Around The Web

Writer and explorer Robert MacFarlane explores the "underland" beneath our feet.

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

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has hired a new carbon market analyst, Carbon Pulse has learned.

A US federal appeals court on Friday announced it will hear a biofuel trade group’s request to prevent the EPA from issuing any more compliance waivers under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) until its own pending lawsuit against the agency’s use of these exemptions is resolved.

The government's plan to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is too tame, its advisers will say.

Vets can often grapple with 'convenience euthanasia', where a client brings in a pet because it may, for instance, interfere with their lifestyle. Simon Coghlan, Senior lecturer in health ethics, University of Adelaide; Research fellow in robot ethics, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recommended Monday developing a power sector ETS in a possible nod to joining the northeast US RGGI programme, only weeks after a state agency agreed to study a green group’s economy-wide cap-and-trade petition.

Analysts have hiked their near-term EUA forecasts by 33% on renewed confidence that speculators are making bullish bets while the risk of a no-deal Brexit has subsided considerably.

Oxo-biodegradable bags are designed to have a useful shelf life and to degrade over time when exposed to oxygen and sunlight, says Michael Stephen

If the researchers from the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit (Biodegradable plastic bags still intact after three years, 29 April) had been polymer scientists who understood the process of abiotic degradation, they would have understood that an oxo-biodegradable shopping bag contains stabilisers to give the product a useful service life and which could therefore delay the onset of degradation for two years or more depending on how the particular bag was designed.

They would also have understood that oxo-biodegradable bags are not intended to degrade in special conditions such as landfill or when buried deep in soil, but are intended to degrade if they become litter in the open environment on the surface of land or sea with an abundance of oxygen and usually exposed to sunlight.

Continue reading...

Washington state’s legislative session drew to a close on Sunday without lawmakers having endorsed proposals for a low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) or various forms of carbon pricing, despite last ditch efforts to include a scaled-down version of the clean fuels programme.

Activists to rally at parliament urging government to declare environmental emergency

Momentum, the youth climate strikers and Extinction Rebellion are to unite in protest outside parliament on Wednesday as Labour calls on the Conservatives to declare an environmental emergency in a parliamentary vote.

In the first explicit collaboration between the three groups, a coalition of activists and campaigners will rally in Parliament Square to demand the government backs the plan, first put forward by Extinction Rebellion as the primary demand of the protests that engulfed London over the past fortnight.

Continue reading...

Marine specialists believe this white beluga whale filmed approaching fishing boats in Norway could have received military-grade training by the Russian navy. The whale, which was first sighted near the Norwegian village of Inga, was wearing a strange harness bearing the words 'equipment of St Petersburg'. The fisherman said the whale, which was tame and accustomed to people, attempted to pull ropes and straps from the sides of the boats

• Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

Continue reading...

CBI is looking for a manager for a team aiming to rapidly expand climate-friendly investment by influencing policy makers in national governments, central banks and financial regulators.

WRI is looking for an associate to implement an initiative aimed at ensuring countries increase their climate ambition by 2020.

ClientEarth is seeking an experienced professional to take on the lead role in providing strategic direction and managerial oversight to its Forests and Climate Programme.

Non-profit group Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF) has circulated draft rules for an Indian carbon standard and credit registry that will form the foundation of the country’s voluntary carbon offset market.

European carbon prices showed signs of recovery on Monday following the previous session’s 5% crash, although the lower prices failed to attract keen buying at the day’s auction.

A woman from Mongolia has won the Goldman Environmental Prize after a campaign to stop mining firms destroying a critical habitat for snow leopards.

Like other recipients, Alfred Brownell has faced threats and worse defending the environment

Two years ago Alfred Brownell was forced to flee Liberia after a successful campaign against a foreign palm oil plantation led to death threats and intimidation. Today, he hopes to return after being named one of this year’s winners of the Goldman environmental prize.

Like several other recipients of the 2019 award, which will be presented at a ceremony on Monday in San Francisco, the Liberian lawyer risked life and liberty to defend people and wildlife in a region of the world that was until recently remote, but is now encroached upon by powerful business interests.

Continue reading...

Japanese utility J-Power has halved the planned size of a new coal-fired power plant in Yamaguchi prefecture after fellow generator Osaka Gas pulled out of the project.