Environment news

• To the new environment minister, Murray Watt: it’s time to get reforms right | Lyndon Schneiders

  12-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Long-term reform is not going to be easy, but we have now wasted 15 years and everyone has lost, especially the natural worldGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailLong overdue reform of national environment laws is unfinished business for the 48th parliament and the re-elected Albanese government.Senator Murray Watt, a Queenslander, is well respected within the government and has a reputation for taking hard decisions and bringing together dive
  
  Read more

• ‘The river keeps us alive, we keep the river alive’: new documentary captures the Kimberley and its custodians

  12-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  ABC’s The Kimberley showcases rare footage by a crew working alongside Indigenous rangers, traditional owners and scientistsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThe Kimberley’s winding ochre gorges, coral sunsets and celadon crocodile-filled rivers feature in a new ABC documentary series about one of Earth’s last great tropical wetlands.Filmed on cinema-grade cameras in the remote and vast north-west Australian region, The Kimberley captures an intimate portrait of its an
  
  Read more

• Closure of post-Brexit subsidies wrongly blocked 3,000 English farmers from funding

  12-05-2025 16:35 via theguardian.com
  Sustainable farming initiative is part of payment package that replaced EU’s common agricultural policyUK politics live – latest updatesMinisters wrongly refused nature funding to 3,000 farmers in England when they shut the post-Brexit subsidy scheme, the government has admitted.There was anger earlier this year when the environment secretary, Steve Reed, suddenly paused a key post-Brexit farming payments scheme with little information about what would replace it and when. Continue r
  
  Read more

• UK windfall tax can fund switch to green jobs for North Sea oil workers – report

  12-05-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Campaigners call for energy profits levy to be made permanent to enable ‘just transition’ from fossil fuelsMaking permanent the UK’s windfall tax on oil and gas producers would generate enough cash to enable North Sea workers to move to green jobs, research has found.Cutting current subsidies to fossil fuel producers would free up yet more funds to spend on the shift to a low-carbon economy, according to the report. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Trade deal with US could spell end of UK’s bioethanol industry, say bosses

  12-05-2025 11:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Hundreds of jobs may be at risk as Starmer agrees to remove tariffs on US ethanol, say heads of ABF Sugar and EnsusBusiness live – latest updatesThe British bioethanol industry could collapse as a result of Keir Starmer’s trade deal with Donald Trump, industry bosses have said.The bosses of ABF Sugar and Ensus, the companies behind almost all of the UK’s production capacity of bioethanol – a petrol substitute produced from agricultural products – have said hundreds
  
  Read more

• Weather tracker: North America could experience record heat as high pressure builds

  12-05-2025 11:20 via theguardian.com
  Temperatures set to soar 19C above seasonal average – as parts of Europe edge closer to drought conditionsNorth America could experience record-breaking heat this week as scorching daytime temperatures hit from south Manitoba in Canada all the way to Texas in the southern US.A powerful ridge of high pressure has built up over the continent, with a strong southerly flow amplifying high temperatures this week as it drags up a hot, dry, air mass. Environment and Climate Change Canada and the
  
  Read more

• Climate crisis threatens the banana, the world’s most popular fruit, research shows

  12-05-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Fourth most important food crop in peril as Latin America and Caribbean suffer from slow-onset climate disasterThe climate crisis is threatening the future of the world’s most popular fruit, as almost two-thirds of banana-growing areas in Latin America and the Caribbean may no longer be suitable for growing the fruit by 2080, new research has found.Rising temperatures, extreme weather and climate-related pests are pummeling banana-growing countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombi
  
  Read more

• Country diary: Saluting the endurance of a brooding mallard | Susie White

  12-05-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Allendale, Northumberland: For a month I watched it incubating on long, hot days. Her hard work was eventually rewardedBefore my month-long watch of the mallard nesting in my garden, I hadn’t appreciated the feat of endurance it takes for a duck to incubate eggs. The mallard I wrote about last month laid more than half her own body weight in eggs over 10 days in the flower bed outside my window. She then spent 31 days sitting on the nest with just two hours’ break a day.These we
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Potential role for Chinese firm in key UK windfarm attracts government scrutiny

  12-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Decision on whether to work with turbine maker being overseen by ministers after British Steel rescueMinisters are weighing up proposals for a Chinese company to supply wind turbines for a major offshore windfarm in the North Sea.The government is in discussions with Green Volt North Sea over whether Mingyang, China’s biggest offshore wind company, should supply the wind turbines. Mingyang has emerged as the preferred manufacturer, but the company has sought advice from minister
  
  Read more

• MPs should not accept any murky answers from Thames Water chair on potential sale | Nils Pratley

  12-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Sir Adrian Montague’s appearance on Tuesday offers perhaps the last chance to scrutinise utility’s dealingsHurrah, Sir Adrian Montague, the chair of Thames Water, is scheduled to make another of his rare public appearances. On Tuesday, he will be at the environment select committee, the forum where 18 months ago he gave a strong signal that the company’s financial crisis was even worse than feared.The shareholders, in their standoff with the regulator over bills, wanted to know
  
  Read more

• Less than 1% of UK biosecurity budget goes on tackling invasive species, figures show

  12-05-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists call for more funding and warn of danger to ‘cherished’ native species, from water voles to ladybirdsLess than 1% of the government’s biosecurity budget goes on tackling invasive species, despite the danger they pose to British wildlife, figures suggest.Conservationists warned the funding to address non-native plants and animals was failing to match the risk they posed to “cherished” native species, from water voles to ladybirds, as well as to water
  
  Read more

• Eighty percent of England’s peatlands are dry and degraded, mapping shows

  12-05-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Healthy peatlands can help tackle the climate crisis but degraded peat emits carbon and contributes to global heatingNew mapping of England’s peatlands has revealed that 80% of the habitats are dry and degraded.Scientists mapped England’s peatlands and peaty soils for the first time using satellite imagery, artificial intelligence and in-depth data analysis to create the most complete map to date, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. Continue reading..
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!