The Guardian
The Guardian view on carbon offsetting: an overhaul is overdue | Editorial
The industry has not delivered what it promised, and critics are right to be sceptical
The emerging carbon offsets market is chaotic and dysfunctional. Problems need to be addressed openly, and resolved as quickly as possible. A joint investigation by the Guardian, the German weekly Die Zeit and SourceMaterial revealed in January that the vast majority of rainforest offset credits from the leading certifier – which are sold to companies that then use them to make claims about their overall emissions – do not offer the environmental benefits that they claim. Since then, scrutiny has only increased, with more questions being asked of the western businesses behind projects such as Kariba, a huge offset-promoted forest in Zimbabwe.
Recognising the urgent need to rebuild flagging confidence, if the carbon-trading system is not to collapse as it did once before, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market last week announced that new rules for offset issuers will be announced in May. A separate process overseen by a different body is reviewing the claims that businesses make, based on their offset purchases. While all this might sound remote from the concerns of most people, the stakes could hardly be higher. Many environmentalists would prefer governments to oversee a transfer of resources from rich countries to the forested nations that need incentives to conserve precious carbon sinks. The reality is that due to the way our global economic system is organised, we all depend on market mechanisms.
Continue reading...British cows could be given ‘methane blockers’ to cut carbon emissions
UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-induced emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical
Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.
Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed products that can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.
Continue reading...Solar panels could be a lifesaver for public housing tenants grappling with Australia’s soaring energy costs
Natalie Rabey, who relies on power-hungry machines to help her breathe, is campaigning for solar power for Victoria’s public housing
Natalie Rabey doesn’t know how much time she has left. But she knows what she wants to do with it.
“While I’m still breathing I’d like to get some action on solar panels for people in public housing because it’s just terrible at the moment,” she says.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...With Tories stealing some of Labour’s best clothes, Starmer needs a change of gear | Anne McElvoy
How dull can an opposition party be and still command the kinetic energy to win an election that requires a swing of up to 13 percentage points? Especially as the haul of seats it would need for an outright majority – given its dreadful losses in England in 2019, the SNP’s troubled but hardy grip on Scotland and the fact of fewer Welsh MPs being returned to Westminster – approaches the 145 gained by Tony Blair in the 1997 landslide.
Elections do not always vindicate early predictions. Much can happen between now and the election deadline of January 2025 (which effectively means going to the polls in the latter half of next year) that makes yesterday’s “impossible” look like tomorrow’s “told you so”. It would, however, be unwise for Labour to rely, as one of its sharpest advisers on strategy succinctly puts it, on “Tories being crap and Labour being a bit less crap”.
Continue reading...New oilfield in the North Sea would blow the UK’s carbon budget
Campaigners say Rosebank, with a potential yield of 500m barrels, would seriously undermine legal commitment to net zero
A single new oil and gas field in the North Sea would be enough to exceed the UK’s carbon budgets from its operations alone, analysis has shown, as the government considers fossil fuel expansion despite the legally binding commitment to net zero.
Rosebank is the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea, with the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil, and has already cleared several regulatory hurdles, meaning a decision on its future could come soon.
Continue reading...Farne Islands shut to visitors over fears of new avian flu outbreak
Rangers work to avoid repeat of last year’s devastating losses in breeding seabird colonies on the islands off the Northumberland coast
The Farne Islands will not open to visitors this spring in anticipation of bird flu once again ravaging breeding seabird colonies, after an “unprecedented” spate of deaths last year.
The rocky outcrop of islands off the coast of Northumberland has been looked after by the National Trust since 1925 and there are no previous records of so many endangered seabirds dying at once. More than 6,000 carcasses were picked up last year, which is believed to be the tip of the iceberg compared with how many birds would have died in total.
Continue reading...'It’s going so fast': The decline of New Zealand's glaciers – video
Scientists responsible for monitoring the health of New Zealand's glaciers have revealed a trend of declining snow and ice. The 2023 survey was the 46th undertaken in a collaboration between the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), Victoria University of Wellington, and the Department of Conservation. The longstanding project captures an aerial portrait of more than 50 Southern Alps glaciers at a similar time each year to track how they change. The team spent nearly eight hours travelling back and forth over the alps, taking thousands of aerial photographs of glaciers of differing sizes and orientations to use in various national and international research projects, including one that builds 3D models used to compare snow and ice year-to-year
Tess's story here
Three Insulate Britain protesters face retrial over London street blockade
Giovanna Lewis, Amy Pritchard and Paul Sheeky were part of group who glued themselves to road in City of London in 2021
Three climate protesters who stopped traffic to bring rush hour chaos to the City of London are facing a retrial.
Giovanna Lewis, 65, a councillor from Dorset, Amy Pritchard, 37, a horticultural worker and Paul Sheeky, 46, a screenwriter, were part of a large group of Insulate Britain protesters who glued themselves to the ground and blocked traffic between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street on 25 October 2021.
Continue reading...Four climate activists convicted of causing public nuisance, but no jail term
Men staged protest in City of London in October 2021, which included one gluing head to road to block traffic
Four climate protesters, including a man who glued his head to the road in order to block traffic in central London, have escaped jail terms.
Matthew Tulley, 44, Ben Taylor, 38, George Burrow, 68 and Anthony Hill, 72, staged a protest between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street in the City of London on 25 October 2021. They were convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Inner London crown court. All four represented themselves.
Continue reading...Four Insulate Britain protesters convicted of causing public nuisance
Julie Mecoli, 68, Stefania Morosi, 45, Louise Lancaster, 57, and Nicholas Till, 67, took part in London street blockade in 2021
Four climate protesters who stopped traffic on a central London road during rush hour have been convicted of causing a public nuisance.
