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Removal of nearly 500 barriers last year will help restore disturbed waterways to their natural state, says Dam Removal EuropeEurope removed a record number of dams and other barriers from its rivers in 2023, a report has found, helping to restore its disturbed waterways to their natural states.Nearly 500 barriers were taken out of European rivers last year, according to figures compiled by Dam...

Federal emergency declared in Orenburg region and at least 6,000 homes inundated after Ural River overflowsFlood waters were rising in two cities in Russia’s Ural mountains on Sunday after Europe’s third-longest river burst through a dam, flooding at least 6,000 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee.The Ural River, which rises in the Ural Mountains and flows into the Caspian Sea, swelled several...

French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climateEmmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo...

Just 2% of continent’s gas capacity has planned retirement date despite pledges to decarbonise, study showsEurope’s “tone-deaf” expansion of fossil gas is accelerating climate breakdown and increasing reliance on hostile regimes, campaigners have warned.Just four of Europe’s gas-fired power plants have a retirement plan and new projects will increase the continent’s gas generation capacity by 27%, according to analysis from the campaign group Beyond...

Revised corporate sustainability directive, first agreed in December, draws criticism from environmental campaignersEU countries have slashed the scope of a law to make companies hunt down human rights abuse and environmental harm in their supply chains.The EU’s corporate sustainability directive, which was agreed in December but nearly scuttled after a minor coalition partner in the German government withdrew its support, was approved by member...

Report links rise in birds trapped for human consumption to cuts in anti-poaching resources in area of British military baseMore than 400,000 songbirds were trapped and killed in Cyprus last autumn as part of a recent increase in wildlife crime, according to a new report.Organised crime networks use decoys and speakers playing birdsong to lure these small birds – including garden favourites such as...

Britain spent about £26bn in three years on low-carbon measures, less than Italy, Germany, France and Spain, Greenpeace findsThe UK spends less on low-carbon energy policy than any other major European economy, analysis has shown, despite evidence that such spending could lower household bills and increase economic growth more than the tax cuts the government has planned.Spending on low-carbon measures for the three years...

Two groups are striking for better working conditions and investment in Germany’s underfunded public transportAt first sight, the gathering in an office complex in east Berlin resembles a self-help group. But the public transport workers and climate protesters sitting in a semi-circle introducing themselves have been thrown together, they say, to fight for a common cause.“Hello, my name is Erdogan. I’m a bus driver...

Hanah Lahe is just 24 but she is already a leading voice for change in the former Soviet Baltic stateHanah Lahe can’t remember the fall of the iron curtain. Estonia’s youngest MP grew up surfing the web and consuming American television. Just nine years before her birth, it was all so different. When borders reopened after the end of Soviet rule in 1991, Estonians...

Cianni brothers aim to change minds with Italy’s first company to produce flour from crickets for human consumption“Go on, try it, it is good,” said José Francesco Cianni as he handed over a packet containing a light brown powder with a crispy texture. “I would even say it is really good.”Sitting in his office in a pristine warehouse-like building, down the corridor from five...

MEPs react to ‘tragic’ findings revealing UK falling behind EU in key environmental policies since BrexitBrexit divergence from EU destroying UK’s environmental protectionsNorthern Ireland ‘dirty corner of Europe due to lack of governance’Explainer: UK environmental protections dropped since BrexitEuropean lawmakers have lamented the UK’s decision to weaken environmental rules since leaving the EU, after the Guardian revealed it is falling behind in almost every...

Despite leading lavish lifestyles, some monarchs are influencing people to make greener choicesWhen Prince Frederik takes the throne on Sunday, the Danish crown will pass from his mother, Queen Margrethe II, a monarch who has cast doubt on the fact that human pollution is heating the planet, to one who feels bound by duty to call for stronger action on climate breakdown.“I think it’s...

Angry protests by farmers, hauliers and railway workers risk being exploited by populists such as Alternative für DeutschlandThe symbolism that German farmers chose to express their discontent with the government in the first days of the new year was as unambiguous as it was ominous: by the side of rural roads across the country, there were sightings of makeshift gallows dangling traffic-light signs, a...

Hot weather has proved deadlier in the Croatian city of Osijek than in any other European city but little is being done to work out whyThe green LEDs on the cross outside the pharmacy read 38C for the second day running, but the noontime crowds in the centre of Osijek seemed untroubled by the danger that signalled. “We work in the sun but for...

Bella Nilsson’s company NMT Think Pink accused of illegally dumping tens of thousands of tonnes of wasteEleven people have been charged by a Swedish court in what is being billed as potentially the country’s worst environmental crime in half a century.NMT Think Pink – a previously celebrated waste management company known for its trademark pink rubbish bags – is accused of illegally burying and...