• Comment: Seeing off the behemoths

• Huge rise in ‘shut-down’ payments to onshore wind farm operators
• Agency secures first pollution civil sanction
• HS2 rail rolls on despite growing opposition
• Carmakers zoom past European carbon targets
• Long delays for key Environment Agency figures
• Consumer benefits of smart meters queried
• Trio sentenced for pesticide offences
• Thames airport consultation
• UK scrapes under air targets
• DEFRA drops concerns on Norfolk waste plan

Green Strategy

• Sky on course to raise £4m for rainforest protection programme
• No goals set in Westfield’s first green report
• Investors publish new carbon-cutting guide
• Knighthood for DEFRA chief scientist
• IFC beefs up global sustainability rules

Carbon & Energy

• Court judgment on solar cuts threatens feed-in tariff regime
• Drop in free EU allowances risks carbon leakage
• Marked drop in gas leakage over the past decade
• 2011 was second hottest UK year
• CCC criticises Green Deal’s lack of ambition
• Engineering academy reveals household carbon challenge
• Second Humberside offshore wind manufacturing site
• MoD drops wind objections
• British Waterways sets up first wind turbine
• First companies claim renewable heat cash

Waste & Recycling

• DEFRA plans a jump in recycling targets for packaging waste

Water

• Little improvement in river water quality, shows latest WFD report
• Government ‘wrong’ on water pricing
• Utility to create power from drinking water
• Infographic: Water industry's sustainability progress a mixed picture

Pollution & Health

• US research links groundwater pollution to shale gas fracking
• Many common drugs coated with phthalates
• Firms forced to wait longer for council permits
• Success of minewater remediation scheme
• Nano definition is ‘lawyers’ paradise’
• London tightens vehicle pollution controls

Products & Supply Chain

• Little evidence Whitehall has switched to green catering
• Corruption raises illegal wood risk

Land & Ecology

• EU green ministers snub call for action on CAP farm biodiversity

Transport

• Trouble ahead for aviation carbon trading despite EU court ruling
• Aquifer diverts high-speed rail
• ‘Intelligent mobility’ to boost capacity
• Electric aircraft taxi technology tested

• Taking water: changing the rules of the game
• How water abstraction works... or doesn’t
• Climate change means shortages are likely
• BT makes the carbon reduction connection

National

• Cuts to Renewables Obligation need rethinking, say trade bodies
• SUDS phase-in on the cards
• Small emitters offered way out of EU ETS
• Insurers attack DEFRA over flood risk cover
• Consultation on extending nitrate rules across England and Wales
• Enhanced petrol vapour controls
• Natural England gains new civil sanction powers
• Industrial guidance review delayed again
• Scotland publishes land-use action plan
• MMO to change oil spill treatment approvals
• Grid charges for wind farms to plummet
• DEFRA consults on light pollution exemptions

International

• Study calls for further limits on international offset credits
• ECHA proposes 13 chemicals for authorisation
• Commission pushes for 2030 renewables goal
• EU treaty veto could weaken UK green policy
• EU phosphate ban to cover detergents

• Tom Burke's political commentary: Durban talks were not a failure for climate policy
• MPs say draft NPPF needs serious revision
• Government defends carbon budget review

• Richard Macrory's legal commentary: Greater scope to refuse information requests
• Richard Macrory's legal commentary: EU court upholds aviation carbon scheme’s validity
• Two water firms fined for sewage spill pollution
• Siblings jailed for tyre offences
• Northern Ireland waste cases net £25,000 in fines
• Airport fined for water breaches
• Waste boss fined £19k
• Recycling firm fined for noise nuisance
• Jail for Chesterfield skip hire boss ‘driven by greed’
• Jail term for Illegal waste operator
• Waste boss sentenced