Leaked papers reveal that Tory MEPs were told to support a ‘get-out clause’ in proposed new Europe-wide lawsThe British government has been accused of trying to secretly undermine new EU air pollution targets in favour of big business, as leaked papers reveal that Conservative MEPs were told to support a “get-out clause” in proposed laws.Legislation designed to force member states to strictly limit the emission of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ammonia by 2030 is currently being scrutinised in Brussels. Continue reading...

For companies who bottle pure mountain air, like one in Canada, plummeting air quality is a business opportunity. For the rest of us, it’s a killerFor one company, at least, the world’s escalating air pollution crisis has an upside. While billions of people live amid a fog of harmful airborne particles each day, Vitality Air, which sells bottled Canadian mountain air, is reporting a brisk trade.

Sow your veg patch with pollinator-friendly flowers, thin out waterlilies, plant diasciasA few rows of annual flowers criss-crossing your veg patch doesn’t just look pretty – it lures in beneficial insects such as lacewings and hoverflies (whose larvae hoover up aphids), and bees and butterflies to pollinate crops. Sow pot marigolds, nigella, poached egg plant and cosmos in situ now: they will self-seed for a repeat performance in future years. Continue reading...

Now only 60 of Mexico’s vaquita marina left despite the navy enforcing a ban on the fishing net, latest study showsEnvironmentalists warned on Friday that Mexico’s vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise, was close to extinction as the government reported that only 60 were now left.

Eriskay We don’t have to get much nearer to confirm our suspicions that what we’ve found is an otter spraint siteIt’s the patch of colour, a green much brighter than that of the sheep-nibbled turf covering the rest of the slope, that first suggests there might be something worth investigating. A little lower down from where we were wandering along, it’s just a few feet above where the carpet of grass meets the rocks that dip down to the sea. We don’t have to get much nearer to confirm our suspicions that this is an otter spraint site.But what a site! Far and away the largest I’ve ever seen, it has obviously been in use a long time. On seven or eight flat-topped hummocks that look like the remains of collapsed rabbit burrows is a pile, or the remains of a pile, of otter leavings. Continue reading...

Former sales executive who emigrated to Australia 30 years ago is hatching a daring plan in an attempt to save the species from poachersA retired South African sales executive who emigrated to Australia 30 years ago is hatching a daring plan to airlift 80 rhinos to his adopted country in an attempt to save the species from poachers.

A North Dakota rancher shot and killed the first wolverine documented in the state for more than 150 years, allegedly saying it was a threat to his cowsA North Dakota rancher fatally shot the first wolverine documented in the state in more than 150 years, outraging wildlife advocates across the US who said the killing was cruel and unnecessary.The rancher, who allegedly posted photos of the dead wolverine on Facebook, with the caption “killed this here critter out tormenting the cows”, was justified in shooting the animal, according to state wildlife officials, who said the wolverine had traveled in numerous states in the west. Continue reading...

Devils Hole pupfish, of which there are fewer than 115 in existence, found dead after men were seen entering fenced-off area of national parkThree men have been arrested over a drunken rampage that resulted in the death of a member of one of the rarest fish species in the world.The three suspects have been charged by police after allegedly breaking into a fenced-off protected area of Death Valley National Park in Nevada on 30 April. The men stomped around in the water of Devils Hole, strewing vomit, beer cans and boxer shorts over the area, and tearing up the habitat of the Devils Hole pupfish, one of the rarest fish in the world. One of the fish was later found dead. Continue reading...

Rosatom understood to be hoping to revive plans to build reactors in Britain if EDF proposals for Hinkley Point C failA Russian nuclear group is hoping that the potential meltdown of French plans to build new European pressurised reactors at Hinkley Point could offer an opportunity to break into the British nuclear market.Deeper concerns about the future of the Somerset scheme were raised by the French energy minister, Ségolène Royal, who warned of the “colossal” cost, which EDF admitted could be £18bn or even £21bn. Continue reading...

In the Forest of Dean, a corner store stocked with old trash is in fact an installation helping to raise awareness of our throwaway lifestylesThe Con-Venience corner shop in Colford in the Forest of Dean looks a lot like a standard corner shop. Look closer, though, and you’ll see it is stocked with decades-old litter found in the forest – sandwich boxes, beer cans, drinks bottles, jars of old sweets – scrubbed clean and neatly stacked on shelves. Wander through the forest and you’ll find a vending machine sat in a clearing doling out the same. It’s a little surreal.It’s unlikely that you lie awake at night fretting about that can of Irn-Bru you dumped in a hedge decades ago. But Con-Venience is at the centre of a new anti-littering campaign, launched this week by the Forest of Dean District Council and environmental charity Hubbub, which aims to ensure you do. “It’s not your normal shopping experience,” says Trewin Restorick, Hubbub CEO and founder. The vending machine, for example, stands more as a sculpture than a snack dispenser. Continue reading...

