The Guardian

About 230 cases filed against corporations and trade associations around world since 2015

The number of climate lawsuits filed against companies around the world is rising swiftly, a report has found, and a majority of cases that have concluded have been successful.

About 230 climate-aligned lawsuits have been filed against corporations and trade associations since 2015, two-thirds of which have been initiated since 2020, according to the analysis published on Thursday by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

Robotaxi service recovering from gruesome collision with pedestrian that triggered suspension of California license

General Motors on Tuesday named a veteran technology executive with roots in the video game industry to steer its troubled robotaxi service Cruise as it tries to recover from a gruesome collision that triggered the suspension of its California license and the removal of all its robotaxis from the state’s roads.

Marc Whitten, one of the key engineers behind the Xbox video game console, will take over as Cruise’s chief executive nearly nine months after one of the service’s robotaxis dragged a jaywalking pedestrian – who had just been struck by a vehicle driven by a human – across a darkened street in San Francisco before coming to a stop.

Days of flooding have submerged homes and farmland across South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota

At least two people have died as a result of devastating floods in the US midwest. Flood warnings remain in place across South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota as more rainfall and storms are expected to hit the region this week.

More than 3 million people have been affected by days of flooding that washed away homes and submerged vast swaths of farmland. On Sunday, a railroad bridge connecting Iowa and South Dakota collapsed from flooding.

North Herefordshire candidate and chef also call for water industry overhaul and more support for farmers

The Green party and the celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are calling for a “protection zone” to be placed around one of the UK’s most beautiful but threatened rivers and have demanded “drastic” nationwide changes to the water industry’s management and regulation.

At a wild-swimming event on the River Wye on Wednesday, Fearnley-Whittingstall and the Green party’s candidate for North Herefordshire, Ellie Chowns, both took dips, but only after measuring the level of pollution in the water.

How can Australia get to net zero by 2050 while approving projects that will run for decades beyond that date?

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The sham of Australia’s climate change policy has been made clear in the past two weeks. No, not nuclear power. Last Friday, while everyone was racing down nuclear-powered rabbit holes, the environment department (led by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek) approved a coal seam gas pipeline in Queensland. This approval “has effect until 30 June 2069”. And on Tuesday the department approved the Atlas stage 3 gas project in Queensland out to June 2080.

Those dates are rather beyond 2050 when we’re supposed to be at net zero emissions. They are also when temperatures will be well over 2C above the preindustrial average.

Paper outlines different legal theories that could help governments pursue accountability for harms

Companies have spent decades obstructing efforts to take on the plastics crisis and may have breached a host of US laws, a new report argues.

The research from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) details the widespread burdens that plastic pollution places on US cities and states, and argues that plastic producers may be breaking public-nuisance, product-liability and consumer-protection laws.

Climate campaigners and scientists disturbed over claims about global warming found in document obtained through Gipa laws

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The New South Wales government is facing criticism over a review of how to cut emissions from coalmines that claims the goal of limiting global heating to well below 2C will not be met – a position at odds with the state’s laws and policies.

Climate campaigners and scientists said the claim in the report, prepared for the planning department, is inconsistent with state legislation that commits to pursuing efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5C.

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World’s first emissions tax on agriculture will require farmers to pay for greenhouse gas pollution from livestock

Farmers in Denmark will have to pay for planet-heating pollutants that their cattle expel as gas, after the government agreed to set the world’s first emissions tax on agriculture.

The agreement – reached on Monday night after months of fraught negotiations between farmers, industry, politicians and environmental groups – will introduce an effective tax of 120 kroner (£14) per ton of greenhouse gas pollution from livestock in 2030, which will rise to 300 kroner per ton in 2035.

Boom in air cargo due to shoppers’ expectations of speedy delivery and shift in post-pandemic economy, researchers say

Air freight operators have increased their greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared with 2019, analysis has found.

In 2023, air freight operators ran about 300,000 more flights than in 2019, an increase in flight volume of almost 30%. The US accounted for more than 40% of global air freight emissions, according to the report by campaign group Stand.earth.

Higher PFAS exposure could cause lactation to slow or stop altogether within six months, new research finds

Women exposed to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” prior to pregnancy face an elevated risk of being unable to breastfeed early, new research finds.

