The Guardian

Community says boom in renewable energy means Bradwell B in Essex is not needed

For the 55 years that Tim Fox has worshipped at St Peter-on-the-Wall, his only neighbours have been a farm and a birdwatchers’ shelter.

Now, the tranquil surroundings of the salt marsh and the Essex sea wall at Bradwell-on-Sea are threatened by a new arrival: a sprawling nuclear power station, Bradwell B.

Many thought the streaming service would come unstuck with its debt-fuelled growth, but the pandemic changed all that

Only Frank Underwood could amass as much power in such a short space of time. Nearly eight years after Netflix used House of Cards as the launch of its global empire, the streaming service announced last week that it now had more than 200 million subscribers. The pandemic has hastened the company’s transformation from a debt-laden digital upstart into an essential part of the TV landscape in homes across the world.

In 2013, when Netflix’s first original series made its debut, the company had 30 million (mostly US) subscribers. This was six years after it moved from being a DVD-by-post business to a streaming pioneer. Since then it has added 170 million subscribers in more than 190 countries and its pandemic-fuelled results last week sent Netflix’s market value to an all-time high of $259bn.

We must do more to combat effects of global heating on housing, says climate expert

Substantial work still needs to be done to protect houses from flood damage and to ensure homes do not dangerously overheat in summer as climate change intensifies storms and heatwaves in the UK. That is the key message from one of the country’s leading experts on climate change adaptation.

Speaking on the eve of the Climate Adaptation Summit, which opens tomorrow in the Netherlands, Julia King told the Observer that although some improvements had been made to Britain’s preparations for dealing with global heating, some important protection was still lacking.

National government-backed initiative will replace ‘use by’ with ‘best before’ and urge people to judge for themselves

Worried about whether the yoghurt, milk and cheese sitting in your fridge is still safe to eat? Rather than rely on the misleading “best by” date stamped on the side, perhaps its time to “sniff and taste” your staple foods.

That’s the aim behind a new initiative to fight the UK food-waste mountain, by reducing the amount thrown away in the home.

Critics say the costs could have been avoided if ministers had agreed to bring in low-carbon standards sooner

Householders buying brand new homes in the next four years are likely to find an unpleasant surprise awaiting them in the future: homes built today will have to be retrofitted with energy efficiency measures and low-carbon technology, at an average cost of more than £20,000.

The extra costs will amount to more than £20bn for the whole of the UK, if the government’s targets of building 300,000 new homes a year are met. Critics say the costs could have been avoided if ministers had agreed to bring in low-carbon standards sooner.

Critics ask if some appointees to the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee have a potential conflict of interest

The Morrison government has quietly appointed fossil fuel industry leaders and a controversial economist to a committee responsible for ensuring the integrity of projects that get climate funding.

Critics have raised concerns about whether some appointees to the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee may have a potential conflict of interest that could leave its decisions open to legal challenge.

In April of last year, Australians stopped spending – but where some label current highs in consumption as ‘recovery’, Sarah Wilson sees a cult

This week I found myself thinking back to early-Covid. The globe had been suspended in an eerie pause and many of us were given the most unique of opportunities: time and space to have a good, hard look at ourselves and what mattered.

Do you remember what we did? We stopped consuming. And we really rather loved it.

Technological advances combined with tough emissions targets are bringing the end of petrol and diesel traffic into view

The prospect of a cleaner motor vehicle fleet is drawing closer. In November, the UK government announced that a ban on new petrol and diesel car sales would be brought forward to 2030. Advances in battery technology mean the tipping point at which electric vehicles become cheaper than other types, without subsidies, could come within five years. Fast-charging electric car batteries are on the horizon, with five-minute “fill up” times in sight.

This is good news for the climate, with transport emissions one of the biggest obstacles to meeting reductions targets, nationally and globally. Also welcome for the UK is the announcement by Nissan that in future it will source 62 kilowatt-hour batteries for its popular Leaf model from the factory next door to its Sunderland car plant, instead of importing them from the US.

Global study finds that species numbers reported in the wild fell sharply between 1990 and 2015

The number of wild bee species recorded by an international database of life on Earth has declined by a quarter since 1990, according to a global analysis of bee declines.

Researchers analysed bee records from museums, universities and citizen scientists collated by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, (GBIF) a global, government-funded network providing open-access data on biodiversity.

Global study calls on governments to step up maintenance efforts to prevent failures, overtopping or leaks

By 2050 most people will live downstream of a large dam built in the 20th century, many of which are approaching the limits of the useful lifetime they were designed for, according to global research.

