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Our selective engagement with nature stops humans from seeing animals clearly – and that’s not good for them or for us

One of my most annoying traits, I have been told, is my tendency to puncture others’ casual enjoyment of nature with brutal and unsolicited pieces of trivia. Chalk it up to the influence of my hobbyist herpetologist father, who instilled in me not only a passion for less cuddly animals but also a rigorous attention to the facts.

If your favourite animals are sea otters, which mate for life and hold hands so they don’t drift apart? I will inform you that they also sometimes rape baby seals to death. Oh, you prefer chimps? Have you seen that David Attenborough footage of a group of them hunting a monkey that was apparently too disturbing to broadcast with close-up detail?

Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist

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A recently developed metric for tradable biodiversity credits has the potential to optimise resource allocation to species conservation efforts, a paper has said.

The EU and UK must rejoin their carbon markets in order to scale cross-border CO2 transport and storage projects, according to researchers from the University of Oxford, who also underlined the political challenges of relinking the two systems.

EU carbon allowances started the week brightly as Europe's energy and equity markets rallied in relief at the outcome of the first round of France's parliamentary elections, before tailing off slightly later in the morning as the recent daily pattern appeared to be repeating.

Scientists from a UK research centre have verified the feasibility and potential scalability of a new ocean carbon removal technique, they said Monday.

The UN drafted on Monday a proposal to establish a global fund for sharing some of the multi-trillion dollar revenues derived from products that leverage the use of the DNA sequences of plants, animals, and microbes, known as digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI).

The number of hurricanes is not increasing, but they are becoming more intense as the world warms.

A project developer that seeks to decarbonise cooking with the use of smart stoves has raised $3.75 million in its Series-A round.

A South Korean securities firm is aiming to expand its carbon finance business through participation in a government-backed international greenhouse gas reduction project, which can generate Paris-aligned carbon credits.

Australia’s reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism have been the lynchpin in driving “overwhelming” interest and activity in the country’s carbon market and has spurred some participants to begin to plan their decarbonisation journey, but key questions hang over other parts of the government’s climate agenda.

Millions of people are being urged to take part in Plastic Free July. Yet we know consumer choice is only one part of the picture. Eliminating plastic waste requires broader structural change. Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University Ralph Horne, Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research & Innovation, College of Design & Social Context, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

ClearSky Solar is a community initiative that helps businesses divest from fossil fuels by linking community investors to local solar projects that need financing.

The post SwitchedOn podcast: How this community cut fossil fuels and slashed energy bills appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The World Bank has approved $1.5 billion in additional financing to help India accelerate the development of its national carbon market, boost green hydrogen production, and scale up renewable energy capacity.

Self-healing solar cells could solve some major hurdles for perovskite technology, in what a multinational research team is calling a "breakthrough" for the next generation PV technology.

The post Monash Uni self-healing perovskite breakthrough paves way for future appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Tilt Renewables has slashed the number of turbines for its South Australia wind project, but bigger machines mean its capacity will be little changed.

The post South Australia wind farm open for public view after winning infrasound court case appeared first on RenewEconomy.

In the last financial year, the share of renewables in the main grid inched forward - but in South Australia it actually went backwards. But the pipeline is bigger!

The post Australia inches towards renewable targets as most advanced wind and solar state goes backwards appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Plans to install eight megawatt turbines and a huge four-hour battery are seeking green light to help power Tasmania's nation-leading green hydrogen plans.

The post Australia’s biggest wind turbines and 4-hour battery proposed near Tasmania green hydrogen hub appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A senior carbon trader with Shell has left to join the emissions desk at trading house Trafigura, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Only about 61% of dairy farm operators had reported their use of synthetic nitrogen a year after reporting rules came into force. Mike Joy, Morgan Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Freshwater Ecology and Environmental Science, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Megan Cornforth-Camden, Visiting Scholar, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Rescue operation run by specialised whale disentanglement crews cut off ropes and buoys to let it to swim freely again

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A humpback whale which became tangled in 800kg of fishing equipment has been rescued off the Gippsland coast, almost a week after it was first seen to be in trouble.

The whale was spotted near Loch Sport in Central Gippsland on Sunday 23 June by a commercial helicopter, but then disappeared until Friday when it was seen near Lake Tyers off the south-east coast.

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