Environment news

• Report: Renewables overtook fossil fuels as UK's main electricity source in 2020

  28-01-2021 17:03
  
  Renewables generated a record 42% of the UK's electricity in 2020, while fossil fuels accounted for 41% of electricity generation, according to a major new analysis.
  
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• 'A bit like The Great Escape': activists hold out in Euston tunnel

  28-01-2021 15:50 via theguardian.com
  
  HS2 protesters describe how they built tunnel, as officials warn of danger from gas and water pipesEnvironmental activists have held out for their second night in the Euston tunnel, but eviction officers have said the tunnel is close to gas and water pipes and that the activists are putting their own lives at risk.The tunnellers described how they constructed what is thought to be one of the largest tunnel networks to be occupied by protesters in one of the busiest parts of London without being
  
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• Green homes grant: UK standards body calls on government to pay up

  28-01-2021 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Failure to pay for work on green scheme is leading to debt and job losses, say businessesThe industry standards body for renewable energy installers is calling on the government to immediately rectify the failure to pay businesses for work on the green homes grant, which is leading, according to some companies, to rising debts and job losses.Installers of renewable energy systems have been left unpaid for several months by the government, the Guardian reported this week, while long delays were p
  
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• Badger cull: New licences 'to be banned after 2022'

  28-01-2021 13:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The drive to eradicate bovine TB will focus on vaccinating cattle and badgers.
  
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• Ikea surpasses renewable energy generation milestone after installing 920,000 solar panels

  28-01-2021 13:01
  
  Ikea's parent company Ingka Group generated more renewable energy that it consumed last year, marking a milestone on its vision to become a "planet-positive" business.
  
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• Do you drink bottled water? Read this | Adrienne Matei

  28-01-2021 12:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Bottled water is atrocious for the environment. You’re better off buying a water filter for healthier, tastier waterFor years, the debate has raged on: which is better, bottled water, or tap?Despite its ever-growing popularity in the US, bottled water is atrocious for the environment. To quote Harvard University’s Office for Sustainability, “The entire life cycle of bottled water uses fossil fuels, contributes to global warming, and causes pollution.” Continue reading...
  
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• Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline. Good, but he doesn't get a climate pass just yet | Nick Estes

  28-01-2021 12:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Democrats’ climate record is mixed - and it’s largely pressure from Indigenous and environmental groups that’s pushed them to act
  Joe Biden scrapping the Keystone XL permit is a huge win for the Indigenous-led climate movement. It not only overturns Trump’s reversal of Obama’s 2015 rejection of the pipeline but is also a major blow to the US fossil fuel industry and the world’s largest energy economy and per-capita carbon polluter.There is every reason to cele
  
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• Biden signs flurry of executive orders on nature conservation and fossil fuels

  28-01-2021 11:50
  
  After re-committing the US to the Paris Agreement last week, President Biden has this week signed a string of executive orders around nature conservation and minimising emissions from the energy sector.
  
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• How much is an elephant worth? Meet the ecologists doing the sums

  28-01-2021 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The idea of being able to put a price on nature is dividing opinion, but the financial value of ‘ecosystem services’ is increasingly guiding policyIn 1996, Prof Shahid Naeem was part of a team of researchers who set out to value the Earth. Specifically, they were trying to establish the dollar value of all of the “ecosystem services” the planet provides to humans every year. Around $33tn, they concluded, nearly double global GDP at the time.“The team was half ecolog
  
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• Flower power! The movement to bring back Britain's beautiful meadows

  28-01-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 97% of meadows have been destroyed, but the fight is now on to restore them. They are essential for plants and insects – but is it wise to lose food-producing fields?
  On a perfect summer day, the bees drone and a million flowers dance as a dozen people move across the meadow, cutting hay with a rhythmic swish of scythes. As children play, the haymakers pause for refreshments of cake and cider.This would resemble a scene from a long-lost rural idyll if the scythes were not Austria
  
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• Global carbon market grew 20% in 2020

  28-01-2021 10:49
  
  The valuation of the global carbon market grew 20% in 2020, totalling almost €230bn and the fourth consecutive year of record growth, new research has found.
  
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• Robert Downey Jr launches ESG venture capital funds

  28-01-2021 09:39
  
  Renowned actor and producer Robert Downey Jr. has launched a new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) venture capital investment fund aiming to support sustainability products and services, clean energy and resource efficiency.
  
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• Sustainable fashion: Depop targets climate neutrality by the end of the year

  28-01-2021 09:13
  
  Marketplace app Depop, best known for second-hand and custom fashion, has pledged to offset more carbon than it emits by the end of 2021 and to do more to prevent waste.
  
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• Country diary: On this mystical upland, a case of mistaken identity

  28-01-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Rhyd Ddu, Gwynedd: Fairies know how to confuse us mere humans, as they did during the making of my previous columnIn my last country diary (9 January), I took readers to a portal of fairyland – a pass above Llyn y Dywarchen between Rhyd Ddu and Nantlle. I then said that the pass was called Bwlch y Moch (Pigs’ Pass). But this was wrong. Thanks to an eagle-eyed reader, I can now tell you its recent name is Bwlch Gylfin (Curlew Pass). And previous to that it was “Culfin” (Na
  
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• John Kerry: UK climate summit is world's 'last best chance'

  28-01-2021 03:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The new US climate envoy says time is running out for the world to address the climate crisis.
  
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• More than 700 pelicans found dead in Senegal world heritage site

  28-01-2021 02:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Rangers are investigating mystery deaths at Djoudj bird sanctuary, a migratory pitstop for hundreds of bird speciesSeven hundred and fifty pelicans have been found dead in a Unesco world heritage site in northern Senegal that provides refuge for millions of migratory birds, the country’s parks director has said.Rangers found the pelicans on Saturday in the Djoudj bird sanctuary, a remote pocket of wetland near the border with Mauritania and a resting place for birds that cross the Sahara i
  
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• COP26 President launches challenge to deliver net-zero 'tipping points' in every sector

  28-01-2021 01:05
  
  The UN High-Level Climate Champions and COP26 President Alok Sharma have today (28 January) unveiled a radical new roadmap to push the global economy towards net-zero emissions, targeting a range of near-term, sectoral tipping points to deliver decarbonisation.
  
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• World's biggest tech firms 'dedicate just 4% of lobbying efforts to climate change'

  28-01-2021 01:02
  
  Analysis of the lobbying activities of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Google's parent firm Alphabet has revealed that they allocated just 4% of their annual lobbying resources to efforts to combat climate change.
  
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• Premier Inn to install EV chargers at 300 hotels

  28-01-2021 01:02
  
  Whitbread-owned hotel chain Premier Inn is set to install electric vehicle (EV) chargers at some 300 of its locations, in what it's calling the biggest roll-out of its kind in the UK hospitality sector.
  
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