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Great Barrier Reef authority urges 'fastest possible action' on emissions
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says ‘further loss of coral is inevitable’
The federal agency that manages the Great Barrier Reef has made an unprecedented call for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, warning only the “strongest and fastest possible action” will reduce the risks to the natural wonder.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has published a climate position statement that says the reef is already damaged from warming oceans and it is “critical” global temperature rises remain within 1.5 degrees.
Continue reading...NA Markets: California allowances continue slide as RGGI inches up
UK considers transport offsetting as developers eye domestic carbon market
UK energy-saving efforts collapse after government subsidy cuts
Only 10,000 upgrades such as loft insulation happen each month compared with 65,000 in 2014, report shows
Efforts to end fuel poverty and energy waste by making the UK’s draughty homes more efficient have collapsed by almost 85%, according to new government data.
The report, published on Thursday, shows that the number of energy efficiency upgrades undertaken each month has fallen to 10,000 on average for the six months to the end of May. This compares with an average of 65,000 a month in 2014.
Continue reading...Police call for tougher sentences to deter Extinction Rebellion
Met says it is working with CPS on more than 900 cases from environmental protests
Police have accused Extinction Rebellion of causing “high level” disruption and called for courts to pass sentences big enough to deter them from causing fresh chaos, as the environmental group braces itself for mass prosecutions of its activists.
Laurence Taylor, the deputy assistant commissioner in charge of protest policing for the Metropolitan force, said last April’s mass civil disobedience, when thousands of activists occupied four sites across London, saw 90 of the people being arrested only to be released and rejoin the protests. Taylor said police were talking to the government about tougher and clearer powers.
Continue reading...Regional Manager, Latin America, Verra – Bogota
Reserve Administrator, Climate Action Reserve – Los Angeles
Consultant, UN Environment – Home-based
Researcher, Economics & Policy of Zero-Carbon Energy Transitions, Crawford School of Public Policy (Australian National University) – Canberra
Consultant, Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Saint Lucia Department of Sustainable Development – Home-based
Director, International Partnerships and Development, Climate-KIC – Amsterdam/London/Other
Climate Action Coordinator, NEEMO EEIG (Prospect CS) – Brussels
Researcher, Climate Change Mitigation & Energy Policy, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency – The Hague
Israel mosque find: Archaeologists unearth 1,200-year-old ruins in desert
Ohio closes in on legislation subsiding nuclear energy, quashing RPS
Southern Water must pay for its pollution spills, watchdog told
Environmental groups condemn cutting of company’s fine from £37.7m to £3m
Environmental groups are demanding one of Britain’s biggest water companies be made to pay tens of millions of pounds to restore the damage to habitats and wildlife caused by thousands of pollution spills into the rivers and beaches across the south-east of England.
As details of the scale of the criminal inquiry into the allegedly deliberate misreporting of data and cover-up of thousands of pollution spills by Southern Water emerge, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on the regulator, Ofwat, to review a penalty of £126m imposed on the company last month.
Continue reading...Ofwat has a duty to protect our rivers | Letters
As river, fishery and wildlife organisations, we are concerned by Ofwat’s proposal to levy a reduced penalty on Southern Water for “improper practices … including at senior management levels, to present a false picture of compliance”, by the “deliberate misreporting of data” on significant pollution incidents, and the failure to have “adequate systems of planning, governance and internal controls in place to be able to manage its wastewater treatment works; to accurately report information about the performance of these works; and to properly carry out its general statutory duties as a sewerage undertaker”.
We are particularly disappointed that the rivers and environments that have been affected will not receive any compensation for the damage to the habitat of fish and other wildlife caused by the company. Reducing the fine from £37.7m to £3m in return for allowing Southern Water an opportunity to give customers a rebate is in our opinion the wrong option. It is the environment and the aquatic life in the watercourses that were deliberately polluted by Southern Water in an attempt to remain within the terms of their permitted consents and to avoid incurring penalties.
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