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Exclusive: Farmers still awaiting promised payments for uninsurable damage caused by Storm Henk
Labour may cut financial support for flooded farmers, the Guardian has learned, while money to compensate them for deluges in January has still not hit their pockets.
The previous Conservative government earlier this year promised up to £25,000 in payments for uninsurable damage from flooding caused by Storm Henk. However, the eligibility criteria for these grants has still not been set out, leaving farmers out of pocket. The scheme has been plagued with delays, with some affected farmers not being paid because they live too far from a river.
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Tebay, Cumbria: Competition judges look out for no uncrossed joints, stones decreasing in size as the wall gets higher, the middle well filled, and a tidy job
Pick-ups parked on the grass verges lined both sides of the lane down to our farm on Sunday morning. We were hosting the Cumbria Young Farmers Southern District walling competition. Early in the morning, a long stretch of drystone wall, including the footings, had been taken down, and the competitors had the rest of the day to rebuild their allocated section in the local style to match the rest of the wall.
Competitors came from Grayrigg, Crook, Sedbergh, Kent Estuary and Pennine young farmers’ clubs to compete in either the junior, intermediate, senior or girls category. Music belted out from the pick-ups to chivvy them along, as well as the tapping of hammers on crowbars.
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Prime minister suggests there will be more public money made available for new technologies
Keir Starmer has signalled his government will drastically increase its green investment plans in an attempt to avoid a rerun of 1980s-style industrial decline by safeguarding jobs in heartland manufacturing communities.
On a visit to a Merseyside glass factory on Friday to unveil billions of pounds in funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, the prime minister suggested there would be more public money made available for new technologies.
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Research challenges idea that sending liquefied natural gas around the world is cleaner alternative to burning coal
Exported gas emits far more greenhouse gas emissions than coal, despite fossil-fuel industry claims it is a cleaner alternative, according to a major new research paper that challenges the controversial yet rapid expansion of gas exports from the US to Europe and Asia.
Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels when combusted for energy, with oil and gas producers for years promoting cleaner-burning gas as a “bridge” fuel and even a “climate solution” amid a glut of new liquefied natural gas (or LNG) terminals, primarily in the US.
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Exclusive: Broadcaster joins board of Climate Emergency Fund and says there needs to be new ways of pushing for change
Climate activists need to stop blocking roads and start holding fossil fuel executives personally to account, Chris Packham has said, after being appointed to the board of one of the biggest activist funds in the world.
The naturalist and broadcaster is the first non-US-based director of the Climate Emergency Fund, which has given almost $15m (£11.4m) to activists taking part in non-violent civil disobedience around the world since 2019.
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Investment will fund two CCS clusters – but environmental campaigners have criticised plans
Rachel Reeves is paving the way for a multibillion-pound increase in public-sector investment at the budget after the government announced plans to commit almost £22bn over 25 years to fund carbon capture and storage projects.
In what is expected to be one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament, the chancellor, prime minister and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will unveil the details on a visit to the Liverpool city region on Friday declaring a “new era” for clean energy jobs.
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Firefighters carry heavy packs along rugged slopes to calm fast-moving fires, and sweltering weather is compounding already dangerous work
After 20 years fighting flames for the US Forest Service, the fire captain Abel Martinez has pretty much seen it all.
His lungs are scarred from the smouldering car tires and scorched homes that fed billowing flames alongside highways, through parched canyons, or over treetops in the Angeles national forest, the mountainous wilderness where he works in southern California. Whether it’s a dry year or a wet one, the decades on the job have taught him that every fire season is likely to be a busy one.
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Financial leaders have urged the country to focus on protecting and restoring nature – but details remain thin on the ground
As the Albanese government prepared to host what has been billed as a “global nature-positive summit” in Sydney, Australian business and finance leaders issued something of a rallying call. In a joint statement, they urged the country to focus more on the importance of nature protection and restoration, warning the nation’s economy depends on it.
Their statement had few specifics, but the organisations behind it – including the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation led by former Treasury secretary Ken Henry and groups representing accountants, superannuation investors and the insurance industry – said the evidence was clear that nature was degrading at an unprecedented rate globally and that about half of Australia’s GDP depended on its health, either directly or indirectly.
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Sea levels along the US coastline could rise as much as 12in from 2020 to 2050 due to climate crisis, scientists warn
Floods affecting much of the south-east US show the destructive force of higher sea levels and warmer temperatures. Now, researchers at the non-profit Climate Central are using artificial intelligence to predict how climate-related flooding will affect US communities into the next 75 years if warming continues at its current pace.
Previous research has shown that by 2050, sea levels along the US coastline could rise as much as 12in (30cm) from 2020 levels. High-tide flooding, which can occur even in sunny weather, is projected to triple by 2050, and so-called 100-year floods may soon become annual occurrences in New England.
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A row over sea life, lice and livelihoods is dividing communities as the government plans to end open-net pen farming in British Columbian waters
On a clear August morning, Skookum John manoeuvres his fishing boat, Sweet Marie, out of the Tofino harbour and into the deep blue waters of Clayoquot Sound on Canada’s west coast.
On shore, the late summer sun shines on visitors from all over the world who have flocked to the bustling fishing town on Vancouver Island, where they wander in and out of surf shops, art galleries and restaurants and pile into small boats in the hope of glimpsing orca, humpback and grey whales.
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