Environment news

• Architectural landscape awards: healing gardens, penguin viewing areas and nature trails

  15-11-2016 22:45
  
  The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects recently handed out their trophies for landscape architecture projects at the National Landscape Architecture Awards.
  From urban hospital gardens to penguin viewing areas, from gorge trails to cultural precincts, all the projects focused on green spaces and sustainably minded infrastructure ‘to promote health, social and economic prosperity for urban and regional communities’. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Oil prices soar 6 percent on renewed hopes of OPEC output deal

  15-11-2016 21:49
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped 6 percent on Tuesday, with U.S. crude notching its biggest daily percentage gain in seven months, on renewed expectations that OPEC will agree later this month to reduce a global supply glut. OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo will travel to member nations, including Iran and Venezuela, over the next several days to discuss the deal ahead of the group's meeting in Vienna on Nov. 30. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting C
  
  Read more

• Russia's Putin fires economy minister over bribery charges

  15-11-2016 20:22
  By Svetlana Reiter and Andrey Kuzmin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on Tuesday over allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from top oil producer Rosneft, a case that could expose fault lines in the Russian leader's inner circle. Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry oversees a politically-charged sale of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be detained while in office since the collapse of the S
  
  Read more

• Canada gives $3.3bn subsidies to fossil fuel producers despite climate pledge

  15-11-2016 20:06
  
  Government subsidy to gas and oil companies undermine Trudeau’s plan to put national price on carbon dioxide by 2018, environmental report warnedCanada’s attempt to act on climate change is being undermined by $3.3bn in government subsidies flowing to oil and gas producers in the country a year, a new report has warned.
  Prime minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to place a national price on carbon dioxide emissions by 2018. Last week, Trudeau said he would not be deterred by the US pres
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Give millennials a seat at climate talks as a symbolic new country | Letters

  15-11-2016 20:01
  
  Nasa released data earlier this year showing that global surface temperatures across land and ocean in February were a whopping 1.35C warmer than the average temperature for that same month from 1951 to 1980. As the COP22 comes to a close, it’s time we think hard, and think creatively, about the way forward and start preparing for new initiatives. Building on the impressive success of COP21 in Paris, many political and business leaders as well as representatives of civil society seem eager
  
  Read more

• Tehran shuts schools as thick smog is linked to hundreds of deaths

  15-11-2016 19:32
  
  Authorities in Iranian capital forced to take emergency action amid unprecedented levels of air pollutionAt this time of the year, citizens of Tehran are accustomed to a thick curtain of fog that falls across the city, veiling everything from the 435 metre-tall Milad tower to the nearby Alborz mountains. This week, however, the blanket of smog smothering the Iranian capital has been blamed for a string of deaths and prompted unprecedented emergency measures by the city’s authorities. Conti
  
  Read more

• What makes your perfect cup of coffee?

  15-11-2016 19:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC's Bryony Hopkins asked Londoners for their idea of the perfect cup of coffee.
  
  Read more

• Hollande: US 'must respect climate commitments'

  15-11-2016 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  French president Francois Hollande says that the US must respect their commitments made under the Paris Climate Agreement.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Russia's Putin dismisses economy minister - Kremlin

  15-11-2016 18:59
  SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev after losing trust in him, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Ulyukayev was detained overnight and charged with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company. Peskov told reporters that Ulyukayev's arrest did not concern a $5 billion deal for Rosneft to purchase a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Jack S
  
  Read more

• BP inks deal for General Electric oilfield data service

  15-11-2016 18:53
  (Reuters) - BP PLC said on Tuesday it will use a new digital solution by General Electric Co designed to improve the efficiency and safety of its offshore oil platforms by predicting equipment breakdowns before they occur. The POA gathers data from various pieces of equipment on offshore platforms and processes it through GE's proprietary Predix software to inform BP engineers when a part may be near breaking down. "This makes it much easier for people to act on the information and the data we a
  
  Read more

• European shares edge up as oil rallies, utilities bounce

  15-11-2016 18:29
  By Danilo Masoni MILAN (Reuters) - European shares edged up on Tuesday helped by a surge in crude oil prices and a rebound in utilities, while telecoms equipment maker Nokia slumped on a disappointing earnings outlook update. The STOXX 600 rose 0.3 percent at the end of a choppy session. The pan-European index remains down 7 percent so far in 2016. ...
  
