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Microbeads used in bathroom products are expected to be banned by the government by the end of next year.

Cheap supermarket orchids may act as a 'gateway drug' to the exotic and challenging world of orchidelirium.

Like the emperor with no clothes, Josh Frydenberg is continuing the grand parade, insisting that Australia is making a successful transition

Almost every group with a financial, intellectual or ethical interest in salvaging a workable climate policy is now deep in an urgent debate about how Australia can break a decade of policy paralysis. Everyone except the Turnbull government, that is.

The debate, involving big business, small business, investors, the government’s own independent climate advisers, academics, environmentalists, the welfare lobby and the unions, is predicated on the obvious conclusion that our policy – as it stands – cannot deliver the cuts to greenhouse emissions that are domestically necessary and which Australia has promised internationally.

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NASA has released spectacular images of Jupiter that have never been seen before.

A poor wet season sees a drop in northern quoll numbers in the Pilbara; the scallop season begins in Tasmania; home delivery scheme good for farmers and consumers; and the Brook Hunt Club chases an elusive fox.

A poll from Greenpeace found that almost two thirds of people in the UK think microbeads should be banned. The beads are already banned in the US, but are still common in Britain. They’re a threat to marine life and potentially to humans, but the poll also found that most people don’t actually know what they are

• UK government to ban microbeads from cosmetics by end of 2017

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Found in beauty products, tiny pieces of plastic which can harm marine life will be banned from sale in the UK from the end of 2017, government will announce

Tiny pieces of plastic in personal beauty products, that end up in the oceans and are swallowed by marine life, will be banned from sale in the UK by the end of 2017, the government is to announce on Saturday.

The move comes just days after MPs called for a ban on so-called microbeads, and sees the UK following in the footsteps of the US, which has banned them beginning in mid-2017. More than 357,000 people signed a petition calling for a UK ban, and environment groups welcomed the news of the ban.

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The US space agency releases pictures and other data from the Juno probe, which has just made its first close approach to Jupiter since going into orbit in July.

The Papahānaumokuākea marine park created by Barack Obama could end up as just a ‘paper park’, argue US and UK marine experts

British and US marine scientists say that the race to designate ever-bigger marine national parks in remote parts of the world could work against conservation.

In an commentary timed to coincide with President Obama’s announcement of the huge extension of a marine park off Hawaii, the authors argue that the creation of very large marine protection areas (Vlmpas) may give the illusion of conservation, when in fact they may be little more than “paper parks”.

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On Thursday Barack Obama made a trip to Midway Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the US and the site of the second world war’s Battle of Midway against the Japanese navy. Obama also focused on conservation of Midway Atoll against climate change. ‘I look forward to knowing that ... 100 years from now, this is a place where people can still come to and see’

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Samsung has halted sales of the Galaxy Note 7 because of battery fire reports.

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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An unidentified sea creature and a shoal of disappearing fish are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Countries from around the Pacific Ocean met to discuss ways of protecting the shrinking supplies but were unable to come to any agreement, officials say

Pacific island states and countries failed on Friday to strike a deal to protect shrinking supplies of tuna and adopt cutbacks following a regional conference, officials said, sparking condemnation from conservationists.

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest tuna fishing ground, accounting for almost 60% of the global catch.

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Honduras has become a no-go zone for environmental activists after eight people were murdered in 2015 alone, reports IPS

Chills ran down Tomás Gómez Membreño’s spine when he first heard about the brutal murder of his renowned friend and ally, the Honduran Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, six months ago this week.

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As ARENA hangs in the balance, a $20m Seed Fund has been launched via Clean Energy Innovation Fund to back early-stage clean energy technology, R&D.

Mojo Power says combination of solar and storage means that current energy utility business models cannot survive, because power stations will be "blown into a thousand fragments" and fuel will be effectively free.

30 mayors from cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro call for rapid ratification of Paris climate deal

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has joined forces with city leaders from around the world to call on governments to take urgent action on climate change.

Ahead of a meeting of the G20 group of leading nations in Hangzhou, China, 30 mayors from cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro called on national leaders to work with them to “build a low carbon, climate safe world”.

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Isle of Gigha, Argyll The young otters were having a good time, splashing and paddling and roughhousing; we were enchanted

Having abandoned our bikes by the gate, we follow a cattle trodden path between walls of bracken down to where field meets sand. The silver slip of a beach is postcard perfect, a flawless bleached-bone white. But close up it is busy with the telltale trails of recent visitors: speechmark hoofprints of cattle and the flatfoot waddle of whooper swans, each webbed imprint as large as my palm.

No people, though, which was our aim. We set up camp upon a grassy flat, and wander along the foreshore, picking through tidewrack and pocketing curios: a mermaid’s purse, torn and discarded, scraps of net, pebbled glass.

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Australian network pricing policy is increasingly dysfunctional. At minimum, it's a barrier to innovation and progress. At its worst it means inefficient, high cost electricity. So can we fix it?