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Tributes are paid to the "larger-than-life" TV broadcaster, scientist and conservationist.

European carbon prices fell on Wednesday, as sellers aggressively sold the futures late in the day and ahead of today’s options expiry on ICE.

New species discovery could offer insights into how they came to move using tails

It sounds like a Rudyard Kipling story but fossil-hunters say they have new clues as to how the whale came to move.

Whales as we know them today evolved over millions of years from terrestrial creatures to semi-aquatic animals to fully aquatic species, with forelimbs becoming flippers, the fluked tail developing and well-developed hind legs – once used for swimming – lost over time.

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Labour is the only major party with viable plans to tackle the our environmental emergency, says Diana Heeks. Plus, Steven Pollard on the Tory candidate’s absence from a climate hustings in Portsmouth South

Brexit doesn’t matter. Jeremy Corbyn’s likability doesn’t matter. What matters above all is that the planet that is our only home remains habitable. Australia, California and Amazonia are on fire, the Victoria Falls are a mere trickle, the oceans are deoxygenating, the thawing Arctic tundra is belching methane. In Europe, once-thriving Alpine ski resorts are left to rot for lack of snow, and here in the UK flooding is starting to become endemic. Catastrophic feedback loops, points of no return, are inevitable unless we change our way of living quickly.

Labour is the only major party with viable plans to tackle this. Their Green New Deal would be good for the planet’s health and ours too. Investment in green technologies like wave and tidal power will provide us with unlimited clean energy. The expertise and equipment of this technology could be exported around the world, creating jobs and wealth for us.

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The nearly 200 parties to the Paris Agreement on Wednesday dove headfirst into forging an agreement on the market-based Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, while dozens of attendees from environmental and indigenous groups were kicked out by UN security for protesting the slow pace of the talks.

Indonesia has announced plans to launch a pilot carbon market next year, with a full-fledged emissions trading scheme to follow no later than 2024. A lot of specifics remain to be decided, but here are the details of the plans so far.

Climate Analytics suggests Australia has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cuts

Australia’s plan to use an accounting loophole to meet its commitment under the Paris climate agreement has no legal basis and suggests it has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cuts once a global deal was reached, a new report says.

An analysis by Climate Analytics, a Berlin-based science and policy institute, found there were no grounds for Australia to claim credit towards its Paris emissions target for having beaten targets under its predecessor, the Kyoto protocol.

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Rooftop solar capacity to double or even triple to replace existing thermal generation, new assessment by the energy market operator predicts

Australia’s ageing coal-fired power plants could be shuttered earlier than expected if competition from renewable generators and carbon budgets render them uneconomic, according to a new assessment by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Aemo will, on Thursday, publish a new draft integrated system plan which snapshots the unfolding revolution underway in Australia’s energy market. The energy market operator predicts rooftop solar capacity will double or even triple, providing up to 22% of total energy by 2040.

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Welsh police ask government experts to examine birds after ‘very strange’ discovery

Police are investigating the discovery of several hundred dead starlings on a road in Anglesey.

More than 200 birds were found near Llyn Llywenan in Bodedern on Tuesday afternoon, with several others on hedges on the side of the road but none in the nearby fields.

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Everything from travel to air quality has been looked at in order to create ‘a growth that gives back’

Nearly every major aspect of the European economy is to be re-evaluated in light of the imperatives of the climate and ecological emergency, according to sweeping new plans set out by the European Commission on Wednesday.

The comprehensive nature of the European Green Deal – which encompasses the air we breathe to how food is grown, from how we travel to the buildings we inhabit – was set out in a flurry of documents as Ursula von der Leyen, the new commission president, made her appeal to member states and parliamentarians in Brussels to back the proposals, which would represent the biggest overhaul of policy since the foundation of the modern EU.

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As COP25 takes place in Madrid, this collection of photographs from Getty Images highlights the climate crisis around the world, from Greenland’s melting ice sheets to rising seal levels in Alaska and Louisiana, the forest fires in the Amazon and Indonesia and the impact of forests and the Lobster fishery in Maine

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Open letter signed by Global Witness and Greenpeace Brasil cautions potential investors on risk of deforestation in supply chains of JBS and Marfrig

An international group of 30 non-profit groups published an open letter on Wednesday warning investors considering buying shares in two Brazilian meat giants of their exposure to deforestation.

Billions of dollars of shares held by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in JBS and Marfrig – two of the world’s biggest meat companies – will reportedly go on sale next year. The letter says that both companies have been linked to destruction of the Amazon forest – where deforestation soared this year while fires reached a nine-year record. BNDES declined to comment.

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The European Commission unveiled its wide-ranging ‘European Green Deal’ on Wednesday, including a legislative proposal to enshrine a 2050 net zero emissions target into law by Mar. 2020 but snubbing lawmaker calls to immediately propose a deeper 2030 goal.

AEMO says south west Queensland and South Australia deliver lowest cost solar, while Tasmania has the lowest cost wind resource.

The post Which parts of Australia deliver the cheapest wind and solar? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

An ICAO technical advisory panel is slated to make recommendations in January over which of the initial 14 global offset programme applications should be eligible to supply the UN aviation body’s CORSIA market starting in 2021, with sources suggesting that any ultimate decisions by member states may not be clear cut.

Australia will need at least 30GW of new wind and solar capacity to replace expected coal generator retirements, over the next two decades, and up to 47GW in the case of a "step change" scenario.

The post AEMO maps out path to 90 per cent renewables for Australia by 2040 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

New analysis raises questions over legitimacy of Australia's 'Kyoto carryover' plans, with ClimateAnalytics challenging its legal and moral justifications.

The post No legal or moral basis for Australia’s Kyoto accounting fudge, new analysis shows appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Many activists who are too young to vote are working hard to get message across to those who can

• General election latest - live news

Although school prevents him from campaigning as much as he would like, Hasan Patel has been spending every weekend canvassing for Labour during the campaign.

This week he’s just finished his exams and is off door-knocking in Kensington, then Chingford and Woodford Green, both marginal seats and high on Labour’s list of priorities. At 16 years old, Patel can’t vote himself, so he’s keen to utilise his skills where they’ll be of most use.

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Emissions from the region made a major contribution to global greenhouse gas levels in 2010-2016.

The teenage activist's speech came after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called her a "brat".