The Guardian

New report explains benefits of adopting more efficient technology and warns failure to do so could mean climate chaos

Adopting more efficient and low-carbon technology could create 29m new jobs and double the turnover of the chemicals industry, one of the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, according to a new report.

Failure to do so could condemn the world to climate chaos, however, as the climbing emissions from the manufacture of chemicals could result in a global temperature rise of as much as 4C above pre-industrial levels, which would bring catastrophe.

The goal of 1.5C by 2030 is arbitrary and now unachievable – yet working to prevent every 0.1C rise can still give us hope

• Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL

Keeping the global average temperature rise (since pre-industrial times) below 1.5C is widely regarded as critical if we are to sidestep dangerous, all-pervasive climate change.

This idea of a 1.5C temperature threshold is in the news again because just-published research has revealed that several catastrophic climate tipping points are in danger of being crossed at around this level of warming, including collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets, which would lock in about 12 metres of sea-level rise.

Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, and the author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide

Strict no-take policies urged by scientists, who note there is less protection in 59% of marine protected areas than outside MPAs

The waters of the EU are in a “dismal” state, with only a third of fish populations studied in the north-east Atlantic considered to be in good condition, according to more than 200 scientists and conservationists.

The analysis, issued on Monday, follows a scathing report from the European court of auditors two years ago, which warned that the EU had failed to halt marine biodiversity loss in Europe’s waters and to restore fishing to sustainable levels.

We understand that higher wages would help with both the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis

• Zack Polanski is the deputy leader of the Green party of England and Wales

The Green party understands, and has long understood, that the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis are interlinked. Our economy isn’t currently working for people, or the planet, when it could and should be doing both.

People are getting desperate. They can see the world is changing around them but don’t often feel as if they’re included in the conversation. We’ve seen that over the past few months as people have started to organise during the joint hottest summer on record.

Zack Polanski is the newly elected deputy leader of the Green party of England and Wales and a member of the London assembly

Experts warn of reduced yields for some crops, with low rainfall continuing into the sowing period

There is a risk of food shortages in the UK this winter, experts have said, as the drought and high gas prices put pressure on farmers.

While growers who use glasshouses are either not sowing or waiting until spring when there are more daylight hours, the crops that would usually have sustained the country during fallow periods, such as cabbages, carrots and potatoes, are likely to have reduced yields because of the drought, the Guardian understands.

Industry bosses in Germany say high costs are having an impact on vehicle production and sales

Soaring energy costs are threatening the future of the electric car, industry bosses in Germany have warned.

A rise in electricity prices as well as in raw material costs and availability, a chronic shortage of parts, and a widespread reduction in disposable income are having a considerable impact on the production and sales of cars.

Every fraction of a degree of global heating avoided makes a difference, here are some reasons for hope

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There is no shortage of things to say about what’s going wrong. The extent of damage caused at 1.2C of global heating since pre-industrial levels is proving greater than was forecast by climate scientists not that long ago.

As discussed last week, the disastrous toll of the historic flooding in Pakistan and heatwaves and droughts across the northern hemisphere summer appear signs of escalation. A peer-reviewed study found several disastrous climate tipping points, including the collapse of Greenland’s ice cap and Gulf Stream currents in the Atlantic Ocean, may now be unavoidable.

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The decluttering movement is gaining pace. But a house full of secondhand finds or inherited furniture allows you to tell your own story – and keeps them from landfill

‘Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can / No need for greed or hunger / a brotherhood of man.” When John Lennon died, nine years after writing Imagine, the anthem for minimalism, he was living in a 430 sq metre apartment in the Dakota building in New York. He also owned three other apartments in the block, including one for storage, a large part of which was given over to the temperature-controlled care of his and Yoko’s furs.

But it is minimalism that is expensive now. If we look at the places John Pawson, the British architect generally credited as Mr Minimalism, designs for his private and institutional clients, they look distinctly expensive. Rather like Dolly Parton’s brilliant insight that “it costs a lot of money to look this cheap”, wags could reasonably say it costs a lot to have a house that looks that bare.

WA scrambles to control polyphagous shot-hole borer, which has spread to 200 locations in state’s capital

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A new, invasive insect that has caused the removal of hundreds of trees in Perth could attack much-loved species such as Moreton Bay figs if it escapes quarantine zones, conservationists say.

While the east coast has been responding to the incursion of the varroa mite in bees, Western Australia has been managing another invasive insect known as the polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB).

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Paris-born photographer Martine Perret documented conflict zones for the United Nations before moving to Margaret River in WA. Enthralled by the grandeur of the state’s vast and ancient landscapes, she set about capturing its wide open spaces from high in the sky.

She is one of 168 artists participating in this year’s Margaret River Region Open Studios event (10 to 25 September), in which art lovers are invited into the private spaces of painters, sculptors, photographers and milliners.

