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Across the UK, fossil fuel companies’ broken promises have left scarred and polluted landscapes, and no one held accountable

When you’re in a hole, keep digging. This is the strategy of opencast miners across the world: our past debts and future liabilities can one day be discharged if only we’re allowed to dig a little deeper and extract a little more. And public authorities keep falling for it.

The UK’s biggest opencast coalmine, Ffos-y-Fran in south Wales, was granted permission in 2005 on the grounds that it would rehabilitate a hill, on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil, which had been made dangerous by the shafts and spoil heaps left by deep mining. It wasn’t called a coalmine, but a “land reclamation scheme”. If the reclaimers happened to stumble across 11m tonnes of coal while improving the land by digging a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) pit, 200 metres deep, who could blame them for taking it?

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The European Parliament voted on Thursday to approve its stance on a package of rules that will force EU companies to disclose their carbon footprint and take steps to reduce it as part of corporate sustainability requirements.

The Environmental Protection Agency is suing the manufacturer, even as the company continues to make and sell its toxic products

Consumer groups are blasting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing plastic containers made with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” to continue being distributed across the economy even though the agency is suing the manufacturer over the dangerous compounds leaching into containers’ contents, such as food or personal care products.

The groups are now intervening in the lawsuit and regulatory proceedings between the EPA and Inhance Technologies, which they estimate produces about 200m PFAS-contaminated plastic containers annually.

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Green groups criticise Jemena for offering incentive to switch from electricity amid policies in Victoria and NSW aimed at winding back gas use

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The gas company Jemena has come under fire from environmental groups for offering customers in New South Wales cash incentives to replace their electric home appliances with gas ones.

Customers can claim money back for buying a range of gas appliances, such as $500 for ducted heating, $400 for hot water, $400 for a gas log fire and $100 for a cooktop, with Jemena putting up $250,000 for the promotion.

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South Korea will be able to retire its entire coal fleet by 2035 in alignment with the Paris Agreement if the government provides sufficient support for transition finance, research released Thursday has found.

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An Austrian startup has generated the first certified credits from a series of regional forest management projects, the firm announced this week, confirming further activities across multiple other EU nations.

South Korea has circulated an updated schedule for emissions allowance carryover and borrowing for its emissions trading scheme, which faces its annual compliance deadline at the end of this month.

Denmark will set up a $71.7-million fund to restore and protect marine nature, the government announced this week, while the environment ministry has formed an alliance with the nation’s leading industry associations to develop a common framework for taking biodiversity action.

The Australian government must do more to transition away from using and exporting fossil fuels if it wants to host COP31 in partnership with the Pacific, regional climate officials told a webinar Thursday, adding that climate finance in the form of carbon offset projects would be inadequate to address their existential needs.

AGL signs MoU to explore the feasibility of setting up a solar panel materials recovery facility at the greened-up, post-coal Latrobe Valley site.

The post AGL weighs solar recycling as part of Loy Yang’s post-coal future appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Most oil and gas (O&G) firms in the Asia Pacific region may face more financing challenges than their international peers because of their lack of detailed plans to decarbonise and their wait-and-see approach to new energy, a report has found.

Electric tractors, renewable diesel, bioenergy and solar-powered farms across Australia - that’s the vision for the future of agriculture being showcased at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference 2023.  

The post Conference will showcase a greener future for agriculture appeared first on RenewEconomy.

David Hay and Andrew Kingsmill from EnergyCo discuss the infrastructure roadmap towards 100% renewables. Plus: Sun Cable, Callide and more news.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Can NSW quit coal? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian battery maker to supply one of largest zinc-based energy storage projects in the world, as part of a solar microgrid in Northern California.

The post Redflow lands biggest order yet, 20MWh flow battery for Native American microgrid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

A Paris-headquartered startup specialising in issuing and selling carbon credits from European projects has raised €1.5 million in a new funding round.

Exclusive: The same studies were submitted to US regulators and some are relevant to safety levels, the researchers say

Pesticide companies failed to disclose a series of studies assessing brain toxicity to European regulators, according to new research, despite the same studies having been submitted to US regulators.

When the EU authorities were made aware of the studies, between 14 and 21 years after they were conducted, new safety limits were applied in some cases and evaluation is still under way in other cases.

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A former prisoner held for years in the same jail as the group tells the BBC of their plight.

Growth of renewables the only bright spot on Australia's industrial emissions, although replacing a dodgy satellite might boost land clearing accounting.

The post LNG and diesel will blow Australia’s carbon budget, even after replacing dodgy satellite appeared first on RenewEconomy.