The Guardian

Ministers and experts say disputes between co-hosts unlikely to disrupt efforts to reach deal on protecting natural world

More than 10,000 scientists, government officials and activists will gather in Montreal this week for the world’s most important biodiversity conference, eager to hammer out a deal to stem habitat loss around the world and preserve sensitive ecosystems.

The UN Cop15 biodiversity summit opens on Tuesday, and will see countries negotiate this decade’s targets for protecting nature after more than two years of pandemic-related delays and just over two weeks since the end of the Cop27 climate meeting in Egypt.

The variety is a cross between commercial and wild wheats – bred in a bid to develop crops that are more resilient to the climate crisis

A new drought-tolerant variety of durum wheat has been created as part of an international breeding programme to boost climate resilience in the food system by increasing crop diversity.

Durum wheat is used to make pasta, pizza crusts, and flatbreads such as pitta and chapatis, as well as for couscous, bulgur and pastry for desserts such as baklava.

Protesters take to luxury beds and sofas in London store to call for action on ‘sky-rocketing’ energy bills

Just Stop Oil activists tucked themselves into a Harrods display bed as part of a national day of action on fuel poverty in the UK on Saturday.

Footage of the “warm up” demonstrations also showed security guards confronting protesters lying on sofas inside the shop in Knightsbridge, London.

Alok Sharma says the mine will damage the UK’s international reputation as well as the environment

A mooted new coalmine in Cumbria would be “a backward step”, the UK government’s climate champion has warned ahead of an imminent decision on the controversial plan’s future, expected this week.

Alok Sharma, whose presidency of the Cop26 international climate talks ended last month, took to Twitter on Saturday morning to slam plans for the mine, which would produce coking coal for steel production.

Once common in England and Wales, the species was hunted to local extinction about 300 years ago

With their striking long beaks and elegant white plumage, the spoonbill looks like it belongs somewhere far more exotic than the windswept saltmarshes of the UK.

But the large wading bird is enjoying a boom in numbers as landowners across the country improve wetland habitats and tree cover.

The group was awarded $1.8m and praised as an ‘inspiring women led program’ using First Nations knowledge to protect land and sea

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The Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network has been awarded a £1m ($1.8m) Earthshot prize for its work on protecting the Great Barrier Reef.

The network was awarded the Revive Our Oceans category of the prizes, which was launched by Prince William and David Attenborough in 2020.

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Scientists who have replaced plastic packaging with seaweed among those to be given prize by Prince of Wales

Scientists who have replaced plastic packaging with seaweed are among those who have been given a £1m prize by the Prince of Wales’s Earthshot fund.

The prize is aimed at rewarding innovative solutions to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies, and is named after former US president John F Kennedy’s Moonshot challenge in the 1960s, which united millions of people around the goal of putting a person on the moon within a decade.

London mayor’s demand comes as civil rights campaigners criticise PM’s promise to increase police powers

The London mayor has demanded the state response to Just Stop Oil remain “within the law”, as civil rights campaigners warned over the prime minister’s suggestion he would grant police new powers to contain the group’s protests.

After a meeting of police leaders and ministers in Downing Street on Thursday, Rishi Sunak promised police whatever powers they need to “clamp down” on the “completely unacceptable” disruptions by the climate activist group.

Fears of shortages early next year as farmers say they are having to ‘tear up’ sowing and harvesting timelines

The mild autumn has caused much of the UK’s green vegetable and potato crops to grow early, leading to a glut and a large amount of waste, and fears of shortages early next year.

Cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli that were supposed to be ready later in December or in January are ready to harvest now, with some having grown to huge sizes because of the exceptionally mild autumn.

The water companies and regulators must act, alongside changing consumer behaviour and tackling pollution at source

Thirty-two years after water privatisation, rivers in England and Wales are not improving, leakage levels are unacceptable, and massive financial engineering has not added to the resilience of the system or the ability to finance the large-scale investment we now need. It cannot and should not be allowed to go on like this.

It is easy to blame the water companies for all this. And they do indeed deserve a lot of the blame, but they are not alone in polluting our rivers. Regulators are to blame too. Ofwat could have ensured water company revenues were used to fund more investment. The way the industry watchdog set the cost of capital provided opened the door for businesses to borrow against their assets – for the benefit of owners, rather than customers. Share buybacks, special dividends and multiple takeovers were never part of the gameplan at privatisation, and nor were the excessive executive salaries. None of this should have been allowed to happen.

