Around The Web

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

South Africa’s carbon tax may be ineffective in cutting the country’s greenhouse gas emissions on its own, a report by a major consulting firm warned.

Financial entities increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings this week by the largest amount in nearly a year, while regulated entities' length potentially grew from short positions rolling off in January, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

The Oregon Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) recorded its first credit deficit since early 2019 in the third quarter of last year, with a rebound in gasoline volumes and a crash in renewable diesel (RD) usage contributing to the draw on the surplus bank, according to state data published Friday.

EUAs extended their record high above €38 for the third straight day on Friday, holding on to most of this week's gains as the market comfortably absorbed the first full week of 2021 allowance auctions.

A subsidiary of US agriculture cooperative Land O’Lakes launched its voluntary carbon credit programme on Thursday that will pay farmers up to $20/tonne for CO2 sequestration, as soil-based offset initiatives continue to earmark payments on the high end of current global voluntary emissions reduction (VER) values.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in Indiana, Maine, and Rhode Island.

Papers reveal federal environment department officials warned against preemptively handing approval powers to states

Federal officials warned against transferring environmental approval powers to state governments before a major review of conservation laws was complete, saying it could undermine hopes of substantial reform.

Despite the warning, the Morrison and Western Australian governments pushed ahead with plans to give the states greater authority in approving developments before the formal review by former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel was finished.

Continue reading...

So far the PM’s new rhetoric on net zero doesn’t match the substance and the only way that will change is if he can corral the Nationals

Back in the olden times, when circumstances required John Howard to backflip, he made a performance of it. Howard’s purpose was simple: the prime minister wanted everyone to notice the shift.

Scott Morrison isn’t from the Howard backflip school. His style is more liquid. But I think Morrison wanted voters to notice when his language shifted significantly on Australia achieving net zero emissions by 2050 – a pivot that followed Joe Biden’s victory in the US election.

Continue reading...

With its natural predator in decline, roo numbers are growing – and research suggests the marsupial is doing more damage than rabbits in the country’s interior

The experimental fencing had gone up to keep the rabbits out, but the ground inside the conservation area at Yathong in central New South Wales had still been nibbled and munched bare.

“It was completely denuded,” says Prof Mike Letnic. “It was like a moonscape.”

Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures, from starfish at Dogger Bank to a sky full of migrating birds in Kashmir to the last moments in the life of a zebra brought down by cheetahs

Continue reading...

Governments could be at the start of a slow but huge transformation in how they treat natural life

One of the most important things about this week’s landmark review into the value of nature may appear to be a footling detail: its publisher. The 600-page report was commissioned by the Treasury, headed by Rishi Sunak, rather than the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whose boss is George Eustice. The difference appears to be tiny – the two ministries are a mere 10-minute walk apart – but it represents a huge paradigm shift. For this is the first time any country’s finance ministry has put out a comprehensive study into the economic importance of maintaining a variety of life on Earth. Its author is Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, a Cambridge economist. His argument is both needed and subversive: our economic models and our models for how to run an economy both require urgent overhaul if humanity is to survive and prosper.

For so long, government ministers have treated biodiversity as way down the to-do list, beneath winning the next election and ensuring asset markets and public services are not in meltdown. Plurality and integrity of natural life, of everything from parasites to parakeets, is no more objectionable to a politician than the latest Attenborough documentary. But doing much about it has never seemed a high enough priority.

Continue reading...

Investment bank Macquarie's head of environmental products and continental power in London has been hired by rival Goldman Sachs, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Pennsylvania Republicans have pushed back against analysis by two state agencies and an independent group that claim the state has the legal authority to implement a RGGI-modelled cap-and-trade regulation without the legislature’s approval.

An auction of offshore plots for future windfarms is being held by the Crown Estate

The Queen’s ownership of the British coastline is as old as the monarchy itself. But her right to collect royalties from wind and wave power is much more recent: it was granted by Tony Blair’s Labour government in a 2004 act of parliament.

The Crown Estate, which manages the royal property portfolio, is holding the first auction of seabed plots for windfarm turbines in a decade. It emerged this week that bidding has reached record highs as energy firms look to diversify away from oil.

Continue reading...

Eviction team comes face to face with protesters after digging down shaft near London station

The HS2 eviction team has spent more than 18 hours trying to remove one of the environmental protesters from tunnels dug near Euston station in London.

He is understood to still be “locked on” underground, and there are concerns about his wellbeing.

Continue reading...

Male nano-chameleon, named Brookesia nana, has body only 13.5mm long

Scientists say they have discovered a sunflower-seed-sized subspecies of chameleon that may well be the smallest reptile on Earth.

Two of the miniature lizards, one male and one female, were discovered by a German-Madagascan expedition team in northern Madagascar.

Continue reading...

The European Commission launched an investigation into Romanian utility CE Oltenia’s restructuring plans on Friday, blocking funding that observers say the company was likely relying on to buy several million carbon allowances over the next two months.

Alok Sharma should resign unless plans for a deep coal mine in Cumbria are dropped, Lib Dems say.

The White House gives its backing to Nasa's effort to return to the Moon.