Exclusive: Campaigners claim move would offset City influence over infrastructure taskforce and better share benefits
The government is being urged to install trade union members on the board of its new £7.3bn national wealth fund to help offset the influence of big banks and ensure that it is geared towards hitting green targets and bringing “shared prosperity” to the UK population.
It is part of a wider set of recommendations set out by the campaign group Positive Money, aimed at shaping the governance and investment plans of the national wealth fund (NWF), which was launched by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, after the July election.
The NWF is part of government efforts to attract billions of pounds of private-sector cash – roughly £3 for every £1 of taxpayer cash – for big infrastructure projects across the UK, including ports, gigafactories and hydrogen and steel projects. The government is hoping that putting £7.3bn of public money forward will persuade private funders to put their own money on the line.
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09/01/2024 - 23:00
State-owned company halts initiative after warnings over opening up ‘right to roam’ laws to large numbers of visitors
A Norwegian tourism campaign aimed at promoting the country as a destination for outdoor activities has been suspended after warnings that opening up the country’s “right to roam” laws to mass tourism could lead to environmental destruction.
Allemannsretten – which gives Norwegians the legal right to camp, swim, ski and walk freely in nature, regardless of who the landowner is – provides the basis of friluftslivet (outdoor life), seen as foundational to the mountainous country’s culture.
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09/01/2024 - 15:28
Derwent River near Hobart expected to reach record level as more than 100,000 homes in Victoria without power
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A woman was killed by a falling tree on the New South Wales-Victoria border, almost 100 flights were cancelled in Sydney and Tasmania was expected to experience record flooding as several destructive cold fronts moved up the east coast.
More than 120,000 people across Victoria and Tasmania were without power on Monday afternoon, while the Derwent River near Hobart was expected to rise to a record level in the evening.
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09/01/2024 - 10:00
Advocates against nets say sharks can easily swim underneath them and drone surveillance is more effective
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Experts, marine conservation groups and an MP are urging the New South Wales government to ban anti-shark nets, which kill large numbers of turtles and dolphins, after 51 nets were installed along the state’s coastline.
Last summer more than 90% of marine animals caught in shark nets were not sharks, while more than half of the 208 non-target species caught – such as turtles, dolphins and smaller sharks – were killed, data showed.
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09/01/2024 - 08:20
Alex Baldock wants to keep gadgets out of landfill as UK’s largest electricals retailer embraces repair and reuse
The UK government should slash VAT on refurbished electrical products to keep gadgets out of landfill, according to the boss of Currys.
“It has already been charged once on these products,” said Alex Baldock, the head of the UK’s largest electrical goods retailer. “I would like to see a radical reduction or entire cut on these products.”
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09/01/2024 - 08:00
I’ve discovered the perfect way to avoid the stress of travel, the mosquito bites and the overtourism. Plus, I can stay at home and tend my tomatoes while knowing I’m saving the planet
I haven’t been on holiday this summer, but don’t start tuning the tiny violins. I derive an unusual satisfaction from working when others aren’t (burning martyr is my preferred summer fragrance) and I don’t like change, or strange pillows. Plus, what would Susan, the pigeon who lives on our roof, and my bounteous crop of five unripe tomatoes do without me?
A summer holiday just doesn’t appeal. Is that weird? It feels as if the climate crisis is killing the notion of summer as something to look forward to and holiday hotspots (literally) are losing their lustre, with Greek islands reaching fatal temperatures and Sicily stricken with catastrophic drought.
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08/31/2024 - 11:00
Ironically named Great Outdoors Initiative that would pave over acres of state parks sent steadfast allies over the edge
In the end, it wasn’t culture war feuding over restricting LGBTQ+ rights, thwarting Black voters or vilifying immigrants that finally broke Republicans’ DeSantis fever in Florida.
Nor was it his rightwing takeover of higher education, the banning of books from school libraries, his restriction of drag shows, or passive assent of neo-Nazis parading outside Disney World waving flags bearing the extremist governor’s name that caused them to finally stand up to him.
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08/31/2024 - 01:00
Exclusive: Figures reveal just 16% of company-controlled sites of special scientific interest are in good condition
Water companies are allowing important natural landscapes they own to fall into disrepair, data shows, with only 16% of sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) under their control in good condition.
The companies have been accused of “polluting for profit” by not investing to improve the status of their SSSIs.
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08/30/2024 - 19:00
Heat building up in country’s centre and driving south-east is causing ‘really unusual’ heatwave that is breaking winter records
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Australia’s winter runs from June to August, but swathes of the country have felt like summer the past week with temperatures topping 40C and records tumbling.
“It doesn’t matter how you slice and dice it,” said Dr Linden Ashcroft, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne. “The temperature records have been gobsmacking.”
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08/30/2024 - 19:00
Photographer Paul Hilton shadowed Captain Robert Bergholz on his boat Restless to see how a local prawn trawler’s day unfolds
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