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UN scientific advisors stressed the reef was under ‘serious threat’ in a report detailing progress on protecting the World Heritage site from the climate crisis

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UN scientific advisors have recommended the Great Barrier Reef not be placed on a list of World Heritage sites “in danger” but stressed the planet’s biggest coral reef system remains under “serious threat” from global heating and water pollution.

Unesco said in a report that the Australian government had taken positive steps to protect the reef since a UN monitoring mission visited Queensland in March last year.

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Massive agri-solar and battery storage project gets planning approval from NSW government, just days after farming lobby called for moratorium.

The post Australia’s biggest agri-solar and battery storage project wins planning approval appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Lawyers for Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker had tried to challenge ‘extraordinary length’ of sentences

Two Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled the bridge at the Dartford crossing, closing it to traffic for more than a day and a half, have been refused permission to appeal against their sentences.

Morgan Trowland was jailed for three years and Marcus Decker for two years and seven months after they used ropes to climb the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, which links the M25 in Essex and Kent, last October, causing long traffic jams.

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The UK government will provide financial backing to the nation’s third and fourth CCS projects, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday while announcing plans for more than 100 oil and gas licences that he insisted were compatible with the nation’s binding 2050 net zero emissions target.

Dartmoor National Park Authority had appealed against January high court ruling that outlawed practice

Wild camping is once again allowed on Dartmoor after the national park won a successful appeal against a ruling in a case brought by a wealthy landowner.

Camping had been assumed to be allowed under the Dartmoor Commons Act since 1985, until a judge ruled otherwise in January. It was the only place in England such an activity was allowed without requiring permission from a landowner.

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Dartmoor National Park Authority win their appeal case against landowners to allow wild camping.

Consensus on tackling the climate crisis is what’s needed now – and direct action against CO2 must be the next move

For as long as the United Kingdom needs to use oil and gas, we should be making an effort to capture any resulting CO2 and store it. That clearly makes sense. It also makes sense to produce our own oil and gas, so we are less beholden to exporters (though of course ours, too, would be sold on the international markets).

So far, so good for Rishi Sunak’s twofold announcement today in Scotland. But it would be helpful if he did not muddy these waters by using them to score political points against Labour in the run-up to an election campaign. What we desperately need now, as we confront the climate crisis, is agreement on a way forward. Bringing party politics into it will only hinder progress.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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Environmental products developer IncubEx and commodity trading platform Nodal Exchange next month will launch the first-ever futures contracts for Washington Clean Fuels Program (WCFP) credits, as well as vintage-specific offerings of their existing Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) products.

The biodiversity credit protocol expected to be launched by Plan Vivo later this year will strive to offer an approach with scientific credibility that is also accessible to communities and can be rolled out at scale, heard a recent conference on nature-based solutions.

The European Commission has published a proposal for the bloc’s revised EU ETS auctioning regulation that features updated annual volumes to be auctioned for the REPowerEU energy security strategy, with some analysts saying the volume is higher than expected and therefore could be bearish for carbon prices.

Two people have reportedly been killed by severe flooding that has engulfed parts of Beijing after Typhoon Doksuri struck the Chinese capital. More than 31,000 people had been evacuated from the city as heavy rain continued to fall there, and in Hebei, Tianjin and eastern Shanxi, as the typhoon dissipated over northern China

• China: 31,000 forced to flee as Typhoon Doksuri brings heavy rains

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European carbon prices extended their weakness for a second day on Monday amid mounting selling pressure even as the market prepared for the annual cut in auction supply during August, while energy prices were mixed as gas recovered from a technical sell-off last week.

The PM is misguided to focus so strongly on Ulez and popular low-traffic schemes. Keir Starmer should know better, too

Isn’t it extraordinary that the Tories scent blood over that most prosaic of innovations, the ponderously named low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) – and yet the idea that a few bollards and barriers strewn across residential areas should still become their main line of electoral attack is just further proof that the Tory government has abandoned any attempt to demonstrate serious intent.

Let’s be clear. There is precious little blood to be drawn in LTNs. This is a niche concern, affecting a very small percentage of the population, of whom only a minority are opposed. Moreover, as with the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), the issue that has triggered this renewed interest in LTNs, it is the Tories who originally encouraged the concept by persuading and funding councils to introduce them during the pandemic. There is, too, an irony in the fact that the “pro-motorist” campaign against LTNs, previously articulated by the transport secretary, Mark Harper, is now being spearheaded by a prime minister whose default transport mode is a helicopter.

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The Program Manager – Carbon Sequestration will initiate a program of work aimed at the delivery of our carbon sequestration offset program across the region.

This role will be responsible for enabling the realisation of Origin's carbon solutions strategy of project development by closing the gaps in strategic positioning, community acceptance, industry development and regulatory frameworks

The Canadian town of Osoyoos has been ordered to evacuate after a wildfire crossed the border from the US state of Washington. Firefighters are using water cannons from planes to try to control the blaze, which local authorities estimate to be 885 hectares (2,200 acres) in size

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The Senior Policy Officer will join a team of policy analysts providing high quality advice on how Victoria can successfully transition to net zero emissions.

The Principal Policy Adviser will play a crucial role in leading the Emissions Analysis Team, to harness the most up-to-date greenhouse gas emissions knowledge and data to inform Victorian Government climate action policy.

PM claims UK fossil fuel projects key to meeting net zero aim, contradicting much climate science

• Rishi Sunak to use Scottish trip to attack Labour stance on North Sea oil

Rishi Sunak has announced the approval of about 100 new North Sea oil and gas licences, claiming the move would help the UK reach its target of meeting net zero by 2050.

Making a visit to Aberdeenshire on Monday, the prime minister stressed his desire to maintain UK fossil fuel exploration, a key political dividing line with Labour, which has said it will stop any new North Sea drilling if it comes into power.

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The EU has committed €33 million ($36 mln) to Papua New Guinea as part of a forests, climate change, and biodiversity investment programme in a bid to aid the Pacific nation in its transition to a greener economy.