The Guardian

The de facto ban on building onshore wind sites has been lifted, but experts say they remain at the whims of ‘quixotic decisions by local councils’

UN-developed Marine Sand Watch estimates 6bn tonnes dug up a day, well beyond rate at which it is replenished

One million lorries of sand a day are being extracted from the world’s oceans, posing a “significant” threat to marine life and coastal communities facing rising sea levels and storms, according to the first-ever global data platform to monitor the industry.

The new data platform, developed by the UN Environment Programme (Unep), tracks and monitors dredging of sand in the marine environment by using the AIS (automatic identification systems) data from ships. Using data from 2012-19, Marine Sand Watch estimates the dredging industry is digging up 6bn tonnes of marine sand a year, a scale described as “alarming”. The rate of extraction is growing globally, Unep said, and is approaching the natural rate of replenishment of 10bn to 16bn tonnes of sand flowing into the sea from rivers and needed to maintain coastal structure and ecosystems.

With solutions to the climate emergency desperately needed, political neutrality and consensus may no longer be an option

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has achieved many successes. In its 35 years, the UN body has become the most authoritative global source of knowledge on climate breakdown. Politicians, policymakers and social movements from around the world draw on its reports and data to frame the problem of the climate emergency and to envisage solutions.

But as climate politics has become more complex, more diverse and more pressing, the IPCC is increasingly called upon to fulfil roles not envisaged at its creation – and to which it is not well suited. As it moves into its seventh assessment cycle and with the election of a new chair, the British climate scientist Prof Jim Skea, the time is right for a reassessment of its role and function.

Adam Standring is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at De Montfort University and an associated researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science at Örebro University, Sweden

Wildlife under threat from habitat loss on remote British Overseas Territory

Three new species of spider have been discovered on the island of St Helena, in the South Atlantic, prompting calls from scientists to quickly identify unknown invertebrates so they can be protected.

The wolf spiders bring the total number of species that exist nowhere else in the world except this remote island to 505.

Zac Goldsmith and a former No 10 adviser back Lords rebellion that hopes to maintain river protections

• UK politics live – latest updates

A Tory rebellion in the House of Lords could thwart Michael Gove’s plans to rip up pollution laws for housebuilders in England.

The former minister Zac Goldsmith, who recently quit the government over what he termed Rishi Sunak’s “apathy” over the environment, and Sir John Randall, a former environmental adviser to No 10, have signed an amendment laid by the Duke of Wellington that would nullify the government’s plans.

Former Cop26 president says political parties not tackling climate crisis will pay heavy price at polls

Political parties shying away from tackling the climate crisis will “pay a heavy price” at the ballot box, the former Cop26 president Alok Sharma has warned, as he and other Conservative MPs look set to force the removal of a de facto ban on new onshore windfarm projects in England.

Ministers are expected to overturn the measure on Tuesday following a campaign from Tory MPs including Sharma and the former prime minister Liz Truss as legislation comes up for debate in the Commons.

Move follows revelations Albanese government knew project was seen as ‘key enabler’ for gas export despite being branded a ‘sustainable development precinct’

The Senate will investigate the proposed development of the Middle Arm precinct on Darwin harbour after the government voted to support an inquiry into the controversial project.

It follows a Guardian Australia investigation that revealed the Albanese government knew the project was seen as a “key enabler” for the export of gas from the Beetaloo basin, despite being branded a “sustainable development precinct”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Australia used twice as much electricity as China on a per capita basis and 48% of it came from coal plants, thinktank says

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Australia still emits more greenhouse gas from burning coal on a per capita basis than other G20 countries despite a significant rise in solar and wind energy.

While Australia and South Korea have cut per person emissions from coal-fired electricity since 2015 – by 26% and 10% respectively – they continue to release more CO2 than other major economies, according to an analysis by the energy thinktank Ember.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

An image of a peregrine falcon tackling a brown pelican that ventured too close to its nest in California is the overall winner of the world’s largest bird photography competition, which had more than 20,000 entries from all over the world competing for a £5,000 grand prize

With different planting, and by rejecting insecticides, even small green spaces can promote biodiversity

Gardeners’ attitudes to insects, like those of humans in general, are a mixed bag. Butterflies’ brief, fluttering lives make them beloved wonders. Bees have long been a source of fascination as well as honey. But the reason why some creepy-crawlies have been classified as pests while others haven’t goes beyond appearances. Horticulturalists, like farmers, generally object to insects that eat what they grow.

