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When Rakel took over the last farm in her Norwegian village, she was not only taking responsibility for a flock of accident-prone woolly animals, but also a way of life at a crossroads. This was a chance to follow in the footsteps of her much-loved father, and live the way she had always dreamed, alongside her wife. A flock of sheep comes with a flock of problems, so the saying goes. With the help of community and family, can Rakel succeed?

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The Nigerian government has underlined its commitment to reducing emissions through the establishment of a carbon market, its minister of environment said at an event in the country.

Indonesia has brought in more regulations governing carbon capture and storage (CCS) work as it sees the tech as an integral plank in its plans to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions and meet its net zero by 2060 commitment.

A historic legal victory in Oslo has boosted our campaign against the Rosebank field and other British drilling projects

• Tessa Khan is executive director of climate action organisation Uplift

There has been a dramatic change in how oil drilling rights are approved on one side of the invisible line that divides the North Sea between the UK and Norway.

On the Norwegian side, after a groundbreaking decision by the Oslo district court on 18 January, the government must now take into account the emissions that come from the burning of oil and gas reserves in addition to the impact of getting the reserves out of the ground, before they approve a new field. The legal win, which applies for the first time the reasoning of a separate case in the Norwegian Supreme Court, was a result of Greenpeace Norway and Young Friends of the Earth Norway challenging the approval of three new oil and gas fields by the government. They argued the government had not been properly vetted for climate harm. The court agreed.

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Exclusive: Report proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing ‘green’ production

The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.

Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, according to a presentation of the five-yearly UN Global Resource Outlook made to EU ministers last week.

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The Coalition of Rainforest Nations (CfRN) has stepped up its campaign to promote UN-approved sovereign credits from REDD+ forestry protection, launching a new report guiding how they could be used towards meeting national climate targets under the Paris Agreement.

The Australian government is helping to keep the nation’s steelmaking industry alive with A$200 million ($131.45 mln) in grants to two of the country’s three remaining steel mills, while also hoping to reduce carbon emissions.

Record low coal and gas generation pushed wholesale electricity prices lower in the last quarter of 2023, as every region of the country notched up new solar output records.

The post Greening grid muscles out fossil fuels, pushes down power prices appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Construction of Edfiy Energy's Townsville green hydrogen on track to begin in 2025 with new funding boost.

The post Queensland solar and battery backed hydrogen hub wins major federal funding boost appeared first on RenewEconomy.

December was a bumper month for new connection approvals for wind, solar and storage, but they are still not getting on to the grid quickly enough.

The post December was bumper month for wind, solar and battery approvals, but still not fast enough appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A Massachusetts-based non-profit dedicated to marine research will receive a donation of $25 million to support ocean-based climate solutions that can help strengthen the operations of the emerging blue carbon market.

The first critical industrial funding via the PRF shows how hard greening steel will be.

The post Steel companies get $200m federal grant to cut emissions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Analysis finds difference between greenhouse gas emissions the automakers declared and the researchers’ estimates averaged 27%

Some of the world’s biggest automakers are still “grossly under-reporting” greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report, despite improvements in their estimates.

The research, undertaken by consultancy firms Carbon Tracker and Nomisma, was released on Wednesday and found car manufacturers ranked among the world’s highest carbon producers and needed to improve the way they declared their environmental impacts.

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A century ago, millions of koalas were killed for their fur. The backlash was fierce. Ruby Ekkel, PhD student in Australian History, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Country may be the first to do so, amid increasing concerns about the health and environmental risks posed by the virtually indestructible chemicals

New Zealand is banning so-called “forever chemicals” in cosmetics from 2026, in what could be the first example of a country doing so.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said it has banned the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics to protect people and the environment from the chemicals.

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

The Canadian province of Ontario announced Tuesday that it will pour C$9.4 mln ($7 mln) into 14 projects for research, innovation, and modernisation initiatives around the use of forest biomass, although one expert has criticised the programme for threatening local forest carbon stocks.

A report from an industry-labour-NGO partnership released Tuesday recommended a slew of policies to the US government to mobilise over $25.4 billion of available funding plus tax credits to achieve industrial net zero emissions by mid-century.

Just 8% of carbon credits are to be fast-tracked for the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label, while almost half of the units in the voluntary market come from methodologies deemed too contentious to be immediately approved, the cross-stakeholder initiative announced Wednesday.

Nature-based solutions such as parks and ponds are recommended – as is giving heatwaves names

The UK urgently needs a plan to prevent thousands of heatwave deaths a year as the climate continues to warm, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned.

More than 4,500 people died in heatwaves in 2022, the MPs’ report said, and this number could rise to 10,000 a year by 2050 without action. Heatwaves are “silent killers”, the MPs said, pushing up heart rate and blood pressure, with those over 65 and with existing health problems most at risk.

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