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Exclusive: Environment Protection Authority says building debris discovered in a sample of recycled mulch, ‘which is not permitted’

• Testing regime meant to stop toxic chemicals going into NSW landscape products gamed by suppliers
• Asbestos mulch locations: map and full list of sites where it has been found
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The environment watchdog says recycled mulch at the centre of New South Wales’ contamination crisis has been found to contain “construction and demolition waste” in contravention of state rules – as well as asbestos.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) found the waste alongside asbestos when testing mulch it said was produced by Greenlife Resource Recovery and used at the Prospect Highway upgrade in Blacktown, Guardian Australia can reveal.

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A climate tech startup is partnering with a chemical producer for the distribution and sale of its first product – a carbon-negative version of acetic acid made using CO2 captured from large emitters.

Shell retired voluntary carbon credits worth around $16.3 million in January as it continued to hog the top spot in retirement activity for the second month in a row, but the energy giant was middle of the pack in terms of value per credit, data showed.

European carbon prices were modestly higher on Tuesday morning as sellers took a break after Monday's big drop, stepping back from the market ahead of the fortnightly break in the auction programme on Wednesday, while energy markets also rallied.

Rooftop solar coupled with batteries will be critical to helping Governments reach their emission reduction goals. 

The post Four reasons rooftop solar will grow to dominate Australia’s electricity market appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A Danish energy developer and a Copenhagen-headquartered nature conservation organisation have teamed up to bolster the protection and restoration of local biodiversity through ensuring that new renewable energy projects will positively impact nature.

Sunak becomes first PM to address conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, as Tories court farming sector

Rishi Sunak has told farmers “I have your back”, at the National Farmers Union conference, as he promised to “change the culture” in government around farming.

Sunak was the first prime minister to address the NFU conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, and took three Defra ministers with him to put the Conservative case to farmers.

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Federal tests of one-third of water systems find 70 million Americans exposed to PFAS – suggesting 200 million affected overall

About 70 million people are exposed to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in US drinking water, new testing from the Environmental Protection Agency has found.

But the testing completed to date has only checked about one-third of the nation’s public water systems, meaning the agency is on pace to find over 200 million people are exposed, or at least 60% of the US population.

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Senior members of the UAE, Azerbaijan, and Brazil governments, the hosts of the three UN COP summits between 2023 and 2025, outlined the focus of a recently announced 'troika' partnership at an IEA event on Tuesday, as the agency also revealed plans to raise cash later this year to solve clean cooking in Africa "for once and for ever" as well as a new climate pledge-tracking mechanism.

Friends of the Earth dismisses government’s revised climate action plan as a ‘pipe dream’

UK ministers are facing court for a second time over plans to meet legally binding climate targets, after environmental groups branded revised measures “a complete pipe dream”.

The government has already been forced to change its climate action plan after a legal challenge by environmentalists, but the same groups are taking it back to court over updated plans they say are “riddled with holes and relian[t] on risky techno-fixes”.

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The UK government’s climate action plan will come under fire in the High Court this week, in a case brought by three NGOs arguing that it is in breach of the country’s legally binding target for net zero emissions by 2050.

Limited resources, inadequate policies, and governance issues are preventing the market under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to gain foothold in South Asia, a study released this week found.

Astronomers report an object that shines with a brightness equivalent to 500 trillion suns.

Astronomers report an object that shines with a brightness equivalent to 500 trillion suns.

Carbon budgets that add up, proper protection for Britain’s land and sea, and replacing GDP with a wellbeing index

• Our writers and experts name the pledges Labour must include in its manifesto

I’m as likely to be selected for the national gymnastics team. But bear with me awhile, to imagine that, like David Cameron, I’m about to be wafted by the UK’s fairytale political system from my garden shed to the benches of the House of Lords, to become Labour’s shadow environment secretary. Here are the three big policies I would try to insert into the party’s manifesto.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and nature-based solutions are highlighted as two sectors in dire need of greater investment to achieve the UK’s net zero target, says a new report, which recommends how the public and private sectors can work together to catalyse higher levels of green finance.

Voters have made their position clear but our politicians are still not talking about how we can change the way we live and work to ease the climate crisis

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The last federal election was less than two years ago but the caravan moves on quickly. With politics dominated by cost-of-living concerns and daily distractions, it’s easy to forget the central role that dissatisfaction with the Coalition’s inaction and doublespeak on the climate crisis played in the result.

It wasn’t the only factor, but an in-depth study found it was the biggest issue in driving voters away from the major parties to independents. It was the second biggest in motivating people who changed their vote to Labor. It stands to reason it was at least as important in the Greens increasing their support and seat count.

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A study on 10 of Australia’s most-prominent companies has found their net zero plans are lagging behind international best practice and largely lack scientific rigour.

A Verra-registered REDD+ project in southern Cambodia has been using inflated baselines stemming from the source of its reference data, leading to over-crediting, according to a report released by a US-based carbon offset ratings agency.

EU co-legislators struck a deal on the EU’s first carbon removal legislation in the early hours of Tuesday morning, in which it maintained distinct definitions for permanent and impermanent carbon activities and aims to set up a bloc-wide registry for units generated under the framework by 2028.