This hasn’t saved the creatures that don’t consume crops or garden plants. Habitat loss resulting from urbanisation and deforestation, and pesticide use in agriculture, mean that global insect populations are in steep decline. In the UK, the number of flying insects is estimated – by looking at vehicle number plates – to have fallen by 58.5% between 2004 and 2021. Awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators has risen in the past decade. But human dependence on insects goes beyond this. They form a crucial part of multiple ecosystems.

The party’s clashing factions table series of amendments supporting and opposing renewables development

Britain’s energy security and progress to net zero are under threat as the energy bill enters the Commons again.

Warring factions of the Tory party have tabled amendments to the bill including relaxing rules on onshore wind permissions, banning certain types of solar developments and softening a ban on oil boilers.

Downing Street is hoping to satisfy Tory rebels, but developers say changes would leave effective ban in place

Ministers will this week announce a series of changes designed to make it easier for developers to win planning permission to build onshore wind turbines.

The government could publish proposals as soon as Tuesday on how to adapt the planning system to stop local authorities standing in the way of almost every new wind power development on land.

Ursula Von der Leyen calls for action as attacks on livestock prompt rise in complaints from farmers

The EU is to review the conservation status of wolves on the continent after a remarkable comeback of the carnivore species raised protests from farmers whose livestock have become prey.

“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said. “I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary. Indeed, current EU legislation already enables them to do so.”

Their five jaws are arranged in a shape Aristotle described as a ‘lantern’ but should have called a ‘horrible beak’

Sea urchins are as sinister as they appear. Ten years ago, in California’s vast, wavy kelp, sea urchins started to eat and breed, and eat and breed, and over seven years destroyed most of the underwater forests. Then they settled on the floor of their wasteland, forming spiny purple carpets, clicking urchin barrens along 150km of coastline. A major marine heatwave had damaged the kelp and a “sea star wasting syndrome” killed the urchins’ main predator, sunflower sea stars.

Could they be eaten by us or by otters? They could not. They had entered a zombie state and contained very little uni, the rich meat inside the urchin’s shell. And they are prepared to stay that way: dormant, alone – until they spot any kelp sprout that dares to breed out of the dead land and eat it before another urchin can. They are method actors performing The Waste Land, and we are students in an English lesson late on a hot afternoon, trying not to fall asleep as we listen to the poet’s voice on the scratchy recording, a recording that sounds like it was made in a room full of urchins, faintly clicking their spines:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.

National response urgently needed to prevent further extinction of native flora and fauna, advocates say

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Advocates are calling for an urgent and coordinated national response to the threat of invasive species after the co-authors of a major international report identified it as the leading driver of biodiversity loss in Australia.

The report, from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), was produced by 86 experts from 49 countries and details the impacts of invasive flora and fauna on ecosystems globally.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Oil-producing African nations argue they should be able to use fossil fuel resources for economic growth

African leaders and campaigners are at odds over the way forward for the continent as a critical climate summit begins in Nairobi.

Some countries, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, have been expanding their renewable energy access and leading transition efforts on the continent, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

At least 3,500 harmful invasive species recorded in every region on Earth spread by human activity, says UN report

Invasive species are costing the world at least $423bn every year and have become a leading threat to the diversity of life on Earth, according to a UN assessment.

From invasive mice that eat seabird chicks in their nests to non-native grasses that helped fuel and intensify last month’s deadly fires in Hawaii, at least 3,500 harmful invasive species have been recorded globally in every region, spread by human travel and trade. Their impact is destructive for humans and wildlife, sometimes causing extinctions and permanently damaging the healthy functioning of an ecosystem.

Open letter backs student-led campaign for vegan catering to fight climate crisis

More than 650 academics have called on British universities to commit to 100% plant-based catering to fight the climate crisis, saying that the institutions have “for centuries, been shining lights of intellectual, moral, and scientific progress”.

The open letter, organised by the student-led Plant-Based Universities campaign, likened the move to meat-free food to the fossil fuel divestment to which 101 UK universities have already committed.

Sharp rise in sightings of the invasive species this year prompts fears for native bees on which they prey

It is likely the Asian hornet has become established in the UK, conservationists fear, as a record number of nests have been found.

There has been a sharp rise in sightings of the invasive species in the UK this year; the previous two years only had two sightings each, whereas there have been 22 confirmed so far in 2023. In total there have been 45 sightings since 2016.

Reports of abusive behaviour towards Japanese citizens in China in response to wastewater release at nuclear site

Fake news and state-backed disinformation are fuelling Chinese anger at Japan over its release of treated wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant.

In the last week, there have been reports of rocks and eggs thrown at Japanese schools in two Chinese cities, abusive phone calls to Japanese businesses and social media campaigns to boycott Japanese products including cosmetics. It has prompted Japan’s government to summon the Chinese ambassador and urge caution among its China-based citizens.