29 Sep 2019

How might fishing and farming policies be created to protect employment opportunities and the environment after Brexit? Scientists and key figures present their ideas in a paper for the British Ecological Society. The paper highlights the need for UK policy makers to adopt an “ecosystem based” approach, which prioritises the protection of natural assets and […]

29 Sep 2019

The UK has announced a new global alliance to help drive urgent action to safeguard the world’s ocean and protect its precious wildlife. The Global Ocean Alliance will push for the trebling of existing globally-agreed targets so at least a third of the ocean is safeguarded in Marine Protected Areas over the next decade. It […]

29 Sep 2019

The Royal Research Ship (RRS) Sir David Attenborough, formally named last week, was commissioned to replace the James Clark Ross and the Ernest Shackleton, which between them gave almost 50 years’ service in support of UK polar science. It was commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – part of UK Research and Innovation, […]

24 Sep 2019

This article appeared in New Civil Engineer (19 Sep)  The water industry should not fear a no-deal Brexit, a senior Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) figure has claimed. Following revelations of the details of Operation Yellowhammer, the codename used by the UK Treasury for cross-government civil contingency planning for the possibility of a […]

24 Sep 2019

The Met Office, Defra, BEIS and the Environment Agency have launched the highest-ever resolution of climate projections produced for the UK: for the first time on a par with the resolution used for weather forecasting. The launch complements the other products already unveiled last year as part of the UKCP18 suite of climate projections. Dr Lizzie […]

24 Sep 2019

Ofwat has published a report on customer satisfaction with Portsmouth Water and Anglian Water coming out as top performers, following strong results the year before too. The bottom performers are Thames Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy, and with Thames taking last place consistently over four years, it will have to return £100m to customers under Ofwat’s […]

24 Sep 2019

The government has set out its funding for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) in England, since financial year 2005/06. The document sets out the budget allocations, as well as historical expenditure on Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management. It also sets out other sources of funding used for FCERM. Expenditure on Flood and […]

24 Sep 2019

A new report by the World Bank is warning that the world faces an invisible crisis of water quality that is eliminating one-third of potential economic growth in heavily polluted areas and threatening human and environmental well-being. Using new data and methods Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis shows how a combination of bacteria, sewage, chemicals, […]