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Campaigners say "emergency" action is needed now as the PM unveils a 25-year plastics crackdown.

Moves to cut plastic, create a new environmental watchdog and boost wildlife habitats are among the new measures

• Theresa May defends green plan amid criticism it’s too vague

One of the most heavily trailed announcements is the end of an exemption for small shops from England’s 5p plastic bag charge. The loophole was an anomaly compared with similar schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was also imposed against the wishes of corner shop owners at the time, with three small business trade associations opposing being exempted on the grounds it would be confusing for customers. “Its abolition is long overdue,” said Mary Creagh, chair of the environmental audit committee of MPs. The change will affect 3.4bn bags handed out at about 200,000 stores each year.

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Environmental groups welcome ambition but say 25-year promises must be backed by force of law, money and new watchdog

Theresa May has said her government is serious about improving the environment after pressure groups gave a lukewarm response to a new 25-year green plan, praising its ambition but warning that it lacked sufficient plans for immediate action.

May’s proposals were also criticised by Jeremy Corbyn, who said her pledge to stop all avoidable plastic waste by 2042 was “far too long” to take action.

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In Switzerland, lobsters must now be stunned before being boiled - but do they really feel pain?

Ben Saunders has led 13 expeditions since 2001 and has walked around 4,000 miles in skies.

Curiosity has reached a part of the Red Planet with geology named after places across Scotland.

A discrepancy in measurements of the Universe's expansion rate has now become "pretty serious".

The newly found bat is said to be three times the size of an average bat today.

Local residents take part in a day-long experiment to cut traffic and improve air quality.

Modest pollution in many English rivers is enough to kill 80% of eggs, increasing concerns over insects which are vital to all ecosystems

Modest levels of pollution found in many English rivers are having a devastating impact on mayflies, new research suggests, killing about 80% of all eggs.

Clouds of emerging mayflies were once a regular sight on English summer evenings and they are a key part of the food chain that supports fish, birds and mammals. The finding that even pollution well below guidelines can cause serious harm adds to concerns about plummeting insect numbers.

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Following the success of Elon Musk’s 100-megawatt battery in South Australia, another battery and renewable power plant are in the works

Australia’s renewable energy sector responds to the success of South Australia’s Tesla lithium ion battery. South Australia will build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, and a Queensland wind farm may be the site of a new record-breaking battery.

The Aurora solar plant in Port Augusta, SA, will begin construction this year, and is slated to provide 100% of the state’s electricity needs by 2020, the state’s acting energy minister, Chris Picton, announced on Wednesday.

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Importers and manufacturers of outdoor power equipment and marine engines without North American or European Union certification are now able to apply to the Department of the Environment and Energy for Australian certification or exemptions.

Importers and manufacturers of outdoor power equipment and marine engines without North American or European Union certification are now able to apply to the Department of the Environment and Energy for Australian certification or exemptions.

Importers and manufacturers of outdoor power equipment and marine engines without North American or European Union certification are now able to apply to the Department of the Environment and Energy for Australian certification or exemptions. Only...

Sandy, Bedfordshire The family of swans has separated, the juveniles driven off by parents ready to breed again

On a snow-flecked night over the holidays, I slipped down to the river and paused on the bridge. Floating a little upstream were two brilliant white coracles: sleeping swans, each with its beak folded away in the well between its wings. Anchorless and rudderless, did they lay their heads on feather beds under the weir, in the dreamy expectation that they would wake at dawn in the mill pool? Some overnight sleeper.

Only two swans. The last time I was here, there had been more – a whole family. It is the harshest, most necessary part of a territorial bird’s life that there should come a time when they drive away the young they so diligently nurtured. These birds had given theirs a Christmas present of solitude and self-reliance, and themselves the space to breed again.

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TransGrid has announced Mr Jeremy (Jerry) Maycock will join its Board as Chair from 22 February 2018.

IEEFA’s latest report finds that China continued to set itself up to dominate clean energy sectors during 2017.

The US was hit by a 'bomb cyclone' last week, bringing icy cold and driving snow. These storms develop very rapidly, forming outside the tropics, typically on continental east coasts in winter. Acacia Pepler, Research Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Andrew Dowdy, Senior Research Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Eun-Pa Lim, Senior research scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Pandora Hope, Senior research scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Conservationists want to stop the birds – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for food

Bird experts in New Zealand have designed a special gym for the country’s playful alpine parrot to keep them away from some of the nation’s most dangerous roads.

For the last couple of years contractors working on the road to Milford Sound in the South Island have captured footage of keas moving their road cones and equipment into the middle of the road when the workers knocked off overnight.

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Newly discovered fossils in Germany shed light on the emergence of butterflies and moths.