Environment news

• Six top tips for super-charging energy efficiency on the road to net-zero

  16-03-2021 22:04
  
  Last week, edie hosted a 45-minute masterclass on energy efficiency, featuring expert speakers from BEIS, BAM Nuttall and the Carbon Trust. Here, we round up their key takeaways.
  
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• PM accused of hypocrisy for claiming climate is 'foremost priority'

  16-03-2021 19:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Host of Cop26 overseeing policies that will increase greenhouse gas emissions, campaigners sayBoris Johnson put the global climate crisis at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy on Tuesday, setting out his vision of “global Britain” after a government review placed climate as “the UK’s foremost international priority”.The prime minister told MPs: “We will host Cop26 [climate summit] in Glasgow in November, and rally as many nations as possible behind the
  
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• Mars: Vast amount of water may be locked up on planet

  16-03-2021 16:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Experts suggest much of the water Mars once had is now locked up in minerals.
  
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• Natural but deadly: huge gaps in US rules for wood-stove smoke exposed

  16-03-2021 16:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The government spent millions subsidizing new wood heaters supposed to burn more cleanly. But an investigation has discovered critical flaws Glenn Helkenn lives in a spruce forest, in a tiny log cabin he built himself on the outskirts of Fairbanks, Alaska’s third largest city. Continue reading...
  
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• Recycled materials and CCS: Aluminium industry plots pathways to net-zero

  16-03-2021 13:10
  
  The association representing more than 60% of the world's aluminium production has published new climate pathways for the sector, outlining how recycled materials, electrification and emerging technologies could cut emissions at scale.
  
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• Mace Group to use hydrogen generators at construction sites

  16-03-2021 13:00
  
  In what it claims is a first for the UK's construction sector, Mace Group has signed a deal that will see it deploy hydrogen generators to replace diesel generators at construction sites.
  
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• Retrofit revolution can cut emissions and deliver £7.5bn energy savings for UK

  16-03-2021 12:58
  
  Retrofitting the UK's building stock with low-carbon solutions could reduce national energy costs by £7.5bn a year, create more than 150,000 jobs over a 10-year period and cut carbon emissions by 20%, MPs have been told.
  
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• Don't believe hydrogen and nuclear hype – they can’t get us to net zero carbon by 2050 | Jonathon Porritt

  16-03-2021 12:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Big industry players pushing techno-fixes are ignoring the only realistic solution to the climate crisis: renewablesNow that the whole world seems to be aligned behind the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the nuclear industry is straining every sinew to present itself as an invaluable ally in the ambitious aim. Energy experts remain starkly divided on whether or not we can reach this global net zero target without nuclear power, but regardless, it remains a hard sell for pro-nuclear en
  
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• Green Brexit didn't happen, says environmental coalition

  16-03-2021 11:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  But the government says Brexit enables the UK to set its own rules to deliver better environmental outcomes.
  
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• Special brew: eco-friendly Peruvian coffee leaves others in the shade

  16-03-2021 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The Mayni people are harvesting shade-grown coffee from under the canopy of mature trees, with huge benefits for wildlife and the communityDeep within the Peruvian cloud forests, a six-hour drive from the town of Satipo, the remote Mayni community is busy growing organic coffee beneath the canopy of the native forest in order to preserve the rich mosaic of life there.Most of the forest is kept intact, with just a little undergrowth cleared to plant Coffea arabica trees. Dahlia Casancho, who is l
  
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• IRENA: Existing solutions can spur progress to net-zero

  16-03-2021 11:19
  
  Global power sourced from renewables is set to treble by 2050, with wind, solar and hydrogen all required to account for 90% of all decarbonisation solutions to push the global economy towards the 1.5C pathway, a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has found.
  
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• ‘Reading the writing on the wall’: why Wall Street is acting on the climate crisis

  16-03-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The industry has backed polluters for decades. Now, amid growing pressure, Wall Street says it’s going greenWildfires burned nearly 10.4m acres across the US last year. The most costly thunderstorm in US history caused $7.5bn in damage across Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. As the climate crisis swept the globe on a biblical scale it left in its wake a record number of billion dollar disasters.And yet out of these ashes has emerged an unlikely savior: Wall Street. After decades
  
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• 'Skybrator': bladeless wind turbine creates quite a buzz before rollout – video

  16-03-2021 09:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Bladeless turbines that waggles like a dashboard toy could be the wind-harnessing tool of the future as they move within the range of vibration of the wind to generate electricity.
  The design recently won the approval of Norway’s state energy company Equinor, which named Vortex on a list of the 10 most exciting startups within the energy sector Continue reading...
  
