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Action launched in Liverpool against Anglo-Australian mining company after 2015 tragedy that killed 19 people

The worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history has triggered one of the biggest legal claims ever filed in a British court.

The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton is being sued for about £5bn by Brazilian victims of the Samarco dam collapse in Mariana three years ago.

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The cost of bacon and sausages would double if the harm they cause to people’s health was taken into account

Taxing red meat would save many lives and raise billions to pay for healthcare, according to new research. It found the cost of processed meat such as bacon and sausages would double if the harm they cause to people’s health was taken into account.

Governments already tax harmful products to reduce their consumption, such as sugar, alcohol and tobacco. With growing evidence of the health and environmental damage resulting from red meat, some experts now believe a “sin tax” on beef, lamb and pork is inevitable in the longer term.

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The presence of wind turbines can reduce the number of birds and lizards in an area, a new study has found. Should we start tearing the farms down?

Name: wind turbines.

Age: Early examples date to the 7th century.

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Europe is sending up a front-line weather satellite containing components made over a decade ago.

Plans for a road through wildlife-rich areas break EU laws and send a worrying message ahead of Brexit, say MEPs

Government plans to build an Oxford-Cambridge motorway over some of the UK’s most biodiverse nature reserves break EU laws and should be put on hold, according to a cross-party group of MEPs.

Up to a million homes could be built in the planned conurbation link-up which would carve across some of the UK’s richest floodplain habitats such as the Otmoor Basin and Bernwood forest.

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Renewable capacity has tripled in past five years, even faster growth than the ‘dash for gas’ of the 1990s

The capacity of renewable energy has overtaken that of fossil fuels in the UK for the first time, in a milestone that experts said would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

In the past five years, the amount of renewable capacity has tripled while fossil fuels’ has fallen by one-third, as power stations reached the end of their life or became uneconomic.

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Three Mongolian carbon offset projects have been issued credits under Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), nearly doubling the amount of credits generated so far, although the Japanese government retained the majority of the offsets.

The ozone layer is finally healing from damage humans have caused, according to the United Nations.

Tesla and Genex push for rule changes that would allow battery and pumped hydro storage to be properly paired with wind and solar farms.

The post Why battery storage in Australia is unable to back up wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

While industry bodies fight over who can claim that their mānuka honey is authentic, Māori interests are often left out of the debate. Jessica C Lai, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law, Victoria University of Wellington Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Delta Electricity wins state approval to build a 55MW solar farm adjoining its ageing Vales Point coal power station on Lake Macquarie in NSW.

The post NSW Vales Point coal plant to add 55MW solar farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

New study shows that solar plants can provide flexibility for grid operator that reduces use of thermal generators and battery storage, and delivers even lower emissions.

The post Look, no batteries! How “flexible” solar can help the grid, without storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The myth that coal power equates to grid reliability is not unique to Australia. Here's what happened when an old clunker was removed from the grid in northern Illinois.

The post Soot to solar: Unmasking the coal plant reliability myth appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Bullying and harassment helpline could help people working in the sciences.

Hollywood director Ron Howard talked to the BBC about creating a realistic depiction of the first human colonies on Mars.

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

A new study says that big hydro electricity projects in Europe and the US have been disastrous for the environment.

Current EU carbon prices around €16-17 per tonne are "acceptable" to Poland, the country’s energy minister said this weekend after urging for the European Commission over the past two months to intervene and cool the market.

The 33-year-old was bitten in Cid Harbour in the same waters where two tourists were mauled in September

A man who was attacked by a shark in Cid Harbour in the Whitsundays has died in hospital.

The 33-year-old Victorian man had been on a charter boat with friends on Monday and had gone paddle boarding and then swimming, police said, before he was bitten about 5.30pm.

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Quebec saw higher fuel emissions in the final two years of its cap-and-trade programme's second compliance period to cause a shortage of available allowance supply, making it a net buyer in the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), data shows.