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Around the world, the people fighting for the survival of our planet are being shamefully silenced and villified

Injustice is easy to oppose after it has receded into the past, and there is no cost to imagining yourself as a hero long after the event. Everyone celebrates the suffragettes now, but at the time they were vilified as hateful spinsters and terrorists. McCarthyism is a pejorative political label on right and left alike now, but at his peak, more Americans approved of Senator Joseph McCarthy than frowned on his witch-hunt. Most people would like to believe they’d have stood up against the homophobia of 1980s Britain – yet, by 1987, only 11% of the British public believed same-sex relations to be “not wrong at all”.

Which takes us to climate activism. This year has seen a global onslaught against people agitating for more action to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. Courts can issue stern judgments, but so can history, and you have to wonder its future verdict on how the persecution and silencing of those raising the alarm only escalated when the scientific evidence had become so cast-iron, and when extreme weather events hammered home the imminent danger facing the human species. Here in Britain, a government which is reneging on its climate commitments – not least by expanding oil and gas licences – is simultaneously introducing repressive legislation to silence those holding them to account.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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An industry initiative to produce a low-carbon precursor for green steel is setting its sights on using Sweden’s renewable energy and high-quality iron ore resources as the backdrop for large-scale production for European export.

The proposed revision of EU ETS free allocations fails to deliver social and environmental change, write Lidia Tamellini of Carbon Market Watch and Aymeric Amand of Sandbag.

Efforts to improve the digital mapping of land cover and calculate carbon stores over time have been pushed to the forefront in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) as stakeholders seek to strengthen the integrity and transparency of carbon projects.

Allowance prices in China’s carbon market reached an almost two-month high over the past week amid stable trading volumes, as the year-end compliance deadline is rapidly approaching. 

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

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A California-based agri-tech firm has teamed up with a tea research institute in India to help farmers generate income through the generation and sale of carbon credits.

Fishing nets abandoned or lost in the sea – known as ‘ghost nets’ or ‘ghost gear’ – have been called ‘the most deadly form of marine plastic debris’. Dolphins, fish, whales, seabirds and turtles become entangled and die slow, painful deaths. But divers in Dakar are working to remove the threat

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The state government of Queensland in Australia has banned new oil and gas development in the Lake Eyre region in a bid to protect vulnerable rivers and floodplains.

The majority of the Christmas tree plantations in Burgundy rely on the use of chemical treatments.

India needs to make sure that projects deemed eligible to supply carbon credits under its recently announced voluntary carbon market hold a high standard for the new programme to be a credible tool to cut greenhouse gas emissions, experts have warned.

Exclusive: ‘We need to listen to the scientists. Excessive pesticide use is killing our bees,’ say company heads in letter to minister

The UK government should stop ignoring the science and block a bee-killing pesticide from being used, business leaders have said.

The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB is used on sugar beet and is highly toxic to bees. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. In 2017, the then environment secretary, Michael Gove, promised to use Brexit to ban all neonicotinoids.

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Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina’s renewable energy division and forest developer PT Inhutani have signed an agreement for a nature-based solutions project in North Kalimantan, home to vast tropical forests.

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

The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies on Thursday evening passed a bill establishing a national cap-and-trade programme, though the legislation will now head back to the senate after undergoing a number of changes.

A scientific mission to the animals' tropical forest home in South East Asia led to the find.

Conservationists call for more action after reptiles, fish and birds added to list, including 10 species deemed critically endangered

Seventeen species, including two birds, two fish, several reptiles and the Lord Howe earthworm, have been added to Australia’s list of threatened species.

The sooty shearwater, known for its long-distance journeys, has been listed as vulnerable, while the red-tailed tropicbird, which breeds on Christmas Island, has been listed as endangered.

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California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) and Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs) both declined over the past week, as “random” end-of-year market dynamics took hold of thinning volume in the former, while the prices for the latter could be driven by weakening hydropower in the Pacific Northwest in the near future, market participants noted.

A deadly strain of bird flu is circulating in animals. So far the virus has been detected in seabirds on islands near Antarctica. What does this mean for wildlife, tourism and research? Hanne E F Nielsen, Senior lecturer, University of Tasmania Meagan Dewar, Lecturer in the School of Science, Psychology and Sport, Federation University Australia Michelle Wille, Senior research fellow, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Neoen flags construction of its second biggest solar project after awarding EPC contract and emerging as winner of NSW generation tender.

The post Neoen begins construction of its second biggest solar farm after NSW tender win appeared first on RenewEconomy.