The Guardian

Government says strategy would create 440,000 jobs, but Treasury warns taxes may need to rise to fund changes

• Analysis: UK’s net zero strategy has a glaring omission: Rishi Sunak

The UK government’s long-awaited strategy for reaching net zero emissions falls short on ambition and is not backed up with adequate funding, experts and campaigners have warned.

Ministers on Tuesday revealed a plan which they said would create up to 440,000 jobs and “unlock” £90bn in investment in the next decade, most of it from private sector companies.

GMB union calls week-long strike from 1 November with rail staff also planning industrial action

Bin workers in Glasgow have confirmed that they will strike during the Cop26 climate conference, amid growing anxieties that the city’s summit arrangements are falling into chaos with threats of industrial action across services and transport.

Glasgow city council urged the workers to reconsider causing disruption during a “busy and difficult time”, as the GMB union confirmed a week-long strike from 1 November, the first full day of the UN conference.

Campaigners say museum ‘doubling down’ on ‘reckless’ choices of funder with backing from arm of coal giant Adani

The UK’s Science Museum has “doubled down” on its sponsorship of climate exhibitions by fossil fuel companies, campaigners say, by taking funding from a subsidiary of the Adani Group.

Adani is a conglomerate with major holdings in coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. The Energy Revolution gallery, opening in 2023, will be sponsored by Adani’s Green Energy arm.

Their use could help the UK meet its climate targets, but there are concerns over high installation and running costs

The government has set out plans to offer £5,000 grants to help 90,000 households install home heat pumps, and other low-carbon heating systems, over the next three years as part of its plan to cut Britain’s reliance on fossil fuel heating.

It includes a ban on installing gas boilers in new-build homes from 2025, and completely phasing out new gas boilers in all homes from 2035. As they are phased out, heat pump installations could reach up to 600,000 a year in the 2030s – but is Britain ready for a home heating revolution?

Public development banks are directly undermining UN and Paris climate goals by channeling billions of taxpayer dollars into multinational meat corporations

As the climate crisis boils over, new research shows that reducing methane emissions is our best hope to rapidly stem the crisis. It’s time to turn up the heat on the industrial meat industry and dramatically curtail its climate harm, which includes 32% of global methane emissions. Yet instead development banks are using public funds to expand this sector that generates 16.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

On 19 and 20 October, hundreds of public development banks (PDBs) will gather for the second Finance in Common Summit to make pledges to advance Paris climate and UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). The summit – which will also focus on agriculture and agribusiness transformation – presents a vital opportunity for these banks to put their money where their mouth is and align their agriculture investments to meet these goals.

A gigantic sunfish found tangled in tuna fishing nets in the Mediterranean could weigh up to 200kg, according to experts. The fish was  measured at 3.2 metres long and 2.9 metres wide, a record find for Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. When the sunfish was weighed it almost broke a 100kg scale. Enrique Ostalé, a marine biologist, said he had heard of sunfish this size only in books 

Anne-Marie Trevelyan urges firms to encourage shift to heat pumps, amid criticism of limited £5,000 grants

• What are heat pumps and why is the government pushing them?

Gas boilers could be banned in future but the government believes the market should drive changes to home heating systems, the cabinet minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has said, amid criticism of the limited grants system for heat pumps.

Ministers had been under pressure to set a date to ban the installation of new gas boilers in existing homes, but on Tuesday announced the installation of low-carbon heat pumps would be encouraged with a grant system of £5,000 for up to 90,000 homes in England and Wales.

The Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, examines exactly how the climate crisis is fuelling devastating floods – and what we can do to help protect ourselves and our planet

• Why are wildfires getting worse? – video explainer
  

It’s vital that unions and employers join forces to ensure staff can transfer their skills into low-carbon businesses

• Paul Clarke is a former engineer in a coal-fired power station

In the past, industrial change was poorly managed, leading to skilled staff being made redundant, withdrawing from work or drifting into less skilled employment. Anyone who remembers the dole queues after the closure of our country’s coalmines in the 1980s may be rightly wary of promises of a “just transition” for fossil fuel workers as we move into a net-zero future. But, it doesn’t have to be this way, and I’d like to share my story as a testament to what is possible when we come together to properly prepare for the future.

Three years ago, I worked at Cottam, an EDF coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire, as a professional engineer. I was proud of my job. My skills kept the country’s lights on and kettles boiling. It was more than a career for me, it gave me a sense of purpose.

Funding comes as part of government’s heat and buildings strategy, but campaigners say plan lacks ambition

Ministers have unveiled plans for £5,000 grants to allow people to install home heat pumps and other low-carbon boiler replacements as part of a wider heat and buildings strategy that some campaigners warned lacked sufficient ambition and funding.

Labour also condemned the plans as “more of Boris Johnson’s hot air”, without sufficient substance.

British diets are as bad as ever, so policymakers must find ways to reduce harm to our health and the planet

It was reported this month that meat consumption in the UK has decreased by 17% over the past decade, and even Prince Charles has urged people to stop eating meat and dairy products on certain days of the week. Although still considered a contentious subject by policymakers and the public, there is strong scientific consensus that high meat consumption is extremely harmful to us and the environment. What could be seen as welcome news should really be taken as a call to action for decisive policymaking that prioritises the health of British citizens and the planet.

