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Brutal economic situation has inflicted misery on farmers who struggle to turn a profit and forced some to look for alternative streams of revenue

• Revealed: billionaires are ‘ultimate beneficiaries’ linked to €3bn of EU farming subsidies

When Coen van den Bighelaar first spoke to school friends about taking over their parents’ dairy farms, he was the only one of the four to voice serious doubts. Fresh out of university, he was making more money in a comfortable office than his father did toiling for twice as long in the field.

But six years later, Bighelaar has followed in his parents’ footsteps, while his friends’ enthusiasm has waned. One quit farming to take a job in logistics. Another opened a daycare centre to supplement the income from selling milk. A third is thinking about buying land and moving to Canada.

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Thousands of small farms have closed according to analysis of official but opaque data from EU member states

• ‘We didn’t realise how hard it is’: small farmers in Europe struggle to get by

The European Union gave generous farming subsidies to the companies of more than a dozen billionaires between 2018 and 2021, the Guardian can reveal, including companies owned by the former Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš and the British businessman Sir James Dyson.

Billionaires were “ultimate beneficiaries” linked to €3.3bn (£2.76bn) of EU farming handouts over the four-year period even as thousands of small farms were closed down, according to the analysis of official but opaque data from EU member states.

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Developers are cutting generation from their projects and going with a battery-only approach. Solar is the most affected.

The post Developers quietly shed solar generation to focus on battery only projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia's main grid reached a record renewable share of 47.4 pct for October, while in South Australia wind and solar accounted for an average 85.2 per cent of state demand.

The post Australia reaches record monthly renewable share of 47.4 per cent appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The awards event in South Africa will have emotional connections for the Prince of Wales.

Sixteen hours on overtime the COP16 UN biodiversity talks in Colombia were abruptly suspended, after so many delegates left to catch flights that the meeting could no longer legally make decisions, though before that negotiators had approved a DSI fund and a special body for Indigenous Peoples.

Representatives of 196 countries have been meeting in Cali, Colombia, as part of the COP biodiversity summit.

Plant’s owners hope analysis of tiny sample will help to establish how to safely decommission facility

A piece of the radioactive fuel left from the meltdown of Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been retrieved from the site using a remote-controlled robot.

Investigators used the robot’s fishing-rod-like arm to clip and collect a tiny piece of radioactive material from one of the plant’s three damaged reactors – the first time such a feat has been achieved. Should it prove suitable for testing, scientists hope the sample will yield information that will help determine how to decommission the plant.

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Concerned students press for their high schools – some with $1bn endowments – to reinvest in clean energy

A high school in California has decided not to invest in coal, oil or gas, instead pledging to put money into clean energy. It’s the latest win in a new fossil fuel divestment campus campaign launched by high schoolers across 11 countries that is gaining support in the US.

The Nueva School, an elite private school outside San Francisco, pledged in spring 2024 to invest a portion of its $55m endowment in renewable power. The commitment followed months of pressure from students.

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California lawsuit demands Carefree and parent company Edgewell remove chemicals or add warning label

Carefree menstrual pads are contaminated with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, which presents a threat to the reproductive health of women using the products, a new lawsuit filed in California state court alleges.

The suit demands Carefree and its parent company, personal care product giant Edgewell, remove PFAS from the products or put a warning label on its packaging.

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Use of bird hand-puppets to rear young among innovative methods unveiled as part of project to restore species

Sea eagles were last seen soaring over the shimmering mud flats and brackish tidal waters of the Severn estuary more than 150 years ago. Now wildlife charities have unveiled innovative plans to bring the raptor back to the estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel between south-west England and south Wales, by 2026.

“Sea eagles used to be common in these regions. But they were wiped out through human persecution,” says Sophie-lee Williams, the founder of Eagle Reintroduction Wales, which is leading the project. “We strongly believe we have a moral duty to restore this lost native species to these landscapes.”

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The steep and stark environmental decline was not supposed to happen under the common agricultural policy

The Rhine overflowed last winter, covering fields miles from the river and in some places leaving just the tops of trees visible.

But Thomas Bollig, who farms just a few miles from the banks of the Rhine, was not worried. Even as floods inundated the fields of his neighbours, making sowing impossible, his holdings were largely unaffected. Bollig farms organically, and the natural methods he uses to improve his soil allow his fields to hold more water when it rains, and release it gradually, coping well with floods and droughts.

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Financial entities increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings ahead of the final WCI quarterly auction, while Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) holdings rose amid expectations that a voter initiative to repeal the carbon market will fail at the Nov. 5 election.

Covered emissions under the RGGI regional power sector ETS fell over 3% year-on-year (YoY) in Q3, programme data showed Friday, following two prior quarters of precipitous growth.

Argentina’s carbon industry organisation has partnered with members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate to present a carbon markets bill in both houses of the national legislature, according to local media.

More than 200 deaths and widespread destruction in Valencia are the latest sign of danger in a warming world

The death toll from floods in Spain’s Valencia region has topped 200. A huge clean-up is under way amid desperate conditions, with severe weather warnings still in place. The storms which caused this devastation – with roads turned into muddy rivers, thousands of homes deluged and cars swept into piles – were unprecedented. The gota fría, or “cold drop”, is a regular occurrence when cold autumnal air moves over the warm Mediterranean, causing dense clouds to form. But this rain, according to the Spanish weather service, was 10 times stronger than a normal downpour.

Extreme weather in Spain, and the rest of southern Europe, is more commonly understood to mean dangerous heat, drought and wildfires. The regional government is under attack regarding the lack of sufficient warnings and there is no doubt that the severity of these floods came as a terrible shock.

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From clean industrialisation, to money, to the justness of the energy transition, to the depth of emissions cuts -- the two European Commission candidates most responsible for climate action are preparing to be grilled by parliamentarians on how they expect the EU's next era of climate policy.

Climate damages have been systematically underpriced within the global financial system, leading to a severe underestimation of the economic impact of global warming, according to a new paper presented Friday.

Conservationists warn actions and ambitions of two super powers could lead to overexploitation of vital food source for whales, penguins and seals

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China and Russia are working together to block new Antarctic marine parks and loosen krill fishing restrictions, undermining a major international convention designed to protect the region from overexploitation, according to analysts and conservationists.

With the support of Russia, China reportedly used its veto rights at a meeting of the 26-nation Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Tasmania to prevent the renewal of an agreement restricting krill fishing.

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More than 200 people have died in Valencia and neighbouring provinces after floods hit the east of Spain. According to the country’s national weather agency, Valencia received a year’s-worth of rain on 29 October, causing flash floods that destroyed homes and swept away vehicles

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