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A UK-based carbon credit insurer on Thursday announced its clients can now get paid out in replacement offsets, after the company amassed four partners to build a pool of units with which to settle claims.

Multilateral development banks provided worldwide climate finance of almost $100 billion in 2022, up from $82 bln in 2021, with a record more than $60 bln going to low and middle-income countries, according to a report released Thursday.

London-based exchange ICE has seen its first trades in its newly-launched CORSIA-eligible carbon credits, transactions that give an early indication of how correspondingly-adjusted units will be valued.

The EU should first test whether its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) delivers on its objectives of reducing emissions in third party countries and providing carbon leakage protection for European industry, before expanding its scope within existing, or to additional, sectors, an industry representative said on Thursday.

Officials from Brazil's first homegrown carbon offset standards body will bring in smaller landowners and promote conservation across the country by reducing the significant time and costs involved in applying for credit certification.

Shipping companies may try to avoid paying carbon costs for their routes by engaging in ship-to-ship transfer of their liquid cargo at sea, a maritime industry expert told an audience at the Carbon Forward conference on Thursday.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has teamed up with infrastructure provider Xpansiv to allow local participants to buy or sell carbon credits and renewable energy certificates held in either local or global registries.

The second funding round organised by the Modern Cooking Facility for Africa (MCFA) initiative will open at the end of November with €16 million up for grabs, designed to provide finance to scale clean cooking solutions across seven African countries.

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) is putting together a buyers club for biodiversity credits to be launched early next year with several major companies already signed up ahead of what is planned to be a pilot auction to be held at an undecided date next year.

Australian and Chinese researchers whose worked delivered the stunning cost reductions in solar PV presented with world's top engineering prize.

The post Australian solar pioneers presented with world’s top engineering prize appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Gianluca Grimalda says he was fired when he refused to return at short notice from Solomon Islands research trip by plane

A climate researcher who refused to comply with his employer’s demand to fly at short notice back to Germany from the Solomon Islands says he has been fired from his job.

Gianluca Grimalda is still waiting in Bougainville for a cargo ship, set to depart on Saturday, to begin his return journey to Europe, after six months investigating the impacts of climate breakdown and globalisation on the island’s inhabitants.

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More than 60% of EU companies say they have experienced losses due to climate change, an increase on last year, but only around half of those firms are taking action to build climate resilience amid increasingly stringent financial conditions across the region, according to a report released Thursday.

My company in Germany has demanded my swift return from climate-change fieldwork near Papua New Guinea. I can’t do it

Two weeks ago, my employer presented me with a stark ultimatum: return to my offices in Kiel, Germany, within five days, or lose my job. I am a climate researcher and since March 2023, I have been completing vital fieldwork into the social impact of climate change almost 24,000km away by overland routes, on the island of Bougainville off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

My fieldwork had been mired in unforeseeable problems, from natural disasters to security threats, and my employer was, unsurprisingly, unhappy that my return had been delayed by many weeks. The urgency of their request to return meant I would have to jump on a plane if I was to meet the deadline; but for me, this was not an option. I have been practising conscientious objection to flying for more than 10 years. My employer has supported me on a “slow trip” in the past. I do not boycott flying altogether, but I will only catch a plane when no other alternative exists.

Gianluca Grimalda, formerly senior researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, is a social scientist interested in social cohesion and adaptation to climate change

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European carbon prices were modestly higher in thin trading on Thursday morning as energy prices resumed their upward march with natural gas rising to a seven-month high and triggering short covering that briefly took EUAs above a key level.

France has extended the life of two coal fired generators to help meet expected power shortages this winter as it struggles with reliability in its ageing nuclear fleet.

The post Nuclear dependent France extends life of coal generators to avoid winter blackouts appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Climate Change Committee also says rowing back on climate policies has harmed investment into UK

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Rishi Sunak’s reversals on key climate policies have damaged the UK’s ability to meet its carbon-cutting goals and will keep energy bills high for millions of households, with the effect of “making net zero considerably harder to achieve”, the UK’s climate watchdog has warned.

Rowing back on policies to phase out gas boilers and petrol and diesel vehicles, and the general sense that the government is “weakening its commitments” to shifting to a green economy, have also harmed the prospects of inward investment into the UK, and sent adverse signals to consumers, businesses and other governments.

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The UK's climate advisers say recent changes to net zero policies make it harder to meet climate goals.

UK has led the way, with countries across the continent making mass arrests, passing draconian new laws and labelling activists as eco-terrorists

Human rights experts and campaigners have warned against an intensifying crackdown on climate protests across Europe, as Guardian research found countries across the continent using repressive measures to silence activists.

In Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK, authorities have responded to climate protests with mass arrests, the passing of draconian new laws, the imposing of severe sentences for non-violent protests and the labelling of activists as hooligans, saboteurs or eco-terrorists.

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Guardian investigation finds growing number of countries passing anti-protest laws as part of playbook of tactics to intimidate people peacefully raising the alarm

As wildfires and extreme temperatures rage across the planet, sea temperature records tumble and polar glaciers disappear, the scale and speed of the climate crisis is impossible to ignore. Scientific experts are unanimous that there needs to be an urgent clampdown on fossil fuel production, a major boost in renewable energy and support for communities to rapidly move towards a fairer, healthier and sustainable low-carbon future.

Many governments, however, seem to have different priorities. According to climate experts, senior figures at the UN and grassroots advocates contacted by the Guardian, some political leaders and law enforcement agencies around the world are instead launching a fierce crackdown on people trying to peacefully raise the alarm.

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