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Next week's summit, organised by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres in New York, will provide an opportunity to hold the rich world to account for their poor record on climate finance and set the tone for core topics of discussion at COP28 in Dubai at the end of the year, a webinar heard Thursday.

Federal effort will focus on marginalized areas in all parts of country and aims to reduce extreme heat and benefit health

Hundreds of communities around the US will share more than $1bn in federal money to help them plant and maintain trees under a federal program that is intended to reduce extreme heat, benefit health and improve access to nature.

The US agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, will announce the $1.13bn in funding for 385 projects at an event on Thursday morning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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A Brazilian fintech firm is aiming to raise R$300 million ($61 mln) for a second carbon credit-focused fund after the success of its first offering and hopes to benefit from the proposed emissions trading scheme in the country, a local media outlet reported Wednesday.

The durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) market could grow to $135 billion by 2040 if the price of units can fall to $150 per tonne, according to projections made in a report this week from one of the world's largest consultancy firms.

The UN body responsible for guiding the Paris Agreement's carbon crediting mechanism made significant progress at this week's penultimate meeting, with observers noting they had never seen such consensus among the group, but ultimately failed to adopt final texts on methodological guidance after running out of time, leaving crunch discussions for the final meeting later this year.

Fatih Birol, head of International Energy Agency, says countries planning expansion are ‘misjudging market trends’

Countries and companies planning to expand their fossil fuel production are taking “very unhealthy and unwise economic risks” as their investments may not be profitable, the world’s foremost energy adviser has warned.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), predicted this week that fossil fuels would peak this decade, a historic turning point for the climate. But despite the likelihood of demand declining, and the threat of climate chaos, many countries and private sector companies are considering new capacity.

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A study compiling the best companies in terms of their climate leadership has found that 16 of the 27 highest performing firms are based in Europe, while those involved in the fossil fuel industry still failing to prioritise action. 

Claimants to argue lack of adequate action is breach of human rights, in largest climate legal action to date

Six young people are preparing to appear at the European court of human rights to try to compel 32 nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in the world’s largest climate legal action to date.

Aged from 11 to 24, the six Portuguese claimants, say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.

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The largest offshore wind developer in the world on Thursday called on all renewable energy developers to set net-positive biodiversity targets when developing projects.

The European Parliament gave the green light to start negotiations with member states on a bill to regulate the EU's rapidly-decarbonising electricity market, during a plenary session on Thursday in Strasbourg.

The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act will accelerate the path towards the bloc's resource sovereignty and competitiveness, according to members of the European Parliament on Thursday after voting on a united position to take forward into negotiations with member states on a bill designed to reduce the bloc’s dependency on imports of the raw materials indispensable for clean technology.

European carbon prices extended their rally on Thursday amid a short squeeze that began after the previous session's weekly Commitment of Traders report, before consolidating their gains amid a drop in natural gas, as traders speculated whether short-term fundamentals are sufficiently bearish to justify the recent decline, and how long the current rally would last.

A 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).

Climate Asset Management has set aside 10% of a land acquisition in Australia for supporting biodiversity despite no clear way of capitalising on it through nature-related credits, its CEO has said.

A space tech firm and a carbon markets intelligence company have teamed up to enhance the transparency and integrity of forest carbon projects, leveraging earth observation data and machine-learning to produce natural capital data and insights.

A global environmental NGO has released a whitepaper outlining their position on biodiversity credits, as it seeks to establish high integrity across the emerging market.

Banks and Australian superannuation funds are no longer interested in backing thermal coal companies but see a longer shelf life for oil and gas companies given it is an energy source that will continue to have a role in the energy mix.

A carbon offset marketplace has started to list carbon credits certified under a newly established standard initiated by South Korea's major trade group, as the country is seeking to support the development of private sector-led voluntary carbon markets.

The UK government on Thursday announced fresh funding for ongoing efforts to boost species recovery in one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries.

The philanthropy arm of asset manager UBS has provided an impact loan designed to enable the manager of a group of essential Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Philippines to implement a number of revenue-generating initiatives, in what the parties say is a transformative deal for ocean conservation.