Environment news

• Labour to outline plan to spark electric car 'revolution' across UK

  24-03-2021 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Ed Miliband says party would provide interest-free government loans for up to 1m householdsInterest-free government loans should be made available to help up to a million households buy electric cars over the next two years, the shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, is to argue.In a speech on Thursday, Miliband will set out Labour’s plans for an “electric vehicle revolution” to promote a rapid increase in the take-up of electric cars as the UK moves towards net zero carbon. C
  
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• 'A sip can kill': did a chemical company misrepresent data to avoid making a safer product?

  24-03-2021 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A former Syngenta scientist alleges lives could have been saved with tweaks to the formulation of weedkiller paraquat
  Scientist tells of relief after speaking out over weedkiller fearsAround the world, the deadly dangers of a weedkiller called paraquat are well known. When working with the highly toxic herbicide, farmers and other users take care not to splash or spill even small amounts of the product, heeding regulatory warnings that just a tiny amount – if swallowed – will kill th
  
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• Lord Howe Island: Saving an Australian paradise's 'cloud forest'

  24-03-2021 17:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A rare environment on Australia's Lord Howe Island has faced a complex battle for survival.
  
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• The beluga whale who became famous: Aleksander Nordahl's best photograph

  24-03-2021 17:12 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘He was called Hvaldimir and he would play in front of crowds at Hammerfest harbour in Norway. One woman dropped her phone and he fetched it for her’In April 2019, a beluga whale appeared alongside fishing boats off the coast of Norway. He was wearing a harness. A fisherman called Joar Hesten freed him, and saw the harness had stamped on it “equipment of St Petersburg”. The media went crazy, and the whale was named Hvaldimir, a combination of hval, the Norwegian word for
  
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• One of Earth’s giant carbon sinks may have been overestimated - study

  24-03-2021 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The potential of soils to slow climate change by soaking up carbon may be less than previously thoughtThe storage potential of one of the Earth’s biggest carbon sinks – soils – may have been overestimated, research shows. This could mean ecosystems on land soaking up less of humanity’s emissions than expected, and more rapid global heating.Soils and the plants that grow in them absorb about a third of the carbon emissions that drive the climate crisis, partly limiting the
  
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• UK firm to stop using British pork after post-Brexit border problems

  24-03-2021 15:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Helen Browning’s Organic says it is switching to Danish suppliers owing to bureaucracy, delays and costsHow Brexit added layers of bureaucracy to meat exportsA UK food company whose products appear on the shelves of the country’s largest supermarkets has decided to stop using British pork in its sausages because of the post-Brexit complications of moving meat across borders.After two disastrous attempts since January to send British pork to Germany, where it is made into 75 tonnes of
  
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• Businesses pledge to invest £4.4bn in Sizewell C, if the Government gives the green light

  24-03-2021 15:06
  
  A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed on EDF's Sizewell C nuclear power plant by more than 200 organisations, which have collectively pledged £4.4bn of investment around the project.
  
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• Planet and plastic: End of the love story?

  24-03-2021 13:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Earth's relationship with plastic started over 100 years ago. But is it time we broke up?
  
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• UK Mercedes-Benz car owners seek damages over alleged emissions cheating

  24-03-2021 13:18 via theguardian.com
  
  US law firm representing UK owners claims German marque installed ‘defeat devices’ in diesel carsA law firm representing the UK owners of Mercedes-Benz cars has started formal legal action seeking compensation from the German carmaker for allegedly installing illegal emissions cheating devices on its diesel vehicles.Hagens Berman, a US law firm, filed particulars of the claim at the high court in London on Tuesday alleging that Daimler, Mercedes-Benz’s owner, put “defeat
  
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• North-south divide on air pollution 'a threat to economies and health'

  24-03-2021 12:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Thinktank reports that northern UK cities are lagging behind on development of clean air zonesThe delayed introduction of measures to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis will exacerbate the glaring health inequalities and entrench the north-south divide, according to a report. Several local authorities in the north have scrapped or deferred plans to introduce clean air zones, regarded as the best way to tackle toxic air, while cities in other parts of the UK are pressing ahead with the sc
  
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• edie launches updated best-practice guide for businesses tackling single-use plastics

  24-03-2021 12:30
  
  edie has today (24 March) launched an updated report that outlines the steps businesses can and should take to identify, reduce, replace and eliminate single-use plastics from their operations, supply chains and products and services as part of efforts to build back better from the coronavirus pandemic.
  
