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Suez Canal: How are they trying to free the Ever Given?

BBC - Fri, 2021-03-26 04:08
Operations are continuing to move a 400 metre long vessel stuck in the Suez Canal since Tuesday.
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EU Market: EUAs droop to 2-week low as virus, market fears mount

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2021-03-26 03:32
EUAs fell by as much as 5% on Thursday to slip below €40 for the first time in two weeks, as markets sank while coronavirus infections rose in Europe, dimming recovery prospects.
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Serbia launches MRV system as a stepping stone for national carbon market

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2021-03-26 03:30
Serbia’s system to monitor, report, and verify (MRV) greenhouse gas emissions entered into force this week as the government adopted its Climate Law, marking a stepping stone for the introduction of a national carbon market.
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Pandemic slashes Britain’s GHG emissions by 9% in 2020

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2021-03-26 03:27
The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell a massive 8.9% in 2019, according to provisional government data released Thursday, with drops in almost every sector due to reduced activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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EEX to handle permit sales, auctions under new German carbon pricing scheme

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2021-03-26 02:03
German energy exchange EEX has been selected to handle the sales and auctions of emissions allowances under the country’s new domestic carbon pricing scheme.
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EU lawmakers not giving up on 60% GHG target for 2030, says Climate Law negotiator

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2021-03-26 01:45
The European Parliament is not giving up on raising the bloc’s 2030 climate target to at least 60% below 1990 levels in negotiations for the European Climate Law, an MEP said Thursday, in the face of opposition from the Commission and EU nations.
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'Dimming the sun': $100m geoengineering research programme proposed

The Guardian - Fri, 2021-03-26 01:00

All options to fight climate crisis must be explored, says national academy, but critics fear side-effects

The US should establish a multimillion-dollar research programme on solar geoengineering, according to the country’s national science academy.

In a report it recommends funding of $100m (£73m) to $200m over five years to better understand the feasibility of interventions to dim the sun, the risk of harmful unintended consequences and how such technology could be governed in an ethical way.

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UPDATE – Poland asks Brussels to investigate speculator impact in EU carbon market

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2021-03-26 00:40
Poland has once again asked the European Commission to investigate sharply rising EU carbon prices, as trading data shows speculators are building larger positions in the market.
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Indigenous peoples by far the best guardians of forests – UN report

The Guardian - Fri, 2021-03-26 00:00

Preserving Latin America’s forests is vital to fight the climate crisis and deforestation is lower in indigenous territories

The embattled indigenous peoples of Latin America are by far the best guardians of the regions’ forests, according to a UN report, with deforestation rates up to 50% lower in their territories than elsewhere.

Protecting the vast forests is vital to tackling the climate crisis and plummeting populations of wildlife, and the report found that recognising the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples to their land is one of the most cost-effective actions. The report also calls for the peoples to be paid for the environmental benefits their stewardship provides, and for funding for the revitalisation of their ancestral knowledge of living in harmony with nature.

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Canadian Supreme Court upholds legality of federal CO2 pricing regime

Carbon Pulse - Thu, 2021-03-25 23:53
The Canadian federal government has the authority to impose its ‘backstop’ CO2 levy and output-based pricing system (OBPS) on recalcitrant provinces, the nation’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday, in a major victory for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s landmark climate strategy.
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Extinction: Elephants driven to the brink by poaching

BBC - Thu, 2021-03-25 23:50
The ivory trade and habitat loss combine to push Africa's elephants closer to extinction.
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Facial recognition beats the Covid-mask challenge

BBC - Thu, 2021-03-25 23:01
As people all over the world mask up, how has the facial-recognition industry coped?
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African elephant recognised as two separate species – both endangered

The Guardian - Thu, 2021-03-25 23:00

‘Red list’ assessment of two separate African species exposes ‘critically endangered’ status of forest elephants, down 86% in 31 years

The first ever “red list” assessment of the African elephant as two separate species – the forest elephant and savanna elephant – has found that both are threatened with extinction, according to an updated review of the world’s most at-risk plants and animals.

Poaching and the “silent killer” of human-driven habitat loss have caused sharp declines, with forest elephant numbers falling by 86% in the past 31 years and savanna elephants by about 60% in the past half-century.

