Environment news

• HP to cut plastic packaging use by 75% by 2025

  24-06-2020 18:36
  
  Printing and electronics giant HP has committed to using 75% fewer pieces of single-use plastic packaging in 2025 than it did in 2018, as it revealed that its sustainable products and services generated more than $1.6bn (£1.27bn) in sales last year.
  
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• Fears mountains in Scotland and Wales will be overrun as lockdowns eased

  24-06-2020 17:23
  
  Mountaineering groups voice safety concerns as hillwalkers set to returnCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMountaineering and hill-walking groups have warned some of the UK’s most popular mountains and national parks will be inundated after the lockdowns end in Scotland and Wales.They fear there could be chaotic scenes and significant overcrowding in areas such as Glen Coe, Loch Lomond, Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons, putting local services, roads and mount
  
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• Seasteading – a vanity project for the rich or the future of humanity?

  24-06-2020 13:32
  
  Beloved by Silicon Valley tycoons and tyranny-fearing libertarians, are cities atop the waves Earth’s next frontier?A white steel pole rises out of the sea off the Caribbean coast of Panama, poking above the waves like the funnel of a sunken steamship. Launched into the water last month, this is no shipwreck, but the base of what will soon become a floating home and, in the eyes of its makers, the first step towards building a brave new post-Covid-19 society, out on the open ocean.“C
  
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• Hydrogen 'could provide half of the UK's net-zero energy demand'

  24-06-2020 13:21
  
  Around 500TWh of hydrogen-generated power could be consumed annually in the UK by 2050 - equivalent to 50% of national demand - provided that ambitious supports from policy and large businesses are put in place, new analysis has found.
  
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• We must not miss this glorious chance to address the climate and biodiversity crises | Jonathon Porritt

  24-06-2020 12:43
  
  If the government plots a green recovery from coronavirus, the benefits are endless. If it doesn’t, we’re screwed
  Trillions of dollars will be invested by governments in reviving their economies over the next two or three years. If those dollars are well spent, ensuringlow-carbon, nature-restoring prosperity, we have a real chance of avoiding runaway climate change and ecosystem collapse. If they’re spent on taking us back to pre-coronavirus days, we’re screwed. The clima
  
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• SDGs: Just 39% of businesses think they are taking enough action, UN survey finds

  24-06-2020 12:39
  
  A survey of more than 600 business representatives by the UN found that just 39% believe their employer has targets that are sufficiently ambitious to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2020 deadline.
  
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• Business for Clean Air: New initiative to help corporates tackle air pollution as lockdown lifts

  24-06-2020 11:19
  
  Large UK businesses are now able to access a new array of tools aimed at helping them to tackle air pollution, after numerous surveys revealed that the British public are keen to see improvements in air quality maintained after lockdown.
  
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• Labor's climate wars truce is cause for hope, as long as it doesn't lead to bipartisan inaction | Frank Jotzo

  24-06-2020 09:59
  
  Taken at face value, Anthony Albanese’s intervention throws a positive challenge to the governmentAustralia has been in the climate wars since late 2009 when Tony Abbott rolled Malcolm Turnbull and made the pursuit of no climate policy a hallmark of Australian conservative politics. It has been an all-out battle at many points, simmering conflict at others. Investor confidence has been one of the casualties.Now it appears that the Labor party is offering a truce. The opposition leader, Ant
  
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• IPPR: UK 'acutely vulnerable' to environmental breakdown

  24-06-2020 09:00
  
  UK policymakers have 'historically disregarded' the economic, social and environmental risks posed by the degradation of nature, meaning more ambition and action is now desperately needed to mitigate further damage and adapt to changes which are already baked-in.
  
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• 'My land is now owned by lions': Maasai farmers offer Kenya's wildlife a lifeline

  24-06-2020 08:30
  
  Kenya has lost 70% of its wildlife in 30 years, but conservancy schemes could halt the decline – and benefit local communitiesParsaloi Kupai’s home, situated on the edge of Ol Kinyei conservancy near the Maasai Mara game reserve, is no different from any other Maasai homestead – oval-shaped huts with an almost flat roof and walls plastered with a mixture of water, mud and cow dung. At the centre of the homestead is a cattle boma, an enclosure where his livestock spends the nigh
  
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• UK's net zero pledge: what has been achieved one year on?

  24-06-2020 08:00
  
  The urgency of the climate emergency has grown but there has been little progress so farLast summer, Theresa May signed into law the UK’s ground-breaking target of hitting net zero carbon emissions by 2050 against a backdrop of increasingly vocal Extinction Rebellion protests, school climate strikes and Brexit-related political turmoil within the Conservative party.It was one of the last acts of a beleaguered prime minister, under fire after a series of missteps and haemorrhaging support i
  
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• How did wildlife groups start collaborating in the destruction of nature? | George Monbiot

  24-06-2020 07:00
  
  We need strong campaigns to confront environmental collapse. Instead, we get weakness and complicityOut of this horror comes hope. In the backwash of the pandemic’s first wave, we see the shingled ruins of the old economy, and the chance to construct a new one. As we rebuild our economic life, we should do it on green principles, averting a crisis many times greater than the coronavirus: climate breakdown and the collapse of our life-support systems.This means no more fossil fuel-based inf
  
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• Black women scientists missing from textbooks, study finds

  24-06-2020 03:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists portrayed in biology textbooks are predominantly white men, according to a US study.
  
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• Avoiding single-use plastic was becoming normal. Here’s how we can return to good habits

  24-06-2020 03:23
  
  Pre-pandemic, Australians made great progress on phasing them out – it is possible for the good work to continueAs Covid-19 restrictions start to ease, we’re unlikely to return to our previous behaviours, from our work-life balance to maintaining good hygiene.But there are downsides to this new normal, particularly when it comes to hygiene concerns, which have led to an increase in an environmental scourge we were finally starting to get on top of: single-use plastics. Continue readi
  
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• Post-Brexit trade policy must encourage 'race to the top' on environmental standards, business giants urge

  24-06-2020 02:05
  
  A coalition of business leaders is urging Ministers to ensure that post-Brexit Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) not only include non-regression clauses on environmental standards, but actively promote stronger requirements on a global scale.
  
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• Drax partners with Mitsubishi to scale up biomass carbon capture

  24-06-2020 02:01
  
  Drax Group has confirmed plans to install a new carbon capture and storage (CCS) array at its biomass power station in North Yorkshire this year, as part of a partnership with Mitsubishi's Heavy Industries arm.
  
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• Coronavirus: Looking for viruses in Thai bats

  24-06-2020 01:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Thai scientists are collecting bats to find clues about the origins of viruses, including Covid-19.
  
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