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EU legislators are striving to avoid any delays on ETS reforms, with inter-institutional talks set to start as early as July, a senior diplomat told Carbon Pulse on Thursday, just two days after member states reached a unified approach on five key Fit for 55 climate policy proposals.

Two start-up carbon investment firms have inked a deal to develop and sell $100 million worth in “ultra-high quality” credits from emerging markets.

The extermination of 15 million animals and unnecessary shutdown of an entire industry has cost taxpayers billions

The Danish government lacked legal justification and made “grossly misleading” statements when it ordered a mass mink extermination two years ago, according to an official inquiry into Europe’s first compulsory farm sector shutdown, which has cost taxpayers billions in compensation to farmers.

In November 2020, Denmark, the world’s largest mink producer, announced it would kill its entire farmed mink population of 15 million animals, because of fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.

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Restricting the access of speculators in the EU ETS would achieve little and could lead to undesired consequences, a senior European Commission official told a conference Thursday in remarks that reinforce the EU executive's scepticism about lawmaker efforts to curb carbon market access.

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday the EPA cannot pursue generation shifting and cap-and-trade as a means to reduce power sector CO2 emissions, in what critics described as a massive blow for President Joe Biden’s climate change mitigation efforts. 

Ministers urged to toughen law to help restore carbon sinks, as figures point to illegal burning

The government is failing to protect peatlands in England, conservation groups have warned, with the country at risk of losing more of its most efficient carbon sinks.

Figures obtained by Wildlife and Countryside Link suggest illegal burns of the areas, which are important for biodiversity and carbon sequestration, are likely to have taken place.

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EUAs clawed back much of Wednesday's late decline amid continued steady buying while energy prices advanced on reports of a possible government bailout for a major German gas supplier.

European carbon prices for 2022 and 2023 will suffer downside in the region of €10 if current levels of industrial demand destruction in the face of soaring energy prices were to continue, an analyst told a conference on Thursday.

Western Australia’s (WA) EPA has recommended that the life of the giant North West Shelf (NWS) LNG and gas project, Australia’s largest carbon-emitting establishment, be extended for a further fifty years provided that its operator, Woodside, and its project partners commit to staged net reductions in GHG emissions until reaching net zero in 2050.

Climate change minister to announce Prof Ian Chubb will lead six-month probe of scheme labelled ‘largely a sham’ by one expert

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The former Australian chief scientist and senior academic, Prof Ian Chubb, has been appointed to head a thorough review of Australia’s carbon credit scheme as experts escalate calls for a complete overhaul of the system.

Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, will announce on Friday that Chubb, a neuroscientist and former vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, will lead the six-month review of the scheme, after a respected whistleblower described it as a fraud and waste of taxpayer money.

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Producers and apiarists remain concerned about future almond harvest and potential for mites to carry deformed wing virus

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As 600 beehives were destroyed in New South Wales, the industry remained confident the varroa mite incursion could be contained, even as the emergency zone expanded, because cases of the deadly parasite were linked.

But concerns remained around almond harvest as well as the threat of the mites having a virus of their own, compounding problems for the state’s bees after the mite was discovered last week at hives near the Port of Newcastle.

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Modern biofuels are touted as a boon for the climate. But, used on a large scale, they are no more sustainable than whale oil

What can you say about governments that, in the midst of a global food crisis, choose instead to feed machines? You might say they were crazy, uncaring or cruel. But these words scarcely suffice when you seek to describe the burning of food while millions starve.

There’s nothing complicated about the effects of turning crops into biofuel. If food is used to power cars or generate electricity or heat homes, either it must be snatched from human mouths, or ecosystems must be snatched from the planet’s surface, as arable lands expand to accommodate the extra demand. But governments and the industries that they favour obscure this obvious truth. They distract and confuse us about an evidently false solution to climate breakdown.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Environment secretary George Eustice wants to amend Habitats Directive, which protects Natura 2000 sites

Environment secretary George Eustice wants to tear up a key piece of European law that environmentalists say protects cherished habitats in the UK.

Eustice told MPs the Habitats Directive was in a list of laws he wanted to amend in the forthcoming Brexit freedoms bill designed to cut red tape, saying it was bureaucratic and fundamentally flawed on multiple levels.

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On the back of a successful USD 10m Series A capital raise, SustainCERT is looking to expand the team with a (Senior) Business Development and Key Account Manager.

Our team – Resilience, ESG and Disaster Recovery - works with companies and government agencies to achieve sustainability, including deep decarbonization, climate resilience and positive social impact.

Politicians may be better served addressing the message, rather than attacking the messengers. Robyn Gulliver, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Indigenous activist Theresa Ardler travelled halfway across the world to tell leaders at the UN ocean conference in Portugal that they are failing to protect her fishing community back home in Australia.

Ardler, 50, fears the humpback whales that travel through the deep blue waters surrounding her Aboriginal village of Wreck Bay, on the south coast of New South Wales, will suffer if authorities do not act fast enough

• UN head declares ‘ocean emergency’ as global leaders gather in Lisbon

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Three Japanese companies have successfully demonstrated a clean ammonia supply chain to link Japan to the oil and gas-rich United Arab Emirates, they announced Thursday.

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Research ‘exposes litany of misleading claims’ by household names, including Coca-Cola and Unilever

Claims about plastic packaging being eco-friendly made by big brands, including Coca-Cola and Unilever, are misleading greenwashing, according to a report.

The Changing Markets Foundation says claims that companies are intercepting and using “ocean-bound” or “recyclable” plastic to tackle the plastic pollution crisis are some of the most common examples of greenwashing.

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