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Architecture’s top prize has been awarded to a design duo who could show Britain how to bring its emissions under control

This week the highest honour in the architecture world was awarded to a pair of Parisian designers better known for revitalising existing buildings than creating new ones. The Pritzker prize, which includes a $100,000 jackpot, went to Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, whose most impressive projects – the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, upgrading three social housing blocks in Bordeaux, and the extension of a Dunkirk warehouse to form an arts complex – are all refurbishments.

It’s the first time in the award’s 46-year history that retrofitting, the practice of upgrading buildings rather than knocking them down to start again, has triumphed. Lacaton & Vassal’s victory has shaken up the architectural profession and signals a remarkable shift in priorities among the world’s best city-makers. If embraced more widely, this could transform how buildings everywhere are regenerated.

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Project will explore whether perceptions of the turning season have changed since first lockdown

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After a long, hard winter, the sights, sounds and scents of spring in the UK will come as a welcome relief for many people. Over this weekend, amateur nature writers across the country are being encouraged to document their feelings and record sightings of flora and fauna of the new season.

The observations will be collected by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the National Trust, then woven into a new poem by the nature writer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett.

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A Swedish salt-based energy storage system that's trialing the electric kiln tech of Australian company Calix named as a winner in Helsinki Energy Challenge.

The post Salt-based storage solution with Australian connection wins EU energy challenge appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Meteorologists say the last known eruption at Fagradalsfjall was about 800 years ago.

Did a crew sent to the US Skylab space station go on strike? The last surviving member says it's a myth that won't die.

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

Total assets under management by the newest carbon market ETF have more than tripled since the start of the year, in a further sign of investors rushing to gain exposure in this burgeoning asset class.

New data shows Australians installed of more than 31,000 battery energy storage systems around the country in 2020, a 20 per cent jump on numbers in 2019.

The post Australians installed 31,000 batteries in 2020, led by households appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Some on the islands are looking to the Faroes for inspiration in tackling transport issues.

WCI compliance entities slightly cut their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings over the previous week, while speculators largely maintained their permits over the period, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Canada has the potential to become a net exporter of green hydrogen by sparking domestic demand through the development of bus and truck fleets and entering into cooperative agreements with countries like Japan, panellists heard at a virtual conference this week.

EU carbon prices slipped to a one-week low near €41 on Friday, as speculators took profits following another fresh all-time high, wider markets fell, and European power generation margins worsened.

The California-Quebec Q2 cap-and-trade auction will include more allowance supply than the previous quarter due to the reintroduction of unsold carbon permits and higher consignment, according to an auction notice published Friday.

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures, including fighting ponies, a polar bear hotel and pigeons in Syria

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A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including in California and the US Department of Agriculture.  

Campaigners target Standard Chartered, urging bank to stop funding coal in emerging markets

Climate protesters from as many as 60 countries have gathered in person and online for Fridays for Future, a movement created by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Campaigners raised local issues alongside the globally co-ordinated campaign #cleanupStandardChartered, which calls on the London-headquartered Standard Chartered to divest from coal in emerging markets.

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Universities are urged to block a science research website, which police say could put data at risk.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices will more than double this decade as emissions reductions cannot keep pace with more ambitious cap-and-trade allowance budgets, analysts with a major US investment bank said Friday.

A climate activist dived in the Indian Ocean as part of the first underwater protest of the global climate strike.

Shaama Sandooyea held a placard reading ‘Youth Strike For Climate’ in the Saya de Malha bank, part of the Mascarene Plateau and located between Mauritius and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. It is the largest seagrass meadow in the world and one of the biggest carbon sinks in the high seas

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Oil companies knew 50 years ago the huge damage they were doing. Their motive to ignore it is the same now as it was then

Capitalism is on a collision course with human life and the future of our planet. Each year, air pollution takes more lives than smoking: the last estimate suggests 8.8m deaths across the world, compared with 7m from cigarettes.

Related: Oil firms knew decades ago fossil fuels posed grave health risks, files reveal

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