  Read more

• Japan, Russia say on track to bolster ties despite minister's detention

  15-11-2016 18:13
  Japan and Russia said on Tuesday they would accelerate talks on economic cooperation ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan in December, despite the detention of Russia's economy minister. The minister, Alexei Ulyukayev, who denies extorting a $2 million bribe from oil giant Rosneft , had led the Kremlin's efforts to deepen cooperation with Tokyo. "We will speed up arrangements, so that more than 10 documents in such areas as customs, human exchange and medicine can be agreed
  
  Read more

• Oil prices soar on renewed hopes of OPEC output deal

  15-11-2016 18:00
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped as much as 5 percent on Tuesday, bouncing back from multi-month lows on renewed expectations that OPEC will agree later this month to cut production to reduce a supply glut that has weighed on prices for more than two years. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is due to meet on Nov. 30 to hammer out the terms of a deal to limit output. Traders and analysts also pointed to a report from Monday about a last ditch effo
  
  Read more

• Russian Economy Minister Ulyukayev denies extorting $2 million bribe

  15-11-2016 17:56
  By Svetlana Reiter and Andrey Kuzmin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on Tuesday denied extorting a $2 million bribe after Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company, helped authorities organise a sting on him in a case that could expose fault lines in Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry oversees a politically-charged sale of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be detained while in office since the collapse
  
  Read more

• COP22 update: Delegates drive on with climate action amidst Trump trepidations

  15-11-2016 17:56
  
  As reports about US President-Elect Donald Trump's determination to walk away from the Paris Agreement emerge, delegates at COP22 in Marrakesh have forged ahead with ambitious new climate frameworks and bold pledges aimed at accelerating the global low-carbon transition.
  
  Read more

• A New Way to Image Solar Cells in 3-D

  15-11-2016 17:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  Next-generation solar cells made of super-thin films of semiconducting material hold promise because they’re relatively inexpensive and flexible enough to be applied just about anywhere.Researchers are working to dramatically increase the efficiency at which thin-film solar cells convert sunlight to electricity. But it’s a tough challenge, partly because a solar cell’s subsurface realm—where much of the energy-conversion action happens—is inaccessible to real-time,
  
  Read more

• Russian Economy Minister put under house arrest for two months

  15-11-2016 17:33
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Tuesday placed Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev under house arrest for two months until Jan. 15 after he was charged with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft , Russia's biggest oil company. Ulyukayev denies soliciting a bribe. (Reporting by Svetlana Reiter; Writing by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
  
  Read more

• Saudi, Russian energy ministers may meet in Doha ahead of OPEC - sources

  15-11-2016 17:17
  By Rania El Gamal DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian and Russia energy ministers could meet in Qatar this week on the sidelines of a major energy forum, industry sources said on Tuesday as OPEC and non-OPEC members try again to clinch an oil output limiting deal. In September, OPEC agreed at a meeting in Algeria on modest, preliminary, oil output cuts in the first such deal since 2008, with special conditions given to Libya, Nigeria and Iran, whose output has been hit by wars and sanctions. The agr
  
  Read more

• Alan Boatman obituary

  15-11-2016 17:15
  
  My friend Alan Boatman, who has died suddenly in his sleep aged 46, ran his own environmental consultancy, Geo-Sys, in Laos, working on projects identifying and mitigating the impact of resource exploitation in this remarkable area of south-east Asia. Recognising the depth of his experience, the United Nations Drug Control Programme hired Alan to conduct opium surveys in Afghanistan and Laos. At one stage this led to an uncomfortable disagreement with the authorities, as his figures from the fie
  
  Read more

• Food waste activists call for policy overhaul

  15-11-2016 17:12
  
  Prominent food waste campaigners Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tristram Stuart have today (15 November) called on the UK Government to implement several food waste policies such as labelling reform, national reduction targets and the strengthened role of an independent adjudicator between supermarkets and suppliers.
  
  Read more

• VF corporation exceeds carbon reduction goals by 'large margin'

  15-11-2016 17:00
  
  International apparel and footwear company VF corporation has reduced its global carbon emissions by 12% from 2011 to 2015 - exceeding its original 5% goal for the five-year period.
  
  Read more

• Swimmers complete 7-hour crawl across shrinking Dead Sea

  15-11-2016 17:00
  
  EIN GEDI, Israel (AP) — A multinational group of swimmers swam seven hours through the salty, soupy waters of the Dead Sea on Tuesday in a bid to draw attention to the environmental degradation of the fabled lake.
  
  Read more

• Russian minister was detained at Rosneft offices - lawyer

  15-11-2016 16:17
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Alexei Ulyukayev, the Russian economy minister charged with extorting a bribe from Russian oil company Rosneft , was detained at the firm's offices, Ulyukayev's lawyer Timofei Gridnev told Reuters. (Reporting by Svetlana Reiter and Andrei Kuzmin; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Alexander Winning)
  
  Read more

• Maths zeroes in on perfect cup of coffee

  15-11-2016 16:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Mathematicians are a step closer to understanding what makes a perfect cup of coffee.
  
  Read more

• Database helps plant 'right tree for the right place'

  15-11-2016 16:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  German researchers compile a 400-species Citree database to encourage people to plant the "right tree for the right place" in urban areas.
  
