The Guardian

Exclusive: This draft chapter for a Unesco report on the Great Barrier Reef warned that it was ‘poor and deteriorating’ and ‘assailed by multiple threats’ but the Australian government asked for it to be pulled

• Australia scrubbed from UN climate change report after government intervention

This description of the Great Barrier Reef, obtained by Guardian Australia, was written by experts for a Unesco report on tourism and climate change but removed after objections from the Australian government. This draft would have been subject to minor amendments after being peer-reviewed. The lead author, Adam Markham, is deputy director of climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Significance: World’s largest coral reef system; marine biodiversity; evolutionary processes; spectacular underwater landscapes.

Exclusive: All mentions of Australia were removed from the final version of a Unesco report on climate change and world heritage sites after the Australian government objected on the grounds it could impact on tourism

Revealed: Guardian Australia has obtained the Unesco report Australia didn’t want the world to see. Read it now

Every reference to Australia was scrubbed from the final version of a major UN report on climate change after the Australian government intervened, objecting that the information could harm tourism.

Guardian Australia can reveal the report “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate”, which Unesco jointly published with the United Nations environment program and the Union of Concerned Scientists on Friday, initially had a key chapter on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as small sections on Kakadu and the Tasmanian forests.

Mayor of London will submit statement and evidence in high court case brought by ClientEarth on the air pollution crisis in the capital

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has joined a high court challenge against the government over its air pollution plans, overturning the position of his predecessor, Boris Johnson. Khan filed legal documents on Thursday and can now submit a witness statement and evidence to the court on the air pollution crisis in the capital.

Environmental lawyers ClientEarth are suing the government for the second time in a year, having won a case at the supreme court in 2015 which ordered ministers to fulfil their legal duty to cut pollution in “the shortest time possible”. The new case argues the government is still failing to do this.

Hundreds of millions of people could be displaced by the end of the century due to conflict caused by global warming, says Ségolène Royal

Global warming will create hundreds of millions of climate change migrants by the end of the century if governments do not act, France’s environment minister has warned.

Ségolène Royal told ministers from 170 countries at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi that climate change was linked to conflicts, which in turned caused migration.

‘Urgent and clear need’ to limit temperature rises to protect key sites from warming, rising seas and harsher weather

Some of the world’s most famous heritage sites – from the Statue of Liberty and Venice to the Galapagos Islands – could be irreversibly damaged by climate change, a report has warned.

Historic and natural world heritage sites are already feeling the brunt of increasing temperatures, with rising seas, erosion and storms hitting Orkney’s neolithic coastal treasures and important tropical coral reefs being “bleached” by warmer seas.

In a rare move to shun tourism profits for environmental protection, 10 popular dive sites have been shut down in a bid to slow a coral bleaching crisis

Thailand has shut down 10 popular diving sites in a bid to slow a coral bleaching crisis, an official said Thursday, in a rare move to shun tourism profits to protect the environment.

The tropical country’s southern coastline and string of islands are home to some of the world’s most prized white sand beaches and scuba sites, and the booming tourism industry props up Thailand’s lagging economy.

Increase fuel efficiency of heavy good vehicles that cause a quarter of Europe’s traffic carbon emissions to meet climate targets, says clean corporate alliance

An alliance of companies including Ikea, Nestle and Heathrow airport have called on the EU to pass new laws cutting truck emissions within two years, to meet promises made at the Paris climate conference.

Heavy duty vehicles make up less than 5% of Europe’s road traffic but chug out a quarter of the sector’s carbon emissions – more than airplanes – and their fuel efficiency has hardly changed in two decades.

A collection of zoological wonders from May 2016, featuring brave new rhinos, brand new pandas, earthworm engineers and more

Author and passionate lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov once said: ‘Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.’ His scientific drawings and watercolours of butterflies have now been collected into one volume, Fine Lines

On climate change, is Trump uninformed, or playing his voters?

Donald Trump has consistently expressed his conspiratorial and misinformed beliefs that global warming is a hoax.

Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!

Environmental protection order the first use of Queensland’s new chain-of-responsibility laws

An environmental protection order has been issued against Linc Energy’s former chief executive Peter Bond.

It is the first time the Queensland government’s new chain-of-responsibility laws have been put into use and comes after creditors on Monday unanimously voted to place Linc into liquidation.

Male and female set free as part of five-year trial to monitor the impact of England’s only wild population of the mammals

A new pair of beavers has been released into a river in Devon to boost the genetic diversity of England’s only wild population of the mammals.

The male and female were set free on the river Otter as part of a five-year trial monitoring the impact of Eurasian beavers, a species hunted to extinction hundreds of years ago in the UK, on the surrounding landscape, wildlife and economy.

Malcolm Turnbull’s $150m pledge to boost agriculture in northern Australia comes under fire from conservationists

Malcolm Turnbull has promised to spend $150m on dams in Queensland as part of a plan to double the agricultural output of northern Australia – but which would dump thousands of tonnes of pollution on the Great Barrier Reef, according to conservationists.

