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Climate campaigners question choice of James Evans for role given past criticism of green energy projects
The appointment of a Reform UK member of the Senedd Cymru as the chair of a key Welsh environmental committee could “undermine the hard graft of ministerial scrutiny”, a green thinktank has warned.
James Evans, a former Conservative party MS who defected to Reform UK in January last year, has been appointed chair of the Welsh climate change, environment, sustainability and rural affairs committee.
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Wakelyns needs £1.2m to save its diverse organic crops and ‘micro’ enterprises including a bakery and honeybee hives
The aerial view of Wakelyns matches the experience of visiting it at ground level: in a region dominated by prairie fields of industrial agriculture, here lies a vivid green lung of land. Its sounds and sights in summer – the sleepy purr of the turtle dove, the vivid pink flash of a bullfinch – have vanished from most of the British countryside.
But Wakelyns is not a nature reserve – it is a thriving farm, a “living laboratory” for agroforestry and a hub for innovation and business. It is also under threat, and its owners must raise £1.2m to turn it into a charitable community benefit society.
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Red warnings issued in Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Balkans, with authorities urging people to stay indoors
Parts of central, eastern and southern Europe sweltered on Monday as the “heat dome” behind last week’s record-breaking temperatures shifted east, bringing dangerous conditions to a new swathe of the continent.
Budapest is forecast to exceed 40C on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
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Energy system operator says sum needed to deliver clean power targets while meeting rising demand is up by 50%
The cost of rewiring Great Britain’s electricity networks through the 2030s is now 50% higher than before the Labour government came to power, and could reach almost £90bn in the next decade, according to the energy system operator.
Building new high-voltage transmission lines and infrastructure to connect low-carbon energy to the grid in the 2030s was initially forecast by the energy system operator to cost £58bn.
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Government hopes for 30% of city’s fleet to be electric by 2030, in move hailed as ‘gamechanger’ on air pollution
The unruly chaos of Delhi’s roads would be unrecognisable without the rickshaws and scooters that zip through India’s capital in their millions, emitting toxic fumes in their wake. But now, ambitious policies aim to give the city’s most recognisable vehicles an environmental makeover.
On Monday, Delhi’s government announced plans to eventually ban petrol scooters, motorbikes and autorickshaws in favour of those running on electricity, in an attempt to bring down dangerously high pollution levels in the city by the end of the decade.
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Outer Hebrides: It’s nearly 100 years since anyone lived on this hostile archipelago, though their ‘village’ remains – as does an astonishing wealth of wildlife
Dawn on a deep-rolling ocean, and I am about to realise a dream. We’re 35 nautical miles west of the Outer Hebrides, on board the expedition cruise ship M/V Sea Spirit, approaching the archipelago of St Kilda – the most remote outpost of the British Isles, and the UK’s only dual Unesco world heritage site. Impregnable sheer cliffs spike the seascape, rising to 1,400 feet, and we’re in the company of Risso’s dolphins, flights of gannets and hurrying auks.
We make landing at Hirta, the largest of the four islands at about 2.7 square miles. Above the great storm beach lies a deserted, unnamed “village”, a thin crescent of traditional Hebridean cottages. Nowadays, the only inhabitants are St Kilda wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis) – larger and darker than the mainland populations – but each cottage also bears a simple plaque listing the last family to live there.
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Exclusive: £75m publicity drive will ask people to treat water as precious resource and cut daily use by 28 litres
The biggest ever campaign to encourage the public to reduce their water use will launch this week, as the UK emerges from record temperatures attributed to the climate crisis.
The £75m publicity drive, called Let’s Save Water, will advise and encourage people to treat water as a precious resource and has a target for everyone to cut their daily use by 28 litres – or two large buckets – from the current average use of about 140 litres a day.
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The elephant seal has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour
Bollards, traffic cones, fences and LandCruisers stand little chance against a 1-tonne giant known as Neil the seal, now a local legend in southern Tasmania.
Neil – a five-year-old elephant seal – has once again taken up residence in Tasmanian towns. He’s bypassing barricades, crushing fences, lying on roads and bashing into at least one parked car.
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For months I’ve been trying to receive my FIT payment, which should be more than £1,000
I moved into my new house 14 months ago, and soon afterwards applied toScottishPower, with whom the solar panels are registered for a feed-in tariff (Fit), for transfer of ownership of the panels and the tariff.
After many emails back and forth, I got a response saying they had all the information required.
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The government’s requisition of a historic green space has ignited a fierce debate about air quality and heat stress in India’s scorching capital
For decades, the social highlight of winters in Delhi for the “beautiful people” was the polo season. A sprinkling of royalty and diplomats, impeccably groomed women in pearls and chiffon saris, along with wealthy industrialists sporting silk pocket squares used to gather to watch polo players compete under the mild, balmy sun.
They cheered on handsome players who, once the match was over, had children shrieking in delight as they put on a heart-stopping display of tent-pegging derring-do. Swish champagne lunches and other après-polo celebrations followed.
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