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Narrower definition excludes chemicals in pharmaceuticals and pesticides that are generally defined as PFAS

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) department responsible for protecting the public from toxic substances is working under a new definition of PFAS “forever chemicals” that excludes some of their widely used compounds.

The new “working definition”, established by the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, is not only at odds with much of the scientific world, but is narrower than that used by other EPA departments.

In one of the largest claims in English legal history, 200,000 people affected by the 2015 incident will have their case heard this week

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster are seeking compensation in a UK court this week, in one of the largest group claims in English legal history.

The claimants, including representatives of Krenak indigenous communities, are fighting to get compensation for the devastation caused by the Mariana dam disaster in November 2015. The £5bn lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP.

Opposition in cabinet as well as on backbenches to expansion of turbines in England widely seen as an eyesore

Pro-green cabinet ministers are frustrated by Boris Johnson’s decision to back away from ambitious onshore windfarm plans for England, as it emerged more than 100 Tory MPs are lobbying against the policy behind the scenes.

The prime minister, who is to announce his energy strategy later in the week, will announce big targets for increasing nuclear power and offshore wind, as well as exploiting more North Sea oil and gas.

Rating given over threat to whales, while populations of other fish show worrying decline, warns Marine Conservation Society

Crab and lobster have been classed as “fish to avoid” by the Marine Conservation Society in its new UK guide to sustainable seafood, due to concern over whales getting entangled in Scottish fishing gear.

Monkfish from the North Sea and the west of Scotland, where populations have declined to their lowest since 2013, have also joined the guide’s list of “fish to avoid”, alongside most skates and rays. Skates and rays are in decline globally, with a third of species facing extinction due to overfishing.

Rodents, cockroaches and insects take refuge in people’s homes while mozzies ‘breed like crazy’, pest experts warn

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In the 30 years Tommy Horozakis has owned his pest control business, he struggles to recall another time like now.

“I’ve been inundated by calls about rodents, spiders, cockroaches, mozzies. It’s crazy,” said Horozakis, who runs Sydney’s The Pest Control Company. “Everything is looking for shelter from the wet weather, and unfortunately our homes couldn’t be better.”

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A $1,500 donation will buy an Inheritance Pass, valid for entry in 2172, part of a fundraising effort to celebrate the park’s 150th year

Yellowstone national park is offering an annual pass valid for entry in 2172 in exchange for a $1,500 donation, part of a fundraising efforts in honor of the park’s 150th birthday.

The park hopes that the tickets, dubbed “The Inheritance Passes”, will be used by the donor’s descendants. Yellowstone Forever, the park’s fundraising arm, will use the money to support park projects such as trail improvements, education, native fish conservation and scientific studies.

Of 57 species sampled, 35 decreased in number by 50% over four decades, with climate crisis likely factor

Bird populations in a Central American tropical rainforest are suffering severe declines, with likely factors including climate breakdown and habitat loss.

Scientists from the University of Illinois tracked species of birds in a protected forest reserve in central Panama to determine if and how populations had changed from 1977 to 2020.

António Guterres says the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals 'a litany of broken climate promises' by governments and businesses, and accuses some of them of lying in claiming to be on track to limiting future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. In a strongly worded rebuke, he says: 'It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track towards an unliveable world'

• IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster

Governments have hitherto been far too hesitant to take on vested interests and are all too ready to protect historic investments in fossil fuels

The continued heating of the planet means that this year will probably be one of this century’s coolest. As the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear, current climate pledges by governments would not keep global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels – the target promised in the 2015 Paris agreement. Instead greenhouse gas emissions are rising. During the past decade, on average annually they were at their highest levels in human history.

The world is on a pathway to temperature increases of more than 3C in the coming decades. This would make large parts of the world too hot to work in. Severe harvest failures will become common. Disappearing ice caps would submerge major cities. Governments have hitherto been far too hesitant to take on vested interests and are all too ready to protect historic investments in fossil fuels.

Exclusive: With only 33 of Victoria’s lowland population left, the team charged with their recovery says ‘we need to be proactive’

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As dusk has fallen each night for the last seven days, Dan Harley and Arabella Eyre have turned to each other and said: “They’ll be coming out about now.”

A week ago, the pair executed a risky plan to relocate five tiny Leadbeater’s possums – each about as heavy as an apple and the size of a fist – from their last remaining bolthole in Victoria to a new home in a forest swamp, three hours’ drive away.

