Environment news

• #SustyTalk: Signify's Joao Pola on business leadership for net-zero

  09-10-2020 17:16
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with Signify UK & Ireland's chief executive Joao Pola, who outlines what it takes to embed climate action in business from the boardroom and beyond.
  
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• Green Homes Grant: homeowners frustrated by lack of installers

  09-10-2020 16:32
  
  £2bn scheme risks becoming ‘postcode lottery’ without government action, says expertHouseholders trying to apply for the government’s £5,000 Green Homes Grants to make energy improvements have described how it is nearly impossible to find an accredited installer to do the work.Homeowners in Cornwall have been pointed towards installers as far away as Scotland, Manchester and south Wales – who understandably, are not interested in quoting for their work. Contin
  
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• Nine out of 10 EU citizens oppose animal slaughter without stunning, poll finds

  09-10-2020 14:13
  
  Survey comes as ‘ritual slaughter’ legal case moves through European courts and Polish government proposes restrictionsNine out of 10 EU citizens want their governments to ban the slaughter of animals that have not been stunned, according to a poll published today.The results of the survey, carried out for the animal welfare campaign group Eurogroup for Animals, will feed into a cross-Europe debate about so-called “ritual slaughter” – the killing of animals in line
  
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• Britain must nurture its scientific expertise to help save the world from climate crisis | Martin Rees

  09-10-2020 14:00
  
  Clean energy and sustainable food supplies will be the planet’s most pressing issues over the next 30 years“Experts” have had a raised profile during the Covid-19 pandemic, standing – albeit somewhat embarrassed – alongside Boris Johnson during his press conferences. In coping with health-related matters, scientific advice is crucial. We will also need optimally applied science in meeting other global challenges: developing affordable clean energy, feeding the world
  
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• World's first hydrogen-powered double-decker bus hits Scottish streets

  09-10-2020 13:57
  
  Real-world trials of the world's first hydrogen-powered double-decker bus have officially begun in Aberdeen - five years after the city unveiled a hydrogen production and bus refuelling facility.
  
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• New framework to help businesses account for emissions of remote workers

  09-10-2020 13:34
  
  Energy and sustainability managers seeking to account for the emissions generated by employees working from home due to Covid-19 - of which there are 14 million in the UK alone - now have access to a new calculation tool.
  
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• Autumn colour brings joy to UK's growing band of 'leaf peepers'

  09-10-2020 12:35
  
  Increasing numbers of people are discovering the pleasures of the turning of the seasons
  The path above the pool garden at Knightshayes in Devon is one of the best vantage points on the estate to take in the colours.As October marches on, the reds, yellows, purples and russets are beginning to deepen in hue and, when the clouds roll away, they gleam in the sunshine. Continue reading...
  
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• H&M brings 'garment-to-garment' recycling machines in-store

  09-10-2020 11:52
  
  H&M has installed a machine which disassembles old clothing and re-assembles the material into new textiles in one of its stores, in what it claims is a first for the fashion industry.
  
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• HSBC sets net-zero target, plans $750bn of low-carbon investment by 2030

  09-10-2020 11:10
  
  HSBC has committed to reaching net-zero financed emissions by 2050 and outlined plans to finance at least $750bn of low-carbon activities within a decade.
  
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• Report: UK's domestic heat 'extremely unlikely' to reach net-zero without policy overhaul

  09-10-2020 10:02
  
  Some 10 million homes will need to have their fossil fuel heating systems replaced by 2035 if the UK is to meet its net-zero target - but the rate of government-supported upgrades is just one-fifth of this level, a new policy briefing has concluded.
  
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• People, not carbon emissions, should be at the heart of the west's climate action | Aruna Chandrasekhar

  09-10-2020 10:00
  
  In focusing on targets, activists from rich countries risk putting metrics above the lives of vulnerable people The dissonance is enough to make me uninstall Twitter from my phone. Maybe it’s compassion fatigue, maybe it’s 2020. But if I’m honest with myself, it’s a world-sized rift in how we perceive the climate emergency on the different timelines I doom-scroll. On one feed, everyone – American or not – is forced to tune in to each candidate’s climate
  
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• 'Total destruction': why fires are tearing across South America

  09-10-2020 08:30
  
  Wildfires, mostly caused by land clearing for cattle grazing and soya production, have set four nations ablaze
  Primatologist Martin Kowalewski is measuring the scale of the fires raging across Latin America not in satellite images, but in the number of caraya monkeys (black-and-gold howlers) that have succumbed to the flames.“Of the 20 family groups that we used to trace in the wild, each group consisting of seven or eight monkeys, at least five groups were burned alive,” he tells th
  
