Feed aggregator

Ambitious and long-term policies are needed so that Britain can take advantage of the rapidly growing global market for low-carbon goods and services

Despite the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change (Anger at US as Trump rejects climate accord, 2 June), the global market for low-carbon goods and services is rapidly growing and the UK must make the most of this opportunity. Spurred in particular by major investments in low-carbon technologies by countries such as China, India, Mexico and South Africa, the Paris agreement could open up $23tn (£18tn) worth of opportunities for low-carbon investments in emerging markets between 2016 and 2030. The commitments made by six world leaders at the recent G7 summit and the decision by China and the EU to collaborate more closely on climate change support this trend.

Related: UK needs government backing to unlock billions in green business, says industry

Continue reading...

A new gold rush is targeting rich ores on the ocean floor containing valuable metals needed for smartphones and green technologies, but also hosting exotic ecosystems

Mining the deep ocean floor for valuable metals is both inevitable and vital, according to the scientists, engineers and industrialists exploring the world’s newest mining frontier.

The special metals found in rich deposits there are critical for smart electronics and crucial green technologies, such as solar power and electric cars. But as the world’s population rises, demand is now outstripping the production from mines on land for some important elements.

Continue reading...

Sustainable fish is the only option if we’re not going to wipe species out. So it’s a big round of applause for new Princes tuna with the all-important blue tick

Whenever a sustainable seafood product reaches the shelves of UK stores I feel like doing a little dance. Step forward tinned tuna from Princes. Prosaic it may be, but it’s the first certified tuna from the Western Pacific wearing the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) blue tick.

It’s time to remove all non-sustainable fish from shelves and menus

Continue reading...

The US president accepts human activity is partly to blame for global warming., says a top official.

Did someone get away with murder? A German detective re-examines a case 5,300 years old.

Humanity is up against enormous challenges, says science writer Julian Cribb. So what could be the key to survival?

Humanity is up against enormous challenges, says science writer Julian Cribb. So what could be the key to survival?

White House has dodged declaring president’s view on climate change, but Haley says leaving Paris accord ‘doesn’t mean we don’t care about the environment’

Donald Trump “believes the climate is changing” partly because of pollution, according to the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

Speaking on the CNN programme State of the Union, due to air on Sunday, Haley was seeking to define the president’s thinking about climate change in the wake of his announcement that the US will leave the Paris climate accord, joining Syria and Nicaragua as one of three non-signatories.

Continue reading...

The Indian and French leaders pledge to fight climate change together and "protect Mother Earth".

Only three countries have not signed up to the Paris agreement - but for very different reasons.

Former New York mayor says during surprise trip to Paris on Friday that Americans ‘don’t need Washington to meet our Paris commitments’. Bloomberg, who is the UN’s special envoy for cities and climate change, says cities, states and businesses will instead step in to ensure the targets are met

• Michael Bloomberg: US states and businesses will still meet Paris targets

Continue reading...

Teifi Marshes, Pembrokeshire Bilidowcar the cormorant’s called in Welsh – Billy the Ducker

Bound for hides in the Teifi Marshes reserve, I paused to lean against railings on the riverside path and a cormorant arrowed into view, threw up its broad, webbed feet to brake, and touched down on the water.

Seeing it reminded me of a morning 20 years ago in a fishing boat careening into Roonagh in County Mayo on green combers that were the aftermath of an Easter storm. A cormorant had kept us close, wave-skimming company. I asked the skipper, Jack Heanue, what the folk of Inishturk – an English-speaking island – thought of these weirdly beautiful birds.

Continue reading...

Former New York mayor, now UN cities and climate ambassador, says Trump may have withdrawn from Paris accord but American people haven’t

The United States will meet its Paris accord greenhouse gas targets despite Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has said.

A decision by President Trump to pull the US out of Parisand seek renegotiated terms “fair” to America has drawn widespread international condemnation.

Continue reading...

Draft decision says Australia would not, at this rate, meet interim or long-term targets in the Reef 2050 report

Unesco has expressed “serious concern” about the impact of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef and warned Australia it will not meet the targets of the Reef 2050 report without considerable work to improve water quality.

The criticism was contained in a draft decision published as part of the agenda for the upcoming world heritage committee meeting (pdf), which will take place in Krakow, Poland, in the first two weeks of July.

Continue reading...

Samples from waste water treatment plants reveal trends in populations such as the use of nicotine, pharmaceuticals or illicit drugs and the persistence of chemicals from manufacturing.

Biologist Kerensa McElroy is employing crowd funding, to quickly raise funds allowing her work to proceed now, before it is too late.

The fates of the black rat and the phasmid are as intertwined as the air roots of a banyan tree. The survival of one is linked to the extermination of the other, and the battle is on.

It’s clearer than ever the economic interests Trump claims to defend can only be served by acting on global warming

For precious decades experts have explained, over and over, that the science of climate change is incontrovertible, the consequences of blindly sticking with fossil fuels catastrophic and the costs of inaction far higher than switching to a low-emissions economy.

But these facts had no impact on the sceptics, who cling to a worldview where they find “alternative facts”, where fossil fuel power is the only path to prosperity and mounting environmental and economic evidence to the contrary is some kind of dastardly leftwing plot.

Continue reading...

A Canadian doctor says one short letter managed to convince doctors that opioids were safe.

A researcher says re-introducing beavers in England would help water supplies and prevent floods.