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The largest solar project on Australia's main grid, to provide power to smelters and refineries, seeks federal green tick.

The post Australia’s biggest solar project that will help power giant smelter seeks green tick from government appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Commission recommends 33-point plan to ensure oil giant complies with state climate commitments

The French government should intervene in TotalEnergies and spur faster climate action, a senate inquiry commission has concluded.

The commission, set up to explore ways the state could guarantee that the oil conglomerate complies with French climate commitments, recommended 33 steps the government should take to “encourage a rapid, orderly and effective transition”.

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The change in credits eligible for the current phase of CORSIA, the UN’s international aviation offsetting scheme, compared to its pilot, has triggered a $155.4 mln lawsuit against CME Group after it altered eligibility for its GEO futures contract.

A US-headquartered foundation has announced the allocation of $33.5 million in grants to finance the conservation and restoration of longleaf pine forests in eight southern states.

As competition with China and the US intensifies on clean tech, the EU must stay the course on the Green Deal and make sure it is implemented by filling the remaining gaps in areas like finance and electrification of end-uses, says Iberdrola’s director for climate, Gonzalo Saenz de Miera.

Expense for environment and climate action in the EU will remain the same as last year, although the general budget is growing, according to allocations for 2025 proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday.

A UK biochar producer has announced its first carbon removal agreement, in what marks a boost for the British carbon removal (CDR) market.

Tony Wood of the Grattan Institute rejects Coalition’s claim electricity prices are high due to Labor’s renewables policy

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Peter Dutton’s claim that nuclear energy would lead to cheaper power bills has been rejected by energy experts, with one saying there was “no credible reason” to think adding “the most expensive form of bulk electricity” would cut prices.

They said a range of evidence, including a recent CSIRO analysis, suggested nuclear power would be more expensive than other options, and that solar and wind system under construction – supported by firming technology – was the cheapest option.

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A briefing released today by the Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) Europe following EU elections earlier this month, makes the case for a "social deal" and an "industrial deal" alongside the Green Deal, to manage the transition to a net-zero economy. 

Two people have been arrested after Just Stop Oil activists sprayed orange powder paint over Stonehenge. Members of the public tried to stop the incident and a visitor managed to wrestle a spray can from one of the protesters. According to Wiltshire police, two people have been arrested. The prime minister condemned the incident, saying: 'This is a disgraceful act of vandalism to one of the UK's and the world's oldest and most important monuments.'. Just Stop Oil says it took the action to demand the incoming government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030

• Stonehenge sprayed in orange powder paint by Just Stop Oil activists

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The EU and China agreed on Wednesday to cooperate in promoting emissions trading as an effective tool for reaching net zero emissions, as part of a wider pact to work together during a high-level environment and climate dialogue in Brussels.

A report has warned against the Australian government moving to allow all coal companies to self-report their emissions, saying it could obscure millions of tonnes of methane pollution.

Certain European countries blessed with geographical advantages can expect to reap significant rewards as demand for carbon storage heats up this decade.

Spain, backed by a number of EU countries, has proposed tweaking how the ETS is applied to the maritime sector to avoid carbon leakage, and urged the UN shipping body to adopt greenhouse gas emissions measures to avoid regulatory fragmentation.

A large REDD voluntary carbon project that will span 4 million hectares has been given the go-head by the government of Mozambique.

An Indigenous-led organisation has released guidelines to mobilise funding for First Nations’ nature conservation efforts in Canada, with biodiversity credits among the financing mechanisms that should be explored.

After the election, Labour must end the attacks on a watchdog that is simply trying to protect what little wildlife we have left

England likes to think of itself as a green and pleasant land, yet the Conservatives have been waging a vicious political war against Natural England, the watchdog that is supposed to protect the countryside. During the past decade and a half, Natural England has been undermined by austerity and rendered toothless by deregulation. The Conservative government slashed the organisation’s already insufficient budget by two-thirds, rendering it incapable of carrying out even basic functions. Almost half of England’s nature reserves have not been monitored by government ecologists in recent years, and only 39% of our sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) are now in “favourable condition”.

It’s much the same story as what has happened to the Environment Agency. Yet in recent years, spending cuts have been the least of Natural England’s worries. The watchdog has also had to withstand a barrage of attacks from Tory MPs, landowners, developers, the shooting lobby and even environment ministers. And under Rishi Sunak’s government, it has come close to being destroyed entirely – simply because it tried to do its job.

Guy Shrubsole is an environmental campaigner and the author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain, Who Owns England? and the forthcoming The Lie of the Land

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A recently-launched coalition has partnered up with a digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) provider as it looks to develop its new forest carbon standard.

South Korea plans to roll out carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technology across industrial facilities in what the government has dubbed a “mega project”, designed to help decarbonise country’s biggest-emitting industries and reach its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.

Experts say invertebrates are exposed to range of chemicals, some of which are 10,000 times more toxic than DDT

• What are highly hazardous pesticides and how are they used in the UK?

Prof Lynn Dicks has had her hands in the soil for almost three decades – and she has watched it slowly become stripped of invertebrate life.

“In my life, I have seen the decline,” says Dicks, an ecology professor at the University of Cambridge. She knows it from the data: “The data we have of long-term trends in insect abundance over time, that the decline rates are, on average, about 1% a year.

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