Category Archives: Environment

What are European countries doing to cut power consumption?

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Governments across the continent have announced a range of measures to tackle any energy shortages this winter

Paris is switching off the Eiffel Tower lights an hour early, Milan has turned off public fountains, and Hanover is offering gym users cold rather than hot showers in an effort to combat potential energy shortages this winter.

At the same time, the public are being encouraged to do their bit by avoiding using household appliances between 4pm and 7pm, stock up on blankets and slow down their driving.

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‘We’d have lost lives’: cultural officer decries absence of translators in Shepparton flood response

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Volunteers have been the only way for the shire’s thriving multicultural community to seek help during the emergency

When Hussam Saraf received a call from an Afghan woman trapped in flood waters just outside Shepparton on Friday evening, he was desperate to help.

The SES and police had been unable to assist the woman due to her lack of English. Thankfully, Saraf could act as a translator and she was ferried to safety.

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Science minister warns CSIRO against ‘renting out’ its brand to giant gas companies

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Ed Husic says science agency should focus efforts elsewhere after ‘very major’ gas company asked it to support net-zero bid

The science minister, Ed Husic, has questioned the priorities of Australia’s premier science body, warning it against “renting out” its brand to huge gas companies that could easily fund their own decarbonisation efforts.

Husic told the Spark festival on Monday that a “very major gas company” had approached CSIRO to support its claims of working towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions. While emphasising CSIRO’s independence, Husic said it should focus efforts elsewhere.

“Gas firms at the moment are making enough money to ensure that the mint could blush,” Husic told the gathering.

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Billionaire Mo Ibrahim attacks ‘hypocrisy’ over Africa’s gas

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Telecoms entrepreneur says continent’s people should be allowed to use their vast reserves

One of Africa’s richest entrepreneurs, the telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim, has criticised developed countries for seeking to dissuade African nations from exploiting their vast reserves of gas.

Ibrahim told the Guardian in an interview: “We need a balanced and a fair policy for everybody. Gas can be useful to our transition … [Those who say otherwise] are hypocrites.”

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Daniel Andrews dismisses concerns over independence of review into Flemington racetrack flood wall

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Melbourne Water chair John Thwaites, who was water minister when the wall was approved, will excuse himself from the review

Daniel Andrews has dismissed concerns over the independence of a review into the impact of a flood wall built to protect Flemington racetrack, which will be conducted by an organisation chaired by a former minister of the government that approved the structure.

The track was spared by Friday’s flooding while homes in neighbouring suburbs including Maribyrnong and Kensington were inundated, with some residents believing the wall pushed flood waters away from the track and into their homes.

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Weather tracker: deadly rainstorm hits Crete

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At least two people dead on Greek island after torrential rain. Elsewhere, cold snap grips swathe of US

At least two people have been killed and more injured after torrential rain hit the popular holiday destination of Crete on Saturday morning. Heavy, thundery rain turned streets into rivers. The worst effects were felt in the Heraklion part of the island where there was huge damage. Cars were washed into the sea while beaches were covered in all sorts of debris, with the resort of Agia Pelagia on the north coast particularly affected.

An area of low pressure moving south-eastwards from Italy brought torrential downpours and thunderstorms to the island, which continued through the afternoon and evening in places before easing. Northern and eastern parts of the island received the highest rainfall totals, with 130mm recorded in 30 minutes and about 300mm seen within three hours.

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Australia news live: thousands of homes at risk in Victoria floods; Nationals accuse budget of targeting regions

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The Goulburn River at Shepparton reaches almost 12 metres and is still rising as residents fill sandbags to protect properties. Follow the day’s news live

Government needs to be securing future of regional communities in net zero transition, McKenzie says

RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas:

Isn’t part of the problem, though, this this deal that Barnaby Joyce and your party, extracted in exchange for supporting net zero was never really outlined in detail. It was shrouded in secrecy and confusion. Haven’t you left yourself kind of vulnerable in the lack of detail?

I think one of the things that’s becoming more and more clear and obvious around the debate about decarbonising Australia’s economy is that there are actually going to be specific communities and places that are more heavily impacted than others. It’s been one of the National party’s great arguments in the last decade because it’s true.

And so what we secured, were able to secure, was funding to ensure that those communities would be able to secure the opportunities that are purported to come with a move to net zero but also be supported to diversify their local economies and to overcome some of the challenges that are unequivocally heading their way.

The Labor party has ripped the guts out of programs at fund regional Australia and has simultaneously awarded over $2bn to Daniel Andrews’ re-election campaign here in Victoria. And voters are going to be heading to the polls within three weeks of the budget being handed down. So it’s hard not to be cynical, I guess, at what seems a blatant politicisation of infrastructure funding.

And now his own minister yesterday on your Insiders program confirmed that Infrastructure Australia hasn’t even looked at this suburban rail loop the and the only person that has is the Victorian auditor general and the report was scathing, so I think there’s huge concerns that this government has a vendetta against the regions and is using any excuse they can to rip regional funding out of the budget, and to re-profile and re-allocate it to re-elect labour premiers.

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Australia news live: 120 schools to be closed on Monday amid Victorian flood crisis

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Residents in Victoria’s north told to move to higher ground; Anthony Albanese and 100 ADF personnel on the ground as situation worsens. Follow live

Federal government ‘in conversation’ with NSW about Warragamba dam wall

King is asked about how the infrastructure spend is being divvied up with New South Wales clearly getting less than Labor-lead states. King says the decisions were based on the projects that had been submitted to the federal government ahead of the budget.

We will work with the New South Wales government as we lead into the May budget.

Of course we will look at it. At this stage we don’t have enough information from the New South Wales government on which to make a decision.

There is back and forth between Infrastructure Australia and the New South Wales department and I haven’t seen any of that yet.

