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International Maritime Organization agreement is inadequate to decarbonise sector, say campaigners

Attempts to impose a levy on greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, in order to fund climate action, have been delayed but not extinguished at the conclusion of talks among 175 governments.

Greenhouse gas reduction goals for international shipping were agreed, in a toughening of previous targets, but were criticised as inadequate by campaigners.

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Exclusive: Aid NGOs criticise government and Labour after Guardian reveals flagship climate pledge is almost impossible to meet

Keir Starmer has been accused of “wavering on climate commitments” after the Labour party refused to commit to the £11.6bn climate funding pledge made to the world’s poorest nations.

Aid NGOs have criticised the government and the Labour party after the Guardian revealed that under current plans, meeting the flagship pledge made at Cop26 to protect vulnerable countries against the climate crisis is almost impossible.

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European carbon prices traded in their narrowest range for more than two years on Friday morning, as participation remained at a low ebb with many participants attending an industry event.

Applications to mine the seabed in our ocean commons can be made from 9 July, allowing a few corporations to profit from ecological disaster

Sunday 9 July threatens to be a momentous day for the global economy, one that marks the beginning of the biggest gold rush in history, and one that could lead to unprecedented ecological damage. Yet few people seem to be taking much notice. The British government has been silent.

To understand the impending drama, a little history is required. In 1982, after 25 years of torturous negotiations, the United Nations passed Unclos (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). It involved the biggest enclosure in history, turning more than 138m sq km (53m square miles) of seabed into national exclusive economic zones (EEZs) available for exploitation by coastal countries.

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The UN’s International Maritime Organisation formally adopted a revised greenhouse gas strategy on Friday, more ambitious than the IMO's 2018 version but still adrift from aligning the sector with Paris Agreement climate objectives.

China's national emissions trading scheme (ETS) saw its spot price reach the 60 yuan benchmark over the past week with an uptick in trading volume, while trading activity remained slow in the domestic offset market given the limited supply.

A Swedish forestry management services company and carbon credit marketplace operator has raised €2.4 million in funding from a state-owned venture capital fund and existing owners.

Conservationists say reintroduction of reptile could contribute to restoring ancient biodiverse wetlands

The European pond turtle could be swimming in British rivers and lakes again thanks to a new crowdfunded campaign as conservation scientists seek sites for an experimental reintroduction.

Global heating is believed to be making Britain increasingly suitable for the enigmatic species, which may have vanished because of global cooling thousands of years ago but is now threatened by droughts in southern Europe.

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Green groups, several countries, and scientist coalitions are urging for another moratorium on deep sea mining, days ahead of a decision on whether to start the exploitation of the ocean depths for critical raw materials and minerals is due to be taken at a UN meeting.

Countries have agreed to limit carbon from shipping by 2050 but green groups say the pact is flawed.

Rising temperatures are leaving governments scrambling to prepare – a federal body could help them share best practices, experts say

Record-breaking temperatures. Millions under heat alerts. Hikers dying on hot trails.

As large swaths of the US bake under sweltering heat, some advocates and officials say the Biden administration should consider appointing a “heat tsar” to manage a response.

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One group of scientists reported a third global high calculated with satellites and computer models.

A major telecommunication company in Japan has launched an emission reduction project that it says will generate carbon credits under the national offset programme, targeting electric vehicle (EV) customers.

Loopholes in proposed post-Brexit laws could allow preventive use to continue, raising risk of resistance, says coalition of groups

Proposed laws to curb antibiotic use on UK farms contain loopholes that could undermine the fight against deadly drug-resistant bacteria, campaigners say, adding that they were drafted after closed-door meetings with industry.

The government published the draft legislation, designed to replace EU rules post-Brexit, after consultations with pharmaceutical, veterinary medicine and farming lobby groups, according to freedom of information requests filed by the investigative journalism site DeSmog.

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The Australian Labor government has removed the ‘water rule’ from its carbon credit scheme to reduce its complexity, while also providing A$73.8 million in grant funding to support new plantation forests.

German sports brand Puma has joined the Deforestation-free Call to Action for Leather, launched last month by the Textile Exchange and the Leather Working Group seeking to end deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems in leather sourcing.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a spectacled bear, roaming goats and marine iguanas

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Many of those who drowned near Greece last month were escaping environmental crises in Pakistan. Across the world there is far worse to come

Before the Adriana, an overcrowded fishing trawler, left Libya on 9 June, Sajjad Yousef spoke to his father. His family had begged him not to make the treacherous journey from Pakistan to Europe. But Yousef wouldn’t listen. He wanted to leave the desolation of life in Pakistan far, far behind. It was hard, the journey would be rough, he knew that. His family had taken out loans in the millions of rupees to buy him space on that teeming trawler, and Yousef was ready to take his chance.

Most of the 750 people on board the trawler were Pakistani. They were migrants, fleeing poverty and lack of opportunity but also the ravages of the climate emergency, which is felt acutely in Pakistan. The men and women who risked their lives on the Mediterranean were escaping floods, droughts, glacial melt, crop damage and locust plagues, all of which Pakistan has suffered in recent years. It is a cruel fate to endure disaster after disaster; they were once described as “biblical” but have since become mundane, everyday occurrences.

Fatima Bhutto, the author of books including The Runaways and New Kings of the World, is currently teaching a class on how to write about climate issues

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Kimberley Reid from Monash Uni talks about the temperature records being smashed this past week. Plus: Project delays and a new hydrogen strategy.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Hottest day, hottest week, hottest month appeared first on RenewEconomy.

How to get data about household solar, storage and EVs out of distributors' black boxes and in the hands of the agencies in charge of planning and managing the grid. 

The post What’s really behind that meter? New study to unlock hidden network secrets appeared first on RenewEconomy.