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The UK has given the green light for a “bee-killing” pesticide banned in the EU to be used on a type of crop – sparking criticism from environmental groups. The British government said this was because of the spread of yellows viruses throughout the country and the threat this posed to sugar production. But the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said it was “sad” to share the news of the move. “Without bees, our farming system will collapse,” it said. Last year, the UK government authorised the emergency use of a neonicotinoid pesticide treatment for sugar beet crops due to the risk from yellows viruses. This would only come into practice when a certain threshold for its use was reached. The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) said on Tuesday the conditions had been reached, with modelling predicting a 68 per cent level of virus incidence.It said this meant “the threshold for use has been met and the seed treatment can now proceed under strict conditions”. Evidence suggests neonicotinoids harm brain development and weaken immune systems in bees, and can also leave the animals unable to fly. A wildlife charity said these pesticides can also harm butterflies and other wildlife. Julie Williams, the Butterfly Conservation chief executive, said: “The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and it is simply unacceptable for the government to allow the demonstrable harm of pollinators and other wildlife at a time when nature is already in crisis.”“The time has come for neonicotinoids to be completely banned with no exception,” she said, calling them a group of chemicals “simply too toxic and too damaging to use in any circumstances”. A Defra spokesperson said: “The decision to approve an emergency authorisation was not taken lightly and based on robust scientific assessment. We evaluate the risks very carefully and only grant temporary emergency authorisations for restricted pesticides in special circumstances when strict requirements are met and there are no alternatives.They added: “The threshold for use has now been met according to the independent scientific modelling conducted on the virus spread. Under the terms of this authorisation seed treatment can go ahead with strict controls in place to mitigate risks.” More

Ukraine is attempting to link up to the EU’s power network after disconnecting from the Russian and Belarusian electricity grid.Kyiv and Moldova took part in a three-day test of electricity independence and hope to join the synchronous grid of Continental Europe permanently.Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko is lobbying the EU for permission to link up with the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) immediately.He said: “We refused to return to parallel work with the systems of Russia and Belarus. We have proved the graveness of our intentions to integrate with the European system, even in this difficult time of war.“Despite military aggression by Russia, rocket attacks, attacks on critical infrastructure, the Ukrainian power system – working autonomously – has proven its reliability and security of electricity supply to consumers.”We have proved the seriousness of our intentions to integrate with the European system, even in this difficult time of war,” he added.”I appeal to our European partners to synchronize Ukraine’s energy system with ENTSO-E as soon as possible. We need your support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people more than ever!”On Monday, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson met with ENTSO-E to discuss Ukraine joining the grid early, Politico reports.He said: “Ukraine is asking for emergency synchronization with the European grid as soon as possible. This is technically challenging, but as Europe this is something tangible we can do for our partners.”Russia is advancing on Kyiv with a huge convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks and other military equipment spanning more than 40 miles, according to new satellite images.As the troops advance, Russia’s defence ministry has warned that it will carry out a number of strikes on security sites in Kyiv, according to state news agency Tass. More

