Category Archives: Environment

Germany to reactivate coal power plants as Russia curbs gas flow

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Parliament approves measures to use mothballed sites to produce electricity and preserve gas supplies

Germany’s two houses of parliament have passed emergency legislation to reactivate mothballed coal-fired power plants in order to support electricity generation amid fears of gas shortages as Russia curbs capacity.

The move has been described as “painful but necessary” by the government’s environmentalist economics minister, Robert Habeck. It has the backing of leading Greens in the coalition government, who argue it is needed as a short-term crisis management tool.

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California wildfire forces partial closure of Yosemite national park

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Washburn fire is burning near southern portion of the park, Mariposa Grove, home to over 500 mature giant sequoias

Yosemite national park has been partially closed as firefighters try to contain a wildfire that has now stretched across more than 60 acres.

The Washburn fire is burning near the southern portion of the park, Mariposa Grove, which is home to more than 500 mature giant sequoias in the park, officials said.

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Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster to get day in UK courts

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Court of appeal judgment allows £5bn lawsuit against mining giant BHP by more than 200,000 victims of 2015 Mariana dam disaster

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster will have their case heard in a UK court, making it the largest group claim in English legal history.

The lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP – one of the biggest companies in the world – for their involvement in the collapse of the Mariana dam in 2015, which released toxic mining waste down 400 miles (640km) of waterways along the Doce River. Claimants are seeking at least £5bn ($6bn) in compensation.

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Wild species support half of world’s population, report finds

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Sustainability is key to survival of billions of people, says UN study, which notes income from wild species incentivises conservation

• Patrick Vallance: ‘We need to change if we’re to survive’

Wild plants, animals, fungi and algae support half of the world’s population but their future use is threatened by overexploitation, according to a new assessment by leading scientists.

From the 10,000 known wild species that humans harvest for food to the firewood that one in three people need for cooking, nature is key to the livelihoods and survival of billions of people in developed and developing countries, says a new UN report.

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Australia could see a solar cell ‘renaissance’ if global supply chain is diversified

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International Energy Agency report finds China controls the bulk of world’s PV manufacturing

Australia could start a solar manufacturing “renaissance” and have a rare opportunity to accelerate its transition to renewable energy if it heeds a call by the International Energy Agency to diversify the world’s solar cell supply chain.

A special report by the agency released on Friday found China controls over 80% of parts of the global photovoltaic (PV) solar supply chain, with one out of every seven panels produced worldwide being manufactured by a single factory.

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‘Far from adequate’: former Pacific leaders group urges Australia to increase 43% emissions cut

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Pacific Elders Voice also called for Australia to end gas and coal developments ahead of Pacific Islands Forum

Former Pacific leaders have called for “urgent actions” to reduce global carbon emissions, including a commitment to no new coal or gas projects as Anthony Albanese prepares to travel to Fiji for the most important diplomatic regional meeting in the Pacific.

A group of former leaders of Pacific island nations, called Pacific Elders Voice, have called for accelerated efforts to move beyond coal and gas, and for new finance to be made available for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, in the foreword to a new report released today by the Australia-based Climate Council.

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EV incentives focused on urban centres leave rural Australians stranded with fossil fuels

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Regional residents at risk of being ‘last people in the world’ driving petrol cars due to misconception electric vehicle batteries lack range, study suggests

People living in regional areas are at risk of becoming the “last people in the world” left driving petrol cars because incentives for electric vehicles have been targeted towards city drivers.

Most EVs on the market are likely to have the battery range needed for those living long distances from urban centres, however Australian policy is currently geared only towards encouraging uptake among citydwellers, new research from the Australian National University has found.

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UK supermarkets urged to stop selling Parma ham from EU caged sows

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Animal welfare groups find sows in Europe forced to spend weeks in cages so small they can only stand and lie down

Animal welfare campaigners are calling on UK supermarkets to stop selling premium ham, including Parma, produced in “sow stalls” on EU farms.

An undercover investigation conducted by Compassion in World Farming (CWF), an animal welfare campaign group, found that sows are forced to spend many weeks in cages so small they can only stand up and lie down.

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Australia news live: fourth covid vaccine dose to be offered from 11 July; NSW rain and flood risk move north

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In his speech, Jason Clare also lamented the fact that although the target of 40% of people aged 25 to 34 having bachelor degrees had been achieved, a separate target for 20% of enrolments to be from people from low socioeconomic backgrounds had not.

Instead, it had “barely moved” from 15%, from when the target was set in 2008. Indigenous enrolment was less than 10%.

I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on your postcode, your parents, or the colour of your skin. None of us want that. But that’s where we are today. I am not naive, I know this is hard to shift.

And that, at its core, is what the Australian Universities accord will be about: a reset. And an opportunity to build a long-term plan for our universities, together. Drawing on the advice of the leadership in this room, your staff, unions, business, students, parents and all political parties.

Looking at everything from funding and access to affordability, transparency, regulation, employment conditions and also how universities and TAFEs and other higher education and vocational education providers and training institutions work together.

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More than 15m bees destroyed in NSW to contain deadly varroa mite parasite

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Hives along state’s central and mid-north coasts and in north-west destroyed as bee lockdown continues

More than 15 million bees have been euthanised across 31 infected premises in New South Wales as the fight to contain the varroa mite continues.

