Environment news

• Heathrow increases environmental charges for aircrafts

  02-01-2018 12:20
  Heathrow Airport has announced that it is increasing its environmental charges for aircrafts by 7%, as part of a move to incentivise airlines to deploy cleaner and newer aircrafts to lower emissions and noise pollution.
  
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• Cop31 as it happened: ‘Everything and everyone we love is at stake,’ Greta Thunberg warns

  10-11-2026 16:35 via Environment | The Guardian
  Host Turkey celebrates new oilfields as UN climate summit prepares to host world leaders from more than 90 countriesWe’ve just heard from Patricia Espinosa, the former UN climate boss (succeeded by Simon Stiell) and now we are hearing from former US secretary of state and climate ambassador, John Kerry.Kerry has congratulated Brazil for keeping the fossil fuel transition issue alive, and the room has erupted in cheers. Continue reading...
  
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• Cop31 live: ‘Everything and everyone we love is at stake,’ Greta Thunberg warns

  10-11-2026 15:34 via Environment | The Guardian
  Host Turkey celebrates new oilfields as UN climate summit prepares to host world leaders from more than 90 countriesWe’ve just heard from Patricia Espinosa, the former UN climate boss (succeeded by Simon Stiell) and now we are hearing from former US secretary of state and climate ambassador, John Kerry.Kerry has congratulated Brazil for keeping the fossil fuel transition issue alive, and the room has erupted in cheers. Continue reading...
  
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• This small Alaska town is swamped by cruise ship visitors every summer. But what happens when they all go home?

  10-11-2026 14:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Skagway’s 1,100 permanent residents are caught between a boom time – when the ships bring more than a million tourists – and a lull in winterOctober comes to the small Alaska coastal town of Skagway like a sigh. The shops that were bustling throughout the crazed tourist season are reducing their opening hours or beginning to close. The hordes of employees sleeping in overcrowded bunkhouses are leaving or have left.The crowds of cruise passengers who have filled the streets since April, wea
  
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• Slight fall in carbon emissions from fossil fuels as Iran war drives renewables push

  10-11-2026 12:55 via Environment | The Guardian
  However, authors of a comprehensive assessment to be presented at Cop31 warn talk of a global turnaround prematureCop31 live – latest updatesSoaring oil and gas prices following the war in Iran have encouraged people to look beyond fossil fuels, leading to an easing of climate-damaging carbon emissions this year.Carbon dioxide from oil, gas and coal is forecast to flatline for 2026, based on data from the year so far, according to a comprehensive assessment by scientists. Emissions from burnin
  
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• ‘We said no, no, no, but they kept insisting’: the Paraguayan people battling a eucalyptus empire

  10-11-2026 12:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  It is Paraguay’s largest private investment but local people accuse a forestry giant of ignoring their contamination concerns over its vast plantationWhen Paracel arrived in Tacuarita, an Indigenous community of homes made from planks and plastic sheeting in Paraguay’s poorest region, six years ago, it was a welcome sight. The company improved the dirt roads and dug an electric-powered well, saving villagers a two-mile journey to fetch water from a cattle pond that often made them sick. It a
  
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• Cop31 live: host Turkey celebrates new oilfields as climate summit enters second day

  10-11-2026 11:58 via Environment | The Guardian
  UN climate summit prepares to host world leaders from more than 90 countries as scientists find global carbon emissions flatlined this yearWe’ve just heard from Patricia Espinosa, the former UN climate boss (succeeded by Simon Stiell) and now we are hearing from former US secretary of state and climate ambassador, John Kerry.Kerry has congratulated Brazil for keeping the fossil fuel transition issue alive, and the room has erupted in cheers. Continue reading...
  
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• Cop31 live: host Turkey celebrates new oil fields as climate summit enters second day

  10-11-2026 10:54 via Environment | The Guardian
  UN climate summit prepares to host world leaders from more than 90 countries as scientists find global carbon emissions flatlined this year.A short update on our Cop31 bus journey from hell.We have arrived. It only took three and a half hours. And it turned out I had the key for our Guardian Cop31 media cubicle, which meant my colleagues had to do some wrangling to get inside. Continue reading...
  
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• Cop31 live: slight drop in fossil fuel emissions revealed as conference enters second day

  10-11-2026 09:51 via Environment | The Guardian
  UN climate summit prepares to host world leaders from more than 90 countries tomorrowBus horror update. So I am still on the bus and it has been three hours. We think we are still half an hour away (I said that an hour ago).Some people got off and tried the tram. Splitters. We watched a packed tram go past and leave a few of the splitters on the platform. Continue reading...
  
