Elephants can work cooperatively if that is the only way to reach food. This kind of coordinated behaviour was once thought to be unique to our nearest primate relatives.

Joshua Plotnik of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his colleagues have previously shown that elephants seem to recognise themselves in a mirror. To test the animals’ understanding of cooperation, Plotnik and his colleagues have developed an elephant version of an experiment originally run with chimps.

In this experiment, a pair of animals can bring a platform bearing food within their grasp if both simultaneously pull on the ends of a rope threaded through it. If only one pulls the rope, it unthreads from the platform, leaving the food out of reach.

The Thai elephants the researchers studied learned to tug in unison with their trunks. In experiments in which one animal was held back by up to 45 seconds, its partner would wait for it to turn up before starting to pull. Most strikingly, in trials in which one end of the rope was curled up and out of reach, both animals backed away from the apparatus, making no attempt to pull on the rope.

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On Benbecula, they know all too well that rising tides threaten the UK’s coastline. For the 1,200 inhabitants of the small, low-lying island in the Outer Hebrides, the sea’s encroachment is becoming a serious problem, especially on its western shores.

Impacts of Climate Change on Disadvantaged UK Coastal Communities, a report to be published tomorrow by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an influential thinktank, records how local people have seen the coastline retreat before their eyes in just a few years.

The threat posed by erosion has been exacerbated by the fact that the sea has taken material from the island’s beaches that is normally used for constructing roads and buildings. But Benbecula is not alone: the report claims that rising sea levels are likely to have a “severe impact” on much of the UK’s coastline by 2080.

The authors note that “the total rise in sea levels off the UK coast may exceed one metre, and could potentially reach two metres”. They warn that “the frequency of intense storm events is expected to increase and, along with the rise in sea level, to lead to more coastal flooding”.

As a result, many of the 30 million people living near the UK’s coastline – which has 291 inhabited islands – will need to anticipate how climate change will affect them. “We haven’t devoted enough time to debating these issues,” said Jeremy Richardson, director of the engineering consultancy URS-Scott Wilson, who co-authored the report.

“Because we’re talking about what happens in 2050 to 2080, people tend not to talk about this, but the coast is going to be at the forefront of these climate change impacts. We’re not just talking about flooding or drought, but also rising sea levels and an increase in storminess; it will affect a lot of towns, many of which are especially vulnerable because they are isolated geographically.”

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Businesses have expressed concerns that the government’s proposed Electricity Market Reform (EMR) will be both “complex and unwieldy”.

Research conducted by npower found more than half of businesses believe the plans will lead to a rise in energy costs, with the carbon floor price being named as a major concern.

Some 57 percent of those who took part in the study said they were worried about the impact imposing a minimum price on carbon would have on their bills.

There were also concerns raised that the EMR could damage the competitiveness of UK companies as it is too ‘nationally’ focussed.

David Cockshott, director of industrial and commercial markets at npower, said companies have “very real concerns regarding the proposals in the EMR, particularly while the UK economy is still so fragile”.

He added: “At the moment, many of our customers see the proposals as a ’stick, not a carrot’.”

A consultation into the EMR, which the government claims will enable a secure supply of low carbon power, was launched in December and closes today (March 10th). A White Paper on the reforms is due to be published in late spring.

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Members of the solar industry have called on the UK government to raise its ambitions for the renewable energy source.

In an advert placed in this week’s New Statesman, the sector has linked with WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to draw attention to the potential solar power offers.

Howard Johns, chairman of the Solar Trade Association, said: “This government isn’t taking solar seriously and that is completely unjustified. Costs of solar are dropping as fast as oil costs are rising, and this technology could easily meet a third of UK electricity needs.”

Entitled Don’t Crush This Solar Revolution, the piece comes in response to the government’s review into Feed-in-Tariffs, which it claims are needed to address the “threat” presented by large solar farms.

The signatories argue schemes larger than 5MW, which the government classes as “super-size”, are common in other countries and the review is also jeopardising the future of medium-sized installations.

Britain was said to have the lowest target for solar power, generating just one percent of its power from the source by 2020.

The government’s target is for 15 percent of all power to come from renewable sources by the end of the decade to contribute to overall CO2 savings of 80 percent by 2050.

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Boeing has announced the release of a more environmentally-friendly 747 and claims it has already received orders from a number of major airlines.

The 747-8 Intercontinental offers both improved financial and environmental performance, according to the manufacturer, which released its Dreamliner last year.

Boeing claims the Intercontinental has 16 percent better fuel economy and 16 percent less CO2 emissions than its predecessor, the 747-400. It also has a 30 percent smaller noise footprint.

