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The world's largest cold energy storage plant, which can act like a giant battery for renewable energy, is being commissioned at a site near Manchester.

Living out almost their entire life within cow pats, dung beetles are the unlikely heroes of both biological control AND Australian barbecues. This is a repeat episode from the Off Track archives.

Japan launches a cargo ship equipped with a half-mile long magnetic tether to clear space junk.

A former shearer turns his hand to growing native flowers in the Wimmera; scientists conduct a bio-blitz on Fraser Island; we spice up the day with a visit to a pepper farm; and meet a world champion tractor collector.

Tina Louise Rothery – part of a protest group known as the Nanas – staged a three-week occupation of a field near Blackpool

An anti-fracking campaigner has been spared jail after she refused to pay more than £55,000 of legal fees to the oil and gas firm Cuadrilla.

Tina Louise Rothery, 54, had been ordered to pay £55,342 of fees to the British company and a group of landowners, or face a 14-day prison sentence, after she sought to stop an injunction that would prevent protesters gathering on a stretch of land being considered for shale gas exploration.

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The annual National Geographic nature photographer of the year attracts thousands of entries from across the globe. Here’s a selection of the winning images

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The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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Japan launches a cargo ship carrying a space junk collector designed to gather debris in space.

Without their traditional land managers, conservation reserves in Central America are left vulnerable to corporate interests, report finds. Climate Home reports

Conservation reserves in Central America have shut indigenous peoples off from their traditional lands and driven deforestation, community leaders have told Climate Home.

Since revolution in the region started to wind down in the 1980s, there has been an internationally celebrated trend to create large conservation areas. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of forest have been placed within borders designed to protect them.

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Cast: AdelaideSBN

Planet Earth filmmakers talk dancing flamingos and bears

A grey crane, bright red autumnal leaves and Tibetan gazelles are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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EU emissions pledge could be undermined by bank’s investments in oil, gas and auto industries, new analysis shows

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) quantitative easing programme is systematically investing billions of euros in the oil, gas and auto industries, according to a new analysis

The ECB has already purchased €46bn (£39bn) of corporate bonds since last June in a bid to boost flagging eurozone growth rates, a figure that some analysts expect to rise to €125bn by next September. On Thursday the bank said it would extend the scheme until 2018.

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Scientists have found a 100 million year old dinosaur tail trapped in amber.

Cast: AdelaideSBN

Tiny crustaceans previously recorded at two locations in the British Isles are found in a loch near Kinross.

Australia’s chief scientist vows to ‘thoroughly analyse all options’ for energy market despite row over emissions trading

Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, has tried to stay out of the fresh political row over emissions trading but says his review of the energy market will continue to analyse all the options to ensure future security of power supply and compliance with climate obligations.

Finkel’s comments follow a briefing he gave on Friday to the prime minister and state and territory leaders about his preliminary report about the state of Australia’s energy market. He warned that investment had stalled because of national policy uncertainty, and concluded current federal climate policy settings would not allow Australia to meet its emissions reduction targets under the Paris agreement.

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Report projects by 2050 more than 98% of coral reefs will be afflicted by ‘bleaching-level thermal stress’ each year

The Great Barrier Reef will not survive coral bleaching if current sea temperature trends continue, according to a new report charting increases over the past three decades which blames manmade climate change for the problem.

The study found thermal stress to coral reef areas was three times more likely when its investigation finished in 2012 compared with when it began in 1985, forecasting “more frequent and more severe” bleaching through the middle of this century.

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Langstone Harbour, Hampshire The black swan shrank back as the mute swans stomped up the mud bank towards us and jostled for a handout

The tide was out and as I approached the mill outflow I could see a black swan hunkered down on the exposed shingle. Native to Australia, black swans were introduced to Britain in 1791 as ornamental birds in captive wildfowl collections. Due to inevitable escapees and deliberate releases, sightings in the wild are widespread. Now, the number of breeding sites are increasing at such a rate that Cygnus atratus may be on the brink of establishing a self-sustaining population.

This was the fifth black swan to visit the creek in a fortnight and, as they often pair up during the winter months, it is likely that these birds were roaming in search of a mate. This swan didn’t sport the jet black velvet lustre of mature adult plumage – its sooty feathers had a charcoal grey cast and were fringed with taupe, which gave it an almost scaly appearance.

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Dr Alan Finkel presented the Preliminary Report of the Review to the Council of Australian Governments Leaders’ Meeting on 9 December 2016.