15 Aug 2023

A legal claim has been issued against six UK water companies who are facing legal collective actions for allegedly abusing their dominant market position by underreporting the number of times they cause pollution incidents and overcharging customers as a result. The case is covered in the Guardian which says the claim on behalf of 20 […]

15 Aug 2023

Defra has issued a press release to let the world know that Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey and Water Minister Rebecca Pow met stakeholders “to discuss actions to improve the River Deben” in Suffolk. Apparently part of the follow-up to the government’s Plan for Water, there was no significant progress reported, no additional funding and no action […]

15 Aug 2023

Observer investigation reveals the shocking state of the country’s protected freshwater sites of special scientific interest. More than 90% of freshwater habitats on England’s most precious rivers are in unfavourable condition, blighted by farming pollution, raw sewage and water abstraction, an Observer investigation reveals. None of the approximately 40 rivers with protected habitats in England […]

15 Aug 2023

Our seas and rivers have never been in a worse state after years of neglect by the water companies. Now, we routinely check the sewage app alongside the weather. Meet the new CEO of Surfers Against Sewage who plans to turn the tide. Lyme Regis on the south coast of England is an old and […]

15 Aug 2023

The Environmental Audit Committee is undertaking an inquiry into the current and potential future role of natural capital in the green economy, and the Government’s proposals to increase private investment in measures to support nature recovery. The Committee is inviting contributions on the following questions: What potential contribution can private capital investment make to measures […]

15 Aug 2023

Marine environmentalists have reacted with concern at news the UK will allow commercial fishing of bluefin tuna for the first time in 60 years. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have announced that 10 licences would be issued for a small-scale trial of commercial fishing, with the tuna brought ashore for consumption, […]

15 Aug 2023

The UN treaty on the high seas, signed in June, succeeded the fishing treaty, as an even more useful legal tool for protecting international waters. To date, all of the Arctic’s protected marine regions have been inside the 200-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of individual countries. The largest such protected area, designated in 2019, is […]

15 Aug 2023

Many areas outside national and regional protected area networks contribute to the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity. Appropriately recognising, reporting and supporting such areas is increasingly important in the context of biodiversity loss and climate change. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognised early in the CBD’s Strategic Plan (2011-2020) that ‘other effective […]