The Guardian

Carbon intensity of the country’s economy remains high, despite rapid improvements in clean energy output

China is off track on all of its core 2025 climate targets, despite the fact that clean energy is now the biggest driver of the country’s economic growth, analysis has found.

After years of extraordinarily rapid growth, China is now grappling with a slowdown that is causing ripples internally and internationally. The government has supercharged the growth of the renewable energy industry but it has imultaneously poured stimulus funds into construction and manufacturing, and continues to approve coal power.

Even small amount of exposure to minute soot particles – known as PM2.5 – raises the risk of cardiovascular disease

The sooty air pollution spewed out by cars, trucks and factories is causing widespread harm to people’s hearts and lungs even with the smallest amounts of exposure, with government regulations still routinely allowing for dangerous risks to public health, two major new studies have found.

There is no safe amount of a microscopic form of airborne pollution known as PM2.5, consisting of tiny particles of soot measuring less than the width of a human hair, for heart and lung health, US researchers found, with even small amounts raising the risk of potentially serious problems.

People in areas of high PM2.5 concentrations had higher amounts of amyloid plaques in brain

Air pollution from traffic is linked to some of the more severe forms of dementia, and could be a significant cause of the condition among those who are not already genetically predisposed to it, research suggests.

Research carried out in Atlanta, Georgia, found that people with higher exposure to traffic-related fine particulate matter air pollution were more likely to have high amounts of the amyloid plaques in their brains that are associated with Alzheimer’s.

The impact of meat on the environment is well known, but what about staples such as rice and legumes?

Biodiversity-conscious eaters could consider substituting potatoes for rice, cutting down on beef and lamb and asking where their beans, lentils and chickpeas are grown to reduce their impact on nature, a new study has found.

Scientists analysed 151 popular recipes around the world for their biodiversity impact. They found meat dishes were the worst offenders: recipes including chilli con carne, salsa verde pork and a Spanish lamb dish called lechazo, all had high biodiversity damage scores compared with vegan and vegetarian ones.

The massive environmental impact of eating meat has been well established, and the study reinforced this, with meat dishes scoring more than vegetarian or vegan dishes across almost all locally and globally produced scenarios. Brazilian-raised beef topped the charts. But the study, published on Wednesday in Plos One journal, also had surprising findings about the biodiversity footprint of some grains and legumes.

Attorney general’s attempt to end climate protesters’ use of consent defence is slippery slope, says KC

A government attempt to remove one of the last remaining defences for climate protesters would be a slippery slope to the erosion of the constitutional right to trial by jury, the court of appeal was told on Wednesday.

The attorney general, Victoria Prentis KC, is arguing that one of the last available defences being used by environmental protesters should be removed. Prentis is making the appeal in the case of a defendant known as C, after a string of acquittals by juries of defendants for acts of criminal damage involving daubing paint on buildings.

We are seeing cowardice on a huge scale, so we will ratchet up pressure on MPs. We’ll also seek our own voice in parliament

After two years of civil resistance, Just Stop Oil has made the issue of new oil and gas licences part of the political debate. These consents, which had previously passed almost unnoticed, have now become a major event. The government has responded to the movement by issuing three sets of repressive legislation. That is a response – even if not the one required or demanded. Yet people are still on the streets in defiance.

The Conservative party has spent months raising the profile of Just Stop Oil, and painting the Labour party as its political wing. If only this were true. Still, this means that, ahead of and after the general election, Just Stop Oil is now part of the national political debate.

Sarah Lunnon is a co-founder of Just Stop Oil

Three groups familiar with draft conservation laws say they do not go far enough and may allow political influence on development decisions

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New national environment laws being developed by the Albanese government fail to address systemic flaws in the existing system and would continue to allow widespread deforestation, according to three organisations familiar with the plans.

Officials representing the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, have been sharing sections of draft conservation laws to be introduced this year in consultation meetings with conservation, business and other groups.

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Shadow farming minister commits to forging closer relationship with EU as polling shows farmers favour Labour over Tories

Labour has laid out its plans for farming at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference, promising to end imports that undercut British farmers and forge a closer trading relationship with the EU.

Making a number of pledges that appearedto commit to properly functioning government rather than radical reform, the shadow farming minister, Daniel Zeichner, promised Labour would make the environmental land management scheme, which pays farmers to green their farms, work properly and take action on flooding.

