23 Mar 2022

On 17 March we covered a report by the Senedd’s Climate Change Committee which was calling on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to tackle sewage discharges made by water companies into Welsh rivers. There was a report of over 105,000 incidents of untreated sewage being dumped into Welsh rivers. Further information on this […]

23 Mar 2022

It was World Water Day on 22nd March, with a special focus on Groundwater. Most of Europe’s drinking water and a significant proportion of water used in irrigation come from groundwater. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing, published on World Water Day, provides a European overview of this key resource that is under increasing pressure […]

23 Mar 2022

Water companies in England have published a landmark report which sets out how they plan to significantly reduce leakage by 2050. Highlights include: It outlines how water companies will triple leakage reduction by 2030 and halve leakage by 2050 Leakage across the network at lowest levels since records began following significant investment and innovation by […]

22 Mar 2022

The United Nations failed to finalise a landmark treaty to preserve the biodiversity of the high seas – the 60% of the ocean beyond any nation’s jurisdiction. Observers, though, expect an agreement to be reached by year’s end as pressure builds to protect marine life from the growing impacts of climate change, overfishing and pollution, reports Bloomberg. The two-week meeting […]

22 Mar 2022

Views on a draft future catching policy are being sought along with plans to roll-out Remote Electronic Monitoring systems for boats fishing in Scottish waters. The proposals include: Additional technical and spatial management measures to reduce catches of unwanted fish and support the fishing industry to avoid bycatch of sensitive marine species such as seabirds, […]

22 Mar 2022

Both the Welsh Government and Defra have made announcements regarding end-of-life fishing gear. Firstly, the Welsh Government is taking action against marine litter as it becomes the first UK nation to introduce a recycling scheme for fishing gear. A press release has stated that: ‘The first collection, which took place today on Global Recycling Day […]

22 Mar 2022

Defra launches targets consultation and Nature Recovery Green Paper: The Nature Recovery Green Paper sets out our ambition to enable nature’s recovery in England, laying out proposals to support our aim to halt and reverse the loss of nature over the last 50 years. We want to seize the opportunity to update the existing legal […]

22 Mar 2022

Coastal engineers, waste management and pollution researchers at the University of Southampton and Queen Mary University of London have highlighted the increasing environmental risks associated with coastal landfill sites in the face of climate change. Rising sea levels may flood the landfills, flushing pollutants into the environment, whilst erosion could release waste onto beaches to […]