Ministers must end the expansion of oil and gas exploration across Britain with a “presumption” against new projects in the North Sea, the government’s own climate advisers have said.In a letter to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said it was time for Britain to “send a clear signal” about the climate emergency at home and abroad.Green groups said the advice should lead to a “paradigm shift” and welcomed it as “a clear blow for the fossil fuel industry”.The government recently invited oil and gas companies to help write their own rulebook on when new drilling should go ahead.It comes as The Independent’s Stop Fuelling the Climate Crisis campaign calls for a halt on new drilling to help tackle the emergency.In its letter to the business secretary the CCC, a statutory but independent body that advises on how the UK can reach its climate goals, said: “We would support a tighter limit on production, with stringent tests and a presumption against exploration. “An end to UK exploration would send a clear signal to investors and consumers that the UK is committed to the 1.5C global temperature goal. “That would also help the UK in its diplomatic efforts to strengthen climate ambition internationally.”The government is currently drawing up a so-called “climate checkpoint” for new oil and gas exploration, which will govern when exploration and drilling should go ahead.But green campaigners reacted angrily in January after the business department said its consultation was “predominantly” for the oil and gas industries to take the “opportunity to input on the design” of the policy.The letter from the CCC criticises a hole in the claims by some Tory MP that more fossil fuel drilling will help drive down household bills. New extraction will have “at most, a marginal effect on the prices faced by UK consumers in future”, the committee says – arguing that a better way to drive down energy prices would be “shifting to a renewables-based power system and electrifying end uses in transport, industry and heating”.It also blamed backwards steps by the government on green power generation and home energy efficiency, which it said had in fact added £140 to every bill. Heather Plumpton, policy analyst at Green Alliance, said the intervention from the CCC was “a clear blow for the fossil fuel industry”.“They’ve made a clear call for tighter limits on the production of oil and gas – and made crystal clear how important it is that the climate test has real teeth if it is going to be credible,” she added.“The climate advisers say with absolute clarity that increasing domestic extraction would have a minimal impact on prices faced by UK households – and reiterate what the government itself knows to be true: that the government’s primary focus should be accelerating the transition away from volatile fossil fuel markets to an energy-efficient, renewables-based power system.”Rosie Rogers, head of oil and gas transition for Greenpeace UK, said that “anyone who’s read this advice and thinks the North Sea’s future lies in oil and gas is utterly deluded” and that the government should “stop hoping to resurrect a declining fossil fuel industry”.She added: “The future of the North Sea is in renewables. Our economy, our energy security and our climate depends on it.”Danny Gross, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, also welcomed the letter, stating: “Recommending a presumption against oil and gas exploration spells a paradigm shift for the future of the North Sea. “This assessment bolsters what scientists and the International Energy Agency have already said: that all new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with the international goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C.”A report by the International Energy Agency, commissioned by the UK’s Cop26 president Alok Sharma, warned last year that new oil and gas production was incompatible with reaching net zero by 2050. A separate domestic review by the government, however, said that drilling could proceed subject to some conditions – a suggestion that led to the government consulting on its “checkpoint”.But ministers say they want to “safeguard the future” of the oil and gas industry, which welcomed the move as potentially being a boon to “investor confidence” in fossil fuels.The committee’s letter says UK extraction has a “relatively low carbon footprint”, at least for gas, and that “the UK will continue to be a net importer of fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, implying there may be emissions advantages to UK production replacing imports”. But they said that “the extra gas and oil extracted will support a larger global market overall” and that the situation is “not clear-cut” as in the case of coal.Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, a former energy secretary in the coalition government, said the committee’s advice “disproves once and for all the net-zero myths being peddled by Conservative MPs”.“The answer to Britain’s long-term energy strategy is not more oil and gas. Instead, we need a green energy revolution, investing in renewables and insulating our drafty homes to cut bills and give us energy security for decades to come,” he said. “If we want to cut household bills today then the clear answer is a Robin Hood tax on the billions oil barons are raking in. What is the government waiting for?”Officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said they would consider the letter alongside all other responses.A spokesperson appeared to downplay the possibility of strict rules and said: “There will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming decades as we transition to cleaner and cheaper forms of energy generated in this country.“As the business ​and energy secretary has said, turning off North Sea gas overnight would put energy security, British jobs and industries at risk, and we would be more dependent on foreign imports.“We welcome the committee’s acknowledgement that carbon budgets can still be met if new oil and gas fields are developed in the UK.” More

Households could have saved nearly £400 a year in bills during the energy crisis if the government had not scrapped a green policy on homes, according to new analysis.Data from the Liberal Democrats, seen by The Independent, increased this figure from previous estimates to reflect the rising cost of living.It found plans to make all new homes achieve net zero emissions would have shaved hundreds of pounds off household bills when another price cap increase will see them soar in spring. “This is yet another example of how acting sooner on climate change can save consumers money on their bills,” Chris Venables, head of politics at the Green Alliance think tank, told The Independent. The scrapped environmental rules would have prevented new houses from releasing a net amount of carbon into the atmosphere during day-to-day running. Among other factors, this would have been achieved through good energy efficiency – considered key to keeping bills, as well as emissions, down. The Zero Carbon Homes policy was scrapped in 2015, the year before it was due to kick in. A subsequent report estimated it would have saved recently built houses up to £200 a year on energy bills. New research from the House of Commons library, requested by the Lib Dems, said this figure will rise to up to £370 when household bills increase with the new price cap in April. Large family homes built after 2016 could have saved up to this amount under zero carbon homes rules, while the minimum savings were estimated at £265, according to the data. Bills could have been up to £220 a year less in terraced homes and up to £140 less in flats, the research suggests. Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for climate change and energy, said: “These figures lay bare the Conservatives’ failure in tackling the climate crisis and how their incompetence has worsened the cost of living crisis for so many people.”She added: “Hundreds of pounds have been slapped onto people’s bills by the Conservatives because of their short-sighted decision to scrap energy efficiency standards.”The Independent previously revealed around 800,000 new homes have been built to lower emission standards or without carbon offsets than otherwise have been mandated since. Mr Venables said: “The sooner the UK insulates its leaky housing stock, the sooner millions of Brits will be protected from volatile global fossil fuel markets and be less reliant on gas from Putin’s Russia.”Homes are estimated to account for around a fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said it rejected the analysis, claiming it “misunderstands the zero carbon homes policy” and does not take into account other government action. They said the policy involved carbon offsetting “rather than making homes zero carbon” and would have promided “limited benefits to consumers as it wouldn’t necessarily have increased the efficiency of their homes”. The spokesperson said the future homes standard, put forward for 2025, would deliver “genuinely zero carbon ready” homes.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Standards has been approached for comment. More

