The Guardian

Just 12% of spending on economic rescue packages is going towards low-carbon projects, research finds

Efforts by governments around the world to forge a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic are so far failing even to reach the levels of green spending seen in the stimulus that followed the 2008 financial crisis, new analysis has shown.

Only about 12% of the spending on economic rescue packages around the world is going towards low-carbon projects, such as renewable energy and clean technology, according to a report by Vivid Economics, published on Friday.

Government is told it must find better ways to measure effects of environmental taxes

An environmental tax imposed to cut the amount of landfill appears to have incentivised illegal waste disposal such as fly-tipping, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has discovered.

The National Audit Office also said the government was collecting too little information about the effect of environmental taxes, which it said needed to be monitored to help the government reach its climate goals.

An estimated 600 gallons of oil have spilled from the Richmond refinery into the San Francisco Bay

Emergency crews in Richmond, California, are rushing to clean up an estimated 600 gallons of oil that spilled from a Chevron refinery into the San Francisco Bay. Details on the spill are still scant, but the emergency has reinvigorated calls from residents and environmentalists for the city to change its relationship with the refinery.

Productivity Commission says Australian governments have allocated funding to several projects failing cost-benefit analyses

The Productivity Commission has slammed decisions by the federal and state governments to fund major dam projects without business cases, saying that several fail cost-benefit analyses and amount to subsidies for the private sector.

In a new draft report on national water policy, the commission has singled out Rookwood weir on the Fitzroy river in Queensland and the Dungowan dam on the Peel near Tamworth to demonstrate its concerns about the way decisions are made about infrastructure.

Gail Mabo and Joanne Margaret Keune accuse the foundation of repudiating a contract to manage a traditional owners forum

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is being sued by the daughter of Indigenous land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo after it allegedly cancelled a contract for a $1m traditional owners forum.

In documents filed in the Townsville district court, the foundation is accused of repudiating a contract with Gail Mabo and Joanne Margaret Keune in September, two months after they allegedly reached a deal that would have seen the pair paid $1m over two years to plan and run the three-day forum.

Document given to Senate crossbenchers outlines plan to transfer environmental decision-making powers to states and territories

The Morrison government is preparing to reject a recommendation it introduce strong national environmental standards to improve protection of Australian wildlife, opting to instead mimic the failing existing laws.

A document, seen by Guardian Australia, sets out the proposed standards the government will introduce to underpin its plan to transfer environmental decision-making powers to state and territory governments.

UK programme will offer 118 young people from ethnic minority backgrounds environment roles

A group of leading environmental organisations are taking part in an employment initiative to make the green movement more diverse.

Friends of the Earth, Client Earth, the RSPB and others will take part in a programme that aims to open up the environmental sector to young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Under 3,000 pairs survive, which each require 7 ha to prosper, with ex-industrial sites ideal for breeding

The willow tit, one of Britain’s smallest and most endangered birds, requires a surprisingly large area of wild land to thrive, according to research.

Less than 3,000 pairs of the bird survive, mainly on brownfield sites in former coal mining areas, making it the fastest declining resident species, with numbers plummeting by 94% since 1970.

Cross-party committee says deprived groups contribute least but suffer most from dirty air

The government must set tough new air pollution targets to reduce the stark health inequalities suffered by disadvantaged communities, a cross-party committee of MPs has said.

Dirty air causes up to 64,000 early deaths a year in the UK, according to their report, and disproportionately harms those living in deprived areas and those from minority ethnic communities. The fact that these groups contribute the least to air pollution “increases the moral case for action”, said the MPs.

Smart, activist states could prove as effective at handling the biodiversity crisis as they have at tackling the pandemic

Let’s be honest: few government-commissioned reports make a real difference. Often ministers call on an expert to look into a contentious issue in the hope of kicking it into the long grass, and when a weighty tome duly arrives with uncomfortable recommendations, it is quietly ignored.

