Big six energy firms say price regulation strips out competition, and urges taxation to help ‘fuel poor’Theresa May’s plan to cap gas and electricity bills could put billions of investment in the UK at risk by creating huge uncertainty over government intentions, according to the body representing the big six energy suppliers.Related: Energy bills: what's the difference between Tory cap and Miliband freeze? Continue reading...

On Saturday, Devi Lockwood will be at the People’s Climate march in Washington, DC, hoping to add to the 600 interviews she’s done in the US and beyond, about how people’s lives have been impacted by climate change and waterI’m 24 years old, and I believe that water and climate change are the defining issues of my generation. The way I see it, listening is a form of activism.This Saturday I will be in Washington DC for the People’s Climate March, and I will have my audio recorder with me as part of my mission to collect 1,001 audio interviews about how climate change and water have impacted their lives.

OzHarvest Market in Kensington offers donated or surplus grocery products that would otherwise be thrown outAustralia’s first rescued-food supermarket has opened in Sydney, providing donated or surplus produce to customers on a pay-what-they-can basis, in an effort to reduce the estimated $8bn to $10bn of food discarded each year.The OzHarvest Market provides food, from blemished apples to frozen sausage rolls, as well as other items such as sanitary products and toothpaste, which would otherwise be thrown out, sourced from the excess of major supermarket chains, caterers and cafes. Continue reading...

Here’s the one minute of pure enjoyment that you didn’t know you needed to see. Keeper Jess Stockton gives Melbourne zoo’s Brazilian tapir a good raking over for World Tapir Day (27 April) Continue reading...

Merry’s Meadows, Leicestershire Ancient disturbance created ridges and troughs, letting a wide range of plants colonise the meadow grasslandThere is no better way to mark the land’s springtime rejuvenation than a sunny morning whiled away botanising in a floristically diverse meadow.Merry’s Meadows – there are three fairly large fields – huddle together surrounded by a sea of bright yellow oilseed rape. The shallow corrugation of ridges and furrows indicate that a good proportion of the nature reserve was ploughed and cropped in mediaeval times. Continue reading...

Coalition frontbencher calls for Queenslanders to boycott Australia’s second-largest bank after it says it will now only lend to mines in established coalfieldsAustralia’s big four banks have all ruled out funding or withdrawn from Adani’s Queensland coal project, after Westpac said it would not back opening up new coalmining regions, prompting a scathing attack from the resources minister, Matthew Canavan.Westpac, the country’s second-largest bank, released a new climate policy on Friday, saying it would limit lending for new thermal coal projects to “only existing coal producing basins”. Continue reading...

Malaysia-based IOI Group announces further moves to address deforestation and exploitation in its supply chainGreenpeace has suspended its campaign against one of the world’s largest palm oil traders in recognition of its “significant commitment” to address deforestation and exploitation in its supply chain.One year after its sustainability certificate was suspended, IOI Group announced further commitments to improve its environmental practice in a nine-month progress report released on Friday. Continue reading...

Court rules that immediate publication is essential and rejects Defra’s plea to delay until after the general electionThe government has been ordered to publish tough new plans to tackle air pollution after the high court rejected attempts by ministers to keep the policy under wraps until after the general election.In the latest defeat for ministers over their continued failure to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis, which is believed to be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths a year,, Mr Justice Garnham said the secretary of state, Andrea Leadsom, was in breach of a court order to take action in the shortest possible time and that any further delays would constitute a further breach. Continue reading...

University stops short of fully divesting its $36bn endowment from coal, oil and gas but green groups welcome the breakthrough after a five-year campaignHarvard University is “pausing” investments in some fossil fuel interests following a five-year campaign by some students and environment groups to pressure the university to divest itself from coal, oil and gas. Continue reading...

A new paper finds no statistical evidence that global warming slowed down in recent years or that it’s sped up just yet

As despair intensifies over Trump’s agenda, the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus brings Democrats and Republicans together to break the deadlockThe failure of American politics to deal with, or even coherently discuss, climate change was perhaps best illustrated when James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, took to the floor of the US Senate in February 2015 with a Ziploc bag and a mischievous grin.Related: March against madness - denial has pushed scientists out into the streets | Dana Nuccitelli Continue reading...

