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The Guardian view on Labour eyeing green cuts: they would undermine growth and climate goals | Editorial
Bold pledges to fund climate projects now appear under threat, exposing deeper fiscal constraints and policy dilemmas within the government
In October, the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary pledged billions to kickstart the UK’s first carbon capture projects – one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament. By December, Ed Miliband was signing contracts, Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “reignite our industrial heartlands” and Rachel Reeves warned that without bold action, Britain would be stuck with low growth and falling living standards. More importantly, net zero targets wouldn’t be met without removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Fast forward and the Treasury is, reportedly, preparing to scrap the £22bn plan, after economic growth failed to materialise. What a difference a few weeks make.
Continue reading...Dolomites soundscape and a nightingale’s song win nature music prize
Inaugural Tune into Nature prize is aiming to highlight how the natural world is central to creative life
One is a dreamy soundscape collected from the peaks of the Dolomites. The other is a drum’n’bass track that samples a nightingale’s quickfire song.
These contrasting tunes have won the inaugural Tune into Nature music prize, a contest that seeks to showcase new music by upcoming artists that is inspired by the natural world.
Continue reading...Bleat all about it! Lambing long weekends in UK are the new city break
British farms laying on ‘lamb watch’ holidays for tourists seeking a return to nature – and fluffy hugs
In a shed in the Malvern Hills, lambs struggle clumsily to their feet as holidaymaking couples look on.
Clare John, the third generation in her family to farm these 50 acres of Worcestershire pasture, began offering lambing-themed breaks two years ago in response to a surge of customer requests. Rowley Farm’s holiday cottages are block-booked for the 2025 spring lambing season, which traditionally peaks around Easter.
Continue reading...Never mind the planet’s fate when the jet set feel the urge to seek out some winter sun | Catherine Bennett
Self-denial will save the Earth, we’re told. But big emitters seemingly haven’t had the memo
That I fully expect to be dead by the time the UK achieves net zero is, of course, no reason to dodge interim advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the UK’s official climate authority. Its latest report to government is of particular interest to the public, in arguing that a third of the emissions cuts required to achieve net zero by 2050 will have to come from consumers themselves.
Unless we – individual households – accept heat pumps and electric cars and deterrents to flying and less meat (skipping two kebabs per week), the CCC explains, the target cannot be met. And assuming the introduction of a selective news blackout that reduces public awareness of UK plutocrats, celebrities and influencers with colossal carbon footprints, such a behavioural transformation may not be impossible.
Continue reading...David Archer, let it go. Beavers are nature’s answer to our broken rivers | Helena Horton
The cute rodent helps combat drought and boosts biodiversity. Its rewilding is welcome and long overdue
The first time I laid eyes on a beaver was a couple of years ago on the Devon farm of Derek Gow, the farmer turned rewilder, who brought the furry rodents back to the UK 30 years ago.
It was magical. Sitting in the June dusk, the pink-and-purple sky was reflected in the still ponds of the beaver habitat. Suddenly, ripples emerged from the lodge and the head of a kit – a baby beaver – popped up from underwater.
Continue reading...JP Morgan’s ‘sustainable’ funds invested £200m in mining giant Glencore
Backing of Glencore angers campaigners who have highlighted firm’s environmental breaches in South Africa
One of the world’s biggest banks, JP Morgan, has promoted environmental and “sustainable” funds to customers which have invested more than £200m in the mining giant Glencore, it can be revealed.
Ethical investing has become big business for JP Morgan and other financial giants, with worldwide “sustainable” investing expected to surpass $40tn by 2030. But the industry now faces scrutiny over the rules around investments focusing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Continue reading...TikTok ‘craze’ behind Peak District bad parking crisis
Local MP writes to authorities over ‘irresponsible’ motorists flocking to see sunrise and sunset at Mam tor
An MP has called for action on irresponsible parking at Peak District beauty spots that he says is being fuelled by a TikTok craze.
Jon Pearce, the Labour MP for High Peak in Derbyshire, said people had been flocking to the area to see the sunrise and sunset at Mam tor.
Continue reading...Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan is off in the never-never, but our power bills and emissions pledge are not | Lenore Taylor
The nuclear plan handily leapfrogs the next 10 years – when a Dutton government might actually hold office – a critical time for emissions reduction
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I don’t often agree with Matt Canavan on matters to do with global heating. But when the senator labelled the Coalition’s nuclear plan a “political fix” last year, I think he was speaking the truth.
For 15 gruelling years the Coalition has been trying to distract a voting public, ever more aware of the climate crisis, from its inability to get a credible climate and energy policy past the climate sceptics and do-nothing-much-to-reduce-emissions exponents in its own ranks (including the Queensland senator).
