Environment | The Guardian

Scientists stepped outside their comfort zones to protest the attacks they face from the incoming administration

A pipeline to bring gas to Europe from central Asia has attracted companies with historic connections to cartels and the mafia, says Bankwatch reportEurope’s development banks are proposing some of their biggest investments – currently more than $6.8bn (£5.5bn) – for a gas pipeline being built by several firms with historic links to cartels, corruption and the mafia, according to a new report (pdf).The 3,500km “southern gas corridor” project is seen as an energy security safeguard by EU leaders, and should begin ferrying gas to Europe from Azerbaijan by 2020. Continue reading...

Company owned by Centrica gave $20,000 to TPPF, praised by new US energy secretary for opposing ‘hysteria of global warming’British Gas’s parent company, Centrica, has given tens of thousands of dollars to a US thinktank that denies climate change and is backed by Donald Trump’s energy secretary.Direct Energy, a US energy company wholly owned by Centrica, donated $20,000 to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) in 2010, according to tax filings. Continue reading...

Stanage, Derbyshire On a bleak night, with a folk memory of wolves and belief in evil spirits, who wouldn’t need protection?The long flowing line of Stanage Edge is, for rock climbers, one of the world’s great crags, segmented, like a gritstone worm, into various buttresses and features, each of them named, each providing many different routes to the top, each of those – and there are hundreds – also named.I am at a buttress at the crag’s southern end known, paradoxically, as Apparent North, near a short tough climb called Hamper’s Hang. I am shrinking inside my jacket against a dismal wet day. I thought I knew this place, having been here as a climber scores of times, but my understanding of it has just been turned on its head. Continue reading...

Prominent environmental NGOs suspend partnership with April after peatland drainage canal discovered on Pedang Island, IndonesiaThe construction of a 3km canal in Indonesia has led Greenpeace and WWF to suspend its partnership with one of Indonesia’s biggest pulp and paper companies.Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (Rapp), a subsidiary of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (April), dug the canal through thick peat forest on the island of Pedang, just off the east coast of Sumatra. Continue reading...

With Trump set to have a ‘chilling effect’ on environmental policy, 20,000 Earth and space scientists met in California to face up to a new responsibilityThey argued about moon-plasma interactions, joked about polar bears, and waxed nostalgic for sturdy sea ice.But few of the 20,000 Earth and climate scientists meeting in San Francisco this week had much to say about the president-elect, Donald Trump – though his incoming administration loomed over much of the conference. Continue reading...

The emerging biofuel industry is casting the net wide to find solutions to two environmental problems: reducing waste and increasing fuel productionIn a world of dwindling resources, waste is one thing in no danger of running out. Each Australian generates more than 2,000kg of waste per year, and around half of that ends up in landfill. But at least some of that waste could be turned into a resource that is both in demand and in decline: fuel.

One non-profit leader compared Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state to choosing the CEO of a tobacco company for surgeon generalEnvironmental groups have called Donald Trump’s choice of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state “unfathomable” and “an epic mistake” and accused the president-elect of creating “a government of, by, and for the oil and gas industry”.

Exclusive: Warning against sale of seafood from environmentally destructive fishing fleets operating with slave-like conditionsGreenpeace has warned that Australia’s weak labelling laws may be allowing the sale of seafood from environmentally destructive and unethical fishing fleets in south-east Asia.The group has released the results of a 12-month investigation of Thailand’s ghost fishing fleet, a collection of refrigerated vessels, or reefers, notorious for causing damage to fragile ecosystems and subjecting vulnerable migrant labour to slave-like conditions. Continue reading...

Critics say the president-elect’s picks represent ‘unprecedented’ influence from the fossil fuel industry. Their statements do little to dispel the notionAs Donald Trump assembles his cabinet, one consistent theme has emerged: many of his nominees have expressed doubt about the science of human-caused climate change.

