Rachel Kyte says governments at the 2009 summit agreed funding for developing countries by ‘picking a $100bn figure out of the air’The Paris conference on climate change should not set a target for future financial assistance to developing countries, according to the World Bank’s top official on climate change.

Every day, millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesLoud voices dismiss organic food as nothing more than a trendy 21st-century lifestyle choice for the neurotic rich, but this is a phony argument. There’s nothing new or modish about organics – until the 1950s, all the food we ate was organically produced. It’s organic food that should be considered “normal”, not the upstart, factory-farmed, agrochemical stuff that’s only been on our shelves for a few decades. And the reasons for eating organic food, and supporting organic farmers and growers, are becoming more compelling, not less.Related: Organic food: it's not just for yuppies anymore | Tracie McMillan Continue reading...

Campaigners say a charitable scheme to install solar panels in schools in England and Wales will be ‘unsustainable’ if cuts to the feed-in tariff go aheadA charitable project that has installed more than 1,000 solar panels on schools in England and Wales will close next summer if government proposals to cut support for renewable energy go ahead.Campaigners said on Wednesday that the “solar schools” project run by environmental charity 10:10 would become unsustainable under government proposals to dramatically cut the feed-in tariff for householders and communities who install solar panels on rooftops. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Once thought of as a threat to the UK’s native oaks, these horny growths have joined the rich community that inhabits the treesOn one of the finest autumn days for years, sharply lit under a Wedgwood sky, the oak bears strange fruit. Little green and brown apples covered in horny, foliate protuberances grow where acorns should be. They formed last month when a tiny gall wasp, Andricus quercuscalicis, inoculated embryonic acorn buds with her eggs. The oak responded in an entirely specific way to this wasp by producing growths known as knopper galls, from a German name for a type of helmet.They weren’t seen in Britain until the 1960s, but there was a spike in the knopper population in 1979 and people were worried that the iconic British oaks were in danger of not producing viable acorns. Although the wasps have spread as far north as Scotland, this has not been the case, and knopper galls have joined the rich community of life that inhabits the oaks. The galls are communities themselves, too, containing microhabitants such as inquilines (cynipid wasps lay eggs in the gall and their larvae feed on the oak tissue) and parasitoids (chalcid and ichneumon wasps inject their eggs into the gall wasp larvae to feed on them). Continue reading...

Australia opposed the plan for a group to assist migration, and it has been left off the draft agreement for UN climate talks in ParisAustralia’s opposition to the creation of a body to help people escaping the ravages of climate change appears to have paid off, with the idea dropped from the draft agreement for the crucial UN climate talks in Paris.A previous draft of the deal to be thrashed out by nations included a “climate change displacement coordination facility” that would provide “organised migration and planned relocation”, as well as compensation, to people fleeing rising sea levels, extreme weather and ruined agriculture. Continue reading...

Matthias Mueller tells German newspaper recall of vehicles will begin in JanuaryVolkswagen’s chief executive Matthias Mueller said in an interview with a German newspaper that the company would launch a recall for cars affected by its diesel emissions rigging in January and complete the fix by the end of next year.“If all goes according to plan, we can start the recall in January,” Mueller told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “All the cars should be fixed by the end of 2016.” Continue reading...

Company’s CEO given top industry award as Greenpeace says it has spent £20m funding researchers and thinktanks that promote misinformationA major oil and gas conference in central London was blockaded by a protest against a top industry award given to the head of ExxonMobil, the oil company that is reported to have funded climate change denial.Protesters blocked the entrance on Tuesday evening by glueing themselves to the doors at the Oil and Money conference at the Dorchester on Park Lane, which brings together the most senior executives in the industry. Signs on their backs read “Climate change is nothing to celebrate” and “You can ignore the science but you can’t ignore us”. Continue reading...

The sun is back out in South Carolina, but the problems are far from over. Dams have given way and roads have buckled under the weight of historic floods that have devastated parts of the state. The death toll from the severe flooding has now risen to 14 with hundreds of people still living in shelters after losing their homes Continue reading...

