Feed aggregator

We’re making the case for 21st-century, modern public ownership that serves our communities

• Ed Miliband is the energy secretary

The public voted for change at the general election. Perhaps nowhere more than when it comes to energy. Every person and business has paid the price of our country’s energy insecurity. As Vladimir Putin sought to use energy as a weapon in his illegal invasion of Ukraine, bills went through the roof in a cost of living crisis unprecedented in modern times.

As the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently made clear, there is one obvious answer to preventing us being so exposed again – a sprint for homegrown clean energy. As it said in its progress report to parliament last week: “British-based renewable energy is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce vulnerability to volatile global fossil-fuel markets. The faster we get off fossil fuels, the more secure we become.”

Ed Miliband is the Labour MP for Doncaster North and secretary of state for energy security and net zero

Continue reading...

A Florida resident this month sued a major Canadian athleisure brand alleging that the firm’s marketing campaign misled consumers regarding its environmental impacts.

Father says Grace Rohloff, 20, lost footing about three-quarters into 400ft cables descent and slid down mountain

A father-daughter hike that began with an Arizona college student checking off a bucket list item ended tragically when she was killed after falling down Yosemite’s Half Dome earlier this month.

Grace Rohloff, a 20-year-old hiker, and her father, Jonathan Rohloff, were descending the cables at Yosemite’s summit when she slipped and fell on 13 July, as reported by SFGate. The 14- to 16-mile round-trip hike to Half Dome is known for its difficulty and requires hikers to obtain permits in advance.

Continue reading...

Reconstructing the demise of New Zealand’s extinct moa can help conserve the country’s remaining flightless birds, which are retreating to the same final places - cold, isolated mountaintops. Damien Fordham, Associate Professor of Global Change Ecology, Adelaide University Jamie Wood, Senior Lecturer, Ecology and Evolution, Adelaide University Mark V. Lomolino, Professor emeritus, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Sean Tomlinson, Research Associate, Ecology and Evolution, Adelaide University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Verra’s revamped methodology for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD) includes a module for unplanned avoided deforestation that sets jurisdictional baselines instead of relying on project-specific ones, but it will lift the Peruvian government’s nationally set REDD reference level, Carbon Pulse heard on a stakeholder webinar Wednesday.

Campaigners say sudden sale suggests Abrdn’s use of Scottish countryside was ‘get-rich-quick scheme’

A Scottish estate that became a lightning rod for disputes over wealthy “green lairds” buying up the Highlands has been unexpectedly put up for sale.

The Far Ralia estate in the Cairngorms has gone on the market for £12m, three years after it was bought for £7.5m by an investment trust run by Standard Life, now Abrdn, as a way to offset carbon emissions from its properties.

Continue reading...

Credit retirements in the voluntary carbon market fell 10% in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023, while corporates are increasingly wary of adopting ‘carbon neutrality’ claims, according to VCM analysts carrying out a quarterly review of the market.

Government data shows China has already installed more than 100GW of new solar capacity this year, bringing the total to more than 700GW.

The post China installs more than 100GW of solar in first half of 2024 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A massive expansion of solar and wind energy to meet EU climate goals does not require Europe to compromise on food production or nature protection goals, campaigners said on Wednesday.

Data shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F compared with 62.76F on Sunday.

World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests.

Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), compared with 62.76F (17.09C) on Sunday.

Continue reading...

There are major issues with how science-based targets are set by companies and governments alike, including basic misinterpretation and over-simplification, scientists have warned.

A global crop nutrition company and a green fertiliser firm have signed an agreement for the offtake of a calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) fertiliser project in Villeta, Paraguay. 

Researchers uncover ‘remarkable new way in which trees provide a vital climate service’ by reducing emissions

Microbes in the bark of trees play a vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere, scientists have discovered.

The greenhouse gas is a product of agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels and is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time.

Continue reading...

Global consumption of coal will remain unchanged through 2025 due to the rising demand for electricity in major economies, despite a rapid expansion of renewables, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday.

The fossils hold clues as to how mammals that lived in the shadow of dinosaurs evolved to dominate the world.

Clear Sky, an investment company specialising in aviation sustainability, announced two sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) partnerships on Wednesday. 

The new ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week should include a reform of EU electricity market rules, so that heavy industries can benefit from low-cost renewable and nuclear energy, EU trade association Eurofer told Carbon Pulse in an exclusive interview.

The country has long been the world’s biggest market – but the government’s interest is more geopolitical than environmental

When Kenzi, an advertising worker in Shanghai, bought an electric vehicle in November she wasn’t even thinking about the environmental benefits. She had read Elon Musk’s biography and thought the Tesla 3 looked good. She also knew that if she bought an EV she could bypass the long wait and cost of getting licence plates, which are rationed by the government.

“It’s not easy to get a licence plate in Shanghai, but you get a licence for free when you buy an EV,” she said.

Continue reading...

India’s leading carbon credit developer and supplier EKI Energy Services has posted a net profit of 8.4% or INR 348.3 lakh ($0.42 million) in the quarter ending June, on the back of increased income from its venture into power trading, the company announced Tuesday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the country’s landmark Climate Change Bill, imposing emissions caps on major polluters, the government announced on Tuesday.