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Australia has released a consultation paper for entrants to the wide scale battery industry and value chain the nation hopes to build in a bid to further its ambitions as a renewable energy and battery superpower while reducing emissions.

Total investments in the natural capital asset class could rise to $1 trillion or more over the next two decades, on the back of revenues from outputs including biodiversity markets, investor New Forests has said.

Drax is looking to the UK government to begin discussions soon on a contract to support the company’s incoming bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project, to ensure that the plant can contribute to the country’s goal for clean power by 2030, a Drax official said on Wednesday.

A Brazilian carbon developer and two organisations working with Indigenous communities are piloting a biodiversity credit project in the Amazon state, with two European companies interested in purchasing units after COP16, Carbon Pulse has learned.

The European Commission has announced fresh funding for a research project that explores the impact of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on neighbouring countries.

European carbon prices rallied on Wednesday morning as weekly positioning data showed that investment funds more than doubled their net short positions last week, triggering a rally as traders looked to test the conviction of bearish bets.

South Korea’s latest monthly CO2 permit auction was oversubscribed with the clearing price still below the 10,000 won ($7.43) benchmark, while the price outlook may remain bleak in the absence of policy updates. 

The EU needs a lot more renewable and low-carbon electricity and it needs it "ASAP", according to Paul Voss, director general of industry association Europe Aluminium, adding to a growing chorus of voices calling for lower energy prices to boost the bloc's competitiveness.

I do not think it is a leap to see our exploitive relationship with Earth as part of a centuries-long war against the environment

Standing on the edge of Utah’s terminal Great Salt Lake is to witness the religion of over-water consumption in the desert. Our thirst is greater than this inland sea can bare as it is disappearing in the shadows of climate chaos, extreme heat and a megadrought not seen in 2,500 years. Twelve million migrating birds depend on this water body for food, rest and breeding. Flocks of Wilson’s phalaropes, small and handsome shorebirds, spin in saline waters creating water columns alive with brine shrimp and flies and resulting in a feeding frenzy. American avocets and black-necked stilts stand stoically in the shallows. Thousands of ducks are sprinkled on the lake like pepper. Water and sky merge as one. There is no horizon. All appears well in this serene landscape of pastel blues animated by birds. It is not.

The health of the Great Salt Lake is only as strong as the health of the human community that surrounds it. And vice versa. If the 2 million people living within the Great Salt Lake watershed with Salt Lake City at its center do not mobilize to put more water in the lake, the death of the Great Salt Lake will be their own. This will also be the demise of millions of migrating birds.

Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, naturalist and activist

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I do not think it is a leap to see our exploitive relationship with Earth as part of a centuries-long war against the environment

Standing on the edge of Utah’s terminal Great Salt Lake is to witness the religion of over water-consumption in the desert. Our inland sea is disappearing in climate chaos evidenced by extreme heat and a megadrought not seen in 2,500 years. Ten million migrating birds depend on this water body for food, rest and breeding. Flocks of Wilson’s phalaropes, small and handsome shorebirds, spin in saline waters creating water columns alive with brine shrimp and flies and resulting in a feeding frenzy. American avocets and black-necked stilts stand stoically in the shallows. Thousands of ducks are sprinkled on the lake like pepper. Water and sky merge as one. There is no horizon. All appears well in this serene landscape of pastel blues animated by birds. It is not.

The health of the Great Salt Lake is only as strong as the health of the human community that surrounds it. And vice versa. If the 2 million people living within the Great Salt Lake watershed with Salt Lake City at its center do not mobilize to put more water in the lake, the death of the Great Salt Lake will be their own. This will also be the demise of millions of migrating birds.

Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, naturalist and activist

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Carbon pricing is gaining momentum in developing nations despite political and economic risks, according to a report published by the World Bank Wednesday.

Global trading house CME Group has provided details of its Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) futures contract, adding to the sole such offering currently available in the market, from the Australian Securities Exchange.

Chinese regulators have announced rules that can clarify the boundaries of the country's green electricity and national carbon offset markets, a move designed to help avoid double counting of environmental attributes.

The Australian government has ringfenced over A$215 million ($143 mln) to ramp up efforts in nature restoration and native species protection, it announced Wednesday.

A Paris-headquartered carbon crediting platform has opened a new modular biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) methodology for public consultation, the company announced on Wednesday.

The rapid shift to renewables carries significant risks to already stressed ecosystems. Our research finds ways to minimise this risk, ranging from strategic planning to smart technology.

The post Six ways to improve ecosystem outcomes of renewable energy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian start-up partners with German technology giant on a plan to build the first battery materials manufacturing plant outside of China.

The post Next-Gen and Siemens partner to make battery materials in Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A top refiner in Japan has decided to support the country's first carbon credit generating project featuring collaboration with domestic pig farmers.

Western Australia and New South Wales have announced initiatives to support projects that will earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), with a focus on forestry and Indigenous environmental plantings (EP) projects.

In the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, forests have been cleared for mines and the roads that service them. Large companies take what they can and move on, leaving abandoned ponds, toxic rivers and scraps of precious metal left in the ground

• Words and photographs by Guerchom Ndebo in Moku with support from the National Geographic Society

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