The Guardian

Ministers missed crucial opportunities but should use energy windfall tax to speed up insulation efforts, committee says

A national “war effort” on energy efficiency is required to cut energy bills, reduce climate-heating emissions and ensure energy security, according to a cross-party committee of MPs.

Boosting efficiency in homes and businesses is the fastest way to cut energy use but the government missed a “crucial window of opportunity” last summer, the report from the environmental audit committee (EAC) said. The energy bills crisis was sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while political turmoil in the UK resulted in three prime ministers in office between July and October.

Queensland Resources Council says industry would welcome restrictions easing but new long-term customers since found elsewhere in Asia

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Australia would benefit from a lifting of China’s ban on its coal but any gains would likely be modest as miners have largely redirected supplies elsewhere, analysts said.

Shares of ASX-listed coalminers shot up on Wednesday after reports China was considering lifting its restrictions on coal imports from Australia from April. The ban was imposed in mid-2020 amid deteriorating bilateral relations that have since begun to improve.

Hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination

The world’s first vaccine for honeybees has been approved for use by the US government, raising hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted a conditional license for a vaccine created by Dalan Animal Health, a US biotech company, to help protect honeybees from American foulbrood disease.

Record high temperatures for January and sparse snowfall have caused large parts of the Alps to appear unseasonably bare. Europe's record-breaking warm winter weather has closed ski slopes and forced resorts to open summer trails or shut altogether as grass and mud replace snow. Several countries across Europe recorded their highest ever temperature for this time of year

• Record warm winter in parts of Europe forces closure of ski slopes

Exclusive: Leaked figures show tiny fraction of England’s farms received payment under sustainable farming incentive

Just 224 farmers in England were paid under the government’s flagship post-Brexit nature-friendly agriculture scheme last year, the Guardian can reveal.

Leaked figures show that a tiny fraction of farms received payment under the sustainable farming incentive (SFI), part of the Conservative government’s plan to replace EU farming subsidies.

Plants are thought more likely to thrive at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire than at their current home at Wisley in Surrey

In Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier’s unnamed narrator was shocked and bewildered by the over-proud “slaughterhouse red, luscious and fantastic” rhododendrons she encountered at Manderley on the southern coast of England. She might be even more thrilled if she’d seen them in Yorkshire.

The climate crisis has prompted the Royal Horticultural Society to plan a move of its important collection of rhododendrons from its flagship Wisley garden in Surrey to Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire, the Guardian can reveal.

As Australia looks to the US and Europe on electric vehicle safety rules, carmakers are experimenting with sounds that will effectively warn pedestrians

Take a walk down any busy street and the noise can hit like a speaker accidentally left on full volume. The growls of engines accelerating when the traffic light turns green, motorbikes vying for position in the traffic, buses whizzing past and the odd rev-head all compete to be heard.

The sound generated by the internal combustion engine has shaped urban life for a century, but that is gradually going to change: by 2050, 90% of cars in Australia will be electric.

Friends of the Earth says significant climate impacts not taken into account when go-ahead was given

Friends of the Earth has said it will take legal action against the UK government after ministers granted planning permission for a new coalmine in Cumbria.

The environmental campaign group said it would file its claim against the fossil fuel extraction project later this month.

Defence personnel have been called in to help evacuate people isolated during 'once-in-a-century' flooding hitting a small town in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. Homes have been inundated by flood water in Fitzroy Crossing – home to about 1,200 people – and the Great Northern Highway is cut in both directions as some residents are airlifted 400km to Broome by helicopter. The fast-flowing waters also washed away part of a major bridge as the region experienced record flooding of the Fitzroy River. The fire and emergency services commissioner, Darren Klemm, warns residents of Willare and Noonkanbah to get to higher ground as the waters make their way downstream

• Australia could swing from three years of La Niña to hot and dry El Niño in 2023
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Unfortunately, the Earth doesn’t have an off-site storage option. But there are ways to counter the impulse to buy

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Many of us are drowning in “stuff”. To find space for all our possessions, we are paying off-site storage companies. Australians spend an average of A$163 per month on self-storage, one recent survey found.

The number one item stored in these facilities is furniture. Other items we cannot fit in our houses include appliances and electronics, hobby items, sports equipment, collectibles, memorabilia, books and photographs, cars and wine.

Brazil’s new president is determined to reverse Bolsonaro’s scorched-earth approach to the environment

This week, as Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was preparing to be sworn in for an unprecedented third term, a key concern was whether the weather would allow him to wave to assembled supporters in Brasília from an open-top convertible, as is customary. It certainly marked a departure from the more serious concerns that had haunted the transfer of power between him and his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, in previous weeks.

