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An academic discussion paper has questioned the veracity of the REDD+ carbon projects being developed in Papua New Guinea and argued regulations being introduced to manage them will do little to improve their governance.

A French start-up is ready to use an enzyme which can break down plastic on an industrial scale.

Gordon Brown leads those signing letter to Cop28 and G20 presidents calling for levy to help fill ‘loss and damage’ fund

The bumper revenues of oil-producing states should be subject to a $25bn levy to help pay for the impact of climate disasters on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, a group of former world leaders and leading economists has said.

Seventy international figures led by the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown signed a letter calling for the measure before a crucial UN climate summit, Cop28, that begins in Dubai on Thursday. The signatories include 25 former prime ministers or presidents.

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The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) issued new guidance for carbon credit-buying firms on Tuesday, lowering some of its thresholds and floating a new claim concept that would enable some carbon credits to be used to meet value chain emissions targets.

Global methane emissions from coal mines may be twice as high as reported by governments, according to analysis by global energy think tank Ember.

Compliance entities and speculators shortened their net length of California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI Allowance (RGA) holdings, while Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) net holdings for both groups remain short, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Monday.

The Australian government has mastered the contradictory dance of committing to net zero while also approving new coal, oil and gas projects. It has to stop.

The post Why we need a fossil fuel non proliferation treaty  appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Graphite Energy breaks ground on a $29 million renewable energy and storage precinct in New South Wales, designed to power sustainable agriculture.

The post Works begin on energy precinct combining agrivoltaics, battery storage and hydrogen appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Dozens of ‘small modular reactor’ designs are being promoted, but precious few will reach construction stage and likelihood of SMRs being built in large numbers is negligible.

The post Small modular nuclear reactors: a history of failure appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Using a ‘grid of grids’ network, New Zealand’s growing electric vehicle fleet could contribute to national energy resiliency, feeding electricity back into the system during peak demand. Alan Brent, Professor and Chair in Sustainable Energy Systems, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Community batteries are everyone’s favourite whipping boy at the moment, but a trial at Narrabri shows that its the parameters that need to change, not the technology.

The post Why we need to fight for the “community” in community batteries appeared first on RenewEconomy.

RGGI allowances (RGAs) tied a record settlement price for the benchmark contract this week before sinking significantly as traders rolled their position to next year, with the vast majority of trades being spreads over the past five days.

A US-based carbon crediting startup for farmers and a sustainability certification provider launched a partnership to trace the progress of regenerative agriculture practices in sequestering carbon.

Reforming and scaling climate finance, including moving forward on operationalising a new loss and damage funding mechanism, establishing global renewables targets, and the future of fossil fuels, are likely to be the core topics of discussion at COP28 in Dubai, according to climate experts and other observers, which will also bear witness to the first ever global stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement.

Climate scientists say fossil fuel use needs to fall rapidly – but oil-rich kingdom is working to drive up demand

Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”.

Little was known about theoil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.

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The number of CO2 transport and storage projects supported financially and benefiting from streamlined permitting by the EU will double in 2023 compared to last year, the bloc's energy chief told an event in Denmark on Monday, signaling the EU's growing commitment to developing a CCUS sector.

Trade picked up in the voluntary carbon market last week as corporates looked to square end-of-year emission books, and some sellers ditched REDD credits at rock bottom prices.

Xpansiv has launched a consultation to support the trading of instruments aligned with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets’ (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles (CCP), due to be assigned to the first carbon credits in the opening quarter of 2024, the market platform said Monday.

Three-year pause in fishing is the only way to prevent disappearance, researchers say

It is one of Sicily’s most popular dishes: spaghetti ai ricci di mare, or sea urchin spaghetti. Prepared with a simple base of oil and garlic, plates of the stuff are demolished every summer, particularly by the hundreds of thousands of tourists who descend on the island every year.

But sea urchins’ status as a culinary delicacy is leading to their gradual disappearance from local waters, and last week researchers said the Sicilian sea urchin, which resides on the sea floor and feeds primarily on algae, could soon become extinct if urgent conservation policies were not implemented.

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Leaked briefing documents for meetings with governments contained ‘asks’ from state oil firm

The host of the UN Cop28 summit, the United Arab Emirates, planned to use climate meetings with other countries to promote deals for its national oil and gas companies, according to leaked documents.

Cop28 begins on Thursday and will be run by Sultan Al Jaber, who is the chief executive of the national oil company Adnoc as well as the UAE’s climate envoy. This dual role has been criticised as a conflict of interest, and climate summit veterans said the new revelations undermined trust in Al Jaber’s presidency of Cop28, potentially threatening a successful outcome.

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