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Activists file formal complaint alleging government has breached international law in signing deal

Environmental campaigners have launched a last-ditch legal bid to prevent or delay the UK’s trade deal with Australia, owing to concerns over its impacts on the climate and the natural world.

A group of seven environmental and farming organisations has filed a formal complaint alleging that the UK government breached international law in signing the deal, which they fear is about to pass into law without any further in-depth parliamentary scrutiny.

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Government criticised over ‘indefensible’ proposal that could undermine climate efforts while yielding benefit of only £1.38m

The UK government may be undermining its commitments to end deforestation overseas because of conflicts over trade policy, the Guardian has learned.

A war of words is raging within the government over deforestation and trade, with green campaigners warning that a proposed policy could have dire consequences for efforts to stop illegal logging.

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Dangerous heat will become the norm, even in the UK. Systems need to urgently change – and the silence needs to be broken

Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Everyone knows, however carefully they avoid the topic, that, beside it, all the topics filling the front pages and obsessing the pundits are dust. Even the Times editors still publishing columns denying climate science know it. Even the candidates for the Tory leadership, ignoring or downplaying the issue, know it. Never has a silence been so loud or so resonant.

This is not a passive silence. It is an active silence, a fierce commitment to distraction and irrelevance in the face of an existential crisis. It is a void assiduously filled with trivia and amusement, gossip and spectacle. Talk about anything, but not about this. But while the people who dominate the means of communication frantically avoid the subject, the planet speaks, in a roar becoming impossible to ignore. These days of atmospheric rage, these heatshocks and wildfires ignore the angry shushing and burst rudely into our silent retreat.

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The UK government has outlined plans to reform the country’s power market for the first time in a decade to try and reduce the influence of surging gas prices by shifting the focus of a new system to clean energy sources, in a consultation launched Monday.

Governments from tropical forest countries are poised to issue more than a hundred million sovereign carbon credits, which are slated to hit the voluntary carbon market (VCM) this autumn – adding significant weight to a forest credit inventory that historically derived from a scattering of smaller-scale projects.

Internal documents explain why oil and gas interests would benefit from a key Indigenous declaration being ‘defeated’

A US-based libertarian coalition has spent years pressuring the Canadian government to limit how much Indigenous communities can push back on energy development on their own land, newly reviewed strategy documents reveal.

The Atlas Network partnered with an Ottawa-based thinktank – the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) – which enlisted pro-industry Indigenous representatives in its campaign to provide “a shield against opponents”.

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EUA prices remained rangebound on Monday amid a generally quiet market, as carbon traders speculated over the progress of negotiations on reform of the EU ETS, while attention focused on growing concerns over a major German utility's financial health.

A well-funded US firm that tokenises nature-based credits has decided to postpone its product launch amid turmoil in the crypto markets and downturn in on-chair carbon credits prices, according to media reports.

The Met Office estimates that the extreme heat we will be seeing over the next couple of days has been made ten times more likely because of it.

Experts call on UK officials to prepare for periods of extreme heat or risk thousands of excess deaths

• Extreme UK weather – live updates

The UK is no longer a cold country, scientists have said, as climate breakdown means “previously impossible heatwaves are killing people”.

This week temperatures of 40C (104F) have been predicted for the first time by the Met Office, but climate models show these weather events are expected to become more common.

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China has marked the first anniversary since the official launch of its long-awaited national emissions trading scheme, though while officials celebrate some significant achievements questions linger over the path forward for the market.

The global aviation sector would need to invest an annual average of around $175 billion between 2022 and 2050 to realise its net zero ambition by mid-century, according to analysis sponsored by a coalition of business stakeholders across the supply chain of several industries, including aviation, whose emissions are hard to abate.

China has introduced a set of standards for companies to evaluate their carbon credits and solvency, marking the country's latest step to encourage the development of green finance, the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange (SEEE) announced Saturday.

António Guterres tells governments ‘half of humanity is in danger zone’, as countries battle extreme heat

• UK heatwave: latest updates

Wildfires and heatwaves wreaking havoc across swathes of the globe show humanity facing “collective suicide”, the UN secretary general has warned, as governments around the world scramble to protect people from the impacts of extreme heat.

António Guterres told ministers from 40 countries meeting to discuss the climate crisis on Monday: “Half of humanity is in the danger zone, from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires. No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction.”

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Wild bison have returned to the UK for the first time in thousands of years. Three bison were released into the Kent countryside, in the hope that their natural behaviour will transform a dense commercial pine forest into a vibrant natural woodland.

Thriving woodlands also absorb more carbon, helping to tackle the climate crisis. Global heating was evident as the bison were released, with England in the grip of a heatwave, and the early timing was to allow the bison to reach the shade of the woods before temperatures started to climb

• Wild bison return to UK for first time in thousands of years
  

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Labor names three independent experts to panel reviewing integrity of carbon offsets scheme.

The post Labor names three independent experts to Chubb-led review of carbon credits appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Australian government has unveiled the full make up of its panel reviewing the integrity of the domestic carbon market and its regulator, as it prepares to introduce its Climate Change Bill to parliament next week.

Developers needing to buy solar modules and battery storage units in US over the next 12 months are facing a one third escalation in costs.

The post Price of solar modules and battery storage have jumped by one third in US appeared first on RenewEconomy.

British buildings are not designed for heat, if you have time knock them down and start again

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The IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress offers a chance to find a way to balance economic growth with conserving wilderness

Africa’s more than 8,500 protected areas of land and sea cover more than 30% of the continent – an expanse almost the size of Australia and 28 times the size of the UK. These ecosystems play a critical role in climate mitigation and adaptation, as global heating wreaks havoc on all fronts.

Today, Africa is embarking on an ambitious trajectory, with significant technological advancements, radical agricultural techniques, groundbreaking approaches to alleviating poverty and unprecedented rates of economic growth. Our natural resources, especially those in protected areas, play a critical role in development models we pursue. However, only about 1,000 of these protected areas have sound management strategies.

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