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Number of single-use bags handed out dropped to 500m in first six months since charge, compared with 7bn the previous year

The number of single-use plastic bags used by shoppers in England has plummeted by more than 85% after the introduction of a 5p charge last October, early figures suggest.

More than 7bn bags were handed out by seven main supermarkets in the year before the charge, but this figure plummeted to slightly more than 500m in the first six months after the charge was introduced, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

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Andy Green looks at the logistics involved in getting the Bloodhound supersonic car to South Africa next year so that it can begin its assault on the world land speed record.

One of the world’s largest flowers, Amorphophallus titanum takes around a decade to bloom and promptly dies two days later in a foul-smelling crescendo

Visitors crowded the New York botanical garden in the Bronx and began to sniff. On a rainy Friday morning, they traveled en masse to witness one of the world’s largest and smelliest flowers – Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the corpse flower. It’s the first time the flower, which takes around a decade to bloom and then dies after 24-36 hours, has appeared in the city since 1939.

“It smells like lettuce when you take it out of the bag,” a woman yelled from the crowd of onlookers in the Enid A Haupt conservatory. “It smells like the aquarium. Like the penguin enclosure,” another added. The odor came in waves as onlookers jostled for the best spot to take photos and selfies with the giant flower. Some left holding their noses.

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Stork-billed kingfishers and baby rhinos are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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This week, fasten your seatbelts because we’re taking a trip into the future of fuels. We ask if biofuels are really that brilliant and discover how one lab is attempting to reinvent diesel.

The Kilauea volcano in Hawaii has erupted, however the volcano appears to be "smiling"

Ministers create presentation to show how idle land around nuclear disaster site can be used to produce renewable energy

The contaminated nuclear wasteland around Chernobyl could be turned into one of the world’s largest solar farms, producing nearly a third of the electricity that the stricken plant generated at its height 30 years ago, according to the Ukrainian government.

In a presentation sent to major banks and seen by the Guardian, 6,000 hectares of “idle” land in Chernobyl’s 1,000 square km exclusion zone, which is considered too dangerous for people to live in or farm, could be turned to solar, biogas and heat and power generation.

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Australia is to shift its longitude and latitude to address a gap between local co-ordinates and those from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).

The establishment of community gardens in inner city areas can boost social and ecological wellbeing, suggest researchers.

One of the largest ever dinosaur footprints has been found in Bolivia, of the Abelisaurus dinosaur

Langley Bush, Cambridgeshire A bronze age grave, Roman shrine, gibbet mound, parish marker, gypsy haunt - centuries of decisions and deaths right here

Odd, the durable significance of some places. You can understand a mountain or cliff or sprawling forest – places that awe the eye on the ground, horizon or map. More enigmatic are the little places. Slid away, unremarkable but exquisite in appearance or legacy, for reasons frequently forgotten but strangely lingering.

This one, historically, a bronze age grave, then Roman shrine, then outdoor court, place of execution, parish marker, gypsy haunt, poet’s muse. Today, the name of a road and the title of a plaque. This is Langley Bush, lost in a field near Peterborough.

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There are lessons for South Australia and the rest of the country in how Port Augusta has gone about their transition to renewable energy so far.

This footage from the Antarctic summer of 2007-08 shows how Australian scientists endure extreme conditions to drill ice cores from Antarctica’s Law Dome area. Law Dome is a spot in eastern Antarctica where scientists have been drilling to gather historic climate datat. New research using Law Dome ice cores suggests the world might be able to burn less fossil fuels than previously thought

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Australia Clean Energy Council Recognizes Project with Energy Makeovers and Sunverge Employing Storage and Software to Reduce Peak Demand and Eliminate New Poles and Wires

The rapid, short-term growth in Australia's large-scale solar market has already been enough to drive costs down faster than even the most optimistic project developers could have predicted. Stand by for a big solar boom.

When the main interconnector closed in South Australia prices surged. But the bidding patterns by the fossil fuels generators were curiously spaced.

Here’s a summary of new batteries and new energy storage systems that have been announced in Australia in June and July 2016.

Infigen Energy says big rise in quarterly revenue due mainly to higher merchant electricity prices in South Australia, strong winds and higher LGC prices.

Analysis of bubbles trapped in ancient Antarctic ice suggests that as the planet heats up, plants and soils will add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

“When the earth burps, Law Dome records it,” says Australian climate scientist Dr David Etheridge.

Law Dome is a special spot in eastern Antarctica where scientists have been drilling down into the continent’s long-frozen surface to pull out cores of ice.

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Seven's Today Tonight report into renewable energy included some shocking errors, and it didn't mention that one of its quoted critics is actually a big supporter of solar energy.