Environment secretary backs Cunliffe review’s plan to end sewage scandals and financial mismanagement and ‘change the whole system’ in England and Wales
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A new, “powerful” water regulator should replace Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the Environment Agency to “reset” a sector tarnished by scandals over sewage spills and financial mismanagement, a major review has recommended.
The government is expected to adopt the recommendation for England and Wales made in the review it commissioned from Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, which was released on Monday.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/21/2025 - 01:34
07/21/2025 - 01:25
Experts say the level of ambition in Labor’s upcoming 2035 emissions target will influence the capital decisions of many companies
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Investment analysts have uncovered what they say is a “significant gap” between the climate commitments of major Australian companies and how they actually spend their money.
A report from climate consultancy group Pollination included analysis of the public climate disclosures of 12 major Australian companies, looking especially at their decisions on how and where to spend capital.
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07/20/2025 - 09:16
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07/20/2025 - 06:00
The decision to let a small blaze burn – before it suddenly erupted – has drawn scrutiny. Now those who love the remote North Rim are reckoning with the destruction
When lightning struck on 4 July along the remote North Rim of Grand Canyon national park, sparking a small wildfire in a patch of dry forest, few predicted the terror and loss that lay ahead.
Fire managers decided that conditions seemed ideal to let the blaze burn at a low intensity – a practice known as “control and contain” that helps clear out excess fuels and decreases the chance of a more catastrophic wildfire in the future. Rains from previous weeks had left the forest floor moist and weather forecasts indicated the summer monsoon season would arrive soon.
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07/20/2025 - 05:37
Steve Reed says he is unable to rule out further above-inflation rises and any decision would be up to regulators
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, has said he is “furious” about an average 36% rise in water bills in England and Wales but was unable to rule out further above-inflation increases in future to fix the broken water sector.
Reed said he hoped that “root and branch” reform of the industry would lead to billions of pounds more in investment, which would mean companies would “never again” have to increase bills in the way they did last year.
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07/19/2025 - 08:56
Administration’s move to cut thousands of agency jobs will be devastating for US public health, union warns
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday that it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. One union leader said the moves “will devastate public health in our country”.
The agency’s office of research and development (ORD) has long provided the scientific underpinnings for the EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues such as air and water.
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07/19/2025 - 08:00
Research looks at health impacts of being exposed to multiple pesticides versus just one substance
Exposure to multiple pesticides increases the chances of pregnancy complications compared to exposure to just one pesticide, new peer-reviewed research suggests. The findings raise new questions about the safety of exposure to widely used pesticides and herbicides in food and agricultural communities.
The study, which bio-monitored pregnant women in a heavily agricultural state in Argentina, adds to recent-but-limited evidence pointing to heightened dangers in mixtures of pesticides.
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07/18/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 19 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00148-z
Marine biodiversity change impacts relational values: expert survey shows policy mismatch
07/18/2025 - 11:36
From Shakespeare to Radiohead, ancient woodlands have shaped the UK’s creative landscape. They deserve to be celebrated
If the mindless felling of the Sycamore Gap tree has taught us anything, it is that there is no such thing as “just a tree”, as one of the perpetrators, Adam Carruthers, told the jury. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered,” he said of the ensuing public outcry. For many it was.
Animism runs deeply through our relationship with arboreal life. From Macbeth’s prophetic Birnam Wood to the towering Ents in The Lord of the Rings, trees have long been personified in literature. And, from Constable’s bucolic Suffolk to David Hockney’s Yorkshire wold, they have helped shape Britain’s artistic landscape.
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07/18/2025 - 10:00
With tax reform back on the agenda thanks to the productivity roundtable, Henry’s 2010 review has a lot of answers to the biggest challenges facing the Albanese government
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Ken Henry, the former Treasury boss, slipped up during his address to the National Press Club this week.
Speaking in his capacity as chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, Henry was asked about his landmark review of the nation’s tax system, handed to the Rudd government back in 2010.
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