Feed aggregator

Recently-extended cost breaks for Alberta transportation fuel and natural gas consumption might run afoul of Canada’s federal CO2 pricing benchmark, but experts told Carbon Pulse they don’t believe Ottawa is likely to immediately challenge the relief measures in the oil-rich province.

The Nova Scotia government on Monday disclosed the allowance volume on offer for the province’s last regular cap-and-trade auction next month, which unlike the previous sale does not include permits from the scheme’s reserve.

Can we engineer oceans to store more carbon dioxide in the fight against climate change? A new bill before parliament seeks to regulate such activity, but holds back on research incentives. Kerryn Brent, Senior Lecturer, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide Jan McDonald, Professor of Environmental Law, University of Tasmania Manon Simon, Research Fellow, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

We’ll need some new transmission lines to make Australia’s grid ready for the green energy shift. But there are clever ways of making more use out of our existing network. Lasantha Meegahapola, Associate Professor, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Standardised carbon credits moved higher for a second consecutive week as the roll of two Xpansiv CBL contracts into new vintage eligibility years fed in support to the market, while news that buyer standards body VCMI has adopted CORSIA-eligible units within its rulebook continued to boost related products.

The EU on Monday gave the green light to the latest version of a Dutch scheme to support industrial decarbonisation by subsidising the difference between low-carbon and conventional forms of output, paving the way for other member states despite fears about distorting the bloc-wide market.

David Lammy says Labour government would join growing list of countries and multinationals opposing rush to mine the seabed

The Labour party has said the UK should back the call for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, ahead of a crucial meeting of nations in Jamaica to decide the future of the industry.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said the Labour party was adding its voice to a growing list of countries and businesses urging that moves to start mining be halted “until and unless” there was clear scientific evidence that it could be done safely and the marine environment would be protected by new regulations.

Continue reading...

Nigeria's federal government has warned against unauthorised carbon trading, making the latest country to clamp down on market activities.

Scientists say a new scanning method that can identify tiny tumours could revolutionise medical research.

New guidance says carbon credits should only be used to contribute to climate mitigation

Companies should drop offsetting-based environmental claims and adopt a “climate contribution” model instead, according to a new quality standard.

In a new code of practice, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) has published guidance on how companies should use carbon credits as part of high-quality corporate action. It recommends that firms should disclose their emissions every year, show they are successfully meeting a science-based target aligned with the Paris agreement, and only use carbon credits to contribute to climate mitigation, moving away from claims that they have “cancelled out” their emissions by purchasing offsets.

Continue reading...

In Celtic mythology they’re known as “fairy cattle”

The word deer comes from dēor and der, which in old and middle English meant, simply, “animal”. The Dutch word “dier” still means this. The sense of a deer as an animal, as opposed to a human – it has been found to have referred to ants, fish and foxes – may come from “wilddēornes”, the origin of wilderness or wild-animal-ness.

Deer still seem to embody this mysterious animal-ness: four-legged wildness, dainty and strong, mysterious and controlled. You may say it is all in the antlers: I say it is all in the tail. I saw a small herd of fallow deer in London’s Clissold park recently. A doe walked up to the fence as I walked past, then turned away and flicked her white tail: a flash of white, like a shooting star you’re not sure you’ve seen, like the tap of a fluffy wand, like a cute cursor blinking.

Continue reading...

Hottest summer on record – fuelled by climate crisis – brought unusually high mortality rates, statistics show

Searing heat killed more than 60,000 people in Europe last summer, scientists have found, in a disaster made deadlier by greenhouse gases baking the planet.

EU statisticians rang alarm bells in August, as sweltering heat, withering drought and raging fires consumed much of the continent, after seeing unusually high numbers of people die during Europe’s hottest summer on record.

Continue reading...

Uzbekistan has received a $46.25 million grant from the World Bank for its Innovative Carbon Resource Application for Energy Transition Project (iCRAFT), in an effort to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions and promote energy efficiency in the Central Asian country and help it access international carbon markets.

Crew shortages meant 39 engines were not available to fight London's wildfires last July, a review finds.

European carbon prices continued to trade in a narrow band between key technical levels early on Monday as the market awaited new direction amid the onset of summer, while energy markets were weaker as demand appeared to slacken.

Governments are drastically slashing carbon credit issuance rates from their own cookstove projects and helping craft a new global framework to tackle integrity concerns, moves that could point to an overhaul of a hefty chunk of the voluntary carbon market.

Bird flu suspected as cause of death of vulnerable migratory birds at Long Nanny, the biggest UK breeding colony

National Trust rangers have described their “heartbreak and worry” after recovering more than 600 dead chicks at Britain’s largest mainland colony of Arctic terns.

The trust said on Monday that Long Nanny, on the coast of Northumberland, had been hit by a suspected outbreak of avian flu during the peak of the breeding season.

Continue reading...

A nature consultancy has published a paper outlining how businesses should enact transformative change to become 'nature positive', proposing a practical framework to help firms understand how to implement biodiversity-friendly measures.

SK Energy, a subsidiary of South Korea's largest energy company SK Innovation, has received government-certified carbon credits with an offset project that cuts emissions by improving energy efficiency during asphalt production.

Climate Change Committee recommends leaving energy charter treaty, which critics say is ‘weaponised’ by fossil fuel firms

The UK should quit a controversial energy treaty to stop it delaying vital climate action and triggering huge taxpayer payouts to fossil fuel companies, according to the government’s official advisers.

The energy charter treaty (ECT) is a system of secret courts that enables companies to sue governments over policies that would cut their future profits. Companies have sued over phasing out coal-fired power stations, ending offshore oil drilling and banning fracking. The UK’s Climate Change Committee said Britain should withdraw from the ECT because recently proposed reforms did not go far enough.

Continue reading...