Bees from 1,533 hives have been destroyed between the NSW central and mid-north coasts, as well as at Narrabri in the state’s north-west, the state’s agriculture minister, Dugald Saunders, said. “It’s a significant number of bees,” he said.

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Morning mail: Boris Johnson refuses to quit, Kyrgios makes Wimbledon semi-finals, veggies to buy this month

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Thursday: Covid-19 led Australia to record 3,105 more deaths than expected in January and February. Plus: UK prime minister told to step down by his own ministers

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Good morning. A fourth Covid vaccine is to be made available to more Australians as it was revealed hospital admissions have reached their highest levels since early February. In the UK, Boris Johnson has been told by his own ministers to quit. And Nick Kyrgios is through to the semi-finals of Wimbledon.

Johnson’s woes have continued amid a string of resignations from his collapsing government and a series of senior Conservatives called for him to step down. But the PM is refusing to budge, even after a delegation of cabinet ministers met him at Downing Street to demand his resignation on a day of rapidly unfolding political drama. Follow all the latest developments as they happen here.

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Monsoon rains cause at least 77 deaths in Pakistan in three weeks

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Homes, roads, bridges and power stations also badly hit with Balochistan province faring worst

At least 77 people have died in rain-related incidents across Pakistan in the past three weeks, the country’s minister for climate change said on Wednesday.

The monsoon rains have also damaged homes, roads, bridges and power stations, Sherry Rehman told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad, as storms continued to lash the country.

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Global dismay as supreme court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tatters

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Biden’s election was billed as heralding a ‘climate presidency’ but congressional and judicial roadblocks mean he has little to show

Joe Biden’s election triggered a global surge in optimism that the climate crisis would, finally, be decisively confronted. But the US supreme court’s decision last week to curtail America’s ability to cut planet-heating emissions has proved the latest blow to a faltering effort by Biden on climate that is now in danger of becoming largely moribund.

The supreme court’s ruling that the US government could not use its existing powers to phase out coal-fired power generation without “clear congressional authorization” quickly ricocheted around the world among those now accustomed to looking on in dismay at America’s seemingly endless stumbles in addressing global heating.

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More major warnings issued as focus turns to mid-north coast – as it happened

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Sussan Ley criticises Labor over flood response

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley is upping the Coalition’s attacks on the Labor government over the floods, asking why they haven’t activated disaster recovery payments for affected residents.

We have already announced a wide range of support for people but I think it’s fair to assume that there will be more coming.

I can’t commit to anything specific like that but what I can tell you is that from the weekend, I began talking with our authorities about what we could do to make sure that any disaster support we approved got out the door quickly.

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Rain relief for Sydney as storms move north, but BoM still forecasts wetter than average winter

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Conditions set to ease from Thursday as scientists predict ‘increasingly common’ intense weather events as a result of global heating

Sydneysiders can expect some much-needed relief from the deluge that has swamped the city, as conditions begin to settle from Thursday, but the north of the state may be next in line for a drenching.

Record rainfalls have been hammering the NSW coastline all week, resulting in more than 100 evacuation orders being issued and 23 local government areas being declared natural disaster zones.

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Snow at one of world’s highest observatories melting earlier than ever before

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Peak at Sonnblick in Austrian Alps has melted more than a month before previous record time

The snow at the highest observatory in the world to be operated all-year-round is expected to completely melt in the next few days, the earliest time on record.

Scientists at the Sonnblick observatory in the Austrian Central Alps, which is 3,106 metres (10,190ft) above sea level, have been shocked and dismayed to see the snow depleting so quickly.

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NSW floods: Sydney braces for two more days of flooding as state smashed by rain and wind

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SES perform 252 flood rescues overnight and thousands urged to evacuate as threat of inundation remains in Hawkesbury and Nepean

The New South Wales State Emergency Service reported more than 5,300 requests for assistance on Monday night, including 252 flood rescues, mainly of drivers stuck in cars and residents needing to be relocated.

The wild weather continued in NSW through the night, with heavy rain and strong winds lashing the state.

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Floating windfarms could be hosted off Cornwall and Wales, crown estate says

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Five ‘areas of search’ in the Celtic Sea could be developed and offered to businesses by 2023

Floating windfarms could be built off the coasts of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire after the Queen’s property manager identified a clutch of sites in the Celtic Sea that could host them.

The crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, has published five “areas of search” that will be narrowed into development plots to host wind power generation.

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Bolsonaro’s ‘surrender of Amazon to crooks played role in murders of Phillips and Pereira’

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Brazilian president’s dismantling of environmental safeguards partly to blame, says politician leading inquiry

Jair Bolsonaro’s demolition of Brazil’s Indigenous and environmental protection services and “surrender of the Amazon to crooks” played a direct role in the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, the politician leading a congressional inquiry into the crime has claimed.

One month after the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate were killed on the River Itaquaí, three men are in custody: two local fishermen and a third man called Jeferson da Silva Lima.

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Environmentalists condemn Biden administration’s offshore drilling plan

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Policy would ban new ocean drilling but allow up to 11 lease sales in Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s south coast

Joe Biden’s administration on Friday unveiled a five-year offshore oil and gas drilling development plan that blocks all new drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within US territorial waters while allowing some lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s south coast.

The plan, which has not been finalized, could allow up to 11 lease sales but gives the interior department the right to make none. It comes two days after the US supreme court curbed the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to respond to the climate crisis.

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