Mandatory reports should be published on how taxpayers’ money is spent on environmental stewardship, says campaigner
Landowners in England have been paid more than £9bn of taxpayers’ money in the past 30 years for environmental benefits, despite the decline in nature that has taken place during that time, data reveals.
The nature campaigner and author Guy Shrubsole, who unearthed the data for his new book, The Lie of The Land, said large landowners should be forced to publish regular reports showing how they are stewarding their land for nature and carbon.
The Lie of the Land is published on 12 September by HarperCollins.
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09/02/2024 - 05:35
09/02/2024 - 03:00
Scientists are trying to establish whether global heating caused the deaths of the rare river dolphins last year, before temperatures start to rise again
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09/02/2024 - 02:35
Set near photographer Benjamin Youd’s home in Sussex, River Story looks at the changing seasons and humans’ relationship with water
River Story is exhibiting at ONCA Gallery in Brighton, 5 to 14 September
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09/02/2024 - 01:00
The new government must use its landslide majority to mend the damage to jobs and fish populations caused by neglect
It is a lonely and unglamorous job, being His Majesty’s official opposition, as Labour knows only too well. There were moments when, out of the spotlight, the party’s spokespeople in parliament heroically defended the public interest on some of the most important issues of the day. One example was during the post-Brexit Fisheries Act, where Labour made a formidable case that history has proved right. The question now is whether Labour will use its landslide majority to fix the extraordinary neglect of our marine environment that it previously lacked the votes for.
Back in 2020, when the fisheries bill was making its way through parliament, Labour’s fisheries spokesperson, Luke Pollard, made the case that the prime objective of the bill should be sustainability: there should be a duty on ministers to take the advice of scientists when allocating fishing opportunities so as to avoid overfishing. He also argued that as the right to fish was a public asset, which ministers conceded during the course of the bill, preference should be given to the part of the fleet which had the highest levels of employment and the lowest environmental impact: the smaller boats, whose activities are limited naturally by the weather.
Charles Clover is the co-founder of the Blue Marine Foundation
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09/02/2024 - 00:00
Exclusive: Campaigners claim move would offset City influence over infrastructure taskforce and better share benefits
The government is being urged to install trade union members on the board of its new £7.3bn national wealth fund to help offset the influence of big banks and ensure that it is geared towards hitting green targets and bringing “shared prosperity” to the UK population.
It is part of a wider set of recommendations set out by the campaign group Positive Money, aimed at shaping the governance and investment plans of the national wealth fund (NWF), which was launched by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, after the July election.
The NWF is part of government efforts to attract billions of pounds of private-sector cash – roughly £3 for every £1 of taxpayer cash – for big infrastructure projects across the UK, including ports, gigafactories and hydrogen and steel projects. The government is hoping that putting £7.3bn of public money forward will persuade private funders to put their own money on the line.
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09/01/2024 - 23:00
State-owned company halts initiative after warnings over opening up ‘right to roam’ laws to large numbers of visitors
A Norwegian tourism campaign aimed at promoting the country as a destination for outdoor activities has been suspended after warnings that opening up the country’s “right to roam” laws to mass tourism could lead to environmental destruction.
Allemannsretten – which gives Norwegians the legal right to camp, swim, ski and walk freely in nature, regardless of who the landowner is – provides the basis of friluftslivet (outdoor life), seen as foundational to the mountainous country’s culture.
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09/01/2024 - 15:28
Derwent River near Hobart expected to reach record level as more than 100,000 homes in Victoria without power
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A woman was killed by a falling tree on the New South Wales-Victoria border, almost 100 flights were cancelled in Sydney and Tasmania was expected to experience record flooding as several destructive cold fronts moved up the east coast.
More than 120,000 people across Victoria and Tasmania were without power on Monday afternoon, while the Derwent River near Hobart was expected to rise to a record level in the evening.
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09/01/2024 - 10:00
Advocates against nets say sharks can easily swim underneath them and drone surveillance is more effective
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Experts, marine conservation groups and an MP are urging the New South Wales government to ban anti-shark nets, which kill large numbers of turtles and dolphins, after 51 nets were installed along the state’s coastline.
Last summer more than 90% of marine animals caught in shark nets were not sharks, while more than half of the 208 non-target species caught – such as turtles, dolphins and smaller sharks – were killed, data showed.
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09/01/2024 - 08:20
Alex Baldock wants to keep gadgets out of landfill as UK’s largest electricals retailer embraces repair and reuse
The UK government should slash VAT on refurbished electrical products to keep gadgets out of landfill, according to the boss of Currys.
“It has already been charged once on these products,” said Alex Baldock, the head of the UK’s largest electrical goods retailer. “I would like to see a radical reduction or entire cut on these products.”
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09/01/2024 - 08:00
I’ve discovered the perfect way to avoid the stress of travel, the mosquito bites and the overtourism. Plus, I can stay at home and tend my tomatoes while knowing I’m saving the planet
I haven’t been on holiday this summer, but don’t start tuning the tiny violins. I derive an unusual satisfaction from working when others aren’t (burning martyr is my preferred summer fragrance) and I don’t like change, or strange pillows. Plus, what would Susan, the pigeon who lives on our roof, and my bounteous crop of five unripe tomatoes do without me?
A summer holiday just doesn’t appeal. Is that weird? It feels as if the climate crisis is killing the notion of summer as something to look forward to and holiday hotspots (literally) are losing their lustre, with Greek islands reaching fatal temperatures and Sicily stricken with catastrophic drought.
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