The Guardian

Critical minerals, nuclear power and the ‘weaponisation’ of energy supplies were discussed at international conference

The UK and the International Energy Agency gathered ministers and high-level officials from 60 countries to Lancaster House in London for two days of talks on the future of energy security this week. The EU was out in force, the US sent a top official, but China stayed away. Here’s what we learned.

Energy secretary says countries must work together during conference at which US delegate called net zero ‘dangerous’

Britain will find “common ground” with the US on energy and the economy including on nuclear power, despite differences over climate policy, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has pledged.

He was speaking at the close of a two-day, 60-country conference in London on energy security, hosted by the government and the International Energy Agency (IEA), at which the US delegate Tommy Joyce attacked net zero policies as “dangerous” and “damaging”, and said it was in the interests of “our adversaries”.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Public confidence in the UK biomass industry is low – robust checks are needed to ensure every wood pellet its power plant burns is sustainable

Even government ministers sounded embarrassed in February when they threw yet more subsidies at Drax, recipient of £6.5bn to date, to keep its wood-burning power plant open until 2031. Few people think the biomass industry can survive in the long term unless as-yet-untested carbon capture technology can be installed.

But the bizarre business of importing wood pellets from the US and Canada for incineration in North Yorkshire was given an extension because the UK’s power system, now more reliant on wind and solar generation, also needs firm “dispatchable” power that can be turned on and off in a hurry.

Exclusive: EU Transparency Register shows law firms also among lobbyists working for fossil fuel companies

A handful of “small but dirty” public affairs and law firms in Europe are enabling pollution by lobbying extensively for big oil, an analysis has found, with most major companies in the industry working for at least one fossil fuel client.

Several of the top spenders on activities to influence EU policymaking are on the payroll of oil and gas companies, according to an analysis of the EU Transparency Register by the Good Lobby nonprofit, but fossil fuel clients represent just 1% of the industry’s revenue.

UK prime minister tells energy summit his government is determined to transition energy system from fossil fuels to renewables

• Britain will accelerate push to net zero, Starmer tells energy summit

Employees of water firms who obstruct investigations into spills could face jail under new rules that come into force on Friday

Water company bosses have entirely escaped punishment for covering up illegal sewage spills, government figures show, as ministers prepare to bring in a new law threatening them with up to two years in prison for doing so.

Only three people have ever been prosecuted for obstructing the Environment Agency in its investigations into sewage spills, officials said, and none received even a fine.

Speech made clear prime minister sees renewable energy as core to UK’s future prosperity and national security

Britain will go “all out” for a low-carbon future and accelerate the push to net zero instead of slowing down as some have demanded, the prime minister said on Thursday.

In his strongest declaration yet of support for the net zero agenda, Sir Keir Starmer told a conference in London of more than 60 countries that tackling the climate crisis and bolstering energy security were “in the DNA of my government”.

Minister says incident ‘opened up a nerve in the country’ as new questions raised over ownership of land it stood on

The Forestry Commission has started an investigation into the controversial felling of an ancient oak near a Toby Carvery car park in north London amid new questions about ownership of the land on which it stood.

The investigation was announced by the junior environment minister Helene Hayman, who said the felling of the 500-year-old tree in Enfield earlier this month was “horrifying”.

Birds in their 40s wintering on mudflats of the Wash received leg rings in early 1980s

If your ears are assaulted by the shrill piping calls of an excitable bird on the east coast of England, fear not: it’s probably an oystercatcher experiencing a midlife crisis.

Two of the handsome black and white birds with bright red-orange bills have been found to be the oldest known oystercatchers ever recorded in Britain, clocking up at least 41 and 43 years on the mudflats of the Wash.

Campaigners condemn decision amid growing evidence of harm to health and climate from heating appliances

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Wood-burning stoves will be allowed to heat new-build homes in England despite growing evidence showing their significant contribution to air pollution and carbon emissions.

The government is writing its future homes standard, a set of rules for developers, aimed at decarbonising England’s housing stock. Heating the UK’s 28m homes accounts for about 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Discovery could provide valuable clues as to how the climate crisis might affect Antarctica, says study

Giant, flat-topped icebergs the size of the city of Cambridge drifted off the coast of Britain during the last ice age, according to a study that has uncovered evidence of their existence for the first time.

A series of distinctive, comb-like grooves found preserved in sediment near Aberdeen in Scotland were left behind by the underside of huge “tabular” icebergs that dragged across the North Sea floor between 18,000 and 20,000 years ago, the researchers said.

