Government vetoes cross-party effort to protect threatened waterways from push to rip up environmental red tape
A cross-party attempt to protect England’s rare and threatened chalk streams in the government’s planning bill was rejected by Labour on Wednesday.
The attempt to give the globally rare ecosystems the strongest protections as irreplaceable habitats failed after all the Labour MPs on the parliamentary committee examining the draft law rejected an amendment containing the extra provision.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/14/2025 - 10:55
05/14/2025 - 10:32
Predicted dry, warm weather likely to increase pressure on rivers, whose flows are already far below normal
Exceptionally low river flows are predicted across the UK this summer as a drought becomes more likely, scientists have said.
An update from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) says dry, warm weather is expected over the next three months, putting pressure on water resources.
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05/14/2025 - 06:25
Exclusive: Virgin Atlantic and Renault among companies that continued to publish misleading environmental claims
Companies have continued to post misleading greenwashing adverts after being censured by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), according to an investigation.
Greenpeace UK’s investigative journalism unit, Unearthed, reports that Virgin Atlantic, Renault and Aqua Pura are among companies that continued to publish unfounded claims about the environmental credentials of their products after being told to remove such adverts by the advertising watchdog.
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05/14/2025 - 01:00
Research shows companies ‘aligned’ with strategies to meet climate goals have risen from 3% in 2019 to 23% in 2025
European companies are increasingly lobbying for strong climate action, research has found, in a “profound shift” that analysts say challenges the narrative that businesses see green rules as a threat to profits.
The share of companies whose corporate lobbying is “aligned” with pathways to meet global climate goals rose from 3% in 2019 to 23% in 2025, according to an analysis of 200 of the largest European companies by InfluenceMap, while the share of companies who were deemed “misaligned” fell from 34% to 14%.
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05/13/2025 - 23:00
Research looking at hygiene and healthcare habits of the primates finds implications for understanding origin of human healthcare
Humans are not unique in having a host of hygiene and healthcare habits, researchers have found: chimpanzees also wipe their bottoms, tend each other’s wounds and even clean up after sex, according to a new study.
The research from the University of Oxford is not the first to show that great apes take care of themselves. Scientists have previously found chimpanzees use insects to treat their own wounds and those of others, while orangutans have been observed treating wounds with the sap and chewed leaves of plants with known medicinal properties.
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05/13/2025 - 22:30
Climate change and energy minister accuses Sussan Ley’s Coalition of ‘keeping the climate wars going’ with decision to review net zero stance
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Chris Bowen has ridiculed the Liberal party for putting net zero by 2050 up for review after its election defeat, comparing it to putting the “sky being blue” up for debate.
The climate change and energy minister also warned that breaking Australia’s bipartisan commitment to the “bare minimum” emissions target risked creating a sovereign risk for renewables investors.
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05/13/2025 - 16:53
Chemical plant linked to air pollution and cancer risks in majority-Black region ‘exploring all options for the future’
A controversial chemical plant in the centre of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” region has indefinitely suspended all production following dire financial results, the facility’s operators announced on Tuesday.
The Denka Performance Elastomer plant in St John parish has long been associated with chronic air pollution issues and was the subject of a years-long Guardian reporting series examining the disproportionate cancer risk rates experienced by the majority-Black fence-line communities that surround the facility.
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05/13/2025 - 12:17
In a letter, Milieudefensie says it wants to stop firm developing new oil and gas projects ‘to curb crisis’
Climate campaigners in the Netherlands have promised to take Shell to court for a second time to force the energy company to stop developing new oil and gas projects.
In a letter to Shell, the Dutch climate non-profit Milieudefensie vowed to take legal action because the company has 700 oil and gas projects in development that will continue to drive up carbon emissions despite efforts to slow global heating.
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05/13/2025 - 09:48
Parliamentary group launched alongside campaign for ‘play sufficiency duty’ that matches those in Wales and Scotland
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A duty to provide space for children to play on new developments should be embedded in planning law, MPs and campaigners have said.
The first ever all-party parliamentary group on play was launched on Tuesday alongside a campaign to bring in a “play sufficiency duty” in England to match those in Wales and Scotland.
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05/13/2025 - 06:48
US agriculture secretary says country is moving away from both methods of production, illegal in UK and EU
Chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef may not be essential for a US-UK trade deal, Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary has indicated.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference in London, Brooke Rollins said the market was moving away from the two controversial methods of production, which are illegal in the UK and the EU.
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