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The UK government has imposed fines totalling over £80,000 on a dozen companies including utility Uniper and automaker Rolls Royce for EU ETS non-compliance in the latest round of climate-related penalties.

Sphagnum moss is a vital carbon store but peat bogs are being dug up to fuel our love of horticulture

Left to its own devices, Sphagnum fallax, together with a large number of close relatives, will form dense mats of plants on wet ground and become deep peat bogs. These bogs create a habitat for a vast number of creatures, the most prominent of which are dragonflies and frogs but there are literally thousands of others, mostly microscopic.

Related: Plantwatch: is sphagnum the most underrated plant on Earth?

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Many rural town water supplies cannot weather even a single year of drought. This is a failure of planning and funding on a grand scale. Michael Roderick, Professor, Research School of Earth Sciences and Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Sue Taylor has visited spots as remote as Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean and as familiar as Phillip Island in Victoria in search of rarities

• The Guardian/Bird Life Australia bird of the year poll will be back in October
  

There’s something very romantic about islands. For a start there’s the wonderful isolation, the feeling of relaxing remoteness, the total absence of bustling city commuters. Picture tropical palm trees waving above pristine white beaches, lapped by sparkling turquoise seas. Whatever the reason, everyone loves an island. People go to Rottnest in Western Australia to admire the quokkas, to Norfolk Island to soak up the fascinating history and bucolic scenery, and to Christmas Island for the red crab migration.

I am a twitcher and for me it’s always the birds. I go to Rottnest for terns, waders and red-capped robins, to Norfolk for parakeets, gerygones and California quail, and to Christmas Island for Abbott’s boobies, frigatebirds and rare vagrants. I’ve seen some fantastic vagrants (birds outside their usual range) on my five visits to Christmas Island. Apart from all the exciting endemics (birds that are unique to one place), I’ve seen 12 extraordinary vagrants, including such rarities as a red collared dove, a Malayan night heron and, best of all, a corn crake.

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With a year to go until the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, meet the robots that will be used on site at the events.

The UK could drastically undercut the EU ETS if it exits the scheme in November and imposes a replacement scheme that initially only delivers a single-digit carbon price, experts have warned.

Scientists warn of ‘alarming’ lag between human-driven seasons shift and animals’ behavioural changes

The speed of climate disruption is outstripping many animals’ capacity to adapt, according to a study that warns of a growing threat to even common species such as sparrows, magpies and deer.

Scientists behind the research described the results as alarming because they showed a dangerous lag between a human-driven shift in the seasons and behavioural changes in the natural world.

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Spanish utility Endesa reported on Tuesday a 45% decline in coal power output over the first half of the year while natural gas generation rose, likely reducing the company’s EUA demand.

California Carbon Offset (CCO) prices are tightening against WCI allowance values amid increased demand from compliance entities and sluggish issuances by state regulator ARB, market sources said.

Manufacturer told DVSA it would not retrofit polluting vehicles, despite other firms agreeing to modifications

Nissan’s decision to ignore a government request for emissions modifications to thousands of polluting cars has been branded a scandal by environmental campaigners.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) discovered that the Sunderland-made diesel Qashqai model emits 17 times more nitrogen oxides (NOx) than EU limits allow.

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A strong auction result pushed EU carbon prices to a new 11-year high on Tuesday, with bulls now targeting €30 as a scorching heatwave arrives in Europe, threatening to push energy prices up even further.

Nasa has outlined more details of its plans for a landing craft that will take humans to the Moon's surface in the 2020s.

Nasa's first flight director played a critical role in the first Moon landing 50 years ago.

Freedom of speech is a favourite issue for many conservative MPs in the government, but just how involved should a federal government get in these debates?

Nine tonnes of contraband tusks from about 300 animals found in illegal cargo from DRC

Singapore has made its largest ever seizure of smuggled ivory, impounding a haul of nearly nine tonnes of contraband tusks from an estimated 300 elephants, according to the authorities.

The illegal cargo, discovered on Sunday in a container from the Democratic Republic of the Congo also included a huge stash of pangolin scales – the third such seizure in as many months.

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Cafod says UK is saddling poorer nations with outdated, polluting technologies

The British government has spent £680m of its foreign aid budget on fossil fuel projects since 2010, according to analysis that highlights the UK’s failure to align diplomatic, trade and aid policies with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

Britain allocated more overseas development cash to oil and gas in the two years after signing the 2015 agreement than it had in the previous five, according to the study commissioned by the Catholic development agency Cafod and carried out by the Commons international development committee.

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Taylor recieves repeated warnings to provide answers as the minister for reducing emissions attempts to avoid conceding he is failing his own job title.

The post Taylor grilled by Labor on emissions, says no to Barnaby’s “free” nuclear fantasy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Yallourn is profitable, but will likely depend on exports to NSW to remain so. Meanwhile, maintenance costs will remain high and reliability will be an issue.

The post Yallourn’s “brown fire” future will depends on exports, and ramping ability appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The ballot has closed, but the battery industry may have to wait to find out if new strict installation standards have been approved or not.

The post Battery industry on tenterhooks, awaiting result on vote for new standard appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The marine biologist, conservationist and specialist underwater photographer Roger Grace died at his New Zealand home in June. We celebrate his incredible legacy

All photographs: Roger Grace/Greenpeace

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