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China should establish a mandatory emissions trading market covering Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and use the platform to launch a carbon neutral Belt and Road Initiative, a National People’s Congress delegate and central bank official said Tuesday.

Twice before, humanity has mitigated severe global environmental threats. In both cases we did this not with ‘cap and trade’ systems, taxes, or offsets, but with bans

Time is running out to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and avoid catastrophic climate change. The 2018 special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “suggests a remaining budget of about 420 Gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 for a two-thirds chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C.” The clock on this so-called remaining carbon budget started ticking at the beginning of 2018. Despite this stark warning, the world keeps emitting over 40 Gt of CO2 per year. In other words, the policy instruments that are currently being used across the globe to reduce CO2 emissions aren’t working. It is therefore time to ban fossil fuels.

Since we have already drawn down over 120 Gt of CO2 from this carbon budget, we have now less than 300 Gt left. Combining the proved fossil fuel reserves reported in British Petroleum’s Statistical Review of World Energy with CO2 emission factors from the IPCC yields 3,600 Gt of CO2 emissions. This means that we can only afford to burn one twelfth of the fossil fuels we have already found. And this does not account for any greenhouse gas emissions from the ongoing melting of permafrost. The Arctic region alone is estimated to have 1,500 Gt of carbon stored in its soils, some of which is already being converted to CO2 by microbes and released into the atmosphere.

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Prevented from travelling abroad by the Covid pandemic, locals are instead visiting the magnificent glaciers of the Tian Shan mountain range near Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty

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New coalition calls on governments to tackle root cause of emerging infections – the destruction of nature

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Governments must fill a major gap in post-Covid recovery plans with action on the root cause of pandemics – the destruction of nature – a new coalition of health and environment groups has warned.

Crucial investments and actions are missing, the Preventing Pandemics at the Source coalition said, leaving the world playing an “ill-fated game of Russian roulette with pathogens”.

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Octopuses and their relatives are remarkably clever and controlled. How many of our top politicians can say the same?

Back in the gentler days of the internet, before it was just bots and people shouting at tea, I had a blog, and through it, occasional exchanges with a woman I described as my “cephalopod correspondent”. She would write, sharing interesting titbits about squid behaviour, cuttlefish news and, once, a picture of “an Octopus cyanea on a penny”.

I think of her often now, as every week it seems we learn something spectacular about the tentacular. Octopuses are competent and creative problem-solvers, can master mazes, and frequently escape from captivity. They can even predict the outcome of football matches (OK, possibly not, but octopus Paul’s strike rate was impressive). Our collective fascination only deepened with last year’s Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher, a lovely exploration of the curiosity and resourcefulness of one uncommonly touching common octopus. Perhaps even better was the relatable recent revelation that octopuses sometimes punch their fish co-workers when on joint hunting missions: it has certainly deepened my respect for them.

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Humane Society International, which won legal action against Queensland government last year, says 80% of sharks caught are still dying

Almost 80% of sharks caught on drum lines in the Great Barrier Reef marine park last year died despite the Queensland government being told to try harder to eliminate deaths under its shark control program.

The Humane Society International (HSI) has analysed the latest drum-line data and says the government is not even close to achieving the non-lethal program the administrative appeals tribunal ordered two years ago.

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Neoen Australia is proposing to build a 500MW wind, solar and battery hub in the NSW New England REZ – adding to huge pipeline in Barnaby Joyce’s electorate.

The post Neoen adds huge Thunderbolt project to massive wind and solar pipeline in New England appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Scott Morrison says he knows the world has shifted on climate change, but still refuses to strengthen his own policies and targets.

The post Morrison finally realises momentum has shifted on climate geopolitics, still promises nothing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A group of 15 Japanese companies led by Tokyo Gas on Tuesday announced they had established the Carbon Neutral LNG Buyers Alliance to promote and improve processes for offsetting carbon emissions from liquefied natural gas.

Researchers at Japan’s Nara Women’s University have discovered a new trait exhibited by the sacoglossan sea slug – it has the ability to decapitate itself, then regrow its body. The process, from shedding all of itself below the neck to regrowing a new body, takes less than a month, in an extreme example of a process known as autotomy

• Keep your head: the self-decapitating sea slugs that regrow their bodies – hearts and all

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AGL Energy makes move to become largest commercial solar provider in Australia, with acquisition of two major market players, Epho and Solgen Energy Group.

The post AGL has second crack at rooftop solar market in bid to catch up with energy transition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Divers in the Philippines find personal protective equipment (PPE) among rubbish on a coral reef.

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Compliance entities likely deferred RGGI allowance procurement at the Q1 auction due to losses in the Texas power market, while some regulated parties hedged demand prior to the quarterly sale, participants said.

Voluntary emission reduction (VER) prices spiked this week as CME Group launched its CBL Global Emissions Offset (GEO) futures contract, while African project developers also noted that voluntary carbon market (VCM) prices and volumes have increased on the continent in recent months.

Asia’s recent spurt of carbon neutral LNG shipments has spread to Europe, as British consumers spur efforts to green the country’s gas supply while direct solutions remain costly.

Tesla might be planning another post-blackout battery launch, but unlike South Australia in 2016, Texas is already on the pathway to more storage.

The post Tesla’s secret big battery revealed in Texas appeared first on RenewEconomy.

EUAs inched closer to €40 on Monday as observers eyed a revisiting of record levels on technical strength, chillier weather, and the expectation that a number of emitters could be forced into the market last minute to cover their 2020 emissions.

Plastic products that claim to be 'compostable' aren't great either. Jenni Downes, Research Fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia (Monash Sustainable Development Institute), Monash University Kim Borg, Research Fellow at BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University Nick Florin, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A RGGI speculator has purchased the only carbon offsets ever created in the Northeast US power sector cap-and-trade programme, the counterparties announced Monday.