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Lack of activity persists despite lifting of ban on projects last year, and contrasts with 46 applications made in Scotland

No new proposals for general-use windfarms were submitted for planning permission in England last year, despite the government’s much-vaunted relaxation of planning restrictions.

Only seven applications were submitted for onshore wind turbines for the whole of 2023 in England, new data from the government has shown, and all of those developments were for the replacement of existing turbines or for private sites, where the energy produced is destined for a particular consumer, such as a business.

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Smaller developers in England could incur unnecessary costs while aligning with the country’s biodiversity net gain (BNG) policy, with worse outcomes for nature, a consultant has said.

A Swiss climate solutions and technology company and a German impact investor have teamed up to develop nature-based solutions aimed at tackling biodiversity loss.

A solar farm developer has committed to adopting measures to protect and enhance biodiversity, as criticism has mounted in recent weeks over the company's plans to build a facility in the UK.

An environmental consultancy is helping a client prepare to generate biodiversity credits from a 2,000-hectare estate in the Scottish highlands, in collaboration with RePlanet.

New corporate partners are joining the push by United Airlines to scale up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by way of a dedicated fund, as e-fuel company OXCCU moves to start construction on its first demonstration plant in the UK.

EU carbon allowances that are no longer needed by German coal power plants being retired as part of a state-enforced coal exit are to be permanently removed from the market, the government told a media source.

The Mexican federal environment agency has worked with local communities to expand its programme for voluntary land conservation to protect more than 1.5 million hectares in total.

There needs to be a better understanding of the global value chain of hydrogen production and governments must make regulations based on its carbon intensity rather than colour, a report by an energy consultancy said Thursday.

European carbon prices rose for a second day on Thursday as short-covering bolstered the market despite lingering bearish overall sentiment, while the wider energy complex snapped a six-day losing streak after the EU said it would not look to extend agreements to transship Russian gas through Ukraine.

A stingray called Charlotte is pregnant despite having no mate, in a suspected case of parthenogenesis.

Durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits have traded on the CBL exchange for the first time, marking a milestone in the nascent sector’s evolution into the mainstream voluntary market.

A voluntary carbon credit transaction network developed by several global banks has this week appointed the former head of oil major BP as its chairman.

Some top tips on how to electrify your home and make it more energy efficient

The post Top tips for electrifying everything, and reducing power bills appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A global initiative to identify, protect, and connect areas critical to migratory species has been launched at the ongoing 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

A voluntary carbon market standard and registry has launched an initiative to explore opportunities for removals projects in the mining sector with a focus on mineralisation and enhanced rock weathering activities.

It is one thing to U-turn on a modest green transition programme. It is another to do so using mendacious Tory economic paradigms

Rarely has a lacklustre policy been abandoned for a reason so bad that it threatens to inflict long-term damage on a society. Independently of whether the £28bn green investment programme was the right policy for the next Labour government to commit to, Rachel Reeves’s reasons for ditching it were an undeserved gift to the Tories and a partial vindication of their disgraceful flirtations with an austerian, anti-green political narrative.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today shortly after her U-turn on Labour’s headline £28bn green transition programme, the shadow chancellor explained her decision by claiming that, under Jeremy Hunt, the Treasury is “planning on maxing out the credit card”, adding for good effect that the Tories are “maxing out the headroom ahead of the next general election” thus limiting “what an incoming Labour government will be able to achieve”. By comparing the state’s coffers to an overladen credit card, Reeves endorsed an insidious fallacy.

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If the Odysseus craft lands safely it would be the first private mission to successfully land on the Moon.

Angry farmers, worried tourism workers and unprepared politicians – Catalonia is on the frontline of a drought-stricken future

Walking through Barcelona these days, you can’t miss the signs and billboards picturing a red plastic bucket and the message “Water doesn’t fall from the sky” (l’aigua no cau del cel in Catalan). The ads are part of a campaign to get people to save water. Since the beginning of February, Barcelona and 200 other towns in Catalonia have been in an official drought emergency. That means more than 6 million people in the region live with restrictions. Daily water usage per inhabitant is limited. Parks are unwatered, fountains are dry and showers at swimming pools and beaches are closed. Farmers can’t irrigate most of their crops and must halve their water usage for livestock or face fines.

It’s not just Catalonia. The European Drought Observatory’s map of current droughts in Europe shows the entire Spanish Mediterranean coast in bad shape, with red areas indicating an alert similar to those in north Africa and Sicily. Catalonia may be going through the worst drought on record for the area, but the southern region of Andalucía has faced continuous drought since 2016. Last year, Spain’s droughts ranked among the 10 most costly climate disasters in the world, according to a report by Christian Aid.

María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain

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A Japanese carbon marketplace operator has secured a strategic partnership with one of the largest IT companies in Vietnam as its latest foray into the Southeast Asian market.