Parks and wildlife authority says cyanide used to kill three animals in Matusadona, and 11 in Hwange, with tusks cut off in some casesFourteen elephants have been poisoned by cyanide in Zimbabwe, two years after poachers killed more than 200 elephants by poisoning, the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said.Three elephants were killed in Matusadona national park in northern Zimbabwe and 11 more were found dead in two different spots in Hwange national park in western Zimbabwe over the past two weeks, the authority announced on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Board member says Volkswagen faces multibillion-euro bill in emissions-rigging scandal and anything not economical will be questionedThe new chief executive of Volkswagen has warned the carmaker’s staff that the fallout from the diesel emissions scandal “won’t be painless” and that the company needs to make “massive savings” as it faces the prospect of a multibillion-euro bill.Matthias Müller told a gathering of 20,000 workers at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg that “every euro that stays in the company helps us”. Continue reading...

Linda Martinez, 62, believed to have drowned in caravan when river flooded campsite near Antibes where she was staying with husbandA British woman killed in the flooding in southern France at the weekend has been named as Linda Martinez.The 62-year-old from Lancashire is believed to have drowned when a river flowing past the campsite where she was staying with her husband burst its banks. Continue reading...

Anonymous source says Thomas Nilsen, who had extensively covered oil drilling in the Arctic, was sacked at the behest of the Russian intelligenceA Norwegian Arctic newspaper editor who has extensively covered oil drilling in the region was sacked at the behest of the Russian intelligence service, according to Norway’s public service broadcaster.Thomas Nilsen told the Guardian he had no reason to disbelieve the report from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), and that it would be awful if it were true that the FSB, Russia’s security agency, was involved. Continue reading...

Amateur drone operator Jamien Hudson captured this footage of two whales swimming next to a paddleboarder off the coast of Esperance in Western Australia last month. When Hudson heard there were whales off the beach, he rushed down with his drone equipment. At the same time, local Dave Price was paddleboarding out to take a look at the marine mammals, believed to be southern right whales Continue reading...

In a bid to protect their land, the indigenous people are challenging the Morales government over decrees opening up protected areas for oil and gas explorationThe history of Bolivia’s Guaraní, an indigenous people living in the country’s southern lowlands, is one of struggle in defence of their territory. In 1892, an uprising against local landowners ended with the massacre of more than 2,000 Guaraní. A century later, Guaraní activists confronted oil companies seeking to exploit the riches buried under their homeland of the Bolivian Chaco.Now they are preparing to fight on a new front. On 24 September, three Guaraní leaders travelled from the dry heat of lowland Chaco to the chill mountain air of La Paz to deliver a legal petition to the country’s constitutional court, challenging a series of energy decrees passed by the government of President Evo Morales. Continue reading...

Ornithologists say three pairs of the peregrine falcon are known to be breeding in the archipelago for the first time since the 1980sThe return of the peregrine falcon to Malta, known to some as the “Maltese falcon”, has excited hopes that the iconic bird is making a comeback.At least one breeding pair was caught on film last week by a German-based NGO, Campaign Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), and according to local experts there may now be as many as three pairs of breeding peregrine falcons on the Maltese archipelago for the first time since the 1980s. Continue reading...

In addition to mitigating the emissions that cause climate change, conserving tropical forests contributes to development in myriad waysForests are undervalued assets in meeting the twin global challenges of our time: achieving prosperity and safeguarding climate stability. It’s time we gave them the attention – and finance – that they deserve.Last week, dozens of countries announced a late-breaking wave of commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the climate change summit in Paris this November. While such pledges are welcome, they are not yet sufficient to avert catastrophic global warming. Tropical forests provide an opportunity to close the gap. Continue reading...

From locating leaky pipes with acoustic listening to reusing wastewater, Western Australia’s capital is using technology to bridge the water gapPerth, the capital of Western Australia, is not only one of the most isolated cities in the world, it is also becoming one of the driest in Australia.

International Renewable Energy Agency report says the continent has the potential to quadruple the proportion of its energy supplied by renewables, reports BusinessGreenAlmost a quarter of Africa’s energy needs could feasibly be supplied by renewables within the next 15 years, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) yesterday.The report, which provides a roadmap for renewable energy deployment on the continent, found that a variety of modern renewable technology options could more than quadruple the contribution of renewables to Africa’s energy mix compared to the five per cent used in 2013, taking renewables share to 22 per cent of the mix. Continue reading...

