Deal worth $6bn allows Malcolm Turnbull to proceed with plan to expand hydro to boost east coast gridThe Turnbull government has agreed to buy stakes held by New South Wales and Victoria in the Snowy Hydro project for more than $6bn. The agreement, clinched late on Thursday by Malcolm Turnbull, makes the commonwealth the sole owner of the project.It allows the federal government to proceed with its $4.5bn plan to expand Snowy Hydro’s generation capacity by 50%, to benefit the east coast electricity grid. Continue reading...

Burning wood releases more COthan gas, oil and even coal for the same amount of heat, so to make it climate neutral we need an increase in forestsWith snow on the ground, many people will have been huddling around a wood fire, but researchers are questioning if wood burning is really climate neutral. Burning wood is not CO free; it releases carbon, stored over the previous decades, in one quick burst. For an equal amount of heat or electricity, it releases more CO than burning gas, oil and even coal, so straight away we have more CO in the air from burning wood. This should be reabsorbed as trees regrow. For logs from mature Canadian woodland, it could take more than 100 years before the atmospheric CO is less than the alternative scenario of burning a fossil fuel and leaving the trees in the forest.Related: Wood fires fuel climate change – UN Continue reading...

Deal with Eastern Australia Agriculture, which was done without a tender, raises questions over taxpayer valueOne of Australia’s largest cotton companies, Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA), sold water rights to the federal government in July last year for $79m and then booked a $52m gain on the sale.The deal, which was done without tender, will raise questions about whether the government paid over the odds for the water in southern Queensland. Continue reading...

Wildlife Direct says building work inside Nairobi’s famed national park defies court orderKenyan conservationists have expressed outrage at the construction of a railway line inside Nairobi’s famed national park, saying this defied a court order halting the project.

Sweeping changes to legislation, dubbed the forest code, are a blow for campaigners seeking to protect the Amazon and other rainforest areasBrazil’s supreme court has upheld major changes to laws that protect the Amazon and other biomes, reducing penalties for past illegal deforestation in a blow to environmentalists trying to protect the world’s largest rainforest.Congress agreed to sweeping revisions in the law in 2012, including an amnesty programme for illegal deforestation on “small properties” that occurred before 2008 and reduced restoration requirements in others. Continue reading...

A new study finds that waiting 5 extra years to peak carbon pollution will cost 20 cm sea level rise

Unreported documents show mining company was aware of threat before country’s worst environmental disaster but took no action, prosecutors allegeSix months before a dam containing millions of litres of mining waste collapsed, killing 19 people in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, the company operating the mine accurately predicted the potential impact of such a disaster in a worst-case risk assessment.But federal prosecutors claim the company – a joint venture between the Brazilian mining giant Vale and the Anglo-Australian multinational BHP Billiton – failed to take actions that they say could have prevented the disaster. The prosecutors instead claim the company focused on cutting costs and increasing production. Continue reading...

Woodland Trust records show more evidence that spring is arriving earlier in the UKWinter in the UK has become a landscape of yellow hawthorn, the orange flash of red admiral butterflies, blackbirds nesting, and bumblebees feeding on mauve chives, pink valerian and lavender.Before the white-out of snow which covered much of the country on Wednesday, reports by the Woodland Trust charity showed yet more evidence that spring is arriving earlier and earlier.

Rokeby Park, Teesdale: It’s tempting to let the imagination wander into the deepest recesses of the wildwood of mossesWith winter almost over it’s tempting to hunker down during these last cold days and focus on the prospect of primroses and bluebells, but there is beauty to be found now in lowlier forms of plant life. Many woodland and grassland mosses begin new growth while it is still too cold for trees to leaf and grass to grow, before they can be cast into deep shade by surrounding vegetation.Today the top of a wall beside this lane near the river Tees was decked with new green carpets. The most luxuriant was springy turf moss, Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, familiar to anyone who has a poorly drained lawn. Its unruly red-stemmed shoots, forcing their way like jack-in-the-boxes through the matted remains of last year’s grasses, shone in the early morning light. As I bent to examine its hooked leaves, with their long, silvery hair points, there was a hint of that humic aroma of sun-warmed soil that grows stronger as spring approaches. Continue reading...

Mountaineers at Denali in Alaska put human waste in a glacier but research finds it can persist, staining ice and polluting water sourcesClimbers who come from around the world to tackle North America’s tallest mountain face packing out more of their own human waste after an expert found that a glacier in which much of it is dumped is probably not breaking it down.National Park Service (NPS) rangers trying to protect the spectacular slopes of Denali – formerly widely known as Mount McKinley – in Alaska are concerned that human poop is blighting the environment there. Continue reading...

