Lobbyists attended 48% more meetings than Tories, as Labour accused of giving them ‘backstage pass’
UK politics live – latest updates
Government ministers met representatives from the fossil fuel industry more than 500 times during their first year in power – equivalent to twice every working day, according to research.
The analysis found that fossil fuel lobbyists were present at 48% more ministerial meetings during Labour’s first year in power than under the Conservatives in 2023.
Ministers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) met fossil fuel lobbyists 274 times, with industry figures present at almost a quarter of meetings.
During the same period DESNZ ministers met trade union representatives 61 times.
Ed Miliband, the secretary for energy and climate change, met fossil fuel lobbyists 250 times – with a third of all his meetings attended by industry figures.
Three fossil fuel companies: BP, Shell and Equinor, met ministers 100 times between them.
Fossil fuel lobbyists attended almost every government meeting about the energy profits levy, a temporary windfall tax on the “extraordinary profits” of North Sea oil and gas companies.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/16/2025 - 05:50
10/16/2025 - 05:35
Researchers say filters do not reduce toxicant exposure and are major contributor to plastic waste crisis
Cigarette filters do not work and are a major source of plastic pollution that should be banned by the UK government, experts have said.
In an editorial in Addiction, the journal for the Society for the Study of Addiction, researchers argue that ministers should use a forthcoming tobacco and vapes bill to “ban filters in the interests of public health and the environment”.
Continue reading...
10/16/2025 - 03:00
Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them.
Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them.
As storm-chasing seabirds, Desertas petrels seek out hurricanes that draw deep-sea creatures to the surface. Only about 200 pairs remain, although the population is stable.
Continue reading...
10/16/2025 - 00:00
The government’s new planning bill is tearing down environmental protections to benefit developers. This nation of nature lovers won’t stand for it
Crucial to the government’s war on nature is the “cauldron principle”. If a species is to be blamed for “holding up development”, it must be one you might find in a witch’s cauldron. The culprits are never dormice, otters, water voles, nightingales, turtle doves or orchids, widely considered cute or beautiful. They are bats, newts, snails and spiders.
Bats and newts have been blamed by successive governments for nastily “standing in the way” of growth. In March, Keir Starmer claimed that “jumping spiders” had stopped “an entire new town”. He added: “I’ve not made that example up.” I think you can guess what comes next.
Continue reading...
10/15/2025 - 23:00
Determined to find a solution to the discarded plastic nets, Ian Falconer found a way to convert them into filament for 3D printing, for use in products from motorbikes to sunglasses
Ian Falconer kept thinking about the heaps of discarded plastic fishing nets he saw at Newlyn harbour near his home in Cornwall. “I thought ‘it’s such a waste’,” he says. “There has to be a better solution than it all going into landfill.”
Falconer, 52, who studied environmental and mining geology at university, came up with a plan: shredding and cleaning the worn out nets, melting the plastic down and converting it into filament to be used in 3D printing. He then built a “micro-factory” so that the filament could be made into useful stuff.
Continue reading...
10/15/2025 - 21:30
The sky’s the limit
See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here
Continue reading...
10/15/2025 - 21:28
Perennial runner up finally claims the crown in the biennial Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll, ahead of Baudin’s black cockatoo and gang-gang cockatoo
More Australian bird of the year content
Download your free official 2025 bird of the year poster
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The tawny frogmouth has been named Australia’s 2025 bird of the year, after taking second place in the biennial Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll three times running.
More than 310,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 6 October and the tawny led the charge from the start, despite being hotly and persistently pursued by two cockatoos: the Baudin’s black cockatoo and the ever-popular gang-gang.
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email
Continue reading...
10/15/2025 - 19:51
This blog is now closed
Tawny frogmouth named 2025 Australian bird of the year winner
More Australian bird of the year content
Download your free official 2025 bird of the year poster
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Heads up: the livestream ceremony is just a few minutes away from launch! You’ll be able to watch it here on the Guardian blog, as well as on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Links to come very shortly …
Top 10 spotlight: the bush stone-curlew
Dopey, anxious and adorable. They never seem to be in a sensible location, or quite sure of how they got there. And they scream like banshees.
Continue reading...
10/15/2025 - 18:01
Greenhouse gases from wildfires at sixth highest level on record after blazes in large areas of the Americas and Africa
Carbon emissions from extreme wildfires increased by 9% last year to reach the sixth highest level on record.
Intense fast-spreading fires devastated huge swathes of South America’s rainforests, dry forests and wetlands and decimated Canada’s northern forests, pushing up the levels of damaging greenhouse gases.
Continue reading...
10/15/2025 - 16:22
Plaintiffs had ‘overwhelming evidence’ of climate crisis but a court injunction would be ‘unworkable’, ruling says
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by young climate activists that aimed to halt Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders.
The dismissal by US district judge Dana Christensen on Wednesday came after 22 plaintiffs, ages seven to 25 and from five states, sought to block three of the president’s executive orders, including those declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to “unleash American energy” – as well as one aimed at “reinvigorating” the US’s production of coal.
Continue reading...
