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Committee says body that takes on environment oversight role needs powers to hold government to account

A new environmental watchdog with powers to hold the government to account must be set up after Brexit to ensure protections are kept in place, an influential group of MPs has said.

The environmental audit committee (EAC) on Tuesday also called for targets on air, water, soil, biodiversity and other issues to be legally binding and subject to five-yearly reports, in a similar way to the carbon budgets produced by the Committee on Climate Change under the 2008 Climate Change Act.

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Australia's first fully electric, zero emission delivery van is now available to freight and taxi operators, from local outfit SEA Electric.

The 87MW Beryl solar farm will provide all electricity offsets for north-west rail link in Sydney, and could add battery storage to further improve returns.

Japanese tech giant signs up to RE100, pledges to source 100% renewable electricity by 2050.

Any suggestion “clean coal” can deliver cheap reliable power should stand for what it is – a naked claim befitting an emperor with no clothes.

DB Cargo UK, which freights coal and petroleum, inks deal to power all its rail sites and offices with 100% renewable electricity.

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

A US federal judge has ruled that the EPA was wrong to refuse to relieve a West Virginia-based refiner of its Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance obligation, the latest instance of oil companies successfully receiving exemptions from the biofuels programme this year.

California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) prices could be strengthened further in the years ahead if the federal government revokes the state’s authority to regulate vehicle emissions, thus removing what is expected to be a major source of credit supply.

Representative Carlos Curbelo has proposed a tax on carbon dioxide emissions but Republicans are expected to block it

A Republican lawmaker has proposed the US introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, in a departure from the party’s decade-long hostility toward any measure aimed at addressing climate change.

Carlos Curbelo of Florida, considered a moderate GOP member of Congress, said a carbon tax would avoid “saddling young Americans with a crushing environmental debt” and expressed his belief that “this bill or legislation similar to it” will become law one day.

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Meet the 'Yeah-buts' - those who know plastic is bad for the environment, but can't get behind the bag ban because it affects their own convenience. This mindset can stall the best-laid green plans. Anne Lane, Academic and researcher, Queensland University of Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

In this role you will be managing and implementing public advisory engagements related to carbon pricing and climate policy from sourcing to implementation. Clients you will work with include multilateral development banks, governments and international development organisations. In addition, you will contribute to South Pole’s strategy and services in the field of carbon pricing and climate policy.

Scientists warn the impact of climate change may be as large as economic recessions, which are known to increase self-harm

Rising temperatures are linked to increasing rates of suicide, according to a large new study. The researchers warn that the impact of climate change on suicides may be as significant as economic recessions, which are known to increase rates of self-harm.

The links between mental health and global warming have not been widely researched but the new work analysed temperature and suicides across the US and Mexico in recent decades. It found that the rate of suicide rose by 0.7% in the US and by 2.1% in Mexico when the average monthly temperature rose by 1C.

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German engineering students set a record as their pod hits 457km/h in a hyperloop tunnel test.

Ofgem outlines measures to ensure more drivers can use the electricity network

British electric car drivers face having to pay more to power their car if they refuse to shift their charging to off-peak times, in a move designed to lessen their burden on the electricity network.

There are currently 160,000 plug-in cars on UK roads but rapid growth means their impact on the energy system must be managed carefully, said energy regulator Ofgem.

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The Senior Program Officer is a senior technical role within the American Carbon Registry (ACR), providing leadership on all aspects of registry services management.

International photographic competition, which runs in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, awards special prize for the best close-up images

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In the troposphere, scientists detected a human-caused signal in the seasonal cycle

We know that humans are causing Earth’s climate to change. It used to be that “climate change” mostly referred to increasing temperatures near the Earth’s surface, but increasingly, climate change has come to mean so much more. It means warming oceans, melting ice, changing weather patterns, increased storms, and warming in other places.

A recent study has just been published that finds ‘fingerprints’ of human-caused warming someplace most of us don’t think about – in the higher atmosphere. Not only that, but these scientists have found changes to the seasonal climate – how much the temperature varies from winter to summer to winter – and the changes they found matched expectations.

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EU carbon prices hit a seven-year high for the third consecutive session on Monday as the day’s auction cleared at a rare premium to the secondary market.

Managing rabbit populations isn't as simple as declaring 'open season'. Euan Ritchie, Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Damien Fordham, University of Adelaide Miguel Lurgi, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.