Campaigners in Kirby Misperton say there could be a domino effect if council approves application next weekAs you enter the village of Kirby Misperton, in North Yorkshire, the first thing you notice are the many signs dotted around asking visitors to respect the tranquility of the countryside.

We have written to the Britain Stronger in Europe and Vote Leave campaigns to ask how a leave or remain vote will affect the UK’s treasured natural environment and its remarkable and already threatened species (Could Brexit be the best thing for Europe’s wildlife?, theguardian.com, 9 May). The decision on whether to stay in the EU or to leave will have many far-reaching and long-term effects. While several of the areas where this effect will be felt have been debated in some depth, such as trade, investment, immigration and jobs, there are other important areas that have not been given attention by campaigners, but directly or indirectly affect us all. A significant gap is the impact on wildlife.The outcome of June’s referendum has the potential to change the face of the UK’s countryside for generations to come. We strongly believe that whether people are committed to the EU, determined to leave, or still undecided, the effect their vote will have on the natural environment must be known. Continue reading...

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...

Coal-generation hit historic low several times last week in what experts say are the only occasions since the first coal-fired generator opened in London in 1882The amount of electricity generated from coal in the UK has fallen to zero several times in the past week, grid data shows.In what green energy supporters have described as a “historic turning point” for the UK’s power system, coal-fired electricity first fell to zero late on Monday night and for the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to data from BM Reports. Continue reading...

The air quality in this sun-baked California area known as ‘America’s salad bowl’ has been identified as the worst in the US. Residents are concerned, but low wages mean long hours out in the thick of itJose Velasquez, weary from picking cherries, was heading home on a battered bike this week with signs of a tough day etched across his face: dust, sunburn and little red marks all over.And now a reporter is telling the 35-year-old that the World Health Organisation had just identified this baked corner of California as having the country’s worst air pollution. Continue reading...

An endangered seal, catfish and a rhino calf are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Timothy Allen is the first outsider to walk with a Kazakh family on their spring migration. The Kazakhs of western Mongolia are known for hunting with eagles and each year between February and April about 200 families make the 90-mile trip across the Altai mountains Continue reading...

New mayor of London calls air pollution ‘our biggest environmental challenge’ and plans to bring the increased ultra low emission zone into force early

CGN, which is helping French energy company with Hinkley Point C scheme, denies it will build reactors independentlyThe Chinese company helping EDF with plans to build new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset has flatly dismissed the idea it would go it alone if the largely state-owned French company dropped out.“As a partner to EDF supporting the Hinkley Point project, CGN [China General Nuclear Power Corporation] has no independent plans to build reactors at Hinkley Point C,” it said in a statement. Continue reading...

Across the world, thousands of protesters are taking on the planet’s biggest fossil fuel companies. We should support them – and if we can, we should join themRight now, thousands of people are taking direct action as part of a global wave of protests against the biggest fossil fuel infrastructure projects across the world. We kicked off earlier this month by shutting down the UK’s largest opencast coal mine in south Wales.Last Sunday, around 1,000 people closed the world’s largest coal-exporting port in Newcastle, Australia and other bold actions are happening at power stations, oil refineries, pipelines and mines everywhere from the Philippines, Brazil and the US, to Nigeria, Germany and India. Continue reading...

Photographs from the Eyewitness series Continue reading...

National Farming Union’s application for banned pesticide use on oil seed rape crops is rejected as government rules against neonicotinoids for the first timeMinisters have rejected an “emergency” application from the National Farmers Union (NFU) to use banned pesticides on a third of all oilseed rape crops.Neonicotinoid pesticides have been shown to be harmful to bees and were banned from use on flowering crops by the EU in 2013, a move opposed by the UK government. But ministers granted a temporary lifting of the ban in 2015 after the NFU argued it was needed to fight the cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB). Continue reading...

Council report recommends granting permission to explore for shale gas under government’s fast-track scheme

Financial jolt triggered by departure could lead to key industries suffering same fate as coal mining, says Patrick McLoughlinFarming and the car industry could disappear from Britain like coal mining in the 1980s because of the financial shock of leaving the EU, Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, has warned.

Climate change and the current strong El Niño are creating costly humanitarian crises. But it’s so much cheaper to avert disaster through building resilienceThe life of a farmer in Somalia is never easy and, right now, it’s about as hard as it gets. The weather no longer seems to follow recognisable patterns and the El Niño phenomenon is exacerbating the crisis.At 47 years old, Maymuno Madobe Cali has seen it all: drought, floods, disease and conflict. She knows only too well how a precious but fragile livelihood can vanish. She lost 26 goats the last time floods and water-borne diseases came to Boodaale and she is praying the same will not happen to her remaining 11 animals. With seven people in her family, another spell of bad weather could push her to the brink. Continue reading...

