Around The Web

The Government is currently consulting on ways to improve the Safeguard Mechanism to make it fairer and simpler. Submissions are due 30 March 2018.

Study highlights urgent need to adapt urban areas to cope with floods, droughts and heatwaves

Major British towns and cities, including Glasgow, Wrexham, Aberdeen and Chester, could be much more severely affected by climate change than previously thought, according to new research.

The study, by Newcastle University, analysed changes in flooding, droughts and heatwaves for every European city using all climate models.

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The $1.7 million project will investigate if the existing mine pit of “Iron Duchess North” could be utilised as a lower reservoir for a PHES plant creating an estimated capacity of 90 MW and 390 MWh of storage.

On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA has announced an additional $500,000 in funding to EnergyAustralia for the next stage of the 225 MW Cultana seawater pumped hydro plant in South Australia.

CEFC backs Macquarie fund, linked with CSIRO, to boost energy efficiency, sustainability – and productivity – in agribusiness.

South Australia government commits to 750MW energy storage target to go with its enhanced 75 per cent renewable energy target.

Seagrass shelters fish and acts against erosion and climate change, but is under threat

Meadows of seagrass are one of our great but sorely neglected wild plant spectacles. This humble plant spreads out in lush green carpets that can stretch for miles around much of Britain’s coast. There they shelter young fish and shellfish, as well as protecting against erosion of the coast by storms and floods, by trapping sediment in their roots.

And the seagrass meadows also play a big part in fighting climate change. They soak up carbon dioxide and hold tremendous stores of carbon on the sea floor, more than twice the carbon stored by a forest of similar area. And across the world, seagrasses are believed to lock away more than 10% of all the carbon buried each year in the oceans.

Related: Species and habitats found in recommended marine conservation zones – in pictures

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South Australia Labor government says it will lift 2025 renewable energy target to 75% if re-elected at next month's poll, the most ambitious target for any major grid in the world.

Birds can usually sense when they are not feeling well and like many other creatures, seem to seek out-of-the-way places to be alone. Grainne Cleary, Researcher, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Since China refused last month to accept any more foreign waste for recycling, the UK is facing a challenge disposing of its plastic waste.

Farming union president Meurig Raymond takes veiled swipe at Liam Fox’s ‘cheap food policy’ at NFU conference

Trade with the EU after Brexit needs to be “frictionless” if the UK’s food and farming sectors are to survive the transition, the president of the National Farmers Union has said at the opening of the NFU’s conference.

Meurig Raymond, who farms a large acreage of mixed arable and livestock in Wales, said: “We must have frictionless trade with the EU. Everything else, including the final shape of any domestic agricultural policy, is dependent on that.”

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A cascade of courtroom standoffs are beginning to slow, and even reverse, the EPA rollbacks thanks to the administration’s ‘disregard for the law’

In its first year in office, the Trump administration introduced a solitary new environmental rule aimed at protecting the public from pollution. It was aimed not at sooty power plants or emissions-intensive trucks, but dentists.

Every year, dentists fill Americans’ tooth cavities with an amalgam that includes mercury. Around 5m tons of mercury, a dangerous toxin that can taint the brain and the nervous system, are washed away from dental offices down drains each year.

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British Antarctic Survey is trying to reach a newly revealed ecosystem that had been hidden for 120,000 years below the Larsen C ice shelf

A team of international scientists is due to set off for the world’s biggest iceberg on Wednesday, fighting huge waves and the encroaching Antarctic winter, in a mission aiming to answer fundamental questions about the impact of climate change in the polar regions.

The scientists, led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), are trying to reach a newly revealed ecosystem that had been hidden for 120,000 years below the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula.

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The bands of leather are "probably the only known surviving examples" of their kind.

Few clubs cater for fans who choose to cycle to the ground, but simple changes could help reduce traffic jams and pollution on match days

I am a football fan and I am a cyclist. These identities do not need to be mutually exclusive – so why is it often such a challenge to go to the game by bike?

I support Norwich City and I live in Liverpool, which is the first hurdle. Liverpool is 238 miles away from Norwich, and the direct train takes more than five hours. Because of this, I have pretty much given up on home games.

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Research in UK shows invasive species bests native red squirrels in complex tasks

The ability to solve problems may explain why grey squirrels are thriving at the expense of native red ones in the UK, research suggests.

Wild greys and reds were presented with an easy task (opening a transparent lid) and a difficult version (a more complex process of pushing and pulling levers) to get hazelnuts.

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Much of the world's ocean is teeming with 'cryptic' fish species, which are small and hard to spot. But a new technique shines a light on these fish, which may in turn help to keep our seas healthy. Maarten De Brauwer, PhD-candidate in Marine Ecology, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Shapwick, Somerset: Hundreds of thousands of starlings reduced by distance and number to something like smoke

In any other place a great white egret passing overhead would have commanded all our attention. The national breeding total for this species was just seven pairs in 2017. Here, however, at dusk it was an incidental detail, a stately white shape rowing quietly through the binoculars’ orbit, as we focused on something far more captivating.

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The Coalition and IPA tag-team were at it again against renewables on Q&A. It's disappointing enough that the country's federal energy minister should have such a blind spot on new technology, but it appears to be a party-wide phenomenon. At least Catweazle was funny.

Plants appeared on land 100 million years earlier than previously thought, according to new research.