The nature charity WWF has called for more trees and natural surfaces to be brought into school playgrounds to help regulate soaring temperatures during heatwaves.

Schools are usually surrounded by open spaces, and over recent years these have increasingly been converted into artificial surfaces such as asphalt, astroturf and rubber crumb. These surfaces absorb much more heat than natural ones like grass, soil or sand, which in turn heats the air around the school.

In the record-breaking June heatwave, extreme heat forced hundreds of schools to close and many more to keep children indoors - 63% of primary school teachers, who responded to a recent poll, said they’d been forced to keep children indoors over break or lunch, while 97% said they had made changes to the way they use their outdoor space. Some reported classroom temperatures which exceeded 40 degrees.

“What we used to think of as extreme, we increasingly consider as normal.” That is the summarising comment from Mike Kendon, the Met Office lead author of the latest edition of the State of the UK Climate report.

The report, which covers 2025 puts the latest year and decade into a historical context, tells us about the changes already seen in the UK’s climate.

The key change in the UK’s climate is the ongoing rise in temperatures, with extremes particularly affected.

The UK government has been accused of “rushing through” planning changes that could give developers permission to “trash” nature for as little as £1.

A letter signed by more than 100 conservationists, scientists, celebrities and businesses, including the actor and writer Stephen Fry and the broadcaster Chris Packham, has urged the incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, to immediately halt the rollout of environmental delivery plans (EDPs).

These plans, which were introduced through the Planning and Infrastructure Act, applying mainly to England and Wales, allow developers to sidestep environmental laws by instead paying into a national nature levy. Campaign groups say this allows developers to pay “cash to trash” wildlife.

The fight is on to save a rare ecosystem of chalk streams referred to as the Amazon of the UK.

The UK is home to 85% of the world's chalk streams – clear waterways teeming with unique wildlife – but there are concerns about their future, with the usual threats to rivers hanging over them, including pollution.

This year, a bill was introduced in Parliament in a bid to give them protected status with Unesco. It is due to have a second reading in October.

UK business leaders, senior government officials, scientists and conservation experts are coming together in Edinburgh today (15 July 2026) to take collective action on biodiversity loss – one of the most significant strategic risks facing businesses today.

Hosted by JNCC, the UK Business and Biodiversity Forum (UKBBF) and NatureScot, Biodiversity + Business Live will focus on translating global insight into tangible, strategic action for business and examine how nature-positive leadership can create long-term value and resilience, inform strategic decision-making, enable collaboration at scale, and drive credible business action.

Dr Gemma Harper OBE, Chief Executive of JNCC said: “Nature underpins our economy, our businesses and our communities, yet the evidence is clear that the natural systems we depend on are under increasing pressure. Biodiversity loss is not just an environmental challenge – it is a strategic business risk.

Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found.

Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% – left out any mention of global heating or the climate, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Even fewer pieces drew a link between the heatwave and government policies designed to tackle the climate crisis – less than one in 20 heatwave stories mentioned “net zero”.

There have been more than 50,000 fish killed in Northern Ireland because of water pollution incidents during the past five years.

The kills were caused by 65 separate pollution incidents in rivers and waterways.

Most of the fish kills took place in counties Armagh, Tyrone and Fermanagh and in almost half of the incidents, authorities took no further action.

The largest seagrass restoration project ever undertaken in the UK has been launched in Cornwall as part of an ambitious £1.8 million marine recovery programme.

The scheme will see 10 hectares of seagrass meadow restored in Falmouth Bay, alongside efforts to rebuild native oyster populations across the Fal and Helford Special Areas of Conservation.

The three-year project, known as Mor Nature, is being delivered through a new partnership between the Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT) and Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT), combining expertise in large-scale seagrass restoration and oyster recovery.

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust has created multiple new potential nesting homes for Sand Martins at Amwell Nature Reserve, near Ware, giving the bird species a much-needed opportunity to establish a new breeding colony in Hertfordshire.

The purpose-built nesting banks have been designed to mimic the steep, sandy cliffs that Sand Martins naturally dig into, creating burrows for nesting. Each bank contains specially created nesting chambers that the birds can excavate and occupy, with the potential to support generations of breeding birds as the chambers can be replenished with fresh sand each year.

The project, supported by £21,000 funding from Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund, is exploring how pigs can act as a proxy for missing native species such as wild boar, helping to restore natural processes that once played a key role in shaping diverse habitats and ecosystems in Derbyshire.

Three young, female pigs have now been introduced into a 1.4-acre fenced area of the four-acre meadow at Lea Wood, marking the start of an innovative grazing pilot.

The government’s plan to protect and restore nature in England by 2030 has been condemned as “pathetic” and “completely insufficient” in the face of the spiralling environmental crisis.

The long-awaited plan published on Monday calls for landowners to voluntarily opt to protect and enhance nature, rather than creating legal protections for nature across more of the country’s land, critics say.

Ministers said the strategy would accelerate action to meet an international commitment to restore 30% of nature by 2030 made by more than 100 countries during Cop15 negotiations in Montreal in 2022.

Results from the latest national Dotterel survey have revealed declines of 89% since monitoring began in 1987/88. The rate of decline has increased since the last national survey in 2011.