Peter Walker takes in stunning views and steep climbs on one of an increasing number of UK cycling sportives that take place on routes shut to motor trafficIf there is one single activity most responsible for the recent mini-boom in Britons taking up road biking, it is arguably the sportive.These organised, entry-only mass cycling events have sprung up around the UK in ever-increasing numbers. For various legal and insurance reasons they are not races but instead challenge riders only against the clock. Continue reading...

Tourist survives, suffering only moderate injuries, after rare attack at Curio Bay in the South IslandA French tourist survived a rare shark attack in New Zealand on Thursday, suffering only moderate injuries, rescuers and locals said.

Sandy, Bedfordshire Two kingfishers, with daggers of beaks and undercarriages of deep orange, were engaged in a chaseIn the days before we gave names to storms, an anonymous blow laid low a riverside tree. Years later, leafless and lifeless, its branches bare of bark, the tree still lay across the water, an antlered jetty.That gale had heaved the tree over, root plate and all, taking a giant’s bite out of the riverbank. The tree’s sheared and weathered anchors stuck out like pirates’ bones from the caked soil at the base of the trunk. A long-ago flood had wrapped a silt-stained shred of black plastic around one of the protruding roots. Continue reading...

Locals told proposed mine in the southern highlands of NSW, part of Sydney’s water catchment, would damage water table in the region for as long as 73 yearsA controversial underground coalmine that will threaten the water supply of 71 landowners in NSW’s southern highlands will net the state government just $120m over two decades, locals have been told.A multinational steelmaker, Korea-based Posco, is seeking approval for an underground coalmine near Berrima in the southern highlands of New South Wales, part of Sydney’s drinking-water catchment. Continue reading...

Upgrade of capital’s power grids will enable energy companies to install 300 fast-charging stations by 2020Transport for London is spending £18m on upgrading the capital’s power grids to charge the first generation of battery-powered black cabs.From 1 January 2018, all new black cabs will have to be battery-powered electric models by law as part of TfL’s effort to reduce toxic pollution from diesel engines. Continue reading...

Wildflowers have erupted across California deserts in the past month in a phenomenon known as a ‘super bloom’. After heavy rainfall ended months of drought, the flowers carpeted such vast areas that the transformation was visible from space

Mount Etna, India’s ship graveyard and trees in Africa are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last monthThe Mackenzie river system is Canada’s largest watershed, and the 10th largest water basin in the world. The river runs 4,200km (2,600 miles) from the Columbia icefield in the Canadian Rockies to the Arctic Ocean. If your vehicle weighs less than 22,000lb, you can drive the frozen river out to Reindeer Station. The bitterly cold ice road runs for 194km between the remote outposts of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. White, snow- and ice-covered waterways of the east channel of the Mackenzie river delta stand out amid green, pine-covered land. The low angle of the sunlight bathes the higher elevations in golden light. The pond- and lake-covered lands around the river are home to caribou, waterfowl, and a number of fish species. Several thousand reindeer travel through this area each year on the way to their calving grounds. Continue reading...

Animal rights activists criticise suspended sentence given to apprentice Owen Nichol who was filmed attacking cow and calvesAnimal rights activists have criticised a decision not to jail a farm apprentice who was secretly filmed hitting, stamping on and throwing newborn calves at a Somerset farm.Owen Nichol, 18, who attacked the calves and a cow and repeatedly swore at the animals, was given a suspended prison sentence. Continue reading...

The new cycling and walking investment strategy is the first legislation of its kind to legally bind the government to long-term funding for cycling and walking provisionUnless you’re an avid transport campaigner, it’s likely that among the rush of government announcements made last week, you will have missed one very important one: the publication of the cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS),The government’s intention to launch a CWIS was first announced in January 2015. It took more than two years, but we now have the first legislation of its kind in England to bind the government with legal commitments to invest in cycling and walking provision. Continue reading...

