The Guardian

A fast growing mountain of toxic e-waste is polluting the planet and damaging health, says new report

At least $10bn (£7.9bn) worth of gold, platinum and other precious metals are dumped every year in the growing mountain of electronic waste that is polluting the planet, according to a new UN report.

A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in five years, the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor report found. The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child on Earth, though use is concentrated in richer nations. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17% of it was recycled in 2019.

Thames Water overflow pipe pumped waste for 1,000 hours into London wetlands last year

• Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England’s rivers 200,000 times in 2019

Raw sewage was discharged for more than 1,000 hours from a Thames Water overflow pipe into an environmental wetland at the Olympic Park last year, the Guardian can reveal.

The combined sewer overflow (CSO) at Mulberry Court pumped untreated waste 91 times into the waterway that feeds into the River Lea. To April this year, the same CSO has so far discharged for 34 hours in 20 incidents.

Tory Philip Dunne says he wants to ‘introduce water firms to polluter pays’ principle and launches private member’s bill

• Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England’s rivers 200,000 times in 2019

A fresh attempt to change the law to stop water companies from releasing raw sewage into rivers has been launched by a senior Conservative MP.

Philip Dunne, the chair of the environmental audit committee, is seeking in a private member’s bill to place a duty on water companies to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers and inland waterways.

1.8GW Vanguard project gets greenlight, with approval on 2.4GW Hornsea 3 expected in autumn

The construction of two giant offshore windfarms is poised to go ahead off the Norfolk coast in what the renewable energy industry claims could provide a “huge boost” to the UK economy.

The business secretary, Alok Sharma, gave the green light on Wednesday evening to the Norfolk Vanguard project and said he was “minded to approve” the Hornsea 3 proposal later this year.

CDC Group’s climate strategy will end support for most polluting projects in developing countries

The UK government’s development bank has bowed to calls to end fossil fuel financing abroad by promising to invest only in companies that align with the Paris climate agreement.

The CDC Group revealed its new climate strategy, which will end support for the most polluting fossil fuel projects, including the production of oil and coal, and channel almost a third of its spending towards climate finance.

We must target public spending on green, labour intensive projects which have far more bang for their bucks than tax cuts

Although it seems like ancient history, it hasn’t been that long since economies around the world began to close down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in the crisis, most people anticipated a quick V-shaped recovery, on the assumption that the economy merely needed a short timeout. After two months of tender loving care and heaps of money, it would pick up where it left off.

It was an appealing idea. But now it is July, and a V-shaped recovery is probably a fantasy. The post-pandemic economy is likely to be anaemic, not only in countries that have failed to manage the pandemic (namely, the US), but even in those that have acquitted themselves well. The International Monetary Fund projects that by the end of 2021 the global economy will be barely larger than it was at the end of 2019 and that the US and European economies will still be about 4% smaller.

The NSW independent water regulator has charged Whitehaven Coal over alleged breaches of the Water Management Act at its Maules Creek coalmine

A mine operator in north-west New South Wales could be facing a multi-million dollar fine after allegedly taking water without a licence over three years.

The state’s independent water regulator on Thursday said it commenced prosecution in the Land and Environment Court against Whitehaven Coal over two alleged breaches of the Water Management Act at its Maules Creek coalmine.

New South Wales government data shows 73% of clearing was unexplained, with sharp rises in the state’s north-west and central west

Land-clearing in New South Wales has risen by more than 60% since the state relaxed its native vegetation laws, new government data shows.

The report shows 60,800 hectares of woody vegetation was cleared in 2018, up from 58,000 hectares the previous year.

Exclusive: An audit shows the drop in carbon pollution was due to a decline in sales of fuel for light vehicles and domestic aviation

Greenhouse gas emissions from Australian cars slumped by more than a third and emissions from aircraft dropped by three-quarters as the country went into partial lockdown in April, cutting national carbon pollution by about 7% for the month, an audit has found.

It confirmed that the recession will lead to a notable fall in national emissions this year. But experts believe the drop is likely to be limited and could be short-term given much of the economy – including big industry and manufacturing – has largely continued to operate through the coronavirus pandemic and road transport has begun to increase.

As countries around the world begin restarting their economies after the coronavirus crisis, a growing chorus of prominent leaders have labelled this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tackle climate change by targeting post-pandemic stimulus toward areas that promote renewable energy. Will Australia take heed or continue to rely on fossil fuels?

You can read Adam Morton’s piece on the green recovery here and find his reporting on Beyond Zero Emissions jobs plan here.

