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To build drought resilence, Sydney must invest in rainfall-independent water supplies. Stuart Khan, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Co-legislators for the European Parliament and Council of member states met on Thursday for the first time to kick-off talks to finalise a bill to reform the EU power market, aiming to an end-of-year delivery of the law to shield citizens from higher energy prices.

A coalition of 12 fossil fuel producers have boosted their low carbon investments, emissions reductions, and carbon capture utilisation and sequestration (CCUS) development in 2022, according to an annual progress report released Wednesday.

A Vancouver-based organisation announced Thursday that it will provide C$2.8 million ($2.05 mln) in non-dilutive funding to help develop commercial pathways for measurement, monitoring, and verification (MMV) of carbon management solutions originating from British Columbia.

From the Sycamore Gap to Wrexham’s sweet chestnut, Britain is increasingly vocal about its love of our historic trees

Henry VIII was still on the throne when the shoots of a sweet chestnut first broke through the soil of Wrexham in what is now Acton Park. Copernicus was about to publish his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. The Ming dynasty ruled China. More than 480 years on, the tree stands 24 metres tall and on Wednesday was crowned as tree of the year in the annual Woodland Trust competition. Generations have scavenged its chestnuts, taken the sticks that have fallen for firewood and sheltered beneath its splendid branches. It is not merely part of the landscape; it is part of community life.

This year’s contest highlighted urban trees, particularly vulnerable to felling and disease. There is now a host of evidence on the benefits that trees bring, not only in forests but in cities too. They range from boosting mental health, and even immunity, to reducing noise and air pollution, helping to cool the air, and reducing runoff in heavy rains – increasingly important as global temperatures rise. Beyond those lies the sheer pleasure that people take in them. The instinctive bond people feel was highlighted by the outrage and grief that greeted the overnight felling of the Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian’s Wall last month by unknown vandals. Though practically a sapling compared with Wrexham’s tree – it was planted a mere 130 years ago – it had attracted marriage proposals and scatterings of ashes, as well as starring in countless photographs. Though the stump is expected to regrow, few of us will see anything approaching its former might in our lifetimes.

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The Brazilian Senate Environment committee on Wednesday approved a lawmaker’s request to investigate allegations that linked avoided deforestation carbon credit project developers in Para state with the theft of public lands.

Laying out hydrogen infrastructure and grid connections across the EU will be a gamechanger for the renewable hydrogen sector, industry players said during an online talk on Thursday, a day after a key cross-border EU hydrogen infrastructure plan gained a new major partner.

Around 95% of the world's thermal coal value chain lacks a phaseout commitment and only half of those with exit dates have timelines aligned with the Paris Agreement, according to an NGO-compiled report published on Thursday.

A twice-weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

Next week, the Republic of the Congo will host the Three Basins Summit of tropical forest basins, which account for 80% of the world’s tropical forests, house two-thirds of terrestrial biodiversity, and play an essential role in regulating the global carbon balance. Rarely has there been an event where forests play a more central role than the forthcoming meeting in Brazzaville. The Summit provides a unique opportunity to make the case for a reform of the rules of global public finance to value tropical forests as global climate and biodiversity assets, writes Charlotte Streck in a piece for Ecosystem Marketplace.

Transactions of durable carbon removals have increased by more than 10 times over the past year, according to an annual report from a carbon credit ratings agency, supporting recent data from analysts that there is likely to be a strong future supply of nature-based credits from projects currently in the pipeline.

A shortage of skills in the workforce is one of the greatest obstacles holding back the scaling up of nature-based solutions worldwide, according to a European Commission official.

The UK government has forced asylum seekers to return to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, more than two months after it was evacuated when legionella bacteria were discovered in the water supply. Just Stop Oil protesters managed to stop the coach carrying the men to the vessel in Portland port by blocking the causeway to the island and claimed that the vehicle put their lives in danger by pushing through them. About 50 other local people and campaigners gathered at the gates to the port to object to their return to the facility

• Chaotic scenes as first asylum seekers return to Bibby Stockholm barge

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Concerns are mounting that high debt piles, or a possible global economic recession, could knock the energy transition off course.

‘We need … to maintain our roads in a way that’s fair, and aimed at helping, not hindering, electrification of transport’, says Monique Ryan

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Teal independent MPs have welcomed the high court’s decision to strike down Victoria’s electric vehicle tax, urging the federal government to instead legislate national road-user charges.

Zoe Daniel, Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan and Kylea Tink have all called for road use charges to apply fairly to all vehicles, with a nationally consistent scheme that does not target EVs.

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The state levy was a good example of what not to do to support a transition to EVs, plaintiffs Chris Vanderstock and Kathleen Davies say

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Kathleen Davies remembers driving an electric vehicle in 2012, and how it felt as if she was commuting in a spaceship.

“There were hardly any on the road – it felt quite bizarre,” she says.

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Exclusive: Blueprint Institute says nuclear ban should be lifted, but disagrees with Coalition opposition to green energy rollout

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A centre-right thinktank is calling for “drastically accelerated deployment” of renewable energy, batteries and electricity transmission infrastructure and acknowledged there is no prospect of nuclear energy playing a role in Australia before 2040.

The report by the Blueprint Institute, not yet released but seen in draft form by Guardian Australia, says the ban on nuclear energy should be repealed and argues small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could play a “small but vital role” in minimising costs in reaching net zero emissions in the power grid by 2050.

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India's draft notification on a new ecolabelling scheme is seen by some as bolstering demand for carbon credits among corporates seeking to demonstrate the very highest levels of climate leadership.

The company released wastewater from treatment plants despite overflow levels not being hit

Welsh Water has admitted to spilling untreated sewage near a rare dolphin habitat for at least a decade.

A BBC investigation found the water company had been illegally discharging untreated wastewater at dozens of sewage plants, often for years at a time.

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European carbon prices dropped sharply on Thursday morning, amid continuing weakness in energy markets and after one of the most bearish auctions of the year to date.