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A US-headquartered carbon credit developer on Wednesday announced it has pre-sold units stemming from plugging orphaned oil and gas wells to an international energy and commodity trading firm.

Scientific papers and public policies are not typically counting the substantial contribution of wood harvesting to global carbon emissions, with GHG output set to take off even further through 2050 as timber demand grows, researchers said Wednesday.

Reducing carbon emissions is necessary. But the future of ‘mobility’ must involve much more besides private cars

Driving an electric car on a single charge from London to Milan sounds like an impossible dream. Yet Japanese carmaker Toyota claims that by 2027 motorists will be able to buy such a vehicle. Running the air conditioner at full blast might reduce such an impressive range, but Toyota says drivers will be able to recharge in 10 minutes before they are back on the road. If this all sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is.

What Toyota says it has found nothing less than the holy grail of battery technology – the so-called solid state solution – which has long eluded the industry. Instead of a liquid core, the new battery has a solid one between electrodes. This means it is smaller and can store more energy – delivering a bigger range for the same weight. The heavy flammable liquid cores can also overheat and explode. Since 2017, UK emergency services have attended hundreds of electric vehicle fires.

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Chief medical officer says move to electric cars can reduce impact of exhausts, but may bring different problem to the fore

Ministers need to start looking seriously at the health risks from vehicle tyre wear as the impact of pollutants from car exhausts gradually reduces, Sir Chris Whitty has told MPs.

Giving evidence to the environmental audit committee, England’s chief medical officer said improvements in emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles, and a shift towards electric cars, were reducing the extent of dangerous pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.

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European lawmakers have just days to come to a decision on nature protection measures, with a vote due at next week's plenary session on a law to restore at least 20% of the bloc’s sea and land areas by 2030.

Shipping industry stakeholders have warned that a global carbon levy lacking in sufficient ambition could lead to a bureaucratic nightmare with patchworks of regional and national regulations emerging in response, as national representatives continue discussions in the UK this week to outline international climate plans for the sector.

A new tool is about to be launched to formalise best practice in the voluntary carbon market by enabling project developers to report on the governance, financial, and sustainable performance of projects and climate change mitigation programs in a standardised way.

A technology company is seeking to break the malaise in the digital carbon market (DCM) following last year’s banning of tokenising voluntary credits from mainstream standard bodies by becoming the blockchain standard for the market.

Average global temperature hits 17.18C and experts expect record to be broken again very soon

World temperature records have been broken for a second day in a row, data suggests, as experts issued a warning that this year’s warmest days are still to come – and with them the warmest days ever recorded.

The average global air temperature was 17.18C (62.9F) on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01C reached on Monday.

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The UK has set down a very significant marker for the inclusion of removals in its compliance carbon market and one that starkly differs from the EU position, experts have told Carbon Pulse, though integration is unlikely to be rushed.

Civil servants warn bold action needed to meet target – but painful decisions need to be made

Rishi Sunak risks damaging trust in the UK among developing countries and reducing the country’s standing in negotiations, because of a failure to meet climate spending pledges, civil servants have warned ministers.

They said that under current policies the only way to meet the £11.6bn international climate funding target agreed at Cop26 was to take a drastic combination of “hugely reputationally damaging” measures including delaying meeting the target, redefining already committed spending as climate funding, and cutting money for research and development, biodiversity and plastic pollution mitigation.

Delay the target. Officials said they could move it to the end of the 2026 calendar year instead of the financial year 2025/26, giving another three-quarters of a year to spend money. They warned this would “be hugely reputationally damaging at a time when the Global South mistrusts wealthy countries”. They added: “The geopolitical ramifications are likely to extend beyond climate, damaging our standing with a wide range of developing countries, SIDs, Commonwealth and middle-ground nations, further undermining trust in the UK as a donor.”

Count other already-committed amounts to climate payments as part of the £11.6bn. Civil servants warned: “This would be seen as the UK ‘moving the goalposts’ and would be seen as a backwards step, reducing UK standing and influence in climate negotiations.”

Eat into Defra and net zero department budgets. Currently half of the international funding paid by these departments is part of the £11.6bn commitment. Civil servants said it would be helpful for this to be closer to 75%, but this would eat into research and development funding as well as non-climate biodiversity protection programmes and other areas such as preventing plastic pollution.

Obtain a one-off sum from the Treasury. Officials admitted this would be “strongly resisted” by the chancellor but said if the Treasury directly funded loss and damage options, it “would be a strong signal of climate leadership by the UK”.

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EUA prices extended their losses for a third day amid low-key trading, staying between two key technical levels as numerous participants headed to an industry conference, while energy markets were little changed as renewables output was forecast to rise.

Japan’s latest auction of government-issued  J-Credits cleared above the 3,000 yen ($20.79) level again, as demand for domestic offsets continued to outpace supply given the limited number of credits available.

The operator of Japan's largest energy trading marketplace has become the latest in the country to initiate trading of environmental credits, including offsets under the domestic J-Credit scheme.

Fugitive methane emissions from Australian fossil fuel projects are nearly twice as high as national estimates, according to new analysis, meaning facilities covered under the Safeguard Mechanism will likely have to double their decarbonisation efforts to be in line with the country’s climate goals.

Australia’s reformed Safeguard Mechanism has come into force this week, but those expecting facilities to begin generating below baseline credits straight away will be left waiting.  

The El Niño is a reminder that bushfires are part of Australian life. But whether or not this fire season is a bad one, Australia must find a better way to manage bushfires. Kevin Tolhurst AM, Hon. Assoc. Prof., Fire Ecology and Management, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Listing would allow the market to be admirably brutal – inflicting pain on the owners and forcing management changes

• Henley regatta complains of sewage pollution from Thames Water
• Water firms discharged raw sewage 300,000 times last year, court hears

As we wait for Thames Water’s crew of international investors to decide if they want to inject more capital into their ailing and over-borrowed asset, it is hard to escape the thought that a recapitalisation – if it’s doable – would have happened by now if only the company were listed on the stock market. In essence, what’s needed at Thames, if the owners wish to save it, is a large rights issue or debt-for-equity swap. The stock market tends to be good at such exercises. It cuts to the chase.

Recall the crisis in the outsourcing sector a decade ago, which has parallels with water in terms of scandal (with overcharging, rather than the sewage) and loss of confidence on the part of government and the outside world. The stock market was admirably brutal with companies such as Serco: it whacked the share price down 90%, thereby inflicting necessary pain on owners; it forced management change; then it became possible to raise funds.

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July 3 marked the hottest average temperature since measurements began in the 1970s.

The post Hottest average day cooks Earth on Monday, as El Nino looms appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Wind and solar developers say delays in NSW planning applications could derail the state's plans to replace coal with renewables in a decade.

The post Wind and solar face planning brick wall that threatens to derail switch from coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.