Red squirrels, for whose troubles the greys are blamed, became virtually extinct in the UK before greys were even introduced, writes Natalia DoranYour article (The faddy eater: Could I stomach southern-fried squirrel?, 22 February) should be admired for its honesty in showing appropriate discomfort with the idea of eating a creature that should have been living, breathing, playing, instead of suffering an early violent death. However, it also propagates a couple of myths regarding the highly intelligent and successful grey squirrel. The thing is, red squirrels, for whose troubles the greys are blamed, became virtually extinct in this country before greys were even introduced. That happened because of habitat loss. The reds were then also reintroduced from continental Europe, so the “nativeness” narrative is flawed. The tree damage is hugely exaggerated as well – the Forestry Commission puts the damage at 5%. More is lost due to poor growing practices. Furthermore, that figure relates to commercial forestry: in natural woodland grey squirrels are uniformly good for the ecosystem.

Exclusive: Despite official denials, emails reveal discussions about the Indian company’s requests before ministers wrote to a Chinese agency vouching for the $16bn projectAdani asked the Australian government to help secure funding for its controversial Carmichael coalmine, documents obtained under Freedom of information reveal. Two government ministers subsequently wrote to a Chinese government agency vouching for the proposed coalmine.One email sent to Chinese and Indian embassy staff had a subject line reading “update on project financing request”, while another talked about how Adani needed support with financing talks in China. Continue reading...

Major step taken by government Multi-Sector Commission following 15 year processTwo “naked” people spotted hunting armadillo. One “naked” family on a river-bank. About five other “naked” people - plus houses, settlements and crops - seen from small planes. Fresh footprints on a path, on a tree trunk, and along a Canadian oil company’s seismic lines. Noises in the night. Whistling and birdsong imitation. A loosed arrow. Fishing utensils, abandoned fires, and food stolen from inhabitants in the surrounding areas. . .This is just some of the vital evidence currently being used to promote the establishment of two new reserves for indigenous peoples living in “isolation” that together could extend for more than 2.5 million hectares across one of the remotest parts of Peru’s Amazon, along the border with Brazil. If created, they could become the biggest indigenous reserves in the country.

Why are scientists worried about freezing temperatures in winter, is the beast from the east a freak event – and what is the polar vortex?Q: Snow in winter. That feels reassuringly normal. Does this mean the climate has fixed itself?A: Unfortunately not. In fact, many scientists are concerned this is a prelude to more extreme and less predictable weather. Continue reading...

Analysis from EU’s scientific risk assessors finds neonicotinoids pose a serious danger to all bees, making total field ban highly likelyThe world’s most widely used insecticides pose a serious danger to both honeybees and wild bees, according to a major new assessment from the European Union’s scientific risk assessors.The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, makes it highly likely that the neonicotinoid pesticides will be banned from all fields across the EU when nations vote on the issue next month. Continue reading...

The latest article in our new economics series looks at what happened when a German utilities contract expired, and one man thought his neighbours could take over

After lengthy negotiations and record deaths of defenders on the continent, sources say a deal is very likely to be reachedLatin American countries are poised to agree the world’s first legally binding convention to protect environmental defenders at a conference in Costa Rica.Land activists and indigenous people were killed in record numbers on the continent last year, with more than two nature protectors murdered every week. Continue reading...

Mayor announces ‘strong measures’ to tackle pollution in Italy’s traffic-clogged capitalRome, one of Europe’s most traffic-clogged cities and home to thousands of ancient outdoor monuments threatened by pollution, plans to ban diesel cars from the centre by 2024, its mayor has said.Virginia Raggi announced the decision on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying: “If we want to intervene seriously, we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures”. Continue reading...

The prime minister’s attack focuses on Labor’s policy shift on Carmichael mine and renews attempts to paint Labor leader as ‘not fair dinkum’Malcolm Turnbull has blasted Bill Shorten for going “snorkelling” on the Great Barrier Reef courtesy of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and for selling blue-collar jobs down the river “to get Green votes” in the Batman byelection.

Pyramid teabags made from a plant-based material will go on sale next week, with company’s other teabags set to follow suit by end of 2018The UK’s biggest tea brand is switching to fully biodegradable tea bags free from synthetic materials to cut down on plastic pollution caused by the nation’s favourite hot drink.The first of the new eco-friendly pyramid teabags from PG tips – made from a plant-based material that is 100% renewable and biodegradable – will go on sale in UK supermarkets next week, it was announced on Wednesday. Continue reading...

