-
Exclusive: National Fire Chiefs Council says firefighters’ ability to respond is at risk as it calls for preventive action
The UK is not prepared for the impact of climate breakdown, fire chiefs have said, as they called on the government to take urgent action to protect communities.
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said the ability of fire services to tackle weather-related emergencies was at risk, despite them often being the primary frontline response to major weather events including flooding, fires caused by heatwaves, and storm-related emergencies, all of which are becoming more common.
Continue reading...
-
The chancellor is under fire after a study cited as evidence for expanding the terminal to boost the UK’s economic growth was ordered by Heathrow itself
Rachel Reeves was facing criticism on Saturday night as it was confirmed that a report she cited as evidence that a third runway at Heathrow would boost the UK economy was commissioned by the airport itself.
Experts and green groups also challenged Reeves’s view that advances in the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) had been a “gamechanger” that would substantially limit the environmental damage of flying, saying the claims were overblown and did not stand up to scrutiny.
Continue reading...
-
Government scheme to penalise pollution from burning rubbish won’t ensure more is recycled, consultants warn
Councils may be forced to send more rubbish to landfill or export it overseas because of a new pollution tax set to be imposed on the UK’s network of waste incinerators.
There are already more than 60 energy-from-waste incinerators across the UK and theObserver revealed in December that as many as 40 new plants are in the pipeline. Many local councils have supported the policy of burning waste, which is cheaper than sending it to landfill.
Continue reading...
-
Exclusive: Chief climate adviser calls on Starmer to make ‘strong, confident’ case for green UK that public can buy into
Ensuring that the costs of decarbonisation are shared fairly across society must be a top priority for ministers or they risk losing public support for net zero, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves should be making a “strong, confident” case for decarbonisation as an engine of economic growth, according to Emma Pinchbeck, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, the independent statutory adviser.
Continue reading...
-
Exclusive: MPs and ministers say they would oppose Starmer if he tries to approve Rosebank development
Senior Labour figures are warning of a serious fight if Keir Starmer tries to give the go-ahead to a giant new oilfield off Shetland later this year.
MPs and ministers have told the Guardian they are prepared to oppose the UK prime minister should he try and give final consent to the Rosebank development, which is Britain’s biggest untapped oilfield.
Continue reading...
-
The reserve in Geltsdale in the north Pennines has been expanded by a third after RSPB buys land
It covers more than 50 square kilometres of blanket bog, heath, meadows and woodland and rises from a valley floor to the 640m summit of Cold Fell in the north Pennines. This is RSPB Geltsdale, and it will now be the organisation’s largest English bird sanctuary when the society announces this week that it has bought land that expands the existing reserve by a third.
“This is going to be a reserve on a different scale from many of our other sites in England,” said Beccy Speight, the RSPB’s chief executive.
Continue reading...
-
First women working as fishing guides on Laxá River, featured in new film, call for action after farmed fish escape
For seven generations, Andrea Ósk Hermóðsdóttir’s family have been fishing on the Laxá River in Aðaldalur. Iceland has a reputation as a world leader on feminism, but until recently women have not been able to work as guides to wild salmon fishing for visiting anglers – a job that has traditionally been the preserve of men.
The 21-year-old engineering student, her sister Alexandra Ósk, 16, and their friends Arndís Inga Árnadóttir, 18, and her sister Áslaug Anna, 15, are now the first generation of female guides on their river in northern Iceland, and among the very first female fishing guides in the country.
Continue reading...
-
Taking anxiety off the market to create a better society is not easy – but it can be done, says our architecture critic
Imagine a country where everyone could live securely in a decent home, one with room enough for your ordinary needs, that would also be a haven for your dreams and an expression of who you are. Which offers peace and privacy yet is part of a neighbourhood, with access to transport, schools, health, contact with nature, places of work, shops, sport and entertainment. Where you can move easily to another home as your life changes – if you start a family, you become single, you grow old, you move jobs.
A country that meets such simple needs should, as I argue in my book Property, surely, be the ultimate goal of policies about homes. Britain is not currently this place. And, despite the Labour government’s welcome attention to addressing these issues, its plans are unlikely to make a significant impact any time soon.
Continue reading...
-
President’s cabinet picks suggest help for big companies and regulatory rollbacks will take precedence in food policy
When Robert F Kennedy Jr suspended his campaign for the presidency in August 2024, throwing his support behind Donald Trump, he promised to continue fighting to “make America healthy again”. Kennedy’s criticism of ultra-processed foods and big food companies became a central feature of the Trump campaign. And after Trump was elected, he nominated Kennedy to be his secretary of health and human services.
Yet, just days before naming Kennedy, Trump nominated another senior official to his administration: Susie Wiles, a longtime lobbyist whose clients have included the same big food companies Kennedy has critiqued for their role in pushing ultra-processed foods into kitchens and grocery stores across the US. The two stood in stark contrast: a critic and a lobbyist for the food industry standing side by side with the president-elect.
Continue reading...
-
Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food
“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal party, introduced the nation’s world-first action plan for plant-based foods.
“If we want to reduce the climate footprint within the agricultural sector, then we all have to eat more plant-based foods,” he said at the plan’s launch in October 2023, and since then the scheme has gone from strength to strength. Backed by a €170m government fund, it is now supporting plant-based food from farm to fork, from making tempeh from broad beans and a chicken substitute from fungi to on-site tastings at kebab and burger shops and the first vegan chef degree.
Continue reading...
