The Guardian

Plans put onus on local authorities to stop air pollution but offer no new funds or powers for traffic calming and other measures

Local authorities in England have not been given the funding or powers to fulfil the government’s strategy on air pollution, and air quality in English towns and cities is likely to suffer as a result, local governments and charities have said.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its latest plan late on 28 April, just before the UK bank holiday weekend. It followed a consultation earlier that month that was only days long, which local authorities said was not enough time for them to contribute properly.

As consumers turn to renewable and recyclable products, protests over industry’s use of misleading terms have proliferated

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking aim at greenwashing by big business with an update to its “Green Guides”, which would give the agency stronger legal cases against polluters by clarifying when companies’ deceptive marketing around sustainability and environmental responsibility violates federal law.

The move follows years of formal complaints filed with the FTC about often highly questionable claims made by fossil fuel companies, big agriculture, major food producers and other polluting industries.

Letter from panel member of fracking inquiry says key recommendations have not been fully implemented

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A letter from one of the panel members of the Northern Territory’s fracking inquiry says the Fyles government has not fully implemented key recommendations, including those aimed at reducing the risk new gas developments pose for the climate.

Environment groups say it shows “serious outstanding issues” remain with plans to expand the gas industry in the Beetaloo Basin a day after the NT government cleared the way for a move from exploration to production.

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World’s biggest grain trader accused of ‘shoddy due diligence’ on deforestation and alleged rights violations

The world’s largest grain trader, Cargill, is facing a first-ever legal challenge in the United States over its failure to remove deforestation and human rights abuses from its soya supply chain in Brazil.

ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, filed the formal complaint on Thursday, accusing Cargill of inadequate monitoring and a laggard response to the decline of the Amazon rainforest and other globally important biomes, such as the Cerrado savannah and the Atlantic Forest.

Soya beans bought from third-party traders, which make up 42% of all Brazilian soya Cargill purchases.

Soya beans owned by other companies that passes through Cargill ports.

Indirect land use change.

Soya sourced from the Cerrado savannah.

Soya sourced from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Researchers were particularly excited by the discovery of dunnarts on Kangaroo Island, where fires ravaged up to 90% of their habitat

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New photos of Australian wildlife in bushfire recovery areas, captured and analysed using artificial intelligence, have given new insights into the journey of vulnerable species back from natural disaster.

Researchers from WWF and Conservation International teamed up with local land managers to collect more than 7m photos from about 1,100 sensor-activated cameras in eight parts of Australia affected by bushfires in recent years.

Replacing 10 freight vehicles with EVs would have same impact as putting 56 electric cars on road, study shows

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Putting more electric trucks on Australian roads would cut transport pollution faster than electric cars could and governments should introduce grants and zero-emission zones to accelerate their adoption, a new report recommends.

The study, from the logistics firm Adiona Tech, also found that replacing 10 delivery trucks with electric models would have the same impact as putting 56 electric cars on the road.

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Change will only come when protecting our unique wilderness comes over other considerations. There are concerning signs the Albanese government is not on board

The catastrophic environmental damage from Australia’s bushfires of 2019-20 is still playing out, but scientists now have a clear picture of what was been lost in that unprecedented summer and lessons that can be learned. It is set out in a recent book, Australian Megafires, which brings together the research and analysis of more than 200 experts in their field.

The scale of the impact is so vast that it is hard to get your head around. Fire burned the entire known habitat – every part of it – of more than 500 plant and animal species. At least 100 species that were already threatened with extinction before black summer had more than 50% of their habitat burnt. About 350 species and ecosystems either became threatened for the first time or were pushed closer to extinction.

Research says mining boom to support renewable energy risks ‘significant social and environmental damage’

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In the high-stakes quest to break China’s grip over minerals crucial to clean energy technology, Australia risks over-mining while ignoring alternatives such as improved battery recycling, according to a new report.

The release of the Jubilee Australia research, which questions mineral demand assumptions and warns against causing unnecessary environmental harm, comes as the federal government prepares a strategy to address China’s dominance of minerals seen as critical to a nation.

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Green group accused company of emitting more than it disclosed but TotalEnergies says report used dubious methodologies

The French oil major TotalEnergies has sued the environmental group Greenpeace France and the climate consulting firm Factor-X over a report claiming that the company massively underestimated its 2019 greenhouse gas emissions, Total said on Wednesday.

The civil complaint, served on 28 April, seeks a ruling that the November publication contains “false and misleading information”, a judicial order to withdraw the publication and cease all references to it under penalty of €2,000 (£1,760) a day in fines, plus a symbolic €1 in damages.

Analysis shows disadvantaged people are hit harder by the effects of airborne particulates, compounding existing inequalities

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Kerry-Ann Weirick’s asthma took a turn for the worse when she moved to the western Sydney suburb of St Marys.

“I was going to hospital two or three times a year with really bad breathing problems,” she says.

