The Guardian

If the ALP loses Eden-Monaro next Saturday, it will be a significant blow to morale and a green light for internal mischief

We are going to track back to the week’s developments on energy policy, but I want to open this weekend in Eden-Monaro, with voters in the seat heading to the polls next Saturday.

The truisms of federal byelections are well known. Governments don’t normally win. Usually, voters use these contests as an opportunity to “send a message to Canberra” – often the message is “up yours”.

Audit of offsets to approve developments suggests usage is worsening impact of endangered species, not reducing it

The Morrison government is being urged to fix the use of environmental offsets to approve developments after an audit found major flaws in a system supposed to help protect threatened species from extinction.

Scientists said the scathing audit of how the federal environment department administered national conservation laws suggested the use of offsets was worsening the impact on endangered species, not reducing it.

We must demand that our leaders are up to the challenge or we will lose what is most precious about this beautiful and fragile wide brown land

Next week, Prof Graeme Samuel, the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, will deliver interim findings of his review of the effectiveness of Australia’s national environment laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

The review will be delivered in the context of a devastating critique by the auditor general of the effectiveness of the federal environment department in administering the laws and with a backdrop of the environmental devastation caused by years of drought and a horrific summer of bushfires.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including a perky grasshopper and a sleepy turtle

Ministers must act urgently to avoid significant emissions rebound, says Kevin Anderson

Kevin Anderson, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, had a familiar reaction to the latest report from the government’s climate advisors, which was published this week.

The 196-page document by the Committee on Climate Change delivered a stinging rebuke of the government’s record and said ministers must urgently up their game if the UK is to avoid a significant rebound in carbon emissions after the coronavirus crisis and meet its 2050 net zero carbon target.

In a letter to the Japanese company, activists call for rapid transition to products sourced from plantations and recycled fibre

More than 40 Australian environment groups have called on Japan’s Nippon Paper Group to remove timber logged in Victoria’s native forests from its supply chain in the aftermath of bushfires and a landmark judgment that found a government forestry agency repeatedly breached conservation regulations.

It comes as a legal injunction halted VicForests’s operations in a further 14 coupes in the state’s central highlands and amid growing pressure for a statutory review of Australia’s national environment laws to reconsider the industry-wide exemption for logging.

Government advisers have set a course through the pandemic to net zero. Is Boris Johnson capable of following it?

The colossal challenge facing human civilisation, of ending our reliance on fossil fuels in short order, has almost certainly been made harder by the pandemic. Ever since scientists discovered that the Earth was warming as a result of human activity, it has been a struggle to get people, governments and businesses to do anything about it. Even in those countries least resistant to the evidence of rapidly approaching danger, something else was usually seen as more important. In the past few months, once again, the climate emergency has been knocked off the top of world leaders’ to-do list by the more immediate threat of the virus.

Recognising this, the environmental movement came up with the excellent idea of a green recovery. The annual report published on Thursday by the Committee on Climate Change, which provides official advice to the UK government, is a crucial, national component of that global effort. It sets out to tell Boris Johnson, his ministers and the British public how we can embed the lessons of Covid-19 in the next phase of carbon cuts.

It’s 38C in Siberia. The science may be complicated – but the need for action now couldn’t be clearer

There’s an Arctic heatwave: it’s 38C in Siberia. Arctic sea ice is the second lowest on record, and 2020 may be on course to be the hottest year since records began.

For many people, such news induces a lurch of fear, or avoidance – closing the webpage because they don’t want to hear yet more bad news. A few might think “It’s just weather,” and roll their eyes.

Robin Hood-style shoplifting session at London supermarket ‘because poverty sucks’

A new political party was launched in London on Thursday by a group of activists from Extinction Rebellion, who marked the event by shoplifting a haul of supermarket goods to highlight the instability of global food distribution.

The stunt involved five members of the nascent Beyond Politics party walking out of Sainsbury’s in Camden with shopping trolleys filled with food but without paying.

Conservation groups call for independent environment regulator after scathing review of national laws

The government has failed in its duty to protect the environment in its delivery of Australia’s national conservation laws, a scathing review by the national auditor general has found.