  Read more

• France's Hollande tells Trump to respect climate deal

  15-11-2016 15:56
  French President Francois Hollande urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to respect a global agreement to limit climate change, saying the deal was irreversible and inaction on global warming would be disastrous. Hollande told a U.N. conference on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco, that the 2015 agreement to limit emissions "is irreversible in law and in fact. "The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the
  
  Read more

• Russian Economy Minister charged with extorting $2 million bribe

  15-11-2016 15:31
  By Svetlana Reiter and Vladimir Soldatkin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators on Tuesday charged Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company, in a case that threatens to expose fault lines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev had extorted the bribe in exchange for approving Rosneft's $5 billion purchase of a stake in mid-sized
  
  Read more

• Russian investigator - Economy Minister Ulyukayev denies he is guilty

  15-11-2016 15:30
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has denied he is guilty of receiving bribes, a Russian investigator told a court on Tuesday. Ulyukayev was detained overnight and charged with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft , Russia's biggest oil company, in a case that threatens to expose fault lines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. (Reporting by Svetlana Reiter; Writing by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)
  
  Read more

• Built by the Huns? Ancient Stone Monuments Discovered Along Caspian

  15-11-2016 15:10
  
  A massive, 1,500-year-old stone complex that may have been built by nomad tribes has been discovered near the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. The complex contains numerous stone structures sprawled over about 300 acres (120 hectares) of land, or more than 200 American football fields, archaeologists reported recently in the journal Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia. The smallest stone structures are only 13 feet by 13 feet (4 by 4 meters), and the biggest are 112 feet
  
  Read more

• More than 40 Shipwrecks Discovered in Black Sea

  15-11-2016 15:09
  
  A geological exploration of the Black Sea has turned up a surprising bonus: more than 40 beautifully preserved shipwrecks, some dating back to the Ottoman and Byzantine empires. Researchers were surveying the Bulgarian portion of the Black Sea, an inland sea, to better understand its geologic history. During the survey, they stumbled across the ships, which the investigators imaged with "astonishing" detail, said project leader and marine archaeologist Jon Adams of the University of Southampton
  
  Read more

• East Midlands site gets green light for shale gas exploration

  15-11-2016 14:38
  
  Nottinghamshire council approves iGas planning application to drill two wells at Misson, the third UK site to be approved for exploration this year An energy company has been given the green light to explore for shale gas in the East Midlands, the first step towards the site being potentially fracked in the future.Nottinghamshire council approved iGas’s planning application to vertically and horizontally drill two wells at Misson in north Nottinghamshire, by a vote of seven to four.Continu
  
  Read more

• Want to save the starling? Keep your lawn | Kate Bradbury

  15-11-2016 14:14
  
  With starling numbers still tumbling, Kate Bradbury is determined to make her garden a haven for these acrobatic birdsSome of the starlings that dance around Brighton Pier at dusk spend their days on the rooftops above my garden. They whoop and whistle atop television aerials and chimney stacks, fly about a bit. Then, a couple of hours before sunset, they become noisier. They seem to call to each other, egg each other on like friends texting before a night out. Impatiently, little groups fly fro
  
  Read more

• Syria's food production edging nearer to collapse, UN warns

  15-11-2016 14:11
  
  ‘Grave consequences’ for food supply with wheat production halved since the start of the war and the area of fields planted at an all-time lowFood production in Syria is edging nearer to collapse with wheat production having halved since the start of the war and the area of fields planted now at an all-time low, according to the UN.The World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned of grave consequences for the availability of food in the warn-torn region unl
  
  Read more

• Kremlin - economy minister's detention will not hurt investment climate

  15-11-2016 13:31
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday he did not think the detention of Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev would hurt the investment climate in Russia. Ulyukayev was detained overnight and charged with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft , Russia's biggest oil company, in a case that threatens to expose fault lines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Jack Stubbs)
  
  Read more

• Russian investigators call for house arrest of economy minister Ulyukayev

  15-11-2016 13:30
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators have appealed to a court to order the house arrest of Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. Ulyukayev was detained overnight and charged with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft , Russia's biggest oil company, in a case that threatens to expose fault lines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. (Reporting by Anton Zverev; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Jack Stubbs)
  
  Read more

• Niger Delta militants claim attack on Nembe Creek pipeline

  15-11-2016 13:28
  Nigerian militant group Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) said on Tuesday it had attacked the Nembe Creek Trunk Line pipeline in the southern Niger Delta. Earlier this month, the president met local community leader to hear their grievances. The NDA, which wants more energy wealth to go to the swampland region which is the source of most of Nigeria's oil, said on its website its strike team attacked the Nembe 1, 2 and 3 branches of the pipeline.
  
  Read more

• Why do seabirds eat plastic?