There is estimated 60% chance event will develop by end of July, and 80% chance of it by end of September

The chance of an El Niño weather phenomenon developing in the coming months has risen, the United Nations has said, warning that it could fuel higher global temperatures and possibly new heat records.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday that it now estimated there was a 60% chance that El Niño would develop by the end of July, and an 80% chance it would do so by the end of September.

Single-use e-cigarettes send tonnes of valuable lithium to landfill in the UK. Why not ban them, as Australia did?

Take a walk down any busy street, and you’re bound to find dozens of candy-coloured plastic cylinders littering the ground. Millions of these disposable vapes are now thrown away every month in the UK. And hidden inside each one is a lithium battery – made of a material crucial for the transition to renewables.

Last month, I found myself buying an Elf Bar disposable vape on a night out. I try not to make a habit of vaping, but it feels far too easy to pick one up when they’re eyecatchingly displayed right next to the chewing gum in every corner shop. For weeks, the vape lay next to my bin. I knew I had to recycle it, but how do you actually go about doing that? I soon found myself falling down a blueberry smoke-filled rabbit hole.

Emma Snaith is deputy audience editor at the Guardian.

Dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer and air pollution are often found in cosmetics, personal care products and cleaners

Some of the most common consumer products probably release 5,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in American homes annually, new research on the dangerous class of chemicals finds.

The research, which analyzed ingredient lists across dozens of product categories, found the most concerning levels in general purpose cleaners, art supplies and laundry detergents, while the individual product that emitted the most VOCs was mothballs.

Families in Rhyl decry ‘shameful’ lack of consultation before removal of Drift Park play area to make way for flood defences

The developer Balfour Beatty and Denbighshire council have been accused of ignoring the needs of children by ripping out a playground in the deprived Welsh town of Rhyl to make way for a £92m flood defence project.

People in the town told the Guardian they were given no warning that the popular Drift Park playground would be removed, despite the consultation process having been carried out with global engineering consultants Mott MacDonald.

PM says he is pleased to contribute to Friends of the Western Ground Parrot as the king ‘has long championed conservation’

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Australia is gifting King Charles III a donation to Friends of the Western Ground Parrot to mark his coronation.

The government has pledged $10,000 to help conserve the critically endangered “shy and rarely seen” species in honour of the monarch, on behalf of the people of Australia.

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Conservationists say government must stop licensing ‘unsustainable’ harvest of eggs from amber-listed birds

Licences have been issued for more than 160,000 eggs to be taken from black-headed gull nests since 2019, government data shows, as conservationists call for the eggs to be “taken off all menus”.

Each spring, thousands of eggs are collected from the amber-listed seabird’s nests and sold under licences issued by the government’s wildlife watchdog, Natural England. They are considered a delicacy in fine-dining restaurants, known for their creamy yellow yolks and beautiful speckled shells, and can sell for more than £8 each.

Voters are finally furious about water pollution, but tackling it means unpicking a complex web of assaults from source to sea

I can’t help feeling a small surge of gratitude every time an environmental issue breaks the surface. That the state of England’s rivers seems at last to have become an election issue feels slightly miraculous, after so many years in which campaigners have swum against the political flow.

In wards across the country, people who are furious about the pollution of their rivers and coasts seem prepared to vote accordingly in Thursday’s local elections. The Labour party has at last smelled blood in the water. Keir Starmer has promised “real action on this scandal”, but the action doesn’t yet extend even to renationalising the water companies, though this policy would be overwhelmingly popular.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Hidden camera at slaughterhouse appears to show ‘utterly inhumane’ use of CO2 to stun pigs before slaughter

New undercover footage showing British pigs being gassed prior to slaughter has led to renewed calls to investigate the use of CO2.

Campaigners say the pictures – the first of their kind to be obtained in a UK abattoir – show the “utterly inhumane” nature of using CO2 to stun pigs before being killed. But the pork industry says its use is recognised as the most welfare-friendly method available, and says alternatives are being sought.

Redirecting massive defence spending and implementing a windfalls gains tax in the 2023 federal budget could go a long way to saving our environment

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Like trickle-down economics or goldfish memories only being three seconds long, there’s a myth that continues to haunt this nation, and, like a zombie, it refuses to die. This myth, and the damage it inflicts, has been aided and abetted by the Australian government. This deception is propagated and perpetuated for political purposes. What is this myth? The notion that our government simply can’t afford to greatly increase spending on environmental protection and recovery.

As we approach another federal budget, the government’s priorities are writ large. At the same time, we continue to bear witness to – and suffer through – the devastating impacts of a changing and deteriorating climate, collapsing ecosystems and an increasing number of threatened species racing towards extinction.

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Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber says summit in Dubai in November will dedicate a day to health

The next UN climate summit will be the first to consider health issues in depth, with a meeting of global health ministers to highlight the consequences of the climate crisis for wellbeing.

Sultan Al Jaber, the president of Cop28, which will take place in Dubai this November, said on Tuesday: “We will be the first Cop to dedicate a day to health and the first to host a health and climate ministerial. And we need to broaden our definition of adaptation to enable global climate resilience, transform food systems and enhance forestry land use and water management.”