Feed aggregator

Newfoundland Memorial Univeristy team find white masses are likely material used to clean pipes in oil industry

When the chemist Chris Kozak finally got his hands on a sample of the mysterious blobs that recently washed up on the shores of Newfoundland’s beaches, Project Unknown Glob officially began.

At his disposal, Kozak and a team of graduate students had the “gorgeous” new science building and “world-class facilities” of Newfoundland’s Memorial University to run a battery of tests on the white, doughy blob.

Continue reading...

The rapid growth of our capital cities is creating all sorts of problems. Dispersing growth across regional city networks could ease these growth pains and make our cities more sustainable. Peter Newton, Emeritus Professor in Sustainable Urbanism, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology James Whitten, Research Fellow, Department of Architecture, Monash University Magnus Moglia, Associate Professor in Sustainability Science, Swinburne University of Technology Stephen Glackin, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Demand for carbon removal credits is on pace to increase by 50% this year, while retirements of durable CDR units is set to more than double, according to a new report.

More than 200 people have died in floods that the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has described as the worst natural disaster in the country's recent history. Thousands of troops and police officers were drafted to help with clean-up and searches. Anger rose among residents who felt abandoned by the government and King Felipe and Queen Letizia were heckled when they visited one of the worst-affected areas

• ‘It can lead to chaos’: false claims and hoaxes surge as Spain’s floods recede

• At least 89 people remain missing after floods in eastern Spain

• ‘There’s so much confrontation’: Valencians sick of political bickering after Spain’s floods

Continue reading...

The next round of climate pledges from the world's highest-emitting economies will ultimately determine the chances of limiting global warming to 1.5C, depending in particular on how far they go in pushing a transition away from fossil fuels, the UN's special adviser on climate action said on Thursday.

Australia’s ratification of a key amendment to the London Protocol went into effect Thursday allowing the shipping transport of CO2 between nations, meaning its plans to become a regional hub for an emerging carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry is one step closer, but more is needed to provide the kind of policy certainty that secures investment and carbon markets are seen unlikely to play a material role in financially de-risking projects.

Pollution is affecting the climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, ocean acidification and human health, according to analysis

Plastic pollution is changing the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land, according to scientific analysis.

Plastic must not be treated as a waste problem alone, the authors said, but as a product that poses harm to ecosystems and human health.

Continue reading...

New Zealand can achieve substantial emissions cuts domestically for its 2031-35 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), reducing its reliance on international credits, but must start work already this decade, according to the independent Climate Change Commission (CCC).

Traders and asset managers appreciate the commercial risks attached to the EU’s new emissions trading scheme for road transport and heating fuels (ETS2) and are increasingly taking measures to mitigate its future impact, say industry sources.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) projects must better consider the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, as temperature shifts in the long term are set to increasingly affect species conservation efforts worldwide, according to a recent paper.

Wopke Hoestra will remain the EU's climate chief for the next five years, after committing to push for a 90% emissions reduction target for 2040 while emphasising the need to reconcile climate action and industrial competitiveness, in his confirmation hearing with the European Parliament on Thursday.

Annual FrogID week aims to collect thousands of recordings of country’s 250 frog species using downloadable smartphone app

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

They moan, hum, whistle and click, and can be found almost everywhere, from the neighbourhood pond to the most remote outback dunny.

From 8 to 17 November, people across the country are encouraged to participate in FrogID week, Australia’s biggest frog count. The annual event, now in its seventh year, aims to collect thousands of recordings via an app, with the data providing a snapshot of how frogs are faring across the country.

Continue reading...

A pan-European afforestation carbon project has become the first of its kind to be registered by Verra, it was announced Thursday.

Over 50 companies have called on the European Parliament not to weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) through amendments, warning that the recently proposed delay could leave the law vulnerable to changes that would undermine its impact on deforestation.

Discussions around clean cooking methodologies are still ongoing at the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), Carbon Pulse has learned, likely pushing to next month the decision that will determine which credits in the sector will be eligible for the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) high-integrity badge.

A global standard-setting organisation for carbon markets in a statement Thursday recommended that crediting programmes connect to the World Bank-backed Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust).

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell by more than 30% between Aug. 2023 and July 2024, marking the most significant percentage drop in 15 years, according to government data. 

People have never been swayed by ‘rational debate’. Only a genuine change in the way we do politics can prevent the march of the right

We were losing slowly. Now we are losing quickly. Democracy, accountability, human rights, social justice – all were rolling backwards as money swarmed our politics. Above all, our life-support systems – the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, ice and snow – have been hammered and hammered, regardless of who is in power. Donald Trump might strike the killer blows, but he is not the cause of an ecocidal economic system. He is the embodiment of it.

Under Joe Biden, the US was missing its own climate goals, and those goals were insufficient to meet the global objective of limiting heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. That target in turn might not be tight enough to prevent a tipping of Earth systems. Already, at roughly 1.3C of heating, we see what looks alarmingly like climatic flickering: the ever wilder perturbations that tend to precede the collapse of a complex system.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

A provider of audit-grade nature mapping insights has launched an online project insights platform to offer tracking of project performance and greater transparency into impact claims.

Momentum for net zero is building in the boardroom and leaders are refusing to abandon their plans, finds a survey of US and UK executives, despite a growing political backlash against the cost and pace of the green revolution that is expected to only intensify after the election of Donald Trump to the White House.