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Roughly half of Arizona and Nevada under excessive heat alert as temperatures soar past 110F in some states

The first heatwave of the year is expected to maintain its grip on the US south-west for at least another day through Friday, after records tumbled across the region with temperatures soaring past 110F (43C) from California to Arizona.

Although the official start of summer is still two weeks away, roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, which the National Weather Service extended until Friday evening. The alert was extended through Saturday in Las Vegas, where it’s never been hotter this early in the year.

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I think we’ve heard this one before

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

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The Q2 RGGI auction cleared at a new all-time high beyond market expectations, with compliance winning more than a two-thirds share of permits offered in the sale, results posted Friday showed.

A tool for investors to measure the biodiversity impacts of investments, initially using the Potentially Disappeared Fraction of species metric (PDF), has been launched by New York-based investment research company MSCI.

Current commitments for low-carbon hydrogen production in the EU and UK are nowhere near enough to hit their stated 2030 goals, a think-tank has warned.

Voluntary carbon market rating agencies have called into question whether some credits deemed eligible to be tagged with the Core Carbon Principles (CCP) high-integrity label by the ICVCM can actually deliver a tonne of CO2 avoidance or removal, a key principle of the cross-stakeholder stakeholder initiative.

Despite unexpected external events – from Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine – the EU stayed the course on climate action during the past five years, delivering steeper-than-ever reductions in CO2 emisssions while ramping up the deployment of renewables and other clean technologies to meet its climate goals.

The UK is on track to miss its 2030 target for offshore wind power generation by 18 years and needs to triple its installation rate in order to catch up, according to research published on Friday.

UK imports of products made with electricity - such as aluminium and steel - could become more expensive when the country introduces its carbon border adjustment mechanism, even though its coverage is limited to indirect power emissions rather than direct power imports, according to new analysis by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

The biodiversity data gap must be closed before we start talking about using artificial intelligence (AI) in conservation work, as we don't have the infrastructure for training the machine-learning models yet, a data expert told Carbon Pulse.

European carbon prices settled into a narrow trading range on Friday morning as activity across all markets appeared to diminish, with EUAs moving between the key June call options strike prices and expected to continue to do so in the short term.

Countryside and wildlife conservation groups want a judicial review of government action on nature loss.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

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Countryside and wildlife conservation groups want a judicial review of government action on nature loss.

While Australian carbon prices were relatively range bound in May, there was a record increase in credits traded under derivative contracts such as forward and options, according to analysts.

Australia’s GHG emissions failed to budge in the December quarter, according to recently published figures, however a significant recalculation in the country’s land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) category sparked concerns from experts.

In these still largely prosperous rural heartlands, filthy water has become a surprisingly powerful symbol of national decline

Laura Reineke has been a mermaid for seven years now. Or more precisely, she’s a member of Henley Mermaids, the name she and a few friends from her open-water swimming club gave to the WhatsApp group they created for arranging river dips. Seven years of navigating various unmentionable waterborne substances later, the mermaids aren’t just swimmers now but fully fledged clean-water activists, campaigning to highlight pollution in Oxfordshire’s waterways alongside the likes of TV presenter Steve Backshall (who lives nearby with his Olympic rower wife Helen Glover) and lobbying local politicians.

Reineke, who works for the conservation charity Wild Fish, still swims daily with the help of an app tracking Thames Water’s regular discharges into the river: but lately, she says even the supposedly clean stretches seem murkier. “You can’t see the bottom any more, the plant life is covered in sewage – it’s grotty. It’s really, really sad.” Though as she points out, it’s much worse for the fish.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Deal linking Australia's largest state farmer organisation with a leading solar provider aims to help "future proof" the NSW agriculture industry.

The post NSW Farmers ink solar deal to provide members with “reliable affordable” energy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The wind, solar, and storage projects that are struggling to meet timelines.

The post Who’s who in the grid pipeline: Why we’re building anticipation more than new projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Two Australian clean energy developers and investors have announced plans to build a portfolio of 27 small battery storage projects across three Australian states.

The post Plan unveiled to build 27 small battery storage projects across southern states appeared first on RenewEconomy.