From a UK perspective, July’s biggest environment news was undoubtedly the general election. As well as unprecedented gains for the Green Party, the Labour Party unseated the Conservative Government with a landslide victory. We’ll have a look at some of the first environmental policies highlighted in the King’s Speech and Labour’s first month in power. Still in the UK, five Just Stop Oil protesters were given lengthy jail sentences for planning disruption to the M25. In climate news, data released this month showed that earth’s temperatures were 1.5˚C higher than in the late 1800s for a full year for the first time. There was good news, however, for Scotland’s Flow Country as it achieved UNESCO World Heritage Status.
Labour Achieve Landslide Victory as Greens Win Four Seats
Early July’s snap UK election resulted in a landslide victory for the Labour Party who won 411 seats. The election also marked the UK Green Party’s most successful campaign ever as they increased their seat count from one to four. Joining the already held Brighton Pavilion constituency, they took Waveney Valley in Suffolk, Bristol Central and North Herefordshire. The Liberal Democrats also did well. Many of their seats came from the so-called ‘blue wall’ in the south of England. A Greenpeace commissioned poll suggested that the Tories’ record on water pollution, something the Lib Dem campaign had highlighted, was an important factor in changing voting intentions.
Labour moved quickly on renewables, changing legislation on solar panels, approving three new solar farms and lifting a ban on onshore wind farms. In mid-July, the King’s Speech set out Labour’s programme of government in more detail. Garnering the most headlines were plans for Great British Energy, a new, nationalised body set to run clean power generation projects across the UK. The body will benefit from a partnership with the Crown Estate, giving it access to investment, borrowing power and large tracts of land and seabed to house projects. The speech also included bills on improving bus services, increased public ownership of railways, greater regulation of polluting water firms and support for the development of sustainable aviation fuel. A new National Wealth Fund will be created, some of which will be invested in green industry.
Later in the month, Labour announced an urgent review of the government’s Environmental Impact Plan, mandatory under the Environment Act 2021. The planned review aims to ensure that legally binding nature preservation and restoration targets are met. Targets include increased tree-planting, improving air quality, halting biodiversity loss and cleaning up the country’s waterways. Conservationists hope that Labour will also confirm their pledge not to allow future exemptions for use of harmful neonicotinoid insecticides.
Just Stop Oil Campaigners Jailed
Five Just Stop Oil activists were given the longest sentences ever handed out in the UK for non-violent protest following their trial this month. The group’s co-founder Roger Hallam was given the longest sentence of five years. The remaining four defendants, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin, received four-year jail terms. The five activists were jailed for ‘conspiracy to cause a public nuisance’ for their parts in planning disruption to the M25 in 2022. During the trial, the judge also imposed restrictions on the defendants’ freedom to mention the climate crisis as part of their defence. Those that continued to cite climate breakdown were further sanctioned.
Eleven supporters outside the court were also briefly arrested for holding placards under contempt of court rules. The sentences were met with protests from a number of high-profile names including broadcaster Chris Packham, chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Ecotricity founder Dale Vince. They called on the new government to repeal draconian protest laws introduced under the previous administration.
Earth Temperatures Breach 1.5˚C for Entire Year
New data published this month show that global average temperatures were 1.5˚C above those in the late 1800s for a whole 12 months, the first time this has been recorded. Published by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the report covers the year from June 2023 to June 2024. The news came in the same month that the global surface air temperature record was broken two days in a row. It also comes as no real surprise following months of unprecedented heat waves and records from regions across the globe. Heat waves continued to affect much of North America this month, with wild fires affecting parts of Canada and multiple states across the border including Oregon, Idaho and California. High temperatures could also be behind five workers at a Colorado poultry farm contracting avian influenza in July. Not only does the heat make it harder to keep protective clothing and masks on, but fans likely spread infected feathers and dust more easily.
At the start of month, Hurricane Beryl caused devastation across the Caribbean before reaching Texas. Scientists said there has not been a category 5 hurricane in the region this early in the year before. Hurricane season usually starts in September, but analysis showed that Beryl was powered by extreme ocean temperatures in the Atlantic. Meanwhile, in the UK, the Met Office’s latest State of the UK Climate report was published. The report summarises and provides analysis of climate events from 2023. The report concluded that the UK is experiencing more frequent temperature and rainfall extremes with human-induced climate change the largest contributing factor. By using computer models, researchers were able to show that extreme temperatures were made much more likely with the presence of manmade greenhouse gases than without.
