The legislation is a product of joined-up environmental thinking – aiming to create housing while preventing nature loss
Nick Williams was an economic policy adviser to Keir Starmer between 2023 and 2025, having previously worked in HM Treasury
In recent weeks, various nature groups and newspaper columnists have promoted claims that the government’s flagship planning and infrastructure bill is a “nature sellout”. The argument goes that the government is conspiring with malign developers to destroy irreplaceable habitats as a first resort. This sounds alarming, if only it were true.
The truth is that our current framework for protecting habitats has been in place for decades but has failed to prevent nature loss. This is because we approach conservation in the least effective way possible, with tens of thousands of individual site-by-site protections. Ecological science is clear that this is outdated. Modern conservation strategies recognise the necessity of interconnectivity and scale for supporting complex ecosystems.
Nick Williams was an economic policy adviser to Keir Starmer between 2023 and 2025, having previously worked in HM Treasury
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/04/2025 - 07:33
06/04/2025 - 03:22
Senior Tory to give speech in which he will criticise ‘neo-luddites’ on right for failing to embrace green technology
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James Cleverly has taken direct aim at Kemi Badenoch’s decision to ditch net zero targets by criticising what he called “neo-luddites” on the right who seem scared of using green technologies to protect the environment.
The senior Conservative MP, who lost to Badenoch in last year’s Tory leadership race, said it was a false choice to believe the UK had to choose between economic growth and protecting the environment. Badenoch has argued current net zero targets will harm the economy.
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06/04/2025 - 00:00
Exclusive: National Fire Chiefs Council warns of pressures, with callouts up 20% in a decade as firefighter numbers fall
Fire stations in England are “falling apart”, fire chiefs have warned, with funding plummeting by an estimated £1bn in the last decade as callouts have increased by a fifth.
Fire and rescue must not become the “forgotten emergency service”, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) urged, warning of mounting pressures that “risk undermining public and firefighter safety”, as it responds to more 999 calls with fewer firefighters.
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06/03/2025 - 23:55
Experts think the clever birds learned the technique by watching people and then trying it themselves
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Sulphur-crested cockatoos in Sydney have worked out how to operate drinking fountains, with footage showing the white birds gripping and turning the handle before leaning in for a sip.
Researchers set up camera traps and recorded the birds taking turns at a drinking fountain in western Sydney. Scientists observed more than 500 attempts over 44 days and revealed the birds were successful about 46% of the time.
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06/03/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 04 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00125-6
A blueprint for national assessments of the blue carbon capacity of kelp forests applied to Canada’s coastline
06/03/2025 - 18:01
Parliamentary committee raises concerns over ‘suboptimal’ workplace culture at ageing waste dump
MPs have warned about the speed and cost of cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear waste dump and raised concerns over a “suboptimal” workplace culture at the site.
Members of parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) urged the government and bosses at the sprawling collection of crumbling buildings in Cumbria to get a grasp on the “intolerable risks” presented by its ageing infrastructure.
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06/03/2025 - 16:29
New research demonstrates that with collaboration between stakeholders, Australia can fully decarbonize its domestic and energy export economies by 2060 -- a feat requiring $6.2 trillion USD and around 110,000 square kilomters of land -- while avoiding harm to important areas for biodiversity outcomes, safeguarding agricultural activities, and respecting Indigenous land rights.
06/03/2025 - 13:36
Pupils told to play indoors because of attacks by bird of prey, which follow strikes by hawk near Luton
A buzzard called Brenda has been terrorising a 300-year-old primary school on the outskirts of London, sending children running for cover while neighbours have been dive-bombed as they put out the bins.
Pupils at Dame Tipping Church of England primary school in the village of Havering-atte-Bower, in the London borough of Havering, have been told they cannot play outside while the bird remains a threat.
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06/03/2025 - 13:12
To satisfy the seafood needs of billions of people, offering them access to a more biodiverse array of fish creates opportunities to mix-and-match species to obtain better nutrition from smaller portions of fish.
06/03/2025 - 11:37
The judge wanted us to show remorse, but I can’t apologise for fighting the climate disaster
Last week, at Minshull Street crown court in Manchester, I was sentenced to two and half years in prison for conspiring to intentionally cause a public nuisance. The prosecution’s case was that I intended to “obstruct the public or a section of the public in the exercise or enjoyment of a right that may be exercised or enjoyed by the public at large” – in other words, that I was part of Just Stop Oil’s plan to obstruct planes at Manchester airport. I did intend that – and I have a defence for my actions.
The offence of public nuisance – which falls under the Criminal Law Act 1977 and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – was traditionally and frequently used to prosecute significant environmental offences. It punished big corporations causing real harm to the general public by poisoning water, polluting air, emitting dust and noise or dumping chemical waste. There is no irony lost in the fact that the same offence in statutory form is now being zealously deployed to prosecute environmental protesters.
Indigo Rumbelow is co-founder of Just Stop Oil. She is serving a sentence in HMP Styal
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