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The image of huge, glorious landscapes, where wildlife runs free under the protection of the state, is far from reality

• England’s national parks overseen by ‘bloated’, mostly white male boards

What do you think of when you think of a national park? Is it a wide area of glorious natural beauty, where wildlife runs free under the protection of the state? Or is it a wide area mostly farmed by private landowners, in which nature is faring worse than outside its boundaries, and largely off-limits to the public?

In England, the reality is the latter, and this matters. The country is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world, in the bottom 10% of nations for biodiversity. “Nature is in freefall in our national parks,” says Dr Rose O’Neill, the chief executive of the Campaign for National Parks (CNP).

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Australia has debuted a new national hydrogen strategy as part of its wider Future Made in Australia (FMIA) strategy which it says will cut CO2e emissions by between 93-186 million tonnes per year by 2050, with up to 15 Mt/year of green hydrogen produced at the same time and the Safeguard Mechanism driving hydrogen tech uptake by businesses keen to drop emissions.

A native forest restoration company is in talks with two major standards to launch its first biodiversity credit projects next year, with a big park in the Philippines among the sites under consideration, the firm told Carbon Pulse.

EU carbon prices were relatively stable on Friday morning as the market eased sideways within the same channel they have followed for the rest of the week, as natural gas also moved within their recent range.

Smallholder farmers have released a declaration in advance of UN biodiversity conference COP16 with a rejection of discussions that aim to commodify nature.

The nascent nature credits market is a key solution to the need for economic incentives to restore nature, with its viability proven by carbon, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech on Friday.

Exclusive: Campaigners call for overhaul as Guardian investigation shows nature rarely on agenda

• How national parks failed nature – and how to fix them

The boards that oversee England’s national parks are bloated, dominated by men and are severely lacking in diversity, a Guardian analysis has found. The analysis also found that farmers outnumber conservation experts by two to one, nature is rarely on the agenda at board meetings and only one national park can account for the ownership of all the land it covers.

Campaigners said a major overhaul of how national parks were governed was “fundamental” to the recovery of nature in the parks and to serving the public, for whom they were set up.

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Recent policy updates on sectoral expansion failed to boost trading activity in China's emissions market over the past week, which saw permit prices fall below 90 yuan ($12.69) again with shrinking liquidity. 

The Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) and Quantedge Advancement Initiative (WAI) announced a two-year funding partnership Friday to catalyse climate change action and improve carbon market data, the former said.

Government’s communication called ‘unconscionable’ after one of largest spills of toxic ‘forever chemicals’

A former US navy base in Maine has caused among the largest accidental spills of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” ever recorded in the nation, and public health advocates suspect state officials are attempting to cover up its scale by reporting misleading and incomplete data.

Meanwhile, state and regional officials were slow to alert the public and are resisting calls to immediately test some private drinking water wells in the area despite its notoriously complex hydrology, which could potentially spread the contamination widely.

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Court rules against West Cumbria Mining’s fossil fuel development in Whitehaven

The UK’s first new coalmine in 30 years will not be allowed to go ahead after a ruling in the high court.

On Friday morning, Justice Holgate ruled plans for the facility to be built in Whitehaven, Cumbria will not proceed, in what campaigners called a “victory for the environment”.

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The hazards of urban roads are familiar to many: from drivers itching to get in front, to corner cutters and e-bike dabblers

More or less anyone who has ridden a bike, particularly in a town or city, has a mental list of the types of road users or situations you really need to look out for. The more you cycle, the longer and more entrenched this list becomes, to the extent that you can almost sense a familiar peril lurking a good minute or two’s pedalling distance away.

Below are some examples from my list, the product of years cycling around several cities; London more than most. I’d say at least four are nonetheless fairly universal, at least to urban areas lacking proper cycling infrastructure. But there are others – do tell us yours below.

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The government of China's Sichuan province is seeking methodological proposals on the development of forest carbon sinks under the local offset scheme.

The generic spot price for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) reached a 16-month high Thursday off the back of over 1 million credits changing hands throughout the day.

Nearly 5,000 primary school students took part in the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Wild at Art competition, which invites children to create an artwork depicting one of the country’s threatened native animals or plants

• ‘A symbol of our nation’: waratah among 20 more species added to Australia’s threatened wildlife list
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The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

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A German biogas energy startup has raised $62 million in Series A funding following an oversubscribed round, enabling it to begin producing power plants and meet pre-orders from farmers and industrials, it announced on Friday.

Australia is facing climate hazards on all fronts this spring and summer. Climate scientist Andrew King walks us through the Bureau of Meteorology’s new national outlook. Andrew King, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A major Japanese trading house has secured a preliminary agreement to buy a stake in a large low-carbon ammonia project in the US, it announced Friday.

Discussions surrounding California’s cap-and-trade programme took a backseat as a joint meeting Thursday between regulator ARB and the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC) focused largely on shortfalls in proposed changes to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).