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Pollution caused twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, with updated understanding of dangers of PM2.5

Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found.

Cars, factories, fire smoke and electricity plants emit tiny toxic air pollutants known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5, which elevate the risk of an array of life-shortening medical conditions including asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and some cancers.

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The EU contributed €28.5 billion in climate finance to developing nations from public sources last year, up from €23 bln in 2021, according to figures approved by the Council of member states on Thursday that also outlined a further €11.9 bln mobilised from private sources. 

Carbon credit certifier Gold Standard on Thursday launched a consultation on a new methodology for phasing out coal power while ensuring a just transition to clean energy, adding to the voluntary carbon market initiatives seeking to accelerate the world's exit from the emissions-intensive fossil fuel.

A twice-weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

Forests managed by Indigenous and local communities have better outcomes for carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods than tree planting alone, a study published on Thursday in a scientific journal has found.

Global conferences such as the upcoming Cop28 may seem like staid and ritualistic affairs. But they matter

Stare at a climate map of the world that we expect to inhabit 50 years from now and you see a band of extreme heat encircling the planet’s midriff. Climate modelling from 2020 suggests that within half a century about 30% of the world’s projected population – unless they are forced to move – will live in places with an average temperature above 29C. This is unbearably hot. Currently, no more than 1% of Earth’s land surface is this hot, and those are mainly uninhabited parts of the Sahara.

The scenario is as dramatic as it is because the regions of the world affected most severely by global heating – above all, sub-Saharan Africa – are those expected to experience the most rapid population growth in coming decades.

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A UAE-based stock exchange will debut a pilot programme for trading carbon credits at COP28 aimed at institutional investors, according to a release Thursday.

Campaigners say Southern Water outflows into protected wildlife site are an ‘assault on the environment’

Raw sewage has been discharged into Chichester harbour for more than 1,200 hours in the past month, in what campaigners described as “an assault on the environment”.

The protected harbour in West Sussex, which is a designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), has been subjected to the discharges since 24 October.

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An English farm has committed almost all of its biodiversity net gain (BNG) units in sales to local housing developers, Carbon Pulse has learned.

A Brazilian food producer was found to have by far the most negative impact on global deforestation rates, according to a global corporate ranking released Wednesday that also awarded negative scores to several major financial institutions for their lending policies.

The European Commission launched its first EU green hydrogen auction on Thursday with €800 million up for grabs for European projects, while also opening up this year's €4 billion call for proposals for net zero technologies under the bloc's ETS-financed Innovation Fund.

An organisation representing the UK’s 15 national parks is looking to secure fresh partnerships with the private sector for nature restoration opportunities and investment, as new research suggests that the price of UK nature-based carbon credits could rise to £150 ($188) per tonne by the end of the decade.

European carbon permits traded around their recent support levels on Thursday morning as an "arm-wrestle" between bulls and bears focused Dec-23s in a narrow channel, while energy markets were modestly firmer amid a lack of strong demand indications even as temperatures seem set to decline.

None of the organic products sampled contained the chemicals, which present a dangerous health threat to babies, researchers say

Nearly 40% of conventional baby food products analyzed in a new US study were found to contain toxic pesticides, while none of the organic products sampled in the survey contained the chemicals.

The research, conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) non-profit, looked at 73 products and found at least one pesticide in 22 of them. Many products showed more than one pesticide, and the substances present a dangerous health threat to babies, researchers said.

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A UK-based carbon exchange on Thursday has announced its plan to launch its India chapter in December in collaboration with an Indian environmental solutions provider.

GPT Since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, there's been growing interest in market-based approaches for biodiversity conservation, but significant challenges remain in establishing a global market for biodiversity credits due to their complexity and context-specific nature. As Charlotte Streck writes, alternative solutions like national and local schemes and standardized biodiversity claims are being explored to address these challenges.

A slower paced life with less work and more community focus – if enough people share the dream, we can make it happen

Faced with the now undeniable impacts of climate crisis created by humans, political leaders in wealthier countries incline towards one of two competing responses. They either question the urgency and feasibility of meeting net zero targets and generally procrastinate (the rightwing tendency); or they proclaim their faith in the powers of magical green technologies to protect the planet while prolonging and extending our present affluent ways of living (a position more favoured on the left and centre).

Common to both approaches is a wrongheaded presumption that we can carry on growing while managing to hold off the floods and fires of growth-driven capitalism. Both also take it for granted that the consumerist lifestyle is essential to the wellbeing of rich societies and the ideal to which less developed economies should aspire.

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The International Energy Agency (IEA) has underlined the necessity of curtailing future oil and gas production in order to keep warming at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels even as it sees a role for the companies that produce it in the energy transition.

Taiwan is considering bilateral programmes similar to Japan's Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) to secure high-quality carbon credits from international emissions reduction projects, a top climate policy planner told Carbon Pulse.

Policymakers are using poor data to calculate the social cost of carbon because global warming is causing increasingly frequent tropical cyclones and hurricanes that leave countries with less time to recover from the destruction, warns a new study.