More than 60% of known hydrothermal vent mollusc species – 125 of 201 assessed – are now classed as threatened on the IUCN Red List due to prospective deep-sea mining for copper, cobalt, zinc and polymetallic nodules. IUCN is urging a moratorium ahead of the International Seabed Authority’s 13–31 July meeting in Jamaica, citing evidence from a 3,000‑tonne nodule removal test at 4,280 m in the Clarion‑Clipperton Zone that cut macrofaunal density by 37% and species richness by 32% within two years. For project planners and ESG teams, the findings signal rising regulatory and reputational risk for vent-proximal licences, while marine protected areas like the Mariana Arc of Fire currently shield some species such as Provanna exquisita.

Google.org has awarded a £1M grant to the FloodAction Coalition to build a UK-wide water resilience intelligence platform targeting both fluvial flooding and drought risk. The system is expected to aggregate hydrological, land-use and socio-economic data to identify priority catchments where nature-based solutions—such as floodplain reconnection, wetland restoration and upstream storage—offer the greatest cost–benefit. For civil and geotechnical teams, the platform should provide more granular evidence to justify green infrastructure schemes in business cases and long-term asset management plans.

Market engagement has opened for a £382M vault optimisation and capping delivery contract at Nuclear Waste Services’ Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) in Cumbria, signalling a major phase of engineered containment works. The package is expected to cover optimisation of existing disposal vaults and installation of multi-layer capping systems over legacy trenches and vaults to long-term standards for low-level radioactive waste isolation. Contractors will need deep experience in complex earthworks, geosynthetic barrier systems, and long-duration performance of engineered covers in aggressive coastal conditions.