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Average daily surface temperature of 20.96C breaks 2016 record, with experts saying warmest month for oceans to come

The surface temperature of the world’s oceans has hit its highest ever level as climate breakdown from burning fossil fuels causes the oceans to heat.

Global average daily sea surface temperatures (SST) hit 20.96C this week, breaking the record of 20.95C reached in 2016, according to the Copernicus climate modelling service.

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While Rishi Sunak spouts pro-motorist rhetoric, Amsterdam, Paris and Edinburgh are leading the charge to be healthier cities

When friends from my home town of Miami visit Edinburgh, where I now live, one thing they always remark on is the quality of life here. Sure, Miami has more sunny days, a mild winter, South Beach and Lionel Messi, but it is practically impossible to get around there without a car. Compare this with Edinburgh, where you can walk, cycle, or take the bus or tram. Travel is free on public buses for under 22s, and while low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) schemes aren’t perfect, the council is rolling them out in the pursuit of a vibrant, active city.

Edinburgh’s commitment to pedestrians is not about banning cars, but about making it cheaper and simpler to replace short-distance single occupancy journeys with alternatives that have far-reaching benefits for the city’s inhabitants and the planet. It’s about making it easier to get to school, work or the city centre without relying on a car.

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The first nature improvement assets are expected to be issued this year by a provider of digital infrastructure for the burgeoning nature-based financing market, which sees itself challenging some of the conventions of the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

Prices for China's carbon permits edged up over the past week with a relatively sustained trading volume, as observers expect activity in the national carbon market to pick up this month after the announcement of carryover rules.

Move comes as campaigners call for wider access to land after court of appeal ruling on Dartmoor case says activity is lawful

• UK politics live – latest updates

Labour would extend the right to wild camp to all national parks if elected, the party has said following the restoration of the right on Dartmoor by the high court.

On Monday, the court of appeal ruled that wild camping on Dartmoor was lawful without landowner permission, overturning a high court ruling in favour of a landowner who wanted to ban the practice. Ruling on the appeal, Sir Geoffrey Vos, the master of the rolls, said wild camping counted as “open-air recreation” as allowed in the 1985 Dartmoor Commons Act.

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Greece's largest electricity producer PPC reported a 26% fall in fossil burn covered by the EU ETS over the first six months of 2023, compared to last year.

China has expanded the scope of the domestic Green Electricity Certificate (GEC) market through the announcement of new rules on the renewables scheme, a move that could add policy complexity to the country's national offset market.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including wildfires, kangaroos and a bear in a jacuzzi

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Antarctica’s sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predicted

Antarctica is currently experiencing dramatic changes at unprecedented rates, marked by repeated extreme events. These include circum-Antarctic summer heatwaves and an autumn heatwave last year, with temperatures soaring up to 40C above the average. Moreover, both last summer and this winter, sea ice extent has reached record lows. These changes have happened even faster than scientists predicted.

These changes coincide with a broader global pattern of extreme air and sea surface temperatures, wildfires, floods, disease and other events deeply impacting ecosystems and society. Scientists have warned society about global climate change and its impacts since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s first report in the early 1990s. The Antarctic community has done so repeatedly too. These warnings are now being realised.

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A New Zealand exchange-traded fund tied to the country’s emissions trading market has seen its value fall further by some NZ$12 million ($7.3 mln) as a result of the destabilisation of the NZU price, quarterly figures showed.

Luke Osborne from Stride Renewables on the happy marriage of farming, solar and battery storage, and why community outreach works.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Australia’s biggest agri-solar and battery project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Families worry about where their children will go during the summer as crumbling playgrounds are left in disrepair

• England’s playgrounds crumble as council budgets fall

It’s a warm day in July and Ginette is pushing her grandson on a swing next to the remains of a climbing frame, destroyed in an arson attack last October and still not replaced at the height of summer.

“This is so sad,” she says. “This used to be a beautiful park, now look at it.”

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Children suffering from ‘shameful’ failure to protect play with park budgets falling by £350m in 11 years

• ‘The swings are missing’: Children in Newcastle left with nowhere to play

Playgrounds around England are falling to pieces, missing large pieces of play equipment, or simply being locked up, as councils facing huge budget cuts struggle to maintain them. In some of the poorest parts of the country, family groups are warning that children face a summer spent indoors because of a lack of safe and free spaces to play.

The head of Play England has said that children’s mental health will suffer as a result, and has called for radical change from what he called a “shameful” lack of protection for children and play in planning.

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Exclusive: Deleting national emissions ceiling regulations as part of scrapping EU laws ‘a clear example of deregulation’

The government is ignoring its post-Brexit green watchdog over the removal of air quality regulations, in a move that has been described by experts as “a clear example of deregulation”.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) was set up in 2020 to replace the role the EU had played in regulating and enforcing environmental law in the UK. Campaigners raised concerns at the time that it might not have the same teeth as the EU and that it would not be able to stop the government riding roughshod over environment protections.

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Victorian planning minister gives go-ahead for 350MW wind farm, but only if it agrees to take a five-month break in construction for Brolga breeding season.

The post “Simply not workable:” CEC slams planning conditions on wind and battery project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

BHP marks progress on project that will help supply the entire annual electricity consumption at its Kalgoorlie nickel smelter and Kambalda concentrator.

The post Turbines go up at Flat Rocks wind farm, to power BHP nickel mines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW says its latest tender for wind, solar and long duration storage has received offers of three times more capacity than sought.

The post NSW swamped by bids for new wind, solar and deep storage to replace coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Energy networks commissioner urges action to ease decade-long delay for windfarms and solar arrays

New power lines in Britain should be built more quickly to ease the decade-long backlog of renewable energy projects waiting to connect to the electricity grid, according to a report commissioned by the government.

The government’s first energy networks commissioner, Nick Winser, used his report to warn ministers that without new cables and substations more green energy projects were likely to be rolled out before they could be connected to the grid.

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Exclusive: hundreds of consultants, GPs and others write to Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan over Labour’s position on Ulez

Hundreds of doctors have urged politicians to stand firm on initiatives to tackle air pollution, warning that they see its “devastating health consequences” in patients on a daily basis.

Air pollution is the single largest environmental risk to public health, linked to between 28,000 and 36,000 UK deaths a year. The estimated cost to the NHS and social care of air pollutants is estimated to be £1.6bn between 2017 and 2025.

Keir Starmer and other senior Labour figures have prompted alarm among health professionals after they called on the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, to reflect on the expansion of the capital’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) after the Uxbridge byelection defeat.

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The oceans are a vital regulator for the climate and our weather but are rapidly heating up.