Climate crisis – live: Biden to tackle environmental rollbacks as Greta Thunberg launches attack on Trump
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President-elect Joe Biden has signalled he will reverse Trump-era attacks on environmental regulations, as he appointed his transition teams for the US Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department.
Both will be run by agency alumni who served under Barack Obama and helped craft regulations such as the Clean Power Plan and tougher fuel economy standards for vehicles.
The head of the EPA team is Patrice Simms, an environmental attorney at Earthjustice, which has filed more than 100 lawsuits against Donald Trump's administration.
The Trump administration rolled back Obama-era fuel economy standards and stripped California of the ability to set zero-emission vehicle rules. Both actions remain subject to appeal.
Meanwhile, Greta Thunberg has launched a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump for failure to concede the presidential election to Mr Biden.
On Twitter, the teenage climate activist attacked Mr Trump for “denying democracy itself”.
Follow The Independent’s latest updates below
Biden criticised for recruiting lawyer who once represented oil giant
The newly-formed Biden transition team is already being called out by some activists, for its inclusion of a lawyer who once represented oil giant ExxonMobil.
Neil MacBride, a former US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is poised to help review the Justice Department as part of Mr Biden’s team. Mr MacBride represented ExxonMobil in a lawsuit against the Treasury Department in 2017, though, leading to youth-led activist group The Sunrise Movement scolding the president-elect.
The group said the Biden team should change its mind about Mr MacBride’s inclusion on the agency review teams.
"We hope the Biden-Harris team reconsiders Mr McBride’s appointment and works to ensure going forward that their government is free of influence from the fossil fuel industry, and is instead led by visionaries who understand the urgency of the crisis," spokesperson Garrett Blad told US news website The Hill.
"We believe no fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, consultants to and lawyers for fossil fuel companies have any place on the transition team, or in the Biden-Harris administration. People who have profited off of climate chaos shouldn’t be anywhere near the federal government’s response to it,” Mr Blad added.
Mr MacBride now represents an engineer at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles who has been indicted in a case involving an alleged plan to manipulate vehicle emissions tests.
According to reports by The Hill, Mr Biden’s transition team members were chosen because they are well respected in their fields and often in the agencies they are reviewing.
All members are also said to have signed the transition ethics code and will recuse themselves from any matter involving any client they have had a business relationship with during the past year.
Spike in Delhi coronavirus cases as pollution levels soar
Delhi recorded a surge of 8,593 coronavirus cases on Thursday, far exceeding the daily infection numbers from the previous peak back in June, when hospitals were overrun and patients in critical condition turned away.
Daily infections in India have been falling in recent weeks but Delhi appears to be bucking that trend as temperatures drop and people gather in large numbers for the Diwali festival season.
The health impacts of the Covid crisis in the capital are also being exacerbated by horrendous levels of air pollution. The city’s air quality index (AQI) has been in the “severe” category for more than 48 hours this week, triggering emergency measures that include a ban on construction.
The Independent’s Adam Withnall reports live from Delhi:
Covid cases see big spike in Delhi as pollution levels soar
Air pollution levels have been off the charts this week, triggering emergency measures
Public concern for climate change growing despite Covid crisis, poll shows
Concern over the climate crisis has remained high, even growing slightly, as the UK has battled the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey shows.
The latest public attitudes poll from the Business Department (Beis) reveals that more than 82 per cent are either very or fairly concerned about ongoing climate change.
Levels of worry are similar to what they were in June, the last time the survey was carried out, and have increased from 78 per cent of those questioned in March.
There is also growing awareness of “net zero”, with 66 per cent of people saying they are aware of the concept, up from just over half 52 per cent of those quizzed in March.
The UK has a legal target to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. This requires huge cuts to emissions from power, transport, homes and other sectors, and any remaining pollution has to be “offset” through measures such as planting trees to capture carbon, so overall greenhouse gas output is zero.
The survey also shows continued high levels of support for renewables, with 80 per cent of respondents backing the technologies and just 3 per cent opposing.
Melanie Onn, RenewableUK deputy chief executive, said of the findings: “The sky-high level of public support in this latest poll chimes with the prime minister's announcement that he wants every UK home to be powered by offshore wind by 2030.
“The industry is on course to achieve that with the mega-projects we're installing in UK waters during this decade.
“We can build back better after Covid by putting onshore and offshore wind at the heart of our modern energy system, alongside innovative technologies like renewable hydrogen, floating wind and marine power.”
