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Exclusive: Restoration fund in England could be ‘siphoned off’ to be used for general government spending, not repairing rivers

Rachel Reeves’s Treasury is looking to keep millions of pounds levied on polluting water companies in fines that were meant to be earmarked for sewage cleanup, the Guardian has learned.

The £11m water restoration fund was announced before the election last year, with projects bidding for the cash to improve waterways and repair damage done by sewage pollution in areas where fines have been imposed.

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Shifting responsibility to consumers minimises the role of energy industry and policymakers, University of Sydney research suggests

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It’s not unusual to see individuals championed as heroes of climate action, with their efforts to install rooftop solar and buy electric cars promoted as pivotal in the fight to save the planet.

Hero figures can motivate others to follow suit, but a University of Sydney study suggests the way the energy sector shapes this narrative sets individuals up to fail.

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Sifting for bottles together never gets old – it’s the idea that something so fragile could have survived for so long in one piece and in one place

My family and I have a weird hobby. We like to dig for old bottles. It’s something we stumbled upon, quite literally, one soggy weekend.

On a visit to the family farm, we were exploring a shady gully below the house, where an occasional creek meandered down the hill. One of the kids tripped on a jutting ridge in the mud. Dug up and sluiced out, the object revealed itself to be a round, honey-hued medicine bottle.

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United Utilities has dropped legal fight to block access to data on the discharge of treated sewage in Lake District

The water company United Utilities has conceded defeat in its legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District.

Company officials initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at a main sewage treatment works at the lake was not environmental information. The company also wanted to block access to data from Cunsey Beck, a site of special scientific interest, which flows into Windermere.

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More sightings may be a positive sign for growing population but also indicative of effect of climate change

The slap of an enormous tail upon grey waters as a humpback whale leaps from the sea is becoming an increasingly possible – although still rare – natural thrill around Britain.

The 30-tonne, 15 metre-long migratory giants are being spotted in growing numbers and locations this winter from Kent to the Isles of Scilly.

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While California’s cap-and-trade programme raised energy costs in 2023, lawmakers have a number of policy options to use revenues to better support consumers through the energy transition, the state’s carbon market watchdog said Thursday.

The City of New York has effectively lost its lawsuit against several oil giants, failing to prove their claim that the companies misled consumers in marketing of climate-friendly practices, according to a decision filed in state court on Tuesday.

The Attorney General of Texas led 22 other states in a lawsuit against the US EPA, alleging that the agency exceeded its authority in implementing a fee for excess methane emissions.

The invalidation period of about 3 million credits expired during California regulator ARB’s first bi-weekly compliance-eligible offset issuance of 2025, agency data showed.

Financial entities reduced net length in V25 California Carbon Allowances (CCA), RGGI Allowances (RGA), and Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LFS) futures and options as volatility spiked in the secondary market, according to data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

Gas from the seafloor has scientists wondering if oxygen could be found in the oceans of other planets.

Tweaking conventional building materials to absorb CO2 could boost carbon storage capacity to half of the world’s emissions annually, a new scientific study estimated.

Forest-rich Gabon has launched a sovereign carbon initiative that will require air travel and shipping operators to pay a $17-per-tonne emissions "contribution" to cover some of their climate impact from journeys to and from the African country, as well as provisions linked to offsetting using CORSIA-eligible credits.

The rocket's upper stage disintegrated over the Caribbean, forcing airline flights to alter course.

The US DOE awarded a $1.7 billion loan guarantee to a New York-based green hydrogen company close to one year after the company suffered from cashflow issues that nearly sent it into bankruptcy.

Higher issuances of more recent vintages as well as soaring interest in cookstove credits are among the key takeaways from the VCM in 2024, a year marked by an historic deal on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, according to a report published on Friday.

A record number of new entrants in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in 2024 offers a positive signal, despite lacklustre overall volumes and weak price movement.

Austria will abolish its climate bonus as part of a €6.4 billion budget cut announced Thursday by its new coalition government, which brings together centre-right and far-right parties.

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Verra was inundated with comments from stakeholders in response to a wide ranging survey on the core concepts of its Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Programme, it revealed Friday.