Feed aggregator

MEPs react to ‘tragic’ findings revealing UK falling behind EU in key environmental policies since Brexit

• Brexit divergence from EU destroying UK’s environmental protections
• Northern Ireland ‘dirty corner of Europe due to lack of governance’
• Explainer: UK environmental protections dropped since Brexit

European lawmakers have lamented the UK’s decision to weaken environmental rules since leaving the EU, after the Guardian revealed it is falling behind in almost every policy area.

One Green group MEP said the findings were “tragic” while a centre-right MEP said the divergences were “particularly bad” for companies that want to do business on both sides of the Channel.

Continue reading...

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

California electricity sector CO2 emissions for November fell below levels for the same month seen in a decade, continuing the decreasing monthly trend in GHG output observed throughout the year, as the grid's share of natural gas receded following a surge in October, data published Friday showed.

Almost 350,000 tonnes worth of carbon offsets have been used against the carbon tax of a Mexican state, according to an official presenting a report by the environmental market platform of the Mexican Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

For the second week in a row, regulated entities reduced net holdings of California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) as speculators built positions, while both groups trimmed RGGI net length, amid an absence of reported data yet again for Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs), according to information published by the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Friday.

Most of the 1 billion people in informal settlements are in the tropics where the threat of humid heat is rising. Poor weather station coverage that misses local hotspots puts them even more at risk. Emma Ramsay, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University, and Research Affiliate, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Reef, which extends for 310 miles from Florida to South Carolina and at some points is 68 miles wide, called ‘breathtaking in scale’

Scientists have mapped the largest known deep-sea coral reef, stretching hundreds of miles off the US Atlantic coast.

While researchers have known since the 1960s that coral is present off the Atlantic, the reef’s size remained a mystery until new underwater mapping technology made it possible to construct 3D images of the ocean floor.

Continue reading...

US lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require the Department of Energy (DOE) to invest in direct air capture (DAC) or other technology-based solutions for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to establish a long-term market for such projects.

It becomes only the fifth country to soft-land on the Moon but power supply problems may hinder its mission.

Chile’s environment ministry has codified the names of three carbon credit standards into law, recognising them as sufficiently robust to qualify credits for compliance purposes under the country’s carbon tax scheme.

California gasoline sales and emissions trailed 2022 levels for the second month in a row in October, although by a smaller margin, while monthly diesel sales and emissions exceeded those from the previous year for only the second time in 2023, according to state data released Friday.

France has amended a controversial bill aimed at ensuring energy sovereignty, getting rid of any specific targets for low-carbon sources such as renewables and nuclear, EU-focused media Euractiv reported on Friday.

Exclusive: Britain is falling behind the bloc on almost every area of green regulation, analysis reveals

• Northern Ireland ‘dirty corner of Europe due to lack of governance’
• Explainer: UK environmental protections dropped since Brexit

Vital legal protections for the environment and human health are being destroyed in post-Brexit departures from European legislation, a detailed analysis by the Guardian reveals.

The UK is falling behind the EU on almost every area of environmental regulation, as the bloc strengthens its legislation while the UK weakens it. In some cases, ministers are removing EU-derived environmental protections from the statute book entirely.

Water in the UK will be dirtier than in the EU.

There will be more pesticides in Britain’s soil.

Companies will be allowed to produce products containing chemicals that the EU has restricted for being dangerous.

EU-derived air pollution laws that will be removed under the retained EU law bill.

Dozens of chemicals banned in the EU are still available for use in the UK.

Thirty-six pesticides banned in the EU have not been outlawed in the UK.

The UK is falling behind on reducing carbon emissions as the EU implements carbon pricing.

The EU is compensating those who are struggling to afford the costs of the green transition, while the UK is not.

The EU is implementing stricter regulations on battery recycling, while the UK is not.

Deforestation is being removed from the EU supply chain, while the UK’s proposed scheme is more lax and does not come in until a year later.

Continue reading...

The first UNFCCC-approved sovereign credits from REDD forestry protection, that can be used towards climate targets, will appear for sale in the middle of the year, and prices will likely be fixed annually in an OPEC-like cartel to counter market volatility, Kevin Conrad, the chief executive of the Coalition of Rainforest Nations (CfRN), told Carbon Pulse this week.

The world’s top food producers could use their combined purchasing power to create demand of up to $20 billion a year by 2030 for agricultural commodities that are produced sustainably, industry figures said in Davos this week.

A farmer cooperative is using the power of scale and a collective voice to fetch a fairer price for its members in the carbon and biodiversity markets.

The UK government has opened a consultation into different bioenergy subsidy options with the goal of supporting power plants over an interim period between when current subsidies end, and new bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facilities are expected to come online.

Panel was originally composed of 28 men, a move condemned as ‘regressive’ and ‘shocking’

The president of Azerbaijan has added 11 women to the previously all-male organising committee for the Cop29 global climate summit, which the country will host in December.

The move follows a backlash after the Guardian reported the initial 28-man composition of the committee, which was called “regressive” by the She Changes Climate campaign group. “Climate change affects the whole world, not half of it,” the group said.

Continue reading...

EU carbon prices extended Thursday's modest rally after the strongest auction result in five months triggered some renewed compliance buying and renewed speculation over whether the market could see a small rally after its recent run of declines.

A large investment manager has published its first timberland and agriculture nature disclosure aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) recommendations in an early move set to spark market interest.