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Woman empties bag of orange confetti from union jack bag over former chancellor

The wedding of former chancellor George Osborne has been disrupted by a protest from environmental group Just Stop Oil.

About 200 people, including a number of well-known politicians and journalists, gathered in the Somerset village of Bruton on Saturday to mark the 52-year-old’s marriage to Thea Rodgers, 40, who worked as his aide during his time at the Treasury.

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As bankers in the 80s and 90s, we created safe, stock-market-listed companies. Then private equity moved in, but despite many warnings, Whitehall did nothing

As the chair of the Chichester Harbour Trust, one of the most beautiful and important natural harbours in the UK, I witness on a daily basis its now-rapid destruction, caused in large part by an extraordinary deterioration in water quality – thanks largely, in our case, to Southern Water.

I was involved – as a banker in the 1980s and 1990s working for Kleinwort Benson and Lazard – with the privatisation of many of the utilities. In the case of the water companies, most of them were privatised as sensibly capitalised plcs. As local monopolies, they were regulated by Ofwat with a view to protecting customers from monopolistic pricing behaviour.

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A trio of firms has announced a partnership to incorporate blockchain technology into efforts to develop a traceable method for carbon offsetting transactions within the maritime sector, bringing more integrity to the market.

A pioneering carbon removals firm is accelerating efforts to expand in the US.

Wind output records blown away on Friday night as a big weather system swept through southern states.

The post Wind energy smashes output record in big blow across southern states appeared first on RenewEconomy.

BlackRock's Akaysha Energy says it has struck a "first of its kind" revenue swap and risk hedging deal for the big Ulinda Park battery in Queensland.

The post BlackRock signs “first of its kind” risk hedging deal for big Queensland battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Garden designer says landlords have a responsibility to let renters improve outdoor space and help environment

Landlords have a responsibility to allow renters to garden, a top garden designer has said while exhibiting a “portable” wildlife courtyard at Hampton Court Palace garden festival.

Flatpack raised beds and a portable pond feature in Zoe Claymore’s garden, designed for the Wildlife Trusts, which aims to demonstrate that outdoor furniture can be as easy to move from home to home as the indoor kind.

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Ireland and Sweden join countries calling for moratorium on extraction of metals from seabed as UN-backed authority prepares for crucial talks

The list of countries calling for a pause on deep-sea mining continued to grow this week ahead of a key moment that mining companies hope will launch the fledgling industry, and its opponents hope could clip its wings, perhaps for good.

Ireland and Sweden became the latest developed economies to join critics, including scientists, environmental organisations and multinationals such as BMW, Volvo and Samsung. The carmakers have committed not to use minerals mined from the seabed in their electric vehicles.

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US Treasury secretary says Beijing could have greater global impact if it worked with global climate institutions

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has pressed China to do more to support international climate institutions that are helping finance green initiatives around the world, urging deeper cooperation in addressing the “existential threat” of global heating.

“Climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively,” Yellen said on Saturday in Beijing during a meeting with Chinese and international sustainable finance experts. “I believe that if China were to support existing multilateral climate institutions like the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds alongside us and other donor governments, we could have a greater impact than we do today.”

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Emitters entered an overall net long position in California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) for the first time since late February on a bullish outlook and a heat wave, emitters also extended their RGGI Allowance (RGA) net length, while financial entities added to current vintage holdings across both carbon markets, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Companies turning to insetting as a knee-jerk reaction to criticism about offsetting practices may not be pursuing an approach that is any more credible, a leading expert on carbon credit quality told a conference on Friday.

The WCI compliance instrument surplus bank continued to expand for the second consecutive quarter this year on larger offset issuances, while the cap-and-trade scheme’s allowance glut declined further despite subdued permit retirements over the three months, according to programme data published Friday.

Any words?

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Citigroup is considering investing some of its own money in carbon credits though would likely take a broader view than rival JP Morgan Chase’s approach, a conference heard on Friday from an executive at the US bank who viewed the voluntary carbon market’s current 'decline' as temporary.

The European Commission has missed an opportunity to engineer an international emission accounting standard in its draft implementing regulation for the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a think-tank claimed this week.

Members of the UN body shaping the rules for crediting carbon projects under the Paris Agreement are to dive deeper into a crucial debate around aligning activity baselines with the ambition of the accord, according to documents published ahead of next week's meeting.

The UN secretary general has said that 'climate change is out of control', as an unofficial analysis of data showed that average world temperatures in the seven days to Wednesday were the hottest week on record.

'If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation,' said António Guterres after reports emerged about the world temperature records being broken on Monday and Tuesday.

The average global air temperature was 17.18C on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01C reached on Monday

• UN says climate change ‘out of control’ after likely hottest week on record

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New Zealand is considering establishing a domestic voluntary biodiversity credit scheme to halt and reverse the decline in natural ecosystems, and on Friday launched a broad consultation process to help shape the design of the market, including its interaction with other policies, such as the country's carbon emissions trading scheme.

In a ‘message of hope’ the animals have been brought in from Namibia to establish a group in their historical homeland

After an epic 36-hour journey, the first native giraffes to be returned to an Angolan national park arrived from Namibia this week, in what many hope to be the first of multiple translocations to return the animals to their historical homeland.

The giraffes, seven males and seven females, travelled more than 800 miles (1,300km) from a private game farm near Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa region of central Namibia to Iona national park in the south-west corner of Angola.

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The European Commission on Friday launched a process for the EU to withdraw from the controversial Energy Charter Treaty due to the pact's incompatibility with the bloc’s climate law and policy, following unilateral exit moves from some states and pressure from lawmakers.