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• How a Jordan mosque is recycling ritual water to create a green oasis

  10-11-2026 06:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  In a country of severe water scarcity, the Abu Obeida mosque in Deir Alla captures ablution wastewater before it reaches the sewers to use for irrigationThe Abu Obeida mosque in Deir Alla, Balqa, to the west of Amman, stands in one of the hottest and most arid stretches of the Jordan valley. Yet an oasis of trees and flowerbeds surrounds it, improbably green against a landscape of bare ochre hills, watered by drip irrigation lines that run along the ground between the roots.The water does not co
  
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• Alien menace or victim of xenophobia? The battle over Britain’s parakeets

  10-11-2026 06:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Established in UK cities for decades and much loved for their green plumage, the Himalayan birds have been recast as an ecological threat. But is the idea of invasive species itself a problem?Before we saw a single parakeet, we heard them: a disembodied static that grew louder as we approached Hither Green cemetery in south-east London. It was an early evening in late June, and we had come to witness an invasion. By the time my friend and I reached the cemetery’s western edge, the clamour was
  
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• High fossil fuel prices spread inflation ‘like a cancer’, UN climate chief tells Cop31

  09-11-2026 18:47 via Environment | The Guardian
  Simon Stiell makes opening address at summit in Turkey, where talks are under way about speeding up shift to electrificationA global fossil fuel price crisis is “spreading inflation like a cancer” around the planet, the UN’s climate chief, Simon Stiell, told the opening plenary of critical UN climate talks in Turkey.Stiell joined Cop31 hosts Turkey and Australia, which is leading the negotiations, in promoting renewable energy and a new electrification goal as an optimistic alternative to
  
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• These Australian ‘forest fairies’ have all but disappeared from the wild – now they have a new neighbourhood

  09-11-2026 15:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Exclusive: With only a handful of lowland Leadbeater’s possums left in Victorian forests, conservationists hope a bespoke sanctuary will help the acrobatic marsupials bounce backSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereWith just 13 animals left, time was running out for the Leadbeater’s possums at Yellingbo conservation area.The critically endangered forest sprites have exacting habitat needs. They prefer cool, wet and dark forest, with large o
  
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• ‘I’m surrounded by millions of people but I could still die from the heat’ – This is climate breakdown

  09-11-2026 13:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  He went to Saudi Arabia to perform the sacred hajj pilgrimage – then the heat came. This is Zirrar Ali’s storyLocation: Mecca, Saudi ArabiaDisaster: Heatwave, 2024After a transformative experience in Iran, Zirrar Ali quit his corporate 9-5 job and began travel writing. Seven years later, he and his elderly father were participating in the sacred five-day Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj, when temperatures soared to more than 51C. The climate crisis has already made peak temperatures in Mecca abou
  
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• This grim story of marine park whales could yet have a positive outcome – if it teaches us to value other species | Elle Hunt

  09-11-2026 11:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  There is no ‘saving’ these traumatised mammals from places like Marineland in Canada. Humans need to understand that our actions are not easily undoneRemember “Save the whales”? Now that was an environmental campaign everyone could get behind. Surely you don’t want whales to die!It may have got the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling over the line, but in these sophisticated times that slogan seems woefully reductive, even naive. As Greenpeace warns on its website, 40 years later: �
  
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• Rare call for more electricity supplies as wind power drops across Europe

  09-11-2026 09:12 via Environment | The Guardian
  Neso issues ‘electricity margin notice’ for gas power plants on Britain to fire up and boost generation this morning amid energy shortfallThe government body tasked with keeping the lights on has issued a rare call for more electricity supplies this morning due to low wind power generation forecasts across Europe on Monday.A notice issued by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) on Sunday night said it faced a “shortfall” of almost 1,400 megawatts in its electricity supply margins f
  
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• ‘A new age of climate extremes’: Earth accumulating heat at accelerating rate

  09-11-2026 08:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  Increased heat will supercharge extreme weather events, warns UN agency as Cop31 climate summit beginsHeat is accumulating in Earth’s systems at an accelerating rate, the UN’s weather agency has reported as the Cop31 climate change summit begins in Turkey, with 2026 on track to be one of the four warmest years on record.The imbalance between incoming energy from the sun and energy leaving Earth reached its highest level since monitoring began, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said
  
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• A new start after 60: I was burnt out and facing redundancy. So I set up a bee farm – and learned the joys of a simple life

  09-11-2026 07:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  Jeff Lee had spent decades as an investigative journalist. But when he upped sticks with his wife to buy a farm in rural British Columbia, he didn’t just change jobs – he found a different way to liveJeff Lee became interested in beekeeping in his late 50s after his wife, Amanda, took part in a “beard of bees” event at Science World’s “science of fear” exhibition in Vancouver, Canada, where they lived. She stepped into a Perspex booth, a caged queen bee was placed beneath her chin
  
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• Democrats to attend Cop31 climate talks boosted by midterms and eager to make up for Trump-era setbacks

  09-11-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  US government will have no official presence at UN’s annual climate summit, this year’s Cop31 held in Antalya, TurkeyThe US will be absent from key UN climate talks that start on Monday, a further sign of Donald Trump’s scornful dismissal of the climate crisis. But Democrats’ crushing win in the US midterm elections has delivered a timely shot of optimism to countries now looking beyond the Trump era of climate obstruction.For the second year in a row, there will be no official US govern
  
