Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Global use of coal hit record high in 2024

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:01:54 +0000

Bleak report finds greenhouse gas emissions are still rising despite ‘exponential’ growth of renewables

Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating.

The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.

Ancient elephant migration routes are being blocked off – can anything stop the rising death toll?

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:00:55 +0000

Human-wildlife conflict has now overtaken poaching as a cause of fatalities – and is deadly for people too. Some villages are finding new ways to live alongside them

Photographs by Edwin Ndeke

Sydney set for ‘blistering’ weather as record heat shifts east and BoM warnings for winds to blast Melbourne and Victoria

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 01:26:43 +0000

Temperatures forecast by Bureau of Meteorology to reach 39C in the CBD as rain and damaging wind gusts up to 130km/h expected along Victoria’s south-west coast

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Photographer captures timelapse of 'red lightning' in New Zealand – video

admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 01:00:35 +0000

Dan Zafra captured a timelapse of something he could only dream of - red sprites, also known as red lightning, flashing above the Milky Way - while photographing from the Clay Cliffs in New Zealand's south island on 11 October. Red sprites are brief, large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorms, reaching altitudes of up to 90km. They are almost impossible to see with the naked eye and last just a few milliseconds

No major banks have yet committed to stop funding new oil, gas and coal, research finds

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 23:01:48 +0000

‘The objectives of the Paris agreement are slipping further out of reach,’ say researchers from LSE

No major bank has yet committed to stop funding new oil and gas fields or coal capacity, research has found.

Most banks that have recently updated their climate policies have weakened them, according to the research by the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre (TPI) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Water firms in England could face harsher sewage fines under new Environment Agency powers

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 21:30:47 +0000

Government consults on allowing regulator to use lower civil standard of proof and introducing automatic penalties

Water companies in England could face more, and automatic, fines for sewage dumping under new Environment Agency powers.

The government is consulting on allowing the regulator to use a lower, civil, standard of proof instead of the higher criminal standard, for minor to moderate environmental offences.

Companies could have profits from breaking environment laws stripped under Australian reforms

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:00:38 +0000

Exclusive: Looming overhaul of protections should also include definition of ‘unacceptable impact’ on environment, Murray Watt says

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‘Much fairer’: all profits from new Orkney windfarm to benefit locals

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:25:52 +0000

Construction due to begin in 2027 on what is expected to become UK’s largest publicly owned windfarm

Every islander on Orkney is expected to benefit from a major windfarm being built by the local council after it won £62m in financing from the UK’s national wealth fund.

All the profits from the project to build up to 18 turbines across three islands on Orkney will be spent on local services, council officials said, in what is expected to become the UK’s largest publicly owned windfarm.

Fears of heat-rationing for millions in US as shutdown delays energy aid

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:00:36 +0000

Most vulnerable families could be without critical energy assistance, experts warn, as electricity and gas bills surge

Millions of Americans face having to ration heating this winter as the US federal government shutdown and mass layoffs by the Trump administration cause unprecedented delays in getting energy assistance aid to low-income households, a group that helps people pay energy bills has warned.

Trump EPA seeks to weaken scrutiny for some of US’s most toxic chemicals

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:00:36 +0000

New rule would prohibit states from banning dangerous chemicals, and could invalidate hundreds of protections

A new rule proposed by the Trump administration would dramatically weaken safety reviews for some of the nation’s most toxic chemicals that are already on the market, public health advocates and an EPA employee warn.