Thousands of Bolsonaro followers, after all, had refused to accept the outcome of last year’s elections. Many camped outside military barracks urging the armed forces to intervene, committing serious acts of vandalism in the nation’s capital. Thankfully, their pleas came to nothing – Bolsonaro unceremoniously left for Florida on the last day of the year – and Lula is officially back.

US climate envoy says there needs to be work on details of ‘loss and damage’ fund in 2023

People in developing countries are feeling increasingly angry and “victimised” by the climate crisis, the US climate envoy John Kerry has warned, and rich countries must respond urgently.

“I’ve been chronicling the increased frustration and anger of island states and vulnerable countries and small African nations and others around the world that feel victimised by the fact that they are a minuscule component of emissions,” he said. “And yet [they are] paying a very high price. Seventeen of the 20 most affected countries in the world, by the climate crisis, are in Africa, and yet 48 sub-Saharan countries total 0.55% of all emissions.”

One study grimly noted that human noise may even be scrambling the eggs of baby fish

Noise pollution is one of the gravest yet least recognized health threats of our time. Even moderate levels of noise – the kind that surrounds us in any urban environment – increase risks of cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, developmental delays and dementia. Now, scientists are revealing that non-humans, too, suffer from noise pollution – and that they are far more sensitive than humans.

Perhaps nowhere is this more urgent than in the global oceans. Marine animals see and sense the world through sound, which travels faster and farther underwater than light. Whales – which use sound to find prey and navigate, communicate and mate – are one well-known example. But scientists are now revealing that a vast range of marine creatures are exquisitely sensitive to sound. The range of negative effects caused by marine noise pollution is staggering: delayed development, hampered reproduction, stunted growth, distorted migration paths.

Karen Bakker is the director of the University of British Columbia’s Program on Water Governance and the author of The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants

There seems to be little accord about what saving the reef means and how that is to be achieved

As part of the coverage of Labor’s first budget, the ABC provided analysis of the nation’s winners and losers. In it, the Great Barrier Reef was listed as “neutral”. The reef received no additional funding beyond the commitments Labor had made during the election campaign.

It is striking that an ecosystem – a more-than-human place – could be listed alongside major economic and social concerns such as families, the Pacific, NBN and the ABC itself. It is a testament to the importance of the reef to our national identity, but also how dire things have become for that environment in the last four decades.

Guess who has a clitoris?

Commitment to ‘civil resistance’ comes after Extinction Rebellion said it would prioritise ‘relationships over roadblocks’

Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil have doubled down on their commitment to disruptive climate “civil resistance” after Extinction Rebellion announced new tactics prioritising “relationships over roadblocks”.

“It’s 2023 and XR has quit,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement. “But it’s 2023, and we are barrelling down the highway to the loss of ordered civil society, as extreme weather impacts tens of millions, as our country becomes unrecognisable … there is now a need to face reality.

From high-end luxury sedans, to modest hatchbacks – we take a look at 10 of the new models set for release in 2023

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Australia can’t brag about having the world’s most developed or diverse electric vehicle market, but that may be about to change in 2023 with a range of new battery-electric cars expected for release down under.

If 2022 showed the huge demand among Australian drivers for brands like the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5, dealers next year are expected to start taking orders on 21 new models.

Hunters will be allowed to kill 75 wolves from an already endangered population of 460 as public acceptance falls

The biggest wolf cull in modern times has begun in Sweden as nature organisations warn it could drastically harm the population.

Hunters will be allowed to kill 75 wolves from a population of 460, as the government seeks to reduce the population density of the predators in certain districts.

Climate protest group says temporary shift will ‘prioritise relationships over roadblocks’

The climate protest group Extinction Rebellion is shifting tactics from disruptions such as smashing windows and glueing themselves to public places in 2023, it has announced.

A new year resolution to “prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks”, was spelled out in a 1 January statement titled “We quit”, which said “constantly evolving tactics is a necessary approach”.

Research in England and Wales shows that conservatories, extensions and changing behaviour cancelled out any savings

Conservatories and house extensions could be helping to wipe out the reductions in gas use secured by insulating homes, according to a study that found insulation only provides a short-term fall in energy consumption.

In a surprise finding, the study into the long-term effect of loft and cavity wall insulation in England and Wales showed that the fall in gas consumption for each household was small, with all energy savings disappearing by the fourth year after it had been fitted.