01 Sep 2020

The worldwide effort to combat critical levels of biodiversity loss will fail without far greater involvement from local communities, according to an international declaration. The “Edinburgh declaration”, published on Monday, urges leaders to work more closely with sub-national governments, indigenous peoples, national parks, local councils and wider society in meeting 20 biodiversity goals set out […]

01 Sep 2020

Restoration potential maps have been developed to provide a national ‘high level’ indication of where intertidal and subtidal seagrass, native oysters and saltmarsh could potentially be restored based on some key physical attributes. The maps are accessible on the Coastal Data Explorer portal hosted by the Rivers Trust that is being developed as part of […]

01 Sep 2020

During expeditions to oil and gas reservoirs in the central North Sea in 2012 and 2013, scientists of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany) discovered that methane bubbles emerged from the seabed around abandoned wells. The gas originates from shallow gas pockets, which lie less than 1000 meters deep below the seafloor […]

25 Aug 2020

The Environment Bill allows for long-term targets to be set in respect of any matter which relates to the natural environment, or people’s enjoyment of it. It requires government to set at least one target in four priority areas: air quality, biodiversity, water, and resource efficiency and waste reduction, as well as a target for […]

25 Aug 2020

Describing itself as the “sea-faring sister of Extinction Rebellion”, Ocean Rebellion said it aimed to push the UN to take firmer action against the drivers of “marine emergencies” including over-fishing, deep-sea mining and greenhouse gas emissions. In the immediate term, the new Oceans Rebellion offshoot group plans to target the cruise industry, arguing that “the climate […]

25 Aug 2020

Wales’ first floating wind project took a major step forward this week, after the Crown Estate awarded seabed rights to developers to build the 96MW demonstration project in the Celtic Sea. The Crown Estate granted two new leases for windfarms in Welsh waters a demonstration project that involves installing floating wind turbines 27 miles from […]

25 Aug 2020

A report by Cefas on the future development and management of recreational sea angling using data from interviews and online surveys. Sea anglers were motivated by both catching fish and the quality of the environment in which they fish. Over two-thirds of respondents said that they were willing to provide catch and participation data in […]

25 Aug 2020

The Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice in 2019, equivalent to a million tonnes per minute across the year, satellite data shows. The climate crisis is heating the Arctic at double the rate in lower latitudes, and the ice cap is the biggest single contributor to sea level rise, which already imperils […]