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Exclusive: Joint chiefs of charity accuse ministers of pursuing culture wars as extreme weather becomes the norm

• ‘You have adopted a bunker mentality’: letter to Sunak
• Cancelling Greenpeace contradicts Tory free-speech pledge

Rishi Sunak’s government will “go down in history” as the administration that failed the UK on the climate crisis while ministers pursued a dangerous culture war, the heads of Greenpeace have said.

The charity’s joint executive directors described government briefings against the organisation in the wake of its oil protest at the prime minister’s Yorkshire home as “really dark stuff”, which revealed a worrying trend towards exploiting environmental protests as a wedge issue.

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Open letter criticises government for stonewalling environmental group after protest at prime minister’s house

• Sunak will go down in history as failing UK on climate, Greenpeace says
• Cancelling Greenpeace contradicts Tory free-speech pledge but suits anti-Labour campaign

The co-executive directors of Greenpeace, Areeba Hamid and Will McCallum, have written an open letter to the prime minister expressing their concern over the government’s ‘reluctance to engage’ with Greenpeace.

Here is their letter in full:

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Kenya will face a shortfall of more than a $1 billion to meet its climate change and forestry strategic plan over the next five years, the Ministry of Environment has revealed.

German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp reported a 13% year-on-year drop in quarterly global sales amid lower prices, though it said it was targeting the upper range of its full-year forecast after a “robust” quarter in its financial results on Thursday.

Physicists believe that an unknown force could be acting on sub-atomic particles known as muons.

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European power consumption slumped 6% compared to historical averages in July despite an uptick in demand from air conditioning across the Southern countries that were struck by extreme heat, according to analysts.

A leading airline has been testing AI technology to reduce airplane contrails when flying at altitude, with positive results, suggesting that the technology can be a cost-effective way to help to reduce the climate impact of aviation and potentially also generate contrail reduction-based carbon credits.

Germany's energy-intensive companies that are part of the domestic fuel emissions trading system will be partially compensated for any risk of carbon leakage caused by higher fuel prices, as the European Commission approved the €6.5 billion scheme on Thursday.

A weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

The international economic and financial architecture and policy priorities must be aligned with the goal of advancing an equitable, global nature economy for nature markets to have an impact on any significant scale, the Taskforce on Nature Markets (TNM) said in its final report, released Thursday.

As I hear reports of the fire tearing through Maui, I feel utterly depressed. As a fire scientist, I know the unfolding horror is just the beginning in our warmer world. David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

India is on track to meet its Paris Agreement carbon intensity target ahead of time as reductions are coming faster than previously anticipated, according to media reports.

Czech utility CEZ reported a drop of more than one-fifth year-on-year in its EU coal and gas power output over the first sixth months of the year, in quarterly results published Thursday, joining multiple other Europe-headquartered energy companies in posting much lower generation levels in 2023.

European carbon prices clawed back most of the previous afternoon losses in a quiet Thursday morning session, with the rally triggered by the first auction premium in eight days as traders continued to express bafflement at Wednesday's price action.

Fears grow that some are adopting unscrupulous tactics to profit from people, with penalties set to rise

A record number of councils in England and Wales are using private companies to issue fines for littering and fly-tipping amid concern that some contractors are adopting unscrupulous tactics to profit from people.

Littering penalties are set to rise as part of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour. The environment minister, Rebecca Pow, said the maximum amount people caught fly-tipping could be fined would more than double from £400 to £1,000. Those who breach their household waste duty of care could be fined £600, up from £400.

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Analysis by conservation group Oceana suggests areas where suspension imposed not fished by fleets anyway

Annual short-term moratoriums on squid fishing imposed by Chinese authorities are probably meaningless as there appeared to be little fishing activity in the areas before the bans were announced, analysis has claimed.

In 2020, China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs announced a pilot program banning fishing in parts of the south-west Atlantic Ocean from July to October, and parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from September to December.

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Private flights pollute up to 14 times more than commercial ones – yet are taxed less. Let’s change that

The climate crisis is not in transit, it’s arrived at the gate. It’s in our skies, our water, and our land – with record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas.

We have no time for delays. Tackling this crisis and protecting frontline environmental justice communities will take all of us. And the tax-dodging ultra-wealthy need to stop fueling the problem and start supporting first-class solutions.

Edward J Markey is a US senator from Massachusetts

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The case for environmental action is clear, but there are fears about personal freedom and who will bear the financial burden

In less than three decades, the UK must reach net zero to avoid the worst impacts of climate crisis for our economy and national security. We’re already halfway there, having almost halved our emissions since 1990. But to achieve this momentous goal, we must now build support for the individual policies required, while preserving the cross-party consensus on the need to act. Conservatives want to protect our planet, but that doesn’t mean they’ll agree on every policy campaigners propose to get there. The public wants the debate to focus on how, not if, we reach carbon neutrality.

There is a conservative route to net zero. It’s not a contradiction in terms. The UK has a long and rich history of conservative environmentalism. In 1989, Margaret Thatcher became the first world leader to raise the spectre of climate change in a global context. Another Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, fired the starting gun on the race to net zero by 2050, enshrining the target in law.

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The UK energy secretary Grant Shapps announced plans to host an international summit on energy security in spring 2024, stressing the need to diversify from fossil fuels and hit climate goals.