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Nearly 400 new mines could open by 2035 to meet demand for the minerals used in global electrification. Better recycling can help with supply, but mining’s impacts will have to be better managed. Rusty Langdon, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Elsa Dominish, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Companies should consign “carbon neutrality” claims to the dustbin, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Initiative (VCMI) advised on Wednesday as it launched guidelines for buying carbon credits that it hopes will inject heavy doses of confidence and capital into the voluntary carbon market and end accusations of greenwashing.

The EU is willing to join international talks to weigh whether climate geoengineering interventions could be viable in tackling climate change, the bloc's climate and foreign policy chiefs said on Wednesday while cautioning that such initiatives should not divert global efforts to cut emissions.

Water privatisation in England and Wales has achieved just one thing: the enrichment of executives and overseas shareholders

Thames Water is on the brink of collapse, with emergency plans being drawn up to take the company into temporary public ownership. It’s an extraordinary state of affairs: how could a business with a regional monopoly over an essential service not manage to maintain a financially sustainable footing? The answer: an extractive ownership model has seen the company loaded with debt, and returns for its investors prioritised over the needs of both people and the environment. As interest rates have risen sharply over recent months, this inherently precarious business model has come under acute and seemingly fatal pressure.

The story of Thames Water is emblematic of wider failures of privatisation. Since the late 1980s, water companies in England and Wales have paid out £72bn to shareholders. To help pay for this generosity, the water companies – which were sold off without debts – have borrowed on an exceptional scale, accumulating a debt pile of £53bn.

Mathew Lawrence is director of Common Wealth and co-author of Owning the Future with Adrienne Buller

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Japan’s J-Credit scheme regulator on Wednesday cleared a first project for generating credits from cutting methane emissions from rice paddy cultivation, with several market participants positioning themselves to utilise the methodology, which was approved in March.

Multiple voluntary carbon market (VCM) participants have submitted responses to a UN consultation regarding removal activities that may be credited under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, urging differentiation between types to take into account varying permanence, reversal risk, and storage implications.

Charity Trees for Streets says dry weather has put pressure on saplings, which need about 50 litres a week

As young street trees struggle and wilt in the summer heat, people are being urged to step into action with their watering cans to help.

Hundreds of people are already looking after their local trees as part of the Watering Wednesday campaign launched by Trees for Streets, and some residents have set up rotas and allocated particular saplings to specific families.

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A planet that should have been eaten by a huge star has baffled scientists until now.

Increase of 1C in average annual temperature connected to more than 6% rise in physical and sexual domestic violence

As deadly heatwaves sweep through cities in India, China, the US and Europe amid the climate crisis, new research has found that rising temperatures are associated with a substantial rise in domestic violence against women.

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday found a 1C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries.

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Protesters are taking increasingly extreme action to highlight ecological collapse – and new, more draconian laws are failing to stop them

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Brad Homewood has two jobs. His paid gig requires the 50-year-old to drive a mini-mix concrete truck around suburban Melbourne. His volunteer work has resulted in him being arrested 13 times for taking part in protests meant to disrupt an economic system driving a climate and ecological emergency.

Last week Homewood glued himself to a nine-metre metal pole erected in the middle of a road at the entrance of the Port of Melbourne’s Appleton Dock. Traffic was stopped for two hours before emergency service workers could separate him from the pole and remove him from the site.

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Infrastructure consultants AECOM have launched a metric for biodiversity assessment (BA) in Singapore to help calculate the impact on nature of site developments, and plan to expand the tool for the use of developers and civil servants across Southeast Asia.

CEFC and NGC Super Fund back BlackRock's investment in the $1 billion Waratah Super Battery, one of the biggest grid "shock absorbers" in the world.

The post CEFC and super fund pitch in for Blackrock’s massive Waratah “shock absorber” battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Oil and gas companies don’t just have a seat at the Cop table: they are in charge of the table

Earlier this month, the UN announced it will require fossil fuel lobbyists to identify themselves as such when registering for the Cop28 climate summit. The move was applauded by campaigners and politicians alike, but it’s a shockingly small first step towards matching the boldness demanded by UN secretary general, António Guterres, when it comes to rooting out fossil fuel influence. In a speech earlier this month, Guterres called for the phase out of fossil fuels themselves, and said oil majors must “cease and desist influence peddling and legal threats designed to knee-cap progress.”

The UN’s move to transparently label lobbyists at Cop28 looks a lot like damage control after recent embarrassing revelations, such as there having been more oil lobbyists than any one nation’s delegation at Cop26 in Glasgow. But to actually rid Cop of fossil fuel influence, the UN has to go far beyond finally unmasking industry lobbyists; it needs to hold up a mirror to its own enabling behaviour over the years, then reverse all of it.

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Campaigners condemn pollution and shortages as government and regulator discuss possible bailout

Thames Water customers have called for an urgent inquiry into the company’s finances after children became seriously unwell from swimming in the river and homes were left without water during a drought.

Campaigners have expressed astonishment that the company may be bailed out by the taxpayer after it failed to invest appropriately in infrastructure to stop sewage spills and leaks.

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Sumitomo Forestry, a major forestry company in Japan, has begun building an AI model for the management of tropical peatlands through the collaboration between its climate tech joint venture and a Japanese startup.

European carbon prices see-sawed on Wednesday morning, retracing some of Tuesday's gains as sentiment appeared to weaken along with gas and power, before rallying to stand little changed at midday as gas and power prices recovered early losses, while Commitment of Traders data showed that investment funds reversed their net position last week.

Pharma giant AstraZeneca has announced it would invest $400 million to plant over 200 million trees by the end of the decade as part of its plan for reducing carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

Plans drawn up to pay for cost of dealing with sewage crisis and climate emergency

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Water companies are reportedly pushing for bills in England to rise by up to 40% under plans being drawn up to pay for the cost of dealing with the sewage crisis and the climate emergency.

The increases are due to be announced next year and could drive annual bills up from an average of £450 to £680 in parts of the country by the end of the decade, according to a Times report citing consultation documents.

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India on Wednesday released draft rules for a market-based mechanism that will help the country meet a wide range of environmental goals by crediting activities ranging from tree planting and water conservation to waste management, air pollution reduction, and sustainable agriculture.

China has reviewed preliminary results for the construction of a registry and trading system designed for the nation's long-suspended voluntary carbon credit scheme, marking a step closer to the revival of the domestic offset market.