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A review of the Emissions Reduction Fund has found it's performing well – but new research raises serious credibility issues. Tim Baxter, Researcher - Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

• Sea ice also melting at fastest past in 1,500 years, US government scientists find
• ‘The Arctic is a very different place than it was even a decade ago’ – author
  

Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing faster than ever, according to a new US government report that also found Arctic seawater is warming and sea ice is melting at the fastest pace in 1,500 years.

The annual report released on Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed slightly less warming in many measurements than a record hot 2016. But scientists remain concerned because the far northern region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe and has reached a level of warming that’s unprecedented in modern times.

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Nasa's Juno probe begins to unlock the workings of the mighty storm that has raged on Jupiter for over 150 years.

A project searching for life in the cosmos will scan the first interstellar asteroid for signs of alien technology.

Images of a starving Canadian bear go viral - but all may not be as it appears.

Feathered dinosaurs were covered in ticks just like modern animals, according to fossil evidence.

Funding will be focused on clean energy, and sustainable cities and agriculture

The European commission has announced funding of €9bn (£8bn) for action on climate change, one of a flurry of measures from governments, businesses and investors aimed at achieving the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement.

The EU funds will form part of the bloc’s External Investment Plan, and will be focused on sustainable cities, clean energy and sustainable agriculture. The announcement was made at the One Planet Summit in Paris on Tuesday, held to mark the second anniversary of the landmark 2015 pact.

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Campaigners call for an end to fossil fuel finance and subsidies to avoid dangerous global warming at a meeting to mark two years since the signing of the landmark agreement

The Paris agreement on climate change, ratified by world governments a year ago, has failed to ensure major investors are moving away from fossil fuels with the urgency required to safeguard the planet, civil society groups have said.

Large companies, investors and national and local governments met in Paris on Tuesday to celebrate the second anniversary of the signing of the landmark 2015 agreement, which bound nearly all developed and developing countries for the first time to keep global temperatures below 2C, the threshold scientists regard as the limit of safety.

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The oil industry has stalled action on climate change from the inside and sold America on fossil fuels – and its influence goes back further than people realize

When Rick Perry was interrupted by climate-change protesters during his address to the National Petroleum Council in late September, the energy secretary was ready with a retort.

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Conservationists launch project to restore bird numbers with view to reintroducing them in northern England and Lake District

Conservationists hope golden eagles will start reappearing over northern England and the Lake District as part of a project to release up to 10 eagles in southern Scotland.

The birds will start to be released at a secret location south of Edinburgh from next year in a £1.5m programme by conservationists and landowners to restore golden eagle numbers in the southern uplands, where they have struggled to survive.

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But the French leader says he will not agree to a demand that America's terms should be negotiated.

Beaver family will be released in the Forest of Dean to stop a village from flooding, with potential for further such schemes to follow

A valley in the Forest of Dean will echo to the sound of herbivorous munching next spring when a family of beavers are released into a fenced enclosure to stop a village from flooding, in the first ever such scheme funded by the government.

The plan for the village of Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, may soon be joined by other schemes. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has indicated that the government may support other schemes to restore the beaver four centuries after it was driven to extinction in England and Wales.

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Our magpies are not the same as Europe’s, so why do they share a name? The bird of the year has a complicated back story

The Australian magpie has been crowned bird of the year but how much do we really know about it? Where do magpies fit in the evolutionary scheme of things? Why do we even call them magpies?

DNA sequencing technology has revolutionised biology. Our understanding of the evolutionary tree of bird life – that is how species and groups of birds are related to each other and how their evolution has unfolded on the planet’s changing continents – is no exception. We now have a much better understanding than we did just 30 years ago of where all the species of the world’s birds perch, so to speak, on that tree.

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Axa will also stop insuring US oil pipelines for business and ethical reasons, taking fossil fuel divestment to new level

One of the world’s biggest financial services companies is both dumping investments and ending insurance for controversial US oil pipelines, taking fossil fuel divestment to a new level.

Axa is also quadrupling its divestment from coal businesses and increasing its green investments fivefold by 2020. The moves were announced at the One Planet Summit in Paris, called by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to accelerate the use of global finance in fighting climate change.

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Michael Gove must deliver on his promise to give ‘the environment a voice’ to ensure short-term politics do not interfere with the natural world

Michael Gove has raised the stakes for those of us determined to see a world-class environment for the UK. The environment secretary has vowed that the government will establish a “new, world-leading body to give the environment a voice and hold the powerful to account, independent of government and able to speak its mind freely”.

MPs will debate this new institution during the next stages of the withdrawal bill in parliament on Tuesday and must ensure Gove’s promises are turned into legally binding commitments.

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City to Sea campaign says we must rethink bad habits and only flush ‘three Ps: pee, paper and poo’ as study finds blockages cost UK £100m a year

Baby wipes are causing hundreds of thousands of blockages in the UK sewer system and costing the country £100m every year, according to a new report.

The study from Water UK, the trade body representing all of the main water and sewerage companies in the country, found that wipes made up about 93% of the material causing the sewer blockages.

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National Audit Office report puts Macquarie deal at low end of valuation with extra tens of millions lost from rejection of phased sale option

Ministers missed out on tens of millions extra on the sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) in August, according to the spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office said the £1.6bn paid in cash by the Australian bank Macquarie came in at the low end of the government’s valuation. Macquarie agreed to spend a further £500m to cover the bank’s existing commitments.

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Kittiwakes and gannets are among seabirds that have joined endangered species on IUCN red list as food stocks dwindle, says study

Overfishing and climate change are pushing some of the world’s most iconic seabirds to the brink of extinction, according to a new report.

The study reveals that kittiwakes and gannets are among a number of seabirds that have now joined the red list of under-threat birds drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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Australian researchers who unboiled an egg are turning their focus to making a more efficient alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

Malcolm Turnbull now appears perfectly comfortable parroting right wing nonsense about energy policy, branding high renewable policies as "idiocy" and defending the future of coal. That may be because mainstream media won't challenge him.