Environment news

• LED innovation aims to make traffic lights, mobiles and TVs more sustainable

  26-04-2016 22:25
  
  LED lighting could play a key role in decarbonising the global economy because of its energy savingsAn Australian semiconductor company believes it is finally getting closer to “pay day”, more than a quarter of a century after its breakthrough technology first began taking shape at Sydney’s Macquarie University. Related: Mushrooms, whales and hurricanes: how bio-inspiration boosts energy efficiencyContinue reading...
  
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• Labor proposes two emissions trading schemes costing $555m

  26-04-2016 21:00
  
  Opposition maintains ambition targets but aims to minimise cost to households and defers details until after electionLabor is proposing two emissions trading schemes – one for big industrial polluters and an electricity industry model similar to one once backed by Malcolm Turnbull – in a climate policy that trumps the Coalition’s ambition but minimises the hit on household power bills and leaves important detail to be determined post-election. Related: Climate change plan: thin
  
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• Labor proposes two emissions trading schemes costing $355.9m

  26-04-2016 21:00
  
  Opposition maintains ambitious targets but aims to minimise cost to households and defers details until after electionLabor is proposing two emissions trading schemes – one for big industrial polluters and an electricity industry model similar to one once backed by Malcolm Turnbull – in a climate policy that trumps the Coalition’s ambition but minimises the hit on household power bills and leaves important detail to be determined post-election. Related: Climate change plan: thi
  
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• Nuclear fears 30 years after Chernobyl | Letters

  26-04-2016 20:08
  
  Thirty years on from the tragedy of Chernobyl (theguardian.com, 26 April), the potential of nuclear power to provide cheap, safe, decarbonised energy is not diminished. While we pause to reflect on this worst imaginable accident, we must not let misplaced perceptions of risk mean we overlook reality. Nuclear power is our safest option for the supply of baseload, low-carbon electricity. Coal power has killed more than a thousand times more people per unit of energy produced than nuclear powe
  
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• Saudi reform plans flirt with social change

  26-04-2016 20:04
  By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Reforms promised by a young Saudi prince are couched in references to the kingdom's Islamic tradition but include ideas likely to upset some conservatives, risking future ruptures over the direction of society. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's "Vision 2030" plan, which the 31-year-old announced on Monday, largely aims to transform Saudi Arabia's economy in an era of low oil prices and made few specific pledges of social change. For the Al Saud dynast
  
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• Eastern Libya ships first oil cargo in defiance of Tripoli

  26-04-2016 20:04
  By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A government based in eastern Libya has shipped its first cargo of crude in defiance of authorities in the capital Tripoli, a bold move that could deepen the divisions that have brought chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. The Tripoli authorities asked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to blacklist the India-flagged tanker Distya Ameya, which left the eastern Libyan port of Hariga overnight carrying oil they said could not be lawfully sold.
  
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• Venezuela proposes non-OPEC oil producers attend Vienna meeting

  26-04-2016 20:02
  Venezuela has proposed that non-OPEC oil producers attend the group's June meeting in Vienna to continue "dialogue and coordination," according to a letter from the South American country's oil minister to the Qatari energy minister, who is also the current OPEC president. A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart in Doha this month. Price hawk Venezuela had been pushing for a deal to boost prices and is now trying to revive negotiations.
  
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• U.S. says worried about Libyan oil purchases outside legal channels

  26-04-2016 19:49
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about Libyan oil purchases outside legitimate channels and said all sales must go through the Tripoli-based National Oil Corp, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Tuesday. "We are concerned about purchases of Libyan oil outside of legitimate channels," spokesman John Kirby said after an India-flagged tanker left for Malta carrying crude shipped by rival eastern Libya government. ...
  