The IPCC finds that emissions could be halved globally by 2030 at affordable costs if action is taken right across the board

Enormous opportunities to cut emissions deeply are there, the time to act is now, and it can be done at affordable cost.

That would be the shortest possible summary of the thousands of pages of careful assessment in the world’s definitive stocktake of how to limit future climate change.

Frank Jotzo is a professor at the Australian National University. He is a lead author of the sixth assessment report of Working Group III of the IPCC, and co-author of its summary for policymakers.

Explainer: Key points from the final section of the IPCC’s latest review of climate science

• IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster
• Analysis: IPCC spells out what the world needs to do

The world has only a narrow chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and is falling far behind on making the changes needed to transform the global economy to a low-carbon footing.

Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, say climate scientists in what is in effect their final warning

• Analysis: IPCC spells out what’s needed to avert climate disaster
• What does the IPCC report say?

The world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown but only through a “now or never” dash to a low-carbon economy and society, scientists have said in what is in effect a final warning for governments on the climate.

Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, and can be nearly halved this decade, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to give the world a chance of limiting future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Monitors identify 70 individuals in 2021, with 114 newborns since launch of repopulation scheme in 1996

A scheme to reintroduce brown bears to the Pyrenees is showing signs of success, with 70 individuals identified in 2021, the highest number for a century.

The population has increased from 52 in 2018, according to figures produced by the cross-border group that monitors the bears in France and Spain, with half the creatures living in the Catalan Pyrenean regions of Vall d’Aran, Pallars Sobirà and Alta Ribagorça. Overall, the population is thinly spread over an area of 6,500 sq km.

Just Stop Oil campaigners want moratorium on new fossil fuel projects and are planning London protest for Saturday

Environmental activists have blocked a major oil terminal near Heathrow airport, as protesters’ blockades of fuel distribution facilities around England enter a fourth day.

About 30 members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) arrived at the Esso West facility in west London at about 4am, where they erected two bamboo lock-on structures, XR said.

Putin’s war has caused an energy crunch. The response should be a robust FDR-style program and aggressive steps toward a fossil-free future

Joe Biden has taken a firm stand against Vladimir Putin and announced a ban on Russian oil imports. “This is war,” Senator Joe Manchin said when he supported Biden’s ban, which is likely to push energy prices higher. “For better or worse, Americans need to understand that this is the price we all pay for a safer world,” said former Obama Council of Economic Advisers chairman Jason Furman. The president himself announced: “Defending freedom is going to cost.”

There is even some bipartisan support, at least for now. Across the aisle, Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski signed on to sanctions. So did Mitch McConnell: “Ratchet the sanctions all the way up.”

Meg Jacobs teaches history and public affairs at Princeton University and is author of Panic at the Pump, about the 1970s energy crisis

Carbon border adjustment mechanism would penalise companies and countries trying to evade responsibility for cutting emissions

High-carbon goods imported into the UK should be subject to new tariffs, to help ensure other countries are fulfilling their obligations to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions as well as the UK, an influential committee of MPs has said.

A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would penalise companies and countries trying to evade responsibility for cutting emissions, the MPs said, and provide an incentive for certain industrial sectors to move away from environmentally damaging practices.

Blue-tongue lizards among species to get stronger international protections

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Nearly 130 native Australian reptiles targeted by international wildlife smugglers will be added to a global convention in a step the Morrison government and conservationists hope will stifle the “cruel and abhorrent” trade.

The spiny-tailed gecko, shingleback lizard and several blue-tongue lizard species are among the reptiles that the environment minister Sussan Ley has listed for inclusion under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites).

Talks stretch past deadline as governments are accused of trying to water down findings

The world must abandon fossil fuels as a matter of urgency, rather than entrusting the future climate to untried “techno-fixes” such as sucking carbon out of the air, scientists and campaigners have urged, as governments wrangled over last-minute changes to a landmark scientific report.

Talks on the final draft of the latest comprehensive assessment of climate science, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stretched hours past their deadline on Sunday. Scientists and governments were locked in disagreement on questions such as how much funding was likely to be needed for developing countries to tackle the climate crisis, and what emphasis to give policies such as phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

Grant Shapps says invasion is ‘wake up call’ on oil and gas supplies but opposes more onshore wind power

Calls for the UK to consider rationing energy have been rejected by a cabinet minister, as a plan to drastically increase onshore wind power also appeared to be significantly scaled back.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had been a “massive wake up call” for western nations about their dependence on imported oil and gas, from which European countries are now trying to wean themselves off.