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• A continent ablaze: why fires are tearing across South America

  09-10-2020 08:30
  
  In a ‘pattern of total destruction’ wildfires, mostly caused by land clearing for cattle grazing and soya production, are wreaking havoc across four nations
  Primatologist Martin Kowalewski is measuring the scale of the fires raging across Latin America not in satellite images, but in the number of caraya monkeys (black-and-gold howlers) that have succumbed to the flames.“Of the 20 family groups that we used to trace in the wild, each group consisting of seven or eight monkeys,
  
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• Turning up the spotlight: how our climate coverage has made a difference

  09-10-2020 08:00
  
  By reporting on issues across the world affecting the climate crisis the media can influence change Support Guardian journalism today, by making a single or recurring contribution, or subscribing“Will this story make a difference?”It’s a question journalists ask themselves all the time. The answer is rarely clearcut, and there is no shortage of stories that barely make a ripple. But there have been a number of occasions in recent years on the Guardian’s environment desk w
  
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• Royal Society of Biology photography competition 2020 - in pictures

  09-10-2020 08:00
  
  The Royal Society of Biology has released the shortlisted entries and winners for its Photographer of the Year and Young Photographer of the Year competition. This year’s theme was Our Changing World Continue reading...
  
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• Oxford council backs bid to stop water firm dumping sewage in Thames

  09-10-2020 08:00
  
  Council is latest to push for bathing status for a stretch of river in order to protect it
  Oxford has become the latest area to push for bathing water status for an area of river in an attempt to stop Thames Water discharging raw sewage into it.The city council has backed a motion to apply for a section of the River Thames to become a bathing water area, akin to the status granted to coastal waters in the UK. The status drives up the standards of waterways. Currently no English river qualifies a
  
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• Climate crisis: does journalism actually make a difference?

  09-10-2020 08:00
  
  By reporting on issues across the world affecting the climate crisis the media can influence change Support Guardian journalism today, by making a single or recurring contribution, or subscribing“Will this story make a difference?”It’s a question journalists ask themselves all the time. The answer is rarely clearcut, and there is no shortage of stories that barely make a ripple. But there have been a number of occasions in recent years on the Guardian’s environment desk w
  
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• Which weird Australian fuzzy mammal you are possibly unfamiliar with is your favourite? Let’s find out! | First Dog on the Moon

  09-10-2020 07:59
  
  Take First Dog on the Moon’s Favourite marsupial or similar creature you never heard of PollSign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
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• Revealed: 97% of UK offshore marine parks subject to destructive fishing

  09-10-2020 07:45
  
  Vessels spent 200,000 hours in 2019 bottom trawling or dredging the seabed in protected areas set up to safeguard vital ecosystemsMore than 97% of British marine protected areas, created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled, according to data shared with the Guardian.Nearly a quarter of the UK’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species, including harbour porpoises and dolphins. This network of parks is a symbol of t
  
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• Revealed: 97% of UK marine protected areas subject to bottom-trawling

  09-10-2020 07:45
  
  Vessels spent 200,000 hours in 2019 bottom trawling or dredging the seabed in protected areas set up to safeguard vital ecosystemsMore than 97% of British marine protected areas, created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled, according to data shared with the Guardian.Nearly a quarter of the UK’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species, including harbour porpoises and dolphins. This network of parks is a symbol of t
  
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• Country diary: an exhalation in the alder carr

  09-10-2020 06:30
  
  Purwell Ninesprings, Hertfordshire: I’m often drawn back to this swampy woodland in search of solace and inspirationThere’s a spring-fed sliver of alder carr shaped like a thought bubble near the source of the River Purwell. Before the pandemic, I volunteered at this nature reserve with the local wildlife trust, and I’m often drawn back to this swampy woodland in search of solace and inspiration. Alongside the holloway that skirts the carr’s eastern edge, I learned to lay
  
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• Low-carbon transition: Even best-prepared fossil fuel majors 'to see half of portfolios become uncompetitive'

  09-10-2020 02:05
  
  While European oil and gas majors are diversifying their portfolios to include more renewables, setting stricter climate targets and adjusting their oil price predictions, at least half of their operations won't be competitive in a 1.6C world, a new report claims.
  
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