The prime minister committed $130m to one dam near Rockhampton and a further $20m to feasibility studies for 14 others across the state.

Sandy, Bedfordshire Ash dieback threatens a tree that is unwittingly generous at both ends of the season

A line of trees on the green, their fresh bright leaves glazed with sunlight, take from the east and give nothing to the west. Oaks, sycamores and chestnuts bathe their crowns in the mid-morning rays and cast dark shadows on the ground, as wide as the trees are broad, as long as they are tall, with dappled haloes all around. The beeches are worst of all, offering the land beneath no chink in their green armour. No wonder so little grows under the canopy of a beech wood, a crowd of overlapping umbrellas giving shelter, blotting out the light.

Civil society organizations and Peru government institutions say United Cacao is operating illegally, but the company denies it

Two indigenous Shipibo men from Peru’s Amazon - Sedequías Ancón Chávez and Robert Guimaraes Vasquez - paid a rare visit to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) earlier this month. The reason? To present a letter addressed to Marcus Stuttard, Claire Dorrian and Umerah Akram from the LSE’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) urging the AIM to investigate, suspend and bar a company called United Cacao Limited SEZC - as well as amend its rules and “exact more active oversight” in general.

“The nature of the crimes which the company stands accused are an important matter for AIM to address,” the letter states. “Allowing companies listed on AIM to raise capital to violate other countries’ national laws jeopardizes the “integrity and reputation” of the market, which is grounds for suspension of a company’s trading, according to AIM Rules.”

The decision of North Yorkshire county council to allow fracking (Campaigners vow to fight fracking permit, 25 May) was based on limited information. I enquired some weeks ago whether there was or would be a social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA), and was told in essence this was too difficult and not required for a planning decision. An SCBA would examine not only the economic viability of a scheme but also the social costs to the community of pollution and damage to the local amenities. One clear social cost will be the damage and repair costs caused by thousands of heavy lorry movements on rural roads. These costs would be borne by the taxpayers of North Yorkshire, as now sanctified by the council, and not the drillers and government so enthusiastic for the fracking.
John Launder
Skipton, North Yorkshire

• I sat through the two-day planning meeting to decide the fracking application at KM8, Kirby Misperton. More than 80 most persuasive and eloquent objections were made by two professors, a former UN climate change adviser, medical professionals, planning consultants, and businesspeople, along with well-informed and passionate members of the community. There were more than 4,000 letters of objection and only 36 in support. Every argument was totally dismissed by the applicant and planning officer as if it were complete nonsense. The end debate, which lasted no more than 20 minutes, made it clear that some but not all members had not been receptive to opposing views and revealed through their comments they had only a basic grasp of the risk associated with fracking. The decision could obviously have been made without any meeting or representations. In all a travesty of democracy and very disrespectful to the people of North Yorkshire.
Michael Tanner
Nawton, North Yorkshire

Activists consider ‘more confrontational’ action to prevent energy firms drilling for shale gas in Yorkshire and Lancashire

Anti-fracking campaigners are threatening to set up protest camps in Yorkshire and Lancashire to prevent energy companies drilling for shale gas. Fracking firm Third Energy was given permission on Monday to carry out test drilling at a site in Kirby Misperton in Rydale, North Yorkshire, even after 99% of locals voiced their opposition to the application.

The decision prompted fears around the country that other fracking sites would be given the green light. Those fears are particularly acute in Lancashire, seen as the “next frontier” in the fight against the extreme form of energy extraction. Ian Roberts, the chair of Residents Action on Fylde Fracking, which opposes fracking on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, said his group was ready to start “more confrontational” action.

Officials reject applications from 61 companies for new palm oil operations in a crackdown on the industry blamed for fuelling haze-belching forest fires

Indonesia has rejected applications from scores of companies for new palm oil operations, an official said on Wednesday, as it cracks down on an industry whose expansion has been blamed for fuelling haze-belching forest fires.

Almost 1m hectares (2.5m acres) of land were spared from conversion to palm oil plantations due to the decision, said San Afri Awang, a senior official from the environment and forestry ministry.

The World Wildlife Foundation surveyed 2000 UK adults about their knowledge of endangered species. Roughly a third didn’t know giant pandas and snow leopards are under threat, while a fifth thought cows and grey squirrels are. One in four thought the dodo and brachiosaurus still exist!

• Do you know your wild species at risk? – in pictures

Campaigners fear more sites will get green light after decision to let Third Energy carry out test drilling in Kirby Misperton

Anti-fracking campaigners are threatening to set up protest camps in Yorkshire and Lancashire to prevent energy companies drilling for shale gas.

The fracking firm Third Energy was given permission on Monday to carry out test drilling at a site in Kirby Misperton in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, despite 99% of locals opposing its application.