There is no logic in wrapping perishable food in indestructible plastic, say campaigners hailing today’s launch in AmsterdamToday the world’s first plastic-free aisle was launched in Amsterdam by environmental campaign group A Plastic Planet and Dutch supermarket Ekoplaza. The aisle enables shoppers to choose from 700 everyday products that are free from plastic packaging. Before the end of the year, Ekoplaza plans to roll the plastic-free aisle out across each of its 74 stores.Plastic packaging has no place in food and drink. There is no logical basis for wrapping something as perishable as food with something as indestructible as plastic. With recycled plastics today accounting for just 6% of total plastics demand in Europe, it’s clear that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic problem. Food and drink plastic packaging does not belong in a circular economy given that it is difficult to reclaim, is easily contaminated, and all too often proves valueless. Continue reading...

Campaigners hail progress as Amsterdam store offers dedicated aisle of more than 700 products, with plans for a national roll-out

The fall in costs that has driven solar’s rapid growth is slowing - but scientists are exploring the next generation of materials that can harness more energy from the sunSome people call it the “sunrush”: a 25-year period in which solar power has grown exponentially, transforming the technology from rarefied oddity to the world’s fastest-growing energy source.This surge, which saw 100MW of capacity in 1992 rocket to more than 300GW in 2016, has been largely driven by falling costs, which plunged 86% between 2009 and 2017.

Aditya Chakrabortty speaks to Iris Degenhardt-Meister, who is part of a cooperative energy company that runs the electricity grid in Wolfhagen, Germany, and asks Prof Andrew Cumbers from the University of Glasgow if such a model could work in BritainSubscribe and review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIn Britain, rip-off energy prices have become politically toxic, with the major parties vying to offer price caps, heating allowances and a transition to lower-carbon technologies. But truly radical plans – such as taking the supply of energy back into the hands of local communities – have never been given serious consideration. It is a model that has been trialled in the German town of Wolfhagen and is now a source of local pride. Aditya Chakrabortty hears from Iris Degenhardt-Meister, who sits on the board of the local energy cooperative, which not only replaced a major multinational in running the town’s energy supply but is now aiming to make it 100% renewable. Continue reading...

Opposition leader assured environmentalist he would commit Labor to revoking the licence for the controversial coal project, but then falteredThe businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins is absolutely unequivocal.

Landmark ruling could cause traffic chaos and dramatically hit the value of diesel vehiclesMillions of heavily polluting vehicles could eventually disappear from roads across Germany after its top administrative court ruled that cities have the right to ban diesel motors in an effort to improve deadly air quality levels.Tuesday’s historic decision potentially affects an estimated 12m vehicles and has delivered a heavy blow to Europe’s largest car market, while being celebrated by environmental campaigners. Continue reading...

It is time to raise our unified voice for a positive agenda that puts the American people ahead of corporate profitsDuring the March on Washington in 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jr spoke about “the fierce urgency of now”, underscoring the immediate and pressing need to take strong and immediate action to advance civil rights. It couldn’t wait. Today, communities across the country find themselves in a similar moment, fighting politicians who are hellbent on enacting Donald Trump’s noxious agenda of inequality and injustice.The most recent incarnation: a supreme court case, Janus v AFSCME Council 31, intent on stripping away the rights of working people to join together in their unions, an attack on a basic American right. Continue reading...

Faster melting of ice sheets is speeding up sea level rise

Former ACF head says Bill Shorten faced party resistance but assured him Labor would take a tough line on Queensland projectBusinessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins says Bill Shorten gave him clear and repeated signals that Labor intended to harden its opposition to the controversial Adani coalmine, including promising to revoke the licence for the project if the ALP won the next federal election.Cousins, a former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, who accompanied Shorten to north Queensland in January to explore the various policy options for the Adani project, used a television interview on Tuesday night to publicly blast him for a lack of leadership. Continue reading...

This year, in collaboration with Global Witness, the Guardian aims to record the deaths of all people killed while protecting land or natural resources. At the current rate, about four defenders will die this week somewhere on the planet Continue reading...

A Senate estimates hearing has been told how little auditing takes place on such projects. But no big deal, it’s just the environment, right?Imagine spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a project and not being able to demonstrate whether or not you’ve achieved what you set out to.Such is the case for programs aimed at helping Australia’s threatened plants and animals, which the government has boasted it is funding to the tune of $255m. Continue reading...