A Royal Air Force aircraft travelled 330 miles from a base in Scotland for a photoshoot with Boris Johnson, before flying back.Pictures of the prime minister with RAF aircraft made some of the front pages about the Ukraine crisis on Friday, following his visit to the Waddington base in Lincolnshire on Thursday.An RAF P-8A Poseidon – which Mr Johnson was pictured standing in front of – was flown a distance of more than 330 miles from its base in Lossiemouth, Moray.The plane, a maritime patrol aircraft designed for anti-submarine warfare, departed from its base shortly before 9am on Wednesday, the Press Association reported.It then flew back on Thursday, leaving at about 6.20pm, after the prime minister completed his visit to the base. It had never previously visited the Waddington base.Mr Johnson was also pictured with his thumbs up sitting in a RAF Typhoon fast jet, which was flown from its home base of RAF Coningsby, which is 15 miles away from RAF Waddington.Both the Typhoon Mr Johnson was pictured sitting in, and the P-8A Poseidon were flown back to their respective bases after his visit.A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said the aircraft undertook training flights before and after the prime minister’s visit.“This enabled a small number of aircraft to be used to demonstrate how the RAF defends the UK and our Nato allies across Europe,” the spokesperson told Sky News. “At no point did this impact on any ongoing operations.”Speaking to reporters at the base, the PM said he was visiting to “talk to some of our crew, the officers who are involved in very, very important intelligence-gathering and surveillance”.Mr Johnson added: “Some of the planes here today are going to be used very shortly over the border in Belarus, in Poland, and elsewhere over Ukraine, to see what’s going on and to allow us to have even finer detail evaluation of the military dispositions there.” More

It is nine months and counting since a coroner said the UK needed to toughen up limits on air pollution to prevent deaths such as nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah’s in the future.The government is yet to do this – and this delay “will cost lives”, her mother told The Independent.Rosamund Kissi-Debrah accused the government of kicking the issue “into the long grass” by promising to launch a consultation – that has not yet opened – on new legal targets for an air pollutant instead.Ella, who lived in Lewisham in south London, died exactly nine years ago from an asthma attack. In 2020, a coroner ruled exposure to air pollution contributed to this, making her the first person in the UK to have this listed as a cause of death.Following the landmark inquest, the coroner recommended the UK brought its “far higher” threshold for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – a type of air pollutant – in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) to reduce its number of air pollution deaths. The government said it would run a public consultation this year and aim to bring in new legislation by October – which would be 16 months after the coroner’s report.Ms Kissi-Debrah is clear on the impact of delaying action on PM2.5 in an interview with The Independent, saying: “It will cost lives.”She suggested the government was putting this off because it would be difficult, affecting key sources of emissions such as cars, wood burning and farming. More

