Environment news

• Government orders public inquiry into Cumbria coal mine

  11-03-2021 21:32
  
  The Government is set to intervene in the controversial plan to open a new coal mine in Cumbria, with a fresh inquiry as to whether it can be opened while keeping to national climate commitments mooted to take place.
  
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• Outcry at Australia's coal plant closures misses the point: change is coming | Adam Morton

  11-03-2021 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Trying to heavy owners won’t hold back the renewables tide. It’s time to plan, and the blueprint existsIf ever there is a case where the headline doesn’t tell the full story it is the news that Victoria’s Yallourn power generator – one of Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal plants – will shut earlier than planned.The basic facts are clear: the owner, EnergyAustralia, had previously said the Latrobe Valley generator would close in 2032, and now it will b
  
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• Climate change: 'Default effect' sees massive green energy switch

  11-03-2021 17:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  When suppliers make green energy the default choice, consumers stick with it even if it's costly.
  
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• Kathleen Folbigg: Could science free Australian jailed for killing babies?

  11-03-2021 17:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Kathleen Folbigg has been called Australia's worst female murderer - now scientists doubt her guilt.
  
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• Six changes to UK green policy that you need to know about this week

  11-03-2021 16:33
  
  The UK Government has announced several important changes to green policy packages this week. Here, edie rounds up the flurry announcements from BEIS, Defra and the Treasury.
  
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• If Johnson thinks he can charm his way to success at Cop26, he's sorely mistaken | Larry Elliott

  11-03-2021 13:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Preparations for the crucial climate conference aren’t going well: with its aid cuts, the UK is hardly setting an exampleIt ought to be simple, but it will be anything but. When almost 200 countries gather for the UN Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November, they will do so under the shadow of two crises: a global pandemic that emerged out of nowhere and a climate emergency that nearly everybody has been able to see coming.Governments have spent trillions of pounds, dollars and euro
  
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• Cut taxes for low-carbon heating, energy efficiency and EVs, CBI urges

  11-03-2021 13:21
  
  Chancellor Rishi Sunak is planning to outline a string of tax changes later this month, with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) urging him to use the moment to support the net-zero transition.
  
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• Iceland Foods pledges to tackle abandoned plastic fishing gear

  11-03-2021 12:51
  
  Supermarket Iceland Foods has joined a scheme connecting businesses, non-profits, scientists and public sector bodies in a bid to tackle the 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear abandoned in the world's oceans each year.
  
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• The Green New Deal's time has come – but where has Labour's radicalism gone? | Adam Tooze

  11-03-2021 12:27 via theguardian.com
  
  The party risks a dead end with its ‘Little Britain’ thinking, in marked contrast to the bolder path taken by Joe BidenWhat a difference power makes.The past 18 months saw political defeats for the left on both sides of the Atlantic. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party came to an end after a resounding Conservative victory. The Bernie Sanders campaign went down at the hands of the Democrat establishment. And yet the bitter irony of 2020 was that just as the political
  
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• P&G brand Ariel targets completely decarbonised laundry value chain by 2030

  11-03-2021 12:01
  
  One of Procter & Gamble's (P&G) biggest brands, Ariel, has unveiled a new brand ambition headlined by a vision to "reinvent" for decarbonisation at all parts of the laundry value chain.
  
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• HSBC to vote on phase-out of fossil fuel funding

  11-03-2021 11:53
  
  HSBC will propose a new commitment to completely phase-out financing of coal-fired power and thermal coal mines by 2040 globally, following negotiations with a group of investors with $2.4tn in assets under management.
  
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• Hundreds of sewage leaks detected thanks to AI

  11-03-2021 11:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Software originally used to diagnose genetic disorders can detect sewage spills, experts say.
  
