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A voluntary US programme issuing tradeable certificates for ethanol producers that launched last year is expanding eligibility to include biodiesel and renewable diesel (RD) fuels, according to an announcement Monday.

Vast Solar secures first tranche of promised Arena funding as it works towards the country's first big solar thermal project in Port Augusta and local manufacturing.

The post Vast Solar secures funds to advance Australia’s first big solar thermal project and local manufacturing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

RGGI Allowances (RGA) skimmed $27 last week after a Virginia circuit court judge ruled the state’s exit from the Northeast carbon market to be unlawful, but readjusted lower in subsequent sessions as traders reset expectations for any immediate impact to the programme.

The voluntary carbon market will remain underdeveloped, achieving a tiny fraction of the annual CO2 removals needed and falling short billions of dollars in investment potential until buyer “friction points” are addressed, a new report has warned.

Just one-third of developing countries have disclosed the costs of key climate mitigation and adaptation measures, potentially limiting access to public and private finance, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

Stabilising atmospheric CO2 levels could significantly lower the risk of climate-related disasters, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge.

Bowen announces expert panel led by Tim Nelson to set roadmap for complete rethink of electricity market. Will it be top down for utilities, or bottom up for consumers?

The post Not fit for purpose: Australia energy market rules to be rewritten to keep pace with renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.

California diesel consumption year-over-year (YoY) in August slipped, while gasoline volumes also declined YoY for the twelfth straight month, state data published Monday showed.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this month proposed a rule to authorise West Virginia to oversee CO2 storage wells within the region, potentially positioning it as the fourth state to gain such primacy.

As this year’s COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan concludes with landmark decisions clinching the operationalisation of Article 6.2 and 6.4 carbon markets – with Brazil said to have played a key diplomatic role – expectations for COP30 in Belem, Brazil have highlighted the rise of Article 6 as a priority for the region.

A pair of North American investors announced Monday the finalisation of a $2 million investment in two Montana grassland conservation carbon projects.

The latest survey into farming attitudes to renewables is that relationships with developers could use some work.

The post Farmers plead for happier marriage with wind and solar project developers appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Hundreds of properties flooded and Welsh town hit by landslip as major incident declared in Northamptonshire

Forecasters, environment officials and politicians have been strongly criticised over the warnings issued before Storm Bert and the fitness of flood defences to cope with increasingly common extreme weather.

A huge clear-up is under way across swathes of Wales and England, with hundreds of properties flooded and a former Welsh mining town hit by a landslip from a coal tip, leaving buildings deep in sludge and mud.

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IFS suggests gifts of land before a certain date could be tax-free so that elderly farmers would not be caught out

Ministers should give farmers an inheritance tax holiday for the next few years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said as it warned that government changes to agricultural taxes risked treating some landowners unfairly.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced in her budget last month that farmers with a business worth more than £1m could be subjected to 20% inheritance tax, prompting a tractor protest outside parliament.

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Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from £300bn pledge

A failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (£240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.

The international talks in Baku were pulled back from the brink of collapse early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement in which rich countries promised to raise $300bn a year by 2035. On paper, this is a tripling of the previous climate finance target of $100bn a year by 2020, and has been trumpeted as such by the UN and others.

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COP29 may have given a shot in the arm to future international carbon trade, after countries finally clinched a deal on Article 6, but the voluntary market continued to drift aimlessly over the past week.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called for the launch of a global reforestation initiative at the G20 Leaders’ Summit last week that, under her vision, could boast a $24 billion budget.

Maryland’s environmental commission’s recommendations for climate investment mechanisms looks likely to include implementation of an economy-wide cap-and-invest scheme, as the state could risk missing its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets.

Airlines will need over 500 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent (MtCO2e) carbon credits to meet Phase 2 CORSIA requirements (2027-35), with prices potentially reaching $91 per tonne, according to a new report released on Monday.

Britain wanted much better outcomes on many issues, but seeing the ambition at the conference gives me hope for the future

The climate crisis is all around us. And the world is not moving nearly fast enough. In that context, the Cop process for climate negotiations feels frustratingly slow. Yet it is the best mechanism for multilateral action we have, so we have to use it to do everything we can to speed up action.

The UK went to Cop29 determined to play its part in a successful negotiation because it is in our national interest. As the prime minister said in Baku earlier this month, there is no national security without climate security. That is so clear from the effects of Storm Bert over the past couple of days. If we do not act, we can expect more and more of these extreme and devastating outcomes.

Ed Milband is secretary of state for energy security and net zero

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