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Regulated parties entered the third week of growing their V23 California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI Allowance (RGA) holdings while reducing V24 net length, as financial players continued to build V24 net positions, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Friday.

Washington state industrial emitters will receive slightly more free allowances under the cap-and-invest programme in 2024 than this year, with some individual economic sectors seeing fluctuations of several hundred thousand permits, according to government data published Friday.

While carbon removal technologies and measures to address supply chain emissions still hold numerous challenges, industry proponents are maintaining an optimistic outlook for the future, a conference heard this week.

Members of the public, non-profits, and energy producers want the RGGI cap-and-trade system to better model the impacts of renewable energy projects, and also reconsider a proposed full annual compliance surrender, according to newly released comments submitted to the scheme’s ongoing RGGI’s Third Program Review.

The UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved $736.4 million of funding across 15 climate projects in developing countries this week, support that is expected to be boosted to $3.6 billion once co-financing is included.

Levels of optimism on whether the EU is on the right track eight years on from signing of the Paris Agreement diverged amongst key climate stakeholders at an event in Brussels on Friday, as the experts prepared for this year's UN negotiations where they deem it crucial to secure a global fossil fuel phaseout commitment.

Now is the time for regulation to hold the financial sector to account on nature loss, and tools like biodiversity credits and patient capital can catalyse action, according to a Switzerland-based NGO.

The $750-million dollar deal between New York-headquartered Hess and the Guyanese government for the purchase of tens of millions of avoided deforestation carbon credits will not be affected by the former's acquisition at the hands of the global energy giant, Guyana's vice president said Thursday.

EU leaders tasked Brussels to accelerate work to safeguard the competitiveness of the bloc's clean technologies in the conclusions adopted on Friday following their European Council summit, responding to pressures from the industry for the upcoming legislature.

Using acoustic monitoring devices to collect data about ecosystem health based on the sounds of different animals living in an area is a powerful and cost-effective way of measuring biodiversity and should be one of the primary data collection methods in new biodiversity crediting systems, say industry sources.

It’s durable, resilient and lower-maintenance than natural grass – but there’s still many downsides and unknowns to artificial turf

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Two years ago the Northern Beaches council replaced the worn-out synthetic turf from a council oval, replacing natural grass with the product sometimes known as astroturf. The council had included in its contract a requirement that it be recycled and not sent to landfill – but federal legislation passed in 2020 meant that it was more difficult to export plastic waste to overseas facilities.

A permit was not granted, so the rolls of old turf sat for nearly 18 months until they were removed earlier this year. They are now in a container in a railway siding, awaiting the completion of a recycling plant capable of separating the various components that make up the product.

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Derbyshire and South Yorkshire MPs say agency ‘not up to the task’ after people received warnings too late

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MPs in areas of England worst hit by Storm Babet have called for a review of Environment Agency (EA) failings after reporting that some residents received flood alerts only after their homes were flooded.

Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, said some people at Tapton Terrace in the Derbyshire town, where 83-year-old Maureen Gilbert was found dead in flood water, only received a phone call from the early warning system after their houses had been deluged.

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Rather than racing to extract natural gas, those who caused the climate crisis should help Africa harness its wind and sun

• Vanessa Nakate is a Unicef goodwill ambassador and youth climate activist

It’s official: we’re about to reach peak fossil fuels. New figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that the shift to renewable energy is now unstoppable – and that demand for oil and gas should begin to decline by the end of this decade. This decline is not fast enough to prevent our climate warming irreversibly, but it is a death knell for fossil fuels.

In response, leaders of rich countries will be showing off wind turbines on their coasts and pointing to shiny electric cars on their streets. But they’ve spent the past few years persuading African countries to increase their gas expansion instead. There’s $245bn of gas infrastructure planned in Africa, and gas-rich countries such as Mozambique have faced an onslaught of foreign companies fishing for contracts to extract their gas.

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A roadmap for implementing a forest partnership between the EU and the Republic of Congo has been signed by the European Commission's environment chief Virginijus Sinkevicius.

The government of British Columbia has launched a “unique” crowdfunding initiative for protecting old growth forests with C$300 million ($217 mln) of initial capital.

European carbon prices traded within Thursday's high-low range on Friday morning, reflecting a lack of momentum or conviction in either direction as traders took to the sidelines ahead of the weekend, while energy markets were modestly firmer even as fundamentals remained broadly unchanged.

South Pole has pulled out of the troubled Kariba REDD forest protection project in Zimbabwe with immediate effect, it said on Friday, following earlier news that certifier Verra was halting credit issuances and launching an investigation into the project amid allegations of trophy hunting and financial malpractice.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms, or CBAMs, are one of the key drivers of carbon pricing development across Asia as nations increasingly seek to cooperate with the EU on its policy slated to enter into force in 2026, a conference heard Wednesday.

California otter known for harassing Santa Cruz surfers and eluding capture, seen floating with her baby laying on her belly

A sea otter who captured hearts and surfboards this past summer has become a mother, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

The sea otter known as 841, rose to national prominence this past summer after reports and photos of an aquatic mammal harassing surfers and swimmers became national news. Now, she’s making headlines again as images of her floating on her back with a small otter laying on her belly are circulating.

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Researchers say discovery of at least 11 new kinds of PFAS in water near Chemours plant indicates more contamination than thought

At least 11 new kinds of PFAS “forever chemicals” are polluting the water around a North Carolina Chemours plant that manufactures the toxic substances, new research finds.

The discovery, made by researchers using a novel testing method, is evidence that the environment around the plant is more contaminated with PFAS than regulators have found, the researchers said.

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