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• Is Cop31 a huge scam? Let’s ask the penguins of the future | First Dog on the Moon

  09-11-2026 06:39 via Environment | The Guardian
  It’s 2126 and class is getting under way beneath the Earth’s remaining ocean Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: Teasing out spiders with a tuning fork | Susie White

  09-11-2026 06:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  Hexham, Northumberland: Revelations aplenty as we embark on a spider hunt with a man called Fran who knows his arachnidsWe gathered at the bandstand, an elegant Edwardian building in the abbey grounds, all slender ironwork and tented top. Fran Garcia was leading a spider walk and our group of 10 included two children, one of them my granddaughter. Fran is a member of the British Arachnological Society and communicates knowledge with lively humour.As an introduction to spiders he explained the
  
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• ‘I can’t bear it’: young family takes refuge in bedroom as choking haze engulfs Indonesian city

  09-11-2026 05:05 via Environment | The Guardian
  Mother tells of desperate efforts to keep her five-month-old son healthy as residents of Palangkaraya flock to clean-air ‘safe houses’ to escape toxic hazeEvery day in Palangkaraya starts with an air quality check. For people who can afford one, a handheld device can test the air for toxic particles floating into their lungs. For others, a look out the window will reveal skies turned orange with smoke.But for those closest to the fires ravaging this part of Indonesia, the check is done befor
  
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• Heavy rain floods displaced families’ tents in Gaza – in pictures

  08-11-2026 19:50 via Environment | The Guardian
  The first winter storm began affecting the people of Gaza this weekend with heavy rain hitting on Saturday. Reports that about 70,000 tents were flooded within 12 hours prompted warnings of a worsening humanitarian situation for hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in temporary camps lacking adequate protection from rain and cold Continue reading...
  
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• Climate always comes second: are green issues slipping down Burnham’s agenda?

  08-11-2026 19:01 via Environment | The Guardian
  Prime minister says he’s committed to meeting climate targets, but some believe his actions suggest otherwiseLabour expected to cut EV targets for car industry despite MPs’ climate concernsAndy Burnham insists he is committed to the green transition, but his MPs worry that in decision after decision, he is showing that other priorities come first.“Our changing climate is a major concern for many Britons, not least because we have just emerged from our hottest summer on record,” the prime
  
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• Labour expected to cut EV targets for UK’s car industry despite MPs’ protests

  08-11-2026 18:51 via Environment | The Guardian
  Exclusive: Louise Haigh likely to weaken mandate for sales that forms key part of emission reduction planAnalysis: Climate always comes second – are green issues slipping down Burnham’s agenda?Ministers are expected to make steep cuts to the government’s electric vehicle (EV) targets this week, in a move that will relieve carmakers but alarm many Labour MPs who are worried about the government’s commitment to the green agenda.Louise Haigh, the de facto deputy prime minister, will finalis
  
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• Nicola Jennings on Cop31 in Turkey – cartoon

  08-11-2026 18:11 via Environment | The Guardian
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• The tiny world of Australian fairywrens – in pictures

  08-11-2026 15:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Howard Loosemore, alongside a few talented photographer friends, spent 15 years capturing every Australian fairywren species and plumage in vivid detail that’s been published in a new book about the small and colourful lives of fairywrens Continue reading...
  
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• Cop31 must deliver climate progress that people can see is real, host says

  08-11-2026 14:24 via Environment | The Guardian
  High-stakes talks involving 190 countries begin on Monday as world grapples with El Niño supercharged by fossil fuelsThe Cop31 summit must produce progress, “a tangible outcome ... that people can see is real”, its host has said as scores of world leaders and representatives of close to 190 countries gather in Turkey for the UN climate talks.The high-stakes meeting begins on Monday, as countries around the world grapple with the strongest El Niño weather system on record, supercharged by f
  
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• Revealed: how a UK firm is spearheading growth in trade of US fracked ethane

  08-11-2026 14:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Ineos is driving exports with potentially far-reaching environmental and social repercussions“My children started getting sick,” says Lois Bower-Bjornson, a campaigner at the Clean Air Council in Washington County, Pennsylvania.“My oldest son had rashes all over his body. His ears, his eyelids, everywhere. My youngest had terrible nosebleeds, it was so bad that he became anaemic and would almost pass out. He would wake up bleeding.” Continue reading...
  
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• Who’s who at Cop31: key players at the climate talks

  08-11-2026 12:48 via Environment | The Guardian
  What are the relationships and dominant interests in play, as the summit kicks off after a bitter row over its hosting?Hosting Cop was a key pledge from Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese in 2021, while in opposition, before his successful election campaign. But arcane rules meant the country had to wait its turn to bid and was then embroiled in an angry row with Turkey over the hosting. The final compromise put Australia in charge of the negotiations which will take place in the Tur
  
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