Around The Web

Nasa has announced 18 astronauts who will travel to the Moon under the agency's Artemis programme.

European carbon prices briefly rose above €30 again on Wednesday, but failed to close above this key level despite today's EUA options expiry and data showing a record build in investor interest in the market.

EU envoys reached an agreement on Wednesday over the bloc’s €17.5 billion fund to support coal regions in transition, in a compromise that excludes all financing for fossil fuel investments.

The official advisor to UNESCO rated the site as being of 'significant concern', a drop from 'good with some concerns'. It's now in the second lowest category. Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University Anthony Capon, Director, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University Leo Robba, Lecturer, Visual Communications / Social Design, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australia's biggest states are taking back control of their electricity systems, because the way we make power is changing. Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Newly discovered strategy in Asian bees repels killer hornets that can massacre whole hives

Asian honey bees paste pellets of animal poo on to their nests to repel attacks by giant killer hornets, scientists have revealed.

The attacks can involve dozens of the heavily armoured hornets and lead to the “mass slaughter” of thousands of bees, the researchers said, after which the hornets carry off the bee larvae to feed their own offspring. But in a continuing evolutionary arms race, the bees have developed defence mechanisms such as hissing at them or mobbing the hornets to suffocate them.

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Group suggests 10 policies to reduce ‘night blight’, including commission to regulate excess lighting

MPs have called for urgent action to reduce light pollution, promote “dark towns” and restore a sense of wonder in the night sky.

Supported by the astronomer royal, a cross-party group urged the government to designate a “minister for the dark sky” and to establish a statutory commission to regulate excess lighting.

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Nova Scotia’s Dec. 2 cap-and-trade auction settled significantly above the programme’s annual floor price for the second straight sale, according to results published Wednesday.

EU capitals will need to resolve outstanding issues on the bloc’s seven-year budget and coronavirus recovery plan ahead of a key summit starting Thursday afternoon if they want to agree on a higher 2030 emissions reduction target, although signs of a preliminary compromise is building optimism. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has selected California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Commissioner Liane Randolph to replace ARB Chair Mary Nichols, while naming three new appointees to the environmental agency's board ahead of the 2022 Scoping Plan process.

Expert says Ella Kissi-Debrah, nine, faced ‘exquisite’ risk and criticises lack of efforts to tackle toxic air

A young girl who suffered a fatal asthma attack thought to have been triggered by dangerous levels of air pollutants was a “canary” signalling the risk to other Londoners, an inquest has heard.

Ella Kissi-Debrah died aged nine in February 2013 having suffered numerous seizures and being taken to hospital almost 30 times in the previous three years.

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This year’s spring temperatures would be ‘virtually impossible’ without human greenhouse emissions, according to new report

Australia’s hottest spring on record, which saw temperatures more than 2C above average, would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, new analysis has found.

A spring as hot as the one Australians just experienced would come along only once every half a million years without the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, climate scientist Dr David Karoly told the Guardian.

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The mass of human-made objects will for the first time likely exceed that of living things in 2020.

Production of concrete, metal, plastic, bricks and asphalt greater than mass of living matter on planet, paper says

The giant human footprint stamped across the world in 2020 is greater than the impact on the planet of all other living things, research suggests.

The amount of plastic alone is greater in mass than all land animals and marine creatures combined, the study estimates.

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Officials say coastal dunes should no longer be part of site of special scientific interest

Conservation officials in Scotland said on Wednesday that the coastal sand dunes at Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort have lost their special status as a protected environmental site.

NatureScot, Scotland’s nature agency, said that following construction of the Trump International Golf Links course at Menie, north of Aberdeen, the dunes no longer “merit being retained as part of the site of special scientific interest”.

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Exclusive: António Guterres says key promise of $100bn funding will be missed, damaging trust in Paris deal

Rich countries will miss a key promise they made to the poor world on the climate crisis by failing to provide the money necessary for them to cope with its effects, damaging the prospects for global action, the UN secretary general has said.

Developing countries were supposed to receive at least $100bn (£75bn) in financial assistance from public and private sources this year and in future years to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the ravages of extreme weather. The promise was one of the cornerstones of the 2015 Paris agreement and will be a key element of next year’s Cop26 climate talks.

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New Zealand’s biggest thermal power generator on Wednesday announced new climate targets that could eliminate more than 2% of annual NZU demand by 2025.

With unique access to remote communities in the snow-capped landscape of Norway, this film follows characters on either side of a fierce debate on whether to cull the wolf population. For decades the topic has split political parties, families and communities across the country, with environmentalists world-wide criticising Norway for how it handles its tiny population of critically endangered wolves.  Here, a group of hunters await news from the government on whether their yearly hunt will be permitted, while the environmentalists anticipate the worst.  With angry threats on both sides, the film takes a deep dive into what’s at stake for both groups, as well as the wider world

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World still on course for catastrophic 3.2C of warming by end of century, emissions gap report finds

The direct climate impact of the coronavirus lockdown has lowered 2050 temperature projections by a “negligible” 0.01C, the UN has revealed.

A green economic recovery from the pandemic could, however, make a substantial difference, according to the UN Environment Programme (Unep) annual emissions gap report, potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% over the next decade and putting the world on track to meeting the Paris agreement’s goal of keeping temperatures within 2C of pre-industrial levels.

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One of the biggest companies due to participate in China’s national emissions trading scheme has announced it aims to peak its CO2 emissions seven years ahead of schedule, as major companies ramp up voluntary pledges in line with President Xi Jinping’s carbon neutral commitment.