Company is still using fish aggregation devices in its fishing fleet despite a promise in 2011 that 100% of its tuna would be sustainable by 2016John West has been accused of breaking a promise to consumers by continuing to use “destructive” fishing methods to catch tuna.

As violence erupts in the capital, plans for the country’s first major solar plant bring hope to thousands whose lives will be transformed by electricityWhen entrepreneurs and government ministers signed a deal for the first major solar power plant in Burundi, the future of this energy-crippled nation seemed full of promise. A day later, gunfire filled the streets and buildings were set ablaze as a renegade army general attempted a coup.Such are the peculiar challenges of harnessing renewable energy in one of the more unstable corners of Africa. “We were so excited,” recalled Lazare Sebitereko, programme manager in Burundi for the solar and social development company Gigawatt Global. “It was upsetting because we wanted to get on with our programme. We didn’t stop completely but it’s slow compared to what we expected.” Continue reading...

18-month-old Kebaco and mother Ah Foo are re-released into the wild after their rescue from an oil palm plantation prior to the harvest that destroyed their home Continue reading...

For the first time, Strava – an app best known for letting athletes track and compare their activities – has released data that filters ‘commute’ cycle rides, creating maps that offer an insight into how city-dwellers ride to work. See below for exclusive images of the more than 30m activities uploaded in the last year across 12 key global cities, or explore Strava Insights here Continue reading...

We must prepare for climate change now if we want to achieve the global goal of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainableMaking cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is now a global goal following the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda in New York in September. Achieving this target – sustainable development goal 11 – is vital because, for the first time in our history, more people live in cities than live in the countryside. And it is urgent because a third of the urban population lives in slums, mostly located on hazardous land, with poor access to basic services, and few opportunities to earn a decent living.Another huge challenge is that urban areas mostly develop along coasts and rivers, making many city dwellers vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This has led to a growing discussion on how to make cities resilient to flooding, rising sea levels, heatwaves and other harmful results of our changing climate. However these discussions are not yet taking place on a practical level, and there is no blueprint for immediate action. Continue reading...

Qi Ye, director of public policy centre in Beijing, says China is showing ‘global leadership’ on climate change and it will look to clean energy technologiesChina may aim for an earlier greenhouse gas emissions peak before its 2030 deadline, putting a greater onus on Australia to work with its key trading partner on renewable energy rather than fossil fuels, says a leading Chinese analyst.

A drone films extensive flooding in the US state of South Carolina on Monday. The unprecedented rainfall has resulted in nine deaths, more than 500 road and bridge closures and hundreds of rescues of people trapped in homes and cars by the rising water. Scientists claim climate change has exacerbated the bad weather Continue reading...

Watership Down, Hampshire Brave, then, the creature that tries to pluck the nut from between the wires. But brave this wood mouse isHead dipped in shining black oil and marinated in nervousness, a marsh tit has started coming to the feeder for the first time since last winter. Until now it would have been in the wet beech and ash woods that cover the steep north face of the chalk down; an example of the anciently named “hangers” so beloved of Gilbert White.But in this corner of the downs a cold snap has brought the marsh tit to the closely wired nuts hanging from the wall of the stone smokehouse. Continue reading...

Bandicoot-like rodent with long hind limbs, huge ears, a pointed face and a flat nose found in a remote mountainous area of Sulawesi IslandRelated: Sneezing monkey and walking fish among new species discovered in HimalayasVictorian scientists have discovered a new mammal, the hog-nosed rat, with features not been seen by science before. Continue reading...

Concrete channel, three years in the making and 300 metres long, will help engineers develop better protection from floodingStudying the oceans is a matter of survival for the below-sea-level-dwelling Dutch, and scientists in the Netherlands have now unveiled the world’s biggest manmade wave to prepare for the worst.“Here we can test what happens if enormous waves hit our dykes,” said infrastructure minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen as she inaugurated the giant wave machine in the city of Delft on Monday. Continue reading...

The plastic bag levy will damage the environment unless the alternatives have impeccable environmental attributes – and most of them don’t (New plastic bag tax does not go far enough, say campaigners, 5 October).The exemptions alone will undermine most of the putative savings. Not only that, but, if we had a better waste-disposal system using efficient combined heat and power incinerators, we could capture the energy from the “borrowed oil” which plastic bags represent. Only 5% of crude oil is used to make all of the plastics we use, and plastic bags are only about 5% of that. A single car trip to the supermarket each week wastes more energy and creates more pollution than a dozen plastic bags. Continue reading...