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• Libya asks U.N. council to blacklist ship carrying eastern oil

  26-04-2016 19:49
  By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Libya has asked the United Nations Security Council to blacklist an Indian-flagged tanker on its way to Malta carrying crude oil shipped by the rival eastern Libya government, Libya's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday. Libyan Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told Reuters he had written to the Security Council sanctions committee to complain about the first shipment of oil by the rival authorities, which left the eastern Libyan port of Hari
  
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• Saudi to overhaul floundering financial district, economic cities

  26-04-2016 19:24
  By Katie Paul DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is revising plans for a glitzy financial district in Riyadh and the creation of six industrial cities, after the projects were plagued by delays and a lack of enthusiasm among potential tenants and investors. The government's frank, public assessments of the projects suggest Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is not hesitating to tackle projects which once enjoyed top-level political support as he pushes an economic reform drive launched this wee
  
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• Long-eared bat denied habitat protection under the Endangered Species Act

  26-04-2016 19:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  Although northern long-eared bat populations have declined by 90 percent in their core range, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today said it will not protect any of its critical habitat, saying it would not be “prudent” for the species. Under the Endangered Species Act, the government can opt not to designate critical habitat if there is factual evidence that a species would be placed at greater risk of extinction from poachers, collectors or vandals. But in the case of t
  
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• Yemen braces for locust ‘plague’

  26-04-2016 17:36
  
  SciDev.Net: The ongoing civil war and the need to protect the bee industry make it difficult to use insecticidesYemen is bracing itself for a “locust plague” that scientists are unable to stop due to fears that any intervention would also kill bees that are vital to its economy. The country’s Desert Locust Control Centre issued a warning on 18 April that many desert locusts in the country had reached their flying adult phase, while the remaining juveniles could do likewise in a
  
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• James Webb's mirror is revealed

  26-04-2016 16:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The covers come off the huge mirror that the James Webb Space Telescope - the planned successor to Hubble - will use to detect the light from the first stars to shine in the Universe.
  
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• Asian wasp listed as threat to UK's sweet chestnut trees

  26-04-2016 16:22
  
  Forestry commission elevates oriental chestnut gall wasp to high-priority tree pest after 2015 outbreaksAn Asian wasp that threatens the UK’s sweet chestnuts has been designated a high-priority tree pest for the first time.The oriental chestnut gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus) was first found in the UK last year, in Farningham woods near Sevenoaks in Kent, and a street in St Albans in Hertfordshire.Continue reading...
  
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• Chernobyl nuclear disaster 30th anniversary – in pictures

  26-04-2016 16:20
  
  Crowds have gathered in Ukraine, Russia and beyond to remember the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The nuclear fallout forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, with many killed at the time and in subsequent years as a result of the radiation Continue reading...
  
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• EDF executives called back by MPs to explain Hinkley Point delay

  26-04-2016 16:07
  
  Company chiefs summoned to address committee after French minister says final decison could be put back until SeptemberEDF executives have been called back to parliament to explain why they have further delayed making an investment decision on a planned £18bn nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.MPs on the energy and climate change committee want to hear from EDF chiefs after the French economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, said the final decision could be delayed until Septembe
  
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• Biodiesel worse for the environment than fossil fuels, warn green campaigners

  26-04-2016 15:16
  
  Instead of reducing levels of pollution, the use of biodiesel in transport will increase emissions by 4% - the same as putting an extra 12 million cars on the road in 2020 - green campaigners have said.
  
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• San Diego Republican mayor pushes plan to run on 100% renewable energy

  26-04-2016 14:35
  
  California city’s bipartisan push to embrace clean energy such as solar and wind while paring back greenhouse gas emissions may be a model for rest of the USAs presidential nominees Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, respectively, call climate change a “religion” or a “bullshit … total hoax” dreamed up by China, it is deeply unfashionable for any Republican to take the issue seriously, let alone push for radical reforms to remedy it.Kevin Faulconer, the mayor of San
  
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• Chernobyl, three decades on

  26-04-2016 13:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  It was 30 years ago that a meltdown at the V. I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union released radioactive contaminants into the surroundings in northern Ukraine. Airborne contamination from what is now generally termed the Chernobyl disaster spread well beyond the immediate environs of the power plant, and a roughly 1000-square-mile region in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia remains cordoned off, an exclusion zone where human habitation is forbidden.The radiation spill was a disast
  
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• Living Grid: British businesses join forces for demand-response energy system

  26-04-2016 13:42
  
  Supermarket chain Sainsbury's, water company United Utilities and construction materials supplier Aggregate Industries have become founding partners of the Living Grid, a new demand-response 'energy ecosystem' which aims to create 200MW of flexible power across the UK.
  