Government plans to improve the energy efficiency of 20,000 council houses are “wholly inadequate” and a “drop in the ocean” compared to what is needed, the Green Party has said. Environmental groups and local leaders said a new pot of funding to upgrade social housing does not go far enough to help keep down fuel bills and reduce emissions from homes across England. Around £179m has been spread across under 70 councils in England for projects aimed at improving the energy performance of homes in the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund’s first wave of funding. The second wave is set to run next financial year. The government said this support would help thousands of council houses to become more efficient, helping to reduce household bills and their carbon footprint.But Polly Billington, the chief executive of the UK100 network of local leaders, told The Independent: “Any new money to improve social housing is welcome, but helping 20,000 homes is a drop in the ocean when 2.5 million households live in fuel poverty.”She added: “We need to accelerate plans to support our homes, which are some of the leakiest in Europe, and ensure the Conservative manifesto commitment to spend £9bn on energy efficiency is met in full.”Cara Jenkinson from the climate change charity Ashden said the £179m pledge represented the “fraction” of the estimated £100bn needed to decarbonise all social housing. The 2019 Tory manifesto pledged £3.8bn to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund over 10 years.Zoe Nicholson from the Green Party said the fund was “wholly inadequate”. “It is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to make all social homes warm and healthy,” she said. “Some councils report that their award under this fund represents around just three per cent of what is needed.”Green groups and councils toldThe Independent last month progress in decarbonising council houses and private properties was being hindered due to the way schemes work and gaps in support. Councils bid for funding in the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund’s first wave last year, with a trial run before this handing out £62m to 16 local authorities for projects. Ms Nicolson told The Independent this scheme was an “inefficient way of allocating funds”. “Writing bids involves a huge amount of work which is completely wasted for those authorities which are unsuccessful,” the Green New Deal spokesperson for the Green Party said. “Addressing the climate emergency and helping those facing fuel poverty are too important to be dependent on a competitive bidding process.”Homes are estimated to account for around a fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Experts say reducing their reliance on fossil fuels and improving their energy efficiency – for example, with better insulation – is key to tackling the climate crisis.Last autumn, the government published its Heat and Building strategy, which, among other measures, included a grant for homeowners to upgrade gas boilers to heat pumps.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has been approached for comment. More

Environmental groups have accused the UK of “torpedoing climate action” and “disregarding science” amid reports six new oil and gas fields are to be approved in the North Sea this year. Rishi Sunak – who said last week he wanted to encourage more investment in new fossil fuel drilling – is reported to have pressed the business secretary to fast-track applications.A new oil and gas field in the North Sea has already been given the green light this year – just two months after the UK held the global climate Cop26 summit. Green groups fiercely criticised the move, accusing the government of hypocrisy and taking action that “only worsens the climate crisis.It is set to be followed by half a dozen more approvals for fossil fuel drilling this year, according to The Telegraph. The sites have reportedly already been given a preliminary licence by ministers and are expected to be approved by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), the UK regulator.The Telegraph reported there were fears in the Treasury over how the move to net-zero could impact the economy, while a Whitehall source told the newspaper the business secretary was “pushing for more investment in the North Sea” during the transition for “domestic energy security” as well. Philip Evans, oil campaigner at Greenpeace UK said: “This would represent a stunning retreat from the pro-climate posturing we saw from the government at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.”He added: “Rishi Sunak’s climate busting drive for fossil fuels is clearly against the spirit of that declaration and against the demand of the British people that climate is a top matter of concern.” Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party said: “Boris Johnson urged global leaders at Cop26 to ‘defuse the bomb’ of climate change. Now his own government is torpedoing climate action by granting permission for more climate wrecking oil and gas to be extracted from the North Sea. She said more oil and gas fields “disregards the science” and ignores the International Energy Agency’s call for these to be halted. The UK declined to join an international alliance aimed at ending new oil and gas projects at the Cop26 summit in November hosted in Glasgow.MPs and experts told The Independent the UK needed to shift to renewables to protect itself from energy crises such as the current one – which is behind soaring household bills. Mr Sunak also faced criticism over his endorsement of more investment in new fossil fuel drilling in the North Sea last week. The chancellor said the UK needed natural gas as part of its transition to net zero – but environmental groups slammed it as a step in the wrong direction amid current climate goals. According to the International Energy Agency, natural gas is the “cleanest burning” fossil fuel – but still emits greenhouse gases. Downing Street confirmed that six applications for extension of North Sea drilling were currently under consideration, but said they all related to oil and gas fields licensed in the past – some as long ago as the 1970s.Their development proposals would go through the usual processes with the OGA, as well as environmental impact assessment and a public consulation, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said. “No decisions have been taken,” they added. The OGA declined to comment on reports of six new oil and gas fields. A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesperson said: “There will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming years as we transition to cleaner, more secure forms of energy generated in this country.“As the business secretary has said, turning off our domestic source of gas overnight would put energy security, British jobs and industries at risk, and we would be even more dependent on foreign imports”.The Treasury has also been approached for comment. More