Category Archives: Environment

Queensland LNP pledges net zero 2050 target at next election amid ‘deeply troubling’ rise in emissions

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Leader David Crisafulli’s announcement drew immediate criticism from environmentalists saying the move is not science-based

Queensland’s opposition has announced it will bring a net zero emissions target by 2050 to the next state election at the LNP’s annual convention in Brisbane over the weekend.

LNP leader David Crisafulli said it was “deeply troubling” that emissions had increased in Queensland over the past several years.

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‘Disturbing’: weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

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CDC study finds glyphosate, controversial ingredient found in weedkillers including popular Roundup brand, present in samples

More than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a US health study contained a weedkilling chemical linked to cancer, a finding scientists have called “disturbing” and “concerning”.

The report by a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that out of 2,310 urine samples, taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the US population, 1,885 were laced with detectable traces of glyphosate. This is the active ingredient in herbicides sold around the world, including the widely used Roundup brand. Almost a third of the participants were children ranging from six to 18.

This story is co-published with The New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

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At least 77 Covid deaths; Albanese pays tribute to Abe; NSW counts cost of floods – as it happened

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Foreign minister Penny Wong meets her Chinese counterpart in Bali, breaking three years of diplomatic hostility. This blog is now closed

Collaery case: ‘only stress if you’re being shot at’

One of the biggest stories of the week was the announcement from the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, that the government would drop its long-running case against lawyer Bernard Collaery.

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NSW floods: government names recovery coordinators as rain and big surf set to return

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Sunshine broke over flood clean-up efforts in areas west and north of Sydney and Sunday rainfall is unlikely to cause further flooding

Flood waters and river levels dropped in areas west and north of Sydney on Saturday as sunshine broke over clean-up efforts at thousands of homes and businesses.

The New South Wales government named two coordinators to oversee recovery efforts and said inspections of 2,285 premises so far had found 239 were not liveable.

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Pheasant shoots scaled back across UK after bird flu import bans

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RSPB calls for greater regulation of industry to avoid putting native wildlife at risk

Pheasant shoots across the UK are being shut down or dramatically scaled back this year because of import bans on the birds after an outbreak of bird flu.

A huge number of the gamebirds shot in the country are imported from factory farms in Europe. Experts have said this practice should stop or be reduced because it risks spreading disease and has troubling implications for native nature and biodiversity.

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Fears environment bills could be sidelined amid Tory leadership race

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Campaigners warn crucial legislation must not be abandoned while the UK government is distracted

Crucial environment legislation must not be allowed to be sidelined or abandoned amid the distraction of a Tory leadership race, campaigners have warned.

Ministers openly admit they do not know what is going on with much of the legislation, but those who remain in government are working with skeleton teams to get bills in shape to be passed.

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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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