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The inside story of what happened on the first two days of the biodiversity summit in Montreal

Wednesday, 7 December

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge of C$800m (£510m) over seven years to support Indigenous-led conservation projects was preceded by a ceremony led by the First Nations Elder, Ka’nahsohon Kevin Deer. It made a change from the day before when Trudeau was interrupted by Indigenous protesters at the opening ceremony.

The UN secretary general António Guterres spoke powerfully about the need to protect the rights of environment protesters, saying “human rights must be at the centre of all environmental concerns and namely, the work of the [UN convention on biodiversity] CBD”.

A new draft text of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is littered with more than 1,000 brackets, which will need dealing with over the next two weeks. The text has been described as a “mess”, with many concerned about the amount that still needs to be done.

Despite more than 20 targets being negotiated, the 30x30 goal to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030 is stealing the limelight. As delegates arrived at Montreal airport, there was no escaping the slew of posters promoting the ambition.

Both Canada and China have given delegates welcome bags – the former contained a snood, and the latter, a silk scarf and tea. Masks are also back and each day delegates are taking Covid tests in order to get into the conference centre.

The EU representative Ladislav Miko criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it brings about “long-term environmental degradation”. Russian delegate Denis Rebrikov responded by saying the subject should be outside the scope of the biodiversity summit. “It’s hard to avoid the impression that these countries are deliberately trying to sabotage the adoption of a global framework,” he said.

It’s currently 3C in Montreal and some delegates are struggling with the cold. One was seen wearing a thick coat and woolly hat with headphones over the top in the main plenary hall.

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Xpansiv, owner of the CBL carbon credit marketplace, has shuffled its leadership after a flurry of takeovers that includes registry administrator APX and the intermediary Evolution Markets.

A nature-focused carbon fund manager is set to boost its portfolio of funds next year, with the owners eyeing what they see as growing demand for carbon credits from institutional investors.

New money for climate damage, but little progress on emissions. A round up of what was agreed in Egypt.

West Cumbria Mining, which set up Whitehaven office during push for new mine, owned by EMR Capital

• What is the Cumbrian coalmine and why does it matter?

The first deep coalmine to be dug in the UK in a generation is ultimately owned by an international private equity company, with executives whose mining interests have stretched to Russia, Asia, Africa and across Australia.

West Cumbria Mining positioned itself as a local company with an office in Whitehaven, and promised it would provide jobs for people in the area, during its campaign for permission to extract 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year from the site.

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The EU needs a 2035 deadline to fully replace the bloc's fossil-powered truck fleet to keep in line with its climate neutrality 2050 goal, some 44 companies including several multinationals argued in a letter to EU leaders on Thursday that called for the timeline to be enshrined in law as soon as possible.

The Environmental Markets Trader will be primarily responsible for developing and capturing profitable commercial trading opportunities in multiple environmental attributes markets. Specific knowledge of carbon offset (both VCM and compliance), renewable natural gas, and responsibly sourced gas markets in North America will be critical for success.

Serious pollution, poor service and weak financial management embedded, says England and Wales water industry regulator

Serious pollution by water companies has increased in the past year, the regulator has said in a damning report on the performance of the sector in England and Wales.

Ofwat said poor performance by some firms was embedded, and named Northumbrian Water, Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water as lagging in the way they served customers and ran the system.

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Nearly 5,000 primary school students took part in the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Wild at Art competition, which invites children to create an artwork depicting one of the country’s threatened native animals or plants

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The mass-scale removal of resources is a key driver of biodiversity loss. Extractivism’s grip on the planet must be broken

At the biodiversity Cop taking place in Montreal, much attention will focus on a policy proposal calling for 30% of the planet’s land and oceans to be protected by 2030, known as 30x30. Protected areas have their place in addressing the biodiversity crisis, but we also know that they are insufficient. Since the 1970s, they have increased fourfold globally, expanding to about 17% of the planet, but extraction rates have more than tripled. This unrelenting expansion of forestry, mining, monoculture farming and fossil fuel developments is a central driver of biodiversity loss. Ending or at least reducing “extractivism” must be front and centre at Cop15.

Extractivism is more than extraction. Extraction is the not inherently damaging removal of matter from nature and its transformation into things useful to humans. Extractivism, a term born of anti-colonial struggle and thought in the Americas, is a mode of accumulation based on hyper-extraction with lopsided benefits and costs: concentrated mass-scale removal of resources primarily for export, with benefits largely accumulating far from the sites of extraction. One estimate puts the drain south to north at a staggering $10tn (£8tn) a year.

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Enhanced weathering (ERW), which can remove CO2 from the atmosphere for 10,000 years with very low risk of reversal, has been accredited as a methodology for the first time by Puro.Earth in a move that could accelerate the supply of removal credits in the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

EUAs continued to strengthen on Thursday morning, moving above €89 after the first above-market auction of the month amid bullish energy prices and as participants continued to eye next week's options expiry.

Canada’s prime minister calls on China, Russia and Brazil to expand protected areas for nature

Justin Trudeau has urged China, Russia, Brazil and other large countries to massively expand protected areas for nature at Cop15 while putting Indigenous rights at the heart of conservation, as momentum gathers behind a controversial target to conserve 30% of Earth.

On Wednesday, the Canadian prime minister committed C$800m (£510m) of funding over seven years for Indigenous-led conservation projects in his country across an area the size of Egypt, starting a “story of reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples.

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Experts create guide to help save seabirds from bleak future caused by global heating

The majority of puffin nesting sites in western Europe are likely to be lost by the end of the century due to climate breakdown, a report has warned.

Other seabirds will also be affected unless urgent action to limit global heating is taken, with razorbills and arctic terns forecast to lose 80% and 87% of their breeding grounds respectively owing to reduced food accessibility and prolonged periods of stormy weather.

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The biggest solar farm in WA was the best performing solar project in Australia in November with a capacity factor of more than 37 per cent.

The post WA’s biggest solar farm tops list of best performing PV assets in November appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Industry watchdog Ofwat, said that despite some improvements it remains deeply concerned.

Cumbrian MP questions decision for site as he likens plans to ‘opening of a Betamax factory’

Ministers giving the green light to Britain’s first coalmine in 30 years is “like celebrating the opening of a Betamax factory”, Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has said.

Farron, whose constituency borders the one where the new project will be built in Copeland, called the decision “daft” because there was “an evaporation of demand” for the coking coal the new mine will produce.

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Carbon capture technologies can play a key long term role in global efforts to meet net zero emissions ambitions, but this is only likely to be realised if financial and regulatory barriers are overcome and if standards are developed to promote a greater role for carbon markets, industry observers noted at a conference on Thursday.

A large asset management firm has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in a Danish company that provides management and consulting services for natural resource investments, including carbon credits and conservation projects.

There is considerable potential for China, the world's largest rice producer, to reduce emissions in the agricultural sector through the introduction of biochar, though regulatory clarity is needed to further ignite project developers' interest, according to an industry expert.