Feed aggregator

The new UK government needs to speed up the country’s emission reductions to make up for its predecessor’s slow-down, reversal, and delay of net zero policies - including a strengthening of its carbon trading system, the Climate Change Committee warned on Thursday. 

A subsidiary of large European energy firm EON plans to present a plan for crediting emissions reductions from battery storage projects at COP29 in November.

Some G20 regulators have decided not to work on nature-related financial risks due to data challenges and the need to prioritise climate-related analysis, a report released on Thursday showed.

A new voluntary carbon insurance product has launched to avoid the risk of credits failing to be delivered from nature-based projects, initially for reforestation and afforestation activities.

European carbon allowance prices weakened modestly on Thursday morning, trading in a narrow band before coming up against a psychological and technical support level, while energy markets were mixed amid a broadly unchanged outlook.

It’s July! It should be all about picnics and ice-creams, not plastic rain ponchos. I have officially lost my joie de vivre

That’s it, I’m calling it: this is the worst summer ever. Despite the fact we are currently seeing a fleeting glimpse of sun, the weather has been notably dismal. The Met Office says it could be the coldest summer of the past 24 years. Last week, it started raining inside our bedroom as well as outside, and, after days and days of cold and wet weather, that felt like the final straw. This is my Sad girl summer. Having never before suffered from seasonal affective disorder, I have officially lost my joie de vivre. And I know I’m not alone. Moaning about the weather may be an Olympic sport for the British, but this feels different. During social interactions people seem too listless and despondent to even have a proper whinge. They just shake their heads, sadly, while staring at their shoes. This can’t go on. Can it?

Well, apparently it can, with some predictions saying we will be enduring this autumnal chill until, well, actual autumn. The thought of entering winter without having fully charged up on sunshine fills me with a looming sense of horror. Having grown up in the mountains of north Wales, I have an abnormally high tolerance for rain. I’m basically a bog witch comprised of 60% water and 40% lichen. I can spend days indoors and not get cabin fever. Saying that, wet Welsh weather is partly why I moved south. My dad, who is visiting at the moment, treats London as if it’s the Costa del Sol. Look at everyone eating outdoors, like Spaniards! But though the sun may be shining as I write this, we know the drill by now: it peeks out for just long enough to remind us that it exists, before retreating behind another heavy, grey cloud fecund with rain. Emergency-poncho-clad tourists haunt the streets like plasticky ghosts.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author

Continue reading...

A Chinese province known for its local timber industry has completed a first transaction of forest carbon credits under a recently launched provincial programme, as the regional government seeks to explore the potential of nature-based projects.

An EU-based carbon removal (CDR) accelerator has announced the selection of eight startups for a development stage of its programme, including a 'negative emission' coal producer, a biochar firm, and a solution focused on decarbonising the construction sector.

The Enhanced Weathering Alliance (EWA) has denounced an “opaque” process for developing CO2 removal certification methodologies at EU level, calling on the European Commission to provide more clarity around timelines and deliverables.

Ursula von der Leyen pledged to “stay the course” on climate policy and focus on implementing the Green Deal in the coming five years as she seeks the European Parliament’s backing on Thursday for a second term as EU Commission President.

There has been a significant decline in the proportion of human-induced regeneration (HIR) ACCUs transacted in the Australia's brokered carbon market, according to recent data.

One of South Korea's largest securities firms has obtained carbon credits from an international project, the first financial company to do so in the country, it announced Thursday.

The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) on Thursday launched a guide to help banks implement a circular economy as what it said is a critical way of conserving nature, combatting pollution, and reaching net zero.

Investigations underway after a blade on a massive Haliade-X wind turbine crumpled, leaving debris in the water and washing up on Nantucket beaches.

The post “Could detach soon:” Turbine blade failure shuts down pioneering US offshore wind farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian consumers deserve a legal right to repair beyond the warranty. If we fail to keep up with the UK and EU, we risk becoming a dumping ground for cheap and nasty appliances. Leanne Wiseman, Professor of Law, Griffith University, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

CEFC's Grace Tam on how green finance can turbo charge household electrification – and why access to service providers and information is just as important.

The post SwitchedOn Podcast: Households need information, not just discounted ‘green finance’ appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Zen Energy signs MoU to help power huge magnetite mine with firmed renewables, in move to underpin South Australia green iron production.

The post Zen inks deal to supply firmed renewables for iron ore mine with load “bigger than Olympic Dam” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A sustainable project aims to repurpose encroacher bush to create building blocks to solve Namibia’s housing crisis

“People think the house would smell because the blocks are made of all-natural products, but it doesn’t smell,” says Kristine Haukongo. “Sometimes, there is a small touch of wood, but otherwise it’s completely odourless.”

Haukongo is the senior cultivator at the research group MycoHab and her job is pretty unusual. She grows oyster mushrooms on chopped-down invasive weeds before the waste is turned into large, solid brown slabs – mycoblocks – that will be used, it’s hoped, to build Namibian homes.

Continue reading...

CCC says delays and reverses under Rishi Sunak have left UK drastically off track from Paris commitments

The new Labour government must oversee a massive ramping up of renewable energy generation in this parliament or the UK will breach its international obligations under the Paris agreement, the government’s climate watchdog has said.

The Conservative government left the country drastically off track to meet its international commitments, despite setting the carbon-cutting target before hosting the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, the Committee on Climate Change found in its most recent annual report.

Continue reading...

Targeted government support will be needed to scale the supply of high-integrity carbon credits and to ensure strong demand and price premiums for these issuances, the OECD said in a report published Thursday.