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Scottish farmers could lose £170m by 2025, with Welsh and Northern Irish ministers also critical of new regime

Farmers in the UK’s devolved administrations are facing substantial cuts to their income as a result of Brexit, which could imperil their ability to protect the countryside, ministers were warned on Thursday.

Fergus Ewing, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for the rural economy, told the Oxford Farming Conference that Scottish farmers would lose out to the tune of £170m between now and 2025, compared with the subsidies they could have expected under the EU’s common agricultural policy, which provided roughly £3bn a year across the UK.

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The government launches a public consultation on using gene editing to modify livestock and crops.

EUAs stormed to a new all-time high on Thursday, stretching Monday's record as energy markets also notched gains.

To support the expansion of the Environmental Markets side of the business, this position is responsible for supporting the development and management of Environmental market analysis activities for the Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T) business in London. The role will be directly reporting into the Head of Fundamentals and Analytics.

If you’re feeling cooped up, defy the cold, head for your local park and marvel at the antics of gulls, starlings and fieldfares

I endured the first lockdown while living alone for a period in Spain. The virus was rampant in the country and measures to stop it were draconian. For nearly three months I lived in virtual confinement with the occasional visit to the corner shop being my only respite – my only chance to see people other than a rare visit from the postman. We were not even permitted to take exercise.

I was based in Mérida, a city in the south west. The front of my flat overlooked an incredibly ugly secondary school – out back on the terrace, the skyline was dominated by chimneys and satellite dishes. There was not a lick of green to be seen. As many will have experienced, it was a very tough time.

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Cattle can fertilise land but consumption of other meat, milk and eggs must fall by 50%

The UK’s beef herd could be at the heart of a sustainable farming system that tackles both the climate and wildlife crises while producing sufficient healthy food, according to a report.

However, production and consumption of other meat, milk and eggs would have to fall by half, and large forests of new trees would have to be planted, the analysis from the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission charity (FFCC) found.

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Carbon border taxes alone will not encourage poorer countries to meet climate goals

With the US president-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration promising a fresh, rational approach to climate change, now is an ideal time to make the case for a World Carbon Bank that would transfer and coordinate aid and technical assistance to help developing countries decarbonise. The proposed Green New Deal in the US and the European commission’s European Green Deal have laudable environmental goals but are too inward-looking. When an entire building is burning, to concentrate firefighting resources on one floor would only delay, not prevent, its destruction.

According to the International Energy Agency, almost all the net growth in carbon dioxide emissions over the next two decades will come from emerging markets. Although China recently pledged to achieve zero net emissions by 2060, it is sobering to consider that it accounts for half of the world’s coal output and half of its coal consumption.

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Climate disaster could be curtailed within a couple of decades if net zero emissions are reached, new study shows

The world may be barreling towards climate disaster but rapidly eliminating planet-heating emissions means global temperatures could stabilize within just a couple of decades, scientists say.

For many years it was assumed that further global heating would be locked in for generations even if emissions were rapidly cut. Climate models run by scientists on future temperatures were based on a certain carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. If this remained at the current high level there would be runaway climate disaster, with temperatures continuing to rise even if emissions were reduced because of a lag time before greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere.

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Gideon Henderson says debate needed on GM crops and gene editing of plants and animals

Gideon Henderson, chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, believes the time is ripe for a new public debate on biotechnology, the science of manipulating genes in crops and animals.

“The last time we had an extensive public discussion was in the 1990s,” he notes. Then, public outrage at the idea of ‘Frankenfoods’ centred on fears of what might result from newly available techniques that allowed the introduction of genes from one species into a completely different species. Lurid stories of tomatoes altered with fish genes grabbed the headlines.

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Far-right Trump supporters are afraid American democracy has been overturned by their left-leaning 'opponents', even as they themselves actively undermine liberal democratic values and institutions. Jordan McSwiney, PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The end of coal-fired generation in Australia is inevitable. But the federal government can do more to ensure an orderly transition to renewables – avoiding price spikes and supporting workers. Daniel D'Hotman, DPhil Candidate, University of Oxford Steven Hamilton, Visiting Fellow, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

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

The work on market reform by the ESB mostly illustrates the need for an even more forward looking structure for the future.

The post ESB’s market vision fall short of what’s needed for renewable grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Six principles that have helped Elon Musk become one of the richest people on the planet.

New York and Washington Democrats pre-filed low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) bills ahead of the start of each state’s legislative sessions, building on increased subnational momentum in recent months to enact the market-based clean fuels programmes.

California gasoline and diesel consumption fell in September as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to temper demand across the Golden State, likely leading to lower fuel sector emissions under the WCI-linked carbon market, according to state data.

Romania's president has requested a criminal investigation be launched against a former environment minister accused of bribery and instigating embezzlement, in a case involving the exchange of free EU carbon allowances for metal products.

Coastal plain was up for sale as part of the Trump administration’s plan to pay for Republicans’ tax cuts with oil revenue

The Trump administration’s last-minute attempt on Wednesday to auction off part of a long-protected Arctic refuge to oil drillers brought almost zero interest from oil companies, forcing the state of Alaska into the awkward position of leasing the lands itself.

The coastal plain of the Arctic national wildlife refuge was up for sale to drillers as part of the Trump administration’s plan to pay for Republicans’ tax cuts with oil revenue. Conservatives argued the leases could bring in $900m, half for the federal government and half for the state.

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Environmental campaigners say failure to call in West Cumbria Mining planning application ‘jaw-dropping’

Environmental campaigners and a local MP have criticised the government’s “jaw-dropping” decision not to block the building of a “climate-wrecking coal mine”.

The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, decided on Wednesday not to challenge the planning application for a new coal mine in Cumbria, despite opposition from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron.

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EUAs jumped back above €33 on Wednesday, defying weaker energy prices in a late surge coinciding with wider markets rising in anticipation that Democrats would gain control of the US senate.