Court of session says UK government go-ahead for Rosebank and Jackdaw permits does not take into account carbon emissions
The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland has been ruled unlawful by the courts in a major win for environmental campaigners.
The proposed Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – had been given the go-ahead in 2023 under the previous government.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/30/2025 - 03:24
Chancellor says she has support of cabinet as climate minister Ed Miliband reported to be sceptical over Heathrow plans
Richard Madeley goes next.
Q: The Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary says you are wrong, and the third runway won’t be built until you are 70. You are 45 now. Why is he wrong?
We’re signing off decisions on wind farms, on solar farms, a commitment to a new stadium at Old Trafford. We are upgrading the Transpennine route to make journey times easier between York and Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield. Those things are happening right now.
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01/30/2025 - 03:00
Our rivers, our wildlife, the air we breathe: the government is sacrificing all to the insatiable god of GDP – and mocking our objections
I can scarcely believe I’m writing this, but it’s hard to dodge the conclusion. After 14 years of environmental vandalism, it might have seemed impossible for Labour to offer anything but improvement. But on green issues, this government is worse than the Tories.
The last prime minister to insist that growth should override every other consideration, and to fling insults at anyone who disagreed, was Liz Truss. She called those of us seeking to defend the living world an “anti-growth coalition”, “voices of decline” and “enemies of enterprise” who “don’t understand aspiration”.
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01/30/2025 - 02:00
Populations have been falling for decades, even in tracts of forest undamaged by humans. Experts have spent two decades trying to understand what is going on
Something was happening to the birds at Tiputini. The biodiversity research centre, buried deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has always been special. It is astonishingly remote: a tiny scattering of research cabins in 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) of virgin forest. For scientists, it comes about as close as you can to observing rainforest wildlife in a world untouched by human industry.
Almost every year since his arrival in 2000, ecologist John G Blake had been there to count the birds. Rising before the sun, he would record the density and variety of the dawn chorus. Slowly walking the perimeter of the plots, he noted every species he saw. And for one day every year, he and other researchers would cast huge “mist” nets that caught flying birds in their weave, where they would be counted, untangled and freed.
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01/30/2025 - 02:00
Solution to stop River Severn fish being sucked into cooling systems taking too long to resolve, EDF says
The owner of Hinkley Point C in Somerset has warned that the much-delayed construction of Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation could face further hold-ups because of a row over its impact on local fish.
The nuclear developer, EDF Energy, warned that the “lengthy process” to agree to a solution with local communities to protect fish in the River Severn had “the potential to delay the operation of the power station”.
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01/29/2025 - 14:09
Emission targets could derail project as campaigners say net zero commitment cannot be met if expansion happens
Reeves urged to rethink plans for airports and roads
Heathrow third runway: promises, protest and U-turns
Rachel Reeves caused a furious backlash as she insisted a third runway at Heathrow was “set up for success”, despite scepticism in Whitehall that the plan can be reconciled with the UK’s climate obligations.
The chancellor made throwing the government’s weight behind Heathrow expansion the centrepiece of a major speech on growth on Wednesday.
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01/29/2025 - 11:52
In the most comprehensive global analysis of genetic diversity ever undertaken, an international team of scientists has found that the genetic diversity is being lost across the globe but that conservation efforts are helping to safeguard species.
01/29/2025 - 11:52
New research highlights the benefits of combining existing long-term plankton monitoring programs and emerging technologies in monitoring the health of our seas.
01/29/2025 - 11:00
Analysis by dozens of scientists internationally notes urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse losses
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Genetic diversity in animals and plants has declined globally over the past three decades, an analysis of more than 600 species has found.
The research, published in the journal Nature, found declines in two-thirds of the populations studied, but noted that urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse genetic diversity losses.
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01/29/2025 - 10:10
As UK chancellor backs expansion at London’s biggest airport, we assess the possible environmental impacts
More climate-heating carbon emissions, more people enduring noisy aircraft over their homes and, most likely, more air pollution – these would be the environmental impacts of building a third runway at Heathrow airport, a plan that has been backed by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Despite many years of lobbying for a third runway, there is no current proposal that can be analysed for its environmental impacts. However, the last proposal was extensively assessed by the Airports Commission (AC) in 2017 and remains relevant.
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