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• Serbian engineer abducted in Libya - foreign ministry

  26-04-2016 13:24
  A Serbian engineer has been kidnapped in a remote area of Libya near the Egyptian border, the Serbian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Miroslav Tomic, a maintenance engineer employed by a German company, was abducted on Saturday while travelling to inspect an oil field around 1,200 km (750 miles) from the capital Tripoli. "We are waiting for more information about the details of the abduction," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said without elaborating.
  
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• TTIP: Chevron lobbied for controversial legal right as 'environmental deterrent'

  26-04-2016 12:38
  
  US oil company wanted EU-US trade deal to give foreign investors the legal right to challenge government decision, documents showChevron lobbied the EU to give foreign investors the legal right to challenge government decisions in a major US-EU trade deal because it would act as a deterrent against laws such as fracking bans, the Guardian can reveal.Environmentalists have long-warned that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’s (TTIP) investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) c
  
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• 'It was anarchy': a family reflects on the Chernobyl disaster, 30 years on

  26-04-2016 12:25
  
  Three generations explain how their lives were transformed by the nuclear explosion in 1986It was just a regular day for Anastasia Fedosenko. It was spring, a busy time for local farmers. Nobody told her about the explosion at first. “It was only on the third day that they said something had happened at the Chernobyl plant, but nobody knew what exactly. They evacuated pregnant women and mothers with children under five, but the rest of us just continued our normal routine, feeding and milk
  
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• Climate scientists are now grading climate journalism | Daniel Nethery and Emmanuel Vincent

  26-04-2016 12:00
  
  Climate Feedback provides a venue for climate scientists to evaluate the accuracy of climate news stories
  The internet represents an extraordinary opportunity for democracy. Never before has it been possible for people from all over the world to access the latest information and collectively seek solutions to the challenges which face our planet, and not a moment too soon: the year 2015 was the hottest in human history, and the Great Barrier Reef is suffering the consequences of warming oceans r
  
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• 'Human swan' to join Russia migration

  26-04-2016 11:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A conservationist plans to take flight this autumn alongside thousands of swans as they make a 4,500-mile journey from the Russian arctic to the UK.
  
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• Beagle probe 'seen in sharper view'

  26-04-2016 11:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Supporting evidence that the Beagle-2 probe is sitting intact on the surface of Mars has come from a new imaging technique developed by UCL scientists.
  
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• Caroline Lucas: Brexit is a frightening prospect for Britain's environment

  26-04-2016 10:49
  
  EXCLUSIVE: Energy policies would be rolled back, demand for environmental experts would drop and Britain's voice on international climate change negotiations would be lost if the nation votes to leave the EU in the upcoming referendum, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has said.
  
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• How one Russian oligarch beat the crisis and made a fortune

  26-04-2016 10:23
  By Dmitry Zhdannikov LONDON (Reuters) - As Russia was descending into financial crisis, some of its most influential oil and stocks traders gathered at the exclusive River Club in central Moscow at the invitation of state lender Sberbank.     It was December 2014, and the future looked bleak as oil prices tumbled, but Sberbank had a special cause for celebration.     "We have just performed a pretty unique deal for Russia," a Sberbank manager told guests, explaining
  
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• Scotland 'well-prepared' to embrace disruptive circular economy business models

  26-04-2016 10:00
  
  EXCLUSIVE: The willingness of Scotland's universities, councils and health services to embrace new initiatives based on circular economy principles has allowed disruptive innovators to gain a foothold in the UK market and expand their business.
  
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• Scottish Power fined £18m for poor customer service

  26-04-2016 09:23
  
  Regulator Ofgem says energy provider ‘failed to treat its customers fairly over a sustained period of time’Ofgem has handed out its third biggest fine to one of the big six energy providers after Scottish Power agreed to pay £18m for poor customer service.In a scathing review of the company’s treatment of customers, the regulator said Scottish Power had failed to provide even the basic level of service required, attracting more than one million customer complaints between
  
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• Thousands of corroboree frog eggs released in fight to save endangered species

  26-04-2016 09:17
  
  Hopes species will recover as eggs bred in captivity at Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Zoos Victoria enter the wildAfter 10 years of captive breeding, the critically endangered corroboree frog might be on its way back from the brink of extinction.Fewer than 50 mature corroboree frogs live in the wild in alpine New South Wales and scientists have estimated that without a captive breeding program that began 10 years ago they would be a mere two years from extinction. In fact, most of the frogs currentl
  
