Rachel Reeves urged to shelve fuel duty plans and overhaul taxes amid expected switch to electric vehicles
A pay-per-mile road pricing system must be brought in now, according to Tony Blair’s thinktank, which is urging the chancellor to overhaul motoring taxes.
Rachel Reeves is widely expected to confirm the end of a temporary 5p cut in fuel duty, and possibly announce an inflationary rise in the tax paid on petrol and diesel at the pumps, in her budget next Wednesday.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/23/2024 - 08:23
10/23/2024 - 08:00
Oceanographer Stefan Rahmstorf explains why Amoc breakdown could be catastrophic for both humans and marine life
The dangers of a collapse of the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, known as Amoc, have been “greatly underestimated” and would have devastating and irreversible impacts, according to an open letter released at the weekend by 44 experts from 15 countries. One of the signatories, Stefan Rahmstorf, an oceanographer and climatologist who heads the Earth system analysis department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, explains here why he has recently upgraded his risk assessment of an Amoc breakdown as a result of global heating – and what that means for Britain, Europe and the wider world.
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10/23/2024 - 07:27
Long-delayed regulations for England may ‘encourage’ housebuilders to equip homes with solar panels, rather than requiring them
Labour is considering making solar panels optional on new homes in England, after pressure from housebuilders, in a move that would weaken low-carbon regulations, the Guardian has learned.
Ministers are preparing to publish long-delayed regulations for new homes, known as the future homes standard, which would ensure that all newly built homes are low-carbon.
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10/23/2024 - 05:06
Villagers in Barekuri, Assam, have lived closely with endangered hoolock gibbons for generations. A new Guardian documentary shows their bond – and the fight to protect them
On a misty winter morning, farmer Mohit Chutia sits on the ground outside his home rocking his grandson in his lap. He sings about the hoolock gibbons, the only ape species in India. High in the tree canopy above, the gibbons leap gracefully from branch to branch. Below, Chutia and his family watch.
It is a picture of the coexistence that has endured for generations between the endangered gibbons and villagers in Barekuri in Assam, in the remote east of the country.
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10/23/2024 - 04:56
For over a century the villagers of Barekuri, north-east India’s biodiversity hotspot, have coexisted with the country’s only ape species, the hoolock gibbon. But this harmony stands in fragile ecological balance. Mohit Chutia, a 55-year-old farmer and father, has been taking care of one gibbon family while raising his own. When researcher Ishika Ramakrishna arrives to study human-gibbon interactions, she joins forces with Mohit and the villagers to tackle the gibbons’ urgent population decline, endangered by habitat loss, deforestation and industrial catastrophe
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10/23/2024 - 04:56
For over a century the villagers of Barekuri, north-east India’s biodiversity hotspot, have coexisted with the country’s only ape species, the hoolock gibbon. But this harmony stands in fragile ecological balance. Mohit Chutia, a 55-year-old farmer and father, has been taking care of one gibbon family while raising his own. When researcher Ishika Ramakrishna arrives to study human-gibbon interactions, she joins forces with Mohit and the villagers to tackle the gibbons' urgent population decline, endangered by habitat loss, deforestation and industrial catastrophe
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10/23/2024 - 04:00
Departing secretary general says small island developing states should be given greater access to climate finance
Patricia Scotland, the departing secretary general of the Commonwealth, has described the 56-member-bloc as a powerful force in the battle against climate breakdown, and urged the members to continue her legacy of supporting small and vulnerable countries.
Lady Scotland’s two-term tenure began in 2016, shortly after tropical storm Erica destroyed 95% of Dominica’s GDP. “I came in understanding that this was an immediate threat to human lives, jobs, homes, infrastructure, and our very existence, and urgent action was our only option,” she said.
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10/23/2024 - 03:36
Judge finds ‘reliance of trust’ breached when Parks Australia built walkway near rock art without permission
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A landmark case has resulted in Parks Australia having to pay more than $700,000 in fines and compensation after pleading guilty to disturbing a sacred site in Kakadu national park.
Sitting by Gunlom Falls on Wednesday, Judge Elizabeth Morris ordered Parks Australia to pay a $200,000 fine for building a walkway near rock art without permission from the sacred sites watchdog, the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority.
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10/23/2024 - 02:00
Exclusive: Those with ‘interest in keeping world hooked on fossil fuels’ should not oversee climate talks, say report authors
Azerbaijan, the host of the Cop29 global climate summit, will see a large expansion of fossil gas production in the next decade, a new report has revealed. The authors said that the crucial negotiations should not be overseen by “those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels”.
Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, and its partners are set to raise the country’s annual gas production from 37bn cubic metres (bcm) today to 49bcm by 2033. Socar also recently agreed to increase gas exports to the European Union by 17% by 2026.
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10/22/2024 - 23:01
National Audit Office questions value for money as predicted bill for decommissioning increases by £21bn
The cost of cleaning up Sellafield is expected to spiral to £136bn and Europe’s biggest nuclear waste dump cannot show how it offers taxpayers value for money, the public spending watchdog has said.
Projects to fix buildings containing hazardous and radioactive material at the state-owned site on the Cumbrian coast are running years late and over budget. Sellafield’s spending is so vast – with costs of more than £2.7bn a year – that it is causing tension with the Treasury, the report from the National Audit Office (NAO) suggests.
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