Feed aggregator

Appointment of Dame Caroline Spelman to nature watchdog’s board sparks cronyism allegations

• UK politics live – latest news updates

A former Tory minister who tried to sell off England’s forests has been appointed to the board of Natural England, leading Labour to accuse the government of “cronyism”.

Dame Caroline Spelman has been given a senior role with the government’s nature watchdog and will set its strategy and policy, as well as overseeing the use of public money. Other trustees announced on Friday include Mel Austen, a professor of ocean and society at the University of Plymouth, and Lynn Dicks, who leads a research group working on sustainable agriculture and insect conservation.

Continue reading...

A major European intermediary is warning companies against making 'climate neutrality' claims in favour of climate contributions, the clearest sign yet of a shift in voluntary carbon market practices in a bid avoid carbon credit purchases getting mired in concerns about double-claiming.

The primary goal for this position is to contribute to the capacity of the team leading the Carbon+ Credits Program and provide support on communications, operations, and social impacts. A typical day in this role may include troubleshooting local project lead questions, generating carbon quantification estimates, crafting content for communication platforms, and collaborating with the CFC team to advance carbon projects through the crediting process.

Verra will phase out programme by mid-2025 after Guardian investigation found it was flawed

• As carbon offsetting faces ‘credibility revolution’, shoppers should be wary

The world’s leading carbon credit certifier – used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations for climate claims – has said it will phase out and replace its rainforest offsets programme by mid-2025 after a Guardian investigation found it was flawed.

Verra, the main guarantee of credibility for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has committed to scrapping its rainforest protection programme by July 2025 and introducing new rules, which it is developing. A senior Verra figure said this week it was time to move on from the current system.

Continue reading...

European carbon permit prices advanced for a fifth straight day on Friday, briefly topping €100 as the market continued to eye the record high amid a supportive energy market, while European politicians approved enhanced energy-saving targets for 2030.

Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states have agreed to increase targets to reduce final energy usage after trilogue discussions that lasted until the early hours of Friday morning.

German aluminium manufacturer Speira will end smelting operations at its Rheinwerk facility and invest in the plant’s recycling capacities instead, the company announced on Thursday.

The Indonesian government has announced a set of regulations to guide the development of a carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) sector in the Southeast Asian country’s oil and gas industry, which includes allowing for the monetising of the activity through the use of carbon credits, the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Resources (MEMR) announced on Friday.

The spot price for Chinese carbon allowances remained stable over the past week amid lukewarm sentiment, while the latest change in the country's leadership team has aroused speculations about the future of the carbon market.

A manager in Shell’s nature-based solutions team has left the company to co-found a project development firm that will focus on building carbon projects with co-benefits across Southeast Asia.

A newly-formed standards body that aims to target small-scale nature restoration projects has raised €5 million in seed funding, deploying digital auditing towards plots of land previously deemed too costly to manage cost-effectively.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a resting cheetah, banana stalk flies and snowy rooks

Continue reading...

Xpansiv has been directed to postpone its first carbon credit auction that was slated for this week.

The head of one of Australia’s largest carbon project developers remains bullish about soil carbon projects, but has acknowledged the credit issuance from the controversial project type has taken longer than anticipated.

Sydney-based Gelion announces intention to build “world’s best battery” after buying up hundreds of lithium sulfur and silicon anode patents.

The post Australia’s Gelion says it secures chemistry to make “world’s best battery” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Germany will use auctions to ensure new gas power plants are built, used only as back-up, and converted to hydrogen “as soon as possible."

The post Germany to build 25GW of “hydrogen ready” gas plants to back up wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Matt Kean strikes back at NSW Labor, pointing to data showing the state outstripping the rest of the country in new renewable and storage projects.

The post Kean taunts Labor with data showing NSW outstrips whole country on renewable starts appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Seaweed is in the spotlight for so many reasons. It all sounds too good to be true. So can this wonder weed live up to expectations and fulfill its promise to save us from ourselves? Catriona Macleod, Associate professor, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

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

Arena-backed trial will see energy retailers offer innovative incentives to customers to enable access to their existing rooftop solar systems.

The post “Making dumb solar smart:” Push to bring old rooftop PV into new world of flexible exports appeared first on RenewEconomy.