Stantec has acquired Sydney-headquartered environmental consultancy Niche and its wholly owned subsidiary Ausecology, expanding its environmental and approvals capability across Australia. Niche brings specialist services in ecology, biodiversity assessment and environmental impact studies for transport, energy and resources projects, complementing Stantec’s existing design and engineering portfolio. The deal signals stronger in-house capacity for early-stage constraints mapping, permitting support and ecological monitoring on major linear infrastructure and mining-related developments in sensitive habitats.

Petrobras has confirmed an oil discovery at the Morpho exploration well in ultra-deep water block FZA-M-59, about 175 km off Amapá in Brazil’s Foz do Amazonas basin, after drilling that began in October 2025 at roughly $1 million per day. The company has already spent $300 million on the well, about half on environmental protection measures, and plans a wider Equatorial Margin campaign with three further wells in this block and six elsewhere, pending IBAMA licences. Environmental and Indigenous groups have launched legal challenges over spill risk, climate impacts and lack of community consultation, creating significant permitting and ESG uncertainty for future offshore development.

The Environment Agency has approved a variation to Drax Power Limited’s environmental permit, allowing post-combustion carbon capture to be added to its biomass-fired generating units at the Selby bioenergy plant in North Yorkshire. The decision enables integration of large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure with existing flue gas treatment systems, including new absorber columns, solvent regeneration equipment and CO₂ compression and export facilities. Civil and geotechnical works will need to accommodate additional foundations, pipe racks and tie-ins within a live, high-load power station site.