The number of cities getting at least 70% of their total electricity supply from renewable energy has more than doubled since 2015The number of cities reporting they are predominantly powered by clean energy has more than doubled since 2015, as momentum builds for cities around the world to switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources.Data published on Tuesday by the not-for-profit environmental impact researcher CDP found that 101 of the more than 570 cities on its books sourced at least 70% of their electricity from renewable sources in 2017, compared to 42 in 2015. Continue reading...

The Hollywood star now has a second life as a fearless animal activist and eco warrior – and, he reveals, it all started with Babe, his film about a talking pigJames Cromwell, veteran actor, Oscar nominee and star of LA Confidential and The Green Mile, is listing what he hates about Hollywood. “I don’t like the system,” he says. “I don’t like what it does to people. I don’t like the values. I don’t like the class system. I don’t like the disparity in pay, for men and women, and men and men.” He smiles. “I have a chip on my shoulder about Hollywood.”

Allendale, Northumberland: One of their main predators is the domestic cat; an ermine will be particularly vulnerable once the snow has goneI’m eating my breakfast when I see a flash of white hurtling down the garden path. Reaching for the binoculars that are always on the kitchen table, I see it’s a stoat, part ermined, starkly revealed now the snow has gone. Its fur is a rich red-brown with white patches, the brilliant winter coat contrasting with the jet black tip to its tail. Flowing lightly over dormant flower beds, it streaks over a wall and disappears into the field.Minutes later, I see the stoat again, a limp vole in its mouth. It runs around the square of the garden keeping to the inside of the boundary before slipping between the stones of one of the drystone walls. It emerges without the vole, which it has cached, storing the surplus food for later. For the next half hour I watch it hunting, undulating along coping stones, its neat little face popping out from under the topiary, as the sun comes up, a mistle thrush sings and backlit winter gnats take to the air. Continue reading...

Climate change targets may be missed as consumers buy bigger cars and turn away from dieselCO2 emissions from the average new car sold in the UK rose last year for the first time since 2000, according to an industry report, raising fears that the country will fail to meet its climate change targets as consumers buy bigger vehicles and turn against diesel.Although motor manufacturers said new models coming on to the market were on average about 12% more fuel-efficient than their older versions, campaigners said a higher proportion of gas-guzzling vehicles leaving the forecourt had led to a 0.8% increase in the average amount of C02 generated per new car. Continue reading...

Declining fertility and rising mortality, exacerbated by fishing industry, prompts experts to warn whales could be extinct by 2040

Development of new material for supercapacitors has potential to raise range to that of petrol carsResearchers have claimed a breakthrough in energy storage technology that could enable electric cars to be driven as far as petrol and diesel vehicles, and recharge in minutes rather than hours.Teams from Bristol University and Surrey University developed a next-generation material for supercapacitors, which store electric charge and can be replenished faster than normal batteries. Continue reading...

Minette Batters, the National Farmers’ Union’s new president, says good quality, safe food is ‘a public right’ and staying part of a customs union is vitalBritish farmers will not accept lower welfare and hygiene standards under any post-Brexit trade deals, and will fight to remain as part of a customs union, the new president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has pledged.Minette Batters, the first woman to head the powerful farmers’ lobby since its foundation 110 years ago, set out a vision of farming as a unifying force across the UK, providing high-quality but low-cost food to consumers on a tight budget while safeguarding the environment and providing one in eight of the UK’s jobs. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Watchdog’s new report will say agency’s prosecutions and compliance statistics were seriously overstatedThe New South Wales ombudsman is investigating whether WaterNSW – the body responsible for compliance with the state’s water laws – has misled it when it provided data last year on the number of prosecutions and enforcement actions it had taken in the 15 months prior.The ombudsman confirmed a second special report will be tabled in the first week of March, but declined to outline its contents. Special reports are a last resort when the ombudsman deems that a report to the minister is insufficient. Continue reading...

Climate change and overfishing could push the region’s king penguin populations to the brink of extinction, a new study showsRising temperatures and overfishing in the pristine waters around the Antarctic could see king penguin populations pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of the century, according to a new study.The report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that as global warming transforms the environment in the world’s last great wilderness 70% of king penguins could either disappear or be forced to find new breeding grounds. Continue reading...