Rules hailed as once-in-a-generation chance to improve air quality but loopholes will let member states delay by up to a decade

The European Union has agreed to set stricter limits on the toxic particles and dangerous gas that dirty its air, but will not aim for the levels that doctors and economists recommend.

The new rules slash the yearly limits for fine particulates known as PM2.5 – which wreak havoc on the whole body because they are small enough to slip into the bloodstream – from 25 µg/m³ to 10 µg/m³, and for nitrogen dioxide, a gas that hurts the lungs, from 40 µg/m³ to 20 µg/m³.

Analysis gives clues as to why butterflies and moths have been resilient through dramatic changes on Earth – and could help with future conservation

The genomes of butterflies and moths have remained largely unchanged for more than 250m years despite their enormous species diversity, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

In the face of rapid environmental changes in the 21st century, the researchers said the analysis gives clues as to how Lepidoptera – the order of winged insects that contains butterflies and moths – have been so resilient throughout dramatic changes on Earth.

Armed with a Geiger counter, Michael Collins was given access to multiple power stations across the UK – he found them tranquil, beautiful and sinister

Porous dams in Purbeck are being used to ‘rewet’ the mires, bringing a richer landscape for flora and fauna

Leaky dams may not sound ideal but they are being used to great effect on dried-out marshland in the English West Country to produce fresh habitat for carnivorous plants and a spider that whizzes over the surface of water to grab prey.

Bales made out of heather and bunds constructed out of peaty soil and timber are being used to create porous dams on two mires, Agglestone and Greenlands, in Purbeck, Dorset.

BMW X3 has biggest gap between manufacturer’s laboratory consumption claims and real-world testing in latest Australian Automobile Association data

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Cars driven in Australia consume up to 20% more petrol than manufacturers are claiming, according to a program that tests “real-world” on-road fuel efficiency with laboratory calculations.

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) testing – funded by the federal government – also found four of the 13 vehicles tested in its latest round of compliance checks exceeded regulatory limits for oxides of nitrogen or carbon monoxide.

Sultan Al Jaber, an oil executive, calls for governments to be ‘honest’ about costs involved in transition to net zero

The problem of the ever-growing demand for power must be addressed if the world is not to risk descending into “energy turmoil” as it transitions towards clean energy, according to the president of last year’s Cop28 summit.

In a discussion hosted by the International Energy Agency, Sultan Al Jaber warned governments that they must be “honest and transparent” about the potential costs of transition, and the trade-offs involved in transforming energy supplies.

Exclusive: Environment Protection Authority says building debris discovered in a sample of recycled mulch, ‘which is not permitted’

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The environment watchdog says recycled mulch at the centre of New South Wales’ contamination crisis has been found to contain “construction and demolition waste” in contravention of state rules – as well as asbestos.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) found the waste alongside asbestos when testing mulch it said was produced by Greenlife Resource Recovery and used at the Prospect Highway upgrade in Blacktown, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Sunak becomes first PM to address conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, as Tories court farming sector

Rishi Sunak has told farmers “I have your back”, at the National Farmers Union conference, as he promised to “change the culture” in government around farming.

Sunak was the first prime minister to address the NFU conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, and took three Defra ministers with him to put the Conservative case to farmers.

Federal tests of one-third of water systems find 70 million Americans exposed to PFAS – suggesting 200 million affected overall

About 70 million people are exposed to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in US drinking water, new testing from the Environmental Protection Agency has found.

But the testing completed to date has only checked about one-third of the nation’s public water systems, meaning the agency is on pace to find over 200 million people are exposed, or at least 60% of the US population.

Friends of the Earth dismisses government’s revised climate action plan as a ‘pipe dream’

UK ministers are facing court for a second time over plans to meet legally binding climate targets, after environmental groups branded revised measures “a complete pipe dream”.

The government has already been forced to change its climate action plan after a legal challenge by environmentalists, but the same groups are taking it back to court over updated plans they say are “riddled with holes and relian[t] on risky techno-fixes”.

Carbon budgets that add up, proper protection for Britain’s land and sea, and replacing GDP with a wellbeing index

• Our writers and experts name the pledges Labour must include in its manifesto

I’m as likely to be selected for the national gymnastics team. But bear with me awhile, to imagine that, like David Cameron, I’m about to be wafted by the UK’s fairytale political system from my garden shed to the benches of the House of Lords, to become Labour’s shadow environment secretary. Here are the three big policies I would try to insert into the party’s manifesto.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist