Around The Web

Tech giant Microsoft accounted for more than 90% of durable carbon removals over the first half of 2024, according to analysis published Wednesday.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) – a focal point for recent debates on the use of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) to meet corporate climate goals – last week launched a public consultation on a new net-zero standard for financial institution (FI) Scope 3 emissions.

The creature, the size of a poppy seed, dates back 520 million years and is almost perfectly preserved.

The creature, the size of a poppy seed, dates back 520,000 years and is almost perfectly preserved.

An AI-focused startup that develops cleaner materials has appointed a new advisor from Climeworks, following a long career at ExxonMobil, the startup announced on Tuesday.

International treaties aiming to protect investments in fossil fuel assets are already undermining international efforts to achieve net zero, according to a report published on Wednesday.

A sustainable fashion company based in Pakistan has received Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validation for its near-term and net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, the company said in a press release. 

The government says its budget to support a renewable energy auction will rise 50%.

A consultancy focused on shipping analytics and environmental compliance has opened a new Singapore office to help meet Asian demand for EU ETS-related solutions.

An EU-wide public consultation on greenhouse gas monitoring and reporting rules under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has yielded many reactions on recycled carbon fuels (RCFs) as one of the potential avenues to decarbonise aviation and maritime transport.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will invest $50 million in an effort to mobilise $1 billion for a reforestation strategy in Latin America, it announced Tuesday.

Xpansiv, an environmental markets services provider, is looking to launch a CORSIA-compliant voluntary carbon spot contract in Q4, by which time it expects greater liquidity in the market.

Scorching temperatures in Mediterranean countries and north Africa already causing increase in premature deaths

The “heat dome” causing scorching temperatures across western Europe and north Africa, and boiling athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games in Paris, would have been impossible without human-caused global heating, a rapid analysis has found.

Scientists said the fossil-fuelled climate crisis made temperatures 2.5C to 3.3C hotter. Such an event would not have happened in the world before global heating but is now expected about once a decade, they said. Continued emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will make them even more frequent, the researchers warned.

Continue reading...

Experts say facility beyond reach of climate breakdown and other terrestrial events is needed to safeguard biodiversity

With thousands of species at risk of extinction, scientists have devised a radical plan: a vault filled with preserved samples of our planet’s most important and at-risk creatures located on the moon.

An international team of experts says threats from climate change and habitat loss have outpaced our ability to protect species in their natural habitats, necessitating urgent action. A biorepository of preserved cells, and the crucial DNA within them, could be used to enhance genetic diversity in small populations of critically endangered species, or to clone and create new individuals in the worst-case scenario of extinction.

Continue reading...

The UK's clean energy industry received a strong boost on Wednesday, when the government announced it would offer a record £1.5 billion in the next renewables auction – just days after it confirmed it would hike a windfall tax on the country's offshore oil and gas sector.

Improving the health of ruminant livestock could reduce methane emissions, while at the same time enhancing economic outcomes and animal welfare, finds a new study.

Over 460 million hectares of the world's intact natural land is at risk of being converted into other uses, such as agriculture, a paper has said.

The insects are being looked after in a conservation project that encourages visitors to enjoy their ‘piercing’ light

Far out in the Channel, the lights of ships at anchor flickered while the lighthouse at Anvil Point emitted its steadier beam. Late on, a crescent moon shone a coppery orange.

But, undoubtedly, the most extraordinary light source to be seen was the vivid green gleam from the glow-worms that inhabit the herb-rich grassland on the cliffs and quarries in this tucked-away corner of southern Britain.

Continue reading...

ISS STOXX, a group of companies providing research and technology for capital market participants, has added a new data set to its suite of ESG climate solutions, to support banks and insurance companies in complying with mandatory climate-related disclosure frameworks, it announced on Wednesday.

European carbon prices advanced to their highest in 12 trading sessions, again testing a key technical level that has held the market in check for eight weeks, amid general firmness across the energy complex and as speculative traders increased their bearish bets to the most in more than four months.