Environment news

• Climate change: Siberian heatwave 'clear evidence' of warming

  15-07-2020 23:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The heatwave would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change, a study says.
  
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• Trump weakens environmental law to speed up infrastructure projects

  15-07-2020 23:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The president hails the changes as "historic", but critics say they are designed to avoid scrutiny.
  
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• Desert telescope takes aim at ageing our Universe

  15-07-2020 16:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A telescope high in the Atacama Desert in Chile enters the debate about the age of the Universe.
  
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• WEF: Invest in nature-led Covid-19 recovery to reap $10trn economic opportunity

  15-07-2020 13:32
  
  By embedding 'net-positive' nature requirements into their Covid-19 recovery strategies, governments and businesses could collectively realise a $10trn (£7.9trn) economic opportunity and create 395 million new jobs within a decade.
  
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• BlackRock and ING confirmed for edie's sustainable investment and climate disclosure webinar

  15-07-2020 12:38
  
  Sustainable finance experts from BlackRock Investment Stewardship, ING and Tideway will appear in edie's next webinar focusing on sustainable investment and climate disclosure, which will take place on Wednesday 29 July.
  
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• ‘There's a direct relationship’: Brazil meat plants linked to spread of Covid-19

  15-07-2020 12:32
  
  Conditions at plants contributed to transmission of virus, experts say, as country remains second only to US for deathsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBrazilian meat plants helped spread Covid-19 in at least three different places across the country as the virus continues to migrate from big cities to the country’s vast interior, labour law prosecutors have said.At the beginning of this week the country was second only to the US with 1.88 million confirmed
  
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• G20 nations funnel $151bn of Covid-19 recovery funding into fossil fuels

  15-07-2020 12:13
  
  Of the Covid-19 recovery funding allocated to energy companies by G20 governments, 56% has been handed to fossil fuel projects, equivalent to $151bn (£119bn).
  
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• Government urged to ratchet up spending into household energy efficiency

  15-07-2020 12:11
  
  The UK Government has been urged to implement a Home Improvement Plan to facilitate more than £5bn in annual spending to improve the energy efficiency of the UK's housing stock to contribute to the net-zero target for 2050.
  
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• Government urges to ratchet up spending into household energy efficiency

  15-07-2020 11:50
  
  The UK Government has been urged to implement a Home Improvement Plan to facilitate more than £5bn in annual spending to improve the energy efficiency of the UK's housing stock to contribute to the net-zero target for 2050.
  
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• Energy storage planning regulations eased in bid to spur net-zero transition

  15-07-2020 10:50
  
  The UK Government has moved to relax planning rules for large-scale energy storage arrays, in the hopes of speeding up the energy sector's net-zero transition and boosting investment in the sector post-lockdown.
  
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• Nuclear blast sends star hurtling across galaxy

  15-07-2020 10:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A star has been sent hurtling across the galaxy after undergoing a partial supernova.
  
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• Sinking Dutchman: world’s largest historical sailing fleet threatened by Covid-19

  15-07-2020 09:30
  
  Lockdown is keeping ships in port – and as bankruptcy looms for many skippers, an ‘irreplaceable’ part of the Netherlands’ maritime heritage is at riskIf it weren’t for Covid-19, Sven Timmann would be sailing the relatively calm inland waters of the Netherlands with groups of schoolchildren, businesspeople and families. Instead, his ship, the Ambiance – a 112-year-old clipper with three masts and six sails – has been docked since October, and there is a
  
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• UK government planning new green investment bank

  15-07-2020 07:01
  
  Germany’s development bank KWV could facilitate its creation, says energy ministerThe UK government is poised to reveal plans for a new state-backed green bank to help finance Britain’s climate ambitions, three years after ministers agreed to sell the UK’s Green Investment Bank.Kwasi Kwarteng, the energy minister, said that he expects the government to set out how it plans to create a successor to the Green Investment Bank “in the not-too-distant future”. Continue r
  
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• UK energy efficiency push offers just a third of the investment needed, says report

  15-07-2020 07:01
  
  IPPR says 12m homes will need to be refitted to meet net-zero targets but £3bn earmarked is not nearly enoughThe government’s new plans to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes will make only a fraction of the progress needed to help the UK meet its legally binding climate targets, according to a new study.A report by IPPR, a left-leaning thinktank, has found at least 12 million homes will need to be fitted with low-carbon heat pumps and energy efficiency measures, such as insulatio
  
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• Country diary: heathers and restless grasses are arresting

  15-07-2020 06:30
  
  Blanchland moor, Northumberland: For the first time in months, I am standing on open heathland with nothing above me but skyMy daily walk during four months of coronavirus lockdown took me only as far as the end of a lane where I could see distant North Pennine fell tops. Today, I am standing on open heathland with nothing above me but sky, looking down on a landscape that falls away at my feet, where cloud shadows race across a deep valley and slide over the horizon.I had almost forgotten this
  
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• In the Loop: Tesco and TerraCycle pilot 'zero-waste' refill service in the UK

  15-07-2020 02:01
  
  TerraCycle has today (15 July) launched its zero-waste shopping platform in the UK in collaboration with Tesco, after a delay due to Covid-19.
  
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• Fertility rate: 'Jaw-dropping' global crash in children being born

  15-07-2020 01:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Nearly every country will see their populations fall as the world has fewer babies.
  
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• Increase in invasive species poses dramatic threat to biodiversity – report

  15-07-2020 01:02
  
  Tourism, transport and the climate crisis found to be major drivers of rise in alien plants and animals, which can decimate ecosystems
  An increase in the spread of non-native plant and animals species around the world could lead to dramatic biodiversity loss, a new study has found, causing permanent damage to ecosystems as they are pushed past biological tipping points.The study, published in Global Change Biology, is the result of an expert survey on how likely global trends this century will a
  
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• Methane rises to highest level on record

  15-07-2020 00:00
  
  Livestock farming and fossil fuels are main causes of rise in gas, which is 28 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heatAnimal farming and fossil fuels have driven global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to the highest level on record, putting the world on track for dangerously increased heat levels of 3C to 4C.Since 2000 discharges of the odourless, colourless gas have risen by more than 50m tonnes a year, equivalent to 350m cars or double the total emissions of Germany or Fra
  
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