Figsbury Ring, Wiltshire Sewn like gems into the sward, these little blue flowers take shelter in the lee of the earthwork ringsBluer than the sky, bluer than the sheen on rooks and the lustre of oil beetles, the milkwort flowers are sewn like gems into the sward. Polygala calcarea is the chalk milkwort, with a gentian-blue far brighter than the common milkwort flowers I’m used to seeing on Wenlock Edge. High on Salisbury Plain, open to the winds and shafts of sunlight through distant showers, the little blue flowers take shelter in the lee of earthwork rings, an archaeological monument within the largest remaining area of calcareous grassland in north-west Europe.

Scientists reveal unique, intimate form of communication between humpback mothers and calves as well as silent method to initiate suckling

In November, America’s beleaguered rural citizens voted against the status quo – but that’s exactly what Trump’s new agriculture secretary looks set to ensureDonald Trump owes his election in no small part to the support of farm country. But since entering office, almost all his actions and pronouncements have betrayed an abysmal understanding of farm and rural concerns. No surprise, then, that food and farm advocates have looked eagerly to Sonny Perdue, who was sworn in as agriculture secretary on Tuesday, to educate and temper the president on their issues.The new secretary has his work cut out for him. The president unveiled a budget blueprint last month that slashed funding for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) by 21%. Continue reading...

Global index reveals 60% of asset owners are now taking some action, but warns there is still ‘enormous resistance’ to managing climate riskFor the first time a majority of global investor heavyweights recognise the financial risks of climate change, according to the results of a major global index rating how investors manage such risks.But despite the advances, the Asset Owner Disclosure Project chairman, John Hewson, has warned there is still an “enormous resistance” to managing climate risk. Continue reading...

Constitutional experts say government is on ‘very dodgy ground’ claiming election purdah forces it to postpone publishing pollution strategyThe government’s attempt to delay publishing its air pollution strategy because of the election is “dishonest” and leaves ministers on “very dodgy ground”, according to constitutional experts.The government had been under a court direction to produce tougher draft measures to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which is responsible for thousands of premature deaths each year, by 4pm on Monday. The original plans had been dismissed by judges as so poor as to be unlawful. Continue reading...

As the UN forum on indigenous issues meets in New York, we, the Munduruku people of Brazil, demand an end to the destruction of our territoryWe, the Munduruku people, send our thoughts and words to you who live far away. We echo the cry for help from our mother, the forest, and from all the indigenous peoples in Brazil.Our home of Mundurukânia and all 13,000 of our people are threatened by the Brazilian government’s plans to build more than 40 hydroelectric dams in the Tapajós basin, as well as an industrial waterway and other major projects. Continue reading...

Critics say air pollution issue is public health and not political issue and ministers must defend delay in high courtThe government has been ordered back to the high court to explain its last-minute bid to delay publication of the UK’s clean air plan.Politicians and environmental groups had complained that ministers were “hiding behind the election” after they said they could not publish the proposals because of election purdah. Continue reading...

Forced into the militia as a child in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rodrigue Katembo has now been awarded a Goldman prize for risking his life fighting to protect his country’s wildlifeAs an enforced child soldier, Rodrigue Katembo saw his little brother die and had to carry the news to his mother. Now 41, he remains on the frontline – but today he protects the extraordinary wildlife in the national parks of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from armed militias.It is exceptionally dangerous work: 160 park rangers have been killed protecting Virunga national park in the last 15 years, outnumbered 10 to one by militias and poachers. Around the world, about 1,000 rangers have died in the line of duty over the last decade. But Katembo, who is awarded the prestigious Goldman environmental prize on Monday, is resolute, despite the attacks he has endured and the risks he continues to run. Continue reading...

America’s leaders are playing Russian roulette with our futureThis past weekend, hundreds of thousands of people in the US and around the world marched in support of science. Next weekend, the People’s Climate March will follow.Redglass Pictures and StarTalk Radio created a short film in which the brilliant scientist and communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson – though not specifically talking about the science marches – perfectly articulated the motivations behind them. Continue reading...

