Environment news

• Don’t waver on electric car targets, big UK businesses tell Labour

  17-11-2024 18:17
  
  Manufacturers want ministers to ease EV mandate, which would mean energy firms losing outBig UK businesses including Ovo, SSE and BT Openreach are urging the government to stick to current electric car targets as struggling carmakers pile pressure on ministers to relax the rules before industry talks this week.The businesses said the zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which forces carmakers to sell greater numbers of electric cars each year, is an essential part of the plan to reduce the carb
  
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• Thames Water supply ‘on knife-edge’ with £23bn repairs needed

  17-11-2024 16:59
  
  Exclusive: Company has failed to tackle serious safety concerns or upgrade vital IT systems, Guardian investigation revealsFloods, explosions, asbestos: Thames faces problems on all frontsThames Water has £23bn of assets that are in urgent need of repair and the supply of water to its 16 million customers is “on a knife-edge”, a Guardian investigation can reveal.Britain’s biggest water company has failed to tackle adequately serious safety concerns, has not upgraded essen
  
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• Countries must set aside differences and agree climate finance deal, says Cop29 negotiator

  17-11-2024 13:56
  
  Jochen Flasbarth called on Cop29 delegates to press on as world faces increasing crises and drop in solidarityGovernments meeting to forge a global settlement on climate finance must get over their differences this week and come to a deal – because if talks carry on until next year they stand little chance with Donald Trump in the White House, the German development secretary has said.Jochen Flasbarth, one of the most influential figures at the UN Cop29 summit, said that if the final days
  
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• How a fatal bear attack led an Italian commune to rally against rewilding

  17-11-2024 12:34
  Brown bears, introduced into Trentino province 20 years ago, have begun to clash with the local human populationFranca Gherardini used to cherish the sublime views from her home in Caldes, a village surrounded by forests on the slopes of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy’s Trentino province.But now she tries to shut out the scene as much as possible, rolling down the window canopy in the morning to avoid looking towards the area where her son, Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a bear. Co
  
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• The Observer view: the Cop summit is foundering, we need urgent action not more hot air

  17-11-2024 09:35
  
  The grim negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan, have shown the need for reform of the UN annual global climate talks‘Global emissions continue to increase, carbon sinks are being degraded and we can no longer exclude the possibility of surpassing 2.9C of warming by 2100.” It is a bleak assessment of our planet’s future and could have been made by just about any environmental organisation on Earth.In fact, they are the views of an international group of climate experts that highlight
  
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• I’m finally into ‘prepping’ and ready for the apocalypse | Eva Wiseman

  17-11-2024 09:00
  Piles of loo paper, a years worth of tinned good and snake-proof boots. No wonder prepping has become a lifestyle choice Prepping – I’m coming round to it. I’ve had Prepare, the old government website that Oliver Dowden launched this spring, open on my laptop in a quivering tab for a while now, and this week I’ve been dipping in every now and then to remind myself of “how to prepare for an emergency”. How many bottles of water we may need, tweezers, a sage rem
  
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• How winter makes recycling harder with 40% jump in contamination

  17-11-2024 09:00
  
  New data reveals an extra 5,000 tonnes of waste is sent to landfill or incineration from November to MarchPlastic bottles are reviled for polluting the oceans, leaching chemicals into drinks and being a source of microplastics in the human body.They even cause problems with recycling. When plastic bottles are mixed with cardboard in recycling bins, in the wet winter months the sodden cardboard wraps around the plastic bottles and trays, causing havoc at recycling plants. Continue reading...
  
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• Farmers have hoarded land for too long. Inheritance tax will bring new life to rural Britain | Will Hutton

  17-11-2024 08:00
  
  Prices and rents will fall under Rachel Reeves’ plans, enabling a younger generation with new ideas to enter the field One of the baleful dimensions of our times is the way that the conversation about what constitutes the good society is framed by the rich and their interests. A conception of the common good withers; instead it is replaced by the existential importance of private wealth, private interests and private ownership to societal health. Nowhere is this more exposed than in the de
  
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• 'The sixth great extinction is happening', conservation expert warns

  17-11-2024 01:20 via bbc.com
  
  Conservationist Jane Goodall on the urgent need to turn the tide on climate change and nature loss.
  
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