Rise in harvesting could affect ability to combat climate crisis due to carbon absorption capacity reducing

Europe has lost a vastly increased area of forest to harvesting in recent years, data suggests, reducing the continent’s carbon absorption capacity and possibly indicating wider problems with the EU’s attempts to combat the climate crisis.

Many of the EU’s forests – which account for about 38% of its land surface area – are managed for timber production, and thus harvested regularly. But the loss of biomass increased by 69% in the period from 2016 to 2018, compared with the period from 2011 to 2015, according to satellite data. The area of forest harvested increased by 49% in the same comparison, published in the journal Nature Research.

The paltry £5bn pledged bears no comparison to Roosevelt’s programme. Britain needs far more ambitious, green investment

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Prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech promised to “build, build, build” as he invoked the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt, but his plans fell far short of matching the US president’s legacy. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on Britain’s longstanding problems. Vital frontline services such as health and social care have been stripped bare, our weakened social security system has left millions without an adequate safety net, and the contributions of key workers have been underpaid and devalued. None of this was addressed in Boris Johnson’s speech.

Related: 'New deal' risks fuelling emissions and eroding building standards

Critics say utilities borrowing to pay shareholders instead of improving infrastructure

• One man’s fight to get bathing water status for a stretch of river near Bath

English water companies have handed more than £2bn a year on average to shareholders since they were privatised three decades ago, according to analysis for the Guardian.

The payouts in dividends to shareholders of parent companies between 1991 and 2019 amount to £57bn – nearly half the sum they spent on maintaining and improving the country’s pipes and treatment plants in that period.

Untreated effluent flowed into waterways for more than 1.5m hours, data shows

• England’s privatised water firms paid £57bn in dividends since 1991

Water companies in England discharged raw sewage into rivers on more than 200,000 occasions last year, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

The analysis reveals untreated human waste was released into streams and rivers for more than 1.5m hours in 2019.

Firms including Anglian Water respond to data on their practices and policies

Thames Water: “We invested more than £1bn again in 2019-20, leading to a total of £15bn in the past 15 years, and we will continue to spend wisely on improving resilience, service and efficiency, as well as provide more support for customers in vulnerable circumstances.

“Our shareholders are in it for the long term and have not taken a dividend for three years to prioritise investment in improving service for customers and to protect the environment.”

Botswana’s government is yet to test the remains of the dead animals in what has been described as a ‘conservation disaster’

More than 350 elephants have died in northern Botswana in a mysterious mass die-off described by scientists as a “conservation disaster”.

A cluster of elephant deaths was first reported in the Okavango Delta in early May, with 169 individuals dead by the end of the month. By mid June, the number had more than doubled, with 70% of the deaths clustered around waterholes, according to local sources who wish to remain anonymous.

Experts say further investigation of link is urgently required and may be relevant to managing pandemic

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Air pollution is likely to be increasing the number and severity of Covid-19 infections, according to the UK government’s expert advisers.

In a report published on Wednesday, the experts said further investigation of the link between dirty air and the coronavirus pandemic was “urgently required” and may be relevant to how the pandemic is managed.

Newsrooms should know: the disaster is here. It is raging now. Our job is to cover it with the urgency it deserves

To hear many journalists tell it, the spring of 2020 has brought a series of extraordinary revelations. Look at what the nation has learned: that our healthcare system was not remotely up to the challenge of a deadly pandemic. That our economic safety net was largely non-existent. That our vulnerability to disease and death was directly tied to our race and where we live. That our political leadership sowed misinformation that left people dead. That systemic racism and the killing of Black people by police is undiminished, despite decades of protest and so many Black lives lost.

Related: Democrats say they have a bold climate plan – but Republicans have other plans

Chain invokes ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to illegally logged timber after ruling that VicForests was not exempt from national environment laws

Bunnings will stop selling timber logged by VicForests after a court found the state government-owned forestry agency breached conservation laws.

“Bunnings has a zero-tolerance approach to illegally logged timber that dates back two decades and our commitment is to only source timber products from legal and well managed forest operations,” Bunnings’ director of merchandise, Phil Bishop, said on Wednesday.

Coronavirus lockdown was final straw for fracking pioneer Chesapeake Energy

The collapse of Chesapeake Energy, one of the pioneers of the US shale industry, took few people by surprise. The embattled fracker slumped into bankruptcy weeks after the darkest month in oil market history, in a financial mess of missed interest payments, looming bond deadlines and crippling debts.

Its collapse is not the first bankruptcy to hit the oil industry in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, nor will it be the last. But the fall of a company once considered one of the shale revolution’s brightest stars may mark a crucial watershed for an industry in flux.