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Wildlife groups concerned by apparent plans to loosen protections in 38 ‘investment zones’

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Kwasi Kwarteng has tried to play down concerns that ministers plan to tear up a series of environmental regulations in their push for growth, after a furious backlash from wildlife and green groups.

“We’re not going to relax environmental rules,” the UK chancellor told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, arguing the only aim was to reduce red tape.

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David Malpass apologises after saying he ‘doesn’t know’ if he accepts climate science

David Malpass, president of the World Bank, faces an uncertain future this week, after the White House joined a chorus of influential figures in condemning his apparent climate denialism.

Malpass remains in post for now but under severe pressure, despite issuing an apology and trying to explain his refusal last week to publicly acknowledge the human role in the climate crisis.

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Cargill was taken to court 20 years ago in Oklahoma over the same pollution issue it is now linked to in UK

One of the world’s biggest food giants with a supply chain linked to the ecological decline of the River Wye faced claims over similar pollution scandals in the US, the Observer can reveal.

Campaigners warned two years ago that the clear waters of the Wye, one of Britain’s best-loved rivers, were being blighted by thick green algae blooms linked to poultry production.

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Chris Bowen reveals some of the staggering numbers behind Australia's 82 per cent renewables target, and some of the labour and supply challenges.

The post The staggering numbers behind Australia’s 82 per cent renewables target appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Despite the wet weather, the canola fields in southern New South Wales are blooming

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World’s desire to wean off over-reliance on China could be a boon for local producers, according to the Australian PV Institute

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Australia has a golden opportunity to expand its solar energy manufacturing capacity as the industry booms and nations scramble to cut their over-dependence on China, a report by the Australian Australian PV Institute Institute says.

The country is installing 4GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity a year already but meeting just 3% of that from a local supplier, Adelaide’s Tindo Solar. That annual installation tally, though, is predicted to triple by 2050, particularly if Australia becomes a major supplier of hydrogen produced by renewable energy for export.

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The launch of the American space agency's big new Moon rocket is being delayed for the third time.

RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and National Trust criticise plans to create 38 ‘investment zones’ across England

The government has been accused of launching an “attack on nature” with its mini-budget, which conservationists warn could roll back environmental rules.

Groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust have criticised plans, announced on Friday, to create 38 “investment zones” across England.

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Defra accused of ‘all-out attack’ on environment by wildlife groups

The government is to scrap the “Brexit bonus” which would have paid farmers and landowners to enhance nature, in what wildlife groups are calling an “all-out attack” on the environment, the Observer can reveal.

Instead, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sources disclosed, they are considering paying landowners a yearly set sum for each acre of land they own, which would be similar to the much-maligned EU basic payments scheme of the common agricultural policy.

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Boris Johnson was far more eco-conscious than recent Conservative predecessors. But this mini-budget is a reversion to type

The dash for growth by Kwasi Kwarteng means unshackling City bankers and property developers from the taxes and regulations that prevent them from paving over what’s left of Britain’s green and pleasant land.

The humble concrete mixer will be elevated to exalted status. There will be more executive homes built on greenfield sites. More distribution sheds dotted along busy A-roads. And more urban renewal of the kind that involves tearing down buildings in a plume of dust and carbon emissions to replace them with something not much better, at least not in environmental terms.

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Huge $1.7 billion copper and nickel mine in remote part of Australia will feature world's biggest off-grid renewables plant, delivering low cost and low emissions minerals.

The post Huge new nickel mine aims for 100 pct renewables, with world’s biggest renewable micro-grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Bee bus stops first appeared in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Now the UK is planning for more than 1,000 and there is growing interest across Europe and in Canada and Australia

Butterflies and bees are getting their own transport network as “bee bus stops” start to pop up around UK cities and across Europe. Humble bus shelter roofs are being turned into riots of colour, with the number of miniature gardens – full of pollinator-friendly flora such as wild strawberries, poppies and pansies – set to increase by 50% in the UK by the end of this year.

Leicester is leading the charge with 30 bee bus stops installed since 2021. Derby has 18, and there are others in Southhampton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Derby, Oxford, Cardiff and Glasgow. Brighton council installed one last year after a petition was signed by almost 50,000 people.

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

The government is committed to extracting more oil and gas in the North Sea.

Emitters padded their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) net length for the fifth week in a row, while financial players kept their positions mostly steady, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday. 

The South African Treasury has rejected a plea from business groups to decelerate the government’s proposed trajectory of national carbon tax increases.

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) on Friday voted to increase the stringency of the GHG targets under the province’s low-carbon fuel standard, giving the state the deepest carbon intensity (CI) reduction goals in any North American programme.

A senior European energy and carbon analyst from a French bank has joined a London-based clean energy fund management company, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Countries from the Global North and South are diverging on the stringency of the post-2023 emissions baseline for the CORSIA global aviation offset mechanism, as UN body ICAO’s Council puts forth a compromise ahead of a decision next month.

Fridays for Future ‘strikes’ in about 450 places demanded rich countries pay for damage from global warming

Thousands of young people have staged a coordinated “global climate strike” across Asia, Africa and Europe in a call for reparations for those worst affected by climate breakdown.

From New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo, activists walked out of schools, universities and jobs to demand rich countries pay for the damage global warming is inflicting on the poor.

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