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Eco Chamber
Starmer's red tape rampage rings alarm bells for nature
Season 2024, Ep. 112
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What were the regulation-slashing announcements in Sir Keir Starmer's speech, and do they signal a war on nature? Who is the 'nature voice' in the government’s new clean power unit? And are dams and reservoirs for hydro projects among the “least intrusive” of renewable energy technologies? Find out in this week's episode of the ECO Chamber...
Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.
This week ENDS journalists look at:
- The regulation-slashing stance taken by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in his latest speech
- The nature charity chief appointed to the government’s new clean power unit
- And what you need to know about the Disneyland-style theme park plans haunting a nature reserve, deposit return scheme dramas; and a new natural capital report
For this week’s fact-check, the team evaluate the truth behind a claim that dams and reservoirs are among the “least intrusive” of renewable energy technologies, made in a Telegraph article, in the wake of the government’s new dam building drive.
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Access Denied: The environment sector’s problem with race
34:15||Season 2024According to some estimates, the environment sector is among the least diverse profession in the UK, second only to agriculture. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in the 12 months to June 2024, 93% of environmental professionals were white, and 7% identified as Black, Asian or belonging to an ethnic minority group. Surveys have also found evidence of overt and covert racism in the sector.To understand what lies behind the sector’s problem with race and the implications for the environmental profession and its future, we speak with:Manu Maunganidze, the co-director of Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) and lead author of the sector’s landmark RACE Report.Nadia Shaikh, Right to Roam campaigner and Raven Network organiser.Sarah Mukherjee, head of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.Edel McGurk, Natural England’s regional director for the south-east and senior champion for the regulator’s ethnicity and race network.
117. Chemical conundrum in the Cotswolds and watchdog’s farm pollution probe
29:29||Season 2024, Ep. 117Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:How residents in the UK’s most known PFAS-polluted place are working with lawyers to investigate a first of its kind legal claimWhy the Office for Environmental Protection believes that water pollution rules for farmers in England “may be unlawful”And the news-in-brief: the lowdown on DEFRA’s assessment of the effectiveness of biodiversity net gain exemptions; why pesticide usage data must now be made available to the public; and the chair of the water commission's plan to “restore trust” in the sector. In this week’s deep dive, we reveal how a market town in the Cotswolds has a PFAS problem, with high levels of the forever chemicals discovered near land earmarked for hundreds of new homes and a primary school.
116. Souped-up landfills, welly wars, and HS2’s £100m bat ‘shed’
27:40||Season 2024, Ep. 116Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:An exclusive on how the landfill treatment process is inadvertently creating a toxic liquid waste that could cause even bigger problems for a PFAS-filled future. The new ministers of the Conservative shadow government with ties to British Sugar and working wellies. And the news-in-brief: DEFRA’s farm water pollution rules are back in the spotlight, biodiversity net gain is about to get a lot bigger and a new bill to ban the sale of peat has been dug up in the halls of Westminster. For this week’s fact check, we get to the bottom of HS2’s multi-million pound ‘bat shed’: is it good value for money or a 'batty' white elephant?
115. DEFRA’s Budget blues and will Reeves’ raid ‘ruin’ the countryside?
26:07||Season 2024, Ep. 115Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:The environmental implications of Labour’s first budget in over a decade-and-a-half and what it means for DEFRA.And the news-in-brief: The mother of the first person in the world to have air pollution on their death certificate has settled her legal claim against the government, Natural England’s approval of a protected saltmarsh demolition may have been unlawful and the COP 16 walkouts. For this week’s fact check, we look into the truth behind claims made by the former president of the National Farmers Union that the government’s latest changes to agricultural property relief will ‘destroy lives… and ruin the countryside’.
114. Big carbon budgets, the new PRO waste squad PLUS the DRS glass ceilings that won't shatter
20:17||Season 2024, Ep. 114Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week, ENDS journalists look at:The new waste group 'PRO' in charge of the government’s forthcoming extended producer responsibility roll-out.The big emission cuts that the government is toying as part of its next carbon budget.And the news-in-brief: the sand-eel fishing ban that’s irked the EU, Natural Resources Wales’ tax liabilities and the Somerset farmer blaming slurry pollution on the weather report. For this week’s fact check, we look into the truth behind the claim by government and industry that glass will be an expensive and complex addition to the forthcoming roll out of a UK-wide deposit return scheme.
113. DEFRA’s growth mindset, sewage spills into court and EfW fighting ‘dirty’
21:06||Season 2024, Ep. 113Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.This week ENDS journalists look at:The ground-breaking community-led lawsuit attempting to hold a water company to account for the sewage pollution its let slip.Labour’s growth strategy and the ramifications for DEFRA and its regulatorsAnd the news-in-brief: a new nature tsar, Drax under attack and England’s terrible harvests.For this week’s fact-checker, we look into the truth behind the claim that energy-from-waste now ranks as the dirtiest form of energy generation in the country made in a BBC article following the closure of the country's last coal-fired power station.
111. Forbidden fruit, DEFRA’s growing pains, and the true cost of offshore wind
25:05||Season 2024, Ep. 111Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and take a forensic look at one of the deep-rooted environmental issues facing us today.In this week’s episode, the team unearths:The gardens of England where food grows with toxic PFAS pollution.The environment secretary's plan for growth, growth, growth at DEFRA.And the news-in-brief: Missed biodiversity targets, rotten ammonia protocols and landfill permit breaches. For this week’s fact-check, we look into the truth behind the claim made by Robert Jenrick – the front-runner for the Conservative party leadership – that offshore wind is the driver pushing energy prices up, up and away.
110. Toxic shock: the nasties lurking in the sewage sludge being spread on UK fields
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