The Australian National Audit Office found the federal environment department has been ineffective in managing risks to the environment, that its management of assessments and approvals is not effective, and that it is not managing conflicts of interest in the work it undertakes.

Australian Energy Council’s support for Paris agreement will increase pressure on federal government to back pledge

Australia’s major electricity and gas companies, including the owners of all coal-fired power plants in the national grid, have called on the Morrison government to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris agreement.

In a statement on Thursday, the Australian Energy Council said it supported the 2015 Paris deal, and recognised it meant developed countries needed to reach net zero emissions by mid-century.

Conservationists hail decision as a win for environment and threatened wildlife

The New South Wales government has dropped a plan that could have opened up new areas of the state’s protected old-growth forests to logging.

Conservationists have called the decision a win for the state’s environment and threatened wildlife after years of habitat loss and the devastating 2019-20 bushfires.

New research proves what we already knew, the main problem with climate change is ... the super wealthy!

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Report says Boris Johnson’s lack of climate leadership risks missing target and embarrassing UK at Cop26

• Road to net zero: what the Committee on Climate Change recommends
  

The UK is falling behind on its target to cut greenhouse gas emissions and risks a surge in carbon emissions as lockdown eases, the government’s climate advisers warn.

Ministers must act fast if the UK is to avoid a massive rebound in carbon emissions after the coronavirus crisis eases, Lord Deben, chair of the committee on climate change (CCC), which published its progress report to parliament on Thursday, said. By setting up new schemes to insulate homes, raise carbon taxes, switch to electric vehicles and improve broadband, the government could spur a green recovery to create jobs and cut emissions permanently.

The government adviser publishes its progress report today. Here are the areas it says require urgent attention

• Act fast to stop UK carbon emission rebound, climate advisers urge

The government’s statutory adviser, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), publishes its progress report on Thursday on efforts to cut emissions. This is what it says needs to happen urgently if the UK is to reach its target of hitting net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

WWF Australia says after new analysis that federal department is failing to enforce environmental laws

More than a million hectares of threatened species’ habitat was cleared for agriculture in New South Wales and Queensland without referral to the federal environment department for assessment, according to new analysis by WWF Australia.

Data for land-clearing in both states suggests the department is failing to ensure developers and farming operations are following environmental laws, according to the analysis.

Small bird can forage more efficiently when Antarctic sea ice is sparse, research finds

Adélie penguin populations could boom in coming years, according to research revealing the small birds find it easier to forage when sea ice is sparse around continental Antarctica.

While sea ice extent has increased in the Antarctic over recent decades, in the past few years it has fallen dramatically – a matter of deep concern in the scientific community.

The job losses will be equivalent to the entire local coal industry if the renewable energy target is not replaced

Up to 11,000 renewable energy workers are expected to lose their jobs over the next two years under current government policies, according to a university analysis.

If correct, the loss of jobs would be equivalent to the abolition of the domestic-focused coal industry, which employs a little more than 10,000 people in mining thermal coal for local use and running Australia’s coal-fired power plants.

If the government plots a green recovery from coronavirus, the benefits are endless. If it doesn’t, we’re screwed

Trillions of dollars will be invested by governments in reviving their economies over the next two or three years. If those dollars are well spent, ensuringlow-carbon, nature-restoring prosperity, we have a real chance of avoiding runaway climate change and ecosystem collapse. If they’re spent on taking us back to pre-coronavirus days, we’re screwed. The climate’s screwed. The planet’s screwed. And all future generations are screwed. It’s as simple – and as binary – as that.

Related: World health leaders urge green recovery from coronavirus crisis

The exemption allows companies to bypass an EPA law meant to address widespread contamination from perflourinated chemicals

Federal regulators are crafting an exemption for polluters releasing harmful perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) into the environment in a way that environmental advocates say circumvents a new law meant to address widespread contamination.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule Monday adding 172 PFAS chemicals to a list of those that are required to report when they release them into the air or water, or on land.