Environment news

• Drax climate protester says judge ‘bullied’ jury to find her guilty

  26-02-2025 20:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Jurors had difficulty reaching a verdict in case of Diana Warner, who obstructed train in protest over power plantA retired doctor has been found guilty of obstructing the railway during a climate protest, after jurors told the judge they were struggling to come to a verdict “as a matter of conscience”.Dr Diana Warner, 65, told the Guardian she believed the jury had been unfairly “bullied” into the verdict by the judge, who responded that jurors should try the case &ldquo
  
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• BP blames turn back to fossil fuels on ‘misplaced’ green transition optimism

  26-02-2025 19:12 via theguardian.com
  CEO Murray Auchincloss says ‘fundamental reset’ will mean cut of more than £4bn to low-carbon investment planBP has abandoned its green ambitions in favour of ramping up fossil fuel production as its boss claimed that optimism over the pace of the green transition had been “misplaced”.In a major strategy shift, the energy company will increase its investment in oil and gas to $10bn (£7.9bn) a year while slashing more than $5bn from its previous green investmen
  
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• BP blames ‘misplaced’ faith in green transition for its renewed focus on fossil fuels

  26-02-2025 19:12 via theguardian.com
  CEO Murray Auchincloss says ‘fundamental reset’ will mean cut of more than £4bn to low-carbon investment planBP has abandoned its green ambitions in favour of ramping up fossil fuel production as its boss claimed that optimism over the pace of the green transition had been “misplaced”.In a major strategy shift, the energy company will increase its investment in oil and gas to $10bn (£7.9bn) a year while slashing more than $5bn from its previous green investmen
  
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• EU reveals plans to hit climate goals by helping dirty industries clean up

  26-02-2025 17:36 via theguardian.com
  
  European Commission recommits to 90% emissions cut by 2040, and will support steel and cement in transitionThe EU executive has insisted it will stay the course on its climate goals, while setting out plans to help Europe’s most polluting industries reach the green transition and watering down environmental reporting demands on companies.Publishing its “clean industrial deal” on Wednesday, the European Commission said it had a plan to help polluting industries, such as steel an
  
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• Total collapse of vital Atlantic currents unlikely this century, study finds

  26-02-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate scientists caution, however, that even weakened currents would cause profound harm to humanityVital Atlantic Ocean currents are unlikely to completely collapse this century, according to a study, but scientists say a severe weakening remains probable and would still have disastrous impacts on billions of people.The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is a system of currents that plays a crucial role in the global climate. The climate crisis is weakening the complex system,
  
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• What I have learned in my filthy, bloody, sisyphean quest to tame my garden | Adrian Chiles

  26-02-2025 16:29 via theguardian.com
  It’s chaos as small jobs become big jobs, tools disappear and distractions lead to furious frustration. Then you spot spring’s first flower ...There’s no such thing as gardeners’ block, I once read. This from, I believe, a famous writer who was making the point that if you’ve got writers’ block, you should just go and do something else for a bit. Point taken. There is no such thing as gardeners’ block because if you get stuck doing one job, even in the s
  
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• A Hutterite chicken butcher covered in blood … Tim Smith’s best photograph

  26-02-2025 16:03 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘The community had 11,000 chickens and every able-bodied person helped out during the two days of butchering’The Hutterites are an Anabaptist movement – they believe in adult baptism and pacifism. Like the Mennonites and the Amish, they emerged from the Radical Reformation in central Europe in the 1500s, but unlike them they live communally, with all goods and property shared among members of the community. Today, Hutterite colonies mostly exist on either side of the US-Canada
  
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• BP shuns renewables in return to oil and gas

  26-02-2025 16:00 via bbc.com
  
  The energy giant has announced its strategy after rivals also rowed back on green energy plans.
  
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• BP to ramp up oil and gas output in major shift away from green goals

  26-02-2025 14:49 via theguardian.com
  Fossil fuel firm will cut more than $5bn from low-carbon investment plan in ‘fundamental reset’Business live – latest updatesBP is dropping green goals, ramping up oil and gas production and slashing spending on low-carbon energy as part of a fundamental reset of the troubled company.The FTSE 100 fossil fuel company has promised shareholders it will increase its target for oil and gas production by 2030 to the equivalent of about 2.4m barrels a day – about 60% higher than
  
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• BP to almost double oil and gas production by 2030 in move away from green goals

  26-02-2025 14:03 via theguardian.com
  Firm will be selective about investing in low-carbon options, slashing more than $5bn from previous green planBusiness live – latest updatesBP is almost doubling its target for oil and gas production by the end of the decade and slashing its spending on low-carbon energy as part of a fundamental reset of the troubled company away from previous green goals.The FTSE 100 fossil fuel company has promised shareholders it will increase its planned oil and gas production by 2030 to the equivalent
  
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• There were never any climate havens: floods in the midwest, hurricanes in Appalachia

  26-02-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Analysts and investors have long trumpeted ‘climate-proof’ US communities, but recent disasters show the need for a different way of thinkingA few years ago, while visiting a tiny village, I toured a grand old community hall scheduled to be demolished after a historic flood. Across the street, a phantom row of eight buildings had already come down. Next to go was this beloved structure, built with local lumber by the craftsman grandfathers of the people who still lived there. One of
  
