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London-based carbon fund dips toe in UK ETS as new market attracts more interest
Germany publishes free EU carbon allocation list for 2021-25, estimates start for this year’s delayed handouts
The rush to ‘go electric’ comes with a hidden cost: destructive lithium mining | Thea Riofrancos
As the world moves towards electric cars and renewable grids, demand for lithium is wreaking havoc in northern Chile
The Atacama salt flat is a majestic, high-altitude expanse of gradations of white and grey, peppered with red lagoons and ringed by towering volcanoes. It took me a moment to get my bearings on my first visit, standing on this windswept plateau of 3,000 sq km (1,200 sq miles). A vertiginous drive had taken me and two other researchers through a sandstorm, a rainstorm, and the peaks and valleys of this mountainous region of northern Chile. The sun bore down on us intensely – the Atacama desert boasts the Earth’s highest levels of solar radiation, and only parts of Antarctica are drier.
I had come to the salt flat to research an emerging environmental dilemma. In order to stave off the worst of the accelerating climate crisis, we need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions. To do so, energy systems around the world must transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Lithium batteries play a key role in this transition: they power electric vehicles and store energy on renewable grids, helping to cut emissions from transportation and energy sectors. Underneath the Atacama salt flat lies most of the world’s lithium reserves; Chile currently supplies almost a quarter of the global market. But extracting lithium from this unique landscape comes at a grave environmental and social cost.
Continue reading...Technical Director (Carbon Markets), Climate Impact X – Singapore
Business Analyst and Platform Manager, Climate Impact X – Singapore
Director of Forest Carbon Origination, Finite Carbon – Eastern US
Director, Corporate Climate Solutions – Arlington, VA
Environmental Scientist, Greenhouse Gas Professional, Ruby Canyon Environmental – Grand Junction, CO
Greenhouse Gas Professional, Ruby Canyon Environment – Grand Junction, CO
Queensland to launch second round of call for carbon projects
China ETS progresses onto legislative work plan
Global carbon price expectations surge as markets prove resilient to pandemic -survey
Illegal sewage discharge in English rivers 10 times higher than official data suggests
Underreporting by water companies and failure to hold them to account have resulted in ecological damage, analysis shows
Water companies are being allowed to unlawfully discharge raw sewage into rivers at a scale at least 10 times greater than Environment Agency prosecutions indicate, according to analysis to be presented to the government.
The number of prosecutions of English water companies for unlawful spills from sewage treatment plants in 10 years are just a tiny fraction of the scale of potentially illegal discharges, the research presented to the environment minister, Rebecca Pow, this week will suggest.
Continue reading...G7 fails on solid coal message but worries are building for Morrison
While the G7 meeting was unremarkable, there are growing signs of action on coal phaseout - particularly among Australia's biggest coal customers.
The post G7 fails on solid coal message but worries are building for Morrison appeared first on RenewEconomy.
‘Really, really rare’ seahorse spotted off UK coast
G7 climate pledges leave many details aside
Even without new fossil fuel projects, global warming will still exceed 1.5℃. But renewables might make it possible
Swiss citizens reject updated CO2 reduction strategy by narrow margin
G7 summit: How significant are group's climate pledges?
NSW plan to ban single-use plastics from next year a win for the environment, advocates say
Plastic bags, straws and cutlery, along with polystyrene, will be banned as part of a five-year $365m plan
Lightweight plastic bags, disposable plastic straws and cutlery, plastic cotton buds and microbeads will be banned in New South Wales from next year, as part of a state government push to reduce plastic litter by 30% by 2025.
Reducing plastic waste is part of a wider $356m five-year plan from the NSW government that will also see a new “green” bin for food and organic waste rolled out to homes across the state by 2030 – something the state’s environment minister Matt Kean says will help reduce emissions in landfill and allow greater extraction of biogas from waste.
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