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Despite some fine words about the environmental crisis, ministers are pushing ahead with a trade bill that threatens to damage the planet

The dust storms that devastated the US prairie during the Great Depression were the worst ecological disaster in American history. They were also, partly, manmade. Decades of farming in the Great Plains had rid the topsoil of its native grass, leaving nothing to prevent fields crumbling to dust when drought struck in 1931. Across the Dust Bowl in midwest America, millions of acres of farmland were swept away in brown blizzards. Forced off the land, hungry families headed west in search of new jobs and lives. The dust blew so far east that it settled on the White House lawn.

Almost 90 years ago the US president’s response was not to lie about the scale of disaster or blame others. Instead, Franklin D Roosevelt launched one of his New Deal’s signature relief programmes: the Civilian Conservation Corps. Its mission was to put unemployed Americans to work. More than 3 million people planted 3bn trees, built shelter belts across the Great Plains to reduce the risk of dust storms, and created 700 state parks. FDR’s legacy survives, but his policy is venerated more in name than in deed.

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Ban on use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 for slaughterhouses breaching new labour regulations a ‘historic moment’, say campaigners

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The German government has announced a series of reforms of the meat industry, including a ban on the use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 (£26,000) for companies breaching labour regulations, as slaughterhouses have emerged as coronavirus hotspots.

A number of meat plants across the country have temporarily closed after hundreds of workers tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks.

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An European Parliament effort to fast-track shipping into the EU ETS may hit a potential hurdle next week, as an influential lawmaker appeared to snub the idea.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including rose-ringed parakeets and a poppy-loving bumblebee

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Two participants registered CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS) accounts in the Northeast RGGI ETS this month, marking four additions this year.

High court hears challenge after ministers overruled climate objections of planning officials

The UK government’s approval of a large new gas-fired power plant has been ruled legal by the high court. The legal challenge was brought after ministers had overruled the climate change objections of the country’s own planning authority.

The plant, which is being developed by Drax in North Yorkshire, would be the biggest gas power station in Europe, and could account for 75% of the UK’s power sector emissions when fully operational, according to the environmental lawyers for ClientEarth, which brought the judicial review.

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China should drop its CO2 emissions trading scheme and instead introduce a carbon tax to raise revenue to boost renewable energy, a deputy delegate to China’s National People’s Congress who is also the CEO of a solar power firm said on Friday.

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

EUAs withstood early losses and were on course to notch a 10% weekly gain in thin trade on Friday, though weak gas and wider economy concerns were weighing.

Australia will allow all existing projects to choose whether to switch to a new carbon accounting method being introduced later this year, the Clean Energy Regulator said Friday, meaning those that had been expected to see lower credit generation under the new system can stay with the old method instead.

The business is currently seeking a Head of Client Services to lead and manage their client services team. This person will be focused on designing and delivering high-quality, innovative carbon offset programmes which maximise business value for clients.

Locking down the UK sooner would have made a big difference to the death rate, a scientific adviser says.

Climate risks and opportunities need to be incorporated into the financial system as well as public policymaking and infrastructure

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There is a lot of talk about getting back to normal after the Covid-19 crisis is over. And yet normal – business as usual – is what has made our planet and our societies vulnerable to crises in the first place.

Normal means cutting down huge swathes of forest to plant crops. Normal means overgrazing livestock, destroying natural ecosystems at the expense of habitats for wild animals. Normal is driving climate change, which increases stress in wild species and their habitats and makes people more susceptible to zoonotic diseases (which spread from animals to humans).

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After the financial crisis, green investment paid dividends. Coronavirus presents an even greater opportunity

Everest is once again visible from Kathmandu, after decades shrouded in pollution. Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to levels last seen in 2006. Nature has returned to our streets with a quack and a flurry, and people are waking to birdsong in inner cities as the roar of traffic recedes.

Clear skies bring little cheer at the food bank, however. Birdsong might lift the heart, but it won’t pay the rent.

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Fridays for Future to publish letter urging reform of common agricultural policy ahead of European commission meeting

The EU’s farming sector needs radical reform, and the common agricultural policy (CAP) must be rewritten if the climate crisis is to be tackled, a group of young climate activists will urge.

Fridays for Future, founded by teenagers in the wake of Greta Thunberg’s school strikes, will confront the European commission’s vice-president, Frans Timmermans, online to call for new plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, and replace subsidies based on the amount of land farmed with payments for farmers supplying public goods, such as clean water, clean air and lower carbon emissions.

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National Grid may ask suppliers to stop generating electricity due to record low consumption

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Hundreds of renewable energy projects may be asked to turn off this weekend to avoid overloading the grid as the UK’s electricity demand plummets to record lows.

Britain’s demand for electricity is forecast to tumble to a fifth below normal levels due to the spring bank holiday and the shutdown of shops, bars and restaurants mandated by the coronavirus lockdown.

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Particles may outnumber zooplankton, which underpin marine life and regulate climate

The abundance of microplastic pollution in the oceans is likely to have been vastly underestimated, according to research that suggests there are at least double the number of particles as previously thought.

Scientists trawled waters off the coasts of the UK and US and found many more particles using nets with a fine mesh size than when using coarser ones usually used to filter microplastics. The addition of these smaller particles to global estimates of surface microplastics increases the range from between 5tn and 50tn particles to 12tn-125tn particles, the scientists say.

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Labor, Greens and Independent MPs called for transparency around federal government's economic response to Covid-19, as it looks set to embrace fossil fuels at expense of green recovery.

The post Morrison’s lack of transparency is undermining green recovery, MPs say appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Better understanding of Covid-19's impact on the immune system gives hope an existing drug might aid recovery.

China looks unlikely to launch a carbon-intensive spending spree to recover from COVID-19 after the government on Friday said it has decided to not set a GDP growth target for this year, though continued support for “clean” coal and infrastructure projects means carbon emissions will likely rebound, according to observers.