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More than 40 firms including Coca-Cola have promised to reduce harmful packaging.

EU carbon prices are set to double from current levels by 2021 and could quadruple to €55 before 2030 if lawmakers align the ETS’ emissions reduction trajectory with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Critics say retailers can pick and choose whether to sign up to Plastics Pact, a series of pledges that have no enforcement mechanism

UK supermarkets and food companies launched a new voluntary pledge to cut plastic packaging on Thursday as ministers consider forcing them to pay more towards collecting and recycling the waste they produce.

In a first response to a growing public backlash against the huge volumes of plastic rubbish, most of the UK’s largest supermarkets signed up to support the UK Plastics Pact – an industry-wide initiative which says it aims to transform packaging and reduce avoidable plastic waste.

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Lava has risen above the crater floor in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano for the first time since 2016.

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

California regulator ARB doled out just over 275,500 California Carbon Offsets (CCOs) this week following the zero issuance recorded earlier this month, with normally high-yielding forestry projects not receiving any credits for the first time since December.

Turkish bank Garanti outlined its shadow carbon pricing strategy on Wednesday, though the partial approach may fall short of addressing the company's ongoing investments in coal plants.

Trees evolved many times around the world. Greg Jordan, Associate Professor, University of Tasmania Matilda Brown, PhD, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Higher EU ETS prices have helped slow the expected pace of global warming, according to London-based fund managers Schroders on Wednesday.

Those dedicated to going plastic-free wonder how to dispose of cat litter or buy cleaning products sans packaging. Share your problems – and solutions

• Going plastic-free is as easy as calico bags and reusable coffee cups
  

Plastic has become an environmental disaster. Microplastic pollution has been found in our waterways, fish stocks, salt, tap water and even the air we breathe. Reducing our reliance on plastic by refusing it wherever possible has never been more important, especially as Australia’s recycling system is in crisis.

Yet there are conundrums that continue to defeat even those dedicated to going plastic-free. From bin liners to takeaway containers, Guardian Australia has tried to solve them. And we want to hear from you: share your plastic conundrums and the solutions. We’ll round up the best ideas for a follow-up article.

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Larger-than-expected population in Africa gives hope for species survival, scientists say, but animal remains critically endangered

There are far more gorillas left in the world than previously thought, according to a landmark new survey, with numbers as much as double earlier estimates.

However, their populations are continuing to fall fast, down 20% in just eight years, leaving them critically endangered. Furthermore, 80% of the remaining gorilla troops do not live in protected areas, leaving them vulnerable to the threats the researchers summarise as “guns, germs and [felled] trees”.

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Low-lying atolls around the world will be overtaken by sea-level rises within a few decades, according to a new study

Hundreds of thousands of people will be forced from their homes on low-lying islands in the next few decades by sea-level rises and the contamination of fresh drinking water sources, scientists have warned.

A study by researchers at the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Deltares Institute in the Netherlands and Hawaii University has found that many small islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans will be uninhabitable for humans by the middle of this century. That is much earlier than previously thought.

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Fourteen galaxies pile into a small region of space... only one can emerge.

A European space telescope measures the precise positions and distances to over one billion stars.

A new study says dozens at the Oland island fort were killed and left to rot where they fell.

EU carbon prices are not rising to more elevated levels fast enough, France said on Wednesday after meeting with a small group of member states, reiterating its call for a bloc-wide carbon price floor starting with Europe's power sector.

Monthly revenues from EU carbon allowance auctions have for the first time topped the €1 billion mark, providing a major funding injection for governments as EUA prices hold near seven-year highs.

The French president received more than one standing ovation in his remarks to Congress on climate change.

Things are unusually quiet in Oklahoma and Kansas this year as 2018 could see the latest start to the tornado season on record.

German-based energy exchange EEX increased turnover from its European environmental markets business by more than 50% in financial year 2017 after posting a sharp rise in secondary market CO2 trading volumes.