  15-11-2016 13:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Heartbreaking stories of seabirds eating plastic — and the accompanying horrible images— are everywhere, but now scientists are an important question: Why do seabirds eat plastic in the first place? And why are some more likely to have bellies full of plastic than others?The answer, it turns out, lies in a compound called dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, which emits a “chemical scream” that some birds associate with food. When seabirds find chunks o
  
  Read more

• Russian Economy Minister charged with extorting $2 mln bribe

  15-11-2016 13:26
  By Svetlana Reiter and Vladimir Soldatkin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators on Tuesday charged Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev with extorting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company, in a case that threatens to expose fault lines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev had extorted the bribe in exchange for approving Rosneft's $5 billion purchase of a stake in mid-sized
  
  Read more

• Climate change action 'unstoppable' despite Trump - U.N.'s Ban

  15-11-2016 13:17
  By Alister Doyle and Nina Chestney MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday action on climate change has become "unstoppable" and predicted that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels. At a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco to work out ways to implement the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, Ban said U.S. companies, states and cities were all pushin
  
  Read more

• Oil prices jump 3 percent on hopes of OPEC output cut

  15-11-2016 13:12
  By Christopher Johnson LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent on Tuesday, bouncing back from multi-month lows on expectations that OPEC will agree later this month to cut production to reduce a supply glut. Oil producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are due to meet later this month to agree to limit output. OPEC is a diverse grouping, politically and economically, and several members wish to increase production.
  
  Read more

• Keep it in the ground: 2016 likely to be hottest year on record

  15-11-2016 13:06
  
  The world’s temperature is running at 1.2C above pre-industrial levels after another year of record-breaking heat affecting people around the worldLatest figures from the UN’s World Meterological Organization (WMO) released on Monday showed that 2016 would very likely become the hottest year on record. This is a new high for the third year running, and means that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century.This year saw searing heatwaves from South Africa to India, Ar
  
  Read more

• Joseph Stiglitz: what the US economy needs from Donald Trump

  15-11-2016 13:00
  
  Too many Americans feel left behind by globalisation. But Trump is unlikely to pursue the agenda his voters need. This is what he should doDonald Trump’s astonishing victory in the US presidential election has made one thing abundantly clear: too many Americans – particularly white male Americans – feel left behind. It is not just a feeling, it can be seen in the data no less clearly than in their anger. And, as I have argued repeatedly, an economic system that doesn’t de
  
  Read more

• Global climate change action 'unstoppable' despite Trump

  15-11-2016 12:29
  
  UN’s Ban Ki-moon expresses hopes that the US president-elect will drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuelsThe UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said on Tuesday that action on climate change has become “unstoppable“, and he expressed hopes that US president-elect, Donald Trump, would drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels. At a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco to work out ways to implement the
  
  Read more

• Dino-bird fossil had sparkly feathers 'to attract mate '

  15-11-2016 12:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An extinct bird that lived 120 million years ago had iridescent feathers, probably to attract a mate, fossil evidence shows.
  
  Read more

• Businesses urged to 'wake up' over £11bn water risks

  15-11-2016 12:13
  
  Businesses have been issued a "wake-up call" by a new CDP report which revealed that water risks fuelled by climate change cost the private sector $14bn (£11.3bn) over the last year.
  
  Read more

• Adidas launches mass-produced ocean plastic trainers

  15-11-2016 12:08
  
  Global sportswear company Adidas looks set to push around 7,000 pairs of trainers made from 95% ocean plastic into the market, alongside setting a new goal to produce one million ocean plastic pairs of trainers by 2017.
  
  Read more

• Total to roll out solar arrays across 5,000 services stations

  15-11-2016 11:57
  
  Multinational oil and gas company Total is launching a program to fit 5,000 of its service stations across the globe with solar PV panels within the next five years.
  
  Read more

• Oil prices up 2 percent on hopes of OPEC output cut

  15-11-2016 11:55
  By Christopher Johnson LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose around 2 percent on Tuesday, bouncing back from multi-month lows on optimism that OPEC will agree later this month to cut production to reduce a supply glut. Oil producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are due to meet on Nov. 30 to agree to limit output. OPEC is a diverse grouping, politically and economically, and several members wish to increase production.
  
  Read more

• Russian investigators charge Ulyukayev with bribery

  15-11-2016 11:44
  Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, who was detained over night, was formally charged with bribery by investigators, Russian investigative committee said in a statement on Tuesday. Russia's top oil producer Rosneft filed a complaint against Ulyukayev saying he had threatened the company over the Bashneft deal, the investigators said. Ulyukayev was detained while receiving $2 million as a bribe, the statement said.
  
  Read more

• Global climate change action 'unstoppable' despite Trump - U.N.'s Ban

  15-11-2016 11:33
  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday action on climate change has become "unstoppable", and he expressed hopes that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels. At a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco to work out ways to implement the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, Ban said U.S. companies, states and cities were all pushing to limit global warming. "What was once unthinkable ha
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!