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Formal recognition would help protect those who increasingly risk their lives to defend the land, water, forests and wildlife, says the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment

It is time for the United Nations to formally recognise the right to a healthy environment, according to the world body’s chief investigator of murders, beatings and intimidation of environmental defenders.

John Knox, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, said the momentum for such a move – which would significantly raise the global prominence of the issue – was growing along with an awareness of the heavy toll being paid by those fighting against deforestation, pollution, land grabs and poaching.

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Amid plans for an unnecessary law change targeting cyclists, a parallel government consultation on safety makes some unexpectedly sensible points

For those interested in the many benefits that come from getting more people cycling, there’s some bad news and good news today – and in another minor compensation, at least the bad news was widely expected.

This is the confirmation from the Department for Transport (DfT) that, as widely trailed at the weekend, a review it commissioned has recommended there should be a new law about causing death or injury by dangerous cycling, as for driving.

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Government accused of frothy talk on reducing throwaway packaging waste

Ministers have rejected calls for a “latte levy” on takeaway coffee cups to reduce the amount of waste they create.

Mary Creagh, the chair of the environmental audit committee, accused the government of talking warm words but taking no action after ministers refused to adopt a charge on throwaway coffee cups similar to the plastic bag levy.

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Project hopes to get more than 250,000 drone images tagged to record type and extent of plastic pollution

Food wrappers, fishing nets, bottles, straws and carrier bags are among the top 10 plastic items littering British beaches, according to new research.

Related: Is there life after plastic? The new inventions promising a cleaner world

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Hulne Park, Alnwick, Northumberland The dawn redwood is unchanged since the Cretaceous era. No wonder they have a Lord of the Rings quality

Contorted and deeply furrowed, the flared bole of this tree has a Lord of the Rings quality. I almost expect it to start moving and lumber towards me like an Ent. Beneath the point where each branch leaves the trunk there are shadowy elbow-deep clefts. Its muscular ridges are a rich burnt orange, and ripple down to the ground like anchoring roots, making the twisted trunk look like it is screwing itself down into the earth. This is a dawn redwood, Metasequoia glypstostroboides, one of an avenue either side of Farm Drive in Hulne Park.

A medieval hunting ground of thousands of acres that provided food and wood for Alnwick Castle, Hulne Park is entirely enclosed in a 3m high perimeter wall. Deep in its heart are the ivy-draped ruins of a 13th-century Carmelite monastery, built on a steep grassy mound. We enter the demesne through the arched gateway of Forest Lodge, where early periwinkles bloom beneath walls covered in leafless vines of Virginia creeper. A woodpecker drums on a reverberating branch and the sound of a crowing cockerel echoes through the woods.

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Carbon-free fusion power could be ‘on the grid in 15 years’

The dream of nuclear fusion is on the brink of being realised, according to a major new US initiative that says it will put fusion power on the grid within 15 years.

The project, a collaboration between scientists at MIT and a private company, will take a radically different approach to other efforts to transform fusion from an expensive science experiment into a viable commercial energy source. The team intend to use a new class of high-temperature superconductors they predict will allow them to create the world’s first fusion reactor that produces more energy than needs to be put in to get the fusion reaction going.

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New global communities of concerned citizens can help protect iconic places such as the Great Barrier Reef. But the scope of these remote communities must extend beyond mere 'slacktivism'. Georgina Gurney, Environmental Social Science Research Fellow, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Group of 10 retailers question "reliability" obligation of NEG, saying there is no gap in short term and technology changes likely to fix any that may arise.

Snowy Hydro insists that its Snowy 2.0 plans will bring in an 800MW of extra wind and solar, and won't underpin the future of coal. And, it says, it is "not anti-battery".

A Japanese researcher has found a way to use molecules from a protein-based chemical found in egg whites to generate hydrogen more efficiently..

Seven years after the nuclear disaster, 50,000 people have yet to return to their homes, but the dream of going back endures

Okuma, on Japan’s east coast, used to host a busy community of 10,500 people. But today the houses stand empty.

The town is empty because it is one of the closest to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station and – seven years after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a triple meltdown – it remains under evacuation orders with decontamination still not finished.

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The government says it is better for coffee shops to offer discounts to those who bring their own cups.

Study confirms wind prices only look low because they are reported as though future electricity were already being generated today.

Researchers are using powerful X-rays to look inside cannonballs found on the famous Tudor ship, the Mary Rose.

Oz Minerals to build solar and storage plant at flagship mine in first move to use renewables to supply big mining projects. It also signs a deal to share costs of new transmission line with developer of solar tower plant.

JinkoSolar has been awarded the “Top Brand PV” seal in the Australian, German, and Austrian markets by EuPD Research, Europe’s leading sustainability research firm.

From boar hair toothbrushes to beeswax food wrap, here's how you can dump the disposable plastics.

California notches new solar records for peak production and supply, boosted by a couple of mild and sunny early Spring days.

A new study claims the remains discovered on a Pacific island are a 99% match with the explorer.

Harold Forbes says the principle of polluter pays is rarely implemented; Jeremy Tomkinson calls for clear policy on lowering petrol emissions; Chris Tidmarsh laments the sparsity of electric-car charging points in Southwark and Lambeth

Your article on carbon dioxide emissions from new vehicles (Fall in CO2 output from new cars goes into reverse, 27 February) makes no mention of the eight-year freeze on fuel duty, which has contributed to UK fuel prices being 4% below their 2000 levels in real terms and 21% below the 2013 peak. The relative price of things is an enormously powerful driver of human choices and behaviour.

Dumping the economic assumption that nature is a limitless source of materials and services that can be considered to come for free would be the single biggest leap that humanity could make in securing its future. At present we have few monetary incentives to avoid excess greenhouse gas emissions, single-use plastics or even excess animal manure. In fact, the economy encourages us believe it is “cheaper” to do such things.

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