Environment news

• Coronavirus: Gull caught in PPE face mask in Chelmsford

  20-07-2020 17:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The bird struggled for about a week while the elastic on the face mask tightened around its legs.
  
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• Climate change: Polar bears could be lost by 2100

  20-07-2020 17:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists say we have time to save polar bears if we act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  
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• Most polar bears to disappear by 2100, study predicts

  20-07-2020 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Melting Arctic sea ice could cause starvation and reproductive failure for many as early as 2040, scientists warn
  Scientists have predicted for the first time when, where and how polar bears are likely to disappear, warning that if greenhouse gas emissions stay on their current trajectory all but a few polar bear populations in the Arctic will probably be gone by 2100.By as early as 2040, it is very likely that many polar bears will begin to experience reproductive failure, leading to local exti
  
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• MoD contracts Airbus for Skynet telecoms satellite

  20-07-2020 16:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  UK forces will get a new satellite as the MoD looks to overhaul its space communications provision.
  
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• Defra unveils natural capital 'assessment' funding as post-Brexit green recovery shapes up

  20-07-2020 15:49
  
  Environment Minister George Eustice has announced a new £5m Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment to protect the UK's environment as part of a new package of Environment Bill measures, on the same day that the Government unveiled a £16m sustainable farming package in South America.
  
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• Coronavirus: Government promises a green recovery

  20-07-2020 14:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Environment Minister George Eustice seeks to allay environmentalist fears over new planning rules.
  
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• English local authorities encouraged to align with SDGs in green recovery planning

  20-07-2020 13:45
  
  The body representing 335 of the UK's 339 local authorities has launched a guide for engagement and alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it claims should be accelerated in efforts to "build back better" post-pandemic.
  
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• Canary Wharf Group sets 1.5C-aligned science-based emissions targets

  20-07-2020 13:41
  
  Canary Wharf Group (CWG) has pledged to reduce its direct emissions by 65% by 2030 and to develop a net-zero pathway before the end of 2020, after working with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
  
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• UK local authorities encouraged to align with SDGs in green recovery planning

  20-07-2020 12:51
  
  The body representing 335 of the UK's 339 local authorities has launched a guide for engagement and alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it claims should be accelerated in efforts to "build back better" post-pandemic.
  
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• Joe Biden has endorsed the Green New Deal in all but name | Julian Brave NoiseCat

  20-07-2020 12:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Biden rode a wave of establishment endorsements to the nomination this spring. But it’s progressive ideas that might carry him to the presidencyOn Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden did something unprecedented for a Democratic candidate assured of nomination: he moved left. In a speech delivered from Wilmington in his home state of Delaware, Biden unveiled the most ambitious clean energy and environmental justice plans ever proposed by the nominee of a major American political party.
  
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• Investment to decarbonise aviation must be 'supercharged' in Covid-19 recovery plans, MPs urge

  20-07-2020 11:32
  
  "Supercharging" investment in decarbonising the UK's aviation sector would provide a "golden opportunity" in the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, a coalition of 35 cross-party MPs have told the Treasury.
  
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• Gas grid operators unveil plan for 'backbone' of Europe's hydrogen infrastructure

  20-07-2020 10:56
  
  A group of eleven European gas infrastructure companies from nine EU member states have presented plans to create a dedicated hydrogen pipeline network of almost 23,000 km by 2040, to be used in parallel to the natural gas grid.
  
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• Howey Ou: China's first school climate striker – video profile

  20-07-2020 10:55 via theguardian.com
  
  As the first young person in China to engage in Greta Thunberg-inspired Fridays For Future climate strikes, Howey Ou, says she has become a target for the authorities who see that activism as a challenge to their control.
  The 17-year-old claims she has been told by authorities to ditch her climate activism as a condition for her restarting studies at Guangxi Normal University affiliated high school in Guilin, where she studied until late 2018.It is not necessarily her concerns for the
  
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• Negative emissions tech helps, but it's no magic bullet for the climate crisis | Tamsin Edwards

  20-07-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sprinkling rock dust on fields can suck up some carbon − but reducing emissions must be the mainstay of our effortsWhat should we do? The world is rapidly approaching 1.5C of warming above pre-industrial levels − the target limit of the Paris agreement − and is on track for 3C unless we take action. So what is the best action to take?In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that to have a good chance of limiting heating to 1.5C, we should reach ne
  
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• Australia's environment in unsustainable state of decline, major review finds

  20-07-2020 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Review of EPBC Act finds protection laws are ineffective and recommends sweeping changes, including developing legally enforceable national environmental standardsAustralia’s environment is in an unsustainable state of decline and laws set up to protect unique species and habitats are ineffective, a major review of the national environmental framework has found.The interim report from the review of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act recommends sweepi
  
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• Red kites thriving in England 30 years after reintroduction

  20-07-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Three decades after 13 were flown in by jet from Spain, there are nearly 2,000 breeding pairs of red kites across the country In July 1990, 13 red kites had to be flown by British Airways jet from Spain before they could grace the skies of the Chilterns.Thirty years on, nearly 2,000 breeding pairs of red kites display their distinctive forked tails as they soar over virtually every English county, in what has been hailed as one of the most successful reintroduction projects in the world. Continu
  
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• Africa can become a renewable energy superpower – if climate deniers are kept at bay

  20-07-2020 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Nigel Lawson’s thinktank is pushing dirty energy on the continent with the greatest capacity for creating clean fuel The power of climate science denial in the UK, thankfully, has been in retreat over the past decade. Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) may still boast a prime Westminster address, but its influence has waned. In fact, its decline aptly mirrors the fortunes of the coal industry, including US titans such as Peabody Energy, which saw its share price p
  
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• Red kite 30-year Chilterns project a 'conservation success'

  20-07-2020 01:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The "near-extinct" species is thriving 30 years after being reintroduced in England.
  
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• Hope probe: UAE launches historic first mission to Mars

  20-07-2020 00:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The probe starts its 500-million-km journey after taking off from the remote Tanegashima spaceport.
  
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