Feed aggregator

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

The Canadian province of Ontario announced Tuesday that it will pour C$9.4 mln ($7 mln) into 14 projects for research, innovation, and modernisation initiatives around the use of forest biomass, although one expert has criticised the programme for threatening local forest carbon stocks.

A report from an industry-labour-NGO partnership released Tuesday recommended a slew of policies to the US government to mobilise over $25.4 billion of available funding plus tax credits to achieve industrial net zero emissions by mid-century.

Just 8% of carbon credits are to be fast-tracked for the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label, while almost half of the units in the voluntary market come from methodologies deemed too contentious to be immediately approved, the cross-stakeholder initiative announced Wednesday.

Nature-based solutions such as parks and ponds are recommended – as is giving heatwaves names

The UK urgently needs a plan to prevent thousands of heatwave deaths a year as the climate continues to warm, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned.

More than 4,500 people died in heatwaves in 2022, the MPs’ report said, and this number could rise to 10,000 a year by 2050 without action. Heatwaves are “silent killers”, the MPs said, pushing up heart rate and blood pressure, with those over 65 and with existing health problems most at risk.

Continue reading...

Oregon's low carbon fuel programme, which regulates transportation fuel producers and importers in the state, looks to adjust its carbon intensity (CI) assessment model and verification of electricity transactions for credit generation, mostly in line with California’s LCFS scheme, staff detailed in a Tuesday workshop.

The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) will delay validating the programme’s first nature targets till July after initially planning their debut for Q1 of 2024, according to Executive Director Erin Billman, in the interest of supporting ambition among the 17 firms participating in the pilot phase.

EnergyAustralia, the third biggest energy retailer in the country, takes $1.1 billion hit to the value of its retail business as the energy business is reshaped.

The post EnergyAustralia takes $1.1 billion hit on retail unit as business model shifts appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia has committed another A$70 million ($46 mln) to develop a renewable hydrogen production centre as part of its Hydrogen Hub initiative, this time in Northern Queensland.

The primary objective of this project is to facilitate the further development of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in Morocco. The project aims to establish perspectives for implementing NBS in Morocco by 2030, 2040, and 2050, addressing challenges related to climate change, biodiversity conservation, and development. The consultant will play a crucial role in delivering the project’s outputs, as defined by Morocco’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development.

The EU risks missing its 2030 emissions reduction target as five countries have so far failed to set out adequate plans to develop their renewable power, hydrogen, land use, bioenergy, and CO2 storage within the next six years, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Environmental and social safeguards are becoming increasingly crucial for project implementation, but the market requires better guidance to effectively integrate risk management into carbon projects, webinar attendees heard Tuesday.

Government plans for fishery closures are ‘window dressing’ in face of ‘appalling record’ on meeting targets, experts warn

Ministers are “window dressing” with nature policies announced to “cover up” the government’s failings on environmental targets, wildlife groups have said.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) found earlier this month that nature in England is at risk of falling into an “irreversible spiral of decline” because of the government’s failures to meet its legally binding targets on species abundance and water quality.

Continue reading...

A municipality in Alberta announced signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a fuel producer to build a $600 million synthetic gasoline facility that would include carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and hydrogen production.

The Western Canadian province relies on Old Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) as a method of accounting towards its commitment to protect 30% of lands by 2030, but an environmental non-profit reported Monday that BC's OGMAs do not meet Canadian or international conservation standards, do not entirely contain old forest, and are at risk of logging.

The European Commission adopted new rules on Tuesday to harmonise the free allocation of emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System, although the cement sector remains mostly untouched.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) on Monday awarded 10 projects up to $1.6 billion in funding over the next decade, one of the single largest investments in region-based research and development in the nation's history, in an effort to promote economic competitiveness through innovation in energy and climate.

We’re getting faster at building renewables – but we’ll have to speed up even more to reach our 2030 target of 82% clean energy Thomas Longden, Senior Researcher, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

California scientist and film-maker spot apparent pup – never before seen in the wild – in drone pictures

Researchers in California may have gotten the first ever look at a newborn great white shark, which they captured in drone images taken last summer.

The newborn animal has never before been spotted in the wild. But in July, the wildlife film-maker Carlos Gauna and Phillip Sternes, a biology doctoral student at the University of California, Riverside, glimpsed something unexpected in the waters near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: one of Britain’s rarest butterflies, found only in Norfolk Broads, critically threatened by climate crisis

The swallowtail, one of Britain’s rarest butterflies and also the largest, has suffered its worst summer since records began.

The butterfly is confined to the Broads in East Anglia, where its caterpillar’s food plant is found, and is now breeding on just 16 sites.

Continue reading...