Feed aggregator

A Nevada-based mineral exploration company announced Thursday it is continuing to develop a business plan for rangeland soil carbon sequestration projects and is now beginning to explore a potential biochar initiative.

The world’s oceans are getting hotter, quicker. And our marine species are seeking cooler waters. Keep your eyes peeled and you might spot one of these species on the move. Gretta Pecl, Professor, ARC Future Fellow & Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania Curtis Champion, Research Scientist, Southern Cross University Zoe Doubleday, Marine Ecologist and ARC Future Fellow, University of South Australia Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) values faded to a two-month low this week that traders attributed to surging volumes of biomass-based diesel and financial players taking a breather.

The Paris conference shows the climate crisis is no time for the tranquillising drug of gradualism

The International Energy Agency in 2021 had an unambiguous message: developing new fossil fuel resources is incompatible with restricting global heating to below 1.5C, a threshold beyond which the most disastrous climate impacts lie. Yet the oil and gas industry isn’t listening. Last year it committed half a trillion dollars for new capital expenditure on future drilling and extraction, while making outrageous profits of $4tn. Business as usual will destroy life as we know it.

Energy is fundamental for development and meeting basic needs. But producing it from coal, oil and gas is simultaneously the cause of the climate emergency. Clearly the issues of climate, energy and development must be addressed in an interconnected way. This is very difficult against a post-Covid backdrop when poor nations have record levels of debt. In the wake of the Ukraine invasion, rising interest rates have caused the dollar to surge – raising the cost of meeting loan repayments which are often denominated in the US currency. African nations spend up to five times their health budgets on debt obligations.

Continue reading...

Move at Paris summit on global finance will only apply to repayments on new loans

Poor countries will be able to pause their debt repayments if hit by climate disaster, under plans announced by the World Bank at the finance summit in Paris.

The international development organisation said it would insert new clauses in any agreements with developing countries, allowing them to suspend debt payments in the case of extreme weather events, starting with some of the poorest and most vulnerable nations.

Continue reading...

A platform being developed by Bloomberg Philanthropies to bring greater standardisation and transparency to climate data will launch its pilot before year-end COP28 UN climate talks, with information on carbon credits to be included in 2024, a senior member of the project told the Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact on Thursday.

A Greek cement producer is urging the EU to add export provisions to its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), with the nation's export-focused sector left acutely exposed at the EU's south-eastern edge.

Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems could collapse ‘very soon’, researchers warn

Ecological collapse is likely to start sooner than previously believed, according to a new study that models how tipping points can amplify and accelerate one another.

Based on these findings, the authors warn that more than a fifth of ecosystems worldwide, including the Amazon rainforest, are at risk of a catastrophic breakdown within a human lifetime.

Continue reading...

Some EU shipowners may opt for their vessels to steer clear of European waters in the early stages of their inclusion in the bloc's carbon market next year due to their lack of preparation, a conference heard on Thursday. 

Exposure to nature in inner Melbourne has left her with stories, experiences and life skills before she starts school next year

The first time I dropped off my three-year-old at bush kinder, she was in a T-shirt and sandals. In hindsight, it was such a rookie error. Of course she needed long sleeves and closed shoes. The teacher explained that long sleeves provided better protection. If there were any cuts or nicks, a bit of coverage could make a difference.

I never made that mistake again. There was a lot to learn at bush kinder, a kindergarten program held in the parklands of inner Melbourne. The theory behind it was great: nature play improves children’s wellbeing, social and emotional development, cognitive language and physical skills – a string of nice words that I definitely wanted for my daughter. But really I was mainly glad she was outside. No screens. No toys. No equipment. Just what she needed after two years of lockdowns.

Continue reading...

Research allays fears that rapid scaling back of production would hit people’s savings and pensions hard

A rapid reduction in fossil fuels, essential to avoid devastating climate breakdown, would have minimal financial impact on the vast majority of people, new research has shown.

Urgently cutting back on fossil fuel production is essential to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown and the economic and social turmoil that would ensue. However, some opponents of climate action claim it is too expensive. They argue that rapidly scaling back fossil fuel production would leave billions of pounds of “stranded assets”, leading to an economic slump that would impoverish the public through a fall in the value of savings and pension funds.

Continue reading...

Senegal has inked a deal with members of the European Union, the UK, and Canada in which the West African country will receive €2.5 billion to help it achieve a target of 40% of installed electricity capacity from renewables by 2030, the country's president announced at the Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact on Thursday.

Scientists have warned that a marine heatwave off the coasts of the UK and Ireland poses a serious threat to species. Sea temperatures, particularly off the north-east coast of England and the west of Ireland, are several degrees above normal, breaking records for late spring and early summer. The Met Office has said that according to records dating to 1850, global sea surface temperatures in April and May reached an all-time high, and June is likely to follow suit. A professor of Earth sciences, Daniela Schmidt, said 'the extreme and unprecedented temperatures show the power of the combination of human-induced warming and natural climate variability like El Niño'. Experts said marine heatwaves have a similar impact on the environment as wildfires on land, destroying organisms that store carbon such as kelp. The damage caused is also harmful to humanity, which relies on oceans for oxygen, storm protection and food

• ‘Unheard of’ marine heatwave off UK and Irish coasts poses serious threat

Continue reading...

A coalition of consumer advocacy groups has lodged a formal complaint to the European Commission and consumer protection authorities against 17 airlines, including major carriers such as Ryanair, Lufthansa, and Air France, over their sustainability claims.

European carbon prices clawed back early losses after the market had started the day by extending Wednesday's decline and the daily auction cleared at a sizeable discount, before speculative buyers emerged to fuel a rally towards midday, while energy markets were weaker for a second day.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed the world moves towards a global carbon pricing system to close the gap in climate finance and channel funding to developing economies and those to be the most impacted by global warming, speaking at the Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact.

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).

France and the UK announced on Thursday they are initiating a broad consultative process for the creation of an international biodiversity market with the intention of having a framework ready by the UN's COP16 summit in Turkey next year.

A think-tank has called for the UK to set up a new office for carbon removals, which it says will be key to the effective governance of scaling technologies considered crucial for net zero goals.

Court has been told states are legally responsible for tackling sector’s emissions as IMO talks loom

Governments are coming under growing pressure to tackle the huge climate impact of the shipping industry, ahead of a key International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in the summer.

With talks about regulating the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions looming, the world maritime court has been told that states are legally responsible for tackling the climate impact of shipping.

Continue reading...