Jim Albaugh, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive officer, said: “The new 747-8 Intercontinental features the latest in innovative technologies – applying many of the breakthroughs also found on the 787 Dreamliner.”

Korean Air and Lufthansa are among those which have already placed orders, with the aircraft due to be delivered in the fourth quarter of the year.

Researchers at the German Aerospace Centre recently created an electric nose wheel, which would mean pilots would not have to use a craft’s main engine to travel around the airport, significantly cutting CO2 emissions.

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Signs that the government’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) review is already beginning to affect investor confidence have emerged, with the Matrix Group suspending its Clean Energy VCTs [Venture Capital Trusts].

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced its review of the incentives last week, saying it was addressing the concerns surrounding large-scale solar farms.

Members of the industry then reacted angrily after it was revealed the research would cover any installation capable of generating 50KW of power, which are largely defined as medium scale. They claimed the review could undermine investor confidence in the technology.

The Matrix Group has now sent a letter to investors saying it is suspending fundraising for its Clean Energy VCTs, claiming “the future of the FIT scheme is now uncertain, which is a material risk to investors”.

It said its investments “were to be exclusively focused on relatively large scale rooftop solar PV” and it is contacting the DECC to receive clarification over whether “rooftop installations over 50KW would be treated differently from ground mounted” solar developments.

The timeframe available for completing projects given the early conclusion of the review was also said to be too small.

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The world’s oceans are increasingly over-crowded with sardines, researchers say.

In the last 100 years, the number of small fish – such as pilchards, herrings, anchovies, sprats and sardines – has more than doubled, according to a study.

The rise is caused by a major decline in big ‘predator fish’ such as sharks, tuna and cod due to over-fishing. Without the natural hunters to keep numbers under control, the population of smaller, plankton-feeding fish has boomed.

The scientists who made the discovery say the growing number of small ‘forage fish’ could have serious consequences further down the food chain – and may increase the risk of algae blooms, where populations of simple algae get out of control and choke the oceans. There are growing concerns among scientists about the impacts of overfishing.

While there are signs that some fish – such as North Atlantic cod – are recovering from years of industrial fishing, some species – such as the giant bluefin tuna praised by Japanese chefs and served in fashionable London restaurants  – are now just few years away from extinction.

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Greenhouse gas emissions are making extreme rainfall events more common, scientists say – and in the UK, have increased the risk of flooding.

Two research groups present their findings in the journal Nature.

Using real-world data and computer models, one team says it has proven the link between greenhouse emissions and the observed increase in extreme rains in the Northern Hemisphere.

The other says greenhouse warming made the UK floods of 2000 more likely.

That autumn saw the highest rains in England and Wales since records began in 1766.

The Hampshire village of Hambledon was underwater for six weeks, and insurers put the final cost to the country at more than £1bn.

A research team led from Oxford University ran computer models of the atmosphere as it actually was, and parallel models of the atmosphere as it would have been without the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that had accumulated from humanity’s emissions.

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Future climate change could change the profile of tropical forests, with possible consequences for carbon storage and biodiversity, a study says.

It suggests that if current trends continued, the drier conditions would favour deciduous, canopy species at the expense of other trees.

US researchers based their findings on the changes they recorded in a Costa Rican forest over a 20-year period.

The team’s paper has been published in the journal Global Change Biology.

“It is important because – depending on the rate of change, and the type of species that are found in the forests – it will influence a lot of ecosystem services and processes,” explained co-author Brian Enquist from the University of Arizona.

“For example, we need to know how much carbon tropical forests are storing, and will store in the future. We also need to know how much CO2 they are taking out of the air.”

Professor Enquist and his team examined how an area of forest had changed between 1976 and 1996.

“We were fortunate that between the two dates, there was a series of quite impressive droughts – those droughts have been increasing in severity over the longer term,” he told BBC News.

He said that there had been a “tremendous reduction” in the total number of trees in the forest.

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Unpublished Government research suggests the plastic carrier may not be an eco villain after all – but, whisper it, an unsung hero. Hated by environmentalists and shunned by shoppers, the disposable plastic bag is piling up in a shame-filled corner of retail history.

But a draft report by the Environment Agency, obtained by the Independent on Sunday, has found that ordinary high density polythene (HDPE) bags used by shops are actually greener than supposedly low impact choices.

HDPE bags are, for each use, almost 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton hold-alls favoured by environmentalists, and have less than one third of the Co2 emissions than paper bags which are given out by retailers such as Primark.

The findings suggest that, in order to balance out the tiny impact of each lightweight plastic bag, consumers would have to use the same cotton bag every working day for a year, or use paper bags at least thrice rather than sticking them in the bin or recycling.

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