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The mission will take place on 27 May using a rocket and spacecraft made by private firm SpaceX.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Speculators grew their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings and reversed four consecutive weeks of declines, while compliance entities appeared to trim their positions this past week, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Friday.

While emissions reduction is the only long-term solution, scientists are testing ways to keep the reef going in a warming world

Can the world’s greatest coral reef system be rescued from the rapid march of the climate crisis?

With global temperatures already about 1C higher than pre-industrial levels, Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef has been through three mass bleaching events in only five years.

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Nature experts in Lebanon have noticed cleaner and clearer air filled with migratory birds as Beirut remains under lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

Migrating pelicans are flying over the city as environmentalists say birds seem to be venturing closer to urban areas 

• The Guardian view on nature’s return: humans making way
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Marathon Petroleum announced Friday that it will idle its Martinez refinery this month because of lower demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially lessening the company’s compliance obligations under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and WCI cap-and-trade programme.

The British food system, as well as individuals’ diets, needs to be balanced. Price is not the only factor

One of the many effects of the coronavirus in the UK has been to dramatically raise awareness of our food system – that is, the set of arrangements that determines how we shop and eat. Compared with education, health or housing, food is rarely thought of as an area of public policy in which everyone has an interest. But it is. And one of the consequences of recent shortages, as well as the new and welcome emphasis on the “key” roles performed by food industry workers including fruit pickers and supermarket employees, has been to open more people’s eyes to this.

It is too soon to predict with any confidence that the fragility of supply chains that has been revealed in recent weeks, as well as renewed warnings about the risks to humans from animal viruses, and the light shone on the agricultural labour market, will lead to lasting changes. It is not too soon to assert that, among the many issues raised by the pandemic, questions about the future of food cannot be safely ignored.

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EU carbon prices surged to a new one-month high above €22 on Friday, notching a 2.9% weekly gain as traders attributed the rise and accompanying volatility to more speculative short-covering and increased algo activity.

Members of the EU parliament voted on Friday in favour of aligning the bloc's coronavirus recovery measures with the EU Green Deal, dismissing efforts by right-wing lawmakers to ease the impact of the EU ETS.

Ukraine's capital is now among the world's most polluted cities, an international ranking shows.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will revise its existing RGGI-modelled cap-and-trade regulation to implement state-run auctions as the state eyes entering the Northeast US power sector carbon market next year.

EU countries have signed off on a sustainable finance regulation to establish criteria setting out what qualifies as a green investment, but several flagged concerns that may store up problems in future.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including bald eagles and roaming wild boar

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Pennsylvania’s House environment committee chair has called for Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) administration to scrap plans for crafting a draft RGGI-aligned ETS regulation, arguing the programme would be a detriment to residents and businesses in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

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

Contract length, farm location and caring duties cited as reasons for turning down work

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Thousands of British workers who responded to a nationwide appeal to help pick fruit and vegetables on farms have rejected job offers, it has emerged.

As hundreds of workers are being flown in from Romania to pick lettuce and asparagus, specialist recruitment firms revealed that fewer than 20% of the applicants were either willing or able to take up roles on the farms.

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As deaths in communities of color continue to rise, the EPA has suspended enforcement of anti-pollution regulations – making people more susceptible

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To be a person of color in America often means to be unseen and unheard. It means taking on the burdens of disproportionate impacts from pollution, wealth disparities, lack of healthcare and much more. In many cases these burdens begin at your birth and never fully end until you take your last breath.

For too long our most vulnerable communities have been suffering in silence, putting on a brave face and accepting the trauma and stressors of systemic racism and discriminatory policies. The Covid-19 pandemic has laid this reality bare.

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Sir John Houghton, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, died on Wednesday aged 88.

UK wildlife watchdog under fire as conservationists say decision ‘sends wrong message’

Conservationists have condemned the decision to allow falconers to take wild peregrine falcon chicks from nests as “selfish” and “sending the wrong message”.

For the first time ever this year, Natural England, the government’s wildlife watchdog, will allow the taking of six chicks from peregrine nests to help falconers establish a lucrative new “studbook” of British falcons.

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The EU’s coronavirus response has helped accelerate the bloc’s transition to clean power by a decade as more renewables than previously thought possible are able to balance the grid, an energy technology firm said on Friday.