Joël Meriko Ari and Gerome Bolimola Afokao discovered a group of men with a freshly slaughtered elephant carcass. The rangers leave behind 11 childrenElephant poachers have killed two wildlife rangers in a shootout in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reports African Parks, a not-for-profit conservation group that manages 10 protected areas across Africa in partnership with governments and local communities.While out patrolling on 11 April, ranger Joël Meriko Ari and Sgt Gerome Bolimola Afokao of the DRC armed forces heard gunshots, African Parks reported. The patrol unit followed signs and tracks until they discovered a group of six poachers who were chopping up a freshly slaughtered elephant carcass. Continue reading...

Spring on hold until weekend as forecasters predict Arctic blast will be replaced by hail and thunderstorms through to WednesdayA blast of late winter weather has brought snow flurries to many parts of northern England and the Midlands.Towns as far south as Norwich woke to a sprinkling of snow on Tuesday morning, with Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the north-east also reporting wintry showers. Continue reading...

Emperor penguins are perfectly adapted to survive harsh Antarctic conditions but their habitat is threatened due to climate change. To celebrate World Penguin Day, the WWF has chosen its top 10 emperor penguin facts Continue reading...

Shell-sponsored group says wind is ‘increasingly the cheapest form of electricity’ and urges Tories to review ban on subsidised onshore windfarmsConservative opposition to windfarms risks the UK missing out on one of the cheapest sources of electricity, according to the head of a Shell-funded industry group.Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, said wind and solar power costs had fallen dramatically globally and urged the government to rethink its ban on subsidised onshore windfarms. Continue reading...

Tindale Tarn, Cumbria A flock of sand martins skim the choppy water and tufted duck bob on the dark grey waterBuffeted sideways by the gale, we descend to Tindale Tarn, a small lake in the RSPB reserve of Geltsdale. Skylarks spring up from rough pasture around the stony track to sing shrill and sweet as piccolos in a stormy sky. This land, once mined for coal and lead, is an important breeding area for upland birds; curlew, redshank and lapwing call as we huddle in the open-sided hide by the tarn.

Victorian government asked to ‘completely prohibit logging’ on more than 100,000 hectares of the state’s mountain ash forestConservationists have called for a moratorium on logging more than 100,000 hectares of Victoria’s remaining native forest estate to protect the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum.

Carmichael project likely to be ‘cash flow negative’ for most of its operating life, according to Institute for Energy Economics and Financial AnalysisThe risk of the controversial Adani Carmichael coalmine becoming a stranded asset has increased in the last 12 months, according to a new report.The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), says the Carmichael project is likely to be “cash flow negative” for the majority its operating life, even with concessional loans. Continue reading...

Politicians and environmental groups say ministers have failed to tackle air pollution crisis and are hiding behind election purdah rulesThe government has been accused of “running scared” of diesel drivers and attempting to bully judges over its last-minute bid to delay the publication of its clean air plan.Politicians and environmental groups said ministers were “hiding behind the election” to justify delaying publication of the government’s long awaited proposals instead of tackling the UK’s air pollution crisis. Health experts warned the lack of government action had potentially put thousands of lives at risk. Continue reading...

Conservationists call on Japan to abide by fishing agreements after reports annual quota will be exceeded two months earlyConservation groups have called on Japan to abide by international agreements to curb catches of Pacific bluefin tuna after reports said the country was poised to exceed an annual quota two months early – adding to pressure on stocks that have already reached dangerously low levels.Japan, by far the world’s biggest consumer of Pacific bluefin, has caused “great frustration” with its failure to abide by catch quotas intended to save the species from commercial extinction, said Amanda Nickson, the director of global tuna conservation at Pew Charitable Trusts. Continue reading...

