"Claude Monet was “terrified.” He looked outside and saw a scene across the London landscape that worried him: no fog, clear skies.” ... "Then, he writes in translated letters shared by the Tate art museum, gradually fires were lit, and smoke and a haze of industrial pollution returned to the skies. His work continued."

"Around three billion litres of water are lost through leaks across hundreds of thousands of miles of water pipe in England and Wales daily, says water industry economic regulator Ofwat. Engineers have now developed miniature robots to patrol the pipe network, check for faults and prevent leaks."

"Sweden has discovered what is billed as Europe’s biggest deposit of rare earth minerals — a crucial component of electronics and clean energy technology — giving a significant boost to the continent’s hunt for trade security."

"A groundbreaking EU deal to ban the import of goods linked to deforestation has set a global benchmark and will hasten the passage of a similar law in the US, American lawmakers have said."

"Scuffles broke out on Monday outside a village in western Germany that is to be razed to allow the expansion of a coal mine, a plan that is drawing resistance from climate activists."

"Much of the Alps just don’t look right for this time of year. Sparse snowfall and unseasonably warm winter weather in Europe’s central mountains are allowing grass to blanket hillsides across the region, causing headaches for ski slope operators and aficionados of Alpine white."

"Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063."

"The UK government is refusing to release the carbon emission figures behind its transport decarbonisation plan, which campaigners say could make proposed road schemes financially unviable."

"The British government approved on Wednesday the country’s first coal mine in decades, a project promoted as a source of new jobs but which has been criticized as a reversal of efforts to control climate change."