Additional reporting by PA
Climate-denying Senator called out for living in protected beachfront mansion
A US Senator has been denounced for consistently calling the climate crisis a hoax, all the while residing in a gated beachfront community where wealthy residents are given an unfair advantage over the devastating effects of climate change.
David Perdue, a known climate denier and close friend of Donald Trump, is currently the Senator of Georgia. His possible reelection is thought to be crucial, as it could determine whether Republicans hold their Senate majority.
He was one of the driving forces in the current president’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Senator owns a more than 9,000sq ft mansion on Sea Island, a gated community on St Simons Island, the wealthiest area in Georgia. As sea levels accelerated in recent years, the Sea Island Company, which owns the island resort, has constructed an elaborate and expensive system of jetties and sea walls in an effort to protect the lavish homes there.
Although it is only a stone’s throw from the water in an area of Sea Island known as Ocean Forest, Mr Perdue’s home has been protected from the potentially ruinous impact of the quickly changing climate.
Critics are now labelling Mr Perdue a hypocrite. “Senator Perdue is lucky,” Megan Desrosiers, president and CEO of a Georgia-based environmental group told The Intercept, before adding: “The philosophy of the Sea Island Company is that you can just engineer a solution to everything. Whether they acknowledge climate change or not, every year the Sea Island Company is putting in money to protect the people who live there. No other place in coastal Georgia has this kind of money to protect the people who live on these islands.”
Biden teams to tackle Trump’s environmental rollbacks
Joe Biden’s new transition teams will forge ahead with preparing the groundwork for environmental regulations for the incoming administration - despite the Trump White House refusing to play ball, writes Louise Boyle:
Biden creates transition team to tackle environmental rollbacks – but Trump staff refuses to cooperate
The White House has instructed senior department officials to rebuff overtures from the Biden team to get the transition process underway while Mr Trump refuses to concede, writes Louise Boyle
Illegal deforestation products to be banned
The UK government is to ban businesses from using commodities linked to illegal deforestation.
Under the new environment bill firms will be required to use produce, such as timber, cocoa, palm oil and coffee, that has been produced “in line with local laws protecting forests and other ecosystems”.
However, environmental campaigners say the new rule does not go far enough. In case you missed it yesterday, here’s Daisy Dunne’s report:
New UK law will stop firms using products linked to illegal deforestation
Lord Goldsmith said the new rule would ‘tackle deforestation’, but environmental campaigners warned it does not go far enough
Beavers 'need support in tackling crises’
Britain’s beavers could be major allies in tackling the climate and extinction crises – but without more public and government support face a fragile future, according to the Beaver Trust. The charity is launching a new short film, Beavers Without Borders, on YouTube on Sunday.
Stonehenge tunnel wins go-ahead in face of ‘permanent harm’ warning
The government has given the go-ahead for a controversial plan to dig a road tunnel near Stonehenge, against the recommendations of planning officials, who have warned it would cause “permanent, irreversible harm” to the world heritage site. Samuel Osborne reports:
Government backs controversial plan for Stonehenge tunnel
Decision goes against recommendations of planning officials and is opposed by environmentalists and archaeologists
Fishing bill should protect fish stocks, say peers
Peers have called on the government to put sustainability at the heart of the UK's post-Brexit fishing policy.
Independent crossbencher Lord Krebs warned short-term gain had always been put ahead of the sustainability of fish stocks. Lord Krebs, a former chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said the same mistakes must not be made again.
His comments came in a debate on the Fisheries Bill, which enables the UK to become an independent coastal state after leaving the EU, with foreign fishing boats barred from fishing in UK waters unless licensed to do so.
Opposition frontbencher Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said: "Leaving the EU was the one opportunity to make a dynamic difference to the sustainability of our fish stocks and it feels like the government has failed to grasp that vision and make it a reality."
Environment minister Lord Gardiner said: "Sustainability is at the heart of this Bill." He added: "I don't think we have missed opportunities in terms of legislative provision. Where I think the key and test of all of this is what does it do to the marine environment?
"What does this framework Bill do out there in the seas and oceans? That's when we will all be judged."
Critics say the government should do more to defend marine protected areas.
Fisheries Bill still allows supertrawlers in UK waters
Critics also say the Fisheries Bill - which stands ready to become law - fails to ban supertrawlers from British waters.
Supertrawlers are fishing ships over 100m long that catch fish by dragging giant nets, which can be a mile long and catch hundreds of tonnes of fish every day.
A Greenpeace investigation found that industrial supertrawlers spent 2,963 hours fishing in Marine Protected Areas last year.
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