Flow Country Granted World Heritage Status
Following a campaign lasting almost 40 years, Scotland’s Flow Country was granted UNESCO World Heritage Status this month. The 4,000 square km area of peat bog stretches across Caithness and Sutherland in the north of Scotland. Despite historically undergoing afforestation and drainage, the area is an important carbon sink, storing more carbon than all of the UK’s woodlands combined. The region is also home to a range of specialist plants, birds and animals such as sundews, hen harriers and divers. It becomes the first site designated purely for its peatlands. While World Heritage Status doesn’t offer any specific protections for the site, those behind the successful bid hope it will encourage investment in landscape scale restoration projects in the area. The Flow Country Partnership also hopes to promote sustainable tourism to the region.
White-tailed Eagles Care for Injured Juvenile
Conservationists on Mull in the Inner Hebrides have been amazed by the behaviour of one of the established pairs of white-tailed eagles on the island. The pair raised two chicks in the summer of 2023, but one of them sustained an injured wing when the nest was dislodged by stormy weather. While it has since regained the ability to fly, it is not able to fly far. Against all expectations, the adults have continued to support the youngster with food, bringing fish to the nest. The pair have also not bred this summer, putting all their efforts into helping the juvenile instead. Injured birds of prey would usually be left to their fate. The RSPB’s Mull Officer Dave Sexton says he can find no reference to anyone seeing this behaviour in raptors before, although he suspects the parents may well urge the youngster to move on before too long.
North Atlantic Right Whale Seen Off Ireland
A North Atlantic right whale was seen off the coast of Ireland for the first time in over a century this month. The whale was spotted by holidaymaker Adrian Maguire whilst fishing at sea off County Donegal. Only once Maguire’s footage was examined by amazed experts was the species confirmed. It is the first sighting on this side of the Atlantic for 114 years. The whales were once common on both sides of the ocean, but commercial whaling operations in the 19th and early 20th century hunted the species almost to extinction. They were dubbed the ‘right’ and easy, whale to hunt by whalers due to their habit of staying close to shore, tendency to float once dead and the amount of oil they produced. Now only around 360 survive. The population remains vulnerable, largely due to the risk of ship strikes and entanglement as they migrate along the east coast of North America from Canada to Florida each year.
Research Round-up
Two newly published studies highlight the threats that seabirds face from fishing activities. New research led by Birdlife International has found that nearly 200,000 seabirds are killed each year as gillnet and longline fishing bycatch in European waters. The authors say that the true figures are likely to be much higher as a result of lack of long-term data from some localities. The highest number of fatalities were from gillnets and longlines in the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and Mediterranean. Birdlife hopes that their research will push governments and fisheries to move faster in adopting mitigation measures.
Meanwhile, a joint British Antarctic Survey and RSPB study found that thousands of birds are also being killed by trawl fisheries. They found that a minimum of 44,000 birds were killed each year from 25 monitored fisheries. Many fisheries are unmonitored, so the actual figure is undoubtedly much higher. Albatrosses, gannets and petrels are just some of the species affected. Cost-effective mitigation measures, such as bird scarers and better discard management can significantly reduce fatalities, however. Seabirds are one of our most threatened bird groups, affected by a range of issues including bycatch, climate change, pollution, overfishing and habitat loss at their breeding sites.
Finally, a new study led by Professor Paul Torgerson at the University of Zurich has re-examined the results of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) which ran in England from 1998 to 2005. The RBCT was carried out to explore whether badger culling would reduce the spread of bovine Tb in cattle herds. While the trial found that killing large enough numbers of badgers over a big enough area would have an effect, it also concluded that to do so would not be cost-effective. It was, however, used to justify the introduction of licenced culls from 2010. The latest study found that better statistical methods of examining the trial’s data showed that culling had no significant effects on reducing infection in cattle herds. Campaigners hope this will help to convince the new Labour Government to end licenced culls in England.