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The island will take millions of years to recover from a wave of extinctions, scientists say.

Disasters costing at least $1bn killed 474 people last year, government figures show

The US endured a particularly painful year as communities wrestled with the growing impacts of the climate crisis, with 18 major disasters wreaking havoc across the country as planet-heating emissions continued to climb.

Storms, floods, wildfires and droughts caused a total of $165bn in damages in the US last year, $10bn more than the 2021 total and the third most costly year since records of major losses began in 1980, according to new US government data.

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Study suggests 23m years of evolutionary history could be wiped out if the island’s endangered mammals go extinct

From the ring-tailed lemur to the aye-aye, a nocturnal primate, more than 20m years of unique evolutionary history could be wiped from the planet if nothing is done to stop Madagascar’s threatened mammals going extinct, according to a new study.

It would already take 3m years to recover the diversity of mammal species driven to extinction since humans settled on the island 2,500 years ago. But much more is at risk in the coming decades: if threatened mammal species on Madagascar go extinct, life forms created by 23m years of evolutionary history will be destroyed.

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And why did I have to be a hippo? Why not a hawk, a hare, a magnificent horse?

When you are young, your name will associate you with one animal or another. Mine was, inevitably and to my great disappointment, a hippo: an animal of thick, grey skin, whiskers sprouting from its cheeks, feet that were far too small for its body. Hippos weren’t even cute, I knew this: their strange mouths, cheeks at the end of a long nose, hid (where? how?) vast discoloured teeth which they used to chomp anything from antelope to zebra. I wanted my name to start with an elegant lowercase h: a letter that also happened to be the shape of a miniature giraffe. Instead I was H for Hippo, stocky and sturdy, like a Kalabari mask from Nigeria.

Hippos eat grass instead of fish, according to Kikuyu legend, because of a deal with God: the hippo wanted to swim in waters cooled by the snow from Mount Kenya but God worried he would eat his little fishes, which were very dear to him. (And why wouldn’t they be? Little silver fish, quick and made of light.) So the hippo promised that, at night, he would emerge from the water “every time that food passes through my body, and I will scatter my dung on the earth with my tail”.

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Plans for the UK to become a satellite-launching state are already well advanced.

EUAs trimmed some of Monday's 5.3% gain in early trade on Tuesday with some participants suggesting the market had 'overshot' in the previous session, while energy markets were mixed as gas fell in the absence of any signals on Asian LNG demand and amid continued mild temperatures.

Current and planned renewable capacity worldwide will be sufficient to displace current operating coal capacity by 2030, but fall short of a net zero-aligned growth pathway, according to updated estimates from NGO-managed wind and solar power trackers. 

Last year was the world's fifth warmest year with Europe enduring its hottest summer on record

A government-commissioned review of Australia’s carbon credit system published this week recommended ditching the nation’s avoided deforestation methodology over baseline issues, a move that could create challenges for such projects in finding a place in the country’s emerging biodiversity market.

Experts say extreme weather is a growing danger to displaced people and could force more to flee homes

Governments must get to grips with the links between the climate crisis and the plight of migrants around the world, experts have said, as increasingly extreme weather is a mounting danger to already vulnerable displaced people, and is potentially pushing more people to flee their homes.

Migrants and displaced people number more than 100 million around the world, mainly in developing countries, and are among the populations most at risk from extreme weather.

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Taiwanese lawmakers on Tuesday passed a revised climate bill that includes the legislation of the island's 2050 net zero target and the introduction of a long-awaited carbon pricing scheme, which is set to be launched in 2024 at the earliest.

Non-profit Inevitable Policy Response (IPR) has released a first integrated climate and nature policy scenario for investors, predicting that on top of nature-based carbon projects a biodiversity credit market is set to emerge that could we worth $18-43 billion by mid-century.

Groups have welcomed the Australian government’s final policy proposal of the Safeguard Mechanism, saying it vastly improves the existing framework, however concerns remain about facilities’ unlimited access to carbon credits to offset emissions and a failure to deal with Scope 3 emissions.

Two regional governments in China have become the latest to announce plans to develop forest carbon sink programmes, despite a lack of policy clarity due to the years-long suspension of the national offset scheme.

Plan to restrict car journeys in Oxford becomes lightning rod for fears of global assault on freedoms

Jordan Peterson is rarely lacking in strong opinions, but even by the standards of the Canadian psychologist turned hard-right culture warrior, this was vehement stuff: a city is planning to lock people in their local districts as part of a “well-documented” global plot to, ultimately, deprive them of all personal possessions.

Where was this? Not Beijing, or even Pyongyang. It was Oxford. In the days since Peterson’s tweet – viewed 7.5m times – officials in the city have fielded endless queries from around the world asking why they are imposing a “climate lockdown”. Inevitably, there have also been some threats.

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For years, the ‘safeguard mechanism’ has been widely criticised for lacking teeth. Labor’s new reform doesn’t change that much. Rebecca Pearse, Lecturer, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Welsh government considers whether to block plan after experts say manure from intensive units is turning Wye into ‘pea soup’

The Welsh government is under pressure to block a new mega chicken farm in the Wye catchment, in what campaigners call a “crucial moment in the life or death of the Wye”.

The River Wye has become synonymous with the intensive poultry industry, with more than 20 million chickens in its catchment area, producing more manure than the land can absorb and turning the river the colour of “pea soup”.

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It’s lost 73% of its water and is unable to sustain some wildlife – and could soon negatively affect human health

Emergency measures are required to avert a catastrophe in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which has been drying up due to excessive water use, a new report warns. Within years, the lake’s ecosystems could collapse and millions will be exposed to toxic dust contained within the drying lakebed, unless drastic steps are taken to cut water use.

A team of 32 scientists and conservationists caution that the lake could decline beyond recognition in just five years. Their warning is especially urgent amid a historic western megadrought fueled by global heating. To save the lake, the report suggests 30-50% reductions in water use may be required, to allow 2.5m acre-feet of water to flow from streams and rivers directly into the lake over the next two years.

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Members who set up group say past policies have been ‘trite’ and social justice case needs to be clearly made

Labour MPs have joined a lobby group in an attempt to push Keir Starmer into making nature and climate a key part of his election manifesto.

Previous Labour nature policies have been “trite”, MPs have said, arguing that the social justice case for climate and nature needs to be made more clearly by the party.

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The Australian government has launched a consultation on its final proposed policy framework for its overhauled Safeguard Mechanism, designed to cut emissions from the country’s most polluting facilities.