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Statement at UN human rights council voices ‘disappointment’ after Abu Dhabi refuses to change restrictive laws

The UK has asked the United Arab Emirates, one of its closest Gulf allies, to explain how it will guarantee free speech around the UN Cop28 climate summit in Dubai after the country refused to change its restrictive laws on free speech.

The refusal came after a four-yearly UN review of the UAE’s human rights record.

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Poland’s deputy energy minister said Wednesday that his country would support including carbon removals in the EU ETS before 2030 while a campaign group opposed such a move, while the minister kept his cards close to his chest when pressed on coal phaseout details.

UK-headquartered conservation company Environment Bank is marketing voluntary biodiversity credits through a “biodiversity equity shares” system to encourage demand, an executive has said.

A new initiative on nature stewardship will initially focus on forests and land degradation and aims to ramp up pressure on companies to disclose nature-related risks and engage politically.

The German government approved on Wednesday a temporary extension of the country's power generation supply reserve, allowing lignite plants to reopen as a precautionary instrument for demand peaks for the coming winter, though underlined that the nation's 2030 coal phaseout target remains in play.

At first an oddity roaming in an otherwise desperately ordinary suburb, the curious creature continues to survive – alone and silent

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For two months, we called it Strange Bird.

We had moved into a new home in the summer. A tightly packed street in Sydney’s inner west, where gardens are small, nature strips absent and the cement footpath is broken up by fledgling trees around which residents plant small squares of flowers and creepers. It was here, almost immediately, that we encountered a lone, large bird.

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Francis also defends climate protesters and calls on governments to make Cop28 in Dubai a turning point

Pope Francis has said the rich world must make profound changes to tackle the climate crisis, while defending climate protesters and urging governments to make the forthcoming Cop28 climate summit a turning point.

He called for “a decisive acceleration of energy transition” from fossil fuels to renewables, but cautioned against relying on new technology such as carbon capture and storage, which he said was “like pushing a snowball down a hill”.

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A UK-headquartered registry for long-duration CO2 removal (CDR) has launched its certification standard which it says is the most stringent in the world and where the results are open to public scrutiny.

EUA futures ticked up as they searched for direction around the €80/t mark on Wednesday morning, while exchange data showed investment funds trimmed their net short position by 13% and fundamentals continued to filter in bearish short and mid-term signals to the market.

Protection plan for Doñana Natural Space hailed by environmentalists as ‘step in the right direction’

A controversial plan that would have placed one of Europe’s most important and threatened wetlands in even greater jeopardy has been paused after an unexpected agreement was reached between Spain’s caretaker government and the regional authorities in Andalucía.

Water supplies to the Doñana national park in western Andalucía – whose marshes, forests and dunes extend across almost 130,000 hectares (320,000 acres) and include a Unesco-listed national park – have declined drastically over the past 30 years because of climate breakdown, farming, mining pollution and marsh drainage.

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has set out a transboundary action plan to address invasive alien species across the region, however, no detail was provided on how it would be financed or the delivery partners that would lead its components.

The nanoparticles create more precise colours and are used in TV screens as well as medical imaging.

A carbon exchange operated by one of Japan's largest financial groups has started accepting formal registration for project developers while announcing a number of partnerships and operational details to underpin trading, a further step towards the full operation of the platform amid emerging domestic interest in carbon credits.

Australia’s open cut coal mines could receive a cash windfall in coming years as Australia’s reformed Safeguard Mechanism will let them generate credits under the scheme, a report said Wednesday.

British and Swedish energy companies have unveiled the details of what they describe as a "conservative" methodology for voluntary bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) projects and the first comprehensive market-ready version for the technology, as they hope it becomes an industry standard for the issuance of carbon credits from such activities.

FoI requests show Shell and BP among firms giving funds to institutions which have pledged to divest

Major fossil fuel companies have committed tens of millions of pounds in funding to UK universities since 2022, it can be revealed, despite many of these institutions having actively pledged to divest from oil and gas.

According to freedom of information requests submitted by the climate journalism site DeSmog, more than £40.9m in research agreements, tuition fees, scholarships, grants and consultancy fees have been pledged to 44 UK universities by 32 oil, coal and gas companies since 2022.

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The Asia Pacific region will invest $3.3 trillion in power over the next 10 years of which about 50% will be reserved for wind and solar, while 12% will be designated for energy storage, a global energy consultancy said Wednesday.

Both candidates to be the next EU commissioners for the European Green Deal and for climate action secured the support of party coordinators representing the required two-thirds majority of the European Parliament's environment committee (ENVI), the committee chair said early on Wednesday after the MEPs received replies to their requests for additional information. 

The 'MAIF pour le vivant – Nature 2050' fund has opened a call for projects across mainland France and its overseas territories that contribute to the adaptation of territories to climate change and act to preserve biodiversity by relying on nature-based solutions.

An international network that includes 45 countries has launched the Coral Reef Breakthrough, planning to raise at least $12 billion in public and private finance this decade to stop the drivers of coral reef loss and accelerate restoration.