Dotterels are small wading birds with rusty-orange chests that are adapted to breed on the rocky plateaus and sparse vegetation of mountain environments. They spend their winters in Northern Africa, and every year migrate to mountainous regions across Northern Europe - including the UK - and Asia to breed. Whilst the global population of Dotterel is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, their future in the UK appears increasingly dire.

Adders, slow worms and common lizards will be the focus of protection efforts during a major peatland restoration project near Dumfries.

New shelters known as hibernacula are being created using peat, tree material and brash to provide safe overwintering areas.

And staff are using corrugated metal sheets to create warm microhabitats where reptiles can be observed without disturbance.

A start-up hopes its invention to remove a harmful pollutant from waterways can "go global" following a successful trial in a key reservoir - and help farmers cut costs at the same time.

Rookwood Operations, based in Wells, Somerset, has pioneered a system to filter out phosphates, which in high concentrations can drive harmful algal blooms that choke water courses of oxygen.

It binds phosphates to a sponge-like organic material deployed in permeable cartridges, and a trial conducted in Chew Valley Reservoir found it can remove the chemical even at very low concentrations.

A three-year-project to help boost sand dune-living rare beetle and toad numbers is to start later this year.

Last week the government announced several projects it was funding to protect threatened species including a scheme aiming to increase the numbers of northern dune tiger beetles and natterjack toads in Cumbria.

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (Arc) official Jack Harper said the region was one of the "last strongholds" in Britain for the toad which is known for its loud mating call.

Forest populations halved during 1968-2016 compared to average national losses of a third

A team of scientists led from Rothamsted Research found that populations have more than halved in broadleaf woodland, compared to average losses of 34% across the rest of the country.

Habitat loss, pesticides and urban light pollution have all been implicated in insect declines, but the new results show the greatest losses are occurring in broadleaf woodland, a UK habitat type that in fact increased in area during the study period and is relatively shielded from the effects of chemical and light pollution.

A rare floodplain meadow is to be restored into a wildflower-rich habitat after it was donated to a conservation charity.

White Mills Meadow is on the banks of the River Nene at Earls Barton, near Northampton, and it was given to the trust by the Thompson family.

The six hectare (15-acre) site will become the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire's 34th reserve in Northamptonshire.

Children who live near a beauty spot say they are concerned the river through their village is "dying" after conducting water quality sampling.

Pupils from Dedham Church of England Primary School in Essex asked a local climate action charity to help them investigate pollution in a stretch of the River Stour popular with swimmers, paddleboarders and tourists.

Year Four teacher Emily Keeley said the children were "really quite disheartened to find it was so polluted" but were passionate about raising awareness of the issue.

Beavers, endangered butterflies and birds will be among the species to benefit from a £1.28m government grant.

The money has been awarded to the Kent Wildlife Trust, through Natural England's Species Recovery Programme, backed by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It will be spent on projects on the River Stour, with Kent the home to England's largest population of wild beavers, and ancient woodland at the Blean, near Canterbury.

The chairman of the Essex Climate Action Commission said the group was "saddened" its work would probably pause after Essex County Council severed its support.

Prof Jules Pretty said the staff and administrative support from Essex County Council, to deliver projects, was going to be removed.

He said while the commission would not close, the activities undertaken would have to be cut back substantially.

The UK may be facing its worst-ever risk of wildfires this weekend, a leading expert says.

The warning comes as University of Exeter researchers comment on multiple aspects of the ongoing heatwave, which is affecting the UK and much of Europe.

Here’s what the researchers say:

Today the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species released its first update for 2026, publishing over 1,200 new tree species assessments and reassessments. Highlights from this update include the publication of species from the Neotropics and India, and Sorbus species from the UK and Ireland.

In December 2025, a group of experts from across the UK met to share their knowledge to reassess UK species of Sorbus. Participants from Natural England, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the National Botanic Garden of Wales and experts in Sorbus came together in a workshop organized by Forestry England’s Westonbirt, The National Arboretum and Botanic Gardens Conservation International as part of the Global Tree Assessment.

Known as whitebeams, rowans, and service trees, there are 42 species of Sorbus only found in the UK and Ireland and almost all of them were assessed as threatened with extinction in 2016. For the majority of species, the reassessments have the same final Red List category, however, due to surveying over the last ten years, up-to-date population counts could be added to several assessments.

With its brilliant orange wings and black markings, the high brown fritillary butterfly was once widespread in Wales and England.

But now it's one of the rarest of all British butterflies, with it numbers declining by 62% since 1970.

One reason is its incredibly specific requirements to survive.

Researchers are hoping to build a clearer picture of how endangered basking sharks use and behave in Manx waters, as sightings of the species have risen this year.

The Manx Shark Foundation has been created by shark scientist Gemma Scotts and fisheries officer Tom Morgan.

Morgan said that while recent basking shark sightings have been encouraging, there was still a lot to learn about the animals and what influenced where they were went.

Plans to reintroduce lynx to some northern parts of England have been opposed by councillors.

Northumberland County Council has backed a motion that it would not support any application to release the big cats into the wild, although a final decision rests with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The Eurasian lynx was hunted to extinction in the UK about 1,000 years ago, and campaigners argue the species should be reintroduced to north Northumberland to help control roe deer populations and improve the ecosystem.