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US and Europe to target climate recalcitrants with import taxes. Labor says Morrison's inaction is putting Australian jobs at risk.

The post “We won’t be Uncle Sucker:” US to join EU with carbon tax on imports appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) did not violate state law when it amended its RGGI-aligned cap-and-trade regulation to include full auctions, and the programme does not constitute an illegal tax in violation of Old Dominion’s Constitution, a judge ruled Wednesday, refuting a manufacturer-led challenge.

Hydrogen-powered cars could be the future of Formula 1 according to Ross Brawn, the F1 managing director for motorsports.

Public urged to join world’s biggest butterfly count to help collect data on impacts of climate crisis

Butterflies across the UK have been hit hard by unseasonably cold and wet spring weather, conservationists have warned.

April was the sunniest on record but it also had a record number of frosts followed by the wettest May for England in 54 years. Native butterflies such as the small tortoiseshell, large white, and red admiral have been badly affected, with numbers down compared with 10-year averages, according to the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation.

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

None of the soil organic carbon protocols developed by third-party standards, start-ups, or governmental and academic organisations is doing enough to ensure high-quality outcomes, with the existing methodologies severely lacking in areas such as additionality and durability, according to a report published Thursday.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices retraced over the week as demand declined from financial firms, but RGGI allowances (RGAs) inched closer to the $9 level due to an influx in buying from compliance entities.

A New York-based hedge fund opened a RGGI CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS) account on Thursday, marking the second new financial firm to register in the Northeast US cap-and-trade scheme since June.

The Carbon Analyst provides technical support to field teams around the world to assist in the design and, to a more limited extent implementation of, carbon projects that use nature as a climate solution. You will be a key member of the Global Carbon Markets team that is distributed around the world and thus ‘virtual’ in nature.

We have a number of fixed term, secondment and permanent opportunities. In these roles, you'll have the opportunity to contribute to the longer-term success of the Commission. The Senior Analysts lead technical and policy analysis related to aspects of the Commission's work, in collaboration with others. This involves navigating complex issues, developing new frameworks and approaches, managing relationships and engaging with stakeholders as the Commission's advice is developed.

Planned coal generator retirements leap as utilities adjust to influx of cleaner and cheaper wind, solar and battery storage.

The post US planned coal fired retirements now total nearly 120GW of capacity appeared first on RenewEconomy.

At least 42 people have died in Germany and dozens were missing on Thursday as swollen rivers caused by record rainfall across western Europe swept through towns and villages. Eighteen people died and dozens were unaccounted for around the wine-growing region of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate state, police said, after the Ahr river that flows into the Rhine broke its banks and brought down half a dozen houses

• At least 42 dead in Germany as heavy rains bring catastrophic flooding
  

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Just because coral is dying, doesn't mean marine life in reefs will end. New research found dead coral hosted 100 times more microscopic invertebrates than healthy coral. Kate Fraser, Marine Ecologist, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Its favourite thing to do is to crawl inside a flower, where petals turn light pink, yellow or red

A small girl is eating ice cream. She is at a lake, “Zoo Lake”, in the middle of a city. People who live nearby hear the Zoo’s lions roaring at night. (A world and a century away, in Innisfree, Yeats lives “alone in the bee-loud glade”.)

The principal activities at this lake are learning to ride bikes, riding bikes, and walking. Ice-cream sellers pedal their cooler boxes round and round the water. Bees hover over the rubbish bins full of ice-cream wrappers.

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It is disappointing but not surprising that the PM appears uninterested in plans to make people healthier

The businessman Henry Dimbleby, who co-founded the Leon restaurant chain and led a review of school food, has taken the opportunity given to him two years ago by the then environment secretary, Michael Gove, and run with it. The national food strategy published on Thursday is a genuinely bold attempt to solve a hard problem: how to stop ruining our nation’s health with junk food at the same time as cutting greenhouse gas emissions from food production. Taking one of its first quotations from the biologist Edward O Wilson, the report leaps with both feet into complex questions about human societies, agriculture and ecosystems pushed to the brink of disaster.

The strategy draws on some citizens’ assembly-type research and interviews with people in all parts of the food system, as well as existing knowledge. It digests insights from the team behind the landmark Limits to Growth report from half a century ago, and recent work on the value of nature, commissioned by the Treasury, from the economist Partha Dasgupta.

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Coalition’s Great Barrier Reef envoy also said Australia was a ‘victim of our own success’ when it came to coral bleaching

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Coral and ocean scientists have described statements on coral bleaching from the government’s reef envoy, Warren Entsch, as “far-fetched” and “ill-informed” on the day he accompanied more than a dozen ambassadors on a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

Entsch told the ABC on Thursday warm water originating in the northern hemisphere and flowing across the Pacific to the reef was a chief cause of mass coral bleaching.

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Experts and opposition MPs say Australia should work with Europe on new imports scheme instead of criticising

Australia is facing growing pressure over its climate policies as the US edges closer to following the European Union in imposing new charges on imports of emissions-intensive products.

The trade minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised the EU’s new carbon tariffs, saying they are revenue raising and will undermine free trade. But Labor declared the Morrison government had its “head in the sand” and was “completely isolated” on the world stage as more countries consider such tariffs.

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Oliver Daemen, 18, will become the youngest person to fly to space with the Blue Origin venture.

Delta Air Lines is wary of purchasing biofuel credits (RINs) under the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) due to transparency concerns, CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday, giving credence to recent reports that the company's refinery subsidiary has halted purchases amid soaring price levels.

Proposals to tighten the EU ETS and rebase its cap within a rapid timeframe are an initial cause for concern among market experts still digesting the full impact of Brussels’ wide-ranging climate measures, a conference heard on Thursday.