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Ukraine to launch emissions reporting system in 2021 -media
EU seals deal for €1.8 trillion budget and recovery fund with tighter climate scrutiny
Can Joe Biden and Kamala Harris unite America after Trump – video explainer
When Joe Biden formally takes over the presidency in January he will face some of the greatest crises to hit the US in recent history: a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans, a devastated economy, a rapidly overheating climate and a deeply fractured nation.
The Guardian's Lauren Gambino looks at how Biden and the vice-president-elect, Kamala Harris, plan to 'heal' the country after four years of Trumpism – and the challenges they will face with the prospect of having to navigate these times without a majority in the Senate
Continue reading...Student finds mystery pterosaur in Cambridgeshire fossils
Rock mining with microbes may aid space explorers
Fields of gold: Australia's bumper canola harvest – in pictures
In spring, canola crops burst into flower in the Riverina and central west regions of NSW, creating a sea of yellow. Tourists have been travelling to farms to photograph the coloured landscape as an alternative to travelling interstate during lockdown
Continue reading...Urban gulls target school break times for food, says report
Research shows birds also flock to waste centres on weekdays when rubbish is delivered
Super-smart gulls flock to school playgrounds shortly before break times in order to hoover up the scraps, a study has shown. The birds also target rubbish dumps, but mainly on weekdays when fresh waste is being delivered.
Having a snack snatched from your hand by a greedy gull is already a common, if unwelcome, occurrence. But the latest research shows the birds are even smarter than thought: they know where and when their meals are being served.
Continue reading...Utility CEZ reports 17% drop in coal output, seals arm’s length coal power supply deal
Denmark's mass mink cull illegal, PM admits as opposition mounts
Tally of culled animals 2.5 million and rising, as confusion mounts over bid to stamp out Covid variant among animals
Denmark’s prime minister has admitted the massive mink cull she authorised last week was illegal, as opposition parties called for the resignation of the agriculture minister who has been overseeing the policy.
Mette Frederiksen announced last week that all the country’s mink would have to be culled due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.
Continue reading...California power emissions increase for second straight month on hotter weather
Head of Carbon Markets, Scottish Government – Edinburgh
Utility Uniper sees CO2 output fall 11%, as coal plant launch slows decarbonisation
Renewable energy generation will overtake coal within 5 years, says IEA
New IEA report says renewables immune to impact of Covid-19, but not to policy failures - but will still overtake coal within five years as number one source of generation.
The post Renewable energy generation will overtake coal within 5 years, says IEA appeared first on RenewEconomy.
CEFC invests $10 million in Sunman’s “solar skin” technology
CEFC injects nearly $A10 million into Zhengrong Shi's Sunman, which is rolling out lightweight and flexible solar technology.
The post CEFC invests $10 million in Sunman’s “solar skin” technology appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Hurricane season: Record number of named Atlantic storms
The Covid-carrying Danish mink are a warning sign – but is anyone heeding it? | Matthew Baylis
Sars, Mers, now this: we must think hard about how we farm animals that are known hosts of human coronaviruses
Two decades ago, a seminal study from the University of Edinburgh compiled a list of all known human infectious diseases. It found a total of 1,415 different human pathogens, and claimed that 61% were capable of spreading between humans and animals. Today, with the world put on hold by a deadly disease that seems likely to have spread first from bats to humans, we know the dangerous effects of such pathogens all too well.
The group of diseases that spread from animals to humans are collectively known as zoonoses. The term encompasses diseases such as measles, which first spread from cattle to humans thousands of years ago but now transmits exclusively between people, and Ebola, which periodically passes from bats to humans, where it then spreads from person to person. It can also refer to food-borne diseases caused by bacterias such as salmonella and campylobacter that we only get from the consumption of animal products and almost never pass from person to person.
Continue reading...Carney taskforce seeks exchange listings for voluntary offsets
'A fowl of the law': men sentenced for cooking chicken in Yellowstone hot spring
Three tourists boiled dinner in national park, leading to fines, a ban and some apt puns
When it comes to unthinking human behavior in America’s premier nature preserve, the retired Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey can reel off the examples.
There is the tourist who took a selfie in front of a bison only to be tossed in the air by it. There is the drone that crashed into bubbling park waters. And then there’s the latest story, which has driven him both to vexation and to punning.
Continue reading...Natural England 'cut to the bone' and unable to protect wildlife, say staff
Exclusive: report warns of ‘yawning gap’ between government rhetoric on environment and reality of years of underfunding
The government’s conservation watchdog has been “cut to the bone”, with staff underpaid, undervalued and overworked and feeling unable to protect England’s most valuable wildlife sites, according to a new report and testimony from workers.
Natural England, which is sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has a range of responsibilities, including monitoring and protecting the country’s most valuable habitats such as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and national nature reserves (NNRs). It also works with farmers to protect biodiversity and advises the government on environmental policy, planning and licensing.
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