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Steve Reed says he may not agree on inheritance tax changes but government will listen to rural Britain

• UK politics live – latest updates

The UK environment secretary has promised to reform the food system to ensure farmers are paid fairly for the food they produce, after many filled the streets of Westminster to campaign against inheritance tax changes.

Speaking at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) conference, Steve Reed said: “I heard the anguish of the countryside on the streets of London earlier this week. We may not agree over the inheritance tax changes, but this government is determined to listen to rural Britain and end its long decline.”

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Large, heavy-emitting economies appear to be winning the battle over if and how the COP29 summit should push forward on last year's landmark commitment to transition away from fossil fuels — raising alarm bells for many in Baku.

AI-powered building optimisation can boost energy efficiency by 20-30% at a fraction of traditional capital expenses, an executive at a Lithuanian proptech startup has told Carbon Pulse.

A partnership of local authorities in England soft-launched on Tuesday to scale delivery of nutrient mitigation credits, while exploring how to combine them with biodiversity net gain (BNG) units, following government investment.

EU carbon prices climbed to their highest in nearly 12 weeks on Thursday morning as concerns over rising geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and a short unplanned North Sea outage encouraged natural gas traders to buy, helping carbon to breach an important psychological level for the second time this week.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has hit out at the lack of Conservative support for climate targets and said it shows 'just how far the party has fallen'. 'It’s a shame,' he said. 'When Cop was in Scotland, there was a real unity across the house about the importance of tackling one of the most central issues of our time,' Starmer said in Commons after returning from the G20 and Cop29

• Cop29 live - latest updates

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Countries are split at UN climate summit over funding and commitments to reducing fossil fuel use.

An international law firm has purchased a batch of natural capital units generated through a regenerative agriculture project in Egypt, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Local and state initiatives can act as ‘proof of concept’ for transformative climate and jobs legislation

As Trump and Trumpism devastate the American political landscape, how can people counter this destructive juggernaut? For the past five years, I have been studying how people are actually implementing the elements of the Green New Deal through what has become a Green New Deal from Below. This framework, which ordinary people are already putting into practice, is an approach to organizing that can form a significant means for resisting and even overcoming the Trump agenda.

The Green New Deal is a visionary program designed to protect the earth’s climate while creating good jobs, reducing injustice and eliminating poverty. The Green New Deal erupted into public attention as a proposal for national legislation, and the struggle to embody it in national legislation is ongoing.

Jeremy Brecher is the author of the new book The Green New Deal from Below: How Ordinary People Are Building a Just and Climate-Safe Economy. He is the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements and the co-founder and senior advisor of the Labor Network for Sustainability

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Fiji's government on Thursday published its National Carbon Market Strategy Roadmap, which lays out key considerations and next steps to develop emissions reduction projects in the country using market-based mechanisms.

Singapore and Peru on Thursday announced they had finalised an agreement to trade sovereign carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, paving the way for credits created in the South American country to be used towards a portion of corporate requirements under the city state's carbon tax.

The European Commission this week announced that it would not increase EUA auction volumes in the near term under its REPowerEU programme to account for lower allowance prices, a declaration that analysts viewed as bullish.

Environmental crediting standard Verra is set to open public consultation on its stewardship credit programme early next year, a company executive told a webinar on Wednesday.

Two carbon standard operators have teamed up to promote the development of the Asian voluntary market.

Countries could be on the verge of finalising a deal on Article 6 at COP29, with negotiators and observers each signalling that talks and texts on international carbon markets are now very close to consensus after parties appear to have carved out a compromise on the thorny registries issue, though the latest draft outcome could equally go either way.

Carbon market negotiators may have one last chance to find the right set of Article 6 rules to ensure integrity before the world abandons the market-based approach for achieving climate action, a Swedish negotiator said Wednesday.

Outcry after draft text contains only an ‘X’ instead of setting $1tn funding goal to support developing countries

• Cop29 climate summit – live updates

Hopes of a breakthrough at the deadlocked UN climate talks have been dashed after a new draft of a possible deal was condemned by rich and poor countries.

Faith in the ability of the Azerbaijan presidency to produce a deal ebbed on Thursday morning, as the draft texts were criticised as inadequate and providing no “landing ground” for a compromise.

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Malaysia's richest state, Selangor, is exploring suitable methods and mechanisms to formulate policies for a local carbon market, according to local media.

New research shows that LNG imports to the EU from major suppliers are nearly as polluting as the heavy fuel oil companies are trying to replace.

The post LNG imports are a lot dirtier than previously thought, and little better than heavy fuel oil appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Stakes high as officials discuss summit’s key question of how much rich countries should pay for developing nations to cope with climate crisis and decarbonize their economies

In response to the latest text on climate finance, Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International Global Public Finance Manager, said it was “a mixed bag with good, bad and ugly options.”

“Rich countries now have a last chance to step up to pay the climate debt they owe to the Global South and unlock a fair and funded fossil fuel phaseout, while barring dangerous distractions. Wealthy nations must support delivering the trillions urgently needed in public finance with the majority provided debt-free, which is currently on the table.”

Speaking at a press conference in Baku this morning, Hoekstra was asked for reaction to the lack of a clear figure on the climate finance - which currently just has an “X” for the target on the new collective quantified goal (NCQG).

“It is clearly unacceptable as it stands,” said Hoekstra, giving little else away.

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