The new rules will also see car speed limits cut and wood-burning stoves banned in a drive to improve air quality in the cityBrussels has moved to make the city’s public transport and bike share system free on the smoggiest days in a bid to drive down pollution levels and meet EU air quality directives.After two consecutive days of high particulate matter (PM) levels – defined as surpassing an average of 51-70 micrograms per cubic metre of air – buses, trams and metros would have to open their doors completely free, under new city council rules. Continue reading...

A deposit return scheme to tackle the billions of bottles not recycled every year is being kicked into the long grass, say MPsThe government is “dragging its feet” on introducing a deposit return scheme to cut the billions of plastic bottles not recycled every year, according to a committee of MPs.The Environment Audit Committee (EAC) called for a deposit return scheme (DRS) in a report in December, in which a small deposit is paid when purchasing a bottle and then returned when the empty bottle is brought back. Environment secretary Michael Gove called a DRS a “great idea” in September. Continue reading...

Groups comprised of ranchers, hunters and conservationists say interior secretary Ryan Zinke has stonewalled them

Exclusive: 60% of parents want traffic to be diverted away from schools at peak times to protect children’s health, a new study showsThe majority of UK parents back the introduction of “pollution exclusion zones” outside schools amid growing concern that illegal levels of air pollution are doing long term damage to hundreds of thousands of young people.A new study published on Monday by environmental law organisation ClientEarth reveals that 60% of parents want traffic diverted away from school gates at the beginning and end of the school day, with just 13% opposed. Continue reading...

People buying hot drinks in cardboard cups in 35 London branches will pay ‘latte levy’Starbucks will be the first UK coffee chain to trial a “latte levy” – a 5p charge on takeaway coffee cups – under plans that aim to reduce the overuse and waste of 2.5bn disposable cups every year.In the latest offensive in the war against plastic waste, the chain said it hoped the move, starting on Monday, would help change behaviour and encourage customers to switch to reusable cups instead. Continue reading...

Fracking has been hailed as an energy miracle in the US, yet globally it faces blocks and even bans. Adam Vaughan explains what it is and why it is so controversialWhat is fracking?

Demand for locally sourced meat may be high but suppliers face uncertain regulatory and economic environmentLocally sourced meat, one of the cornerstones of modern sustainable eating, may soon be out of reach for consumers across the UK as large numbers of small suppliers are forced to close down.Seeking out local meat, vegetables and other food products is increasingly embraced as part of a healthier diet that reduces environmental impact, allows clear traceability and improves farm welfare. Continue reading...

Elveden, Suffolk: Dell is a folky term – a word in the minds of Milton and Tolkien, of outlawed church groups gathered for moonlit worship, of children seeking fairiesThe word “dell” is pure, earthy English. From it we have acquired dale, a valley. But as grand as it has developed, the meaning of this Old English word remains as it was, a wooded hollow – somehow over time engendering an intimacy and aura benignly Arcadian in feel. Dells have a strange magic through literature, which is where the word lives now. No longer practical, more an alternative to evoke, rather than inform. A folky term – a word in the minds of Milton and Tolkien, of outlawed church groups gathered for moonlit worship, of children seeking fairies, or singing in rhyme. These days the farmer tends to be in his den rather than the dell – although the two words are, in this context, synonymous. As such they could have called this little village on the edge of Thetford Forest Elvedell, but they called it Elveden.This roadside dell in Elveden has an old story for its old name, Elveden Dell: literally, the dell of the valley of the elves. A little girl who heard beguiling sounds, tinkling, in high boughs. Then, the same half-music luring horses off the road into here – now the magic dell, of course. Continue reading...

Species remains UK’s fastest declining mammal despite large reintroduction programmeThe number of areas where water voles are found across England and Wales has fallen by almost a third in 10 years, research has found.The species, which provided the model for the much-loved character Ratty in The Wind of the Willows, has suffered catastrophic declines over several decades and is the UK’s fastest declining mammal. Continue reading...

Scientists are alarmed by a rise in mass mortality events – when species die in their thousands. Is it all down to climate change?There was almost something biblical about the scene of devastation that lay before Richard Kock as he stood in the wilderness of the Kazakhstan steppe. Dotted across the grassy plain, as far as the eye could see, were the corpses of thousands upon thousands of saiga antelopes. All appeared to have fallen where they were feeding.Some were mothers that had travelled to this remote wilderness for the annual calving season, while others were their offspring, just a few days old. Each had died in just a few hours from blood poisoning. In the 30C heat of a May day, the air around each of the rotting hulks was thick with flies. Continue reading...