Julie Mecoli, 68, Stefania Morosi, 45, Louise Lancaster, 57 and Nicholas Till, 67, were among a group of Insulate Britain supporters who walked into Upper Thames Street on 25 October 2021 while a separate group also blocked nearby roads on Bishopsgate, in the City of London financial district. All four denied the charges.
Continue reading...Every household will go on a journey of electrification. We can make that easier, or harder
Australia is at its best when it keeps the collective in sight. The way we move forward with electrification will either wire us together, or deepen isolation
In 2021, the publisher of my book The Big Switch arranged a hectic book tour, in two chunks, on the east and south coasts of this continent. I didn’t want to fly; since my book was about why we need to electrify everything to address climate change, I wanted to drive an electric car so I could experience first-hand the practical limitations of the national charging network. This was going to mean many hours driving between towns, not to mention hours waiting for the car to charge. I hit upon the idea of spending that time with my mother, Pamela, whom I’d seen less than I would have liked after 25 or so years living in the US.
Everywhere we went, we met smart, practical people who showed up already engaged and knowledgable about this crusade: the need to electrify everything, backed by renewables, to address climate heating and keep our Earth livable.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Recycling rubble can help rebuild Syria faster, scientists show
Tests show recycled concrete could safely be used in new buildings in war- and quake-stricken country
Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.
Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.
Continue reading...Raw sewage spilled into English rivers 824 times a day last year
Figure comes despite barely any rainfall during year and prompts call for environment secretary to resign
Raw sewage was spilled into English rivers 824 times a day last year – despite the fact there was barely any rainfall and most of the country was in drought.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, is facing calls from the Liberal Democrats to resign over failures to stop sewage spills, as the party argues she “doesn’t care” about the issue.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a baby egret, a newborn shark and a zebra on the loose
Continue reading...Meadows to return at 100 historic sites in England to mark coronation
Ten-year project by English Heritage will see landscapes at sites including Stonehenge return to how they would have once looked
Meadows across 100 historic sites in England, from the panoramic ruins of Scarborough Castle to the chalk down landscape of Stonehenge, are to be created or enhanced in a 10-year project celebrating the king’s coronation.
English Heritage on Friday announced its ambition to return landscapes at 100 of its sites to how they once would have looked.
Continue reading...Brazilian meatpacker’s A- sustainability rating has campaigners up in arms
Environmentalists question high grade given to JBS and accuse it of deforestation in the Amazon and under-reporting emissions
The award of an A-minus sustainability grade to the world’s biggest meat company has raised eyebrows and kicked off a debate about the rating system for environmental and social governance.
Brazilian meat company JBS has previously been linked to deforestation in the Amazon, where its slaughterhouses process beef from ranches carved out of the Amazon, Cerrado and other biomes. But in the latest Climate Change Report by the influential rating organisation CDP, the multinational meatpacker got a grade of A- for its efforts to tackle climate change – up from B in the previous assessment – and was given a “leadership” status award.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on Rishi Sunak’s energy plan: playing with fire | Editorial
The government has chosen oil and gas over renewables, increasing the climate threat
To say that Rishi Sunak’s government has chosen the “path of climate vandalism”, as Labour’s Ed Miliband did this week, is no exaggeration. The policies contained in the energy plan announced on Thursday are dangerous. They will significantly worsen the climate crisis that threatens to engulf us all, if the globally agreed target of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C is missed. Mr Sunak’s record on green policies in the Treasury was dismal. As prime minister, he is steering the UK even further away from the course towards speedy decarbonisation that we should be on. In the long term, climate will surely top the list of public policy failures during this long period of Tory government.
Hundreds of leading scientists wrote to Mr Sunak’s government this week, calling for an end to new oil and gas developments. The government is set to defy them with plans for a huge North Sea oilfield, which it attempts to justify on the grounds that it is investing £20bn (over 20 years) in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, in order to limit the damage caused. The scientists are right. The politicians and their fossil fuel industry backers are wrong. It is devastating that the UK is now trashing its own reputation for pioneering climate laws, which made national emissions reductions compulsory. Ministers have chosen risky, dirty energy over clean.
Continue reading...Net zero strategy shows UK will miss 2030 emissions cuts target
Government admits its policies will achieve only 92% of cuts and experts think that is a ‘generous reading’
The UK government has said it is still on track to meet its international climate commitments under the Paris agreement, as analysis of its energy plans suggested more drastic policies would be needed to make the required carbon cuts.
Ministers announced the UK’s revamped net zero strategy on Thursday, with a raft of documents exceeding 1,000 pages, setting out policies on sectors from biomass to solar power, and from electric vehicles to nuclear reactors. It came as Rishi Sunak headed to Oxfordshire to visit a development facility for nuclear fusion, accompanied by Grant Shapps, the energy and net zero secretary.
Continue reading...Reports of rotten pork being sold in UK may lead to tighter control of FSA
Therésè Coffey may bring Food Standards Agency, now overseen by health department, under remit of Defra
The UK government is considering tightening control over the Food Standards Agency (FSA) after news that allegedly fraudulent pork products found their way on to supermarket shelves.
Therésè Coffey, the secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), told the House of Commons on Thursday that she would look at bringing the FSA under her department’s control.
Continue reading...Climate activists disrupt Humza Yousaf's first FMQs five times – video
Scottish first minister's questions was disrupted five times on Thursday as Yousaf took questions from MSPs. When FMQs eventually got going, Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, queried Yousaf's appointment of an independence minister, asking if it was a fair use of taxpayers' money. Yousaf hit back, telling MSPs that independence was a priority for the Scottish people. Yousaf said: 'I make no apology whatsoever for having a minister for independence because, my goodness, we need it more than ever before'
Continue reading...