Choice of former Texas governor to lead energy department is a potentially encouraging sign for those alarmed by Trump’s nomination of climate deniersEnvironmental activists in Texas have stories to tell about Rick Perry, who was governor of the state for 14 years. Jim Marston, the Texas head of the Environmental Defense Fund, remembers when Perry, seemingly out of the blue, signed an executive order fast-tracking coal plant air permits in October 2005.

Environmentalists should be alert but not pessimistic over the impact of Trump’s presidency, says the leading climate economistThe impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the environment may not be as catastrophic as some fear, says leading climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern.The cross-bench peer said that while it was difficult to predict what Trump would do in office, those worried that Trump’s leadership spelled disaster for the planet should focus on the good things he has said on climate change rather than dwelling on the bad. Continue reading...

When thick smog recently hit, Londoners were advised to avoid exercise, while Parisians got free public transport. Which is the best solution?

Environmentalists criticise appointment of Derrick O’Keeffe, who spent past four years as Australia manager of Murphy OilEnvironmentalists have criticised the offshore oil regulator for appointing a recent head of the Australian arm of a major oil company to a senior position, saying the move is “like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse”.Derrick O’Keeffe spent the past four years as country manager in Australia for Murphy Oil, which under his watch entered into a joint-venture with Santos to explore for oil in the Great Australian Bight. Continue reading...

Report alleges exposure of human rights abuses including trafficking and labour exploitation has simply prompted move to more remote watersAn international crackdown on human rights abuses in the Thai fishing industry has resulted in vessels travelling thousands of miles further into remote and lawless waters, where trafficked men continue to be beaten and sold at sea, a 12-month Greenpeace investigation alleges.According to the report, published on Thursday, seafood caught by such vessels is largely illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) and has entered the supply chains of multiple companies producing food for global export, including to the UK, in clear violation of international labour, supply and fishing codes. Continue reading...

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, is also world’s oldest-known breeding bird in the wild and has had a few dozen chicksWisdom the albatross, the world’s oldest-known breeding bird in the wild, has laid an egg at 66 years of age after returning to a wildlife refuge in the Pacific Ocean, US wildlife officials have said.

Ministers accused of ignoring scientists’ recommendations as UK fleets allowed to catch more cod, haddock and soleBritish fishing fleets will be allowed to catch greater quantities of cod, haddock and sole next year, after Europe’s ministers approved a new fishing quota that will cheer fish and chip shops but has alarmed scientists concerned over dwindling stocks.The European Union’s fisheries council reached an agreement in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in what may be one of the last such quota divisions in which the UK takes part if supporters of a hard Brexit have their way. Continue reading...

Diesel filters cost £1,000 to replace so many garages exploit legal loophole by removing filter letting cars pump out toxic particlesThe rogue practice of removing vital pollution filters from the exhausts of diesel vehicles has suffered a blow with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for the first time banning an advert for the service.However the number of filterless cars on UK roads, pumping out high levels of toxic particles, remains unknown and air pollution campaigners say the government must investigate and then crack down on the shady practice. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire I like these muddy colours in the landscape, but the buzzard sees them far more intenselyA buzzard perches on the high branch of a leafless tree. With its back to me, it looks out on the same scene, but do we see the same thing? I see through the trees to fields chemically enhanced with the vivid greens of new crops. The old landscape under this December sky is a brown study: a mood induced by hedges, ash keys, muddy paths, the woods bare and misty-headed with reddish and purple-brown buds. The subtlety of these colours has a deepening beauty as winter thickens across the land.This buzzard is a harlequin of browns, greys and whites, and it has been suggested that because of this plumage, colour is relatively unimportant to these predators. I’m always impressed when I see buzzards soaring and they catch the light in the silvery feathers under their wings and their markings glow like bronze and polished wood. But this display is for the benefit of other buzzards, not for me.