This is for the early works of this project. We haven’t made any further commitments. We will talk to the Victorians around that as we go forward. They have an election they are facing and this will be a contested project, I’m sure, but something we have confidence in.

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Alaska cancels snow crab season over population decline

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Causes being researched but likely included increased predation and stresses from warmer water

Alaska officials have cancelled the upcoming snow crab season, due to population decline across the Bering Sea.

The fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest will not happen. The winter harvest of smaller snow crab has also been cancelled for the first time.

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Coogee beach among NSW swimming spots with ‘poor’ water quality amid La Niña deluge

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Twice the number of sites have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, government report finds

One in five swimming spots in New South Wales have been rated as having “poor” or “very poor” pollution levels, including Sydney’s popular Coogee beach, after the state experienced its wettest summer in a decade.

Twice the number of beaches, lakes and lagoons have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, according to the annual state of the beaches report released by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

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Drought threatens England’s fruit and vegetable crop next year, says report

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Scorching summer left reservoirs depleted and unlikely to recover, as growers warn of supply chain collapse in leaked meeting

Farmers have warned they will not be able to grow crops next year if predictions that the drought will last until next summer prove accurate.

Leaked slides from a national drought group meeting, seen by the Observer, show there are concerns that because reservoirs are still empty due to record dry conditions, the fruit and vegetable supply chain could collapse.

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Barges stranded as Mississippi River water levels reach critical low

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Major shipping delays and backlog of vessels after region experiences lack of rainfall in recent weeks

The water in the Mississippi River has dropped so low that barges are getting stuck, leading to expensive dredging and at least one recent traffic jam of more than 2,000 vessels backed up.

The Mississippi River Basin produces nearly all – 92% – of US agricultural exports, and 78% of the global exports of feed grains and soybeans. The recent drought has dropped water levels to alarmingly low levels that are causing shipping delays, and seeing the costs of alternative transport, such as rail, rise.

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UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

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Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

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England could be in drought beyond spring 2023, say ministers

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Rainfall levels have not been sufficient to dampen soil and refill reservoirs after scorching summer

England could be in drought beyond spring 2023, ministers have said, after record low rainfall has left the country short on water.

The news will be particularly problematic for farmers, who were hoping for a damp autumn and winter to refill reservoirs so they could plant and harvest crops into next year.

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A California measure would tax the rich to fund electric vehicles. Why is the governor against it?

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Proposition 30 would raise up to $5bn annually to help buy zero-emission cars, trucks and buses; Newsom calls it a ‘Trojan horse’

Two years ago, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

This year, he’s opposing a ballot measure to fund the transition to electric vehicles – siding with Republicans and against fellow Democrats, environmental groups, firefighters and labor unions.

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Steinway, then the highway: national piano competition forced to flee Shepparton floods

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Final round of the competition brought forward to Friday so competitors and others involved could escape imminent inundation

It wasn’t quite the doomed band on the Titanic playing on heroically, but the finalists in this year’s Australian national piano award were faced with an unexpected challenge as the flood water rose around the Riverlinks Eastbank theatre in Shepparton, where the event’s semi-final stage was due to finish on Friday.

“That would be a very dramatic way of putting it,” said Anthony Chen, 27, although he said he had never experienced conditions like it in his musical career.

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Covid quarantine centre to reopen for flood evacuees – as it happened

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Daniel Andrews says 500 homes have been flooded and another 500 have been isolated. This blog is now closed

An estimated 500 homes are flooded in Victoria with number expected to grow: Daniel Andrews

Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has been on ABC radio Melbourne this morning, providing listeners with an update on the floods.

Obviously this has been a very, very significant flood event and it’s far from over. There’s a little bit more rainfall but as that weather event passes through, the real challenge is waters continuing to rise and more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off, becoming isolated, then of course we move to clean up and all of those issues.

We think there’s about 500 homes that are flooded, we think there are another 500 that have been isolated across the state. But I would just say they’re very early estimates and the aerial intelligence gathering choppers are up in the air now ... they’ll be doing all their reports back to the state control centre. So I’d say those numbers are absolutely certain to grow. And indeed, we’re still asking people to leave in some areas. There have been important, important evacuation notices have been issued in a number of communities. So those numbers will go up. That’s why we’ve got nine important relief centres opening and 50 sandbag collection points. There’s an enormous amount of work going on.

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‘Danger period’: Victorians and Tasmanians on high alert as rivers rise rapidly after heavy rain

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Evacuation orders in place across Tasmania and Victoria due to flooding, including in parts of suburban Melbourne’s north-west

Flood-hit communities in north and north-west Tasmania are entering a “danger period” as rivers rise, with evacuation orders current for multiple towns and part of Launceston.

Victorian communities also remain on high alert for dangerous flooding, with residents in six towns urged to leave their homes and move to higher ground.

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Labour vows to treble solar power use during first term if elected

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Ed Miliband criticises Liz Truss’s ‘anti-green-energy dogma’ after plans to ban solar projects revealed

Labour has criticised prime minister Liz Truss’s plan to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland and vowed to treble the renewable energy source in its first term.

Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, will visit a solar farm on Friday. He is to lay out his opposition to plans by Truss and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, who the Guardian revealed earlier this week are hoping to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land.

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Australia news live: Victoria and Tasmania hit by flooding; NT triple murderer sentenced to life in jail

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Seventy flood warnings in place across Victoria, with 10,000 people without power and 40 schools and childcare centres shut. Follow the day’s news live

‘Walk the talk Labor’: Spender urges government to help households decarbonise

Independent MP Allegra Spender has taken to social media to urge the Albanese government to take action supporting Australian households as they decarbonise:

Our families and businesses are hurting. Sovereign risk is not a defence when the super profits are being made because of a war.

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