Feed aggregator

Southeast Asia’s top steelmaker is likely to be hit by Europe’s carbon border taxes but not necessarily enough to force it to make a low-carbon change, a paper said this week.

Dr Adi Paterson’s statements are apparently at odds with the group’s official position, which says nuclear is needed to tackle the climate crisis

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The chair of a leading Australian nuclear advocacy group has called concerns that carbon dioxide emissions are driving a climate crisis an “irrational fear of a trace gas which is plant food” and has rejected links between worsening extreme weather and global heating.

Several statements from Dr Adi Paterson, reviewed by the Guardian, appear at odds with statements from the group he chairs, Nuclear for Australia, which is hosting a petition saying nuclear is needed to tackle an “energy and climate crisis”.

Continue reading...

Surviving a shark – or lion, or bear – attack is the key criteria for entry into Bite Club. Together its members navigate their next big challenge: what happens after you survive?

Paul Kenny was camping behind the dunes at Samurai beach, north of Port Stephens on the Australian east coast, when he jumped naked into the water to “just wake up”. It was freezing but he caught a good wave, got some speed up and hit something. At first he thought it was another person but there was no one else swimming. He had body surfed into the head of a 2.5-metre (8ft) bronze whaler shark and his outstretched arm was in its teeth.

And with that, Kenny met the criteria to enter the small, exclusive Bite Club.

Continue reading...

Pilot whale that beached itself in 1973 was infested with thousands of parasitic nematodes that may have eaten away at its blowhole

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

A vial of white parasitic worms left for decades in a Tasmanian museum may help solve a timeless mystery: why do whales strand themselves on beaches?

The worms were collected from the blowhole of a pilot whale that beached itself in 1973 and then stored in Launceston’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

A voluntary carbon standard body is seeking feedback on a modular peatland restoration methodology that will in the first module focus on crediting the rewetting of drained peatlands on agricultural land in temperate climates.

DLA Piper seeking to recover costs in relation to injunctions it secured for National Highways and HS2, records show

Britain’s biggest law firm has sought more than £1m from climate protesters to cover the cost of court orders banning them from protesting, an investigation has found.

The multibillion-pound City law firm DLA Piper has been trying to recover costs from activists for work done on behalf of National Highways Limited (NHL) and HS2 Ltd – both public bodies – obtaining injunctions banning protests on their sites.

Continue reading...

The 40 major companies listed on Germany's DAX stock market index collectively reduced their total value chain greenhouse gas emissions by 4% last year, compared to the previous year, according to analysis from a large consultancy.

Friederike Otto of World Weather Attribution says poor people and outdoor workers are dying around the world

Heat inequality is causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries and communities across the world, a leading analyst of climate impacts has warned, following global temperature records that may not have been seen in 120,000 years.

Sweltering conditions act as a stealthy killer that preys on the most economically fragile, said Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution, in an appeal for the media and authorities to pay more attention to the dangers.

Continue reading...

Danish energy giant Orsted has scrapped a proposed e-methanol plant meant to supply green fuel for container ships amid a lack of demand, it announced Wednesday, in the latest sign that European energy majors are retreating from green fuel projects.

EUA prices moved slightly higher on Friday morning, setting the market up for its third weekly gain in the last month, as selling pressure appeared to fade away and buyers were slow to fill the gap, while trading volume shrank as participants headed into the peak summer weekend.

GenZero, a subsidiary of Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Philippines-headquartered energy company and a global asset manager to explore the use of ‘transition credits’, starting with the retirement of a coal-fired power plant in the Philippines, it announced Friday.

CO2 allowance prices in China’s carbon market hovered around the 91 yuan ($12.70) level over the past week, while the weekly trading volume has remained steady.

Compound used in refrigeration and air conditioning accumulates at much higher levels that other chemicals

Rain and air samples collected in metro Detroit that researchers checked for toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” showed the highest levels of TFA, an alarming finding because the compound is a potent greenhouse gas and more toxic than previously thought, but not well-studied.

While PFAS are a chemical class known to be ubiquitous in the environment, the new research is part of growing evidence around the globe that points to TFA, commonly used in refrigeration, air conditioning and clean energy technology, accumulating at much higher levels than other well-studied compounds.

Continue reading...

An oarfish, which resembles a serpent, was found floating dead on the ocean surface off the San Diego coast and was brought ashore for study. Scientists say it is only the 20th time since 1901 an oarfish is known to have washed up in California

• Stonehenge megalith came from Scotland, not Wales, ‘jaw-dropping’ study finds

Continue reading...

The Australian federal government on Friday released a consultation on its latest version of the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) and associated guidelines.

Danish shipping company Maersk will work together with two parter companies to assess the potential for nuclear-powered container ships in Europe, they announced this week.

A cross-sector alliance that aims to revitalise Japan’s carbon credit market has seen the first batch of certified carbon credits under its newly developed carbon standard, it announced Friday.

Nearly 25% of the European landscape has the potential to be rewilded, with over two-thirds of the territories lying in countries with cooler climates such as Scandinavia, Scotland, and the Baltic states, researchers have found.

British forces are about to get their first dedicated surveillance and reconnaissance satellite.

The Australian government on Friday distributed a draft sustainable ocean plan for public comment, offering little in terms of specifics at this early stage but saying the plan would bring a long list of opportunities, including for carbon and biodiversity markets.