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Measures to lower electricity prices for European industry to drive their global competitiveness, could severely dampen the business case for investments in clean power, warned European electricity trade association Eurelectric this week.

The European Commission has identified an “ambition gap” in the National Energy and Climate Action Plans (NECPs) adopted by EU countries, saying better planning and a tighter governance framework is needed to ensure the bloc delivers on its climate goals.

The 720 members of the European Parliament are gearing up for holding confirmation hearings with the new commissioners-designate, and for holding a series of debates on climate and the bloc's agricultural sector, as they gather in Strasbourg next week for the first time after the summer break.

Japan’s environment ministry on Friday announced it is now accepting applications from companies seeking so-called nature coexistence support certificates, after the originally intended pilot late last year got delayed.

From Port Stephens to Illawarra, candidates are running against renewable schemes because of ‘lack of consultation’

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Part of what’s driving Mark Watson’s pitch for mayor is his opposition to a project he says is the talk of the town and the “biggest issue” in his coastal home’s history.

The former One Nation candidate for the state government is now running as an independent for mayor of Port Stephens. The coastal town just north of Newcastle overlooks the middle of the 1,800-square kilometre offshore windfarm zone off the Hunter, where the Albanese government plans a renewable energy hub to be operating by 2030.

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Planning approval for the UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years has been quashed by a court because of unlawful claims the mine would be ‘net zero’ and have no impact on the emissions cuts required under the country’s Climate Change Act.

The Swiss industry agency entrusted by its government with arranging Article 6.2 bilateral agreements has provided written and financial support to a biogas project in Ghana, a global forerunner in Paris Agreement carbon trading deals.

Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto, who comes to power next month after a February win at the polls, plans to generate and sell rain forest carbon credits worth a total of $65 billion by 2028, Reuters reported Friday, citing a government advisor.

Tech firms can give emerging biodiversity markets the 'trust factor' companies need to buy nature credits without fear of backlash, a data specialist told a webinar this week.

The image of huge, glorious landscapes, where wildlife runs free under the protection of the state, is far from reality

• England’s national parks overseen by ‘bloated’, mostly white male boards

What do you think of when you think of a national park? Is it a wide area of glorious natural beauty, where wildlife runs free under the protection of the state? Or is it a wide area mostly farmed by private landowners, in which nature is faring worse than outside its boundaries, and largely off-limits to the public?

In England, the reality is the latter, and this matters. The country is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, in the bottom 10% of nations for biodiversity. “Nature is in freefall in our national parks,” says Dr Rose O’Neill, the chief executive of the Campaign for National Parks (CNP).

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Australia has debuted a new national hydrogen strategy as part of its wider Future Made in Australia (FMIA) strategy which it says will cut CO2e emissions by between 93-186 million tonnes per year by 2050, with up to 15 Mt/year of green hydrogen produced at the same time and the Safeguard Mechanism driving hydrogen tech uptake by businesses keen to drop emissions.

A native forest restoration company is in talks with two major standards to launch its first biodiversity credit projects next year, with a big park in the Philippines among the sites under consideration, the firm told Carbon Pulse.

EU carbon prices were relatively stable on Friday morning as the market eased sideways within the same channel they have followed for the rest of the week, as natural gas also moved within their recent range.

Smallholder farmers have released a declaration in advance of UN biodiversity conference COP16 with a rejection of discussions that aim to commodify nature.

The nascent nature credits market is a key solution to the need for economic incentives to restore nature, with its viability proven by carbon, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech on Friday.

Exclusive: Campaigners call for overhaul as Guardian investigation shows nature rarely on agenda

• How national parks failed nature – and how to fix them

The boards that oversee England’s national parks are bloated, dominated by men and are severely lacking in diversity, a Guardian analysis has found. The analysis also found that farmers outnumber conservation experts by two to one, nature is rarely on the agenda at board meetings and only one national park can account for the ownership of all the land it covers.

Campaigners said a major overhaul of how national parks were governed was “fundamental” to the recovery of nature in the parks and to serving the public, for whom they were set up.

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Recent policy updates on sectoral expansion failed to boost trading activity in China's emissions market over the past week, which saw permit prices fall below 90 yuan ($12.69) again with shrinking liquidity. 

The Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) and Quantedge Advancement Initiative (WAI) announced a two-year funding partnership Friday to catalyse climate change action and improve carbon market data, the former said.

Government’s communication called ‘unconscionable’ after one of largest spills of toxic ‘forever chemicals’

A former US navy base in Maine has caused among the largest accidental spills of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” ever recorded in the nation, and public health advocates suspect state officials are attempting to cover up its scale by reporting misleading and incomplete data.

Meanwhile, state and regional officials were slow to alert the public and are resisting calls to immediately test some private drinking water wells in the area despite its notoriously complex hydrology, which could potentially spread the contamination widely.

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Court rules against West Cumbria Mining’s fossil fuel development in Whitehaven

The UK’s first new coalmine in 30 years will not be allowed to go ahead after a ruling in the high court.

On Friday morning, Justice Holgate ruled plans for the facility to be built in Whitehaven, Cumbria will not proceed, in what campaigners called a “victory for the environment”.

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