The Guardian

Exclusive: Watchdog is supposed to audit firms yearly to ensure they are not illegally dumping sewage, but 36% of audits since 2010 are missing

The Environment Agency is failing to regularly audit water companies to check they are telling the truth about pollution and illegal sewage dumping in England, the Guardian can reveal.

The audits contribute to the star rating companies are given for environmental performance by the watchdog. Some companies are being given top ratings, even though the FoI data suggests the EA has not audited them for several years.

Clean Air Task Force calls for overhaul of action plans with many countries, including Germany and France, missing drafts deadline

European countries must bridge the vast “planning gap” between their climate targets and action plans, according to a report.

The national energy and climate plans (NECPs) that EU member states made in 2019 are outdated, lack key details and do not line up with long-term strategies, according to analysis from the environmental nonprofit organisation Clean Air Task Force. Only half of the states have submitted a fresh proposal two months after an EU deadline for draft plans passed in June.

Species such as mackerel and North Sea cod have been overfished or have reached critically low populations

Half of Britain’s 10 largest fish populations are in a “deeply troubling state”, having been either overfished or depleted to a critically low size, according to a new report. The situation is being driven by the UK government setting catch limits at levels that exceed scientific advice, said Oceana, a Washington DC-based NGO.

The UK’s fishing industry relies heavily on 10 key stocks. Five are either being overfished, including mackerel, which accounted for the largest volume of landings in the UK in 2021, or have reached critically low populations, such as North Sea cod. Many cod species are in crisis, pushing the popular fish close to population collapse.

Campaigners say Britain becoming ‘toxic poster child of Europe’ and accuse ministers of breaking Brexit promise on standards

The UK has failed to ban 36 pesticides that are not allowed for use in the EU, as campaigners say it is becoming the “toxic poster child of Europe”.

Though ministers promised the UK would not water down EU-derived environmental standards after Brexit, there have been multiple instances of divergence since the country left the bloc.

Australia Post’s release of new bird stamps reflects the country’s changing urban landscapes and highlights little-known habitat loss

• This year’s Guardian/BirdLife Australia bird of the year poll runs from 25 September to 6 October. Nominate your favourite for the shortlist
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Australia Post has released a series of stamps to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Aussie Bird Count and the birds they have chosen may surprise you.

Unless of course, you are one of the more than 100,000 Australians who have taken part in what has become the country’s biggest citizen science project. You would know that when BirdLife Australia release the results of all the surveys that they participated in, the species that feature – rainbow lorikeet, noisy miner and Australian magpie – have been the three most common birds in every year of the Aussie Bird Count so far.

Colombia was the deadliest country and a fifth of the 177 recorded killings took place in the Amazon rainforest, says Global Witness

At least 177 people were killed last year for defending the environment, according to new figures, with a fifth of killings taking place in the Amazon rainforest.

Murdered by organised crime groups and land invaders, environmental defenders were killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022, figures from the NGO Global Witness show. Colombia was the most deadly country, recording 60 murders.

Party announces it will vote against Conservative bid to scrap river nutrient neutrality rules for housebuilders

Labour is set to oppose plans to rip up EU laws prohibiting housebuilders from polluting England’s most sensitive rivers.

Angela Rayner and Steve Reed, the new shadow levelling up and environment secretaries, have vowed that Labour will try to protect the EU-derived environmental legislation.

More should be done to prepare for the impact of heating, Climate of the Nation survey suggests, but certainty about the cause of extreme events falls

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A majority of Labor voters think the Albanese government is not doing enough to prepare for or adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis, according to a long-running national poll.

The Climate of the Nation survey of voters, now in its 16th year and managed by the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, found 52% of ALP supporters think the government should be doing more to prepare for the impacts of climate-related extreme events. Only 26% said it was doing enough, 10% too much and 12% were unsure.

74% supported a “polluter-pays tax” applied to businesses based on how much they emit had 74% support

66% supported a tax on the windfall profits of the oil and gas industry 66%, up from 61% last year.

59% supported levy on fossil fuel exports to fund climate adaptation programs.

Answers on coal and gas mining were contradictory. Two-thirds of people said governments should plan to phase them out, and 53% supported a moratorium on new coalmines. But 46% said the benefits of coal and gas outweighed the negative impacts.

70% wanted coal-fired power plants to be phased out, compared with 79% a year ago. About a third – 34% – said they should be phased out by 2030.

An overwhelming majority (75%) suggested they were concerned the climate crisis would make insurance more expensive and disrupt supply chains so that it became harder to buy necessities.

Process of consulting experts and industry could mean important habitat areas would be left without protection until 2025

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The New South Wales Greens and community groups have raised concerns about a Minns government plan to suspend logging operations in just 5% of its promised great koala national park while it consults experts and industry about the proposal.

The Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, has also warned that the more than 12-month process announced by the environment minister, Penny Sharpe, on Tuesday could leave important habitat areas without any protection until 2025.

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Who will take the crown this year? That will be for you to decide

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It’s that favourite time again for many of our readers – Australian bird of the year is back, with polls to open on 25 September.

In the last Guardian Australia/Birdlife Australia poll in 2021, the superb fairywren was voted the winner, narrowly beating the tawny frogmouth and gang-gang cockatoo in a nail-biting competition.

Hundreds of thousands of raw sewage discharges were recorded last year. These maps show where these were and what the impact is

More than 384,000 discharges of raw sewage were reported by water companies across England and Wales in 2022, official figures show, in what the Rivers Trust has described as “extremely bad news for environmental and human health”.

However, the true scale may be even greater, as a new legal challenge has claimed. Meanwhile, another set of water firms are under investigation by the regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency for alleged illegal dumping of sewage from treatment works, and an independent watchdog is now saying that the government and even the regulators themselves may have broken the law by letting firms discharge raw sewage more often than law allows.

Study highlights conflict between Washington’s claims of climate leadership and its fossil fuel growth plans

The US accounts for more than a third of the expansion of global oil and gas production planned by mid-century, despite its claims of climate leadership, research has found.

Canada and Russia have the next biggest expansion plans, calculated based on how much carbon dioxide is likely to be produced from new developments, followed by Iran, China and Brazil. The United Arab Emirates, which is to host the annual UN climate summit this year, Cop28 in Dubai in November, is seventh on the list.

Correspondence shows nature watchdog had recommended that housebuilders pay for pollution

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The government ignored its nature watchdog’s advice in weakening rules on pollution from housebuilders in England, the Guardian can reveal.

Michael Gove, the housing secretary, and Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, recently announced they would be ending what they termed “defective” EU laws, which require developers to offset any extra nutrient pollution they cause in sensitive areas, under the habitats directive. These areas include the Lake District and Norfolk Broads.

Government may be letting firms discharge raw sewage more often than law allows, says Office for Environmental Protection

The government and regulators may have broken the law by failing to stem raw sewage dumping into rivers by water companies in England, the new independent environmental watchdog has said.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which was set up after Brexit to replace the enforcement powers of the European Commission, said an investigation suggested the government, the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat may be failing to comply with environmental law and allowing raw sewage to be discharged by water companies more frequently than the law allows.

Campaigners estimate about $3.7bn in trade finance was supplied to oil and gas projects despite bank’s green pledges

The World Bank poured billions of dollars into fossil fuels around the world last year despite repeated promises to refocus on shifting to a low-carbon economy, research has suggested.

The money went through a special form of funding known as trade finance, which is used to facilitate global transactions.

Exclusive: hubs cover about 5% of the 176,000 ha of forest that will be assessed for protection within great koala national park

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Logging in high value koala habitat on the New South Wales mid-north coast will cease immediately while the state government consults experts about plans to establish a great koala national park.

The announcement follows weeks of pressure from communities that had accused the Minns government of stalling on an election promise and allowing forestry operations to continue in areas that had been earmarked for the proposed park.

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Country has experienced 23 extreme weather events costing $1bn or more already this year, passing previous mark of 22 in 2020

With four months of 2023 still left, the US has set a record for the most natural disasters in a single year that have cost $1bn or more, as fires, floods and ferocious winds were among deadly events experts warn are being turbo-charged by the climate crisis.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced on Monday that there have already been 23 extreme weather events in the US this year that have cost at least $1bn. The current figure surpasses the record of 22 such events set in 2020.

Doubts about whether heat pumps work well in subzero conditions shown to be unfounded, say researchers

Heat pumps are more than twice as efficient as fossil fuel heating systems in cold temperatures, research shows.

Even at temperatures approaching -30C, heat pumps outperform oil and gas heating systems, according to the research from Oxford University and the Regulatory Assistance Project thinktank.

In the debate over protecting native wildlife from domestic felines, one thing is often overlooked: cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats

There is a bird bath in our garden frequented by fairywrens and red-browed finches. We put it under the flowering elm tree so the little birds would feel protected and hang out there for longer. It’s a few metres from our back door. Most days, when the sun hits that part of the floorboards, our cat Laurie can be found there, lazing in a sunbeam watching the birds through the glass. Sometimes, when they hop closer, she will sit up and make little chattering noises. It’s cat TV: enriching for her, safe for the oblivious birds.

I wish I could say we’d done it for the birds’ sake. But like an extraordinary number of decisions in the past 13 years, I did it for Laurie.

Researchers identify 88 nests of destructive invasive non-native species near Syracuse in Sicily

An invasive non-native ant species has become established in Italy and could rapidly spread through Europe to the UK with global heating, a study warns.

The red fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, has a powerful sting, damages crops and can infest electrical equipment including cars and computers.