Break in cross-party consensus on issue to be announced on Tuesday
Kemi Badenoch is dropping her party’s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, as she launches the Conservatives’ widest policy review in a generation.
The Tory leader will give a speech on Tuesday in which she will argue that hitting Britain’s legally binding climate target is “impossible”, abandoning one of the most significant policies enacted by her recent predecessor Theresa May.
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03/17/2025 - 14:00
Fossils retain microscopic structural features including stomach contents and provide first detailed evidence in Australia for fish called Osmeriformes
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Fossil fish so exquisitely preserved that scientists have been able to reconstruct their final days from up to 16m years ago have been discovered in central New South Wales.
Several fossils of small freshwater fish, embedded in an iron-rich mineral called goethite at the McGraths Flat fossil site, have retained microscopic structural features including their stomach contents and the outlines of cells that determine colour.
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03/17/2025 - 11:00
Revealed: Edelman worked for Brazilian trade group accused of pushing for environmental rollbacks in Amazon
Edelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, is in talks to work with the Cop30 team organising the UN climate summit in the Amazon later this year despite its prior connections to a major trade group accused of lobbying to roll back measures to protect the area from deforestation, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.
The summit is set to take place in November in the city of Belém on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, which has been ravaged by deforestation linked to Brazil’s powerful agriculture industry. For the first time, the talks will be “at the epicenter of the climate crisis”, the summit’s president wrote last week. “As the Cop comes to the Amazon, forests will naturally be a central topic,” he added.
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03/17/2025 - 10:19
Village joins continental network alongside nearby Knepp estate, as birds previously extinct in Britain flourish
The Saxons knew the West Sussex village of Storrington as Estorchestone, the “abode of the storks”.
But the graceful white birds disappeared from its skies more than 600 years ago, when they became extinct in Britain.
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03/17/2025 - 06:52
Judges dismiss appeal from campaigners who argued ‘eye-watering’ cost of loan was not in public interest
The court of appeal has upheld Thames Water’s £3bn emergency bailout loan, in a decision published on Monday.
Appeal court judges dismissed an appeal from environmental campaigners and a small group of Thames creditors after a three-day hearing last week.
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03/17/2025 - 05:24
Energy security and net zero secretary travels to Beijing for countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017
Ed Miliband has accused the previous Conservative government of negligence for failing to engage with China on climate issues, as he travelled to Beijing for the countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017.
The secretary of state for energy security and net zero was in Beijing to announce a new annual UK-China climate dialogue. The first summit will take place in London later this year. China’s minister of ecology and environment, Huang Runqiu, is expected to attend.
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03/17/2025 - 05:00
In the 1960s, the Swiss had some of the dirtiest water in Europe. Now, their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes – and other countries are looking to follow their lead
In the first days of spring, people flock to Lake Geneva’s broad, tree-lined promenade, their faces tilted towards the sun. Dior, Cartier and Rolex are among the high-end shopfronts overlooking the water. René Rottenberg, 75, has just finished his 400m swim through this upmarket urban jungle – a ritual he repeats up to five times a week, even in midwinter.
For the retired gynaecologist, being able to swim in the crystal-clear water is the greatest luxury. “It’s just so fun,” he says. “The place is beautiful.”
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03/17/2025 - 04:00
The toxic smog that settles over the Mongolian capital every winter has been a suffocating problem for well over a decade that successive governments have failed to dispel. In the depths of winter, the city’s daily average of pollutants that can enter the lungs and bloodstream can be 27 times higher than the level considered safe by the World Health Organization. Respiratory illness cases have risen steadily, with pneumonia the second leading cause of death for children under five
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03/16/2025 - 12:25
New evidence of particles damaging crops strengthens the case for an international plastics treaty
New and concerning findings from environmental scientists about the impact of microplastics on crops and marine algae add to a growing body of evidence about the disruption caused to living systems by plastic pollution. The results, from a team led by Prof Huan Zhong at Nanjing University, China, are not definitive and require corroboration. But analysis showing that plastics could limit photosynthesis (the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy) must be taken seriously. If the researchers are correct, and staple crops are being reduced by about 12%, there are huge implications for global agriculture and food supplies. This could inject new urgency into efforts to tackle plastic pollution.
There is no single route by which microplastic particles inhibit plants from growing. The overall effect is attributed to a combination of blocked sunlight and nutrients, and damage to soil and cells. This can lead to reduced levels of chlorophyll – the pigment enabling photosynthesis. When the researchers modelled the crop losses caused by an effect of this size, they found Asia was hardest hit, potentially contributing to food insecurity and worsening hunger.
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03/16/2025 - 08:00
Researchers use innovative cameras to identify fish species hindering coral reef restoration
Marine scientists in Florida working to help reverse a calamitous decades-long decline in coral reefs caught fishy “porch pirates” in the act with an innovative underwater doorbell-style surveillance camera.
The footage showed that three corallivorous species – redband parrotfish, foureye butterflyfish and stoplight parrotfish – were responsible for eating more than 97% of coral laid as bait by the researchers at an offshore reef near Miami.
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