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Africa’s forest elephant has been largely overlooked. Now we need to fight for it | Lee White

The Guardian - Thu, 2021-03-25 23:00

This critically endangered ‘gardener’ of the forest has been ‘red listed’ independent of its famous savanna relative for the first time. It’s time to take its plight seriously

Science and conservation politics have finally agreed that Africa is home to two elephant species: the savanna and forest elephant. The debate lasted about two decades, with the politics of elephant conservation and the ivory trade delaying the decision, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has finally concluded its evaluation.

Africa’s most recognisable pachyderm is the savanna elephant, Loxodonta africana, the largest land mammal, reaching up to 4 metres at the shoulder. Their huge ears are the shape of the African continent. Their majesty, combined with the open habitat they roam, means that virtually every elephant photo we see is of the savanna species. One of my first memories is of a big savanna bull in the water above Murchison Falls in Uganda where I grew up. No African safari is complete without an elephant encounter.

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UK ‘flying blind’ on levels of toxic chemicals in tap water

The Guardian - Thu, 2021-03-25 22:58

Government is not testing drinking water for PFAS, which studies have linked to numerous health issues

The UK government is not testing drinking water for a group of toxic manmade chemicals linked to a range of diseases including cancers, while across the world people are falling sick and suing for hundreds of millions of dollars at a time after finding the substances in their tap water.

Known collectively as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), or “forever chemicals” because they are designed never to break down in the environment, the substances are used for their water- and grease-repellent properties in everything from cookware and clothing to furniture, carpets, packaging, coatings and firefighting foams.

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The US military is poisoning communities across the US with toxic chemicals

The Guardian - Thu, 2021-03-25 20:24

The Department of Defense has ordered the burning of 20m pounds of AFFF – despite risks to human health

One of the most enduring, indestructible toxic chemicals known to man – Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), which is a PFAS “forever chemical” – is being secretly incinerated next to disadvantaged communities in the United States. The people behind this crackpot operation? It’s none other than the US military.

As new data published by Bennington College this week documents, the US military ordered the clandestine burning of over 20m pounds of AFFF and AFFF waste between 2016-2020. That’s despite the fact that there is no evidence that incineration actually destroys these synthetic chemicals. In fact, there is good reason to believe that burning AFFF simply emits these toxins into the air and onto nearby communities, farms, and waterways. The Pentagon is effectively conducting a toxic experiment and has enrolled the health of millions of Americans as unwitting test subjects.

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Hopes rise for US climate shift with Deb Haaland at interior helm

The Guardian - Thu, 2021-03-25 20:05

Experts say new interior secretary will renew focus on climate emergency and public lands after years of cuts under Trump

After four years under an administration that denied the climate crisis, opened public lands to oil and gas drilling and stripped protections from national monuments, the US interior department will look radically different with Deb Haaland at its helm.

Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history and a member of the Laguna Pueblo, was sworn in to her post last week and has vowed to be a “fierce advocate” for public lands. Wildlife, parks and climate advocacy groups have hailed her confirmation as a major win for public lands and say that under Haaland’s leadership the interior department will renew its focus on fighting the climate emergency.

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Lava, floating rocks and the Blob: the mystery behind the deaths of millions of seabirds

The Guardian - Thu, 2021-03-25 17:39

Almost a decade ago 3 million shearwaters arrived on Australian beaches and died. Now researchers know why

Scientists finally know why millions of seabirds wound up dead on Australian beaches after unravelling a complex tale involving floating rocks, an underwater volcano and possibly something called the Blob.

Back in 2013, the carcasses of short-tailed shearwaters, commonly known as muttonbirds, were found en masse along Australia’s east coast.

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New Alan Turing £50 note design is revealed

BBC - Thu, 2021-03-25 17:00
The banknote will enter circulation on 23 June - Alan Turing's birthday - and will be made of polymer.
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No biggie or bin job: Solar advocates react to export tax proposal

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2021-03-25 14:42

As detail from the AEMC's draft determination on solar export charges is sifted through, reactions range from ‘no biggie,’ to ‘needs more work,’ to ‘needs to be thrown in the bin.’

The post No biggie or bin job: Solar advocates react to export tax proposal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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