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Bold climate targets are meaningless without policies to meet them. The PM should grab the chance to make Cop26 a success

Targets are all very well. But not if there is no way of reaching them. In which case, they are a sham. This is the problem now confronting the government. The UK’s stated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 78% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels is very ambitious. “Remarkable” was the word used last week by Lord Deben (the former Conservative environment secretary John Gummer). He chairs the climate change committee (CCC) that advises the government. Its latest reports make an unflattering contrast between impressive aims and the absence of plans to meet them.

A strategy setting out how the UK intends to meet its net zero pledge is promised before the Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November. But there is little sign so far that ministers grasp the scale of the challenge. Not a single government department, the CCC finds, is moving at the necessary pace. Transport, agriculture, buildings, industry: in all the key emissions-producing sectors bar power generation, there has been an alarming lack of progress. Cuts to the aid budget now overseen by the Foreign Office mean that it too is implicated. Support for poor countries as they make the transition away from fossil fuels has long been recognised as a crucial element of the global climate process.

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UK carbon allowances are likely to hover around the £50 mark through next year, analysts said, though a number of bullish developments on the radar could easily see prices double by 2023.

Renewable energy will rely heavily on an industry already berated for human rights violations

Interest in Dogger Bank was once restricted to insomniac enthusiasts for the BBC’s Shipping Forecast. Not anymore. Today, the shallow sandbank located 120 miles off the UK’s north-eastern shoreline, is home to the world’s largest windpower project. When fully operational, giant turbines will transmit 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, enough to power 5m homes, into the national grid at prices well below current levels.

Welcome to the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era. Across the world, solar and wind now represent the cheapest source of new electricity generation – and prices are tumbling. Electric vehicle (EV) batteries are driving oil towards obsolescence. Stripped of government subsidies and corporate lobbying carbon-based fuels are a busted flush. The future of energy is green – and the future can’t come soon enough to tackle the climate crisis.

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Oregon Democrats passed legislation on Saturday that would require 100% clean energy within two decades, marking one of the strongest renewables goals in the US.

Who was the mysterious Isabella Allen and what was her contribution to 19th Century botanical science?

Experts say they have found the ultimate version of the fruit. It’s called Ace, but now we just need enough foreign pickers

It would be easy to dismiss it as a marketing gimmick. A strawberry called Ace, announced on the eve of Wimbledon – surely, you cannot be serious? But the academics and strawberry breeders of the East Malling research institute are not given to cheap slogans. Malling Ace is a super strawberry that is creating more excitement in the world of horticulture than even the possibility of another Andy Murray title.

“The Ace name sort of indicates what we felt about it – it really, really does excel,” said Adam Whitehouse, who led the Malling Ace project. “It’s a new variety that has been fast-tracked through our system because it really did stand out and it caused a lot of excitement at such an early stage.”

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UK government has made historic climate promises in the past year, for which it deserves credit. But it has been too slow to follow these with delivery.

The post UK’s climate pledges lead the world, but its policy falls badly short appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Police seize equipment from three premises before what officers expect will be busy weekend of protests

Police in London have raided a warehouse used by Extinction Rebellion, as well as an arts centre that was exhibiting some of the structures used in the demonstrations that blockaded newspaper printing plants last year.

The Met is under increased scrutiny as the group plans further protests against the owners of the UK’s press outlets this weekend, alongside supporters of the Black Lives Matter campaign against racial injustice.

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Citizen zookeepers release endangered large marsh grasshopper in former strongholds

Britain’s largest grasshopper is being bred in captivity by citizen zookeepers and returned to marshes across East Anglia in a move to revive the endangered species.

The large marsh grasshopper, an elusive green insect that can appear in a striking pink-and-yellow form, is too isolated in fragments of wetland to hop back to its former strongholds.

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Cement and electrolytic aluminium producers will “definitely” be included into China’s national CO2 emissions trading scheme next year, a government advisor and key member of the team that designs the scheme said.

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

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) positions held by financial firms increased slightly over the past week, but the week-on-week gains slowed considerably after seeing a torrid pace over the previous month, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Ecology experts say failure to hit five-year goals concerning although feral cat progress promising

A Coalition government strategy to save Australia’s endangered wildlife has failed to meet targets to stem the decline of many birds, mammals and plants.

The final-year report of the five-year threatened species strategy, which was introduced under the former environment minister Greg Hunt, has found five out of the strategy’s 13 targets were met, three were partially met and five were not met.

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A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in federal methane regulations, California, and Iowa. 

EUAs stretched their five-week rally on Friday after a strong auction, but then slipped back on pre-weekend profit-taking to notch a solid 6.1% weekly gain to leave prices within reach of their record.

California gasoline consumption recorded the first year-on-year rise for 13 months in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to push Golden State gas fuel demand beneath historic levels, according to state data released this week.

‘Eco schemes’ to be supported are undefined and three-quarters of €387bn CAP budget will go to intensive farming, say critics

The environmental claims of a newly agreed €387bn (£330bn) EU farming subsidy policy have been described as a “paper reality”, despite a commitment that a quarter of its budget will be spent on “eco schemes”.

A new five-year common agricultural policy (CAP) was provisionally agreed by the European parliament, European Commission and the 27 member states on Friday after two and a half years of negotiations.

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Chinese researchers unveil an ancient skull that could belong to a completely new species of human.

Several economic advisors to the French government have suggested an EU carbon central bank as an alternative to a price corridor to manage long-term carbon price stability, according to a paper released on Friday.

Small refineries regulated under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) do not need to continuously receive compliance waivers to qualify for such relief in future years, the US Supreme Court ruled Friday in a split decision that overturned a lower court ruling.