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• Floods in the midwest, hurricanes in Appalachia: there were never any climate havens

  26-02-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Analysts and investors have long trumpeted ‘climate-proof’ US communities, but recent disasters show the need for a different way of thinkingA few years ago, while visiting a tiny village, I toured a grand old community hall scheduled to be demolished after a historic flood. Across the street, a phantom row of eight buildings had already come down. Next to go was this beloved structure, built with local lumber by the craftsman grandfathers of the people who still lived there. One of
  
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• The US is destroying climate progress. Here’s a strategy to win over the right | Erin Burns

  26-02-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  It’s time to rethink how climate action succeeds. The key is to acknowledge that it’s never the sole force driving political decisionsWe are witnessing the most devastating climate disasters on record: wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, deadly floods in North Carolina, and global temperature records shattered month after month. We have officially surpassed 1.5C of warming, a critical threshold scientists have long warned against. At the same time, the US is scaling back policies, freezi
  
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• Half of homes need heat pump by 2040, government told

  26-02-2025 10:49 via bbc.com
  
  The UK's greenhouse gas emissions should fall to 13% of 1990 levels by 2040, government advisors say.
  
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• ‘Human activity on a massive scale’: a photo exhibition tackles the climate crisis

  26-02-2025 10:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Photographs from across the globe capture the impact of people on the climate – and of the climate on peopleThe word anthropocene has been proposed to denote an ongoing epoch in which human activity is a primary driving force of geological change. Although the word has caught on like wildfire in a colloquial sense, it was ultimately rejected as a descriptive scientific term, not so much because it was inaccurate but because of disagreements over when exactly it would have started – 1
  
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• ‘The forests are going up in flames – so is the rule of law’: Argentina’s climate of fear

  26-02-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Wildfires are devastating Patagonia. In response, Argentinian authorities are removing environmental protections and raiding Indigenous communitiesSoraya Maicoñio lives in Mallín Ahogado, a rural area in the Comarca Andina,a region of sparkling rivers, mountains, lakes and lush forests in Argentinian Patagonia. It is an area well-known for its small-scale agriculture, forestry and tourism.In recent weeks, however, the region, which spans the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut, has b
  
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• Plants losing appetite for carbon dioxide amid effects of warming climate

  26-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Earth’s plants and soils reached peak carbon dioxide sequestration in 2008 butproportion absorbed has been declining since, study findsOur planet is losing its appetite for mopping up carbon dioxide. Analysis of atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements show that Earth’s plants and soils reached peak carbon dioxide sequestration in 2008 and absorption has been declining ever since. Passing this tipping point increases the chances of runaway climate breakdown.Plants and trees have had i
  
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• ‘Losing hope with every day that passes’: torment of the ships’ crews abandoned at sea

  26-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Thousands of seafarers are left on board their vessels in foreign waters, unpaid, with scant supplies – and no way of getting home When Vihaan* set off from his home in Tamil Nadu, south India, to work on a vessel crossing the Bay of Bengal into neighbouring Bangladesh, he told his family he would be gone a few months. After delivering his cargo of stone to Bangladesh’s Kutubdia Island, the marine engineer was due to head home in March 2024 to disembark at Thoothukudi port, India.But
  
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• ‘Homegrown’ Swedish battery startup admits importing vital components

  26-02-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Northvolt, which claims to run Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory, admits it depends on Chinese suppliers for cathode active materialThe Swedish startup Northvolt has admitted that a vital component of its batteries is imported amid claims that the company, which claims to run Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory, depends on Chinese suppliers.It comes as a documentary programme to be shown in Sweden on Wednesday by the national broadcaster SVT, exposes the company’s failure t
  
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• Country diary: Willing the wishing to stop | Cal Flyn

  26-02-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The Hermitage, Perthshire: One fallen tree I find is more metal than wood, with so many ‘make a wish’ coins pushed in – a tradition that is likely to be harmful to wildlifeIt’s a wet, cool day in the woods. Snow shrouds the high ground, but down here among the pine and the larch and the beech, the leaf litter is soaked through like a dropped towel. Here and there, the bodies of fallen trees lie sinking into the mud, the remains of last year’s autumn drifting at
  
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• Canada's Liberal hopefuls talk Trump and carbon tax

  26-02-2025 04:54 via bbc.com
  
  The Liberal Party of Canada will soon choose a leader that will replace Justin Trudeau and become Canada's next prime minister.
  
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• UK urged to act now on net zero – and skip two kebabs’ worth of meat a week

  26-02-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate Change Committee issues advice to government on meeting carbon emissions target by 2050What would reaching net zero mean for life in 2040s Britain?Giving up two doner kebabs’ worth of meat a week will be enough to keep the UK within safe climate limits by the end of the next decade, as more drastic changes in behaviour can be avoided if the government takes action on greenhouse gases from energy, transport and industry, the UK’s climate advisers have said.People would need to
  
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• BP to slash green investment and ramp up gas and oil

  26-02-2025 01:00 via bbc.com
  
  The energy giant will announce its strategy later after rivals also rowed back on green energy plans.
  
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