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Cycle schemes have stagnated for 10 months, writes the former cycling commissioner. Will new cycling delegate Will Norman get London up to speed?

Under its first two mayors, London became important for the whole country as a leader in cycling. But Will Norman, Sadiq Khan’s new walking and cycling commissioner, starts work with the capital’s cyclists in a gloomy mood. Not just because of the deaths of three cyclists – and two pedestrians – in a single week last month, but because of the last 10 months’ stagnation in what was previously Britain’s most active programme to promote the bike.

I ran that programme for Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, so perhaps I’m biased. But the figures aren’t biased. Over eight years, cycling increased by 53%. Not bad: but on the new central London segregated superhighways, which we opened in May, we saw the same percentage rise in six months.

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New polling study also shows support for financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of Paris climate deal, as Donald Trump has threatened

The citizens of four major European countries think the impacts of climate change such as severe floods and storms are already affecting them, according to a major new polling study.

The research dispels the idea that global warming is widely seen as a future problem, and also shows strong support for action to tackle global warming, including subsidies for clean energy and big financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of the international climate deal signed in Paris in 2015 – as US president Donald Trump has threatened. There was also strong support for giving financial aid to developing nations to cope with the impacts of climate change.

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Wenlock Edge Since the 1960s the great tit population has doubled. These dapper but tough birds are becoming a global power

Great tits will take over the world. You see my problem already – it’s the name. Unless you can disassociate from the Carry On innuendo of “tit”, this bird is always going to be a joke. It supposedly gets its name from titmouse: in Old English, tit means small and “mouse” is a corruption of māse, a bird name of Germanic origins.

There is a theatrical prettiness about great tits: the shiny black head with flashing white cheeks, flamboyantly dapper, green-backed, yellow-breasted, with black tie and cleavage stripe. Their twin-syllabic song sounds like a drunk pushing a rusty wheelbarrow. But the music hall stage persona ends there.

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Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG) and the Energy Infrastructure Trust (EIT) on the successful acquisition of the Bald Hills Wind Farm.

AEMO says legacy coal plants may not be fit for purpose for the current energy transition, and has pleaded for faster and more forward-looking decisions on critical rule changes needed to deal with new technologies.

CEFC invests $100m in AMP Capital fund that aims to make its portfolio of Australian buildings net zero emissions by 2030.

Energy minister lashes out as Coalition seizes on Murdoch media's latest anti-renewables beat-up. Meanwhile, solar marches on in the sunshine state.

Tesla’s Ballarat Supercharger station, the first connection from Melbourne to Adelaide, was officially opened today with a ribbon cutting ceremony held at Wendouree. The Tesla Supercharger is substantially more powerful than any existing charging technology, providing up to 120 kilowatts of power and 270 km of range in 30 minutes.

What drove Victoria’s wholesale electricity market prices up 46% in 2016? We put the screws on the historical data to find out.

LG Chem says that solar and battery storage is already beating grid power in most states.

Recently, Adrian Merrick predicted an imminent "inflection point" for big utilities. Now he's about to put his theory into practice.

Led by a record-breaking Q4, US energy storage deployments totaled 336MWh in 2016, doubling the megawatt-hours deployed in 2015.

The sale continues Mills Oakley’s active involvement in the renewable energy sector, having advised on around 15 renewable energy projects over the last 12 months.

Indian regulators want to lower the floor price of RECs – a move that could increase renewables demand and benefit sellers who have huge inventories of unsold credits.

UK CO2 emissions fell by 5.8% in 2016, a drop that, according to new analysis, comes from a record 52% drop in coal use.

The Australian Heritage Council is assessing the Murray Island Group for potential inclusion on the National Heritage List. Comments close 18 April 2017.

How Stockholm is getting smarter by going greener.

The Australian Government has announced an independent review of governance of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The review will focus on the role and composition of the Authority’s Board in supporting the functions of the Authority.

Every year tens of millions of Christmas Island red crabs migrate from the island’s dense forest to the cliffs to spawn. It’s a phenomenon that literally stops traffic and draws tourists from around the world to the tiny Australian territory.

But while there are still tens of millions of red crabs on the island, in recent years their numbers have dipped by around a third as they compete for space with (and struggle to fend off) a recently introduced pest: the yellow crazy ant.

The ants are having a significant impact on the island’s biodiversity, which relies on the red crab to maintain the forest understorey and keep the forest floor clean.

So what can be done to save Christmas Island’s biodiversity from yellow crazy ant supercolonies?

For the past few years a team of scientists have been hatching a plan to introduce a parasitical wasp to the island to cut the ant’s food supply. And in December they got the ball rolling on the delicate process of tipping the scales back in the crabs’ favour.

La Trobe University’s Matt Smith speaks with Peter Green, Head of the Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution at La Trobe, about the impact of the yellow crazy ant and how his team’s plan to save the Christmas Island red crab is working in the first few months of its implementation.

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Peter Green receives funding from the Department of Environment and Energy.

Patrick Barkham’s remarks on garden decking and wildlife loss (Notebook, 7 March) chime with research we undertook on the changes to garden vegetation in London over an eight-year period. We found that between 1998-99 and 2006-07, 3,000 hectares of vegetation disappeared from gardens, replaced by hard standing and decking. This loss, equivalent to 2.5 Hyde Parks each year, was compounded by the loss of 1m trees from gardens.  This period of change coincided with Ground Force’s time on television. Whether or not decking is now the culprit in gardens it once was, there’s evidence that artificial lawns – largely made from fossil fuels – are becoming the “new black”, again to the detriment of wildlife and the city’s ability to adapt to climate change.
Mathew Frith
Director of Conservation, London Wildlife Trust

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