Following Michael Gove’s recent appearance before the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee, it seems Defra is to assess its arms-length agencies after Brexit in a move that could see the Environment Agency merged with Natural England. Environment secretary Michael Gove said that Defra’s director general for strategy delivery Shaun Gallagher would lead the review. […]
Ofwat has announced funding for a water Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID). “This team will ensure a smooth regulatory path for strategic water transfers and joint infrastructure projects. RAPID will bring together staff from Ofwat, the Environment Agency, and Drinking Water Inspectorate into a new team. It will follow a range of projects […]
A new report from the World Bank and the World Resources Institute looks at integrating green and grey infrastructure for water security and climate resilience. The report showcases case studies and illustrates how emerging technology can make green infrastructure cheaper and easier to design and assess. It finds that integrating green and grey infrastructure can […]
Climate change could make insurance too expensive! Insurers are warning that their products could become unaffordable for ordinary people, as the world’s biggest reinsurance firm puts the blame for the £18bn bill it faces from the California wildfires firmly on global warming. Munich Re’s chief climatologist (yes, they do employ one of them) told the […]
What is Natural Capital and what are Ecosystem Services and why do we need to protect them? Three new animations, funded by the Interreg North Sea Region WaterCoG project, have been created by The Rivers Trust to visually introduce natural capital and ecosystem services in three films. The first introduces the subjects, the second provides context […]
Bob Earll ‘The Guardian has run an article on impact of the French bass fishery on bycatch of dolphins and strandings on French beaches. The strandings network run by Cornwall Wildlife Trust have also registered increased dolphin strandings over the last few years. I covered this a few weeks ago when Sea Shepherd released images […]
You’ve got to ride the wave and make the most of the huge publicity around single use plastics. But how ambitious should we be? The difference in the ambition – setting the date for a ban of SUPs – between EU MPs and UK NGOs is probably just down to a quirk of timing. The […]
Public Accounts Committee report calls on government to get a better handle on future fossil fuel infrastructure decommissioning costs The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of MPs has today published a new report warning there is “significant uncertainty over costs to taxpayers of decommissioning offshore oil and gas assets”, as well as a “poor understanding” within government […]