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Exclusive: Whistleblowers point to broader sewage scandal, with wastewater systems manipulated to divert sewage

Whistleblowers say UK water companies are knowingly failing to treat legally required amounts of sewage, and that some treatment works are manipulating wastewater systems to divert raw sewage away from the works and into rivers and seas.

It is well known that water companies are dumping large volumes of raw sewage into rivers and seas from storm overflows but an investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations reveals that the industry’s “dirty secret” is bigger, broader and deeply systemic.

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The EU is allocating €28.5 million in investments towards small-scale industrial CO2 removal and CCUS projects as part of its LIFE programme, a bloc-wide initiative for funding environmental and climate actions.

The Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), a US-led jurisdictional carbon crediting programme, on Friday detailed its recent developments, while the top US climate envoy said that federal guidelines for the use of offsets will be published in the coming days.

The CEO of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has reaffirmed the organisation's dedication to robust science-based decarbonisation standards, saying he “deeply regrets the concern and distress” caused by a proposed change in its policy regarding offsets.

Traders reduced exposure across North American carbon markets this week except for RGGI compliance entities, according to latest data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commissions (CFTC) released Friday.

A CO2 pipeline developer is being taken to court by one of its suppliers for terminating their agreement, amid increasing opposition from permitters and stakeholders that has delayed construction of a major US project.

Overall, coastal habitat restoration greatly increases animal numbers and diversity. But not all projects deliver the goods and we need to find out why. Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Christopher Brown, ARC Future Fellow in Fisheries Science, University of Tasmania Rod Connolly, Professor in Marine Science, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Video shows trees and shrubs along Western Australia's south-west coastline turning brown after Perth recorded it hottest and driest six months since records began. There were similar scenes in the state's south-west eucalypt forests in 2010 and 2011 – a major die-back event that prompted more than a dozen studies. Drought-hit forests were hit by fire years later

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International climate finance flows will depend on movement within the G20, not the UN negotiations at COP29 this year, several sources told Carbon Pulse on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings held this week in Washington DC.

With its certification for emissions' removals, the EU is moving to lock out international carbon credits to meet its own climate targets, at the expense of developing countries that are in direst need of green finance, critics say.

Experts celebrate discovery of secretive and endangered Australasian bittern in recently restored wetlands

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The “bunyip bird” – named after a mythological river-lurking, human-eating monster – is as elusive as its namesake. Also known as the Australasian bittern, it is heard more often than it is seen.

It means that when bittern expert Geoff Shannon discovered the bird at Tasmania’s recently restored Lagoon of Islands – the first time it had been seen there in 40 years – it was a “very special moment”.

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Dead and dying shrubs and trees – some of which are found nowhere else on Earth – line more than 1,000km across the state’s south-west

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A couple of weeks ago, Joe Fontaine stood in the middle of one of Western Australia’s eucalypt forests on another hot and dry day that was stripped of the usually raucous backing-track of bird calls.

“I could hear this scratching-crunching noise coming from the trees,” says Fontaine, a forest ecologist at Perth’s Murdoch University.

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Superfund law requires industries responsible for PFOA and PFOS contamination in water or soil to pay for cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two forever chemicals that have been used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require industries and others responsible for contamination to pay for their removal.

Designation as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law does not ban the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS. But it requires that release of the chemicals into soil or water be reported to federal, state or tribal officials if it meets or exceeds certain levels. The EPA then may require cleanups to protect public health and recover costs that can reach tens of millions of dollars.

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The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) has launched a corporate pilot to develop the first scientific targets for seafood value chain impacts, ahead of the full roll out in mid-2025.

Social Carbon has opened a consultation on proposed updates to its standard for crediting voluntary projects, as well as the requirements for validation, monitoring, and verification, as it seeks to align with the ICVCM.

A fund for investing in projects that contribute to reaching global biodiversity targets has been launched by an environmental impact platform and a payments network.

Peatland could generate voluntary biodiversity credits for sale in combination with carbon credits in the UK next year under Peatland Code proposals launched this week.

The Clean Energy Regulator has written to entities covered under the Safeguard Mechanism raising concerns that they are not implementing strategies fast enough to meet their compliance obligations ahead of the February surrender deadline, a source has told Carbon Pulse. 

Research into release of ‘forever chemicals’ raises concerns about contamination and human exposure along world’s coastlines

Ocean waves crashing on the world’s shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world’s industrial polluters, new research has found, raising concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines.

The study measured levels of PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying aerosols into the air. It found sea spray levels were hundreds of thousands times higher than levels in the water.

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European carbon prices started the day sharply higher on Friday morning as traders reacted to the overnight attack by Israel on Iranian facilities, before falling back as markets appeared to price in a de-escalation of tensions in the region.