Environment

Group says it will phase out investments, and underwriting of companies that back coal

The insurer Axa has promised to sever ties with the coal industry as part of a climate strategy to phase out the group’s multibillion pound investments and insurance underwriting of companies that back the fossil fuel.

Axa said it intended to exit the coal industry by 2030 in Europe and other members states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and by 2040 in the rest of the world.

Carbon emissions from global air travel are rising fast, and U.S. passengers make up the largest share. But some are vowing not to fly at all, motivated by guilt and concern for the environment.

(Image credit: Elaine Thompson/AP)

Crabbers are postponing their harvest to avoid entangling whales, as the climate crisis fuels new dangers

His boat, Stacey Jo, is loaded up, crab pots stacked high, with lines and buoys coiled neatly inside cylindrical metal traps. But Tim Obert and his crew are not motoring out any time soon.

Commercial crabbers in San Francisco, Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay have agreed to postpone the already delayed Dungeness crab harvest till 15 December, to avoid entangling endangered humpback and blue whales in their equipment.

Furniture giant to invest in green energy plus reforestation and carbon storage projects

Ikea’s parent company is to invest an additional €200m (£171m) in green energy and forest planting as part of a plan by the world’s largest furniture retailer to become carbon neutral by 2030.

The investment is being made by Inter Ikea Group, the owner of the Ikea brand which is operated by a string of franchise businesses, the largest of which is Ingka Group.

Dry vegetation and high winds combine again in a potentially dangerous Southern California fire. But firefighters could get help from an approaching rainstorm.

(Image credit: Noah Berger/AP)

Bottlenose dolphins found to have an even stronger right-side bias than humans

Dolphins, like humans, have a dominant right-hand side, according to research.

About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side – although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex.

Raid and arrests of four volunteer firefighters were a politically-motivated attack, indigenous associations and campaigners say

The headquarters of an award-winning Brazilian NGO which works with remote communities in the Amazon has been raided by police, who also arrested four volunteer firefighters and accused them of starting wildfires to raise international funding.

At dawn on Tuesday, heavily armed police raided the offices of the Health and Happiness Project, (known by its Portuguese initials as PSA) in Alter do Chão in the Amazon state of Pará, seizing computers and documents.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Kelly Levin, senior associate with WRI's global climate program, about the U.N. Emissions Gap report and what impact repeated warnings about climate change are having.

Habitat of creature, sometimes known as Scotch halibut or woof in chip shops, has been depleted by trawling

In the north of England, Atlantic wolffish, Anarhichas lupus, is offered as fillets in fish and chip shops where it might be called Scotch halibut, Scarborough woof or simply woof. You are unlikely to have seen it whole since the fish has large teeth and an off-putting ferocious appearance that accounts for its common name. It can grow 1.5 metres (5ft) long. Its powerful jaws are used for crunching up shellfish, sea urchins and starfish. Despite the fearsome appearance wolffish are shy and will hide if approached by divers.

Unusually for fish, both male and female are conscientious parents, spending months guarding the patch of seabed containing their eggs against predators.

Students stage week-long occupation in protest against university’s £12m investment

The University of Manchester has said it will review its £12m investment in fossil fuel firms after a seven-day protest by students who threatened to go on hunger strike.

Students from the protest group People and Planet had occupied one of the university’s buildings for the past week in a demonstration against its multimillion-pound investment in fossil fuel companies.

Hans-Werner Sinn’s opinion piece on whether electric cars are as climate friendly as they seem generated a good deal of controversy. William Todts, executive director of Transport & Environment, gives his response

Hans-Werner Sinn is quite the character. This German economics professor’s writings range from the Greek crisis to migration, to German energy policy.

Recently he has discovered a new passion: electric vehicles. Back in April Sinn published a paper claiming electric cars were worse than diesel. The study was roundly criticised for being misleading. Even Germany’s largest carmaker VW felt compelled to publicly contradict the report days after its publication, giving a rare glimpse of its own lifecycle analysis based on company-specific data that shows Volkswagen EVs are better than their diesels.

The U.N. Environment Program has released its annual Emissions Gap Report. NPR's Rachel Martin talks to international climate policy expert Elliot Diringer about the findings.

A United Nations report warns that greenhouse gas emissions from the world's largest economies must drop dramatically in the next decade to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

(Image credit: Esteban Felix/AP)

Anthony Albanese asks PM why the emissions reduction minister is still on his frontbench. All the day’s events, live

4.49am GMT

Anthony Albanese and Mark Butler will hold a press conference in a couple of minutes - it’s in the Opposition leader’s courtyard, which is Labor’s most serious press conference spot

4.29am GMT

As the frontbench of the government moves out, Scott Morrison reaches across and pats Angus Taylor on the back.

But he does it just inside the door, where it starts to go dark.

Maximum penalties in the tens of thousands of dollars apply for using routes that are closed to contain dieback disease

A hiker in New Zealand has become the first to be charged with walking on closed tracks in the Waitakere ranges, violating a ban put in place to stop the devastating spread of a fungal disease called kauri dieback.

Potential fines of tens of thousands of dollars apply for repeatedly using the tracks, which are closed to the public to let the forest recover from a disease that kills the majority of kauri trees it infects.

Senate inquiry told that misrepresentation and selective use of science is dangerous

Australia’s peak scientific institution has told an inquiry into the reliability of Great Barrier Reef science that it is “greatly concerned” over a trend to cherrypick and misrepresent scientific evidence.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry, the Australian Academy of Science’s president, Prof John Shine, wrote that selective use of science and misrepresentations were “dangerous” and would lead to “poor outcomes”.

More efficient lightbulbs are cheaper and longer-lasting than ever. But while that's good for consumers, it can be tough for an industry that's also facing shifting regulations.

(Image credit: Jeff Brady/NPR)

Four decades of near-uninterrupted growth stoked global climate crisis

The world’s use of coal-fired electricity is on track for its biggest annual fall on record this year after more than four decades of near-uninterrupted growth that has stoked the global climate crisis.

Data shows that coal-fired electricity is expected to fall by 3% in 2019, or more than the combined coal generation in Germany, Spain and the UK last year and could help stall the world’s rising carbon emissions this year.

Revealed: records show law enforcement has called demonstrators possible ‘domestic terrorism’ threats

US law enforcement officials preparing for fresh Keystone XL pipeline protests have privately discussed tactics to stop activists “by any means” and have labeled demonstrators potential “domestic terrorism” threats, records reveal.

Internal government documents seen by the Guardian show that police and local authorities in Montana and the surrounding region have been preparing a coordinated response in the event of a new wave of protests opposing the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canada to Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Some projections say that by 2040 the Arctic Ocean may see its first ice-free summer in modern history. That means mixed emotions for young scientists seeing the ice for the first time.

(Image credit: Ravenna Koenig/NPR)