Project providing subsidies to install solar batteries and electric appliances part of Labor deal with crossbenchers
Suburb-wide electrification trials are set to be rolled out across the country under an intervention designed to help spark the household transition from gas.
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has formally directed the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) to consider funding more pilots like Electrify 2515, a community-led initiative to electrify 500 homes in one postcode in Wollongong, NSW.
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01/27/2025 - 09:00
01/27/2025 - 07:00
Complaint says Chemours factory dramatized in Hollywood movie Dark Waters continues to pollute West Virginia river
The chemical giant Chemours’s notorious West Virginia PFAS plant is regularly polluting nearby water with high levels of toxic “forever chemicals”, a new lawsuit alleges.
It represents the latest salvo in a decades-old fight over pollution from the plant, called Washington Works, which continues despite public health advocates winning significant legal battles.
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Sandeels vs the EU: how the puffin’s favourite food sparked first post-Brexit courtroom trade battle
01/27/2025 - 07:00
This week the EU will argue the UK’s ban on catching the tiny fish, celebrated by conservationists, amounts to discrimination against Danish fishers
“We did it!” These were the words uttered by the RSPB last year when, after 25 years of campaigning, the UK government banned fishing for sandeels in the North Sea and Scotland. The small eel-like fish might not seem a likely species to inspire a decades-long fight – but they are the treasured food of one of Britain’s rarest and most threatened seabirds, the puffin, as well as many other UK seabirds and marine species.
The celebrations, however, were short-lived. The EU threw its weight behind Denmark – the country with by far the biggest sandeel fishing fleet – and challenged the ban, meaning that this week, the humble sandeel will become the focus of the first courtroom trade battle between the UK and the EU since Brexit.
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01/27/2025 - 04:27
Scientists unsure what prompted juvenile whale to leave icy southern waters for warmer shallows, but ‘it may be a case of mis-navigation’
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A young Antarctic minke whale has treated ferry passengers to a rare spectacle after surfacing beside a wharf to the south of Sydney.
Christine Hack, the manager of Cronulla and National Park Ferry Cruises, which manages the Cronulla ferry, said the whale began following the vessel as it approached Bundeena wharf at about 10am on Monday.
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01/27/2025 - 01:51
In today’s newsletter: The Los Angeles wildfires highlighted the immense challenges faced by the insurance industry amid the escalating risks of the climate crisis. Are there any potential solutions for homeowners?
Good morning. If the Los Angeles wildfires are bracing evidence of the general threat posed by the climate crisis, they have also brought home a specific problem: how can you make the insurance system work when the risks are so high?
That is not a question limited to California, or to the United States: the insurance industry has rated the climate crisis as the biggest threat to its future four years in a row, a very concrete riposte to those politicians who continue to question the reality of global heating. It is impossible to know whether a specific weather event like storm Éowyn in the UK has been caused by climate change – but we know that they, and the damage they leave in their wake, are only going to get more frequent.
Israel-Gaza war | Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region. Trump’s intervention came as a deal was reached to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza and release a civilian hostage who Israel said should have been freed already.
Heathrow | Rachel Reeves has given her heaviest hint yet that she will back a third runway at Heathrow airport, arguing that she is willing to make difficult decisions while pursuing economic growth. Campaigners have warned that the move would be a severe setback for the UK’s climate commitments.
Southport attack | Prevent’s assessment of the danger posed by Axel Rudakubana followed policy at the time, an official review will find – but it will criticise the scheme for rejecting extra help to tackle his interest in violence. The review of the way three referrals were handled before Rudakubana committed an atrocity in Southport is due to be published this week.
AI | Ministers have shut down or dropped at least half a dozen artificial intelligence prototypes intended for the welfare system, the Guardian has learned, in a sign of the headwinds facing Keir Starmer’s effort to increase government efficiency.
Belarus | Alexander Lukashenko is set to win a seventh five-year term as Belarusian president with 87.6% of the vote in Sunday’s election, according to an exit poll. The US and the EU said in the run-up to the election that it could not be free or fair because independent media are banned and all leading opposition figures have been jailed or forced to flee abroad.
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01/27/2025 - 01:00
Exclusive: Chemical in treatment for pet fleas and ticks is found in nests of blue and great tits, killing chicks
Songbird chicks are being killed by high levels of pesticides in the pet fur used by their parents to line their nests, a study has found.
Researchers surveying nests for the harmful chemical found in pet flea treatments found that it was present in every single nest. The scientists from the University of Sussex are now calling for the government to urgently reassess the environmental risk of pesticides used in flea and tick treatments and consider restricting their use.
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01/27/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 27 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00102-z
Author Correction: The struggle at the International Seabed Authority over deep sea mineral resources
01/26/2025 - 14:40
Chancellor expected to unveil new building projects and revise planning rules to stimulate UK economy
Rachel Reeves has given her strongest hint yet that she will back a third runway at Heathrow airport, arguing that she is willing to make difficult decisions while pursuing economic growth.
The chancellor is poised to make a significant speech this week where she will outline her plans to boost the British economy by radically altering planning rules and accelerating building projects.
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01/26/2025 - 08:30
‘It was striking that the White House memo included toilets and shower heads as a presidential priority,’ said one expert
From crusading against showers he feels don’t sufficiently wash his hair to reversing protections for a small fish he calls “worthless”, Donald Trump’s personal fixations have helped shape his first environmental priorities as US president.
While withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accords and declaring an “energy emergency” were among Trump’s most noteworthy executive orders on his first day in office, both were further down a list of priorities put out by the White House than measures to improve “consumer choice in vehicles, shower heads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers”.
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01/26/2025 - 08:03
Private developers offer politicians a simple solution for bulldozing through this crisis – build more. But it won’t work
Build baby, build. That’s about the intellectual limit of the government’s housing strategy. Millions are under-housed, so let’s “bulldoze” the planning system and build more homes. But it’s not nearly so simple.
As soon as anyone challenges the policy, the government brands them a nimby – another of the crude truncations that pass for debate on this issue: nimbys versus yimbys. So before I go further, let me state that I want to see lots of new social and genuinely affordable housing built as part of a massive programme to solve the worst housing crisis of any wealthy country. I’ve been making similar calls for years, not least in the report I co-authored for the Labour party in 2019: Land for the Many. I oppose Labour’s current approach for a different reason. It will fail.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
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