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The Observer view on the Tories’ shameful record on climate change | Observer editorial

Since the election, the government has performed a series of dizzying U-turns on its green policies

President Obama reputedly remarked of the forthcoming UN climate change summit: “I’m dragging the rest of the world behind me to Paris.” Later this month, 149 nations will congregate to agree national targets for reducing carbon emissions. But Britain, once regarded as a global leader, has relegated itself to the ranks of those reluctantly being pulled along in Obama’s wake.

Since the election, the government has performed a series of dizzying U-turns on its green policies. It has announced cuts to subsidies for onshore wind and solar energy; scrapped the zero carbon homes standard; ended the green deal for home insulation; and reversed its promise to exclude national parks from fracking.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Brazilian rescue teams struggle to reach villages in path of dam burst

Nineteen people are still missing as mining executives suggest that an earth could have triggered the disastrous collapse of two dams

Rescue teams have struggled to reach villages devastated by a massive mudflow after two dams burst at a major iron ore mine in south-east Brazil.

The twin bursts, which mining executives think could have been triggered by an earth tremor, wrought havoc more than 50 miles downstream and prompted officials to warn that many people are likely to have died.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Carbon tax more affordable than GST hike to raise same revenue, say Greens

Adam Bandt and Richard Di Natale say a carbon tax delivers as much to the budget as increasing or broadening the GST, while costing households less

Related: Raising GST to 15% ‘will cost poorest families 7% of disposable income’

The Australian Greens say a carbon tax would raise as much revenue as increasing the GST rate or broadening its base, while also reducing pollution.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Protest threatened over memorial 20 years after Ken Saro-Wiwa execution

Twenty years after ‘judicial murder’, Nigeria’s Ogoni people highlight international storm over oil spillage pollution

Leaders of Nigeria’s Ogoni people have threatened to disrupt the country’s oil industry if the government does not release a British artwork commemorating the 20th anniversary of the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The memorial, in the form of a large bus, has been impounded by customs in Lagos for six weeks because it is considered politically inflammatory. A quote from the writer on the side of the bus accuses the oil companies of “practising genocide against the Ogoni” .

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Source: Guardian Environment

You’re failing on green energy, Tory ex-minister warns Cameron

John Gummer, PM’s climate change adviser, fears impact of subsidy cuts to solar and wind power

David Cameron’s chief climate change adviser has warned that the government is “clearly failing” in key policy areas and needs to regain the confidence of investors in green technology, in the runup to next month’s crucial global summit in Paris.

Lord Deben, chairman of the UK’s independent committee on climate change, told the Observer of his concerns, particularly regarding the continued waste of energy from draughty homes and the failure to exploit the potential of renewable heat technology.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Canadians 'disappointed' by Keystone XL pipeline decision but not surprised

Prime minister looks forward but some have accused the US of ‘hypocrisy’, as shale oil production sent US production soaring by four million barrels per day

The Obama administration’s decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline met with disappointment and derision – though little surprise – in Calgary, the boomtown-turned-bust capital of Canada’s oil industry. It also induced some provincial angst as Alberta attempts to open new markets for a product that floats rough 50% of its economy.

Related: Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline and hails US as leader on climate change

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Source: Guardian Environment

Keystone XL pipeline rejection signals US taking lead on climate change fight

Obama said approving project would undercut global leadership as climate change is a diplomatic imperative that overrides traditionally domestic interests

The symbolism was everything. Standing before a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt, the conservationist president who 104 years ago busted the Standard Oil monopoly, Barack Obama made his own tilt at an environmental legacy.

Related: Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline and hails US as leader on climate change

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Source: Guardian Environment

Waltham Forest ‘mini-Holland’ row: politics, protests and house prices

Boris Johnson’s east London suburban cycling scheme is meeting strong opposition, though estate agents seem very keen on it

It was a lively scene outside Walthamstow Town Hall: hundreds of people, young and old, female and male of many faiths and ethnicities united in advance of a full council meeting against what they see as the heedless imposition of one of Boris Johnson’s “mini-Holland” cycling infrastructure schemes. “Let’s have justice not a dictatorship,” read one placard. “We are not the silent minority, we are the vocal majority,” a banner cried.

This is not how things were meant to be. When the Labour-run borough secured “full mini-Holland status” and £30m from Conservative-run City Hall in March 2014, Johnson declared himself “incredibly impressed” by the “thirst” of all the leading borough funding bidders “to transform themselves into better places for people.” Clearly, a lot of people who live in Waltham Forest aren’t seeing the changes in their streets in quite that way.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Don’t miss out on free energy-efficiency measures

Some households are eligible for grants and free insulation – or even new boilers

Thousands of householders – particularly those on low incomes – are missing out on free energy efficiency measures, including new boilers, because they may not be aware that help is available. Since 2013, energy firms have been ordered by the government to reduce energy consumption and support people at greater risk of fuel poverty through what is known as the energy company obligation (ECO) scheme.

So far around 1.5m energy-saving measures have been installed in households across Britain, at a rate of around 25,000 a month. However, with winter weather just around the corner, householders who live in older properties that may not have such measures in place are being encouraged to see if they are entitled to a free or low-cost upgrade.

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Source: Guardian Environment