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Project aims to release hundreds into lochs and streams after centuries of habitat loss and exploitation

The medicinal leech is one of nature’s least loved hunters. Armed with three strong interlocking jaws and with a taste for blood, they will swim hungrily towards humans, deer or cattle that wander into their ponds to bathe, fish or drink.

Yet this small predator is the focus of an unlikely reintroduction programme by conservationists working in a small laboratory deep in the Scottish Highlands, at a wildlife park best known for its polar bears, wildcats and wolves.

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Trading volume in China's carbon market plunged over the past week despite stable allowance prices, as most major Chinese emitters have fulfilled their obligations now that the primary compliance deadline set by the government has passed.

Revenues from carbon pricing mechanisms reached $93 billion last year, slightly lower than the prior year, with more than half of this total specifically redirected towards climate activities, according to a report from a group of climate economics researchers.

More than 50 people dead in Tigray and Amhara regions while UN warns of ‘crisis-level hunger or worse’ in Somalia

The regions of Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia have continued to experience severe drought conditions with more than 50 people dead, as well as 4,000 cattle.

While northern Ethiopia suffers from droughts, the southern and eastern parts of the country, along with Kenya and Somalia, have been hit by flooding. Somalia suffered the worst of the flooding, with 50 people reported dead. According to the Somali disaster management agency almost 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

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South Korea may push back the timeline for the release of a basic plan underpinning the next phase of the domestic carbon market, which has been hampered by an oversupply of emissions permits, local media reported. 

The federal government of Pakistan is considering a cap-and-trade model for its imminent carbon market, an official said according to local media.

European Environment Agency says half of deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to recommended limits

Dirty air killed more than half a million people in the EU in 2021, estimates show, and about half of the deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to the limits recommended by doctors.

The researchers from the European Environment Agency attributed 253,000 early deaths to concentrations of fine particulates known as PM2.5 that breached the World Health Organization’s maximum guideline limits of 5µg/m3. A further 52,000 deaths came from excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide and 22,000 deaths from short-term exposure to excessive levels of ozone.

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A Japanese university will invest in a direct air capture (DAC) venture that aims to begin capturing CO2 via nano-separation membranes later this decade.

A Swedish drone firm has been granted a €2.7-million grant by the government for a three-year project to refine forest-thinning technology it says will reduce the need for energy intensive, habitat-wrecking heavy machinery on the ground.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

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Letter says government pushing ahead with new fossil fuel projects while criminalising activists who raise alarm

Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Ben Okri have joined the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and leading climate scientists to highlight what they describe as a “collective act of madness” that is driving “the destruction of life on Earth”.

A letter signed by more than 100 actors, authors, scientists and academics says the UK government is ignoring the scientific reality of the climate and ecological crisis, pushing ahead with new fossil fuel developments and criminalising peaceful protesters who raise the alarm.

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Yes, the fallen foliage can be messy. But the trees know just what they’re doing – and they won’t thank you for interfering

It’s a 66m-year-old decision. Some trees got there much quicker; some took a little longer. But most of the broad-leaved trees that we know and love – the magnolias, plane trees, elms, beech, walnuts, limes, oaks, maples and horse chestnuts – made a calculated decision to drop their leaves come autumn. Large, soft leaves are hard to protect in the winter weather, so the trees evolved to lose them, but not their valuable resources.

Leaf fall is a precision art for a deciduous tree – it’s a salvage operation on the greatest scale as the tree works quickly to bank the resources hidden inside the pigments of the leaves. The greens of chlorophyll go first, then the yellows of the xanthonoids, and then the orange carotenoids, until all that is left is brown – at which point the tree lets its foliage go.

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‘Bog oak’ study finds more than 400 well preserved yews, which could help solve mystery of historic rapid sea level rise

The flat landscape of the East Anglian Fens is known for its vast arable fields and absence of trees. But just over 4,000 years ago, these lowlands were dominated by dense woods of ancient yew trees.

A study of hundreds of tree trunks inadvertently dug up by fenland farmers has found that this woodland abruptly disappeared 4,200 years ago, probably because a rapid rise in the North Sea flooded the low-lying region with saltwater.

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Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto has bought a stake in a local Australian carbon project developer to secure a supply of carbon credits to offset emissions from its operations under the Safeguard Mechanism.

Brad Hopkins, from AEMO Services, discusses the successful battery storage tender in NSW that could serve as a blueprint for Chris Bowen's massive 32 GW capacity scheme.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Bowen’s capacity scheme, and NSW’s “free” batteries appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Chris Bowen's capacity plan is good news for the transition from coal to renewables, but it may need to overcome the comically incapable Planning department in NSW.

The post Bowen may still fall short of his 82 pct renewables target, but it’s bad news for coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Bowen's grand capacity scheme may loosen the big utilities' stranglehold over the energy market, but will there be enough wind projects to meet the target?

The post Bowen capacity plan means a power shift from big utilities, but will there be enough wind? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The biggest wind project in South Australia is now fully registered, although not yet generating as some wind turbines seek a new road route to the site.

The post South Australia’s biggest wind farm now fully registered, although not yet complete appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Researchers are finding alarming concentrations of persistent pollutants such as PFAS in Australian dolphins. These record-breaking levels are cause for alarm. Chantel Foord, Research Associate, Marine Mammal Foundation, PhD researcher, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Osmi Australia says the 200MW project, proposed for a pine plantation next to an ex-coal plant, can now continue through the Planning Permit process.

The post Latrobe Valley wind farm targets 2024 construction after amendments approved appeared first on RenewEconomy.