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US biofuel credit (RIN) prices under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) set a fresh three-year high this week on a lack of sellers and as a federal administration under President-elect Joe Biden (D) gets set to take office later this month.

The birds hatched on a ledge atop a Melbourne office block. When one of them needed to be saved, the job fell to me

In Melbourne we’re lucky to have birds of prey breeding in our city. But things can go wrong. On Christmas night a peregrine falcon was in trouble and needed to be saved. The job fell to me.

This bird wasn’t just any bird. It was one of three female peregrines that hatched in a nestbox on a ledge 150 metres off the ground, atop a Collins Street office block. Right through our second lockdown, from late August to mid-November, viewers of a livestreamed camera trained on the nest were captivated, as the parents raised them.

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The Northeast US RGGI carbon market will offer 23.5 million allowances at the March auction with the inclusion of Virginia this year, while the quarterly sale will also include the supply-curbing Emissions Containment Reserve (ECR) for the first time. 

• EPA rule will require release of raw data from scientific studies
• Critics fear compromising personal details and health benefits

The Environmental Protection Agency has completed one of its last major rollbacks under the Trump administration, changing how it considers evidence of harm from pollutants in a way that opponents say could cripple future public-health regulation.

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Virginia opened RGGI compliance accounts for regulated parties this week as the state entered the regional power sector cap-and-trade programme on Jan. 1, according CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS) data.

Nordic country becomes first in the world where electric car sales outstrip those powered by other means

Norway became the first country in the world where the sale of electric cars has overtaken those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines last year, with the German carmaker Volkswagen replacing Tesla as the top battery-vehicle producer, data shows.

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) made up 54.3% of all new cars sold in the Nordic country in 2020, a global record, up from 42.4% in 2019 and from a mere 1% of the overall market a decade ago, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said.

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Veganuary taken up by rising number of people trying plant-based alternatives to meat

A record 500,000 people have signed up to the Veganuary challenge to eat only plant-based foods for a month. The milestone is double the number who pledged to go vegan for January in 2019.

A quarter of those taking up the challenge – 125,000 – are in the UK, and this year British supermarkets including Tesco have run television and radio adverts promoting Veganuary for the first time. Other supermarkets such as Aldi, Asda and Iceland have produced dedicated pages including information and recipes in 2021, again for the first time.

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The statue to palaeontologist Mary Anning will stand near her birthplace on Lyme Regis seafront.

China on Tuesday published final regulations for its national CO2 emissions trading scheme, meaning the market will be formally in operation from Feb. 1 despite technical issues with the registry and trading platform.

The ‘carbon dividend’ is so elegant that it seems too good to be true. Governments should make it a post-pandemic priority

Over the past year – when societies around the world have had to grapple with their greatest challenge in decades – climate change hasn’t been at the top of the agenda. But that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. Far from it – in fact, we just experienced the hottest September in 141 years, and extreme warmth recorded in the Arctic continues a disturbing trend. When the focus turns back to this ongoing existential threat, hopefully we’ll have learned some lessons from the pandemic about what can be achieved when imaginative thinking is brought to bear.

Our approach towards tackling the climate crisis is necessarily going to be multipronged. But one powerful tool is that of a carbon tax. So far, however, only a few nations have taken this route. Why?

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Business secretary should focus on making Glasgow climate summit a success, say experts

Ministers are facing calls to make the business secretary, Alok Sharma, the full-time president of the Cop26 UN climate talks to be hosted in Glasgow in November.

Amber Rudd, who as energy and climate secretary led the UK delegation to the successful Paris climate talks in 2015, said: “Alok could do this and do it well. But it will take 100% of his time, energy and persuasion to make it a success.”

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What was once a toxic wasteland now explodes with flora and fauna. A walk there always gives me renewed faith in imagination, determination and humanity

Is it possible to be over walking? All this wholesome outdoor socialising may be healthier, but last week – while slithering over black-ice patches in the dark with a friend, soggy paper cups of mulled wine sloshing, unable even to clutch each other to stay upright – I realised I felt slightly jaded.

There is, however, one York walk that never palls: my daily trip to the dump. Not the actual dump, but the disused one, just behind it. Walk through the industrial estate, past Lidl, a builders’ merchant and the recycling centre, duck down a scrubby path by the council vehicle depot and you enter an unexpected wonderland: St Nick’s nature reserve.

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Sea Shepherd says the collision happened after it came under attack in the Gulf of California.

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

EUAs hit a new all-time high on Monday as cold weather prospects lifted the energy complex and allowance supply curbs continue to drive bullish sentiment, while data showed a significant 10-20% drop in investors and other financial market participants.

Different animals have different ways of showing they're happy. Their behaviours aren't as straightforward as you might think. Melissa Starling, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) on Thursday announced it has approved the first five submissions for jurisdictional deforestation reduction programmes that may generate carbon credits for use in international emissions trade.

Birders headed to Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park to view brightly coloured painted bunting

Hundreds of people have flocked to the Washington DC area to catch a glimpse of a new, celebrated arrival who has offered some welcome relief following a bruising year. No, it’s not Joe Biden.

Excited birders have crammed into a Maryland park, braving rain and dismally low temperatures, to witness the painted bunting, a brightly coloured bird that usually reserves its elan for the warmer climes of Florida.

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The whole thing that is great about the teeth of the narwhal is that nothing makes sense

• The Nature of ... is a column dedicated to interesting animals, insects, plants and natural phenomena

There are some animals about which it is easy to forget the fact that they have teeth, so that every time they flash their grins, it is as though you are seeing a new animal. Dogs, cats of all kinds, sharks and crocodiles are not among these. Horses, rabbits, fish and geese live toothless in my mind.

Narwhals are among the actually toothless, if you discount their tusks. Inside their mouths, which are shaped in a permanently sweet smile, there are no teeth as we understand teeth to be.

But the males have a long, unicorn-like projection protruding – just off centre – from what might be described as their upper lip. I find them quite festive, like ornaments that should be hung on a Christmas tree. Maybe it’s their wintry, icicle-like tusk. I try to forget that this tusk is a tooth.

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Massachusetts will follow California’s lead in phasing out sales of new gas-powered light-duty vehicles by 2035, as well as implementing a regional low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) to operate alongside the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) carbon market, Governor Charlie Baker’s (R) administration announced last week.