Green campaigners disappointed by advice from the Climate Change Committee not to revise budget that is currently based on keeping global warming to 2C rather than the new target of 1.5CThe UK’s carbon budget for the early 2030s does not need to be tightened despite a tougher global warming target agreed in Paris last month, the government’s climate advisers have told ministers.Campaigners said a letter published on Thursday from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to energy and climate secretary, Amber Rudd, was “desperately disappointing” for failing to increase the ambition of the so-called fifth carbon budget in light of the Paris climate deal. Continue reading...

... of course, they’re not going to do that. So how do managers balance their climate change fears and the reality of the business world?Earlier this week Tim Sanderson, a former executive of the fossil fuel giant BP, wrote about the pride he felt for his daughter after her involvement in a climate change protest at Heathrow airport. With 12 others from climate activist group Plane Stupid, Rebecca Sanderson had occupied a runway to highlight the conflict between airport expansion and escalating carbon emissions.Having spent most of his working life in oil exploration, Sanderson said he was an “unlikely apologist” for his daughter’s actions. However, climate change had become a galvanising issue for his family. When his daughter and her colleagues were convicted for aggravated trespass – and face a likely jail term – the former oil executive stood with other protesters loudly chanting: “No ifs, no buts, no new runways”. As with a growing number of business people, Sanderson’s story demonstrates how climate change has become an increasingly personal business. Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire This annual watch gives pause to think who is sharing our garden, and to look more intentlyIn the weeks leading up to the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch hundreds of thousands of gardens become objects of intense scrutiny. Will the great tit on the cherry tree be there on the day to be counted? Will long-tailed tits deign to pass through? Such thoughts flash through my mind, but this annual activity also gives pause to think about exactly who might be sharing our space, and to spend more time looking more intently than usual.Related: RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch confirms many species still declining Continue reading...

Mo Hailong stole inbred corn seeds, developed by Monsanto and DuPont in Iowa, as part of plan to use them in Chinese businessA Chinese man pleaded guilty in a US court on Wednesday to stealing patent-protected corn seed from agribusiness giants Monsanto and DuPont to take back to China for commercial use.

Severe bleaching can be lethal to reef systems, triggering long-term degradation through the erosion of underlying structuresA coral scientist has warned that early official optimism that the Great Barrier Reef will be spared the worst of a predicted worldwide coral bleaching event is misplaced.The Queensland minister for the environment and the reef, Steven Miles, announced on Thursday that signs of only minor damage through the Australian summer to date had raised hopes the reef would not fall victim to its third major bleaching episode in two decades. Continue reading...

In an interview on ABC’s 7.30 report in November last year, the environment minister, Greg Hunt, describes the Yale environment performance index as ‘the most credible, scientifically based, hard data-based analysis in the world’, to defend Australia’s record on climate change. In the index’s latest ratings, Australia has dropped 10 spots, leaving only Saudi Arabia with a worse ranking among wealthy nations in some categories Continue reading...

Oxford University research also finds Australian, Chinese and US coal-fired power stations are the most vulnerable to environmental dangersAustralian thermal coalmines are some of the riskiest in the world for investors because of their exposure to environmental dangers, according to a report from Oxford University.The report – which was supported by Norges Bank Investment Management, managers of Norway’s government pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund – also found that Australian, Chinese and US coal-fired power stations were the most vulnerable to environmental risks. Continue reading...

Environment minister has described Yale’s environmental performance index as ‘the most credible ... in the world’ but Australia performs badly in latest ratingsThe index that Greg Hunt used to defend Australia’s record on climate change has placed the country lower in its rankings, leaving only Saudi Arabia with a worse ranking among wealthy nations in some categories.Yale’s environmental performance index ranks countries’ performance in protecting human health and ecosystems, and looks at nine areas including air quality, climate and energy, forests and water resources. Continue reading...

Climate change experts say construction should go ahead – but households should be made aware of possible threatsHomes and businesses should continue to be built on flood plains across the UK despite the increasing risks, according to government advisers on climate change.Lord Krebs, the government’s statutory adviser on adapting to the effects of global warming, told an influential committee of MPs on Wednesday that although recent flooding has caused houses and other buildings to be inundated, property could continue to be constructed on flood plains. He said that the attendant risks and the possible devastation would have to be made clear to households, local government and developers. Continue reading...

In all the debates about how to protect against floods from intense rain, very little is heard about Britain’s rainforests. These are the closest thing we’ve got to tropical rainforests – woodlands drenched in rain, thick with humid air and criss-crossed with gurgling streams and waterfalls, yet all in a mild climate.These woodlands are invaluable for protecting against flooding; they act like sponges, soaking up the heavy rain. Continue reading...