Havant, Hampshire As I watched, a woodlouse blundered into a translucent tripline and the web vibratedMy gardening gloves had lain abandoned in the shed for several months as the cold, wet spring had thwarted any plans to plant out early crops. When I went to put them on they pulled away from the rough-planked shed wall with a sound like ripping Velcro. As I peeled off a candyfloss puff of cobweb, a rotund spider the size of my fingernail scuttled across the back of my hand and dropped to the floor.A neighbour sauntered over after hearing me yelp. “Kill it,” he advised as we watched the arachnid squeeze into a crack in the wood behind its three-dimensional web. “That’s one of those venomous foreign spiders. They’re dangerous, I’ve seen the news …” Continue reading...

Australian projects are viable already – now the industry needs investors willing to take a risk on large-scale renewable energyCompanies working on large-scale solar thermal projects in Australia say they are tantalisingly close to achieving the dream of building plants big enough to replace coal-fired energy in Australia.Experts speaking at the Australian Solar Energy Exhibition and Conference in Melbourne last week said the technology had been proven in other countries, and projects in Australia were viable, but the challenge was getting major investors to gamble on something new. Continue reading...

Suggestion comes as EDF faces more opposition from its own private shareholders to the Hinkley scheme at its annual general meeting in ParisChinese companies are ready to step in and offer to build new reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset if French company EDF backs out of the government’s flagship energy project, it has been claimed.

Darden Restaurants, the largest full-service restaurant group in the US, is facing pressure to use antibiotic-free meat and pay better wagesDozens of protesters picketed Olive Garden restaurants in seven cities on Thursday, including New York and Los Angeles, delivering a petition with 130,000 signatures that asks the chain to serve more vegetables, use meat raised with minimal use of antibiotics and pay its employees fair wages.Related: Why the egg industry is scrambling to set hens free Continue reading...

Homeopathy sceptic Dame Sally Davies among delegates to hear prince say he treats his cows with alternative medicinePrince Charles has proposed a solution to the growing crisis of antibiotic over-use in animals and humans, telling an international gathering of scientists and government officials in London that he treats his own cows and sheep with homeopathy.In front of the government’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, who once told a parliamentary committee that homeopathy in humans was “rubbish” and that she was “perpetually surprised that homeopathy is available on the NHS”, the prince explained to delegates from 20 nations and organisations why he had turned to homeopathic remedies for animals. Continue reading...

White House announces new regulations to cut methane emissions – a climate pollutant – from the oil and gas industry almost in halfThe Obama administration announced on Thursday new rules to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry almost in half – tackling a powerful climate pollutant in the president’s final months in the White House.The rules, stronger than earlier proposals, are aimed at reducing methane emissions from the US by 40% to 45% over 2012 levels by 2025 by requiring companies to capture gas from oil wells, and find and plug pipeline leaks. America is currently the world’s largest oil and gas producer. Continue reading...

Developers of an offshore windfarm planned in the Forth estuary have taken legal action after vital subsidies were withdrawnThe future of one of the UK’s biggest proposed offshore windfarms has been thrown into doubt by a row over the government support it should receive.The Neart na Gaoithe windfarm, based in Scotland’s outer Forth estuary, would have a capacity of about 450MW of power and was originally planned to cost £1.4bn to build, though that is likely to rise to more than £2bn. Continue reading...

Danish company is single largest investor in UK offshore wind power and IPO would be one of Europe’s biggest listings this yearDong Energy, the Danish company that has invested £6bn in UK offshore wind power, is planning to float in what would be one of Europe’s biggest listings this year.Dong is already the single largest investor in UK offshore wind projects and plans a further £5bn of spending over the next five years. Continue reading...

Should we be optimistic that the Paris agreement can save us from serious climate change or is it too little too late? Clive Hamilton looks at both sides of the debateFor anyone who takes notice of the climate change debate, a mass of often-contradictory information comes flooding into our lives. Some of it prompts great alarm. The Great Barrier Reef is suffering severe bleaching. Wild fires are consuming Alberta. Last year was the warmest on record, and 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001.Yet there are also some positive signs that the world is at last getting serious about the threat. Global investment in renewable energy last year exceeded investment in fossil energy for the first time. Coal use in the United States is falling rapidly. China has stopped approving new coalmines. And the Paris Agreement of December 2015 was hailed as a breakthrough, a turning point in the battle. Continue reading...

