Category Archives: Environment

Environmental groups in UK ‘still very white – especially at the top’

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Greenpeace co-director responds to report finding fewer than one in 20 working in sector identifies as non-white

Environmental organisations “are still very white, especially at the top”, the co-director of Greenpeace has said as research showed little to no improvement in the ethnic diversity of their workforces.

Areeba Hamid’s comments came as the third annual racial action on the climate emergency (Race) report into diversity among environmental charities found fewer than one in 20 of those working in the sector identified as people of colour or as other racial or ethnic minority groups.

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Fire chiefs warn UK is not prepared for climate crisis impacts

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National Fire Chiefs Council says ability of firefighters to respond is at risk as it calls for urgent preventive action

The UK is not prepared for the impact of climate breakdown, fire chiefs have warned, as they called on the government to take urgent action to protect communities.

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said the ability of fire services to tackle weather-related emergencies was at risk, despite often being the primary frontline response to major weather events including flooding, fires caused by heatwaves, and storm-related emergencies, all of which are becoming more common.

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Exonerated environmental defenders to face murder retrial in El Salvador

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Critics decry ‘politically motivated’ decision to revisit civil war-era charges against leaders of anti-mining campaign

Five Salvadorian environmental defenders who were exonerated of bogus civil war charges will face retrial this week amid growing evidence of political interference.

Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega, were acquitted in October over the alleged killing of an army informant in 1989. The court in Cabañas in northern El Salvador ruled that the state had failed to prove a crime had taken place, or that the defendants, former leftwing guerrilla fighters, were linked to any wrongdoing.

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Reeves’s Heathrow third runway report was commissioned by London airport

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The chancellor is under fire after a study cited as evidence for expanding the terminal to boost the UK’s economic growth was ordered by Heathrow itself

Rachel Reeves was facing criticism on Saturday night as it was confirmed that a report she cited as evidence that a third ­runway at Heathrow would boost the UK economy was commissioned by the airport itself.

Experts and green groups also challenged Reeves’s view that advances in the production of ­sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) had been a “gamechanger” that would substantially limit the environmental damage of flying, ­saying the claims were overblown and did not stand up to scrutiny.

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Campaigners hail ‘important victory’ in protection of England’s national parks

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Minister says there was error when Manningtree station car park extension was approved under last government

Campaigners have celebrated an “important victory” in a closely watched case that will determine whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.

Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of Essex and Suffolk, home to increasingly rare species including hazel dormice and hedgehogs. Within it is Manningtree station, where the train operator Greater Anglia built an extension to the car park to cope with increased traffic.

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‘This is sacred land’: an off-grid Wales community battles to keep their home

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Legal action has begun to remove the tenants after the 80-acre site was sold to be turned into a healing retreat

Lunch around the huge sycamore and oak table in the farmhouse kitchen of the off-grid Brithdir Mawr community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales is a warm, gentle affair.

Members of the housing co-operative share soup made from leeks and potatoes grown in the gardens, served with crumbly goat’s cheese from its own herd, all washed down with mugs of mountain spring water.

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Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis

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Forest service website among many sites affected as agencies scramble to comply with president’s orders

On Thursday, the Trump administration ordered the US agriculture department to unpublish its websites documenting or referencing the climate crisis.

By Friday, the landing pages on the United States Forest Service website for key resources, research and adaptation tools – including those that provide vital context and vulnerability assessments for wildfires – had gone dark, leaving behind an error message or just a single line: “You are not authorized to access this page.”

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Just Stop Oil protester, 78, released to home detention after fitting tag found

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Gaie Delap had prison term extended because contractors could not find wrist strap of right size

A 78-year-old climate protester has been released on home detention curfew just a week after her prison term was extended because government contractors were unable to find the right-sized tag for her wrist.

Gaie Delap, 78, a retired teacher and Just Stop Oil protester, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her participation in a climate protest on the M25 in 2022 and was released last November under the home detention curfew (HDC) scheme.

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Britain’s favourite fish at risk of wipeout within decades, predicts report

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Brown trout unlikely to survive in most rivers at height of summer by 2080, says Environment Agency

It has been native to Britain for thousands of years and was heralded as the national fish on the BBC’s Springwatch, but a government report suggests the brown trout risks being wiped out in large parts of England within decades.

The first national temperature projections for English rivers by the Environment Agency forecasts that by 2080 the water will be too warm almost everywhere in England at the height of summer for the Salmo trutta species to feed and grow.

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Australia tried to influence other countries and Unesco to keep Great Barrier Reef off in-danger list

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Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian Australia show a sustained strategy approved by environment minister Tanya Plibersek

The Australian government carried out an international lobbying campaign to keep the Great Barrier Reef off a list of world heritage sites in danger, including dispatching politicians and officials to Unesco’s Paris headquarters and asking diplomats to gather intelligence on countries that could influence the decision.

The campaign is revealed in documents released to the Greens after a parliamentary request and show how Australia sought to influence Unesco and members of the 21-country world heritage committee in the lead up to a crunch meeting in July last year.