The study tracked lactation durations for over 800 new moms in New Hampshire and found higher PFAS exposure could cause lactation to slow or stop altogether within six months.

Study finds carbon credits could raise billions for climate action but only with changes, such as rigorous standards

The carbon-credit market must reform or “go out of business”, leading scientists have concluded in an international review of the offsetting industry.

The market for carbon offsets shrank dramatically last year after a series of scientific and media reports found many offsetting schemes had little environmental impact.

Statutory nuisance complaint lodged by Save Windermere against United Utilities is a first over sewage pollution

Campaigners fighting to stop sewage discharges into Windermere, the Lake District’s largest lake, have made a statutory nuisance complaint against a water company in the first legal action of its kind.

The civil complaints are normally used in noise disputes, or over noxious smells. But the environmental barrister Nicholas Ostrowski has for the first time lodged a complaint on behalf of campaign group Save Windermere against United Utilities over raw sewage discharges into the lake.

Facing accusations from Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young that the approval of a Senex Energy coal seam gas project would threaten koala habitat, Labor senator Penny Wong defended the move, saying the approval comes with 'strict limits on habitat loss'

• Gina Rinehart-backed company gets approval from Tanya Plibersek for coal seam gas project

Global demand for renewable energy is surging so why make solar panels, wind turbines and EVs dearer for western consumers?

With historic heatwaves sweeping across the US and other parts of the northern hemisphere, June is expected to be the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures. The primary cause, of course, is the enormous amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Despite the existential threat posed by rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, emissions continue to increase at a faster pace than previously anticipated.

On one front, however, progress in the fight against the climate crisis has exceeded expectations. Amid the global shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles and the accelerated adoption of solar and wind power, demand for renewable energy is rapidly rising in the US and the EU.

Analysis of high-resolution drone imagery concludes 97% of corals died at a Lizard Island reef between March and June this year

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At least 97% of corals on a reef in the Great Barrier Reef’s north died during one of the worst coral bleaching events the world’s biggest reef system has ever seen, according to new analysis.

Scientists at several institutions used high-resolution drone imagery to track the bleaching and death of corals on a reef at Lizard Island.

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John Podesta, Biden’s top climate official, calls for other big economies to step in to help poorer states

The US will “continue to be a leader” in climate finance, the White House’s top climate official has promised, though without specifying how much it would provide to poor countries.

John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, also defended the large-scale US expansion of gas production, saying the world was fortunate America was strengthening its supply, given the demand for non-Russian sources after the invasion of Ukraine.

The movement is more than double that of east Africa’s renowned ‘great migration’ and has continued despite decades of war and instability

An extensive aerial survey in South Sudan has revealed an enormous migration of 6 million antelope – the largest migration of land mammals anywhere on Earth. It is more than double the size of the celebrated annual “great migration” between Tanzania and Kenya, which involves about 2 million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle.

“The migration in South Sudan blows any other migration we know of out the water,” said David Simpson, wildlife NGO African Parks’ park manager for Boma and Badingilo national parks, which the migration moves between and around. “The estimates indicate the vast herds of antelope species … are almost three times larger than east Africa’s great migration. The scale is truly awe-inspiring.”

Misidentified reptile Ronaldo had not been in contact with any other snakes for at least nine years

The appearance of 14 baby snakes in a vivarium occupied by a Brazilian rainbow boa snake called Ronaldo was surprising on two counts.

First, staff at the City of Portsmouth college had thought Ronaldo was a male; second the 1.8-metre (6ft) long reptile had not been in contact with any other snakes for at least nine years.

Study identifies 16,825 sites around the world where prioritising conservation would prevent extinction of thousands of unique species

Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species, according to a new study.

Analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Science has found that the targeted expansion of protected areas on land would be enough to prevent the loss of thousands of the mammals, birds, amphibians and plants that are closest to disappearing.

Small increase in temperature of intruding water could lead to very big increase in loss of ice, scientists say

A newly identified tipping point for the loss of ice sheets in Antarctica and elsewhere could mean future sea level rise is significantly higher than current projections.

A new study has examined how warming seawater intrudes between coastal ice sheets and the ground they rest on. The warm water melts cavities in the ice, allowing more water to flow in, expanding the cavities further in a feedback loop. This water then lubricates the collapse of ice into the ocean, pushing up sea levels.