Feed aggregator

Rishi Sunak needs to understand that investing in green initiatives is a lot cheaper than flying all his hedge fund manager mates to Mars

It’s 2am on Thursday. Wildfires are burning in Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Portugal, Croatia and Algeria. British tourist climate refugees are, ironically, being rescued by friendly locals in small boats. Stop the boats! No! Not those boats! The other ones! The ones with brown people in them!

But the main environmental news in the past few weeks has not been about the Giveaway Package Holiday Dante’s Inferno Supa-Deals. Instead, we learn that British political parties are rethinking their commitment to green policies. And all because Labour somehow lost Uxbridge, by a narrow margin, to a Conservative party so corrupt that it is considering setting up an amnesty bucket at the entrance to parliament, where those on the right of the house can vomit out their consciences before taking their seats.

Basic Lee tour dates are here. A fun-size ™ ® version of the show is at the Stand’s New Town theatre, Edinburgh, from 11 to 20 August

Continue reading...

The African Development Bank and the UN Environment Programme have signed a framework to drive the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which includes a partnership to help attract additional finance for nature.

It’s time to ignore the scaremongers urging voters to put their faith in more oil and gas

This was always going to happen. There was always going to be a moment when the seemingly dry question of decarbonisation became a dominant – the dominant – question in British politics; a moment when the government and opposition would have to genuinely address a question that was no longer abstract, no longer about measures to take in distant decades to prevent climate impacts in distant lands. Are we actually going to clean up our economy, and if we are, then who’s going to pay for it?

Some world leaders understand the moment we’re in and are acting accordingly – to defend a global climate that allows humans to prosper, but also to ensure their economies prosper this century. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest single investment of money into decarbonisation ever attempted, and the consequences are scaring European policymakers witless. The White House has made a huge intervention in the US economy in an effort to ensure America, not China, dominates technologies this century.

Continue reading...

Joyce calls on farmers to protest against "onslaught" of wind, solar and transmission lines at the Murdoch and Rinehart sponsored Bush Summit.

The post Joyce hopes to ambush Albanese on renewables at Rinehart-sponsored Bush Summit appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rishi Sunak is facing calls from some Conservative MPs to rethink certain green policies.

Whitehall watchdog gives red rating to set of measures aimed to bring net-zero goals, amid backlash over retreat on climate policy

Rishi Sunak has been accused of showing disregard for the climate crisis after Whitehall officials warned that some of his key green pledges were already unachievable.

With the prime minister facing a backlash within his own party after appearing to row back from his commitment to green policies, an internal government audit found that a series of measures designed to help meet Britain’s net-zero goals had been allowed to run off course.

Continue reading...

Investing in green jobs and energy is the best long-term way to tackle soaring bills

• Ed Miliband is the climate change and net zero shadow minister

This summer has been defined by two crises: the continuing, painful cost of living crisis afflicting millions in our country and the climate crisis, which is playing out in horrifying ways across the world. The Conservative party is saying we can’t tackle both these crises together – and is, in fact, tackling neither. The Conservatives are wrong. Tackling both these crises goes hand in hand. That’s what Labour’s green prosperity plan will do – cutting energy bills, creating good jobs, delivering energy security and providing climate leadership for our country.

To listen to the Conservatives, you might think the status quo is serving us well. It isn’t. Putin’s strangulation of international fossil fuel markets has sent energy bills soaring, plunged countries like ours into the deepest cost of living crisis in memory and stoked inflation to further pile the pain on to families and businesses. The UK has been the worst affected country in western Europe. We have been so exposed because 13 years of failed Conservative energy policy has left us so dependent on fossil fuel markets.

Ed Miliband is shadow secretary of state for climate change and net zero

Continue reading...

Eleventh-hour agreement reached at ISA meeting in Jamaica to discuss moratorium at next year’s talks

An international meeting in Jamaica to negotiate rules over deep-sea mining has ended with no green light to start industrial-scale mining and with an eleventh-hour agreement to hold formal discussions next year on the protection of the marine environment.

The agreement ended intense week-long negotiations at the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an intergovernmental body based in Kingston that regulates sea-bed extraction, over a proposal spearheaded by Chile, France and Costa Rica and backed by a dozen countries to discuss a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining in order to ensure the protection of the marine environment.

Continue reading...

Organisations including RSPB, National Trust and RSPCA urge prime minister to honour green promises

Environmental groups claiming to represent 20 million people will mobilise their members should ministers water down climate commitments, they have warned.

Groups including the RSPB, National Trust and the RSPCA have written to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who has signalled his willingness to back away from green policies should the Conservatives stand to benefit from it electorally.

Continue reading...

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) wrapped up three weeks of negotiations in Jamaica Friday with no decision on deep seabed mining, denying the mining industry the green light to go ahead for at least another two years.

Amid record-breaking heat, increased access to air conditioning could save lives – but AC units are damaging the environment. Are there other options?

Much of the Earth sweltered under record-topping temperatures this month. Phoenix, Arizona, broke its record for most 110F (43.3C) days. California’s Death Valley had its highest temperature ever. An airport in coastal Iran saw a heat index of 152F, while Beijing saw a record stretch of 95F days.

Oppressive heatwaves have become more frequent and more severe as a result of the climate crisis – a trend that’s expected to continue, and could worsen in proportion to how quickly we can transition from fossil fuels.

Continue reading...

Two major Japanese companies have signed MoUs with a carbon project developer in Kenya to fund the expansion of its business and market a share of the resulting carbon credits to buyers in Japan and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific.

Focus group for the Guardian made up of Chipping Barnet and Don Valley residents backs net zero policies

For all the fanfare about UK political parties facing pressure to re-examine their climate policies given the cost of living crisis, voters in two areas near clean air zones support measures to ensure net zero targets are met.

Wrangling in the aftermath of last Thursday’s byelection, when Labour narrowly lost out on winning Uxbridge and South Ruislip, has pushed briefings by some MPs into overdrive about what policies should be reconsidered.

Continue reading...

Eleni Myrivili, whose job is to help cities prepare for extreme heat, says many people do not understand how deadly it can be

It is “shocking” how little people know about the danger of hot weather, the United Nations global chief heat officer has said, as high temperatures bake cities across the northern hemisphere and politicians backslide on climate promises.

A study this month found that extreme heat in Europe last summer killed 61,000 people, most of whom were women and older people. As well as killing people through heatstroke, hot weather can push the bodies of people with heart and lung disease into deadly overdrive.

Continue reading...

"Tech-bro libertarians:" Former nuclear regulatory chief questions hype around new nuclear power technologies that largely don’t exist and will likely be very costly.

The post The end of Oppenheimer’s nuclear energy dream: Modular reactors supported by ideology alone appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

Emitters favoured this year's California Carbon Allowance (CCA) vintage contract as prices stalled prior to a workshop-fuelled rally, while financial players went in the opposite direction on the V24 contract and also picked up a significant amount of RGGI Allowances (RGAs), data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed Friday.

This role involves the development and management of the KliK portfolio of Article 6.2 greenhouse gas mitigation programmes globally.

The candidate will be responsible for leading the structuring of initiatives associated with climate change, advising internal stakeholders on project development, and evaluating international investment opportunities in global voluntary carbon markets. They will also be responsible for structuring and modelling international carbon offset projects, evaluating funding options, negotiating project documentation, and conducting day-to-day interactions with business units in different jurisdictions.

A meeting of G20 environment ministers ended late on Friday without agreement on major climate issues, though the politicians were keen to stress the potential of emissions trade to enhance climate action despite being divided on whether to discuss the EU’s carbon border measures.