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New Zealand carbon allowances made another leap on Wednesday to hit NZ$23 ($15.64) for the first time as the supply shortage continued to push up prices.

An attack on a WA mine worker has highlighted the danger of wild dingoes, particularly when attracted by humans' food - one of the factors that can make an attack by wild predators much more likely. Bill Bateman, Senior Lecturer, Curtin University Trish Fleming, Associate Professor, Murdoch University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Legoland and Thorpe Park among the attractions that have joined Coca-Cola in a trial offering instant incentives for recycling

Visitors to some of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions are to be offered half-price entry in exchange for used plastic drinks bottles, as part of a trial starting on Wednesday which gives instant incentives for recycling.

In a tie-up between theme park operator Merlin and drinks giant Coca-Cola, a series of so-called “reverse vending machines” will be installed outside the entrances of Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Legoland.

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A bipartisan legislative committee designed to give Oregon lawmakers a chance to more fully understand and shape the future of the state’s climate policy revealed on Tuesday that a wide rift still exists between some members over what carbon pricing strategy Oregon should take, if at all.

Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys: The crows live a parallel existence as shrine animals, stealing tributes from visitors, essential to the life of the place but overlooked

Two young crows, beaks agape, sat quietly on the stump of a beech tree I cut down on the eastern bank below the castle walls in the late 1970s. The crows waited for a parent to turn up with the remains of a sandwich nicked from the cafe down the garden. They were living a kind of parallel existence as shrine animals, dark creatures in the garden’s gloriously vivid displays of flower, stealing tributes from visitors, essential to the life of the place but overlooked.

Cultural places in the public view have a wild private life. Behind the care and hard work that sustains a garden like this and gives it aesthetic qualities that people from all over the world come to experience, there is a wild life that grounds it in place and provides an ecological context for the cultural. Much of this life, once persecuted for its wildness, is now celebrated as wildlife but crows retain that outsider, transgressive character. However beautiful the garden is, crows reveal a secret bandit territory. Common and dark, they are almost invisible and yet nonetheless tutelary.

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A new report issued by RACQ has revealed telling figures that could be holding back the adoption of EVs in Australia.

Western Sydney University's Unlimited 2.0 has put Australia on the solar car racing map, becoming first international team to win American Solar Challenge.

New Commonwealth document shows Coalition has not moved on emissions for National Energy Guarantee, and the use of offsets in such a weak target will mean retailers will not have to make any new investments in wind or solar.

Liberal energy minister, who inherited policy criticised as a mix of ‘ideology and idiocy’, says he’ll ensure it does not come at too high a price

South Australia’s energy minister says the state is on track to have 75% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 – the target set by the former Labor premier Jay Weatherill and once rejected by his Liberal government.

And Dan van Holst Pellekaan pledged to ensure it does not come at too high a price.

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National park, which gets more than half a million visitors in July alone, sees section closed amid dangerous air quality

Yosemite national park has been partially closed as wildfires continue to sweep across California this week. Fueled by dry conditions and high temperatures, smoke has settled over the popular tourist destination, causing unsafe conditions for visitors and workers, prompting officials to issue a temporary closure and evacuate the remaining tourists beginning Wednesday at noon.

National Park Service representatives announced at a public meeting Tuesday that the iconic Yosemite valley, as well as the Wawona area, would be closed temporarily until air quality conditions improve.

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

European hornets have moved north with climate change, but are generally less aggressive than common wasps

In a drought, all sorts of wildlife gets attracted to a garden pond since there are few other sources of water nearby. Regular visitors are wasps, the largest of which is the European hornet, Vespa crabro, which dwarfs common wasps because it is twice the size, at 25mm long.

According to the experts it is less aggressive than the common wasp, but carries a substantial sting – so requires respect. Although once confined to the extreme south of Britain because it was too cold further north, climate change has allowed hornets to extend their range as far north as Scotland, and they are now common in the Midlands and central England.

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The Trump administration’s reported plan to downgrade US vehicle fuel economy standards and revoke California’s authority to set more stringent targets would lead to higher transport sector emissions and greater economic and health losses, according to a policy brief issued Tuesday.

The latest ESB document includes some strange results. We hate to say it but there seems to be an agenda at work.  

You might know expanded polystyrene as packing foam, but it's a nightmare to recycle. Why not just turn it into something useful (or beautiful) instead? Tom Lee, Lecturer, Faculty of Design and Architecture Building, University of Technology Sydney Berto Pandolfo, Senior Lecturer Product Design, University of Technology Sydney Nick Florin, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Rachael Wakefield-Rann, Research Consultant and PhD Candidate, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Victoria expected to reach 40% renewables five years earlier than targeted, South Australia could tip 85% by 2030, while NSW will trail other states and have less than 20% renewables by 2020.

Marcus Nield of the UN’s Climate Change Adaptation Unit says blaming China for is a case of ‘yellow peril’ hysteria, while Robin Maynard highlights the key role of population in depleting resources

Blaming China for climate change is a clearcut case of “yellow peril” hysteria (Letters, 12 July). On average, a person in China consumes less than half of the emissions of a person in the US (7.2 tonnes per capita annually compared with 16.5 tonnes). So why all the finger-wagging at China? There’s a blatant mistake recurring in carbon politics. Yes, as a nation, China emits the most carbon dioxide, but an astronomical volume of these emissions are to manufacture our goods in the west. Is it fair to maintain a voracious level of consumption in the US and UK while blaming China for producing the goods that we’re consuming? Don’t look at emissions in isolation. Look at them in tandem with consumption, and then we’ll see where to place the burden of blame. Also, China’s investments in renewables have caused the costs to plummet, from which the entire world can now benefit. China invests more than $100bn in domestic renewables every year – more than twice the level of the US, and more than the US and the EU combined.
Marcus Nield
Climate Change Adaptation Unit, UN Environment, Nairobi, Kenya

• Your article (23 July) accurately sums up the excellent work done by the Global Footprint Network regarding our depletion of the planet’s ability to support us. What, unlike GFN themselves, the article did not acknowledge is that the number of people consuming those resources is a critical, if not the critical, driver of the unfolding crisis. In 1970, our global population was less than half of the 7.6 billion we have presently. In 1970, Earth Overshoot Day fell on the 29 December: in 2018, on 1 August. Can anyone credibly claim that those two changes are not linked?

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European carbon prices ended their five-day rally on Tuesday, easing back towards €17 after hitting a fresh seven-year high.

UK utility Drax produced 24% less coal-fired power in the first half of 2018, reducing its demand for EU carbon allowances as outages at the firm’s biomass units affected earnings.

Energy minister issues first permit since new regulatory regime introduced

Shale gas firm Cuadrilla has been given the green light by the government to start fracking at a well in Lancashire, after the energy minister issued the first fracking permit since a new regulatory regime was introduced.

Fracking is expected to begin in late August or early September at the Preston New Road site, between Blackpool and Preston, which has been the focus of 18 months of protests since work on the site started.

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