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The huge loss is a tragedy in itself but also threatens the survival of civilisation, say the world’s leading scientists

Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.

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A Powys captive breeding project aims to give water voles a fighting chance of a revival.

Assessment underscores threat to koalas and other native species

• Humanity has wiped out 60% of animals since 1970, major report finds

Australia’s east coast has been compared to the Amazon as a “deforestation front” in a new global report by the World Wide Fund for Nature that underscores the threat to populations of koalas and other native species.

The Living Planet report, produced by WWF every second year for the past 20 years, says global populations of vertebrate species have declined 60% since 1970. But koala numbers have disappeared at a much faster rate – more than 20% a decade – to the extent they could disappear from the wild in New South Wales by 2050.

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The ‘acqua alta’ created havoc in Venice, as schools and hospitals were closed and citizens were advised against leaving their homes. The flooding, caused by a convergence of high tides and a strong sirocco wind, reached around 156cm on Monday

• Three-quarters of Venice flooded by exceptional high tide

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) prices rose Monday to near all-time records ahead of the programme’s second quarter data release this week.

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) should consider an alternative proposal to account for carbon emissions in its wholesale market to create equity for hedged Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) costs, a large utility said Monday.

1.1-magnitude tremor second to have breached regulatory threshold in recent days

Fracking has stopped again at a shale gas well near Blackpool after the area was struck by the most powerful earthquake since operations began.

A total of 27 minor earthquakes have occurred near energy company Cuadrilla’s site since fracking started a fortnight ago.

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The Ontario government’s emissions reduction plan to replace its cancelled cap-and-trade programme is due next month, the province’s environment minister said Monday, with lawmakers considering approaches such as Australia’s reverse auction format.

European carbon prices continued to plummet on Monday, crashing below more technical support levels to a three-month low below €17.

A Virginia state board voted Monday to advance the Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) revised carbon market regulation, an official said, marking an interim step towards approving the programme that would link with RGGI and begin in 2020.

A new study shows that rising temperatures drive the disappearance of mountain-top bird species in Peru.

The UK is to allocate £60 million ($77 mln) to buy carbon credits from domestic landowners as part of efforts to plant 11 million trees by 2020, the government said in its budget on Monday.

The federal government has floated the idea of underwriting new coal-fired electricity generation in a bid to keep power prices low. But doing so would be a defiance of economic and environmental reality. Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Budget seeks to reduce non-recycled plastics but resists call for levy on coffee cups

The government is to introduce a new tax on plastic packaging as it seeks to ramp up efforts to tackle the scourge of litter and waste from single-use plastics, it was confirmed in the budget.

Food and drink companies will be taxed on plastic packaging that does not include at least 30% recycled content, in a drive to reduce dependence on “virgin plastics” that are difficult or impossible to recycle, such as black food trays and plastic straws.

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The UK plans to replace its participation in the EU ETS with a £16/tonne (€18, $20.50) domestic carbon tax under a ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario, charging it on top of its existing Carbon Price Support emissions levy, the government announced during its autumn budget on Monday.

Conservationists say money is step in the right direction in tackling climate change

More than 10m trees will be planted across England with the injection of £60m of new funding over five years, as part of what the government billed as its “drive to preserve the country’s greenery”.

The bulk of the money, £50m, will pay landowners for planting trees that lock up carbon, which observers said raised questions over how accessible those woodlands would be to the public. That fund, the Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme, should pay for 10m trees.

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Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Caroline Lucas, John Sauven, Craig Bennett, Ann Pettifor and Leo Murray add their voices to calls for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. Plus letters from John Huggins and John Ranken

We, the undersigned, support the call for the UK and other OECD governments to negotiate a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to complement the Paris agreement on climate change, as proposed in your article “We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now” (theguardian.com, 23 October).

The latest report from the IPCC shows we cannot afford to burn the vast majority of remaining reserves of fossil fuels if we are to keep warming below 1.5 or even 2 degrees. A new line in the sand is needed. We support an agreement with a moratorium on any further expansion of the fossil fuel industry in rich countries, together with a fund to support renewable energy development in poorer countries to reduce the need for fossil fuels, paid for by redirecting the staggering $10m per minute that governments currently spend on fossil fuel subsidies. The best way to mark the 50th anniversary of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty would be to begin negotiation of its fossil fuel equivalent.
Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org
Naomi Klein Writer and activist
Caroline Lucas MP Green party
John Sauven Executive director, Greenpeace
Craig Bennett CEO, Friends of the Earth
Ann Pettifor Prime Economics
Leo Murray 10:10

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In your role as Account Manager Reporter Services, you will accelerate our mission and motivate global multinationals with expertise, enthusiasm and endurance on the strategic journey to limiting climate change, improving water stewardship and banning deforestation from direct corporate business practices.

The next CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science has a tremendous opportunity to advance nature-based solutions to climate change and other environmental threats.