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A vast, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide has swept over southern Paraguay, blown in from wildfires raging in neighbouring Argentina after two years of severe drought. 

A weather front of cold air from the south acted 'like a broom', explained Eduardo Dose, a Paraguayan hydrologist, scooping up soot from burnt pastures and forests as well as dust from drought-stricken wetlands. Strong winds then channelled the choking cloud 

Wildfires send giant cloud of ash across southern Paraguay

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A strategic document on how the EU could tackle surging energy prices and increase carbon market oversight has been delayed by a week, as Brussels officials craft bolder plans in light of the heightened risk of disrupted gas supply from Russia.

The part-government-owned firm OneWeb is due to send up satellites via Kazakhstan this week.

Irish scientists publish images of spider feeding on pipistrelle bats in Shropshire

Protected pipistrelle bats have been captured and fed on by a noble false widow spider, the first time the behaviour has been seen.

The arachnids are thought to have been accidentally introduced to the UK from the Canary Islands about 100 years ago and have been spreading ever since.

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The higher EU ETS carbon prices of the last three months have caused cross-sectoral concern. Many are placing unsubstantiated blame on speculative trading. But with speculation a minor problem at best, Agnese Ruggiero of Carbon Market Watch asks whether flooding the market with more carbon allowances is a solution or a dangerously reckless move.

EUAs extended their recent losses in early Tuesday trading as investors continued to unwind positions in carbon, while energy markets were led higher by coal as the conflict in Ukraine deepened.

Japan’s latest auction of domestic carbon credits cleared at record high prices this week, as government plans to set up a voluntary carbon market and businesses looking to offset their emissions footprint are pushing market prices up.

The annual level of carbon loss caused by the conversion of tropical forests to other land uses, such as agriculture, has doubled over the last 20 years, highlighting the need to implement strategies at a global scale to prevent further deforestation, a study has concluded.

Report warns government agency unable to fulfil duty of protecting environment as pay has plunged in real terms

People working for the government’s conservation watchdog are so underpaid that it is threatening the UK’s ability to reach net-zero pledges, a trade union report warns.

Salaries of those working for the government agency Natural England have fallen by 20% in real terms over the last decade, with starting pay thousands of pounds lower than private and charity-sector equivalents, according to the Prospect union’s Natural England 2022 report.

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Experts and advocates are also exploring new ranking systems to add urgency to the growing disaster of rapidly warming landscapes

Climate scientists from around the world issued dire warnings on Monday, in the latest IPCC report on the dangers posed in the unfolding climate crisis. Among them is extreme heat, a crisis that on average already claims more American lives than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.

Though the impact is already being felt, heatwaves are largely silent killers. Often, the toll is tallied far into the aftermath of an event and is vastly undercounted. Unlike fires and floods that produce immediate and visible destruction, heat’s harmful effects can seem more subtle – even if they are in fact more deadly.

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Big utilities that own coal generators and upstream oil and gas players with LNG facilities form the top ten list of Australia’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters, data released from a federal government agency has shown.

'In one word, it's devastating,' says the Mitchelton Football Club technical director Joe Fenech, after heavy rain and flood waters washed away the club's equipment, and destroyed its $1.5m synthetic playing field. 'We spent all the budgeted money on equipment, footballs, poles, gear and kits – you name it. We stocked it really well in a [shipping] container, and that container just floated away under the bridge,' says Fenech. The season was supposed to start last weekend for the 102-year-old football club, but now Fenech predicts boots won't be back on the field for another five or six weeks

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• Brisbane flood: residents assess damage to homes as clean-up efforts begin
• NSW and Qld floods live updates – latest eastern Australia flood news

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FFI to spend $50m to develop "world-first" regenerating battery electric iron ore train to save tens of millions of litres of diesel.

The post Fortescue starts work on world-first “Infinity Train,” a regenerating battery on rails appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Cockatoo populations reduced after 2019-20 bushfires with decline expected to continue as climate crisis causes increased heatwaves

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The gang-gang cockatoo, the animal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory, will be officially listed as a threatened species after a large decline in its numbers due to the climate crisis and the bushfire disaster.

The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has accepted the recommendation of the threatened species scientific committee that the small cockatoo requires protection under Australia’s environmental laws.

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

Massive Queensland wind farm that will supply more than half of the energy needs of Australia’s largest zinc refinery has been granted environmental approval.

The post Queensland’s biggest wind farm that will power zinc refinery gets final green light appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Germany's climate and energy ministry to propose faster expansion of renewables, to reach a near 100% renewable power supply by 2035, instead of 2050.

The post Germany fast-tracks shift to 100 pct renewables as EU energy crisis deepens appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia needs to decide how much worse we want these disasters to get and take the climate action needed to keep people safe

• NSW and Qld floods live news – latest eastern Australia flood updates
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In Lismore we have experienced floods forever. But this is not a flood, this is a catastrophe. This is extreme. This is a giant, angry river in the sky. This is climate change. I’ve seen people sitting on their roofs, panicking, screaming in fear – hoping their lives will be spared.

My friends are in tinnies, the same friends that always jump in their tinnies during floods. Usually, they go from veranda to veranda to visit and check up on the families, sitting there with their chooks, dogs, cats, rabbits, sometimes a goat or a sheep. There is always a place on the veranda for the wildlife too. They have a beer together and talk about how long until the river unswells, the clean-up, and ask if everyone has got what they need. They talk about how this flood is different from the last one. They talk about the big one in 1974. Even if they weren’t there.

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Smoke from Australian wildfires affects the layer that shields the Earth from harmful UV rays.

Midway is leveraging off its forest management expertise and plantation resource base to deliver new plantation investment initiatives.  Carbon farming methods and opportunities will be integral to these initiatives and as a result, a new role, Carbon Projects Manager, has been created.