Firms face tougher penalties aimed at reducing the number of pollution offencesWater companies have been hit by a series of record fines for major sewage leaks and other pollution incidents.Yorkshire Water was fined £1.1m for illegally discharging sewage that polluted the river Ouse near York, while Thames Water was fined £1m for repeated sewage leaks into the Grand Union canal. Continue reading...

Fossil fuel corporations are causing the climate change fuelling mega-fires – and they should be footing the bill for the devastationAs the fire that ravaged Fort McMurray finally moves past the city, and the province tallies the heartbreaking damage, a search will begin to discover the source of the destruction.Investigators will comb the nearby forests for clues, tracing the fire’s path to what they call its “point of origin.” They’ll interview witnesses, collect satellite imagery, and rule out natural causes—much like the work of detectives. Continue reading...

Energy company has made provision for outlay to increase to almost £21bn to ensure completion of nuclear reactorEDF, the French utility group lined up to build twin nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset, has said the cost of the project could be £2.7bn higher than previously expected, at nearly £21bn.

World’s largest health charity sells its $187m stake in the oil giant in a move welcomed by fossil fuel divestment campaignersThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sold off its entire holding in oil giant BP, in a move welcomed by fossil fuel divestment campaigners.

A World Health Organisation report shows little escape from poisoned air in poorer countries, resulting in 3 million premature deaths worldwide a year

The main party leaders hit the stump in Queensland and Melbourne, but the ghost of a prime minister past just won’t go away, writes Elle HuntTo the news of the day: happy 49th birthday, Bill Shorten! Asked what he was getting, he said: “My present is standing right next to me”, gesturing to his wife, Chloe. Aww/eww – delete as necessary. No word on whether Malcolm Turnbull being named in the Panama Papers counts as a gift.

A raft of apps are aiming to recycle cosmetically challenged perishables and stop £5bn worth of food ending up in landfillWhere most people see a bruised banana, Saasha Celestial-One and Tessa Cook see a chance to share. Their new app, Olio, allows greengrocers, cafes, restaurants and neighbours to photograph and post food that is surplus, unappealing or close to expiry; other app users then request it and are notified where to pick it up.According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, a third of all food is wasted, and more than half of that never reaches consumers. Continue reading...

Three passengers in their 50s and 60s remain in hospital following the blaze on the 25-metre catamaran, which forced 46 passengers to abandon shipA boat fire off the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef that forced more than 40 tourists to escape into life rafts is believed to have started in the ship’s engine.The now-sunken Spirit of 1770 caught fire in waters 18km off the coastal community called Town of 1770 on Wednesday afternoon, close to Lady Musgrave island. Continue reading...

Outdoor air pollution has grown 8% globally in the past five years, with billions of people around the world now exposed to dangerous air, according to new data from more than 3,000 cities compiled by the World Health Organisation. Director Maira Neira says India and China need to make ‘massive efforts because the situation at the moment is really bad for the population’

With new WHO data shedding light on the severity of the problem, we want to hear from readers across the globe on their experiences of air pollution

Hydro Tasmania says state is now powered entirely by renewable energy and can turn off generators brought in during electricity shortageSubstantial rain in Tasmania has enabled the state to turn off its temporary diesel generators that were imported due to electricity shortages sparked by record low rainfall and a broken Bass Strait electricity cable.Following substantial rain, Hydro Tasmania on Thursday confirmed the state is now powered entirely by renewable energy for the first time in 2016.

Great Trossachs forest, Scotland These birds, exhausted but puffed with adrenalin, have been on their feet since dawnNo bluebell has yet shown its colour, no oak has broken a single bud. Spring comes late to these highland glens. But willow warblers have flown in to stir the new season, each dying cadence ringing with life, as exuberant sounding as any mountain burn. Their proclamations carry far, like the peal of church bells, down from a scatter of trees on the hillside to flatter land at the head of the loch.The low sun of early evening gives the loch a glittering sheen and the stilled air allows drunken “pish” expletives and throaty pigeon-like gobbling noises to carry across the moor to a car that serves as a hide. Continue reading...

From selling clothes with a 30 year guarantee to touring Europe in a repair shop - these brands are advancing the circular economy within fashion

Port Talbot seems obvious, but World Health Organisation data shows south coast town registers high levels of two tiny types of particulate pollution

Two cities – one in Iran and another in Nigeria – can claim title because WHO measures pollution in two different waysThe new WHO database of worldwide air pollution measures it in two different ways, and as a result two cities – one in Iran and another in Nigeria – can lay claim to the unenviable title of world’s most polluted city.It all comes down to which minute particles, or particulate matter (PM), in the air are being measured. These particles are between 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter, roughly 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Continue reading...

Outdoor pollution has risen 8% in five years with fast-growing cities in the developing world worst affected, WHO data shows