Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Andrew Griffith makes speech today as Reform UK accuses party of copying policies they ‘announced weeks and months ago’ Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England The Labour party has issued a detailed response to the proposals announced by Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor, today. (See 8.08am.) In part, Labour is saying the problems Griffith raises are being addressed. But mostly it is saying the Tories have no credibility on these issues because they ignored them or allowed them to get worse, when they were in power. Here are some of the Labour arguments. The Conservatives have already pledged to scrap stamp duty on the family home, giving people a leg up onto the housing ladder. Now we are announcing radical supply-side reforms that will ensure the homes we need actually get built. We will scrap unnecessary net-zero housing red tape that is stopping developers from building and driving up the cost of housing. We will ditch the Future Homes Standard and Part L of the Housing Regulations. All in all, we will cut the cost of delivering and therefore buying a new home by up to £50,000. Ideological net zero rules alone have added more than £30,000 to the cost of building a new home. Local Government viability assessments show that Net Zero rules add tens of thousands of pounds to the cost of building a new home. For instance, Birmingham City Council assessed that improved efficiency, heat pumps and solar panels increase the cost of a new detached home by as much as £30,789. The London Borough of Lewisham estimated that these rules would increase build costs by 15 per cent. (Birmingham City Council, Net Zero Plan Supporting Evidence Report, 7 September 2023, link, Lewisham Council, Viability Study 2022, 17 May 2022, link.) These costs can be even higher as local and regional authorities often gold-plate these rules, imposing extra cost on developers. For instance, Policy SI2 (C) in the London Plan 2021 requires a 35 per cent uplift on energy efficiency beyond the national Building Regulations for major developments. (Mayor of London, The London Plan, March 2021, link.) Continue reading...

Juvenile humpback was spotted near Bundjalung national park in what experts say is a rare but not unprecedented event Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast While the case of a whale found 11km upstream in a New South Wales river this weekend was unusual, it was not unprecedented, experts say. The juvenile humpback, which swam into the Clarence River on the state’s mid-north coast and later died, was towed out to sea on Sunday, according to NSW authorities. Continue reading...

Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth The Conservatives will announce a bonfire of regulations including abolishing affordable homes and community funding rules as well as scrapping Natural England and the Environment Agency. The shadow chancellor, Andrew Griffith, will say the party intends to “streamline regulations” that protect nature and oblige developers to include affordable homes and community services such as GP surgeries, to speed up infrastructure and housebuilding. Continue reading...

A statewide initiative pairs climate-focused coursework with community service – and is spreading to other states As a student at a high school not far from Denver’s main airport, Anthony Muñoz wondered whether the jet fuel from airplanes flying above his campus was harming living things. An avid gardener, Muñoz partnered with a local university to create a garden on the campus of his charter school, Vista Academy, filling it with native plants that could detect ground-level ozone pollution. He also worked with climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federal office in nearby Boulder, who directed Muñoz on what data to collect, what the condition of leaves reveals about air quality and why milkweed matters for monarch butterfly migration. Continue reading...