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A kingfisher with a long, dagger-shaped beak. Soft white feathers on its belly, iridescent blue opal spots on its wings

I walked out of my kitchen on an overcast morning last week, feeling depressed, trying to think my way around the US election result somehow towards acceptance – or a totally different reality.

I walked to the garden, carrying a load of laundry. And perched on the top edge of a chair was a fat, fluffy laughing kookaburra. It looked at me, I looked at it. A large kingfisher with a long, dagger-shaped beak. The corners of its beak turn upwards so that it looks as though it is smiling slightly. Soft white feathers on its belly, iridescent blue opal spots on its brown wings.

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The Biden administration announced a raft of new initiatives Sunday that will increase funding for forest conversation and restoration in the Brazilian Amazon, including the launch of a coalition that aims to mobilise at least $10 bln by 2030.

Developing countries need up to $1.5 trillion per year of solely grant-based climate finance as they struggle to attract investment and cope with growing debt, according to a new study that claims previous estimates are far too low.

A group of sovereign debt specialists on Sunday released principles for improving access to nature- and climate-related financial products.

Residents claim contamination from Angus Fire factory has left them trapped and unable to sell their homes

Residents in the UK town with the country’s highest identified concentration of “forever chemicals” have instructed lawyers to investigate the possibility of a first-of-its-kind legal claim against the firefighting foam manufacturer located in the centre of Bentham.

In May this year, an investigation by the Ends Report and the Guardian revealed that the rural North Yorkshire town is the most PFAS-polluted place known to exist in the UK. The town is home to the firefighting foam manufacturer Angus Fire.

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EUAs were firmer at midday on Monday after a stronger than usual auction outcome appeared to trigger a wave of buying that moved the market €2.00 higher.

The United Arab Emirates’ new 2035 Paris Agreement pledge sets an emissions reduction target aligned with a 1.5C temperature limit, but its overall commitments are not compatible because of a weak 2030 goal, according to analysis published Monday.

Companies are lagging behind in aligning biodiversity-related disclosures with the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and are failing to disclose metrics, an assessment has found.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is purchasing clean cooking carbon credits, a representative confirmed Monday at the COP29 climate summit, while a senior member at Verra said the voluntary standard remained in a wait-and-see stance for a new UN-backed methodology for the sector.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has teamed up with the Odisea expedition to explore and protect biodiversity in the Western Indian Ocean, the organisation announced on Monday during the ongoing UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Scientists say goal to keep world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is not going to happen despite talks at Cop29 in Baku

The internationally agreed goal to keep the world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is now “deader than a doornail”, with 2024 almost certain to be the first individual year above this threshold, climate scientists have gloomily concluded – even as world leaders gather for climate talks on how to remain within this boundary.

Three of the five leading research groups monitoring global temperatures consider 2024 on track to be at least 1.5C (2.7F) hotter than pre-industrial times, underlining it as the warmest year on record, beating a mark set just last year. The past 10 consecutive years have already been the hottest 10 years ever recorded.

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One of Japan's largest trading houses has teamed up with a domestic energy company to develop the use of AI tools in evaluating carbon credit quality, they announced Monday.

The first signs of big business taking landscape-level approaches to ecosystems are stirring, with billion-dollar companies enquiring daily this summer, offering more promise for nature markets than biodiversity credits, according to a consultancy executive.

New research shows melting ice is causing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) to slow down, with widespread consequences for the world’s climate and ecosystems. Laurie Menviel, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Gabriel Pontes, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Several Latin American countries have made carbon pricing announcements at and around the COP29 UN climate conference in Baku, but subnational Brazilian deals involving nature-based solutions (NBS) – and the Senate’s long-awaited ETS passage – continue to dominate headlines.

Growth in China’s thermal power generation slowed in October with a sustained high level of coal output, with analysts remaining optimistic about the country's emissions reduction trajectory given the current pace of renewables expansion.

Spot market Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) prices surged on Monday, as the Clean Energy Regulator issued some 800,000 units.

António Guterres says succesful outcome at Cop29 is still ‘within reach’ but only with ‘leadership’ from world’s most powerful countries

• Climate crisis to blame for dozens of ‘impossible’ heatwaves, studies reveal

Looks as if Trump WILL keep his promise to Drill baby, drill. On Saturday he appointed Chris Wright, an oil and gas industry executive and a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, to lead the US Department of Energy.

Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver, Colorado. He is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades.

We call on you to agree to:

An NCQG that ensures that we can keep below the 1.5°C survival limit of the Paris Agreement.

An NCQG based on the needs and priorities of developing countries and with public funds provided by developed countries exclusively for all developing countries, one that does not deviate from Article 9 of the Paris Agreement.

An NCQG that delivers at least USD 1.3 trillion a year for mitigation, adaptation and Loss and Damage provided as grants and highly concessional finance.

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The decision Friday from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) to approve three REDD+ methodologies has been welcomed by multiple market participants, but with a note of caution that the move is not without risk, especially as the crediting programmes have not yet been tried and tested.

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) could unlock a $789 billion green finance opportunity if barriers in reporting, data accessibility, and implementation costs are addressed, according to a new report revealed at COP29 on Monday.