Environment

Kashmiri saffron is one of the world’s most expensive spices. It’s primarily cultivated in the Pampore region of Jammu and Kashmir in India. Often referred to as ‘red gold’ because of its high value, saffron is prized for its rich aroma, distinctive flavour and quality

The handover marks the end of a 13-year licence for Smart DCC, a subsidiary of Capita, after years of spiralling costs and delays

Control over Great Britain’s 39m smart meters has passed to a non-profit startup after its former owner presided over more than a decade of spiralling costs and delays in the troubled network.

The company owned by crisis-hit outsourcing firm Capita has promised a “seamless transition” to its not-for-profit successor, which will take over running the data network connecting the smart meters from this week.

Patroclo and Achille’s interspecies affair sheds new light on social and sexual relations between animals, scientists say

In ancient myth, Achilles and Patroclus were two Greek heroes of the Trojan war whose intense bond was believed by some to have turned into a sexual relationship.

In modern science, they are a bull, Achille, and a donkey, Patroclo, whose tender interspecies affair has helped to shed new light on social and sexual interactions between animals.

Devon nature reserve says ‘reckless’ theft of narrow-headed ant colony sets back years of conservation work

A nest containing up to 5,000 of England’s rarest ant species has been stolen from a nature reserve, a conservation charity has said.

Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) said a nest of narrow-headed ants had been dug up and taken from Chudleigh Knighton Heath nature reserve in south Devon, which is the last place in England where the species still exists.

Action taken to prevent bottom trawling in the marine protected area and conserve porpoise populations

Greenpeace activists have dropped boulders in the North Sea to snag the dragnets of industrial trawlers fishing in a marine protected area.

Activists onboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise dropped the giant stones to form an underwater barrier around the Southern North Sea marine protected area (MPA) – the UK’s most bottom-trawled MPA.

At more than $52m, the race has become the most expensive in US history, but residents are fed up with flooding

Aida Havel mulled her fate over coffee after working the early voting polls all day in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. “We are trapped,” she concluded.

The Dare county commission candidate lives about 50 miles (80km) south, on Hatteras Island on the state’s Outer Banks.

Google’s AI summary is punching a huge hole in their own profits – is this good?

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A Guardian investigation has found that despite a recommendation to slow down, leading shipping companies continue to travel above advised speeds in a key habitat for cetaceans

Marine biologist Alice Barbarioli waits with her camera trained on the horizon. A few minutes earlier, the hydrophone beneath the Pelagos research vessel detected codas – the sequence of clicks sperm whales use to communicate.

The sperm whale reveals its head and dorsal fin as those onboard the vessel in the Pelagos sanctuary, a conservation area established to protect marine mammals in the north-western Mediterranean, rush to take photos and note the rhythm of its breathing. After a few minutes, the animal arches its back, and begins to head back into the depths of the sea. They wait to catch a glimpse of its tail.

UN-backed report finds even temporary rises above Paris agreement target could cause harm to glaciers and polar ice sheets

Earth’s icy regions face such dangerous melting that global heating should be brought back below 1C after an inevitable period of overshooting global temperature targets, a UN report has found.

Permanent and widespread losses of snow and ice expose a “persistent myth” that overshooting the 1.5C target of the Paris climate agreement – to 2C or 3C – could be manageable or even preferable to urgent cuts to emissions, the report found.

Exclusive: Move to scrap legal requirement to set aside water for environment is ‘extreme even for the NT CLP government’, green group says

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The Northern Territory government has been accused of making a “blatant and shameless” attack on nature by planning to delete a legal requirement that water must be allocated to the environment.

In what has been described as the latest in a series of attacks on the environment by the NT’s Country Liberal party, the Finocchiaro government plans to change water rules that govern how much ground and surface water industry can take.

Officials in Boulder County, Colorado, say they have a safe plan to wipe out invasive weeds, but some locals are concerned

Soon, weed-killing chemicals will start falling from the sky over the Red Hill area of Boulder county, Colorado.

The wildland is known for its biodiversity, home to hundreds of important species and a concentration of rare environmental resources. It is a key habitat for beloved herds of elk and bighorn sheep, with farms and ranchland lying at its base.

Environmental Defense Fund analysis shows administration handed out $950m and Clean Air Act exemptions

It’s a good time to be a coal plant in the US. The Trump administration has given support to almost half of the nation’s coal plants, helping them to continue operating despite economic and regulatory headwinds, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund.

The analysis, which looked at the 184 operating coal plants that are connected to the grid, found that 90 received support from the Trump administration through “cash handouts, free passes to pollute, and requirements to stay online past their retirement dates”.

Cop17, focused on protecting nature and restoring ecosystems, concludes on Saturday with critics saying system allows ‘one idiot’ to stall progress

Calls are growing for major reforms to UN biodiversity summits as countries fail to deliver on their promises to halt the destruction of the natural world, with governments likely on track to continue their record of never having met a target in the 34-year history of the convention.

Two weeks of negotiations at biodiversity Cop17 in Yerevan, Armenia, concluded on Saturday morning with countries vowing to redouble their efforts to meet this decade’s targets, which include commitments to protect 30% of the planet for nature, restore nearly a third of Earth’s degraded ecosystems and reform $500bn (£410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylviania, a post-industrial site gets a second life

UK chancellor’s plans add to concerns government is moving away from pro-renewables agenda

John Healey has said he will veto new offshore wind projects if they will not lower bills, adding to concerns that the government is moving away from the pro-renewables agenda.

Announcing his plans, the chancellor said clean power is “how we break the grip of international gas prices on our bills”, but added the shift towards it “has to come at the right pace, in the right places, with the grid to carry it”.

Residents are fighting back against plans for a project that would span thousands of acres near the Monongahela National Forest and popular outdoor recreation, ski areas and dark sky sites.

(Image credit: Chris Jackson for NPR)

Oyster reefs once abounded in the Chesapeake, but overharvesting slashed their populations, leading to poorer water quality and less habitat for other species. Now, researchers and local residents are finding creative ways to bring their numbers back up.

(Image credit: Ari Daniel)

In October 2025, the remnants of a typhoon seriously damaged Alaska Native villages in the far western part of the state. A year later, one of the hardest hit communities is still recovering.

(Image credit: Gabby Hiestand Salgado)

Dolly Parton, tulips and outback life all feature in the best images captured across the country in October

• Apartments, community centres and a pink outdoor toilet: Australia’s 2026 National Architecture award winners – in pictures

More than 100,000 species are traded globally, whether illegally smuggled, sold as ornaments or in fisheries, timber and fashion industries, study finds

The number of plant and animal species in use or sold in the wildlife trade is more than twice as high as previously thought, researchers have discovered.

A study, published in Science Advances, warns that there are huge gaps in global assessments of how wildlife is traded, and that past estimates have failed to keep up with changes such as the boom in the online exotic pet trade, where sellers offering to post spider eggs across the world or sneak reptiles on to planes are just a click away.