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‘Insanely tasty green food’: how the meaty Danes embraced a world-first plant-based plan

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Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food

“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal party, introduced the nation’s world-first action plan for plant-based foods.

“If we want to reduce the climate footprint within the agricultural sector, then we all have to eat more plant-based foods,” he said at the plan’s launch in October 2023, and since then the scheme has gone from strength to strength. Backed by a €170m government fund, it is now supporting plant-based food from farm to fork, from making tempeh from broad beans and a chicken substitute from fungi to on-site tastings at kebab and burger shops and the first vegan chef degree.

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Rachel Reeves says cabinet ‘united’ in backing Heathrow third runway plan – UK politics live

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Chancellor says she has support of cabinet as climate minister Ed Miliband reported to be sceptical over Heathrow plans

Richard Madeley goes next.

Q: The Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary says you are wrong, and the third runway won’t be built until you are 70. You are 45 now. Why is he wrong?

We’re signing off decisions on wind farms, on solar farms, a commitment to a new stadium at Old Trafford. We are upgrading the Transpennine route to make journey times easier between York and Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield. Those things are happening right now.

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Rosebank oilfield go-ahead decision ruled unlawful by Edinburgh court

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Court says UK government green light for Rosebank and Jackdaw permits does not take into account CO2 emissions

The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland has been ruled unlawful by the courts in a major win for environmental campaigners.

The proposed Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – had been given the go-ahead in 2023 under the previous government.

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Reeves’s growth plans ‘exactly what economy needs’ say UK business groups – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Reeves says the supply side of the economy has been held back.

Politicians have lacked the courage to confront the factors holding back growth.

They have accepted the status quo. They have been the barrier, not the enablers, of change.

Without economic growth, we cannot improve the living standards of ordinary working people, because growth isn’t simply about lines on a graph. It’s about the pounds in people’s pockets, the vibrancy of our high streets and the thriving businesses that create wealth, jobs and new opportunities for us, for our children and grandchildren.

We will have succeeded in our mission when working people are better off.

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Study of more than 600 animal and plant species finds genetic diversity has declined globally

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Analysis by dozens of scientists internationally notes urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse losses

Genetic diversity in animals and plants has declined globally over the past three decades, an analysis of more than 600 species has found.

The research, published in the journal Nature, found declines in two-thirds of the populations studied, but noted that urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse genetic diversity losses.

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Renewables break record for share of Australia’s main energy supply in December quarter, data reveals

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Australian Energy Market Operator also reports coal-fired power plants’ contribution fell below 50% for the first time

Renewable power reached a record share of Australia’s main electricity supply in the December 2024 quarter, with the contribution of coal-fired generation dipping below 50% for the first time, the Australian Energy Market Operator said.

Renewable energy sources accounted for 46% of the overall supply mix in the national energy market (NEM), driving quarterly total emissions and emissions intensity to record low levels.

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How Trump tariffs could upend car markets in Europe, the US and China

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Levies threaten exporters to US market, while scrapping of subsidies will hit EV sales – and Tesla could gain

The internal combustion engine appears to hold a special place in Donald Trump’s psyche. During his inauguration speech last week, he made a “sacred pledge” to raise US car production to “a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago”.

Car making and the oil industry – not AI, computer chips, or even cryptocurrencies – were the only two industries the new US president highlighted as he promised to make America a “manufacturing nation once again”.

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Produce in home gardens near PFAS plant in US contain dangerous levels of chemicals

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Research provides more evidence that food is a potentially overlooked exposure route to toxic ‘forever chemicals’

Produce grown in home gardens around a North Carolina PFAS plant contain dangerous levels of the chemicals, new research has found, providing more evidence that food is a potentially overlooked exposure route to the compounds, especially when grown near polluters.

The study’s authors say findings point to much of the contamination resulting from air emissions, which research increasingly suggests is an underestimated source of PFAS pollution.

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UK weather: major incident declared in Somerset as storms bring flooding

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More than 100 people evacuated from their homes as Storm Herminia hits Britain after Éowyn

A major incident has been declared in Somerset after more than 100 people were evacuated from their homes because of flooding, while roads were blocked, trains delayed or cancelled and schools closed, as stormy weather once again battered parts of the UK.

Rest centres were set up for people forced to leave their homes in three Somerset towns – Chard, Ilminster and Somerton – with some residents reporting levels of flooding not seen for years. Highways teams dealt with almost 50 incidents.

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First outbreak of rare bird flu strain reported at California poultry farm

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Discovery of H5N9 came alongside detection of the more common H5N1 on the farm, leading to 119,000 birds’ deaths

The first outbreak of a rare bird flu in poultry has been detected on a duck farm in California, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Monday.

Authorities said the discovery of H5N9 bird flu in poultry came alongside the detection of the more common H5N1 strain on the same farm in Merced county, California, and that almost 119,000 birds on the farm had been killed since early December.

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