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• 'Climate Transition Action Plan': Unilever puts net-zero roadmap to shareholder vote

  24-03-2021 11:28
  
  Unilever has outlined plans for delivering its 2039 net-zero target and will put them to a shareholder vote in May, in what is regarded as the first move of its kind by a multinational corporation.
  
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• Rising risk of wildfires across UK from climate crisis, scientists warn

  24-03-2021 11:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Once-in-a-century weather extremes could become commonplace by 2080 unless carbon emissions are curbed
  Once-in-a-century weather extremes that pose the highest danger of wildfires could occur every year in parts of the UK as the climate changes, scientists warn.A study led by the University of Reading aimed to predict how the danger of blazes taking hold would increase as a result of rising temperatures and less summer rainfall in the UK in the coming decades. Continue reading...
  
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• Ground broken at biomethane refuelling station in first for Scotland

  24-03-2021 11:02
  
  Scotland's first renewable biomethane refuelling station will open this year, the developers have announced, after ground was broken at the project site today (24 March).
  
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• Scientists need to face both facts and feelings when dealing with the climate crisis | Kimberly Nicholas

  24-03-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I was taught to use my head, not my heart. But acknowledging sadness at what is lost can help us safeguard the futureOver the course of my career, the climate crisis has changed from something only experts could see – reading clues trapped in frozen air bubbles or statistical patterns in long-term data sets – to something that everyone on Earth is living through. For me, it has gone from being something I study to a way that I see the world and experience my life. It’s one thin
  
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• Scientists need to face both facts and feelings when dealing with the climate crisis | Kimberley Nicholas

  24-03-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I was taught to use my head, not my heart. But acknowledging sadness at what is lost can help us safeguard the futureOver the course of my career, the climate crisis has changed from something only experts could see – reading clues trapped in frozen air bubbles or statistical patterns in long-term data sets – to something that everyone on Earth is living through. For me, it has gone from being something I study to a way that I see the world and experience my life. It’s one thin
  
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• Northern Gas Networks launches green bond to support hydrogen transition

  24-03-2021 10:45
  
  Northern Gas Networks has launched its first green bond, in a bid to raise capital to prepare for hydrogen heating. The move comes as Hitachi Capital UK prices its own debut green bond at $40m.
  
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• Meat giant JBS commits to net-zero emissions and zero deforestation

  24-03-2021 09:45
  
  Brazilian meat producer JBS has ringfenced $1bn to reaching net-zero emissions across its value chain by 2040, while also aiming to eliminate illegal deforestation.
  
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• Uluru waterfalls: Rain brings 'unique' sight to Australian landmark

  24-03-2021 07:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A "unique and extraordinary" sight has come to the sacred rock, after days of heavy rain.
  
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• Smooth newts to turn gardens into mating hotspots after dark

  24-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Courtship season has begun in Britain as males turn on the charm with their bendy vibrating tailsShine a torch into a garden pond in Britain after dark tonight and you will have a good chance of seeing a smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) performing its mating dance. Like frogs, smooth or common newts have found refuge in gardens as farmland ponds have been filled in or poisoned with fertiliser and pesticides.The males, 10cm (4in) long with dark spots and a crest, face the less gaudy females but
  
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• Country diary: love is in the air for these oystercatchers