It is easy to see how the review into the economics of biodiversity by the Cambridge University academic Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta could be one of those that gathers dust in the Treasury, because it has a tough message. Put simply, Dasgupta says humanity – all 7.8 billion of us – is on a collision course with the planet. Our current economic system is unsustainable and endangers the prosperity of current and future generations.

Politicians would have us believe we can achieve net zero by just doing the easy things – or that some sectors can be excused

Right now the government is utterly hamstrung on the issue of climate change. After more than a decade of obstruction and doing the least possible, the rest of the world is changing fast and the debate in Australia needs to get real.

As Katharine Murphy put it so well on Tuesday, the government has no real climate change policy to speak of, but they do have a hell of a lot of fighting over pretending that there is.

Meeting Paris goals would bring health benefits aside from tackling global heating, research says

Thousands of lives lost to air pollution, inactivity and unhealthy diets could be saved each year if the UK takes the action needed to tackle climate change, researchers have said.

Across the world, millions of lives could be saved if countries raise ambitions on cutting emissions to limit global heating to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, as they have committed to in the global Paris climate accord.

95% of £1.5bn set aside to improve houses unspent due to slowness in making grants and paying installers

The government is apparently withdrawing hundreds of millions of pounds from the green homes grant programme, a move condemned by the renewable energy industry as an alarming failure of its plan for a green recovery.

Ninety-five per cent of the £1.5bn pot provided for householders in England to make their homes less carbon intensive remains unspent due to long delays in giving out grants to householders and making payments to installers.

Riders in major cities, especially New York, encounter particle quantities well above safe levels

People traveling on subway systems in major US cities are being exposed to unsafe amounts of air pollution, with commuters in New York and New Jersey subjected to the highest levels of pollution, research has found.

Tiny airborne particles, probably thrown up by train brakes or the friction between train wheels and rails, are rife in the 71 underground stations sampled by researchers during morning and evening rush hours in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington DC, the cities that contain the bulk of subway systems in the US.

Najin and Fatu are the only two rhinos of their species in existence. Jack Davison visited Ol Pejeta in Kenya to document a story that transcends tragedy

Underwater photographer of the year, a global annual competition based in the UK, celebrates photography beneath the surface of the ocean, lakes, rivers and even swimming pools

Soil Association announces largest year-on-year increase in sales of natural products in 15 years

Organic food consumption has soared in the past year across the UK, as people have eaten in more and sought higher quality food, driving the biggest year-on-year increase in sales in 15 years.

The organic market, including food, clothing, cosmetics and other products, increased to £2.79bn, a rise of 12.6% on 2019, according to the Soil Association in its annual organic market report, released on Wednesday.

Standoff exposes tensions between large Inuit organizations with power to approve permits and residents of small communities

A group of Inuit hunters have braved nearly a week of freezing temperatures to blockade a remote iron mine in northern Canada, in protest over an expansion plan they say will harm local wildlife.

The blockade, which has prompted solidarity rallies in other Nunavut communities, has also exposed growing tensions between large Inuit organizations with the power to approve development permits – and residents of the small communities where the impact of such projects is felt.

The M7 was supposed to be offset by environmental protection 15 years ago. Leaked documents show that never happened

Western Sydney has seen some of the most intensive urban development in Australia in the past 20 years – and what’s known as “conservation offsets” have been used as a bargaining chip to make this rapid construction of new residential suburbs and infrastructure more palatable to the public.

But an investigation by Guardian Australia has found at least two instances where the offsets never eventuated, in one case 20 years after they were first proposed.

Planning proposal for project near Whitehaven faces widespread opposition from environmentalists

Cumbria county council has said it will reconsider the planning application for a new coalmine near Whitehaven, which has prompted widespread criticism.

Government ministers in January declined to intervene in the go-ahead for the mine on the basis it was a local decision, but environmental campaigners have warned it undermines UK efforts to tackle climate change.