What went right this week: saving the high seas, plus more

“Fine words” that “must now translate into action” – that was Greenpeace’s verdict on the UN Ocean Conference, which wrapped up in Nice last weekend.

The summit offered some signs of progress in the race to save our oceans with more nations ratifying a global treaty to protect 30% of the high seas by 2030, Jamaica, Indonesia and Norway among them. It means that 50 nations have now ratified the treaty – just shy of the 60 needed to make it law. The UK is a notable heel dragger.

“High seas treaty ratification is within touching distance,” said Greenpeace’s Megan Randles, adding: “The UK’s timetable for ratifying the treaty looks glacial.” 

However, Randles welcomed the UK government’s commitment to ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas, saying it was “very good news” for the UK’s sea life. 

Calls to halt deep-sea mining also gained momentum in Nice, with 37 countries supporting a precautionary pause or outright ban. Tom Pickerell of the World Resources Institute said it was “a hopeful sign of political will to protect fragile ecosystems”. 

“There’s real momentum coming out of Nice but also a lot of unfinished business,” he added. “While some progress was made, not all governments fully seized it.”

Image: Randall Ruiz

A new drug pathway is “transforming” the lives of people with leukaemia and could revolutionise how the disease is treated, scientists said this week.

The comments came in response to a study that found that a new combination drug therapy significantly outperformed chemotherapy for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). 

The FLAIR trial followed 786 people with previously untreated CLL across 96 health centres in the UK. Participants were randomly assigned to receive standard chemotherapy, a single targeted drug – ibrutinib – or two targeted drugs taken together, ibrutinib and venetoclax. Doses were guided by personalised blood tests. 

The study found that after five years, 94% of patients who received ibrutinib plus venetoclax were alive with no disease progression, compared to 79% for those on ibrutinib alone and 58% for those on standard chemotherapy. 

Dr Talha Munir, consultant haematologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which led the trial, said it was a “milestone”. 

“We have shown that a chemotherapy-free approach can be not only more effective but also more tolerable for patients,” he added. “By tailoring individualised treatment based on how well the cancer responds, we’re moving into an era of truly personalised medicine.”

Image: National Cancer Institute

Ready-to-go climate solutions that put power in the hands of people have been given a boost after scooping top honours at the Ashden Awards. 

Now in its 25th year, the annual prize identifies equitable solutions to the climate crisis, providing grants and training to winning initiatives to help them scale up. 

The UK produced three of this year’s winners. They are: Repowering London, a social enterprise bringing solar power (and lower bills) to communities in London; Emergent Energy, which helps social housing tenants generate electricity through solar; and Cotality, which helps housing providers improve the energy efficiency of their homes. 

The three non-UK winners are: SELCO, which brings tailored solar solutions to homes and businesses in India; BURN, which provides efficient and affordable cookstoves to people in Kenya; and Sosai Renewable Energies, which supports women in Nigeria to become clean energy entrepreneurs. 

“In a world often clouded by fear and frustration, these inspiring organisations offer bold, practical visions that can unite people across political and cultural divides,” said Dr Ashok Sinha, Ashden’s CEO. 

Image: Afsheen Kabir Rashid, Repowering London’s CEO. Credit: Ashden Awards

A people-powered campaign to halt a poultry megafarm that threatened England’s longest river has triumphed in the high court, a move described as a “win for cleaner rivers”. 

Plans for the industrial-scale facility near the River Severn had been waved through by Shropshire council, prompting the charity River Action to take the council to the high court.

This week, a judge revoked planning permission for the megafarm, claiming the original approval did not take into account the wider impact it would have on the environment. 

River Action said the ruling “marks a turning point for polluting factory farming in the UK”. The charity’s Emma Dearnaley added: “It’s a big win for our rivers. The reckless spread of intensive agriculture ends now.”

Shropshire council said that it sought advice from Natural England and the Environment Agency before granting permission. The high court ruling comes amid a river pollution crisis in England and Wales.  

Image: George Standen

A startup that devised a filter to capture microfibres discharged from washing machines has opened a facility to recycle the particles in England. 

The plant in Bude, Cornwall, is thought to be the first of its kind. The Cleaner Seas Group (CSG) behind it estimate that it could turn 86 tonnes of microfibres into useable materials for construction and packaging annually. 