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• Bladeless wind turbine creates quite a buzz before rollout – video

  16-03-2021 09:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Bladeless turbines that waggles like a dashboard toy could be the wind-harnessing tool of the future as they move within the range of vibration of the wind to generate electricity.
  The design recently won the approval of Norway’s state energy company Equinor, which named Vortex on a list of the 10 most exciting startups within the energy sector Continue reading...
  
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• Ministers watering down green pledges post-Brexit, study finds

  16-03-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Greener UK claims analysis shows rhetoric on environment not being matched by action
  Ministers are weakening the UK’s environmental protections in the aftermath of leaving the EU, an assessment of the government’s performance has found, despite promises of a green Brexit.Legally binding commitments on key areas of pollution, nature restoration, waste and resource use have been put off to 2037, and the proposed new environmental watchdog will lack teeth, according to a report by Green
  
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• China's taste for beef drives record exports from Brazil

  16-03-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sales rose 76% last year and show no signs of slowing, fuelling environmental crisis in Amazon and Cerrado regionsOver dinner in a busy barbecue restaurant in Shenzhen, Lei Yong and Zhao Xu, two businessmen in their mid-40s, reflect on how meat consumption in China has dramatically changed in their lifetimes, particularly over the past 10 to 15 years.“Maybe 20 years ago, people in villages and smaller cities didn’t eat much meat, but those in big cities did,” says Zhao, referri
  
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• China taste for beef drives record exports from Brazil

  16-03-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sales rose 76% last year and show no signs of slowing, fuelling environmental crisis in Amazon and Cerrado regionsOver dinner in a busy barbecue restaurant in Shenzhen, Lei Yong and Zhao Xu, two businessmen in their mid-40s, reflect on how meat consumption in China has dramatically changed in their lifetimes, particularly over the past 10 to 15 years.“Maybe 20 years ago, people in villages and smaller cities didn’t eat much meat, but those in big cities did,” says Zhao, referri
  
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• West Lothian’s sleeping giants: wastelands that shivered into life

  16-03-2021 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  A legacy of Scotland’s shale oil industry, these once barren spoil heaps now provide a refuge for rare wildlife – and a sense of hope for the futureFifteen miles south-west of Edinburgh, a knuckled red fist rises from a soft green landscape: five peaks of rose-gold gravel stand bound together by grass and moss, like a Martian mountain range or earthworks on the grandest of scales. They are spoil heaps.Each peak rises along a sharp ridge from the same point on the ground, fanning outw
  
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• I’m A Celebrity 'brought invasive crayfish to Wales without a licence'

  16-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Buglife investigation finds show did not have permission for Turkish crayfish used in bushtucker trialsThe makers of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! brought invasive crayfish to north Wales without a licence, according to an investigation by a UK wildlife charity, prompting fresh calls for police to investigate the popular ITV show.Turkish crayfish were used in “bushtucker trials” in episode five of the series, hosted live from Gwrych Castle in north Wales at the e
  
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• Good vibrations: bladeless turbines could bring wind power to your home

  16-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Skybrators’ generate clean energy without environmental impact of large windfarms, say green pioneers
  The giant windfarms that line hills and coastlines are not the only way to harness the power of the wind, say green energy pioneers who plan to reinvent wind power by foregoing the need for turbine towers, blades – and even wind.“We are not against traditional windfarms,” says David Yáñez, the inventor of Vortex Bladeless. His six-person startup, base
  
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• From below sea level to 22,000 feet: Peru's varied climate

  16-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Country has a large north-south range – from within 3km of the equator in the north to 18 degrees in the south As the third largest country in South America (after Brazil and Argentina), it’s not surprising that Peru has a very varied climate. Peru also encompasses a large north-south range – from within 3km (1.86 miles) of the equator in the north, to 18 degrees in the south – and altitudes ranging from below sea level to 6,770 metres (22,000 feet).The climate of the cap
  
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• Fish detectives: the sleuths using ‘e-DNA’ to fight seafood fraud

  16-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A Canadian supplier known for wild salmon has teamed up with geneticists to prove what really ends up on the plateRevealed: seafood fraud happening on a vast global scaleThe first notable thing about the wild salmon fillet Dane Chauvel shows me is its colour – a rich red that, even over FaceTime, makes my mouth water. The second notable thing is that it’s definitely salmon.This might not seem like a debatable fact. Chauvel is co-founder of Organic Ocean Seafood in Vancouver, Canada,
  
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• Country diary: going with the flow of the dipper's song

  16-03-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Wye Dale, Derbyshire: By one of the bridges, two dippers have built a nest: a football-sized ball of moss layered with a sense of time and seasonThis valley is one of the greenest places in England I know, partly because it’s so steeped in shadow – a result of the high limestone cliffs that rise to the south. Currently the sun climbs only to the lip, leaving the dale bottom chilled and still. Yet even in this dormant leafless state it feels like temperate rainforest.The river flows w
  
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