Environment

Canadian officials say they're disappointed that President Biden revoked the Keystone XL Pipeline permit — but they're also looking forward to working with the new administration on climate change.

Addressing climate change is one of the Biden administration's top priorities. NPR looks at President Biden's pledge to stop new oil and gas leasing on public lands and the challenges he might face.

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.

"For the first time in history, nuclear weapons are going to be illegal in international law," says Elayne Whyte, who oversaw the treaty's creation.

(Image credit: Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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.

• California national park to remain shut over the weekend
• About 300,000 people in the state had electricity knocked out

Yosemite national park will remain closed through the weekend after high winds that battered much of California knocked down two giant sequoias and caused millions of dollars in damage.

Related: Joe Biden to focus on economic recovery after Covid as 17.5m vaccine shots given in US – live

Electricity cable stretches 149 miles on seafloor between UK and France

A new high-voltage subsea cable linking the UK to France has begun importing enough electricity to power 1m British homes.

The delayed power cable, which is the second interconnector linking the UK to France, will stretch 149 miles along the seafloor between Hampshire in the UK and Normandy in France.

Significance of changes are unclear and could reflect various ways in which humans are impacting the environment

Rivers may seem like immutable features of the landscape but they are in fact changing color over time, a new study has found.

Researchers compiled a database of satellite images of major rivers in the United States from 1984 to 2018 and learned that about a third have significantly changed color in less than 40 years.

Nashua, N.H., expects to be a destination for people migrating away from the coasts and toward lower temperatures. Officials say a pandemic influx has shown the need to plan for that growth.

(Image credit: Annie Ropeik/NHPR)

International mining conference among forums involving oil, coal and gas industries approved for subsidies in program touted as boosting events sector

The Morrison government is offering fossil fuel companies grants of up to $250,000 to attend industry events as part of a program that is supposed to help the Australian conference industry recover from a coronavirus-induced slump.

A dozen events involving the oil, coal and gas industries are among 150 so far approved by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission as part of the $50m stimulus package.

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.

President Biden's plan to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is welcome news to Native American governments and activists in Montana — but disappointing to many elected officials.

The new administration shares many of the state’s concerns and has been quick to address Trump’s de-regulation efforts

California has led the resistance to Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations in the past four years, with the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, filing a whopping 122 lawsuits challenging Trump administration rules, most of them focused on climate and public health.

Now, following Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s swearing in on Wednesday, the Golden state once again has allies in the White House when it comes to environmental protections.

Joe Biden’s new climate envoy says: ‘All nations must raise ambition together – or we will all fail, together’

The world is lagging behind the pace of change needed to avert catastrophic impacts from the climate crisis, John Kerry has warned in his first remarks as the US’s new climate envoy.

Kerry, the former US secretary of state, acknowledged that America had been absent from the international effort to contain dangerous global heating during Donald Trump’s presidency but added that “today no country and no continent is getting the job done”.

Senators approve law to protect the noises and smells of the countryside following high-profile cases

From crowing roosters to the whiff of barnyard animals, the “sensory heritage” of France’s countryside will now be protected by law from attempts to stifle the everyday aspects of rural life from newcomers looking for peace and quiet.

French senators on Thursday gave final approval to a law proposed in the wake of several high-profile conflicts by village residents and vacationers, or recent arrivals derided as “neo-rurals”.

• ‘We’re cooked,’ says Australian former rugby union star
  
• Pocock among other athletes to highlight global emergency

Wallabies great David Pocock has warned “we’re cooked” if the professional sporting world does not act on its moral obligation to combat the rapidly accelerating climate crisis.

The retired 83-Test Australian flanker and outspoken environmental activist is one of several high-profile athletes contributing to a new podcast examining the uneasy relationship between sport and climate change.

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.

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.

Tribes and environmentalists hail decision to cancel Keystone XL pipeline but call on president to go further

Indigenous leaders and environmentalists are urging Joe Biden to shutdown some of America’s most controversial fossil fuel pipelines, after welcoming his executive order cancelling the Keystone XL (KXL) project.

Activists praised the president’s decision to stop construction of the transnational KXL oil pipeline on his first day in the White House, but they stressed that he must cancel similar polluting fossil fuel projects, including the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), to stand any chance of meeting his bold climate action goals.