Feed aggregator

UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-induced emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical

Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.

Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed products that can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.

Continue reading...

Natalie Rabey, who relies on power-hungry machines to help her breathe, is campaigning for solar power for Victoria’s public housing

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Natalie Rabey doesn’t know how much time she has left. But she knows what she wants to do with it.

“While I’m still breathing I’d like to get some action on solar panels for people in public housing because it’s just terrible at the moment,” she says.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Sustainability-linked sovereign debt-related (SLSD) bond issuances can grow 100-fold this decade to help address the crises trio of debt, climate, and nature, a report released Friday found, with linkages to nature markets seen as one of several steps that could help scale the instrument.

Being dull but safe won’t help Keir Starmer pull off a big win over the Conservatives. He needs to offer meatier fare than that

How dull can an opposition party be and still command the kinetic energy to win an election that requires a swing of up to 13 percentage points? Especially as the haul of seats it would need for an outright majority – given its dreadful losses in England in 2019, the SNP’s troubled but hardy grip on Scotland and the fact of fewer Welsh MPs being returned to Westminster – approaches the 145 gained by Tony Blair in the 1997 landslide.

Elections do not always vindicate early predictions. Much can happen between now and the election deadline of January 2025 (which effectively means going to the polls in the latter half of next year) that makes yesterday’s “impossible” look like tomorrow’s “told you so”. It would, however, be unwise for Labour to rely, as one of its sharpest advisers on strategy succinctly puts it, on “Tories being crap and Labour being a bit less crap”.

Continue reading...

The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) has announced a first £12-million investment in a major nature restoration project in Scotland amid plans to grow its role in markets that underpin positive climate and biodiversity outcomes.

Campaigners say Rosebank, with a potential yield of 500m barrels, would seriously undermine legal commitment to net zero

A single new oil and gas field in the North Sea would be enough to exceed the UK’s carbon budgets from its operations alone, analysis has shown, as the government considers fossil fuel expansion despite the legally binding commitment to net zero.

Rosebank is the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea, with the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil, and has already cleared several regulatory hurdles, meaning a decision on its future could come soon.

Continue reading...

Ministers want to "make polluters pay", after more than 300,000 waste spills in England's waterways last year.

Rangers work to avoid repeat of last year’s devastating losses in breeding seabird colonies on the islands off the Northumberland coast

The Farne Islands will not open to visitors this spring in anticipation of bird flu once again ravaging breeding seabird colonies, after an “unprecedented” spate of deaths last year.

The rocky outcrop of islands off the coast of Northumberland has been looked after by the National Trust since 1925 and there are no previous records of so many endangered seabirds dying at once. More than 6,000 carcasses were picked up last year, which is believed to be the tip of the iceberg compared with how many birds would have died in total.

Continue reading...

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

As the Natural Environmental Lead, you will play a central role in supporting SSE Enterprise Utilities’  strategic thinking around the transition to net zero, including how this can be achieved in a socially fair and just way. You will lead the development and implementation of natural environment strategies and nature based action plans that will improve biodiversity value. As the technical subject matter expert, you will also be responsible for identifying, analysing and reporting nature based solution data, understanding how biodiversity and climate change are interlink  and impacts the business, and inspiring industry-leading biodiversity action.

Carbon Market Consultant should have a deep understanding of global carbon market and will be working to lead our carbon finance initiatives in AFOLU sector, provide consultation services on carbon pricing, carbon finance market, carbon business models, including the analysis of both compliance and voluntary carbon markets, institutional and legal frameworks as well as main stakeholders in this field.

Nature Based Solution Manager will be working to provide technical expertise and will be involved in developing project registration for different projects across different methodologies (both voluntary and compliance)

An international climate consultancy and developer is seeking a Carbon Project Development Manager to join their experienced team. The ideal candidate will have experience in community-based project development, carbon methodologies, and offsetting.

Financial players this week saw their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) net long position reach the highest since last March, while compliance entities modestly added to their holdings across North American carbon markets, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

The Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) raised the volume of current vintage allowances offered in the jurisdiction’s second cap-and-invest sale, while also tendering future vintage permits for the first time, according to an official notice published Friday.

The European Commission launched a consultation on Friday as part of its preparation for proposing EU 2040 climate goals next year to ensure the bloc hits its binding net zero emissions goal a decade later.

Scientists responsible for monitoring the health of New Zealand's glaciers have revealed a trend of declining snow and ice. The 2023 survey was the 46th undertaken in a collaboration between the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), Victoria University of Wellington, and the Department of Conservation. The longstanding project captures an aerial portrait of more than 50 Southern Alps glaciers at a similar time each year to track how they change. The team spent nearly eight hours travelling back and forth over the alps, taking thousands of aerial photographs of glaciers of differing sizes and orientations to use in various national and international research projects, including one that builds 3D models used to compare snow and ice year-to-year

• Tess's story here

Continue reading...

A summary of legislative, regulatory, and policy action on carbon, clean fuel standard, and clean energy markets at the US federal and subnational levels this week, including North Carolina House budget language to block a RGGI-modelled cap-and-trade regulation and the advancement of a carbon offset bill in Washington state.

Canada’s 'revenue-neutral' CO2 charge that is slated to increase to C$65/tonne ($48) on Apr. 1 will result in a net loss on average to households in all provinces falling under the federal ‘backstop’, a government watchdog outlined Thursday.

The EU should refine its definition of fossil fuel subsidies to help keep a lid on rising levels of government aid that is undermining the net zero transition, green groups said in a report this week.