Conservationists hail success after first chicks in two centuries hatch in Leicestershire

“I’m over the moon. We’ve waited a long time for this.” Beth Dunstan, environmental project manager at Belvoir Castle is celebrating the birth of the first osprey chicks in Leicestershire for two centuries this summer, one of a series of recent successes in bringing the osprey back across the UK.

The birds of prey were at one time extinct across the country, which makes the recent hatching of the two osprey chicks cause for celebration. “It’s such a rare thing,” said Dunstan. “There are only around 30 breeding pairs of ospreys in England, so to have a pair on our land breeding and raising chicks is so exciting.”

Demand for luxury goods is driving global trade in hawksbill and green turtles, researchers say, adding to calls for more protection

More than 1.1 million sea turtles have been illegally killed in the past 30 years, according to new data.

Despite laws to protect them, scientists at Arizona State University estimate that about 44,000 turtles across 65 countries were illegally killed and exploited every year over the past decade.

Instead of home insulation and cheap renewables, ministers have given us fracking. This crisis is just the start of the pain

As the full horror of the gathering energy crisis takes shape and the party of austerity prepares to borrow £150bn just to pay the bills, government ministers are desperate for you to remember one thing: it is all Vladimir Putin’s fault. Although the terrifying spike in gas prices is driven by the economic war Putin is waging on Europe, the emergency we face this winter is not simply a product of those high prices. It’s also a product of successive Conservative governments wilfully dismissing policies that would have reduced our reliance on gas in the first place.

Take insulating homes and buildings. The past decade has been a period of dismal neglect for one of the most economically obvious policies. Report after report, campaign after campaign, year after year, governments have been reminded of the prudence of investing to make our buildings cheaper and cleaner to heat. Direct grants for those on low incomes, financial support for households and private firms, and properly funded schemes for the public sector could have ended the UK’s reign as the least insulated country in western Europe. Adopting these policies would have cost less than £5bn, and returned money to the Treasury over time through myriad economic benefits, even before gas prices skyrocketed.

Max Wakefield is director of campaigns for the climate action group Possible

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including helpful blue-banded bees, a recovering vulture and a drumming chimp

The bird photographer of the year winners for 2022 have been unveiled. An image of a rock ptarmigan in winter plumage taking flight above the snow-covered mountains of Tysfjord, Norway, has taken the grand prize in the world’s largest bird photography competition, which saw more than 20,000 entries from all over the world

Evidence suggests least well-off and minority ethnic communities face biggest burden from toxic air

It has long been known that the poorest and those from minority ethnic communities shoulder the greatest burden from air pollution – and now a study has provided compelling evidence.

Researchers used sensors mounted on satellites and aircraft to map nitrogen dioxide across 11 major US cities. Clouds and snow on the ground prevented measurement on many days but the researchers were able to map the pollution exposure well enough to compare with census data.

Those who don’t die from the floods risk death by starvation – yet you’ve probably heard little about the devastation

Today, Pakistan, the world’s fifth-most-populous country, is fighting for its survival. This summer, erratic monsoon rains battered the country from north to south – Sindh, the southernmost province, received 464% more rain over the last few weeks than the thirty-year average for the period.

At the same time, Pakistan’s glaciers are melting at a rate never seen before. These two consequences of the climate crisis have combined to create a monstrous super-flood that has ravaged the country.

As Liz Truss lifts ban, experts say UK shale cannot be produced at scale and any gas produced would be sold to highest bidder

Fracking will not ease the UK’s energy crisis or bring down heating bills, but will imperil climate targets, scientists and economists have said, after the prime minister, Liz Truss, made lifting the ban on fracking one of the central planks of her energy strategy.

The technology used for hydraulic fracturing of shale rocks, and the difficulty of extracting gas from the UK’s shale deposits, have not changed markedly in the decade since fracking was first tried in the UK, according to scientists.

Company will use bailiffs if those protesting against continuing raw sewage discharges continue to hold back payment of bills

Southern Water is threatening to use debt collection agencies against customers involved in a payment boycott in protest against continuing raw sewage discharges.

The water company, which was given the lowest one star rating for performance by the Environment Agency, has informed boycotters that it will be using bailiffs if they continue to hold back bill payments.

Most striking feature of new PM’s strategy is how much has been filed under ‘to do’ or ‘details to follow’

After three days in office, Liz Truss’s administration could not be expected to have every detail of its big-bucks energy strategy nailed down. Even so, the striking feature – beyond the well-trailed two-year price cap for households – was how much has been filed under “to do” or “details to follow”. At least six areas of the canvas are virtually blank.

First, six months of “equivalent” support for businesses, public sector bodies and charities inevitably prompts the question of what happens in April. On what basis will deserving causes for ongoing help be selected?