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George Eustice did his best not to start an all-out trade war with France over fishing rights but his fellow MPs were less pacific

It’s war. At least it would be if a handful of Tory MPs got their way. And who better to fight than the French? Our oldest enemy. The cause of the dispute was the British trawler detained overnight by our beastly neighbours for allegedly fishing without permission in French territorial waters, and now the subject of an urgent question in the Commons.

It was left to George Eustice, the secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to try to negotiate a peace. Or failing that, a truce. If the French were to intensify their checks on seafood at Calais, then the food supply chain really would be in trouble. He still wasn’t entirely clear quite what had happened, he insisted, but he was sure it was all just a misunderstanding of some sort.

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Australia needs a mass citizens’ movement, bringing together friend and foe, farmer and city dweller, across generations

There are no climate deniers any more. Whatever anger we feel at the opportunities missed, we still celebrate that the battle of ideas, at least, is won.

Now there are climate hawks and climate doves. Hawks see a global emergency and the need to mobilise as if human civilisation is at stake. Doves – the moderates in the business community and governments who serve their interests – see a serious environmental problem that we should address, but slowly and without too much disruption, especially to them.

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Companies must halve their emissions by 2030 and cut them 90-95% under 2015 levels before 2050 to meet net zero emissions targets endorsed by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), with only the remaining output neutralised through carbon removals.

ESG commodities marketplace Xpansiv’s CBL platform on Thursday said it will introduce a new standardised voluntary emissions reduction (VER) contract based on initial principles recommended by the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM).

Scandals and backdoor support for fossil fuels blight an organisation that ought to be taking the lead at Cop26

• Jake Hess is a researcher at the World Bank in Washington DC

The World Bank is facing the biggest test in its history. Next week, Bank executives are attending the Cop26 global climate summit in Glasgow, where key decisions about the fate of humanity will be made. If the Bank wants to achieve its official goals of eradicating poverty and building shared prosperity, now is the time to step up. Because nothing will increase poverty and undermine prosperity more than runaway global warming.

It is likely to fail this test, however. At a time when the world needs to move away from dirty energy as quickly as possible, the Bank has spent more than $12bn on direct fossil fuel project financing since the landmark Paris climate agreement. And its overall credibility is weaker than ever after a data manipulation scandal involving senior leaders.

Jake Hess is a researcher at the World Bank in Washington DC

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China released its updated climate plan under the Paris Agreement on Thursday, but without raising its emissions reduction ambition levels.

Encouraging short-distance travel by the most damaging mode of transport shows yet again that profit trumps climate action

I don’t like to be constantly complaining about things, so let’s start with the good stuff from Wednesday’s budget announcement that air passenger duty (APD) is going to be halved on domestic flights. It won’t take long.

The best thing about it is that the cut in domestic APD will now apply only to those in the cheapest seats – “reduced rate” passengers. The Treasury had consulted on a change that would have cut £39 from the cost of an internal private jet flight, and £13 for a first-class traveller – but this didn’t happen, thankfully. It is also true that the overall direct impact on carbon emissions of this new tax incentive to domestic air travel is likely to be small; domestic flights account for just 4% of UK aviation emissions, and this cut in the tax rates won’t do much to change that.

Leo Murray is co-founder and director of innovation at climate charity Possible

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The tools at Biden’s disposal to limit dangerous global heating are enormous. If he wants it, he can do it – but does he want it?

After months of bullish rhetoric about the United States’ climate leadership, the US could still show up to COP 26 empty handed. That doesn’t have to be the case – whatever charismatic obstructionists like Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema have to say about it. The climate certainly isn’t waiting on them to change: the UN Emissions Gap Report released this week finds that the world is on track to warm by a catastrophic 2.7C degrees.

The White House has pegged its Paris Agreement success on being able to pass an ambitious spending package, with plenty of money built in for key climate priorities. In recent weeks the administration pegged its audacious goal, of slashing emission by at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, to something called a Clean Electricity Payments Program (CEPP). That’s out. And even if the compromise $55bn a year of climate spending the White House promised on Thursday makes it through to legislation, carrots for green spending can only go so far. The US will still not have picked up critical sticks needed to go after the polluting industries driving up temperatures.

Kate Aronoff is a staff writer at The New Republic. She is the co-author of A Planet To Win: Why We Need A Green New Deal (Verso) and the co-editor of We Own The Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style (The New Press)

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A British company has launched what it claims is the world’s smallest industrial carbon capture solution, a technology aiming to overcome a key barrier to widespread CCUS adoption and industrial decarbonisation, the company said on Thursday.

Arnd Drossel one of many travelling to the summit attempting to raise awareness of the climate crisis

Arnd Drossel has spent the past three months rolling around inside a 160kg steel ball.

The German environmental activist left his home in Paderborn on 30 July in the giant contraption resembling a hamster ball that he made with his son.

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If we are to reverse the destruction of our planet, it will take more than ‘heroic’ words from ministers in Canberra

Countries and corporations have been falling over each other to claim they are doing more than any other in the world to stop climate breakdown.

Now Australia has added to the throngs of climate pledges. One of the world’s biggest coal exporters grandly announced an aim to reach net zero by 2050 and said it was doing more than others to address the climate crisis.

Eleanor Salter is a writer and climate campaigner

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EUAs rallied steadily on Thursday morning after a sharp drop at the open, as energy markets reacted to reports that Russia may boost natural gas supplies to Europe from early next month.

Massive 400MW solar component of the Western Downs green energy hub has been connected to the grid in south east Queensland.

The post Biggest solar farm in Queensland connected to the grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Oil major Shell will target a 50% absolute cut in its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, the company said in Q3 results on Thursday, adding that part of the goal would be met by a "limited amount" of offsets.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is recruiting a Climate Change Specialist/Senior Climate Change Specialist to support operationalization of Paris Alignment commitment through road testing and distilling lessons from project level work.

Australian carbon credits jumped another 4.4% to a new record high in Thursday trade, as a lack of available spot supply continued to underpin the recent bull run.

Requiring carbon certificates could lead African producers to sell in markets with lower standards

The EU could inadvertently “sabotage efforts” to limit global heating to 1.5C or 2C as a result of a controversial carbon border levy, a thinktank has said.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said the EU’s proposed “carbon-border adjustment mechanism” (CBAM) – which would require importers of energy-intensive goods to pay a price for environmental damage – could lead to African producers selling into other markets with lower standards, hindering climate action.

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Japan is eager to scale up offset generation under its Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), and this week proposed at the Japan-ASEAN Summit to open the scheme up to CCUS projects, with intentions to study possibilities for a large-scale JCM CCUS facility in South East Asia.

A sample of the Native American leader's hair confirms the identity of his great-grandson.

The heads of top US oil companies will answer accusations that their firms have spent years lying about the climate crisis

The heads of major oil companies will make a historic appearance before Congress on Thursday to answer accusations that their firms have spent years lying about the climate crisis.

For the first time, the top executives from the US’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, as well as Shell, Chevron and BP will be questioned under oath about the industry’s long campaign to discredit and deny the evidence that burning fossil fuels drove global heating.

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