27 Aug 2024

The UK’s decision to issue new oil and gas exploration licences is being challenged in court by Oceana UK, which argues ministers unlawfully failed to consider the impact on marine life. Oceana UK has moved forward with its legal challenge over fossil fuel exploration licences issued in May 2024 as part of the North Sea […]

25 Aug 2024

A deep dive into stock assessments of fisheries around the world has revealed their sustainability is overstated – and it has implications for fisheries management and consumer awareness. Many fish stocks around the world are either threatened by overfishing or have already collapsed. One of the main reasons for this devastating trend is that policymakers […]

21 Aug 2024

A new report, Embracing Nature, published by The Wildlife Trusts, identifies drought as the current leading threat to their nature reserves for the first time. The Wildlife Trusts, who are among the UK’s largest landowners with 2,600 nature reserves covering nearly 100,000 hectares (ha), also point to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as high […]

21 Aug 2024

According to The Guardian, the Environment Agency is planning to amend the Environmental Performance Assessment, tightening the rules to stop water companies from using the current highest four-star ratings to justify high CEO pay. The newspaper says that bosses presiding over companies found to “recklessly” discharge sewage have been able to justify their large pay packets because of being […]

21 Aug 2024

The Environment Agency has published a mid-programme summary of its ongoing £200m flood and coastal innovation programmes. The mid-programme headlines are as follows Flood and coastal resilience can unlock significant wider social and environmental benefits for people, places, and wildlife A lack of understanding and evidence hinders the coordination and delivery of groundwater flood risk […]

21 Aug 2024

UKWIR has published a new report ‘The greenhouse gas emissions of nature-based solutions for wastewater treatment’. Abstract: Using a systematic global literature review, factors were collated that increased or decreased emissions from methane, nitrous oxide and carbon from various typologies of constructed wetland, enhanced septic tank-nature-based solutions (NBS) and stabilisation ponds.  Responses were gathered from water […]

21 Aug 2024

About 90kg (200lbs) of dead fish have been removed from a canal after a sodium cyanide leak in Walsall that experts fear could have “devastated the aquatic ecosystem” in the area. A 1km stretch of the waterway remains closed to the public after the chemical spill from a metal finishing company, Anochrome. The spill was declared a major […]