Following the furore over the alleged diversion of EU 'green energy' funding to gas-fired power generation, as documented by The Guardian (see Environment UK blog of 29 May), the main environment news was the announcement yesterday of the front-runners in the race for up to €1.5bn worth of funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS) schemes. While not in any way renewable energy, the schemes do improve on previous methods of dealing with the carbon released from fossil fuel energy production (ie, not dealing with it at all). Leader of the pack, so to speak, is a project based near Doncaster, the Don Valley Power Project.

The scheme will recover CO₂ produced in the generation of power from coal mined at Hatfield Colliery and transport it, together with other carbon emissions from power generation elsewhere and local industry, to the offshore oilfield to harvest 'hard-to-reach' oil before being permanently stored. Two other projects in Yorkshire and one on Teesside are also among the eight preferred projects, although only the top two or three schemes are likely to receive funding.

This week's blog was going to be a report from the island of Corfu, which was home to one of the founders of modern species conservation, Gerald Durrell. It is also home to the Durrell School, which hosts regular seminars and residencies that have been led in the past by such distinguished environmental campaigners as David Bellamy. Climate change has been noticeable over the past decade or so in the changes to the ferocity of the mosquitoes on the island. My wife has twice had to call on medical treatment because of bites that have become infected. I'm not usually targeted because of my complexion; this year was different. In vain do I search the environment directory for a solution.

Town centres and neighbourhoods have been in the environmental news recently. Oddly enough, the Government's initiative on reviving town centres seems to me to have a modicum of credit to it. I have to admit at this point to never having seen anything on TV with Mary Portius, the lady behind the latest scheme, in it – the epithet 'Queen of Shops' makes me uncomfortable as I am temperamentally anti-shopping.

However, the idea of bringing the centres of towns back into use and encouraging traditional shops and community groups to use the buildings that are already there has to be applauded. The idea that you run some kind of competition where some win and others lose out completely is another story.

The big environment news story at the moment is all about fish. This month has seen talks on reforming the Common Fisheries Policy, with a view to ending discards aiming to regenerate stocks by 2015. Predictably, though, there have been allegations of 'backsliding' by those nations who stand to lose most from the conservation move. Equally predictably, there has been a visible division in the camps between the conservation-minded northern states and the more short-term views of southern Europe, including France.

The main story on the DEFRA site, however, is that the UK's devolved governments have reached an agreement on allocating the quota on an individual national basis. That is assuming there are any fish left after the latest round of wrangling. Greenpeace has initiated an innovative campaign to lobby for a fair and sustainable system. You can 'Be a fisherman's friend' by sending the petition to the Fisheries Minister or even star in your own sea shanty.