The startup developed a £130 system that can be fitted to washing machines to filter out the thousands of microfibers discharged during every wash. It launched in 2020. Those who bought one can now send the filters inside off to the facility for the microfibers to be extracted and recycled. 

“Microplastic pollution is a global crisis hiding in plain sight,” said Dave Miller, chief executive of CSG. “It’s in our oceans, our food, even our bloodstreams. We’re told it’s too complex to fix – we’re proving that’s not true.”

Image: Sarah Chai

Celebrities, politicians and regular citizens are backing calls for a polluter tax on fossil fuel companies as a new international survey reveals overwhelming support globally for such a tax. 

The poll of more than 15,000 people across 13 nations – conducted on behalf of Oxfam and Greenpeace – found that 81% of people believe that governments should tax oil, gas and coal corporations for the environmental damage they cause, including wildfires, flooding and drought.

Oxfam estimated that such a tax could raise $400bn (298bn) in a year, which it says would cover the estimated annual costs of climate damage in developing nations. In response, Greenpeace launched a Polluters Pay Pact calling for such a levy. It has been signed by more than 120,000 people in the UK, including actor and director Peter Capaldi.  

“It’s utter madness that world leaders are scratching their heads about how to pay for the devastation of flooding, wildfires, and typhoons, while the oil and gas corporations – who are actually to blame for fuelling all this extreme weather – rake in billions in profits,” he said.

“Governments must get those billions to the communities who need it, and bring in polluter taxes, now.”

Image: Arvind Vallabh

Cicadas are singing again in England some three decades after they vanished from the New Forest.

The insects disappeared from the Hampshire national park in the 1990s, with changing land usage blamed. However, conservationists have now reintroduced the species to a special site in the New Forest using 11 individuals brought over from France.

“It’s amazing to see New Forest cicadas in England after all this time,” said Charlotte Carne, project officer at Species Recovery Trust. “It’s like bringing them back from the dead.”

The reintroduced cicadas are all female, with some believed to be pregnant. Establishing a viable population may take some years yet, but ecologists are confident that following habitat restoration work in the New Forest, it can support the insect again.

Image: Gail Hampshire

Efforts to halt the decline of one of Britain’s most elusive and noisiest visiting birds appear to be working.

Figures released by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) this week revealed that 211 nightjars were recorded at the charity’s nature reserves in 2024 – the highest number since records began. 

Nightjars are hard to spot but males have a distinctive call known as a ‘churr’. It was a sound that was slipping away from the British countryside amid the destruction of the nightjar’s heathland habitat.

It prompted the RSPB to restore heathlands at its sites across the UK, notably at Minsmere in Suffolk, where ecologists can hear their work paying off. 

“Visiting heathland on a summer evening, the sound of churring nightjars is everywhere,” said Nick Forster, site manager. “Their distinctive calls carry a long way and are an amazing wildlife experience. Being able to hear those calls is the perfect reminder that the hard work is paying off.”  

Image: Verity Hill/RSPB

Step aside London, back off Bristol, the greenest city in England is … Reading. 

That’s according to the Co-operative Bank, which assessed cities across the country based on key factors, such as air quality, access to green spaces, recycling rates, green jobs, conservation funding, and cycling infrastructure. 

Reading came out in top, thanks to its high rates of recycling and green space. Sunderand’s green jobs boom saw it come second, followed by Bristol, which stood out for its commitment to recycling and cycling. Poor air quality and low recycling rates saw London rank bottom, despite its extensive bike lane network. 

Commenting on the findings, Kathy Richter, the bank’s sustainability lead, said: “It’s encouraging to see Reading, Sunderland and Bristol making strides toward greener, more sustainable communities, but there’s still much to be done, especially in larger urban centres like London and Birmingham.”

Image: Marco Zuppone

A photo series created by displaced children from Gaza has been released to coincide with Refugee Week.

The project was organised by Save the Children UK, which gave cameras to young refugees from Gaza so they could document their new lives in Egypt.

The idea of the project was to use photography to help the children process grief – and share their hopes and dreams for the future.

“As war rages on in Gaza, we must remember that children are always conflict’s biggest victims – and so their voices and stories need to be heard,” said Oscar-nominated director, photographer and Save the Children Ambassador Misan Harriman, who led the initiative.

“That’s what this project is all about: reminding people of the real, human experience behind the headlines.”

Read more and see some of the photographs here.

Image: Save the Children UK/Choose Love
Main image: iStock