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Populations of Fleay’s barred frog in Australia’s ancient rainforests were decimated by the chytrid fungus. Now, the frogs have developed a natural resistance. Matthijs Hollanders, PhD candidate, Southern Cross University David Newell, Senior Lecturer, School of Environment, Science & Engineering, Southern Cross University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Standard nature-based spot and nearby futures continued to slip lower over the past week, battered by the deepening economic gloom and headlines warning of sharply higher interest rates, although fresher vintages held steadier as large volume sellers shied away from the market.

Proposal to make all water firms publicly listed is not a cure-all but would force them to be more transparent

To the surprise of nobody who follows the English and Welsh water sector, the two companies that have been hit with the heaviest penalties for missing performance targets this year are the usual suspects: Southern Water and Thames Water. The dirty duo last year had to return £99m between them to customers after Ofwat’s annual tally of outcomes in areas such as water supply interruptions, pollution incidents and sewer flooding. This time the figure is £80m.

The top end of the league table, note, is also familiar. Severn Trent and United Utilities outperformed targets, as last year, and thus get rewarded by being allowed to recover more money via bills (which may feel less rewarding from the point of view of customers). Correlation doesn’t always imply causation, but it’s worth asking: do different ownership models help to explain the persistent gulf in operational performance?

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West Burton A will be the site of the prototype fusion energy power plant, the government announces.

Key European lawmakers are expected in an interim vote late on Monday to stick to a compromise that would part-finance the REPowerEU strategy with €20 billion worth of carbon allowance sales solely sourced from frontloaded member state auctions over three years.

Unusual diplomatic intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero

The Egyptian government, host of the next UN climate summit, has warned the UK against “backtracking from the global climate agenda”, in a significant intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero.

The warning before the Cop27 conference, which will take place in just over a month in Sharm el-Sheikh, to the host of Cop26, which took place in Glasgow last November, is highly unusual in diplomatic terms. The hosts of successive Cops are responsible for a smooth handover of the talks.

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The European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) compromise on funding for the REPowerEU initiative is  the “least bearish” of the options being discussed by co-legislators, according to analysts assessing the impacts on the EU ETS.

The World Bank $17.2 billion climate finance public sector portfolio could be off by as much as $7 bln or 40%, according to a report published by an NGO on Monday as COP27 hosts Egypt urged rich nations to make good on their climate aid commitments at next month's UN summit. 

Documents show zones with ‘liberalised’ planning laws could get go-ahead even in the most environmentally protected areas

Investment zones with “liberalised” planning laws to accelerate development could be designated within national parks and in the most environmentally protected areas of the UK, government documents reveal.

Details of the government’s new zones to increase housebuilding and commercial development reveal councils can apply for zones in national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, (AONBs) sites of special scientific interest, (SSSIs) and green belt land.

A national park.

An area of outstanding natural beauty.

A site of special scientific interest, or equivalent designation.

The buffer zone of a world heritage site.

Designated green belt.

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EUA prices consolidated at lower levels on Monday morning as the market eyed the evening's meeting of the European Parliament's environment committee (ENVI) at which lawmakers were expected to adopt a position on funding measures for the REPowerEU initiative.

George Eustice warns against scrapping post-Brexit subsidies aimed at improving biodiversity and meeting climate targets

A former environment secretary has urged the UK government not to drop its nature recovery farming schemes, as the Guardian can reveal the more ambitious parts of the post-EU subsidy programme are set to be dropped.

George Eustice made the intervention, telling the Guardian that farmers are keen to be signed up to schemes in which they improve biodiversity, and that his replacement, Ranil Jayawardena, should not scrap them.

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Sweden's Svante Paabo wins the prize for discoveries on humanity's extinct relatives.

Activists from global south demand recompense for damage from countries most responsible for crisis

Young people from some of the countries most affected by climate breakdown have warned they are not victims but a force to be reckoned with in the run-up to a UN climate conference in Egypt.

Led by climate groups across Africa and the Middle East, hundreds of activists from countries that are the least responsible for the crisis but are experiencing the worst impacts have gathered in Tunisia to prepare for what they say will be a collective fight for justice for their countries and communities, which they will take to Cop27 next month.

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A ruling against the state’s Prop 12 animal welfare law could affect a range of regulations across the country

Next week, the US supreme court will hear oral arguments in a case that could put climate, public health and animal welfare regulations across the country on the chopping block – from California’s ban on gas-powered cars by 2035 to state bans on food packaging that contains BPA or lead.

The case will consider the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 12, a law that bans the sale of meat and eggs from animals raised using certain kinds of extreme confinement. The pork industry has been fighting Prop 12 since it passed by ballot measure in 2018 – with more than 62% of the vote and the backing of animal advocacy groups like the Humane Society of the United States – because it bans gestation crates: metal enclosures where pregnant pigs are kept for most of their lives that are so small that they can’t turn around or stretch their limbs.

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States have plans to ban gas-powered cars and the White House wants chargers along highways, but implementation is a challenge

Speaking in front of a line of the latest electric vehicles (EVs) at this month’s North American International Auto Show, President Joe Biden declared: “The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified.”

Most vehicles on the road are still gas guzzlers, but Washington is betting big on change, hoping that major federal investment will help reach a target set by the White House for 50% of new cars to be electric by 2030. But there are roadblocks – specifically when it comes to charging them all. “Range anxiety,” or how far one can travel before needing to charge, is still cited as a major deterrent for potential EV buyers.

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Oxfam research suggests up to 40% of bank’s reported climate-related spending cannot be accounted for

The World Bank has come under fire for failing to show that its claimed spending on the climate crisis is real, in a report suggesting up to 40% of its reported climate-related spending is impossible to account for.

Of $17.2bn that the World Bank reported it spent on climate finance in 2020, up to $7bn cannot be independently verified, according to research by Oxfam.

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The largest outbreak of avian influenza on record saw 48m birds culled in the UK and EU in the past year.

South Korea will open negotiations with the EU that carbon cuts achieved under its emissions trading scheme will be recognised under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), while also rolling out plans to improve its domestic MRV system to align with international standards.

Malaysia has significant potential to utilise carbon markets to help meet the Southeast Asian economy’s climate targets, but this will require harmonising the design of voluntary and compliance markets, definitions of clear rules and guidelines for project development, and a scale-up of financing, a report has found.

Poultry farmers from Arctic to Portugal reported 2,500 outbreaks in past year, with migrating birds taking avian flu to North America

The UK and continental Europe have been hit by an “unprecedented” number of cases of avian flu this summer, with 47.5m birds having been culled since last autumn, according to new figures.

Poultry producers from as far north as Norway’s Svalbard islands to southern Portugal have together reported almost 2,500 outbreaks of the disease since last year.

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