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Leaders are eager to fill us with positivity, but research shows people in distress are more likely to take collective action

If despair is the most unforgivable sin, then hope is surely the most abused virtue. That observation feels particularly apposite as we enter the Cop season, that time of United Nations megaconferences at the end of every year, when national leaders feel obliged to convince us the future will be better, despite growing evidence to the contrary.

Climate instability and nature extinction are making the Earth an uglier, riskier and more uncertain place, desiccating water supplies, driving up the price of food, displacing humans and non-humans, battering cities and ecosystems with ever fiercer storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and forest fires. Still worse could be in store as we approach or pass a series of dangerous tipping points for Amazon rainforest dieback, ocean circulation breakdown, ice-cap collapse and other unimaginably horrible, but ever more possible, catastrophes.

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A US-based voluntary carbon market intermediary has added the first biochar project to its portfolio amid growing interest in CO2 removal (CDR) credits, the firm told Carbon Pulse.

Oil and gas exploration licensing is set to surge despite COP28 pledge to phase out fossil fuels, according to a new report.

Citizen power forced Germany’s greenest city-state into a binding agreement balancing housing and nature

When Fritz Schumacher laid out his vision for Hamburg a century ago, the sketch looked more like a fern than a town plan. Fronds of urban development radiated from the centre to tickle the countryside, bristling with dense rows of housing. The white spaces in between were to be filled with parks and playgrounds.

Schumacher was Hamburg’s chief building officer in the early 20th century, and a pioneer of green cities with widespread access to nature. “Building sites emerge even if you don’t invest in them,” he warned in 1932. “Public spaces disappear if you don’t invest in them.”

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A provider of ocean-based carbon removals has signed an agreement with a tech giant to provide carbon removals over the next 10 years.

An Italian waste-to-energy plant will apply carbon capture and storage to its processes, spending money collected through the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Expert reminds owners ‘freeze it, don’t squeeze it’ when it comes to a tick, ideally with a tick-freezing spray from a chemist

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Dog owners have been warned about a tick boom unfolding along Australia’s east coast, with some experts predicting an unusually bad season for furry friends.

Veterinary scientist and parasitologist Peter Irwin, an emeritus professor at Murdoch University, said the severity of a tick season was largely determined by the preceding weather, and last summer had been very hot and wet along the east coast”.

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Means to stop catastrophic global heating exist, says UN chief, but political courage is needed to end world’s fossil fuel addiction

The huge cuts in carbon emissions now needed to end the climate crisis mean it is “crunch time for real”, according to the UN’s environment chief.

An unprecedented global mobilisation of renewable energy, forest protection and other measures is needed to steer the world off the current path towards a catastrophic temperature rise of 3.1C, a report from the UN environment programme (Unep) has found. Extreme heatwaves, storms, droughts and floods are already ravaging communities with less than 1.5C of global heating to date.

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The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is slipping quickly out of reach, although it is still “technically possible” - and relatively inexpensive - for the world to roughly halve emissions within this decade, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned on Thursday.

The European Commission presented draft rules on Tuesday to measure CO2 removals from agriculture and forestry, saying future EU carbon removal credits could help mobilise finance for nature restoration.

The Netherlands is "extremely unlikely" to reach the legal climate goal of a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 under current or scheduled policy, and will need additional policy fast to bring the climate goal for 2030 back in sight, according to the country's environmental assessment agency.

A carbon removal registry has issued a “minor update” to its Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) methodology to add more detail and clarity around monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements, the platform announced on Thursday.

A cookstove manufacturer and project developer has secured $15 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to scale electric cooking in east Africa, avoiding 12 million tonnes of carbon emissions over a period of five years.

Colombia-based carbon standard Cercarbono is looking to establish projects in Indonesia, its chairman told a conference Thursday, as market participants wait for more detail on the new Indonesian government's plans for the country’s carbon markets.

Debate over the place of carbon removals in climate policy is picking up ahead of a decision on the EU’s 2040 climate target, due next year, but EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra remains elusive on whether he will support a separate target for removals or not.

Nature tech startups are projected to attract up to $2 billion in venture capital (VC) investments by the end of this year, with significant growth in early-stage involvement, particularly in the MRV and biodiversity credits category, according to data presented on Thursday at the COP16 UN biodiversity summit.

Verra, the voluntary carbon standard-setter and verifier, has released a set of modules for carbon capture and storage (CCS) – the first in its Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) as part of methodology VM0049 – with a view to better proving direct air capture (DAC) projects with carbon storage.

A US-headquartered group of conservation policy experts has laid out the next steps for the biodiversity credit market, to fulfil what it sees as significant potential, by preventing it from mirroring voluntary carbon markets.

More than 30m homes are thought to contain lead paint, including nearly 4m where children under age of six live

Two weeks after setting a nationwide deadline for removal of lead pipes, the Biden administration is imposing strict new limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and childcare facilities.

A final rule announced on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on lead dust on floors and window sills in pre-1978 residences and childcare facilities to levels so low they cannot be detected.

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A Zurich-headquartered direct air capture (DAC) company has partnered with an American financial services institution to permanently remove 40,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, the company announced on Thursday.