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• BP eyes more spending cuts after 80 percent profit drop

  26-04-2016 08:56
  By Ron Bousso and Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - BP said on Tuesday it could cut capital spending further after reporting an 80 percent drop in profits in the first quarter of the year, when oil prices touched a near 13-year low. Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley nevertheless said he expected crude prices to recover towards the end of the year as producers halt work on fields and fuel demand remains robust.     "Market fundamentals continue to suggest that the combination
  
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• Growing underground: the fresh herbs sprouting beneath Londoners' feet

  26-04-2016 08:00
  
  Daily crops grown in former air raid shelters under Clapham supply markets and a home delivery service and herald a novel approach to urban farming The UK’s first underground farm is protected from the vagaries of the weather but not, it turned out, from another perennial problem for farmers: trespassers.
  The appearance of spray-painted squares on the floor of the former air raid shelters under Clapham in London mystified Steven Dring, co-founder of Growing Underground: “Then someone
  
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• Don't think disabled people aren't interested in cycling – or in proper bike lanes | Isabelle Clement

  26-04-2016 08:00
  
  Objectors to new bike routes in London and elsewhere often cite the needs of people with disabilities. They’ve missed the pointWhenever bike infrastructure is debated, it’s never very long before someone objects by saying: “But what happens to people with disabilities if you build cycle lanes?” They have forgotten one very important thing: a lot of disabled people cycle, and benefit even more than most from quick, safe cycle routes.Such arguments are seen around the count
  
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• Anxious wait as the cow goes into labour | Country diary

  26-04-2016 06:30
  
  Allendale, Northumberland I watch a contraction surge across her back, a muscular ripple beneath her shining coat
  I’ve been waiting weeks for the phone call: “There’s a cow calving right now and I can see its feet.” Grabbing my notebook and extra layers of clothing, I drive up the valley to High Studdon Farm. “We can watch from a loft above the pen”, says Nick Howard, indicating the ladder to a hayloft. Sitting on a bale, I can look down into a barn thick with
  
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• Chernobyl nuclear disaster: Ukraine marks 30th anniversary

  26-04-2016 06:08
  
  Series of events held to commemorate the tragedy, which remains the worst nuclear accident in historyUkraine is marking the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which permanently poisoned swathes of eastern Europe and highlighted the shortcomings of the secretive Soviet system. In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a botched test at the nuclear plant in then-Soviet Ukraine triggered a meltdown that spewed deadly clouds of atomic material into the atmosphere, forcing tens of thousa
  
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• CSIRO job cuts fewer than feared but climate scientists say reduction a 'con'

  26-04-2016 03:20
  
  Thirty-five jobs saved and half of remaining 75 to 80 climate scientists to go to new centre in Hobart About 35 climate science jobs at the CSIRO have been saved from initial cuts of 110, as part of a restructure that includes the establishment of a new climate science centre in Hobart. Of the organisation’s remaining 75 to 80 climate scientists, half will go to the Tasmanian centre. Continue reading...
  
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• Crocodile victim says he’s ‘a bit sore’ after Northern Territory attack

  26-04-2016 02:36
  
  Camper Peter Rowsell says the crocodile came through a hole in his tent, which was just 15 metres from the water’s edgeA 19-year-old man says he’s “still a bit sore” after he was attacked by a crocodile while sleeping in a tent in Australia’s Northern Territory on Monday.Peter Rowsell had been camping with family near a creek in the Daly region, about two hours’ drive from Katherine, on the Anzac Day long weekend. Continue reading...
  
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• Scott Morrison faces pressure to cut $7.7bn fossil fuel subsidies

  26-04-2016 02:31
  
  Religious, education and renewable energy sector leaders gather in Canberra, urging treasurer to take action in budgetA diverse group of religious, education and renewable energy sector leaders have gathered in Canberra to pressure Scott Morrison to cut $7.7bn worth of subsidies for fossil fuels in the budget.Related: Fossil-fuel industry gets $2,000 in 'subsidies' for each $1 in party donationsContinue reading...
  
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