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The return of Trump demands extreme watchfulness. But effective vigilance also requires energy and strength, mental and emotional recharge and balance

A long walk in the mountains last weekend brought sudden perspective to just how heavily the shoutiness and anger was weighing.

Suddenly there was only birdsong, the rustling tree canopies, the gentle burbling of the Snowy River and the wind whispering through the trunks of ancient ghost gums. This was anything but a quiet quietness. But it was the sound of a serenity that only nature can gift – a noise of extreme unplugged-ness if you like.

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A bipartisan US senate bill introduced on Thursday would establish a new tax credit to support the CO2 removal (CDR) industry beyond applications of the existing 45Q tax credit.

Construction begins on the biggest battery in the ACT, as plans also emerge for an even bigger battery at Hazelwood, near the shuttered coal fired power station.

The post Construction begins at giant battery in ACT, as plans unveiled for even bigger battery at Hazelwood appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) on Thursday unanimously approved the proposed Climate Protection Program (CPP), effectively reinstating the GHG reduction scheme after it was invalidated last year.

There has been a “real change” in UK energy policy under the new Labour government, the director of a UK renewables advocacy told an industry conference on Monday.

Like big, tall trees in old-growth forests, older animals are irreplaceable. Pulling them out leaves the ecosystem less resilient to future shocks. It’s time for ‘longevity conservation’ measures. Keller Kopf, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Charles Darwin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

An 11-kilometre long tornado scar was discovered on the Nullarbor Plain. Without the power of technology, it would have gone unnoticed. Matej Lipar, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Rich country budgets are stretched amid inflation, Covid and Ukraine war, Mary Robinson tells Cop29

Poor countries may have to compromise on demands for cash to tackle global heating, a former UN climate envoy has said, as UN talks entered their final hours in deadlock.

In comments that are likely to disappoint poorer countries at the Cop29 summit, Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and twice a UN climate envoy, said rich country budgets were stretched amid inflation, Covid and conflicts including Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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Researchers identify collision hotspots around world but reveal almost all these lack preventive measures

Collisions between whales and ships can prove fatal for the marine mammals, but researchers say expanding mitigation measures to just 2.6% of the ocean’s surface would reduce the chance of such strikes in all risk hotspots.

While experts say many whale-ship collisions go unobserved and unreported, making it difficult to put a figure on the scale of the problem, some estimates suggest tens of thousands of the animals are killed each year.

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Climate crisis, habitat loss and poaching have reduced its numbers – but will Trump put the kibosh on protections?

They are the tallest animal to roam the Earth and have become an icon of children’s books, toys and awed wildlife documentaries. But giraffes are in decline, which has prompted the US government to list them as endangered for the first time.

Giraffes will be listed under the US Endangered Species Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed in a move that will cover five subspecies of the animal. The agency hopes the listing will crack down on the poaching of giraffes, as the US is a leading destination of rugs, pillowcases, boots, furniture and even Bible covers made from giraffe body parts.

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Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has pledged to phase out all of the country’s coal-fired and fossil fuel-based power plants over the next 15 years.

Norway will join a fund from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that seeks to provide carbon finance to developing countries in Asia Pacific to support Article 6 projects, the country announced at COP29 on Wednesday, pledging $50 million to the effort.

The COP29 global climate summit enters its last day on Friday amid widespread frustration surrounding negotiations over a new global climate finance target, as a headline sum is yet to emerge.

Carbon pricing in the buildings sector can be fully offset, even for hardship cases where households face significant financial burdens from climate policy measures, according to research published on Wednesday.

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (ICVCM) recent approval of three REDD+ methodologies paid special attention to the environmental and social safeguards of Indigenous and local communities, an ICVCM senior expert said Thursday.

Brazilian public prosecutors asked a federal court this week to suspend carbon credit concessions launched by the state of Amazonas, citing concerns around potential violations of Indigenous rights, according to a national media outlet.

Some 13% of companies that are offsetting their emissions are applying the resulting credits to 100% or more of their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The EU’s Green Claims Directive, currently under negotiation in Brussels, could go some way towards restoring trust in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), provided that policymakers do it right and don’t overstretch their mandate, experts say.

New oil and gas fields are less carbon-intensive than old ones because they use state-of-the-art technology, providing significant decarbonisation gains, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a new report published on Thursday.