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Exclusive: Local authorities have spent less than £40m out of £170m collected since offsetting scheme began in 2016
London councils are sitting on more than £130m that should be funding local climate action, the Guardian can reveal.
More than £170m has been collected through the mayor of London’s carbon offset fund, which developers are required to pay into to mitigate emissions from new projects, since it was introduced in 2016. However, the capital’s 33 local authorities have spent less than £40m between them. Some have said they do not have the resources, expertise or time to decide how to spend it.
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Environment groups say Thursday order ignores effort to adopt rules to prevent harmful mining of ocean floor
Environmental groups are decrying an executive order signed by Donald Trump to expedite deep-sea mining for minerals, saying it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems and ignores an ongoing process to adopt international rules for the practice.
Trump’s Thursday order directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast-track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both US and international waters.
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Developed countries pressed to submit national plans well before Cop30 as time runs out to avoid 1.5C temperature rise
Rich countries are dragging their feet on producing new plans to combat the climate crisis, thereby putting the poor into greater danger, some of the world’s most vulnerable nations have warned.
All governments are supposed to publish new plans this year on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but so far only a small majority have done so, and some of the plans submitted have been inadequate to the scale of action needed.
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Inadequate record keeping means councils do not know whether former waste sites contain toxic substances
More than 100 old landfills in England that may be contaminated with toxic substances have flooded since 2000, potentially posing a serious safety risk, it can be revealed.
Some of these former dumps containing possibly hazardous materials sit directly next to public parks and housing estates with hundreds of households, the analysis by the Greenpeace-funded journalism website Unearthed , in partnership with the Guardian, found.
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Energy secretary says countries must work together during conference at which US delegate called net zero ‘dangerous’
Britain will find “common ground” with the US on energy and the economy including on nuclear power, despite differences over climate policy, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has pledged.
He was speaking at the close of a two-day, 60-country conference in London on energy security, hosted by the government and the International Energy Agency (IEA), at which the US delegate Tommy Joyce attacked net zero policies as “dangerous” and “damaging”, and said it was in the interests of “our adversaries”.
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Trees are being cleared for rainforest mega-event – but state governor says a ‘new history’ is under way
Fake metal trees have been set into the concrete ground of the Amazonian host city of this year’s climate summit, prompting scandalised contrasts with the once-living vegetation that has been cleared in preparation for Cop30 in Brazil.
But in an unlikely convergence of views, both the centre-right state governor and leftwing social movements insist this is a storm in a plant pot compared with the darkening geopolitical threats to the world’s biggest diplomatic gathering, which will take place in November in Belém.
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Council housing microgrid and tube-powered heat network among schemes supported by Mayor of London fund
Carbon offset funding received from developers should be spent mostly on energy efficiency, renewable energy and district heating projects, according to guidance from the mayor of London. But some councils say the amount of funding they receive is often not enough to cover the cost of these kinds of projects.
However, others have found solutions to this by combining their offset cash with other sources of funding to pay for major projects. Perhaps the most innovative example of this is Islington council’s award-winning Bunhill heat and power network in north London, which has received more than £5m in offset funding.
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As pollution levels hit record highs and fresh water becomes ‘the new oil’, is it time to radically reimagine our relationship to the natural world?
If you find it difficult to think of a river as alive, try picturing a dying or dead river. This is easier. We know what this looks like. We know how it feels. A dying river is one who does not reach the sea. A dying river’s fish float belly-up in stagnant pools. Swans on the upper Thames near Windsor now wear brown tidemarks on their snowy chest feathers, showing where they have sailed through sewage. I recently saw a Southern Water riverbank sign badged with a bright blue logo that read “Water for Life”. The sign instructed passersby to “avoid contact with the water. If you’ve had contact with the water, please wash your hands before eating.” In parts of this septic isle, fresh water has become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable.