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• Big Issue launches climate solutions fund as CaixaBank issues €1bn SDG green bond

  11-03-2021 10:08
  
  The Big Issue Group (TBIG) has partnered with Aberdeen Standard Investments to create a new climate solutions investment fund, while Spanish retail bank CaixaBank has issued a €1bn green bond in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
  
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• Covid fallout 'undermining nature conservation efforts'

  11-03-2021 09:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The pandemic is taking a "severe toll" on conservation efforts, says a study published by the IUCN.
  
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• 'Ecological island': as Maasai herding lands shrink, so does space for Kenya's elephants

  11-03-2021 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The collapse of ecotourism during the pandemic and moves to lease land to big farms threaten vital conservation corridors
  Kenyan elephants risk a slow extinction in a bleak, ever-shrinking “ecological island” in one of the country’s most picturesque and photographed landscapes, according to a government report.The animals face a grim future as habitat loss is exacerbated by the pandemic’s impact on tourism, which is pushing landowners to sell off areas for development, an
  
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• Budget cuts and collapse in tourism revenue pose 'severe' threat to nature

  11-03-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Reduced environmental protections and conservation job losses could hit vital progress on climate and biodiversity, research findsJob cuts in nature reserves and environmental rollbacks by governments during the Covid-19 pandemic could undermine global efforts to conserve biodiversity and tackle the climate crisis, according to new research.Budget cuts and a collapse in ecotourism revenue have forced national parks and conservation organisations to make staff cuts and reduce activities such as a
  
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• A wet March makes a sad autumn? How Victorians viewed weather

  11-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  1856 guide offers insight into era’s thinking, including how spring weather would affect future harvestsThe Victorians did not have much idea what caused weather patterns but they knew what effect they had on their welfare.Enquire Within Upon Everything, “the indispensable guide to living”, published in 1856, poses many important questions and provides answers. Among the topics is spring weather and the effect it will have on future harvests. For example: what is the use of Mar
  
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• Country diary: a pheasant can take care of itself

  11-03-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The one we found in a plastic feeder wasn’t trapped, it was learning survival skillsA woman stopped me in the lane, to say she’d heard a bird in pain, I wondered if it was too late, to go there and investigate.The woman had been distressed by what sounded like the thrashing of wings, in a field behind a tall hedge up at the top of the lane. I had an idea. The day was murky and damp but celandines and primroses in the hedgebank cancelled out the chill. From t
  
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• Is the government ready to lead the fight against the climate crisis?

  11-03-2021 04:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Later this year, the government will host COP26 in Glasgow – possibly one of the last opportunities for the world to avert global climate catastrophe. Guardian environment journalist Fiona Harvey examines whether the UK government is equipped to lead the world in the crisisRachel Humphreys talks to Guardian environment journalist Fiona Harvey about the government’s latest budget, which dedicated just two minutes to environmental spending. The government has disappointed green experts
  
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• Three stories of hope: 10 years on from Japan's triple disaster

  11-03-2021 02:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Much has changed along the hundreds of miles of devastated coastline and the recovery is gathering paceAfter the wave: a decade of grieving for a daughter lost to the tsunamiOn 11 March 2011 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s north-east coast, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people.The tsunami destroyed more than 120,000 buildings and forced more than 450,000 people to live in temporary shelters. Damage to housing, businesses, roads and other infrastructure cam
  
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• What is this 'hot pigeon'? Is it even real?

  11-03-2021 01:28 via theguardian.com
  
  One of the main characters on Twitter today is the pink-necked green-pigeon, a photo of which went viral overnight. Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s stunningSteph, there is an incredibly beautiful pigeon all over my Twitter and it doesn’t look real. Is it real?Lucy, yes, it is real and also extremely attractive. People are calling it “hot pigeon”. Continue reading...
  
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• Japan's triple disaster 10 years on: The day ‘tomorrow didn’t come’

  11-03-2021 01:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ten years on from Japan’s triple disaster, a survivor remembers the day his entire family disappeared.
  
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• Covid: The man with 'super antibodies'

  11-03-2021 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  John Hollis has antibodies that can kill the virus and variants but the discovery was nearly missed.
  
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