This white paper examines the current challenges for clean energy infrastructure and identifies solutions that industrial clusters, transport and logistics industries, and the wider clean energy value chain can jointly explore in order to accelerate its deployment. Thirteen new industrial clusters from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, …
• Illegal ivory that is less than 70 years old is being sold in the UK, after it is stained with tea to make it look older and bypass legislation. • Evidence suggests ivory which has been poached from elephants after the 1947 legal cut off date is being sold …
• Oil giant Shell is to launch a bid to leave the 10 vast concrete legs of three oil rigs standing in the North Sea for up to 500 years after the platforms have been decommissioned. • The company’s proposals also include the controversial suggestion that oil mixed with sediment …
Pollution from the Aberthaw power plant is estimated to have caused the premature deaths of 18,000 people in England and Wales, according to environmentalists. A coal-fired power plant which produced twice the legal amount of toxic gas for seven years has been awarded a £10m state subsidy to produce electricity …
The number of new cars registered in the UK hit a 12-year high in January, with electric vehicles taking a record share of the market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The industry body had warned of a slowdown in the motor trade in 2017 as …
In this paper we reflect on aspects of palaeoecological approaches to understanding past woodland environments. With increasing requirements for interdisciplinarity in research, and an increase in popular interest in the ‘natural environment’ such as ‘new nature writing’, we suggest that palaeoecology is potentially well situated to engage with other audiences …
There is considerable uncertainty over the effect of wind power on the operation of power systems, and the consequent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions displacement; this is used to project emissions reductions that inform energy policy. Currently, it is approximated as the average emissions of the whole system, despite an acknowledgement …
The patients had caught malaria when visiting Africa. A key malaria treatment has failed for the first time in patients being treated in the UK, doctors say. The drug combination was unable to cure four patients, who had all visited Africa, in early signs the parasite is evolving resistance. A …
Drinks firm Heineken UK, food producer Filippo Berio and utility company Anglian Water Services are among six businesses that have agreed to six-figure charity payments after breaching environmental laws. Heineken UK was ordered to pay-out £160,000 for a pollution incident which killed fish back in 2014. The Environment Agency (EA) …
The government in partnership with the UK Department for International Development (UKAID) yesterday launched a performance based financing scheme in the water sector worth 78 million pound (about 200bn/). The scheme targets local government authorities (LGA) in the country and provides them with additional funding for improvements in service provision …
Air pollution is a crisis that “plagues” the UK, particularly children, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes. Baskut Tuncak, who was appointed by the UN human rights council and completed a 15-day mission to the UK on Tuesday, said there was an “urgent need for …
Anthropogenic activity is affecting the global climate through the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) e.g. CO2 and CH4. About a third of anthropogenic GHGs are produced from agriculture, including livestock farming and horticulture. A large proportion of the UK's horticultural farming takes place on drained lowland peatlands, which are a …
We have examined the remains of a Pilgrim burial from St Mary Magdalen, Winchester. The individual was a young adult male, aged around 18–25 years at the time of death. Radiocarbon dating showed the remains dated to the late 11th–early 12th centuries, a time when pilgrimages were at their height …
Although many ecological properties of species respond to climate change, their evolutionary responses are poorly understood. Here, we use data from long-term demographic studies to predict evolutionary responses of three herbaceous perennial orchid species, Cypripedium parviflorum, C. candidum and Ophrys sphegodes, to predicted climate changes in the habitats they occupy. …
Emergency responders often have to operate and respond to emergency situations during dynamic weather conditions, including floods. This paper demonstrates a novel method using existing tools and datasets to evaluate emergency responder accessibility during flood events within the city of Leicester, UK. Original Source
This report analyses the challenge of improving access to sanitation in rapidly growing and developing secondary cities. Urban sanitation problems, and reasons for solving them, have changed over time. There are many studies into different financing options, technical solutions, and institutional structures for urban sanitation services and this report does …
Major flooding in the UK is now likely to happen every year but ministers still have no coherent long-term plan to deal with it, the government’s leading adviser on the impacts of climate change has warned. Boxing Day in 2015 saw severe floods sweep Lancashire and Yorkshire, just weeks after …
The French nuclear industry is in its “worst situation ever” because of a spate of plant closures in France and the complexities it faces with the UK’s Hinkley Point C power station, according to a former Électricité de France director. Gérard Magnin, who called Hinkley “very risky” when he resigned …
New report from environmental think tank Green Alliance calls for urgent rethink of flooding strategy with more focus on natural flood management strategies The government's flood risk strategy is failing to protect communities from flood risk, and the structure of agricultural subsidies may be making the problem worse, according to …
Air pollutants, such as ozone, have adverse impacts on human health and cause, for example, respiratory and cardiovascular problems. In the United Kingdom (UK), peak surface ozone concentrations typically occur in the spring and summer and are controlled by emission of precursor gases, tropospheric chemistry and local meteorology which can …
