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Leaders have failed to tackle invasion of sargassum, which may have a bumper year in 2024

Schools evacuated due to toxic gas. Smelly tap water at home. Tourist operators and fishers struggling to stay in business. Job losses. Power outages affecting tens of thousands of people at a time. Dangerous health problems. Even lives lost.

Such crises were some of the consequences of sargassum seaweed in the islands of the Caribbean in 2023, which have become common in the region since 2011, when massive blooms began inundating the shorelines in the spring and summer months.

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A Japanese project developer has entered into an agreement with a Bangkok-based firm for an afforestation project in Thailand under Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), the companies announced Thursday.

A UK waste-to-energy company announced Thursday that it is moving ahead with plans to invest £200 million in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at a site in Wales, which it says will turn the plant into a carbon-negative power producer.

Almost 1.4 million kilometres of roads not marked in official road maps and often built illegally, known as “ghost roads”, are presenting a grave threat to tropical forests in the Asia-Pacific region, researchers have found.

China has introduced state-level regulations governing compensation for ecological protection, as the government aims to encourage the use of market-based instruments such as carbon credit purchases. 

An internal letter to the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) board and CEO has called for the non-profit's chief executive to resign and to reverse the decision to allow companies to use carbon credits to meet Scope 3 emissions targets, Reuters reports.

Global coal capacity rose last year, with China – the world’s largest LNG importer and biggest developer of new solar and wind capacity – accounting for two-thirds of that growth, according to a think tank report published Thursday.

Archaeologists unearth significant new paintings in the ancient Roman town buried by a volcano in AD79.

Environmental market standards are intensifying their push to establish an international framework for plastic credits under the UN plastics treaty, even as experts raise concerns over the viability of recycling at scale.

Visitors to the countryside objecting to a variety of rural noises are such a problem that legislators feel compelled to act

The French parliament is taking aim at noise complaints in the countryside. Lawmakers say they are well acquainted with the problem of residents who have moved to the countryside from the big cities bemoaning the way livestock, church bells and other rural sounds impinge on their newly claimed right to pastoral quiet.

A new law aims to stop these néoruraux (rural newcomers) from taking farmers to court over farming activities that were already happening long before they arrived. Opposition MPs have derided the new bill as hot air, because it mostly just reorganises existing bits of legislation. But what is new is an emphasis on what the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, calls le vivre-ensemble: living together in a respectful way – something I feel is sorely needed.

Dale Berning Sawa is a freelance writer based in London

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Australia’s Climate Change Authority proposed an indicative 2035 emissions reduction target of 65-75% below 2005 levels in an issues paper released Thursday, saying additional actions would need to be taken by all sectors to reach it.

There is plenty already being said about Albanese's Future Made in Australia Act. We round-up some of the reactions to the PM's speech in Queensland.

The post “Ambitious and visionary:” Praise and some skepticism greets green manufacturing Act appeared first on RenewEconomy.

PM's Made in Australia plan could crowd-in private climate capital from the massive super pool and the Big 4 banks.

The post PM’s Made in Australia plan could compel Big 4 banks to unlock $400 billion in sustainable finance appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Wind and solar, coupled with batteries and pumped hydro deliver the lowest cost transition. Nuclear would be slower and vastly more expensive, modelling shows.

The post Coalition nuclear plan would force consumers to wait 20 years longer for 30% higher electricity bills appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Almost a million tonnes of cotton grown on deforested mega estates in Brazil’s biodiverse Cerrado region have been linked to the production of clothing and homeware for two of the world’s largest retailers, finds an investigation by an environmental NGO.

Proper biodiversity conservation requires long-term commitments to protect areas of land and water, as laid down in international guidelines. James Fitzsimons, Adjunct Professor in Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The latest prototype shows energy beams can be directed from Earth, the latest step towards shooting electricity via microwaves from space.

The post Solar farms in space may get real after tests on wireless energy beam appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Concern that the Great Barrier Reef may be suffering the most severe mass coral bleaching event on record has escalated after a conservation group released footage showing damage to the reef deep below the surface.

Dr Selina Ward, a marine biologist and former academic director of the University of Queensland’s Heron Island Research Station, says it is the worst bleaching she had seen in 30 years working on the reef. 'It's absolutely heartbreaking,' she says.

Ward says Australia can't expect to save the reef while opening new fossil fuel developments. 'We really are running out of time. We need to reduce our emissions immediately.'

• Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘most severe’ coral bleaching on record as footage shows damage 18 metres down

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Increase of 2% last year driven by plant expansion in China and slowdown in US and Europe closures

The world’s coal power capacity grew for the first time since 2019 last year, despite warnings that coal plants need to close at a rate of at least 6% each year to avoid a climate emergency.

A report by Global Energy Monitor found that coal power capacity grew by 2% last year, driven by an increase in new coal plants across China and a slowdown of plant closures in Europe and the US.

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Construction is underway on first stage of one of Australia's biggest batteries, designed to support a major data centre and help usher coal off the grid.

The post Quinbrook starts construction of 2GWh Supernode battery, backed by Origin offtake deal appeared first on RenewEconomy.