, consumers can expect a bumper crop in mid-May,” he said. Continue reading...

Motoring experts believe thousands of older diesel cars will fail revamped vehicle testThousands of older diesel cars could be forced off the roads from next month by a stricter emissions test that forms part of the biggest shakeup to MOTs for 20 years.From 20 May, people taking their car to a testing station will face a completely new MOT, which motoring experts believe will lead to many more diesel car failures. Continue reading...