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The prime minister believes that the climate emergency can be left to the individual conscience. He’s wrong

This year has been the hottest in our recorded history and, most likely, over the last 100,000 years. “Heat domes” across the northern hemisphere saw temperatures soar. There were heatwaves during winter in the Andes. Extreme weather saw unprecedented flooding in Asia. The wildfires that swept Canada this summer were the largest in modern history – and produced more carbon emissions than all of the country’s other human-related activities combined. After a Mexico-sized chunk of Antarctica failed to refreeze, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, proclaimed that “the era of global boiling has arrived”.

There can be little comfort taken from the fact that the average global surface temperature in 2023 was 1.48C hotter than that of the preindustrial period, a fraction below the UN’s 1.5C target. Scientists suggest that above this – but below the 2C threshold – the world is more likely to pass key irreversible tipping points: the die-off of low-latitude coral reefs; widespread abrupt permafrost thaw leading to greenhouse gas release; and the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. One entrepreneur with an eye for the apocalyptic is already shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE. But exploiting the current situation is the problem.

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The European Parliament's environment and industry committees on Thursday approved some of the last files that will soon be regulating greenhouse gas emissions across the bloc, in one of the last meetings as EU lawmakers approach elections time.

The CEO of one of the world’s largest fertiliser producers Yara International has warned the EU risks swapping its Russian energy dependence to dependence on the country's fertilisers and food, as imports to the EU and other countries grow and home-grown production falls.

A consulting giant has entered into a strategic agreement with a major US carbon removals developer that includes a deal to buy direct air capture (DAC) credits.

Biochar-based carbon removals accounted for a minority of investment in durable CDR solutions in 2023 despite widespread enthusiasm for the technology among public and private sector actors alike, trailing behind funding in direct air capture (DAC), according to a report released Thursday.

A twice-weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

Two biodiversity credit developers are among the eight members of a cohort focused on nature technology and innovation launched by network Climate Collective.

Russian petrochemical company Sibur has added three climate projects to the Russian Registry of Carbon Units, giving it the largest portfolio of projects to reduce emissions among the country's businesses.

Carbon capture technology provider Capsol Technologies has been awarded a feasibility study for a cement plant in Latvia, with the facility forming part of a major CCS initiative intended to capture much of the Baltic region's ETS-covered emissions. 

A Sri Lankan government fund plans to issue more than 8 million carbon credits over a decade to a REDD+ project in Brazil, though experts say the carbon sequestration figures the project lists appear to be exaggerated by several orders of magnitude.

Biodiversity credit markets risk distracting governments from their role in financing nature by taking up limited time and capacity, non-profit Campaign for Nature has claimed in a paper.

Swiss researchers have developed a net zero emission concrete process that relies on producing uniform carbon-rich pellets that can be easily incorporated into concrete aggregate, with potential to generate carbon removal credits in future.

EV sales are booming and longtime favourite makes and models are being ignored in favour of Tesla and BYD

Newcomer brands and luxury marques are dominating booming electric car sales as mainstream players struggle to match the pace of a fast-evolving EV market.

The top three selling electric vehicles in Australia in 2023 were from Tesla and BYD, between them accounting for two-thirds of the 87,217 electric cars sold, according to figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

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From the Amazon to Africa and south-east Asia, diversity among rainforest species follows the same rule, study shows

Just 2% of rainforest tree species account for 50% of the trees found in tropical forests across Africa, the Amazon and south-east Asia, a new study has found.

Mirroring patterns found elsewhere in the natural world, researchers have discovered that a few tree species dominate the world’s major rainforests, with thousands of rare species making up the rest.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features

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Bonaire citizens file formal legal challenge, as research shows part of island will be submerged by 2025

Eight people from the Caribbean island of Bonaire are suing the Netherlands, accusing it of violating their human rights by not doing enough to protect them from the climate crisis.

The group, with Greenpeace Netherlands, filed a formal legal challenge against the Dutch government in The Hague on Thursday, asking the district court to order it to cut its greenhouse emissions much more quickly and to help its most vulnerable territories adapt to the impact of the climate crisis.

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A Saudi Arabian climate technology company that has developed carbon-negative concrete has struck a deal with one of the country’s house builders to explore building a construction plant that could generate 1.3 million carbon credits a year.

European carbon moved in line with natural gas prices for much of Thursday morning, dropping early on with gas before breaking loose from the correlation later to set a new three-week low in a busier-than-normal session as energy markets were weaker across the board.

Support amongst the world’s largest asset managers for shareholder resolutions involving environmental and social (ES) issues has “catastrophically crashed”, according to a campaign group that promotes responsible investing.

The coming Saturday's presidential and parliamentary elections could reshape the direction of Taiwan's energy policy, given the lack of consensus among presidential candidates on whether to build more nuclear plants.

The world's biggest blue carbon project, based in Pakistan, is likely to have been slightly overcredited, and it is difficult to determine the actual amount of carbon involved in the project, according to a rating agency.