How did it come to this – and where do we go from here? The crisis is one of imagination as well as of legislation. We have forgotten that our fate flows with that of rivers, and always has. Our relationship with fresh water has become intensely instrumentalised, privatised and monetised: river understood as resource, not life force. The duty of care for rivers, who extend such care to us, has been abrogated. Regulation has gone unenforced, monitoring is strategically underfunded. Rivers named after deities – the Shannon (Sinnan), the Dee (Deva) – now struggle under burdens of nitrates, forever chemicals and waste.
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The Anohni and the Johnsons singer is collaborating with marine scientists for two special shows at Sydney’s Vivid festival that will show the reef’s plight
Anohni Hegarty is about to go to the Great Barrier Reef for the first time. “I feel like I’m going to Auschwitz,” she says nervously. “On the one hand, I’m so excited to go because the landscape is so beautiful, and I know there’s going to be so much that’s gorgeous. And yet, I’m also scared.”
In a week, the British-born, New York-based avant garde singer of Anohni and the Johnsons is flying to Lizard Island, a paradise of powdery sands on the reef, 1,600km north-west of Brisbane. Its luxury villas and bluest of blue waters are a stark contrast to the grim nature of Anohni’s assignment: documenting the current state of the world’s biggest coral reef.
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Some households aren’t suited to solar – but do batteries make environmental or financial sense on their own?
Many people want to reduce their carbon footprint but for various reasons can’t install solar panels. Some roofs face the wrong way, others are overshadowed or subject to heritage restrictions, and apartment blocks often lack space.
Landlords are also often reluctant to install solar systems in rental properties since the benefits flow to the tenants rather than the property owner.
Continue reading...Supported housing for vulnerable or disabled people is in crisis, a letter to the prime minister says.
Just a few years ago, Chris Brookes-Smith could have died from eating peanuts - but taking part in a clinical trial has changed his life.
NHS safety body wants a focus on staff fatigue as it warns of mistakes and impaired decision-making.
Face-scanning apps, social media influencers and toxic beauty standards are fuelling China's cosmetic surgery boom.
Single-use vapes are among the main driving forces of the black market, the BBC is told.
Vanellope, now seven, undergoes more surgery to reconstruct a "cage" around her heart, using her ribs.
The judgement provides a clear framework for what equality laws mean, but it remains to be seen what will change.
Blind influencer Lucy Edwards on choosing IVF which will screen out the gene that made her who she is.
GPs will work more closely with specialists to support patients closer to home, the government says.
The number of people vaping in the UK has stalled, while disposable vape usage has fallen, a study suggests.
From “blue carbon” to “ecosystem services,” environmental jargon is everywhere. In an explainer series, we try to make sense of it.
To make conservation work for all, it must be more compassionate, conscious and inclusive. Here are a few stories about how Conservation International is reimagining conservation to be more inclusive.
For much of modern history, humanity’s growth has come at the expense of nature. At Conservation International, we’re flipping the economic equation that renders nature worth more dead than alive.
The ocean has long provided humanity with food, livelihoods and a stable climate. Yet it is increasingly hot, acidic and polluted. In honor of Earth Month, here are a few success stories from Conservation International.
For years, Conservation International was one of few voices clamoring for action on one crucial issue: To prevent the worst of climate change, we must protect nature. Our efforts have paid off.
If you can’t beat ’em, wear ’em? Conservation International, designers turn fish into fashion.
Human health, animal health and environmental health are interconnected. A new article published in the Lancet argues for an approach to pandemic threats that embraces this idea.
Conservation International is helping recover a savanna habitat nearly twice the size of Manhattan.
In Brazil's s Mato Grosso do Sul, native species are reclaiming thousands of acres once heavily grazed by cattle. A bold initiative aims to protect and restore nature to an area twice the size of Manhattan — and find new ways to pay for it.
From “blue carbon” to “ecosystem services,” environmental jargon is everywhere. Conservation International looks to make sense of it in an occasional explainer series. In this installment, we explore the role “HFLDs,” play in storing climate-warming carbon.
