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This leaves four-fifths - twice the area of Mars - still to be surveyed to a modern standard.

Alan Finkel calls saving electricity the ‘best form of generation’ as groups push for efficiency measures to lead economic recovery

Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, has warned the country is not doing enough to lift energy efficiency, and described measures to save electricity as the “best form of energy generation you could possibly ever hope to have”.

Speaking in his role as chair of a panel advising the Morrison government on a low emissions technology statement, Finkel told an industry seminar that Australia had ongoing issues with energy efficiency and productivity, and noted a national energy productivity plan, agreed by federal and state energy ministers in 2015, did not appear on a list of national climate and energy policies.

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Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: 'It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.'

• 'Tipping point': Greta Thunberg hails Black Lives Matter protests

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Phosphate-rich runoff from free-range chickens is causing the spread of algal blooms that devastate the river’s ecosystem

The beauty of the River Wye has been acclaimed for centuries. “If you have never navigated the Wye, you have seen nothing,” wrote the travel writer William Gilpin 250 years ago. And its reputation still makes it a magnet for visitors who regularly vote it one of the country’s most beautiful rivers.

But conservationists have warned that the Wye, which meanders south from the craggy peaks of mid-Wales to the lush pastures of the Severn estuary, is today under serious threat – and from an unusual source. They say the pollution from increasing numbers of free-range poultry farms near its banks is now seriously damaging the river.

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Agents on US-Mexico border seize thousands of plants illegally pulled out of the ground by criminals

Special agents in America have busted a smuggling ring on the US-Mexico border, but their haul is not drugs or the immigrants that President Donald Trump rails against with his “big beautiful wall”.

These smugglers were trafficking something all together less high profile – so-called “living rock cactus” that grows uniquely on the arid plains of Big Bend national park in Texas.

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Sixty years after his father did it first, Kelly Walsh dives to the deepest point in Earth's oceans.

People are realising ‘we cannot keep looking away from these things’, says climate activist

Greta Thunberg has said the Black Lives Matter protests show society has reached a tipping point where injustice can no longer be ignored, but that she believes a “green recovery plan” from the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough to solve the climate crisis.

Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: “It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.

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Greta Thunberg says the world needs to treat climate change with similar urgency to Covid-19.

A new analysis says global sport faces major disruption from climate change in coming decades.

Researcher Alexander Braczkowski spent a year monitoring and filming lions in the Queen Elizabeth conservation area in Uganda.

In just-published results, Braczkowski found the area’s lions are in a precarious state, with the home ranges of males much larger than previously estimated – suggesting they are having to travel farther to find food.

Braczkowski got a special permit to use aerial photography and slowly got the lions used to the drones over time. The result has been valuable research into the big cat, as well as some incredible imagery

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Study says heatwaves, fires and floods, and rising sea levels pose major threat over coming years

The rapidly accelerating climate crisis threatens the future of major sports events around the world, according to a report that also says the global sporting industry is failing to tackle its own emissions.

The study found that in the coming years nearly all sports – from cricket to American football, tennis to athletics, surfing to golf – will face serious disruption from heatwaves, fires, floods and rising sea levels.

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In the latest episode of our Carbon Pulse Conversations podcast, we chat with Neelesh Nerurkar, vice president of Washington DC-based research firm ClearView Energy Partners, to discuss current developments and politics surrounding the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

WCI regulated parties and speculators held their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings largely steady as secondary market levels slipped underneath the 2020 reserve price again this week, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data released Friday.

Researchers say as engine noise went up, humpback whale mothers’ breathing rate increased and they swam faster

Repeated noise from whale-watching boat engines could be affecting humpback mothers and their calves while they stop to rest on their long migrations to the Antarctic, a study has found.

Researchers found as engine noise went up, humpback whale mothers spent less time resting, their breathing rate increased and they swam faster.

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While the $3.5bn project will quadruple the amount of electricity sent across Bass Strait, a final investment decision still remains three years away

In a connected world, with scientists warning rapid emissions cuts are needed to address the climate crisis, the Marinus Link reads as an elegant solution.

A proposed 1,500 megawatt undersea electricity cable between Burnie, in north-west Tasmania, and Gippsland in Victoria, it would quadruple the amount of electricity that can be sent in either direction across Bass Strait.

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The California-Quebec Q3 carbon auction will include slightly more current vintage allowances than the May sale that failed to sell out, while the final quarterly auction of 2020 is slated to see the lowest amount on offer this year, according to an auction notice posted Friday.

The European Commission is making plans to aims to reach 40 GW of installed electrolyser capacity EU-wide by 2030, according to a leaked version of the 27-nation bloc’s hydrogen strategy to be unveiled in July.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including bears in the UK and a chops-licking fox in Russia’s far east

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Offset certifier Gold Standard plans to differentiate post-2020 vintage carbon credits depending on whether host nations make corresponding adjustments to their emissions inventories, a firm line that may force offset buyers to drastically rethink their voluntary climate strategies.