The UK’s nuclear energy strategy will be in meltdown if the French pull out of Hinkley. The best guess is, they’ll find the cashWhat if EDF says no to Hinkley Point? What if the French power generator, under pressure from its unions and potential lenders, decides it can’t finance the £18bn project, even with the Chinese chipping in?After all, the disgruntled French workers make a reasonable point. EDF’s last big foreign adventure, in Finland, is nine years behind schedule and massively over-budget, so why risk another expedition? EDF’s share price, remember, is down 85% since 2004: the company is in a weak position to resist its local critics. Continue reading...

Join experts on Wednesday 3 February 1-2pm GMT to discuss the opportunities and challenges for circular business models in healthcare

Statistically, it’s crystal clear that we keep setting temperature records due to human-caused global warming

Brazil, Egypt and China are leaders in damming rivers to generate electricity, but global warming has put future water levels in doubtFrom the Amazon to the Nile to the Mekong, rivers are a lifeblood for many nations, filling taps and irrigation canals and generating hydroelectricity that is powering economic development. But a new study warns that changes to river flows caused by climate change threaten that. Thousands of hydrodams risk being left high and dry by mid-century as global warming takes hold.On the face of it hydroelectricity seems an obvious antidote to climate change. Hydrodams are among the world’s largest power sources and free of carbon emissions. They could replace the burning of fossil fuels in dozens of countries, allowing economic development without booming emissions of greenhouse gases. Brazil, Egypt, China have led the way. Continue reading...

Royal Institute of British Architects, London

Keep the red Raleigh flying? We try out the bike that the Labour leader chose as his ideal purchaseIt all began in a fairly unlikely fashion: Jeremy Corbyn agreeing to answer a question from fashion magazine Stylist about his “object of desire”. The Labour leader’s eminently sensible choice was a £475 Raleigh Criterium bike, to replace his older model from the same company.Then things got weird. The Telegraph newspaper ran a story about the mini-interview, headlined: Socialist Jeremy Corbyn reveals he covets a £475 bicycle, perhaps forgetting that other political positions are possible between the binary choices of unfettered free-market liberalism or zero-possession ultra-Marxism. Continue reading...

The Helm, Kendal, Cumbria Why import Konik ponies as conservation grazers when we have good native breeds like the Fells?When the snow began to fall I went out to catch snowflakes on my black gloves and peer at them, revelling in the beauty of each individual structure. When I do this, I recall how late in life it was – I was a parent myself – that I discovered how the crystalline structure of snowflakes could be seen with just the naked eye.In 2015 I made another discovery. The existence of a path circumnavigating the lower reaches of the Helm, the crested ridge above Kendal and Oxenholme that frames the eastern view from the town. Continue reading...

The gas industry is trying to join the solar revolution but solar and wind energy is cheaper, more efficient and the only real source of energy securityNow that the Paris climate agreement has made it clear that the world must take serious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the fossil fuel industry is starting to get worried.Coal consumption is declining, and the gas sector is flat. And just as the coal industry is claiming coal is good for humanity, the gas industry is claiming that combining gas appliances with solar PV is the most practical and cost-effective way to achieve the lowest carbon emissions. Continue reading...

At last the groceries code adjudicator has found evidence that the country’s biggest supermarket short-changed its suppliersAt last, chapter and verse on how Tesco treats its suppliers. For decades, farmers have been complaining about the exploitative practices of the big supermarkets. Now it is clear that, at least in Tesco’s case, there was an abuse of buying power. It was not even so consumers gained from low prices; it was all about impressing the financial markets with good profit margins. The inquiry by the groceries code adjudicator, Christine Tacon, found evidence of payments delayed to disguise missed targets, and suppliers left waiting for million-pound payments for up to two years. Sometimes there were arbitrary or unfair deductions from payments too. But although Ms Tacon found serious breaches of the groceries code, she was unable to impose a fine because at the time the offences were committed she did not have the power to impose financial penalties.Most of the evidence Ms Tacon investigated relates to the period before September 2014 when Tesco’s new boss, David Lewis, took over. He has apologised and insists that the days are over when his predecessor allegedly flattered Tesco’s bottom line with questionable accounting procedures. That matter is still under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Continue reading...

Her party has been taking a pounding of late, but the Lib Dem candidate for City Hall believes the middle ground can revive its fortunes in the capital