  24-03-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sandy, Bedfordshire: Each bird is studiously focused on its own doings yet peripherally aware of the other. Apart but close – are they an item?Love is blossoming in our hairdresser’s horse paddocks by the river. Around a crescent-shaped pool – the last dregs of flooded winter – two oystercatchers are having nothing and everything to do with one another. Though they are the only diners in this fenced-off restaurant, each is studiously focused on its own doings. And yet bot
  
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• Disease outbreaks more likely in deforestation areas, study finds

  24-03-2021 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Tree-planting can also increase health risks if it focuses too narrowly on small number of species, paper saysOutbreaks of infectious diseases are more likely in areas of deforestation and monoculture plantations, according to a study that suggests epidemics are likely to increase as biodiversity declines.Land use change is a significant factor in the emergence of zoonotic viruses such as Covid-19 and vector-borne ailments such as malaria, says the paper, published on Wednesday in Frontiers in V
  
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• Big banks’ trillion-dollar finance for fossil fuels ‘shocking’, says report

  24-03-2021 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Coal, oil and gas firms have received $3.8tn in finance since the Paris climate deal in 2015The world’s biggest 60 banks have provided $3.8tn of financing for fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal in 2015, according to a report by a coalition of NGOs.Despite the Covid-19 pandemic cutting energy use, overall funding remains on an upward trend and the finance provided in 2020 was higher than in 2016 or 2017, a fact the report’s authors and others described as “shocki
  
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• Australia's climate policies not ambitious enough for summit invite, Boris Johnson told Scott Morrison

  24-03-2021 05:24 via theguardian.com
  
  The British prime minister wrote to his Australian counterpart to explain why he was denied a speaking slot in DecemberBoris Johnson has told Scott Morrison Australia was denied a speaking slot at a leaders’ climate ambition summit in December because his government had not set ambitious commitments to address the climate crisis.In a sign of the growing international pressure over climate, the British prime minister also indicated he expected Australia to this year set a timeframe to meet
  
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• UK seeks to drill more oil and gas from North Sea

  24-03-2021 02:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More oil and gas wells are to be drilled in the North Sea, the UK government announces.
  
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• 'Outrageous hypocrisy': Government condemned over £16bn oil and gas sector 'bailout'

  24-03-2021 01:01
  
  Green groups have expressed their anger at the Government's new £16bn sector deal that pledges to align the oil and gas sector with the national net-zero target, while also ending financing for overseas fossil fuel projects, with many frustrated by a refusal to end oil and gas licensing.
  
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• It’s not too late for Australia to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld | Michael Mann

  24-03-2021 00:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Catastrophic fires and devastating floods are part of Australia’s harsh new climate reality. The country must do its part to lower carbon emissions
  A year ago I lived through the Black Summer. I had arrived in Sydney in mid-December 2019 to collaborate with Australian researchers studying the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events. Instead of studying those events, however, I ended up experiencing them.Even in the confines of my apartment in Coogee, looking out over the Pacifi
  
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• Catastrophic fires and devastating floods are part of Australia's harsh new climate reality | Michael Mann

  24-03-2021 00:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate change is making wet seasons wetter and dry seasons drier. Australia must do its part to lower carbon emissions A year ago I lived through the Black Summer. I had arrived in Sydney in mid-December 2019 to collaborate with Australian researchers studying the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events. Instead of studying those events, however, I ended up experiencing them.Even in the confines of my apartment in Coogee, looking out over the Pacific, I could smell the smoke from th
  
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• Europe and US could reach 'peak meat’ in 2025 – report

  24-03-2021 00:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Fast growth of plant-based alternatives means consumption of conventional meat will start to fallThe fast growth of plant-based alternatives to animal products could mean Europe and North America will reach “peak meat” by 2025, at which point consumption of conventional meat starts to fall, according to a report.The study also forecasts that plant-based meats will match regular meat on price by 2023 and that nine out of 10 of the world’s favourite dishes – from pepperoni
  
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