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Just as Darwin’s finches evolved specialised beaks to target prey, 3D modelling of 61 museum specimens reveals albatross beaks vary in size and shape for different diets. They can also drink seawater. Jane Younger, Lecturer, Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, University of Tasmania David Hocking, Adjunct Research Associate, Monash University Josh Tyler, Postgraduate Research Student, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

More than 200 water voles are released in restored habitat in Cumbria, having previously been wiped out.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

A blaze is threatening to reach Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, by the weekend.

California regulator ARB on Wednesday gave further insight regarding the start of its formal rulemaking to amend the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), with opportunities for public comment in advance of the release of the draft package. 

The first-ever Allowance Price Containment Reserve sale in Washington state’s WCI-modelled cap-and-trade programme sold all permits in both tiers, according to results published Wednesday.

The climate emergency is accelerating with breathtaking speed. The Greens and the teals are breathing down Labor’s neck. At this federal Labor conference, Albanese must go further on climate policy. Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A new study shows we can maximise the benefits of green roofs and rooftop solar systems by putting them together on the one roof. Peter Irga, ARC DECRA Fellow and Lecturer in Air and Noise Pollution, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney Eamonn Wooster, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University Fraser R Torpy, Director, Plants and Environmental Quality Research Group, University of Technology Sydney Jack Rojahn, PhD Candidate, Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra Robert Fleck, Research Scientist, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The expansion plans of an Australian coal company could create the equivalent of 100 MtCO2e of GHG emissions from proposed and existing mines, according to new analysis published Thursday.

A lack of national capacity and significant regulatory uncertainty makes for a patchwork of rules between Article 6 and the voluntary carbon market (VCM), industry experts said on Wednesday.

Mass bleaching events go largely unseen, but a quarter of marine species and half a billion humans depend upon reefs

When images of the climate emergency’s impact are so visceral and so widespread, it is easy to neglect what we cannot see. The shocking photographs and video footage of wildfires in Hawaii and Greece, and floods in China, along with the terrible loss of life and testimony from those who fled, are beginning to bring home the contribution of global heating to such disasters – even if people, and especially businesses and governments, may be slow to accept the truth and even slower to act on it.

Yet our eyes cannot fully capture the devastation in Hawaii, and it does not end where its shores meet the sea. Beneath the surface of the water, sediment runoff may smother coral polyps and block sunlight, affecting the growth of colonies, experts warn. This is only one element of a broader disaster now unfolding, which scientists fear may soon be global and yet which has generated relatively little attention or alarm. Corals in countries across Central America, North America and the Caribbean are suffering significant bleaching as they experience unprecedented levels of heat stress due to record ocean temperatures, and there are similar warnings about reefs off northern Vietnam and southern China. In Florida, some sites have reported total loss of all corals.

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A UK-based digital MRV company has underlined the double-layered process of data gathering to be used to establish deforestation baselines as part of Verra's in-development consolidated methodology for the REDD avoided deforestation sector.

The Asia native was found in Georgia, prompting concern that it could devastate important pollinators including the honeybee

A yellow-legged hornet has been found in the US for the first time, prompting concerns among experts about the agricultural threat the invasive Asian species poses, not least to honeybees and other pollinators.

The Georgia department of agriculture (GDA) said a beekeeper in Savannah spotted the insect on his property and reported it to authorities. It was subsequently confirmed as a yellow-legged hornet.

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A London-listed fertiliser and green hydrogen company is targeting carbon credits as a major revenue source for its South American upcoming project.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sectors covered by the EU ETS showed varied signs of decrease in the first months of 2023 as total emissions across the 27-nation bloc as a whole fell by nearly 3% year-on-year, according to EU data released on Wednesday.

An uptick in the forward hedging of EU carbon allowances is likely to have accounted for some of the recent strength in benchmark EUA prices, but analysts point to a bearish remainder of 2023 as power and industrial emissions continue to wane and coal-to-gas fuel switching is also likely to weaken demand.

Further 41 species on course to be declared critically endangered, complicating Albanese government’s zero extinctions target

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Five species, including Tasmania’s Maugean skate, could jeopardise the Albanese government’s zero extinctions target, according to a scientific committee that provides advice on endangered species.

A further 41 species are on course to be declared critically endangered, sparking alarm from environment groups at the pace at which plants and animals are reaching the most urgent status on the threatened list.

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Failure to heed warnings over unchecked growth meant blaze was ‘a disaster waiting to happen’, say scientists and academics

Scientists and academics say they have been warning for several years that invasive grasses covering a quarter of the Hawaii islands are a major fire risk.

Untamed grassland helped fuel the spread and intensity of last week’s deadly fires on the island of Maui, according to experts. The fires, which broke out last Tuesday, have killed at least 106 people and destroyed the island’s historic town of Lahaina.

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There are growing concerns in India that a controversial new forestry act adopted last month will drive deforestation after a state government ordered that a specific forest category was no longer covered by law, even if that order has been put on hold temporarily.

European carbon prices climbed to another August high in morning trade on Wednesday as positioning data showed speculative investors had increased their net short position last week, while energy prices were modestly lower on profit taking after Tuesday's sharp increases.