Mark Carney warns that climate change will lead to financial crises and falling living standards unless companies (have to) come clean about their current and future carbon emissions (Report, 30 September). In the same issue George Monbiot notes that there is water flowing on Mars and asks if there is intelligent life on Earth. Monbiot also reminds us the world has lost half of its vertebrate wildlife in the last 40 years. It’s surely no coincidence that the human population has doubled in our lifetime (we were born in the 1940s). Sadly, population control seems to have become an issue that we are reluctant to discuss.As biologists, we know that great population growth of a species is frequently ended by a cataclysmic population crash. Is that what we want? Climate change is being driven not just by what we do but by the sheer numbers of us doing it. We are already seeing crop failures, desertification, soil impoverishment and water shortages. Continue reading...

Expert in the forecast and control of locust plaguesLocust plagues are at least as old as recorded history. The desert locust is the locust of the Qur’an and the Bible’s eighth plague of Egypt; they have probably been insect pests since man first began to grow crops. When, in the late 1980s, swarms of desert locusts extended from Mauritania and Senegal to the Persian Gulf, Joyce Magor, who has died aged 82, was sent to Dakar as a locust forecaster to help international efforts to control the swarms that were threatening farming livelihoods in the Sahel region.This was the first plague in nearly 40 years – and African countries were unprepared and highly vulnerable. Donors were faced with providing nearly $300m in emergency aid to cope with the crisis. The plague, which declined in early 1989, triggered an extensive international effort to develop improved methods to predict the size of locust populations locusts and more environmentally sensitive ways to control them. Continue reading...

It’s boom time in the fields thanks to Halloween. Might this be a good time to think about the agricultural revolution taking place?Giant globes of orange scattered on the East Anglian soil resemble extraterrestrial eggs, glowing in the autumn sunshine.Related: From pumpkins to policies: engaging in sustainable food behaviour Continue reading...

A Colorado nonprofit funds and supports new businesses looking to improve energy access in developing countriesA few years ago, engineers Morgan DeFoort and Jason Prapas were creating clean cookstoves for use in the developing world. Today, they lead a far broader multimillion-dollar effort to bring better energy services to some of the world’s poorest communities.Colorado-based Factor(E) is what DeFoort and Prapas call a “venture development firm”: part seed investor, part accelerator and part business advisor. It aims to nurture young businesses with the potential to improve energy access in developing countries. Continue reading...

High numbers of elk, deer, boar and wolves show long-term effect of world’s worst nuclear accident is less damaging than everyday human activity, say scientistsWildlife is abundant around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, despite the presence of radiation released by the world’s most catastrophic nuclear explosion nearly three decades ago, researchers have found.The number of elk, deer and wild boar within the Belarusian half of the Chernobyl exclusion zone today are around the same as those in four nearby uncontaminated nature reserves. Continue reading...

Hundreds of new(ish) species have been discovered in the eastern Himalayas in recent years, including the ‘walking’ fish and a tissue-wielding, snub-nosed primateName: The sneezing monkey.Age: Depends what you mean. Continue reading...

Draft text of climate deal is cut down from more than 90 pages to just 20 pages in boost for international talks on cutting carbon emissions after 2020A new draft of the potential global agreement on climate change, to be negotiated this December in Paris, has been published by the United Nations.

A mid-flight bird fight and flowers on a Himalayan pass are among images capturing this year’s theme of conflict and survival. The winners will be announced at the Royal Society of Biology Awards Ceremony in London on 15 October, as part of Biology Week Continue reading...

Plans put forward by the local people will ban fishing in over 600,000 sq km of the Pacific oceanChile will create one of the world’s biggest marine parks around the Pacific waters of Easter Island, president Michelle Bachelet said on Monday.If the island’s indigenous Rapa Nui people approve the plan after a consultation by the mainland government, fishing will be banned from a 631,368 sq km (243,630 sq miles) area – though still allowed up to 50m out for local fishermen – in an effort to stem illegal fishing. Continue reading...