Climate change – live: Boris Johnson risks being ‘vilified’ for coal mine and deforestation ‘stresses’ animals

A 15-year-old American climate activist has taken to Twitter to straighten out the alleged misinformation being spread about India’s farming protests, and to explain why she believes it should be considered a “climate issue”.

In a lengthy thread, Alexandria Villaseñor explains the fallout in India and comes to the conclusion: “You are probably asking why it’s a climate issue and that’s because lower prices and corporatisation [of crops] often leads to unsustainable practices in farming, and with India being the second most populous country in the world, that’s a LOT of farming!”

The teenager, well-known for her activism, said the issue is an example of how countries around the world consider themselves separate but, she argues, where the planet is concerned - everyone is united. 

“Rising inequality and decreasing sustainability affects us all, regardless of where we live. We have to stop thinking our actions don't affect each other, because they do. We all share the same planet and the same resources and it’s time we own that and act like it,” she said on the social media platform.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers in the world’s seventh-largest country have been protesting for five months over agricultural bills, passed in September, which they believe prioritise corporate interests over their own. 

The movement went from being peaceful to violent on 26 January – during India’s Republic Day celebrations – and gathered international support this week when singer and fashion designer Rihanna and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted about it.

Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency has pledged to do a “damage assessment” at the agency if he is confirmed, following Donald Trump’s presidency which was filled with a rollback or weakening of dozens of environmental and climate policies.

Michael Regan, who has served as the top environmental regulator in North Carolina since 2017, appeared before a Senate committee on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing.

Our senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle reports:

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry is one of the world and business leaders identified by Climate Home News as setting the agenda on seven key issues for the Cop26 talks in November.

Denmark has agreed to build an island in the North Sea that would gather and distribute electricity from wind energy farms.

The 210-billion kroner ($25 billion) artificial island, which will be created about 50 miles off the country's west coast, will connect to several European countries.

It would start with 3 gigawatts of capacity, enough to cover the electricity needs of 3 million European households, eventually increasing to 10 gigawatts. the Danish Energy Agency said.

"The energy hub in the North Sea will be the largest construction project in Danish history," Climate Minister Dan Joergensen said.

"It will make a big contribution to the realisation of the enormous potential for European offshore wind."No date has been set yet for the start of construction of the island, which will be controlled by the Danish government.

The goal is to use electricity from renewable sources such as wind to fuel ships, planes and lorries, the agency said.

Oil companies should be forced to install rapid chargers for electric cars in all their petrol stations above a certain size by 2023, to speed up the rollout of non-polluting vehicles, according to a think tank.

A report from Bright Blue, which describes itself as a pressure group for liberal conservatism, also calls for a reversal in cuts to government grants for battery electric vehicles and a new grant to help low-income households buy such vehicles secondhand.

The think tank says the lower lifetime costs of such vehicless compared with those of petrol and diesel cars should be made clear at the point of sale, The Guardian reports.

Four environmental groups have this week launched a legal challenge against the reopening of an oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands, which has been closed since 2012, after it resumed business this week.

Limetree Bay shut down more than eight years ago after a series of oil spills, which led to a £3.9m ($5.4m) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fine, but got approval to reopen from the Trump administration and then-EPA head Andrew Wheeler in 2019.

The petition urged the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to review the refinery’s permit, according to reports in The Hill, and pointed to the fact the site is on the Caribbean island of St Croix, where 76 per cent of the population is black and some 27 per cent live in poverty.

The four organisations claimed the EPA approved the reopening based on “unacceptably high” pollution standards and ignored the pollution generated by restarting the refinery.

John Walke, clean air director for the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), labelled the case "the worst environmental justice abuse and the biggest air pollution permitting fiasco that I have seen in my 25 years as a clean air attorney" in an interview with The Hill.

"Because have a new administration now, not the administration that issued the permit, the Biden-Harris administration will have the opportunity to reopen the permit, to revoke the permit, to file papers with the environmental appeals board," he added. 

"This controversy could heat up to become a political and policy and legal controversy all at once and certainly the first marquee environmental justice controversy of the new Biden-Harris administration."

Downing Street has refused to rule out a new carbon tax which could see the prices of staple items like meat and cheese, as well as gas heating, increase.

Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak have reportedly asked Whitehall ministries to produce a “price” for carbon emissions across all areas of the economy, as part of a drive to achieve the PM's net-zero pledge.

Proposals are being drawn up for a carbon reduction blueprint to be unveiled ahead of the UN COP26 climate change summit being hosted by the UK in Glasgow in November.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the story, which you can read here.

A member of Extinction Rebellion has been sent to prison after gluing himself to the witness stand during a trial for his obstruction of a highway in 2019.

Árainn Hawker, who has been part of XR for two years, appeared at the City of London Magistrates' Court on Thursday in relation to a two-year-old charge – but decided to take a stand in the courtroom which, he said, "extended the campaign of peaceful civil disobedience".

He livestreamed the event on Facebook.

In a pre-prepared statement, which the environmentalist group shared after he was sentenced to seven days in Wandsworth Prison for contempt of court, Mr Hawker said:

“If you are reading this then it is because I have been sent to one of Her Majesty’s prisons here in London for contempt of court because I have, as an XR defendant, extended the campaign of peaceful civil disobedience into the courtroom.

“I have chosen to take this action because, while spending the past two years as an active member of Extinction Rebellion, I’ve seen what I believe to be a wholesale and top to bottom failure of the judicial system to adequately respond to the climate and ecological emergency we face.

“From the Metropolitan Police’s decisions to put illegal barriers in the way of peaceful protest, to the CPS’s political decision to prosecute so many of us (especially in times of Covid) to the discounting and blocking of the defense of necessity and the higher courts decisions to facilitate the psychopathic Heathrow third runway and HS2 projects.

“As a Forest School leader of 20 years experience, I am seeing the climate and ecological emergency affecting our environment with more and more extreme weather-related events and plant and tree diseases. But more than anything, I believe I owe it to the people suffering on the frontline, mostly in the southern hemisphere, to say that this system cannot stand anymore.

“I believe the change we need can only be brought about in time, if the people who can choose to, throw ourselves on the wheels of the machine as many times as we are able.

“I am inspired by the ones who have gone before me and I hope to, in my own small way, inspire more people to join and extend the campaign.

“If not now, when?

“If not me, who?”

You can watch the livestream footage here:

For the love of fashion.

At least it seems that is the logic of some companies, after a new report suggested the global fashion industry has developed a “dangerous addiction” to synthetic fibres made from fossil fuels in order to supply shoppers with rapidly increasing quantities of throwaway clothing.

Use of synthetic fibres, especially polyester, has doubled in textiles in the last 20 years, research by a group of environmental organisations found.

Polyester, which accounts for 85 per cent of the synthetic fibres used in clothing, is a major source of microfibre pollution. It is now found in more than half of textiles and supply is likely to continue to grow, according to the report.

Our businesses reporter Ben Chapman has the story.

That's it from us on the blog today, thanks for following along. You can continue to get all the latest climate-related news by heading to our climate change hub.