To avoid the potential for dam failures, overtopping or leaks, the dams will require increasing maintenance, and some may have to be taken out of service. Many governments have not prepared for these needs, warn the authors of a study by the United Nations University.

Consultation comes after the birds have been successfully rewilded in other parts of the UK

A consultation has been launched to reintroduce Britain’s biggest bird of prey to Norfolk in an unprecedented rewilding move led by farmers.

Supported by other landowners in the region, a west Norfolk farm wants to release white-tailed eagles on to its coastal land, after the successful reintroduction of the birds in western Scotland and the Isle of Wight.

Nubian ibex have been roaming the empty streets of Mitzpe Ramon as Israel’s coronavirus lockdown extends to the end of the month

Sales increase 43% globally in 2020 as plunging battery costs mean the cars will soon be the cheapest vehicles to buy

Electric vehicles are close to the “tipping point” of rapid mass adoption thanks to the plummeting cost of batteries, experts say.

Global sales rose 43% in 2020, but even faster growth is anticipated when continuing falls in battery prices bring the price of electric cars dipping below that of equivalent petrol and diesel models, even without subsidies. The latest analyses forecast that to happen some time between 2023 and 2025.

Environment secretary says water companies too reliant on overflows discharging pollution after storms

The environment secretary, George Eustice, has made a commitment to reducing releases of raw sewage by water companies into rivers and coastal waters. Eustice said there was “still too much reliance” by water companies on storm overflows to discharge sewage into waterways.

A government taskforce set up following growing pressure over sewage pollution in rivers announced that water companies had agreed to be more transparent about pollution discharges from storm overflows. The taskforce said it had agreed an objective to reduce the harm of sewage releases via storm overflows.

TV presenter says government is reneging on Brexit green pledges by breaking with EU ban

Chris Packham, the naturalist and TV presenter, has accused the government of sending “shivers of fear” through Britain’s environmentalists by backtracking on green pledges since Brexit.

The wildlife expert accused the government of “irresponsible and embarrassing” practices on plastic waste, following a report by the Guardian last week that the UK would continue to ship unsorted plastic waste to developing countries, even though the EU has banned the practice since 1 January.

World leaders will meet for Climate Adaptation Summit to consider how to adapt to extreme weather

More than 1 million young people around the world have urged governments to prioritise measures to protect against the ravages of climate breakdown during the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

World leaders are due to meet by video link on Monday to consider how to adapt to the extreme weather, wildfires and floods that have become more common as temperatures rise. Ban Ki-moon, the former UN secretary general, will lead the Climate Adaptation Summit, and leaders including Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Narendra Modi are expected to attend.

A global treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons becomes international law today. But the fight to rid the world of these dismal weapons continues.

In 1995, thousands of people marched peacefully hand-in-hand through the Tahitian capital of Pape’ete. The palm-lined streets were awash with songs of protest.

On a nearby shorefront, Cook Islanders had just arrived by traditional voyaging canoe: a vaka. They were there to deliver a message of solidarity with their island neighbours, en route to the nuclear test site of Moruroa.

Plan has been approved despite environmental objections and criticism over climate leadership

A legal challenge to the UK government’s approval of a new gas-fired power plant has failed in the court of appeal.

The challenge was brought after ministers overruled climate change objections from the planning authority. The plant is being developed by Drax in North Yorkshire and would be the biggest gas power station in Europe. It could account for 75% of the UK’s power sector emissions when fully operational, according to lawyers for ClientEarth, which brought the judicial review.

Athletes don’t want to be accused of hypocrisy but the changing environment is already impacting many sports

For a sector of society so adept at harnessing communities, cities, even entire countries, sport is strangely weak at empowering action on the issue which matters most. Perhaps the pace of sport, the relentless rotation of preparing, travelling and performing, restrains us from stopping, breathing and thinking about the existence of sport as we know it.

Having globe-hopped for 25 years, reporting on Olympics, Paralympics, World Cups and tennis grand slams, I know I’ve taken sport for granted. When it stops – rain delay, postponement, pandemic – we notice. At other times, it’s just there. Silly games, essentially, for escapism and entertainment.

US scientist Thomas Lovejoy says the rainforest’s rich biodiversity has been undervalued compared to economic activities such as farming and mining

The Amazon will be transformed into a “highly degraded nightmare” unless a sustainable biodiversity-based economy develops which properly values ecosystem services and products produced by the rainforest, a leading scientist has warned.

Prof Thomas Lovejoy, the “godfather of biodiversity”, said if agro-industrial economic developments such as cattle farming, palm oil production and mining continue, the rainforest’s hydrological cycle will be “in tatters”, with global weather systems severely disrupted.