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Ros Atkins looks at how Europe is getting to grips with its emissions problem.

Ministers say the new law will demonstrate global leadership, but critics accuse them of "inaction".

Efforts to pass a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) bill in New York are running up against opposition from environmental justice (EJ) groups worried about the effects of the market-based programme in their communities, a co-sponsor of the legislation said Tuesday.

The UK government set out its strategy for meeting its net zero 2050 target on Tuesday, fleshing out more medium-term policy details and selecting two CCS projects for funding.

A carbon tax combined with tax credits for renewable energy could push the US electricity sector towards deep decarbonisation by 2030, according to academic modelling results released this week.

The continued swell in climate commitments made by corporates and other actors has meant rapid growth in the demand for carbon offsets, but the journey to net-zero requires integrity checks along the way, a panel heard Wednesday.  

Over the last months, several companies have announced an aggregate of more than two billion dollars of investments - in particular trading houses or major emitters - in voluntary carbon market projects that champion nature-based solutions. At the same time, the LEAF coalition is encouraging the development of jurisdictional REDD+. For such initiatives to peacefully coexist, there is an urgent need for countries to build “nested” REDD+ systems.

We need to urgently address the gaps in Australia’s capacity to manage disasters that have widened since climate adaptation was relegated to the back burner. Johanna Nalau, Research Fellow, Climate Adaptation, Griffith University Hannah Melville-Rea, Research fellow, New York University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Poland's plea to cancel or delay EU climate action and curb carbon market speculation is unlikely to gain enough support among the bloc's leaders, experts said on Tuesday, although it could end up bolstering mechanisms to help poorer citizens cope.

Department says falling income from levies that brought in £37bn last year could cause ‘significant and permanent fiscal pressure’

New taxes may be needed to replace billions of pounds in lost income from fuel duty on petrol and diesel cars, the Treasury has warned, revealing concerns at the heart of government over risks to the public finances from the green transition.

In documents released on Tuesday by Rishi Sunak’s department alongside the government’s net zero strategy, No 11 Downing Street said much of the £37bn raised last year from fuel duty and vehicle excise duty (VED) could be lost if drivers make the switch to electric cars, which have a low or zero tax rate to encourage take-up.

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The plan to decarbonise Britain must be welcomed. But in key areas it falls short

In a number of ways the net zero strategy published by the UK government on Tuesday falls short of what was hoped for, and perhaps even expected by more optimistic observers. The public investment that ministers have committed to is insufficient, their faith in private-sector solutions overblown.

The combination is concerning. As the host of the upcoming Cop26 summit, and the first major industrialised country to put a net zero target into law, the UK is in a unique position. By significantly upping their ambitions with regard to emissions cuts, ministers had the chance to send a powerful message. Instead, they have hedged many of the new commitments in ways which risk undermining them.

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In countries where the right to a healthy environment is part of domestic law, court decisions are already resulting in stronger climate action. Nathan Cooper, Associate Professor of Law, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Finally we have a plan to reduce emissions, but much of it rests on technology that is yet to be tested at scale

Two weeks before the most important climate conference in history, the UK government has finally published its long-awaited net zero strategy, alongside a bevy of other policy documents upwards of 2,000 pages. By its own calculations, this is the first time the government has produced a package of measures that will help achieve its interim five yearly carbon targets leading up to net zero by the middle of the century.

The scale of transformation that the strategy is set to unleash across the entire UK economy is breathtaking. Our electricity is expected to be fully clean by 2035. Our homes will no longer have new gas boilers fitted after then either. No new polluting car will roam our roads from 2030 and we will plant trees in an area the size of Milton Keynes every year from 2025, and all of this at a cost that is less than what we spend on defence each year. Across industry, finance, farming, waste and every other imaginable sector, carbon reduction is set to be the new mantra.

Chaitanya Kumar is head of environment and green transition at the New Economics Foundation

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EUAs extended Monday's losses as sellers continued to test technical support levels on Tuesday, amid a general weakness in energy markets.

PM forces Bill Gates and other investors to stomach a net zero speech peppered with recycled gags

Sit back and enjoy the ride. Here was Boris Johnson in his comfort zone. A conference room at the Science Museum where he could indulge his fantasy as the Bertie Booster of British politics by giving his standard upbeat, cut out and keep after dinner speech – never mind that it was actually shortly after breakfast – to an invited audience of some of the world’s richest men and women at a Global Investment Summit.

This was Boris at his most optimistic. No need to mention the inconvenient truths of food and lorry driver shortages. Covid infection rates increasing at an alarming rate could also be safely ignored. Those were all just present day irritants. The story he wanted to tell was of a future in which Britain would lead the world to the promised land of net zero by 2050. A speech that was light on detail but peppered with recycled gags. Not that Boris got many laughs. Perhaps billionaires don’t have the same sense of humour as the rest of us. Or maybe they’d heard them all before at Davos.

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Query over homeowners’ costs as government’s net zero strategy reveals lender targets to encourage energy efficiency

The government is exploring plans to link mortgages to green home improvements by imposing targets for lenders, to help decarbonise the UK’s ageing and leaky housing stock.

Highlighting the move in its net zero strategy, published on Tuesday, the government said it was working with mortgage lenders to support homeowners in improving the energy performance of their properties.

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East Coast Cluster and HyNet North West chosen for scheme aimed at cutting 20-30m tonnes of CO2 a year

The UK government has selected two sites in the north of England to develop multibillion-pound carbon capture projects by the middle of the decade as part of its fast-track scheme to cut 20-30m tonnes of CO2 a year from heavy industry by 2030.

Ministers gave the green light to the East Coast Cluster, which plans to capture and store emissions produced across the Humber and Teesside, and the HyNet North West project in Liverpool Bay, which will also produce low carbon hydrogen from fossil gas.

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Political self-interest is the prime minister’s guiding light. No amount of planetary jeopardy is going to change that

Boris Johnson’s recruitment to the global crusade against carbon emissions is, by his own admission, recent. On a visit to New York last month, the prime minister confessed to a back catalogue of newspaper columns that “weren’t entirely supportive of the current struggle”. He was making excuses for Anne-Marie Trevelyan, his trade secretary whose record of climate scepticism tilts into outright denial. (In 2012 she derided “global warming fanatics” for believing that the ice caps were melting.)

Around the same time, Johnson was querying the scientific consensus, dabbling in crackpot theories about sunspots and disparaging windfarms. In his defence, the prime minister has since declared that “the facts change and people change their minds”. At most, half of that statement is true. It was a fact that human activity was heating the planet when Johnson cavilled, and it is still a fact now.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

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Study author calls for coordinated efforts to remove discarded fishing nets before they reach threatened marine life in gulf’s ‘high biodiversity region’

Targeted action is needed to combat the growing issue of “ghost nets” in the Gulf of Carpentaria, researchers say.

Analysis of aerial surveys conducted between 2004 and 2020 has found that the number of ghost nets along the gulf coastline has increased despite years of clean-up efforts.

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Party’s final proposal on net zero expected to go to cabinet and joint party room early next week

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The National Farmers’ Federation has made a final pitch to the National party to support a net zero emissions reduction target before Scott Morrison heads to Glasgow, telling MPs that failure to do so could “punish farmers” as the rest of the world decarbonises.

Morrison is due to depart for the United Nations-led climate conference late next week by the Nationals continue to work a package of measures to accompany any 2050 commitment – including funding for regional jobs and infrastructure projects.

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