Feed aggregator

Australia’s lack of transparency and funding leave it on the outer as researchers worldwide explore alternatives for training, study and testing

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A global shift in scientific and medical research is under way as countries hope to phase out experimentation on animals – but Australia risks being left behind.

The transition from using animals to alternatives based on human cells, tissue and data is driving multibillion-dollar growth in new technologies and methods. However, industry leaders and insiders warn Australia will miss those opportunities due to a lack of funding, opaque record keeping and national inconsistencies.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Some conservationists believe the ‘incineration industry’ is trying to gain a foothold in Australia and say the trend will end up damaging the environment

Australia’s first major waste-to-energy power plant has begun accepting rubbish, marking the start of a contentious nationwide shift towards burning household refuse to generate electricity.

At least 10 developments are under way across the country, sparking concern from some conservationists who argue the trend will be environmentally damaging and at odds with plans to develop a circular economy.

Continue reading...

A damning picture emerges from a public hearing into the failure of Oceangate’s Titan submersible.

Research also reveals that a mixture of arable crops and cattle helps improve the biodiversity of the land

Cows may belch methane into the atmosphere at alarming rates, but new data shows they may play an important role in renewing farm soil.

Research by the Soil Association Exchange shows that farms with a mixture of arable crops and livestock have about a third more carbon stored within their soil than those with only arable crops, thanks to the animals’ manure.

Continue reading...

Conservationists celebrate as efforts to save the Caretta caretta sea turtle, which has existed for 100m years, pay off

After nearly a quarter of a century observing one of the world’s most famous sea turtle nesting grounds, Charikleia Minotou is convinced of one thing: nature, she says, has a way of “sending messages”.

Along the sandy shores of Sekania, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, what she has seen both this year and last, has been beyond her wildest dreams. The beach, long described as the Mediterranean’s greatest “maternity ward” for the Caretta caretta loggerhead sea turtle, has not only record numbers of nests, but record numbers of surviving hatchlings as the species makes an extraordinary resurgence.

Continue reading...

Supporters rally to Rachel Kyte after criticism of appointment over link to investment firm Quadrature Capital

The UK’s new climate envoy will retain her role on the board of a charity whose founders made a multimillion-pound donation to the Labour party and have investments in fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned.

Rachel Kyte, the former World Bank climate chief who was announced as the UK’s special representative on climate this week, is on the climate advisory board of Quadrature Climate Foundation, a charity set up by the founders of the Quadrature Capital investment company.

Continue reading...

An ongoing build-up of V25 California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings comes at the expense of V24s, while RGGI traders reduce exposure as allowance prices in the secondary market decline from summer peaks, according to this week's data released Friday from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The US Department of Energy (DOE) plans to fund up to $1.3 billion in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects, according to a Notice of Intent (NOI) issued on Friday.

Industry opposition to Oregon’s proposed Climate Protection Program (CPP) remained muffled amid strong voices of support for the scheme, although the state’s Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) continues to explore potential avenues for revisions as the programme regulator concluded its final discussions ahead of the rule proposal.

For months a huge iceberg blocked the path of hundreds of penguin chicks but somehow they survived.

Brazil's Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) recommendation to suspend REDD+ activities in the state of Amazonas has been temporarily halted by an oversight committee despite MPF objections.

The private sector is poised to take an increasingly important role in achieving global decarbonisation tasks, according to speakers at the New York edition of the World Climate Summit 2024 on Wednesday, in line with Climate Week NYC programming.

A bipartisan group of representatives in the US House of Representatives introduced legislation Friday that would enable the year-round sale of E15 fuels at retail gas stations across the nation.

Impending federal elections and investment enthusiasm for carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) are weighing on Canadian emissions trading systems, experts discussed during Climate Week NYC on Thursday.

California ARB’s proposed 15-day notice for its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) draft rules issued last month disproportionately restricts or constrains market access, a webinar heard Thursday, with expectations for credit prices based on potential adjustments to the regulator's highly anticipated second 15-day notice package.

More than 16 million people under heat alerts on Friday, with Las Vegas on 102nd day of temperatures above 100F

Brutal heat continues to plague the south-west US, with excessive heat alerts lingering long into September as parts of the region set grim new records for deaths connected to the sweltering temperatures.

Autumn has offered little reprieve for cities that have already spent months mired in triple-digit temperatures. This week, Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; and Palm Springs, California, are all grappling with severe weather, with highs that have pushed over 100F (38C). More than 16 million people in the US were under heat alerts on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, mostly clustered in the southern tips of Nevada, Arizona and California.

Continue reading...

A buyers’ club for jurisdictional REDD (J-REDD) credits announced a R$1 billion ($180 million) offtake agreement with a Brazilian state at Climate Week NYC despite its government’s ongoing bias toward mining and agribusiness, Indigenous leaders have said.

The European Commission will apply a 25% cap on sourcing electrolyser stacks from China in the next auction of its Hydrogen Bank, but local content requirements remain controversial, participants heard at the EU's cleantech summit this week.

Iceland-based International Carbon Registry (ICR) is about to launch consultations for its biodiversity credit framework, planning to onboard 10 pilot projects within a couple of months, the initiative's chief scientist told Carbon Pulse.

Record floods propel aggressive Mozambique tilapia throughout Mary River, compromising efforts to save ancient fish and endangered turtles

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Record floods have propelled an aggressive invasive fish species across a south-east Queensland river catchment, compromising efforts to save endangered and ancient fishes and turtles.

The Moonaboola (Mary) river catchment is home to several threatened species, including the Mary River turtle, the white-throated snapping turtle (known for breathing through its bottom), the Mary River cod and the Australian lungfish, which has survived for 150m years and is considered a living fossil.

Continue reading...