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Superyacht and private jet tax could raise £2bn a year, say campaigners

The Guardian - Wed, 2024-09-18 15:00

Oxfam says ‘commonsense solution’ would reduce emissions and raise urgently needed climate finance

Fair taxes on superyachts and private jets in the UK could have brought in £2bn last year to provide vital funds for communities suffering the worst effects of climate breakdown, campaigners say.

Private jet use in the UK is soaring. It was home to the second highest number of private flights in Europe last year, behind only France, according to figures from the European Business Aviation Association.

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‘Butterfly emergency’ declared as UK summer count hits record low

The Guardian - Wed, 2024-09-18 15:00

Conservation group calls on government to ban insect-killing neonicotinoid pesticides outright

A national “butterfly emergency” has been declared by Butterfly Conservation after the lowest Big Butterfly Count since records began.

An average of just seven butterflies per 15-minute count were recorded by participants in this summer’s butterfly count, the lowest in the survey’s 14-year history.

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More floods are coming to Britain, but you ought to know this: the system that should protect us is a scandal | George Monbiot

The Guardian - Wed, 2024-09-18 15:00

A network of public bodies are supposed to safeguard us from flooding. But, like old boys’ clubs, they are bastions of self-interest

Labour’s first stage of government resembles a vast forensic excavation. As it works through the Conservatives’ midden of horrors, it discovers an ever greater legacy of underinvestment, neglect and corruption. However disappointing the new government’s compromises might be, we shouldn’t forget how overwhelming this task must feel.

So I’m sorry to expose yet another toxic stratum. It contains a series of stupendous failures in the governance of rural bodies, which, in the case I want to discuss, put human lives at risk.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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More than £494bn subsidies a year are harmful to the climate, says report

The Guardian - Wed, 2024-09-18 15:00

ActionAid says ‘parasitic behaviour’ is fuelling the climate crisis and represents ‘corporate capture’ of public finance

More than $650bn (£494bn) a year in public subsidies goes to fossil fuel companies, intensive agriculture and other harmful industries in the developing world, new data has shown.

The subsidies entrench high greenhouse gas emissions and are fuelling the destruction of the natural world, according to a report from the charity ActionAid.

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Unpublished Chubb review submission slams Australia’s carbon industry, calls for CAC exit decision to be referred to NACC

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2024-09-18 15:00
A blistering unpublished submission to the Chubb review on Australia's carbon market that was run by local media Wednesday has decried what it said was a “self-congratulatory, inward looking, anti-competitive” industry.
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ARB to decide on shortlist of options to California ETS budget cuts in weeks

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2024-09-18 14:37
California regulator reiterated their commitment to release a 45-day package for the cap-and-trade rulemaking “in weeks” at a conference on Tuesday.
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Supermoon and lunar eclipse delight star gazers

BBC - Wed, 2024-09-18 13:31
The Moon appeared brighter and bigger as it reached its closest point in its orbit around the Earth.
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US IRA tax credits need refined carbon intensity scoring methodology -panel

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2024-09-18 11:57
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should refine carbon scoring systems related to the various clean energy tax credits within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as the agency continues hammering out guidelines for its implementation, a panellist said during a Tuesday conference.
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Wildlife charity declares 'butterfly emergency'

BBC - Wed, 2024-09-18 11:17
The charity is calling on the government to ban pesticides that can harm butterflies and bees.
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Pennsylvania Senate votes to repeal RGGI regulation

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2024-09-18 09:28
Pennsylvania's Republican-majority Senate voted along party lines Tuesday to repeal the state's RGGI regulation, and the proposal will now be sent to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
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Canadian biofuels company to invest $1.4 bln in CCS-equipped US production facility

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2024-09-18 09:09
A Canadian company will invest almost $1.4 billion into a US Gulf Coast renewable biofuels production facility, which will include capacity for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and ability to generate voluntary carbon offsets, it announced Tuesday.
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Climate change is turbo-charging Somalia’s problems - but there's still hope

BBC - Wed, 2024-09-18 09:05
Despite facing a catastrophic combination of challenges, there is optimism in the African country.
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Global spending on subsidies that harm environment rises to $2.6tn, report says

The Guardian - Wed, 2024-09-18 09:01

Exclusive: analysis finds $800bn increase in direct support for activities including deforestation and fossil fuel use

The world is spending at least $2.6tn (£2tn) a year on subsidies that drive global heating and destroy nature, according to new analysis.

Governments continue to provide billions of dollars in tax breaks, subsidies and other spending that directly work against the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the 2022 Kunming-Montreal agreement to halt biodiversity loss, the research from the organisation Earth Track found, with countries providing direct support for deforestation, water pollution and fossil fuel consumption.

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Fossil fuel companies sponsor $5.6bn in global ‘sportswashing’ deals

The Guardian - Wed, 2024-09-18 09:01

Thinktank says funding from oil and gas firms is attempt to ‘divert attention from their role in fuelling the climate crisis’

Fossil fuel companies pumped at least $5.6bn (£4.2bn) of sponsorship money into motorsports, football, golf and even snow sports in an effort to “buy social licence to operate”, according to a new report.

Almost no major spectator sport remains untouched by oil and gas money, according to research carried out by the New Weather Institute (NWI), a climate thinktank, which traced more than 200 sponsorship deals between sports teams and the industry.

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