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The Western Australia EPA on Monday began a new consultation round for its GHG guidelines, after being forced to withdraw a previous proposal that included an obligation for all major projects to offset their carbon emissions.

Iberdrola plans 590MW solar PV installation in Spain, which will be biggest in Europe when complete.

The post Iberdrola plans massive 590MW solar plant in Spain – Europe’s largest appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A California budget compromise would funnel the state's WCI cap-and-trade auction revenues to workforce training and safe drinking water programmes, potentially conflicting with a legislative counsel opinion that found carbon funds must be used to directly reduce emissions until 2021.

Indigenous women boxing for fitness and confidence; preserving rural property's historic church; ranger catching rabbits with ferrets; rural community draws crowds to pumpkin festival.

Life can get pretty messy, but sometimes returning to a place of special memories helps restore your sense of self.

A school in Nigeria is accepting empty plastic bottles in exchange for payment of school fees.

Customers buying coffee from South Terminal Starbucks will be able to borrow free refillable cup

The UK’s first airport reusable coffee cup trial gets under way this week at Gatwick, offering passengers the opportunity to borrow and return refillable cups in a bid to help cut waste and tackle “throwaway” culture.

Customers buying hot takeaway drinks from Starbucks will have the option to borrow a free reusable cup instead of using a paper cup, which they can then drop off at a designated point before boarding their flight.

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Evidence points to a 1.2bn-year-old impact structure lying hidden off Scotland's north-west coast.

Pepperdine professor photobombed by lobster mobster bird happy to see picture of roll reversal go viral

Alicia Jessop knew Friday was going to be memorable, but she didn’t realize it would be a day she would never forget.

Related: 'We live in a lobstocracy': Maine town is feeling the effects of climate change

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Protesters scale 27,000-tonne rig as it leaves Cromarty Firth to demand end to drilling new wells

Environmental campaigners have boarded an oil rig in the north of Scotland as it was being towed out to sea and are staging a protest on board.

Greenpeace activists say they scaled the 27,000-tonne rig – thought to be operated by BP – as it attempted to leave Cromarty Firth. The protesters are calling for BP to end the drilling for new oil wells and say they are prepared to stay onboard the rig for days.

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Three scientific advisers to the European commission take issue with the Guardian’s account of their recommendations concerning pesticides

We write as chief scientific advisors to the European commission, authors of the scientific opinion on EU authorisation processes of plant protection products referred to in your article (Science institute that advised EU and UN ‘actually industry lobby group’”, 3 June). We are a completely independent expert group basing our reports on a wide range of sources and evidence, including academia, practitioners, NGOs and industry, but quite separate from them.

The statement in your article that our report recommends “a slew of industry positions” on pesticides is incorrect. What was recommended in our report was that the European commission “facilitates a broader discussion throughout society to establish an EU-wide, shared vision for food production, including the role of plant protection products therein”. Likewise, it is incorrect to say that we recommend replacing current rules outlawing any products that could harm human health with a US-style concept of “acceptable risk”. What our report says is that the European commission should “re-examine the treatment of hazards, risks, costs and benefits – to provide reassurance that the system is fit for purpose”.
Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer (Chair), Sir Paul Nurse and Professor Janusz Bujnicki
European commission group of chief scientific advisors

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Government also wants to encourage people with rooftop panels to install batteries

Britain’s biggest energy companies will have to buy renewable energy from their own customers under new laws to be introduced this week.

Homeowners who install new rooftop solar panels from 1 January 2020 will be able to lower their bills by selling the energy they do not need to their supplier.

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Meet three homo-sapiens who are passionate about preserving the future of other species.

South Korea's dogs have to go for walkies in some of the worst air in the developed world.

Engineers in Canada have devised a machine they say can clean small pieces of plastic from Hawaii's "Trash Beach".

Do you need a brain to be able to sense the world around you, or to remember or learn?

Catherine Conway tells how her long campaign led last week to a supermarket trial of unpackaged goods that could change the way we buy our food

It all started with a mouse. Catherine Conway was unpacking all her food from the supermarket into glass jars to prevent it being eaten by a mouse that had taken up residence in her home when she had an idea. “I remember very distinctly, one day, having all this packaging in my hands, thinking: why I can’t I just go to a shop and refill everything in jars?” It was 2005, and Conway, a charity worker, had been learning about the businesses that are set up to create social and environmental good. “I was in my late 20s. I didn’t have kids and I didn’t have a mortgage. And in my professional life, I was looking for something interesting to do.”

She decided to set up a market stall in central London selling unpackaged dry goods – everything from Ecover cleaning products and cereal to nuts, dried fruit and rice – which people could only buy if they brought their own containers. “It was popular with a small amount of people right from the start: early adopters who, like me, wanted a solution. People who knew packaging was a problem, and didn’t want it in their homes.”

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The energy executive talks about squaring his business dealings with his personal convictions – and what he would say to Greta Thunberg

Before standing down in 2007, John Browne was CEO of BP for 12 years. In 2015, he returned to the global oil business as executive chairman of L1 Energy. Since leaving BP, he has written five books; in the latest, he argues that engineers will save humanity from the threats such as disease, artificial intelligence and global warming.

You say that civilisation is founded on engineering innovation and technology. Do you equate human progress with machines?
Absolutely not. It is the combination of the machines, the engineering and humans that makes progress. Without engineering, there will not be progress, but machines without humans will go nowhere.

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The Japanese have known for years that spending mindful time in the woods is beneficial for body and soul. Now western doctors – and royals – agree

Every day, apart from when it’s raining heavily, Dr Qing Li heads to a leafy park near the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo where he works. It’s not just a pleasant place to eat his lunch; he believes the time spent under the trees’ canopy is a critical factor in the fight against diseases, of the mind and body.

Once a month Li spends three days in forests near Tokyo, using all five senses to connect with the environment and clear his mind. This practice of shinrin-yoku – literally, forest bath – has the power to counter illnesses including cancer, strokes, gastric ulcers, depression, anxiety and stress, he says. It boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure and aids sleep. And soon it could be prescribed by British doctors.

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The big dry has sent dam storage levels plunging and council measures could turn more drastic if the rain stays away

Lawns are turning brown, playing fields are becoming dustbowls and residents are cutting back on household water use as water restrictions prompted by the continuing drought intensify.

Parched front and backyards in regional towns across central and western parts of New South Wales are particularly under strain from the big dry, and could be pushed to the brink as councils clamp down on sprinkler use, ban the watering of lawns or mandate the use of only grey water for this purpose.

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