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

In the base case scenario outlined by Wood Mackenzie’s new ‘Energy Transition Outlook’, an annual investment of $1.9 trillion is required to decarbonise the world's energy sector – a figure that escalates to US$2.7 trillion should the objective pivot to aligning with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C global warming limit.

Quebec distributed the remainder of its 2022 free carbon market permits on Thursday, with the year-on-year total seeing a slight decrease while the number of recipients remained the same, according to the data released by the province's environment ministry.

Confectionery and pet care titan Mars on Thursday pledged to invest over $1 billion over the next three years as it pursues a halving of its value chain CO2 emissions by 2030 and net zero by mid-century.

We used satellite data to create global maps of where and how fires are burning. Fire season lasts two weeks longer than it used to and fires are more intense. But there are regional differences. Luke Kelly, Associate Professor in Quantitative Ecology, The University of Melbourne David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Ella Plumanns Pouton, PhD candidate, The University of Melbourne Grant Williamson, Research Fellow in Environmental Science, University of Tasmania Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Professor in Biogeography, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Four of the most popular forest protection offset methodologies give excessive flexibility and discretionary space to project developers, resulting in exaggerated climate impacts and overestimation of carbon credits issued, a policy watchdog detailed in a summary report of academic research released Friday.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) prices both increased this week despite volume going in opposite directions, while traders said regulatory drivers in the former market and heightened permit demand in the latter were behind the gains.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) values dipped on Thursday afternoon to more than reverse a brief early-week rally, as traders said state regulator ARB’s extended timeline for implementing more ambitious carbon intensity (CI) reduction targets will come under pressure from the programme’s exploding surplus bank.

A global investment firm on Thursday announced the closing of one of the largest climate-focused funds to date, and will target investments in early- and growth-stage startups that drive timely decarbonisation.

A non-profit forest carbon measurement firm has launched a global radar-based alert system to detect tree-related disturbances, offering real-time information from forest in every biome worldwide.

Protests were a preview of planned marches in the city ahead of United Nations’ climate ambition summit on 20 September

Progressive lawmakers and climate activists rallied at the Capitol on Thursday to demand an end to fossil fuel usage, previewing a planned march in New York on Sunday ahead of the United Nations’ climate ambition summit on 20 September.

“Clearly, saving the planet is the most important issue facing humanity,” the Democratic senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said. “But here’s the ugly and brutal truth: right now, humanity is failing. The planet is crying out for help.”

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What makes a great climate leader and why are we not seeing more of them? I’ve been searching for good examples of climate leaders. This is the subject of our new documentary, Climate Changers. Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Many researchers are exploring high-tech ways to help reefs survive the climate crisis. But low-tech solutions like manually pulling out seaweed have a place too. Hillary Smith, Senior Research Officer, James Cook University David Bourne, Professor of Marine Biology, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Rugby World Cup 2023 host France has launched a tender seeking offers for carbon credits to compensate for the emissions resulting from the ongoing tournament.

Winning images of the amazing parts of our Universe go on display in London.

The latest warning from climate experts points to the urgency of a fossil fuel phase-out

The climate is changing more quickly now than it has done for tens of millions of years. This was the blunt conclusion to the BBC’s recent Earth series, which sought to convey to viewers how cataclysmic the disruption caused by global heating could be. Chris Packham, its presenter, described the tipping points that were reached 56m years ago, when, over the course of a few thousand years, temperatures climbed by 5C. Fossil records from this period are one resource that modern scientists use when trying to predict the consequences of the much faster heating that is now under way.

Planetary boundaries, about which scientists this week issued an updated warning, are another tool for thinking about the environment. These are a set of parameters defined at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, led by Prof Johan Rockström, in 2009. They are limits within which changes to the Earth’s life support systems, which have been relatively stable for 10,000 years, can be considered manageable. Once the boundaries are breached, however, everything becomes much more extreme, unstable and threatening. As well as an attempt at quantifying the disruption that natural systems can withstand, the nine boundaries represented an attempt to broaden understanding of the risks. One key message was that global heating caused by greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere is not the only threat.

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Investment in the voluntary carbon market will tumble sharply in the next two years after a surge of money flooded in over the last two-and-a-half years when carbon credits prices hit a peak, according to research published on Thursday.

Lack of progress towards climate goals is undermining global efforts to tackle hunger, poverty, ill health, access to clean water and energy, and many other aspects of sustainable development, according to a UN report released Thursday.

The City of London Corporation has called for the UK to include marine biodiversity in its nature credits market as a “matter of urgency” as part of its ambition for the country to become a global nature finance centre, it has said.

A moratorium should be placed on the highly controversial practice of geoengineering to control climate change, while allowing for ongoing research into the possibilities of using solar radiation management given the magnitude of the problem and the need to prepare the ground for future generations, an expert body concluded in a report published Thursday.