Conservationist, whose memoir I Dreamed of Africa became a Hollywood film, left critically wounded after armed men ransacked a lodge on her estateAuthor and conservationist Kuki Gallmann, whose memoir I Dreamed of Africa was turned into a Hollywood film starring Kim Basinger, has been shot by raiders at her ranch in Kenya.The 73-year-old is reported to have suffered extensive internal injuries and is in “a stable, but critical” condition. Continue reading...

We asked readers to tell us what action they are taking against air pollution. Here’s what some of them said

The Ukrainian city of Lviv – long noted for its Habsburg-era buildings and vibrant cafes – is in the throes of a trash crisis. Who is really to blame?An enchanting city in western Ukraine, Lviv has gained a pleasant reputation for its rugged, Habsburg-era beauty and vibrant cafe scene. More recently, however, it has become known for something entirely different: heaping piles of trash.

Letter from pressure groups says the trade body’s campaigning against climate change legislation and for tobacco products is at odds with companies’ stanceDisney, the Gap and Pepsi are being pressured to quit the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s largest lobby group, amid criticism of its big-money efforts to fight climate change legislation and promote tobacco products.A coalition of pressure groups including Action on Smoking and Health, Greenpeace, Public Citizen and the Sierra Club have written to the CEOs of the three companies asking them to stop funding the powerful business group. Continue reading...

Norman Baker ditched the ‘constant battle’ of working with Theresa May to run the Big Lemon – the Brighton eco-firm launching a green bus routeVince Cable and Ed Davey, the former business and energy secretaries respectively, are among the Liberal Democrats that lost their seats in 2015 who are plotting their way back to parliament in this general election.But an erstwhile colleague has rejected the opportunity to regain his seat in Lewes in East Sussex. Norman Baker, the former transport minister who later quit the Home Office in 2014 after finding working with Theresa May a “constant battle”, sighs: “I don’t need to do the same thing over and over again, that’s the definition of madness. Continue reading...

Many brands use the word organic on labels when their products are not certified as such, warns Soil AssociationThe makers of many “organic” beauty products have been accused of confusing and meaningless labelling, according to a new survey in which 76% of consumers admitted they felt misled.According to the Soil Association’s recent market report, sales of organic health and beauty products swelled by more than 20% in 2016, with the market now worth about £61.2m in the UK.

Stamford, Lincolnshire Discovering that a footpath named the Jurassic Way not only glanced my door but set off from it, I decided to walk it piecemealIt took 10 years of living here before I looked hard at my town’s Ordnance Survey map. There, like most who neglect study of their closest ground, I saw my daily familiar articulated in a diagrammatic, unfamiliar way. Here notable historic echoes inscribed alongside its present. And I discovered that a footpath named the Jurassic Way not only glanced my door but set off from it, travelling 88 miles from this old Lincolnshire town to the unlikely end of Banbury, traversing a ridge-seam of limestone that gave Stamford its stone and the route its name. Drawn, it presents like a diagonal scratch across the belly of England.

For 30 years anti-pollution campaigner Wendy Bowman has stood firm against mining giants, supporting other landowners under pressure to sellEach morning just after dawn, if you stop at the top of the hill that separates the town of Singleton from the tiny village of Camberwell in New South Wales, says Wendy Bowman, “you’ll see this brown scud across the sky”.“It doesn’t go over the ridges; it stays in the valley, going up and down all the time.” She mimes a slow sieving motion: up, down. Continue reading...

Wendy Bowman, an 83-year-old farmer, has been given the Goldman environmental prize, awarded across six global regions for grassroots work. For three decades Bowman has fought the march of open-cut coalmines across the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, and helped organise her community to protect agricultural land and water• Honour for activist farmer, 83, surrounded by mines on three sides Continue reading...

Campaign group Plantlife unveils list of top 10 endangered species and calls for better management of road verges that have become habitats of Britain’s floraSome of the UK’s rarest plants are at risk of extinction unless action is taken to look after the road verges that have become their final refuge, a charity has warned.Species such as fen ragwort and wood calamint are now only found on road verges, with fen ragwort hanging on in just one native spot near a burger van on the A142 in Cambridgeshire, conservation charity Plantlife said. Continue reading...