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Several project developers and proponents have come out to demonstrate the positive impact of REDD+ projects in recent days, as new studies emerge that are critical of baseline assessments.

The release of water from the Japanese nuclear plant has already caused the price of produce from surrounding coastal areas to drop

Awa-jinja is a place of pilgrimage for the more superstitious fishers of Shinchi-machi, a coastal town in Fukushima, who come here to lower their heads and ask the Shinto gods to look kindly on them as they prepare to steer their boats into the vast Pacific Ocean.

Today, though, the “safe waves” implicit in the shrine’s name are of little concern to the men and women coming to the end of the working day at the town’s fishing port.

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Ireland is working towards adopting a similar code to the UK’s Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) to incentivise reforestation and afforestation projects, according to an Irish property developer looking to offset its residual emissions by financing tree planting on its home turf.

A state government in India has issued an official resolution as a protest against the forest act recently passed by the federal parliament, amid concerns it could drive deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Oil, gas and coal benefited from $7tn in support in 2022 despite being primary cause of climate crisis

Fossil fuels benefited from record subsidies of $13m (£10.3m) a minute in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund, despite being the primary cause of the climate crisis.

The IMF analysis found the total subsidies for oil, gas and coal in 2022 were $7tn (£5.5tn). That is equivalent to 7% of global GDP and almost double what the world spends on education. Countries have pledged to phase out subsidies for years to ensure the price of fossil fuels reflects their true environmental costs, but have achieved little to date.

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For as long as our coast remains polluted and food is plentiful in urban areas, we will have these noisy neighbours

I used to hear sparrows, starlings, wood pigeons and robins. Now, summer’s small hours are dominated by a chorus fit for a seafarer: herring gulls mostly, narrating the day from their urban stoops. “Oh, how lovely!”, wistful colleagues say. “I feel like I’m at the seaside during a call with you.” And yet, I am not at the seaside. I am in Exeter city centre, 10 miles from the coast.

Our relationship with gulls is complicated. From Viking superstition to British Vogue’s latest cover, these seabirds have long been allied with truth, cunning, good fortune and endurance, while simultaneously being regarded as the ultimate urban antagonist.

Sophie Pavelle is a writer and science communicator

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Median level of PFAS was 88% higher for Asian Americans than non-Hispanic whites, research using novel method shows

Asian Americans likely have much higher levels of “forever chemicals” in their blood than other US races and ethnicities, research using a novel method for measuring PFAS exposure finds.

The peer-reviewed study factored sociodemographic, dietary and behavioral characteristics into its algorithm, which makes it more sensitive to exposure differences among cultures than the standard methods used by the US government and most of the scientific community.

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European carbon markets continued to track retreating gas prices on Thursday, with reports that industrial strike action at a key LNG export plant in Australia has now been averted.

A 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).

Implementing aligned policies across ministries and avoiding vested interests will be a key factor for governments as they hammer out strategies to meet the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)'s 30x30 target, according to a report led by WWF US released this week.

India can go from being a local wind power player to a global export hub with the right policy support, the Global Wind Power Energy Council (GWEC) said in a report released Thursday.

China's Guangdong province has released a comprehensive work plan to expand the scope of its carbon market by the end of this decade, as the economic hub aims to realise its climate goals and retain industry competitiveness.

The governments of the US, Norway, and Gabon have joined the UN, Interpol, and a range of civil society organisations in setting up a global alliance to fight nature-related crime.

An Australia carbon project developer has signed a development agreement with a Traditional Owner organisation to develop eight projects, generating millions of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) in South Australia, it announced Thursday.

People were overwhelmingly in favour of stopping oil drilling in Yasuní national park. Can this success be replicated elsewhere in the world?

Joy and hope are all too rarely associated with the environmental movement, but both have been in abundant supply since Ecuador’s people voted on Sunday to keep the country’s oil in the subsoil of the Yasuní national park. The question now is whether this is a one-off triumph, or something that can be replicated in other countries.

The referendum result obliges the state oil company to dismantle operations – 12 drilling platforms and 225 wells that produce up to 57,000 barrels a day – in block 43 of the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) project, an area of the Amazon rainforest famed for its ecological diversity, and which is home to two tribes that live in voluntary isolation. With more than 5.4 million votes in favour of halting production and 3.7 million against, this is the most decisive democratic victory against the fossil fuel industry in Latin America and, arguably, the world.

Jonathan Watts is the Guardian’s global environment editor

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An Australian carbon project developer specialising in environmental plantings is in the process of A$3 million to fund the next stage of growth, as it targets 30,000 hectares of plantings by 2030.

Public interest in climate change and global warming peaks after bushfires and lasts for months, research reveals. But Australians do not respond to storms and floods in the same way. Christopher Crellin, PhD Student / FNRS Aspirant, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) Robert MacNeil, Lecturer in Environmental Politics, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Greek firefighters have been struggling for five days to contain deadly wildfires throughout the country, several of them bordering an acrid, smoke-filled Athens

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The shift to renewables will not be cheap, the Intergenerational Report confirms, but it won’t cost nearly as much as it did to set up Australia’s fossil gas industry.

The post Shift to renewables will be cheaper than cost of setting up gas industry, says Chalmers appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW Greens call for climate act that sets a net zero target for 2035, as the Labor government ponders extending the life of the country's biggest coal fired generator.

The post Greens push for 2035 net zero target in NSW as Labor sweats over Eraring closure appeared first on RenewEconomy.