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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

European carbon finished higher on Thursday, climbing back towards €20 as buyers once again emerged as prices neared the €18 mark.

Twin brothers have been showing off the biggest pumpkin ever to have been grown indoors in the UK.

Continued GHG reductions in the electricity sector contributed to total US emissions dropping by 2.6% in 2017, while states exploring carbon pricing options saw a similar trend last year, according to EPA data released on Wednesday.

RGGI allowances prolonged a two-year high on the secondary market as speculators continued to add support, while California units saw minor gains ahead of the upcoming compliance deadline and auction.

A Michigan state representative introduced a bill Wednesday to expand the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 100% by 2050, just months after major utilities and environmental campaigners agreed to a short-term clean energy compromise.

Switzerland will next year start buying its first international credits to help meet its emission goal under the Paris Agreement, in what will be one of the first emission trades under the pact, a conference heard on Thursday.

Oregon zoo posted images taken during routine health checks.

Bears in Asia are trapped in bile farms, where they are kept in small cages for decades. Edward Narayan, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science; Stress and Animal Welfare Biologist, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Invisible women | Energy efficiency | Car-free holidays | Flu jab | Welsh drama

Re your article (The invisible women, G2, 17 October), as an ex-architect turned design and technology teacher (childcare issues), I contacted the publishers of our A-level textbook to explain that Ray Eames was not the brother of Charles but his wife. Of course, when the next edition was published the same misconception was repeated.
Pat Makinson
Ramsgate, Kent

• Jo Steranka states: “Get rid of your dishwasher – it wastes energy and water” (Letters, 18 October). In fact, a dishwasher uses much less energy and water (as little as one-sixth, with modern machines) than washing by hand. The belief that anything that makes life easier must be worse for the environment is built on unfortunate moralistic foundations.
Colin Ferguson
London

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The American Carbon Registry is seeking a forestry program officer in the US.

Uncontrolled imports spark ‘garbage dump of the world’ fears in Turkey and raise fears over how much is ending up in landfill

Itinerant garbage pickers run down the hilly streets of Istanbul, their trolleys packed with plastic and other waste.

Their haul is a boon for the recycling industry in Turkey. “We collect 80% of the waste from the streets,” said Recep Karaman, head of the street waste collectors association.

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Exclusive: Watchdog examining claims plastic waste is not being recycled but left to leak into rivers and oceans

The plastics recycling industry is facing an investigation into suspected widespread abuse and fraud within the export system amid warnings the world is about to close the door on UK packaging waste, the Guardian has learned.

The Environment Agency (EA) has set up a team of investigators, including three retired police officers, in an attempt to deal with complaints that organised criminals and firms are abusing the system.

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Trio of activists freed from prison after appeal get hero’s welcome at site of anti-fracking protest

On Thursday morning, the day after being released from prison, three environmental activists who became the first people to be jailed for an anti-fracking protest in the UK returned to the Preston New Road fracking site near Blackpool.

Related: I’m out of jail after my fracking protest. But justice has not been done | Simon Roscoe Blevins

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Elon Musk promises more service centres globally, as Tesla opens 50-unit charging station in Hong Kong - the biggest to date in Asia.

The post Tesla to fill “geographic gaps” on EV service centres in 2019 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Kitty Hawk, the air taxi company started by Google's co-founder Larry Page, and Air New Zealand, means autonomous, electric air taxis could soon be a thing.

The post Autonomous, electric air taxis set to land in NZ soon appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator last month accredited the highest levels of new renewable energy capacity since Apr. 2001, confirming the nation is all but certain to meet its 2020 large-scale Renewable Energy Target (RET).

Palau hopes to kick its diesel energy dependence with the addition of 35MW of solar and 45MWh of storage.

The post Engie to build world’s largest microgrid in Republic of Palau appeared first on RenewEconomy.

WA government-owned network operator Western Power and retailer Synergy will connect a 105kW/420kWh Tesla battery to the grid in Meadow Springs, a suburb of Mandurah.

The post Tesla grid battery to be tested in WA’s top solar postcode appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Burtynsky’s unsettling large-scale images of industrial-scale extraction, urbanisation and deforestation reveal humanity’s devastating impact on the planet

• The exhibition will run at Flowers Gallery London from 17 Oct - 24 Nov
  

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