Bank of England chief joins with Michael Bloomberg calling for disclosure to help capital manage risks and seize opportunities in global warming fightThe governor of the Bank of England has warned that the fight against climate change will be jeopardised unless companies with big carbon footprints come clean about their exposure to global warming risks.Writing in today’s Guardian, Mark Carney says a new set of guidelines drawn up over the past year should be implemented so that investors can allocate capital to those companies with the best ideas to hit the target of keeping the rise in global temperature to less than 2C. Continue reading...

The 20 megawatt plant in Barcaldine is one of first in the country to be funded by Australian Renewable Energy AgencyQueensland’s largest operating solar farm has plugged into the national electricity grid and is set to generate enough power for almost 10,000 households by the end of 2016.The Barcaldine remote community solar farm, in the state’s central west outback, connected to the national electricity market on Wednesday, more than a month ahead of schedule. Continue reading...

Many innovations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide have been put forward. Now, a California entrepreneur is proposing a more practical solutionHumanity has been trying to cut down on the estimated 40bn metric tons of carbon dioxide produced each year for decades. Some countries have imposed carbon taxes. Many businesses are looking at using alternatives to fossil fuels to make their products. For example, Coca-Cola invested millions of dollars in creating its PlantBottle, which gets its plastic from plants instead of petroleum, and saved 315,000 metric tons of CO2 between 2009 and 2015.Related: Donald Trump supports 'clean coal' – but does it really have a future? Continue reading...

Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO and former Boy Scouts president, would be the first top US diplomat in modern history never to have held public officeDonald Trump named Rex Tillerson as his choice for the next secretary of state on Tuesday, potentially elevating an individual with no experience in public office to the position of America’s top diplomat for the first time in modern history.But beyond Tillerson’s role as the chief executive officer of oil giant ExxonMobil, a post he has held since 2006, little is known about the man poised to succeed John Kerry if confirmed by the US Senate early next year. Continue reading...

Costly failures show ‘urgent attention’ needed to improve how oil giant manages crucial engineering data at plantsAn internal report into how the oil giant BP monitors its refinery and chemical sites has revealed at least two near-miss accidents that could have caused deaths.The report, leaked to Greenpeace, concludes that “urgent attention” is required to improve how BP manages crucial engineering data across the world and that the company lags behind its competitors including Shell, Chevron, Petronas and ConocoPhillips. Continue reading...

Preparation is under way in China to bring in a ban on their domestic ivory trade, following a promise made with the US earlier this year

In the Noord district, residents are offered discounts at local shops in exchange for their plastic wasteLocated just behind Amsterdam Centraal station with views looking out across the river IJ, Al Ponte is a popular cafe serving a constant stream of commuters on their way to and from the nearby ferry port. Not all Al Ponte’s customers pay for their coffees, however. Not in the traditional sense anyway.Al Ponte is one of the businesses participating in Wasted, a pilot project running in Amsterdam’s Noord district which incentivises households to recycle their plastics by rewarding them with discounts at local businesses. Continue reading...

The value of investment funds committed to selling off fossil fuel assets has jumped to $5.2tn, doubling in just over a yearFive years ago, the idea that investments in fossil fuel companies were morally or financially problematic was all but unheard of. But an argument started to take shape on US university campuses — that with more coal, oil and gas in existing reserves than can ever be burned while keeping climate change under control, it is ethical and economic madness to spend billions looking for more.Fast forward to today and the argument has rocketed into mainstream financial thinking. It was revealed on Monday that investors worth more than $5tn have now committed to dump their fossil fuel stocks, and more than 80% of that is professional funds run for profit. Furthermore, this risk of a “carbon bubble” is now being taken seriously at the highest level, including by the Bank of England, World Bank and the G20’s financial stability board. Continue reading...

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon welcomes new total revealing concern over coal, oil and gas investments has entered financial mainstreamThe value of investment funds committed to selling off fossil fuel assets has jumped to $5.2tn, doubling in just over a year.The new total, published on Monday, was welcomed by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who said: “It’s clear the transition to a clean energy future is inevitable, beneficial and well underway, and that investors have a key role to play.” Continue reading...