The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental protections, was drafted with CEOs in mind. We know because Keir Starmer told us

Those of us who try to defend wildlife are horribly familiar with bad laws. But we’ve never seen anything like this. The government’s planning and infrastructure bill is the worst assault on England’s ecosystems in living memory. It erases decades of environmental protections, including legislation we inherited from the EU, which even the Tories promised to uphold.

The rules defending wildlife and habitats from unscrupulous developers are weak enough already, which is partly why, as Labour reminded us in its manifesto, Britain is “one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world”. But this bill will make it much, much worse.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Polestar says Dutton’s move shows ‘a complete lack of understanding of the significant cost-of-living, climate and health benefits of EVs’

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Electric vehicles would cost more under a Coalition government, after Peter Dutton confirmed he would scrap a popular tax break for EV drivers in an apparent backflip that has caused confusion and anger among clean car advocates.

The initiative, which was introduced by the Albanese government in 2022, has meant if a person buys an EV priced under $91,387 through a novated lease program via their employer (when a lease is paid off through pre-taxed salary deductions) they do not have to pay fringe benefits tax (FBT) – even if the car is only for personal use.

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Government is ‘setting up conversations’ as companies arrive in London for clean energy summit

The UK is to woo global green investors, including those scared away from the US by the actions of Donald Trump, by offering cash and infrastructure improvements to encourage companies to set up manufacturing plants and supply chains.

The government will bring forward £300m for offshore windfarms, an area in which the UK retains a lead, and has invited banks and major international companies to a 60-country summit in London this week.

Fossil teeth show species of protemnodon that roamed Australia between 5m and 40,000 years ago lived and died near Queensland caves

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Despite their immense size, species of prehistoric giant kangaroos from a site in Queensland were probably homebodies with a surprisingly small range compared to other kangaroos, according to new Australian research.

Protemnodon, which roamed the Australian continent between 5m and 40,000 years ago and is now extinct, was significantly larger than its modern relatives. Some species weighed up to 170kg, making them more than twice as heavy as the largest red kangaroo.

Remarks by António Guterres follow virtual meeting with world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping

China will continue to push forward on climate, its leader, Xi Jinping, has said while appearing to criticise the “protectionism” of Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Xi was attending a closed-door virtual meeting with the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, along with Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen; and about a dozen other heads of state and government, to discuss the climate crisis.

The Wildlife Trusts are in shock after acquiring 4,000 sheep in Rothbury estate deal as part of land restoration project

Woolly maggots, nature-destroyers – sheep are criticised by many conservationists for denuding Britain’s uplands of rare plants and trees.

So The Wildlife Trusts were shocked when they were compelled to buy 4,000 sheep as part of the biggest land restoration project in England.

These noisy, filthy, feral creatures make my life a misery. Is there really no way to get rid of them?

Pigeons. Appalling things. I looked them up on the bird charity RSPB’s website and snorted when I came across the Where to See section. The answer is, just so you know, everywhere. Perhaps not so much outside towns and cities but in urban areas you’re never far from the sight and sound of the bloody things. If, unaccountably, you’re not familiar with this species, do feel free to get in touch and come round to my place and observe them at your leisure.

Truly they are the soundtrack of my life. For years they’ve been getting into a drainage channel on the roof. Morning, noon and night they scratch and coo and jump about. The racket is infernal. I lie in bed reflecting on the filth in that gully just above my head. I know it’s filthy, because when there’s heavy rain their revolting detritus washes down and blocks the downpipe. I have to pull their unspeakable waste out of the pipe before something bursts and floods. There are no words to describe the tangle of excrement, nesting materials, eggs, feathers and bones. Oh Lord, the bones. I’d be less repulsed rummaging through the bin outside a chicken shop on a Sunday morning.

About 89% of the public want their governments to do more to tackle the climate crisis – but don’t know they’re the majority

• The Guardian is joining forces with dozens of newsrooms around the world to launch the 89% Project – and highlight the fact that the vast majority of the world’s population wants climate action. Read more

A superpower in the fight against global heating is hiding in plain sight. It turns out that the overwhelming majority of people in the world – between 80% and 89%, according to a growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies – want their governments to take stronger climate action.

As co-founders of a non-profit that studies news coverage of climate change, those findings surprised even us. And they are a sharp rebuttal to the Trump administration’s efforts to attack anyone who does care about the climate crisis.

Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope are the co-founders of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now