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Continue reading...From leaping mudskippers to volcanic eruptions: the World Nature Photography awards 2025 – in pictures
The World Nature Photography awards have announced their winners for 2025. From white-cheeked terns to a blue-tailed damselfly peeking through a daisy, the photographs are a stark reminder of the beauty and chaos of the natural world. The top award went to Maruša Puhek’s image of two deers running through a Slovenian vineyard
Continue reading...‘Ultimate bringers of life’: How one Cornwall farmer is using beavers to stop flooding
Chris Jones is behind change in law to release beavers in England after witnessing the incredible benefits on his land
• Beaver releases into wild to be allowed in England for first time in centuries
Chris Jones, a beef farmer, is very proud of his beavers. “They are just extraordinary,” he says.
Since releasing a couple into an enclosure on his Cornwall farm in 2017, he says they have saved it from drought, prevented flooding in the nearby village, boosted the local economy and even improved oyster beds in Falmouth Bay.
Continue reading...Weather tracker: six cyclones swirl simultaneously in southern hemisphere
Bianca, Garance and Honde churn across Indian Ocean as Alfred, Rae and Seru spin through south-west Pacific
An uncommon meteorological event unfolded on Tuesday when six named tropical cyclones were active simultaneously in the southern hemisphere, several in close proximity to one another.
Three developed in the south-west Pacific. Severe Tropical Cyclone Alfred formed on 20 February in the Coral Sea to the north-east of Australia, reaching an intensity equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on Thursday with sustained winds of 105mph (170km/h) and gusts at about 140mph.
Continue reading...Surge in marine heatwaves costs lives and billions in storm damage – study
Floods, whale strandings and coral bleaching all more likely, say researchers, as 10% of ocean hits record high temperatures in 2023-24
The world’s oceans experienced three-and-a-half times as many marine heatwave days last year and in 2023 compared with any other year on record, a study has found.
The sustained spike in ocean temperatures cost lives and caused billions of dollars in storm damage, increased whale and dolphin stranding risks, harmed commercial fishing and sparked a global coral bleaching, according to the paper published on Friday in Nature Climate Change.
Continue reading...Rare lichen brought back to East Anglia with help of bookbinding glue
Small patches of scrambled egg lichen moved from Cornwall to Breckland region, where it was last seen in 1994
A rare lichen has been reintroduced to its historical habitat of East Anglia – with the help of some bookbinding glue.
Scrambled egg lichen, so named for its bright yellow, crumbly appearance, was once common in the Breckland region of Norfolk and Suffolk but was last seen there in 1994.
Continue reading...Week in wildlife: a turtle hatchling, a curious marmoset and an oarfish
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...Beaver releases into wild to be allowed in England for first time in centuries
Exclusive: Government to grant nature groups a licence for release of rodent species after earlier setbacks
The release of beavers into English waterways is to be allowed for the first time in centuries, the Guardian can reveal.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce that nature groups will be able to get a licence for the release. The first releases could happen this autumn.
Continue reading...‘Green roofs deliver for biodiversity’: how Basel put nature on top
For decades, the Swiss city has been transforming its skyline, and now boasts some of the greenest rooftops in Europe
Susanne Hablützel breaks up her work day by staring out the window at a rooftop garden. The view is not spectacular: a pile of dead wood sits atop an untidy plot that houses chicory, toadflax, thistle and moss.
But Hablützel, a biologist in charge of nature projects in Basel, is enthralled by the plants and creatures the roof has brought in. “Tree fungi have settled in the trunks, and they are great to see – I love mushrooms. You can also see birds now – that wasn’t the case before.”
Continue reading...Cop16 countries strike crucial deal on nature despite global tensions
Delegates hammer out compromise on delivering billions of dollars to protect species and their habitats
Delegates from across the world have cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.
Rich and developing countries on Thursday hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia last year.
Continue reading...UK’s offshore windfarms to be painted black to protect birds
Trial announced as Keir Starmer arrives in Washington to meet Donald Trump, a longtime critic of windfarms
Offshore windfarms are to be painted black in an effort to reduce the number of birds that die after flying into them.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a four-year trial to paint the wind turbines after officials raised concerns that the government’s plan to increase turbine numbers in the North Sea could spell danger for seabirds. Limited research has been conducted on the number of birds killed this way, but estimates range from four to 18 per turbine per year.
Continue reading...More than 100,000 African seeds put in Svalbard vault for safekeeping
Seeds of 177 species from across Africa to be stored in Norway to preserve crop diversity in case of disaster
More than 100,000 seeds from across Africa have been deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s repository for specimens intended to preserve crop diversity in the event of disaster.
Among the latest additions are seeds critical to building climate resilience, such as the tree Faidherbia albida, which turns nitrogen into ammonia and nitrates, and Cordia africana, the Sudan teak, a tree renowned for its strength and durability.
Continue reading...‘People’s commission’ to examine future of water industry in England and Wales
Inquiry set up by academics and campaigners to rival ‘too limited’ government-established commission
A “people’s commission” on the future of the water industry will travel across England and Wales taking evidence from the public and environmental campaign groups fighting sewage pollution.
Academics and environmental campaigners who were central to exposing the routine dumping of raw sewage into rivers by water companies have set up the inquiry to rival the government-established independent commission.
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