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New York state lawmakers reintroduced an omnibus climate change bill on Thursday that allows for a market-based mechanism to help achieve enhanced GHG reduction targets, with legislators seen facing better odds of passing the proposal in 2019 after Democrats took control the upper chamber this year.

US carbon prices on both coasts experienced relatively little movement this week, with RGGI allowances (RGAs) slightly increasing as an entity shifted positions on the secondary market while California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) dipped on thin activity.

Power sector emissions covered under the northeast US RGGI carbon market increased by almost 7% last year despite falling in Q4, marking only the second time in the programme’s history that yearly CO2 output has accelerated.

The world's top scientists say that if we all follow the planetary health diet, we can prevent 11 million people a year from deaths caused by unhealth eating and malnutrition and avoid catastrophic climate change.

Scientists test new alerts that focus on helping people to prepare for bad air and avoid it

The UK measures the effects of daily air pollution, like sunburn risk, on a one to 10 index. As the air quality index increases, official advice tells vulnerable people to avoid outdoor exercise and reminds asthmatics to use their inhalers more often. This index is used in national forecasts and alert systems in southern England and Scotland and in the warnings that appear at London bus stops when high air pollution is forecast.

Scientists at King’s College London tested different types of messages with volunteers who used the CityAir app. Rather than telling people to make changes only when air pollution was bad, the scientists focused on helping people to know how to prepare and protect themselves, and overcome perceived barriers stopping them from changing how they travel. For instance, a message targeting asthmatics encouraged them to take their preventative medication, rather than simply warning them to carry their inhalers. Other messages included pollution maps to help people to find clean places to exercise and to find routes away from the worst roads. Anticipating that people might be reluctant to change, the messages pointed out that low pollution routes need not make their journeys any longer.

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Chief executive of the Murray Darling Basin Authority Phillip Glyde said he and his staff are "caught between competing legal opinions".

China connects power plant that combines, wind, solar, concentrated solar PV and energy storage.

The post China connects massive mixed-energy and battery storage system appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Locals say horse training on the beach threatens migratory birds and disrupts access. Racing groups say a balance of environmental concerns and the economic value of training horses can be reached.

Survey finds that modern "HELE" coal plants favoured by the Coalition and the coal lobby broke down more often than the ageing black coal fleet.

The post Coal power plants in Australia broke down once every three days in 2018 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

"If you're not factoring in climate change, your not factoring in the best available scientific knowledge," Richard Beasley SC said.

Eight people have died in the freezing temperatures, with parts of the US now colder than the North Pole and Antarctica.

Banning fishing in no-take marine reserves on the Great Barrier Reef does not protect sharks as well as received wisdom would tell you. Justin Rizzari, Lecturer in Fisheries Science, Deakin University Ashley J Frisch, Research Coordinator at Reef HQ / GBRMPA, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

European carbon prices lost ground today amid falling power prices and ahead of Germany’s first auction for almost three months.

Research finds killing of native people indirectly contributed to a colder period by causing deaths of around 56 million by 1600

European colonization of the Americas resulted in the killing of so many native people that it transformed the environment and caused the Earth’s climate to cool down, new research has found.

Settlers killed off huge numbers of people in conflicts and also by spreading disease, which reduced the indigenous population by 90% in the century following Christopher Columbus’s initial journey to the Americas and Caribbean in 1492.

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Doubts are growing that Germany’s proposed plan to cancel a large quantity of EU carbon allowances based on its coal phaseout may not give a neutral price signal for the bloc's ETS, as modelling difficulties and loosely-worded guidance may test Berlin’s resolve.

Peak policy group on electric vehicles and fuel emissions met only 12 times in four years

The federal Coalition’s peak policy body for deciding issues relating to fuel emissions and electric cars has met 12 times in its four-year existence but minutes for five of these meetings cannot be found.

The revelations emerged during a public hearing of the Senate select committee on electric vehicles held last year when a member of the department of infrastructure, regional development and cities struggled to name the chair of the ministerial forum on vehicles emissions.

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Baobabs are also known as upside-down trees, bottle trees and in Australia - boabs. What can their genetics tell us about their travelling history?

Satellite data suggests protection measures are being ignored as huge fishing lines snare endangered seabirds

Industrial fishing vessels that accidentally kill tens of thousands of albatrosses each year routinely ignore regulations designed to save the birds from extinction, according to research.

Using satellite data, investigators found that vessels employing longline fishing techniques showed a “low level of compliance” with measures to reduce albatross deaths.

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You could be unwittingly eating sharks that are on the brink of extinction, a study suggests.

Stranded porpoises, dolphins and seals had average of 5.5 particles in their guts

Microplastics are being widely ingested by Britain’s marine mammals, scientists say, with samples found in every animal examined in a study.

The research on 50 stranded creatures including porpoises, dolphins, grey seals and a pygmy sperm whale is the most comprehensive analysis of microplastics in the digestive tracts of both wild cetaceans and seals.

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