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Government to maintain resistance to tougher action against water companies despite backlash

Plans to take tougher action against water companies for pumping sewage into rivers and the sea will once again be opposed by the government, Downing Street has announced.

The prime minister’s spokesperson confirmed the government would retain its resistance to adopting an amendment to the environment bill tabled by the Duke of Wellington, which was passed by the Lords earlier this month but subsequently rejected by the Commons.

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More companies are making commitments to establish net zero emissions targets, although a large share of them seem unwilling in the short term to act on their promises, a survey released on Tuesday suggested.

China’s State Council on Tuesday released an action plan to show how it intends to meet the goal of peaking emissions by 2030, but most of the content was plans already revealed.

China’s environment ministry on Tuesday said all domestic offsets will be eligible for use in the first compliance cycle of its national emissions trading scheme, including units generated almost two decades ago that have been banned from all the eight regional pilot markets for years.

New polling data shows two-thirds of Republicans do not want to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the climate crisis

Nearly two in three Republicans believe oil and gas companies are at least somewhat responsible for the climate crisis – but they don’t want to keep these companies accountable.

In fact, even when they were told that oil and gas companies knowingly misled the public about their products driving climate change, most Republicans said the public and the government should not hold those companies accountable.

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While a strong majority of Americans believe global heating is happening, a new Guardian poll shows sharp partisan divides

A majority of Americans want to see oil and gas companies held to account for lying about the climate crisis and contributing to global heating, according to a new YouGov poll commissioned by the Guardian, Vice News, and Covering Climate Now.

Released today, the poll reveals that the US remains sharply divided over the causes of the deepening environmental emergency following the fossil fuel industry’s long campaign to downplay and deny climate science. That division falls largely along political lines, with Democrats and Republicans at odds over the source of climate disinformation.

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EUAs forged higher on Tuesday morning as the market tested technical levels in thin trade, while energy prices continued to gain.

Spain has unveiled several ideas for curbing EU ETS speculation as part of wider proposals to reform the bloc’s energy market, with Madrid urging the EU to explore the plans as part of its work to amend the Fit for 55 climate policy package.

Advisers say strategy boosts UK credibility before Cop26 summit, but more needed to protect low paid

The UK strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is achievable and affordable, according to the government’s official climate advisers. The Climate Change Committee said the plan was the most comprehensive in the G20 and strengthened the position of the UK as it prepares to preside over the Cop26 summit.

The CCC, which is independent, said the strategy was a big step forward from setting targets to planning their delivery, but implementation would be a huge task.

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State environment minister, Matt Kean, has launched internal review after Guardian investigation revealed major problems with offsets schemes

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There should be a major reform of New South Wales’ environmental offsetting schemes following a Guardian Australia investigation that revealed “appalling practices”, the state’s environment minister, Matt Kean, has said.

Kean told a NSW budget estimates hearing on Tuesday some issues uncovered by the Guardian’s reporting were now the subject of investigations by integrity bodies.

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The government must cut demand for flying and meat under plans to curb climate change, experts say.

To change course radically, the Coalition would have to admit that for a decade it traded the national interest for a handful of regional Queensland seats

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There’s not a lot of good news, so for the sake of all our sanity, let’s start with the good news. The Morrison government has adopted a mid-century target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Now before anyone starts yelling – it is true that Australia already adopted that objective, more or less, when we signed the Paris agreement five years ago.

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Australia announces a new stretch cost target for solar power of just $15/MWh, to help cut cost of green energy, green hydrogen, and green steel.

The post Australia aims for “ultra-low cost” solar to drive green energy transition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The brutal arithmetic behind the prime minister’s carbon reduction plan leaves no place for coal. John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Every part of the region affected with extreme temperatures displacing millions of people

Asia suffered its hottest year on record in 2020, the United Nations has said ahead of the CoP26 summit, with extreme weather taking a heavy toll on the continent’s development.

The mean temperature pushed 1.39C above the 1981-2010 average, according to a report by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.

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A Lords amendment sought to stop water companies dumping raw sewage – and 265 Tories voted against it. This faecal matter has become a powerful symbol of modern Britain

I remember the good ol’ days, when we weren’t always lurching from one crisis to another and we had time to wonder why the EU’s clean-beach legislation hadn’t done more for its popularity. Maybe people just didn’t care about sewage, one way or the other?

That was possibly the working assumption of Conservative MPs, who are now experiencing mounting unease – lobby-speak for freaking the hell out – over the environment bill that is ping-ponging through parliament. It’s a rangy piece of legislation, of which the faeces element is only a small part. A Lords amendment sought to put a duty on water companies not to dump raw sewage into the waterways – and 265 Tories voted against it. The website Evolve Politics published the list in full and thus crashed itself, so urgent was public interest in the names. Querulous Tories are taking to Twitter crying fake news, puzzled by the strength of public feeling.

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The Guardian has partnered with the Alycats, award-winning photographers who devote their time to fighting illegal wildlife hunting and poaching in Africa in support of the Singita Conservation Foundation. The Alycats have curated six prints exclusively for the Guardian Print Shop. As part of our collaboration, we will donate 50% of all print sales to support the foundation’s unswerving work

• Buy your exclusive print here

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How should the government approach the issue, and how are they willing to change their own lives?

• Climate crisis ‘needs same urgency seen at start of pandemic’

Forty people have kept diaries about their evolving attitudes to the climate crisis and the pursuit of net zero emissions after hearing from experts across the spectrum and reading UK party manifestos. Here some of the participants detail how they expect the government to deal with the issue, and how they are willing to change their own lives.

Sharif, 46, is a homeowner from Leeds who worked for HSBC but lost his job during the pandemic

Conscious of climate change, including saying he has watched the edge of a campsite lose 2 metres to erosion in 10 years

Installed solar panels to power appliances

Cutting down meat consumption

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UK report on public attitudes to net-zero target also finds widespread support for nationalisation

• Net zero diaries: three people on the climate crisis and the UK’s response

Ministers must tackle the climate crisis with the same urgency seen at the start of the Covid pandemic, according to in-depth research that also found widespread support for nationalisation and scepticism over the role of the private sector.

The Net Zero Diaries, a project run by the consultancy Britain Thinks to examine evolving attitudes to the pursuit of a net-zero emissions target, found support for strong-arm tactics from the government even among those who said they had low engagement with environmental issues.

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Owners of what would be world's biggest solar project welcomes Singapore plan to import up to 4GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035.

The post Sun Cable welcomes Singapore plan to import 4GW of electricity by 2035 appeared first on RenewEconomy.