Environment news

• Air New Zealand is first major airline to scrap 2030 emissions target

  30-07-2024 18:47
  
  Firm says it is now re-adjusting to a realistic end date and blames difficulties in procuring new planes and sustainable jet fuelAir New Zealand has become the first major airline to drop its 2030 goal to cut carbon emissions.The company has blamed difficulties in procuring new planes and sustainable jet fuel. Continue reading...
  
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• Air purifiers: how do they work and who should get one?

  30-07-2024 18:00
  
  Outdoor air quality affects indoors, and many are turning to air purifiers – here’s what to know if you want to buy oneFor several decades, air quality in the US was trending up by many measures. Data indicated that fine, inhalable airborne particulate matter, known as PM2.5, was declining in 41 states before 2016.But the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires has undone that progress “about 25%” in the last eight years, says Jienan Li, a research scientist specia
  
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• Goals to stop decline of nature in England ‘off track’, report warns

  30-07-2024 16:36
  Audit of Environmental Improvement Plan finds it inadequate as government announces overhaul of goalsGoals to stop the decline of nature and clean up the air and water in England are slipping out of reach, a new report has warned.An audit of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), which is the mechanism by which the government’s legally binding targets for improving nature should be met, has found that plans for thriving plants and wildlife and clean air are deteriorating. This plan was
  
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• Marketing a tote bag as reusable is silly. Let’s say no to more stuff

  30-07-2024 15:00
  ‘Reusable’ is now a selling point for products that should, inherently, be reusable to begin with – and we’re buying itI used to keep a plastic bag of plastic bags under my kitchen sink. Like the water in the pipes above, around which they accumulated, it seemed I had bags in unlimited supply. A few years ago, when my city enacted a plastic bag ban, the collection started waning. Now, I treasure the once ubiquitous sacks, doling them out judiciously for use as diaper pail
  
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• BP to hand investors $7bn this year as it expands oil operations

  30-07-2024 14:45
  Oil and gas company to increase dividend and buy-backs as quarterly profit beats forecastsBusiness live – latest updatesBP’s shareholders can expect a multibillion-dollar payout this year after the oil giant reported better than expected quarterly profits of almost $2.8bn (£2.2bn) and set out plans to develop a new oil hub in the Gulf of Mexico.The oil company has angered green groups by giving the go-ahead to develop potential oil resources of 10bn barrels from the new Kaskida
  
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• Kamala Harris will not ban fracking if she wins White House, campaign says

  30-07-2024 12:00
  
  Harris, who had previously urged fracking ban, plans to highlight climate contrast between Democrats and TrumpKamala Harris will not seek to ban fracking if she becomes US president, campaign officials have confirmed, with the de facto Democratic nominee expected to focus instead on aggressively promoting the stark contrast on the climate crisis between Joe Biden’s administration and Donald Trump.Harris had previously, as a candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination, vowed to ban frack
  
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• BP to hand investors $7bn this year after profit beats forecasts

  30-07-2024 10:32
  
  Oil and gas company to increase dividend and buy-backs as quarterly profit hits $2.8bnBusiness live – latest updatesBP has posted better than expected profits of almost $2.8bn (£2.2bn) for the April to June period and has promised to shower its shareholders with higher dividends and share buy-backs over the rest of the year.The company will lift its dividend payments while buying back stock worth $1.75bn over the next three months to bring its total buy-backs for the first half of th
  
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• Greening the desert: is Sisi’s grand plan using up all of Egypt’s water?

  30-07-2024 08:00
  
  The ‘Future of Egypt’ envisages turning tracts of desert into farmland to grow crops for exports. But with sky-high food price inflation and a water deficit, critics doubt it is viableFor the two hours drivers can spend on the eight-lane, often empty, highway from Cairo to El Dabaa on the north coast, all there is to see is miles and miles of intensively farmed land on each side. Ten years ago, this expanse of the Western desert was little more than rocks and sand.It is the first sta
  
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• Country diary: Mending the last thatched roof in the village | Tom Allan

  30-07-2024 06:30
  
  Ardersier, Moray Firth: I’ve come all the way from south Devon and my colleague from the Outer Hebrides, such is the dearth of thatchers in Scotland nowI have come across many ways of securing thatch to a roof, from pointed hazel spars to heather rope, iron crooks to old-fashioned tarred twine. But this 17th-century roof in the fishing village of Ardersier offers something I haven’t seen before: everything has been tied down with orange baler twine.As basic as the technique may seem,
  
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• Wind and solar energy overtake fossil fuels to provide 30% of EU electricity

  30-07-2024 06:00
  
  Report finds 13 member states generated more energy from wind and solar power than coal and gas for first time in 2024Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found.Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from po
  
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• Renewables overtake fossil fuels to provide 30% of EU electricity

  30-07-2024 06:00
  
  Report finds 13 member states generated more energy from wind and solar power than coal and gas for first time in 2024Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found.Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from po
  
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