Dieter Helm is professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford and fellow in economics at New College, Oxford. From 2012 to 2020, he was independent chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital

Exclusive: Trees standing alone and in small groups worth billions to UK, which researchers say justifies spending to protect them

• Bid to save 130 trees facing chop by Plymouth council

The huge value of trees standing alone and in small groups in the UK has been revealed in a new report, which found they provide billions of pounds worth of benefits to people every year. The trees capture climate-heating CO2, reduce toxic air pollution and slow the flow of rainwater, cutting flood risks.

There are millions of such trees across the country, covering a combined 750,000 hectares, and making up 20% of all the nation’s trees. The value of woodland has already been estimated but the report is the first to calculate a value for trees in gardens, parks, fields and along streets across the UK.

Low pressure disrupts water and power supplies in Thessaloniki as meteorological winter begins

On Thursday night last week, an area of low pressure formed off the southern coast of France. During the course of Friday, low pressure deepened into a storm as it travelled south-eastwards towards Italy.

It brought heavy rain to much of Italy; however, the west coast received the brunt of the wet weather on Friday night with 197mm of rain recorded in 24 hours on the island of Capri. The island of Ischia, close to Capri, experienced flooding and a landslide early Saturday morning, which killed at least 10 people.

Campaigners cite previous court rulings against shareholders, such as in the case of Northern Rock bank

Parliament could renationalise the water industry in England without being obliged to compensate shareholders, according to previous UK court judgments cited by campaigners.

Activists are putting mounting pressure on the government and opposition parties to look again at the privatised water system after criticism that the industry is not acting in the public interest.

This year’s Environmental photographer of the year competition, from CIWEM, WaterBear, Nikon and Arup, showcases some of the most striking images of the natural world, providing an international platform to raise awareness for the issues that threaten our planet. Here’s a closer look at the winning photos

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a singing robin, a swimming buck and a praying mantis

Lawyers for Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco, who stopped traffic for 25 minutes in April, say it is ‘outrageous’ their client was refused bail ahead of an appeal next year

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A climate protester who blocked a lane of traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge has been sentenced to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months, with human rights advocates labelling the punishment “disproportionate”.

Magistrate Allison Hawkins in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Friday sentenced Deanna “Violet” Coco to prison for her role in the climate protest on 13 April this year, when the now 32-year-old parked a truck and stood holding a lit flare.

Ministers urged to act as study shows average block of cheese or loaf of bread makes farmers less than a penny

UK farmers are receiving negligible profits for many items as food prices rise and supermarkets boast record takings.

An average block of cheese or loaf of bread produces less than a penny for farmers, and fruit producers do not fare much better, making just 3p from each kilo of apples.

Shayleen Thompson of the Clean Energy Regulator had ‘robust’ exchange with Wentworth Group director

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The independent senator David Pocock has criticised a senior government official’s conduct as “troubling and inappropriate” after parliament heard she was involved in a “robust” conversation with a scientific group about its evidence to an independent inquiry into Australia’s carbon credit scheme.

Shayleen Thompson, the executive general manager of government agency the Clean Energy Regulator, told Senate estimates she contacted the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists to raise what she considered “factual issues” with its submission to the Chubb review into the carbon credit system.

Weeks before Cop15 in Montreal, leaked letter to EU shows host tried to water down deforestation regulations

The Canadian government has been accused of putting its domestic timber industry ahead of the global environment, following a leaked attempt to water down the world’s most ambitious regulations on deforestation-free trade.

Weeks before the United Nations biodiversity conference, Cop15 in Montreal, the host nation sent a letter to the European Commission asking for a reconsideration of “burdensome traceability requirements” within a proposed EU scheme that aims to eradicate unsustainably sourced wood products from the world’s biggest market.

Officials ‘scratching our heads’ over deaths of 40 bovines since October that lack telltale signs of wolf attacks

Investigators in Colorado have been left baffled after dozens of cattle inexplicably dropped dead in a remote corner of the state.

The mystery has triggered a wave of US press coverage, with the New York Post running a headline claiming: “Cattle slaughtered by mystery creature that left no tracks”.