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Report calls for course correction to avoid land abuse ‘compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing’

Land degradation is expanding worldwide at the rate of 1m sq km every year, undermining efforts to stabilise the climate, protect nature and ensure sustainable food supplies, a study has highlighted.

The degraded area is already 15m sq km, an area greater than Antarctica, the scientific report says, and it calls for an urgent course correction to avoid land abuse “irretrievably compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing”.

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Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says there is ‘no route to net zero’ that ignores concerns of businesses after wave of closures

• Jonathan Reynolds: If we delay the UK’s drive for electric vehicles, our rivals will overtake us

There is “no route to net zero” that ignores the real concerns of businesses, a cabinet minister has warned, as the government prepares to reduce financial penalties handed to carmakers not selling enough electric cars.

Ministers are also looking at how cheaper loans could be introduced to help people buy an electric vehicle (EV), after a wave of job losses and closures in which carmakers blamed the onerous fines they were facing.

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The government is determined to work with the car industry to increase take-up, boost jobs and hit emissions targets

• Cheaper loans on table to drive UK motorists to electric, plus cuts in EV fines for firms

The push to electric vehicles is not about a culture war. It is a simple choice. Do we set UK industry up to take advantage of the changes that are coming? Or do we sit it out, allowing our competitors to lap us while we decide whether to change our tyres or not?

The previous government, including the current leader of the opposition, might have been content to play politics with people’s jobs by delaying the deadline for ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. But this government is not.

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Nature is going to solve the problem by eliminating the modern human

In response to Ashish Ghadiali’s story last week (“Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown”, Comment, last week), nearly 70 years ago Gilbert Plass coined the term “climate change” in a paper in the journal Tellus.

Most of that 70 years has been spent arguing over the reality of climate change, an argument by vested interests that continues to this day. Meanwhile, global warming has continued to rise due to the burning of fossil fuels. Now, polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, causing sea level rises and threatening the survival of over half the world’s population living on islands and in coastal zones near sea level.

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Tasmania's state owned energy utility signs off take deal for what will be the state's first big solar farm, built on one of its oldest grazing properties.

The post Hydro Tasmania signs off-take deal for $500 million solar project, the first in island state appeared first on RenewEconomy.

CSIRO says its innovative, potentially lower cost green hydrogen technology has completed 1,000 hours of trial at Port Kembla steel plant without incident.

The post CSIRO hails successful road test of lower-cost green hydrogen technology at steel plant appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Long duration vanadium storage technology being trialled in Kununurra, it could be rolled out across Horizon Power's microgrids and other systems.

The post Eyes of the energy world on Australian vanadium battery tech appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Items such as coffee cups and bin liners are wrongly labelled ‘compostable’, leading to calls for governments to impose standards

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“Massive amounts” of plastic contamination is getting into food and garden waste through user error and misleading “biodegradable” labelling, waste industry experts have warned.

Leading figures at some of Australia’s largest waste companies are calling for the government to standardise certification of compostable products, as many bin liners, compostable coffee cups and other material labelled “compostable” or “biodegradable” do not break down into organic matter.

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Teeming with wildlife under lush canopies, this area in Australia’s island state is one of the world’s most remarkable – and one most in need of protection

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Witnessing Takayna/Tarkine is a rare privilege. After I press through metres of the dense, dry shrubs that skirt the forest floor, the rainforest quickly opens into a dewy landscape of verdant greens bathed in golden light. The ground is a ballroom floor, moist to the touch, carpeted in soft mosses and punctuated by broad myrtle trunks. Tiny ferns unfurl towards the canopy, where shafts of sunlight streak through the treetops. It is an overwhelmingly beautiful place.

In a world experiencing an increasingly rapid montage of alarming climate events caused by a warming planet, Tasmania’s Takayna presents an alternate world, one that is primal and untouched by the ravages of industrialisation.

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Findings highlight how built environment in low-income neighborhoods presents multiple PFAS exposure routes

New research aimed at identifying which US neighborhoods face increased exposure to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” found those living near “superfund” sites and other major industrial polluters, or in areas with limited access to fresh food, generally have higher levels of the dangerous compounds in their blood.

The study looked at hundreds of people living in southern California and found those who do not live within a half mile of a grocery store have 14% higher levels of PFOA and PFOS – two common PFAS compounds – in their blood than those who do.

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Curbing plastic production and banning chemicals of concern should go hand in hand with measures aimed at avoiding an over-reliance on non-plastic materials that are similarly harmful to the environment or human health, a scientist has told Carbon Pulse.

Indigenous peoples have accused countries of repeatedly and systematically excluding them from negotiations on the first-ever global plastic treaty, with some saying their voices have been silenced during the last round of talks in South Korea

Six-year-old spanador called Ivor taught to identify tree fungal-like organism killing trees and shrubs around UK

Sniffer dogs are usually found looking for contraband at airports and train stations, but the UK government is now dispatching trained hounds to find forest-harming pests.

A dog has been used for the first time in the UK to successfully identify tree disease. Researchers from Forest Research used a trained spanador – a cocker spaniel labrador cross – to find the tree pathogen Phytophthora ramorum.

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The disintegration of Germany coalition government, a lack of funding, and growing opposition to the policy is pointing to an early demise for the country’s carbon contracts for difference (CCfD) scheme.

An interim draft report commissioned by the state identified six key strategies to assess CO2 removal (CDR) requirements to meet Washington state’s GHG reduction targets.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala this week expressed opposition to introducing the EU ETS2 in his country, arguing that it will hurt corporate competitiveness and impose unmanageable cost increases on residents.

Mutual funds and ETFs with climate-related mandates rose to $572 billion in value through the first nine months of 2024, but also recorded their first outflows since 2018 of almost $24 bln this year, according to a report published by a research firm.

A few reefs on the Great Barrier Reef have been largely untouched by bleaching. We found upwellings of cold water are protecting them – for now Chaojiao Sun, Research Group Leader, physical oceanographer, CSIRO Craig Steinberg, Physical Oceanographer, Australian Institute of Marine Science Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Alberta government announced C$50 million ($35.7 mln) in funding from provincial carbon market proceeds to spur innovation in drilling technologies aiming to reduce emissions.

The Canadian federal government announced Thursday C$12.5 million ($8.9 mln) in funding for six research and development (R&D) projects in British Columbia that aim to accelerate carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) of industrial emissions.