Despite the headlines, British diets are as bad as ever. The new data on self-reported intake suggests that, on average, every citizen consumes one serving of meat every day of the week, including four servings of red and processed meat. Meaningful policy support is required to make healthy and sustainable diets accessible, affordable and appealing for all of the British population.

Dr Marco Springmann is a senior researcher in population health at the University of Oxford

Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appeals to Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to meet and find common ground

US president Joe Biden and the president of China, Xi Jinping, have been urged to meet before the UN Cop26 climate talks to search for common ground by the former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and other prominent global voices.

“We are appealing to the leaders of the US and China to see their common interest and find a way to work together. We need an ambitious 2030 [carbon] target from China and the US to deliver what they have pledged,” said Ban, speaking on behalf of the Elders group of former world statespeople and prominent community and business leaders.

News comes day after the Guardian revealed data that lists 120,000 sites in US that may be, or may have been, handling the chemicals

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday announced a “strategic roadmap” it said would help restrict a class of toxic chemicals from being released into the environment and accelerate the cleanup of existing contamination of so-called “forever chemicals” that are associated with a range of human health dangers.

The news comes a day after the Guardian revealed an EPA data set that lists roughly 120,000 industrial sites around the country that may be, or may have been, handling PFAS chemicals. The data set includes facility locations and operation details, and was compiled by EPA researchers to help state and local officials work with the federal government in addressing contamination concerns.

“Aggressive” timelines to set enforceable drinking water limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act “to ensure water is safe to drink in every community”.

Timelines for actions involved in the establishment of “effluent guideline limitations”, for nine industrial categories.

Establishment of a hazardous substance designation under the federal Superfund law that enhances the government’s ability to hold PFAS polluters financially accountable.

A review of past actions on PFAS taken under the Toxic Substances Control Act to address those that are insufficient.

Increased monitoring, data collection and research so that the agency can identify what actions are needed and when to take them.

A final toxicity assessment for a type of PFAS called GenX used in manufacturing nonstick coatings that has been found in drinking water, rainwater and air samples.

Continued efforts to address PFAS emissions into the air.

Cancellation follows reports local estate owners were worried about predator’s impact on other birds

A pioneering project to return white-tailed eagles to Norfolk for the first time in 200 years has been cancelled at the last minute to the dismay of conservationists.

The UK’s largest birds of prey were to be released at Wild Ken Hill, the estate that is home to the BBC’s Autumnwatch programme, from next year, with plans to set 60 birds loose over 10 years.

In a greenhouse in Worcestershire, Shockingly Fresh grows towers of leafy veg for supermarket shelves

The largest naturally lit vertical farm in Britain has begun harvesting and the creators plan to build 40 more.

It looks nothing like a traditional farm, with bright white towers of leafy green vegetables stacked as high as the eye can see. But Shockingly Fresh’s first giant greenhouse, in Offenham, Worcestershire, is harvesting thousands of bunches of pak choi and lettuce destined for supermarket shelves. The farm is suited to a variety of leafy greens, as well as strawberries and herbs.

People don’t need catchprases: they need resources and empowerment so they can secure good green jobs

• Anna Markova is the Trades Union Congress’s co-lead on climate and industrial policy

If you really want to know what a just transition looks like, don’t start with the official speeches of Cop26. Ideally, don’t even ask me. Ask those who need it most.

Ask a teenager in south Wales, where coal mining jobs have not been replaced by alternatives and unemployment levels are among the highest in the UK. Ask the oil rig worker who has been travelling to work by helicopter for 15 years but is having to pay £2,000 for yet another helicopter safety training course to be able to work on a wind turbine. Ask the Eurostar driver who does not know if the train she drives will still be running in two months’ time. Ask, if you can, one of the Uyghur people forced by Chinese authorities to work in a labour camp to make polysilicone for solar panels.

Anna Markova is the Trades Union Congress’s co-lead on climate and industrial policy

Failure to pass legislation to cut emissions before the UN summit in Glasgow could be catastrophic for efforts to curb global heating

With furious environmental activists at the gates of the White House, and congressional Democrats fretting that a priceless opportunity to tackle catastrophic global heating may be slipping away, Joe Biden is facing mounting pressure over a climate agenda that appears to be hanging by a thread.

Biden’s allies have warned that time is running perilously short, both politically and scientifically, for the US to enact sweeping measures to slash planet-heating emissions and spur other major countries to do the same. Failure to do so will escalate what scientists have said are “irreversible” climate impacts such as disastrous heatwaves, floods, wildfires and a mass upheaval of displaced people.

Exclusive: NatWest, Microsoft, GSK and Unilever among firms to raise complaint over poor planning and breakdown in relations

Companies that stumped up millions of pounds to sponsor the Cop26 climate summit have condemned it as “mismanaged” and “very last minute” in a volley of complaints as next month’s event in Glasgow draws near.

The sponsors, which include some of Britain’s biggest companies, have raised formal complaints blaming “very inexperienced” civil servants for delayed decisions, poor communication and a breakdown in relations between the organisers and firms in the run-up to the landmark talks.

Angus Taylor briefs junior Coalition partner on policy proposal but any deal remains a long way off

The National party has exited a marathon meeting where they discussed the Morrison government’s climate policy without coming to an agreement – with discussions to continue into the parliamentary sitting week.

The not-unexpected outcome came after more than four hours of talks on Sunday. The Liberal energy minister, Angus Taylor, spent the first three hours briefing the party room on a proposal to commit Australia to a net zero emissions target by 2050 and the roadmap to get there.