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When a juror was sworn in on a cupful of water from the Roding he made modern history

The barrister Paul Powlesland, who has acted for climate protesters, was called to jury service last week, and made judicial history by taking an oath on the thing most holy to him – not an ancient book, but a cupful of water from his local river in north-east London: “I swear by the River Roding, from her source in Molehill Green to her confluence with the Thames,” he said, “that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence.”

Powlesland explained that he wanted to promote the idea of the sacredness of nature, and its place in the legal system. “I hope that many others follow suit,” he said, “and animism is soon found more regularly in our courts.”

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Campaigners say rare grassland on former firing range in Essex was mowed, killing the birds and their chicks that nest on the ground

The song of the skylark has filled poets’ hearts for centuries, from Shelley’s “blithe spirit” to Wordsworth’s “ethereal minstrel”. But there is little that is poetic about a row over the birds that has blown up in Colchester.

Campaigners seeking to save Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range in Essex, are furious that some of the 76 hectares of rare grassland were mowed last month, an act that they believe has killed skylarks and their chicks, which nest on the ground.

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Centuries-old Montrose golf links falling into the sea and town at risk of flooding as coastal erosion accelerates

A beach in north-east Scotland is eroding rapidly owing to climate change, leaving a town at risk of flooding and its centuries-old golf links crumbling into the sea.

The Dynamic Coast report in 2021 studied the rate of erosion at Montrose and predicted that 120 metres would be lost over 40 years, an average of 3 metres a year.

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Financial entities have closed out of their long positions in the RGGI Allowance (RGA) futures and options market as prices recorded new all-time highs, and instead boosted their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings, while producers shed their CCAs in favour of RGAs, according to weekly data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Net credit generation under Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) in Q1 receded from the previous quarter on lower biodiesel and ethanol contributions, although cumulative surplus rose to nearly 1.3 million on record renewable diesel net credit output. 

Minnesota agencies released the final environmental impact statement (EIS) of Summit Carbon Solutions’ (SCS) CO2 pipeline on Wednesday, concluding that the project's impact on health and the environment would be limited within the in-state stretch of the project.

Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) of Alaska signed the state’s first carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) bill into law Thursday, outlining the state’s authority over projects as well as permit requirements, fees, and public hearings required of operators.

Paris 2024 has pointed the way towards a brighter future for urban waterways in post-industrial cities

It was an American modernist poet who captured best the ancient, elemental status of rivers. In one of his best-loved poems, Wallace Stevens celebrated their “third commonness with light and air / A curriculum, a vigor, a local abstraction”. Life-supporting and place-defining, the great rivers of the world have nurtured and sustained our cities, but more latterly been blighted by the toxic legacy of industrialisation.

The successful staging of Olympic events in a cleaned-up River Seine therefore deserves to be seen as a social and environmental milestone, as well as a sporting one. The remarkable spectacle of triathlon competitors diving from the Pont Alexandre III, as the Eiffel Tower loomed large on a blue-skied summer morning, will take some beating as a signature image of Paris 2024.

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Germany has published its draft law transposing changes to the EU ETS directive, as well as transitioning its national fuel emissions trading system to the future bloc-wide carbon market for heating and transport.

Study has found that the lake, which has lost 73% of its water, released climate-warming emissions

For years, scientists and environmental leaders have been raising alarm that the Great Salt Lake is headed toward a catastrophic decline.

Now, new research points to the lake’s desiccating shores also becoming an increasingly significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have calculated that dried out portions of the lakebed released about 4.1m tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in 2020, based on samples collected over seven months that year.

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A maritime greenhouse gas emissions pricing mechanism will not lead to an equivalent increase in transport costs, according to an assessment by the UN's sectoral body on the possible impacts of emission-reducing measures published this week.

A Vancouver-based offset project developer announced Friday that it will delay its dual listing on the London AIM exchange until "market conditions in [the] UK and Canada improve", while affirming its commitment to the process.

A revised directive on harmful industrial emissions across the 27 member states of the European Union will enter into force on Sunday.

Boosting climate funding for developing countries is seen as one of the great challenges to meeting Paris Agreement goals and while carbon markets only contribute a fraction of current total flows, as Carbon Pulse analysis shows, this could change with the right policy approaches.

The UK and Laos governments have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a green economy framework with an aim to cooperate on carbon markets, energy transition, and address climate change, the UK government announced Friday.

Unexpected fledging is result of long-term restoration project to bring red-billed birds back to Kent coastline

The chough, a charismatic cliff-dwelling corvid, has bred in Kent for the first time in two centuries.

A young pair among eight birds released last year defied expectations to successfully breed this summer, making a nest on Dover Castle and rearing one chick, which fledged in June.

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Seven Japanese companies on Friday announced plans to trial a market for Scope 3 carbon credits generated from the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Leaders and decision-makers from around the world will meet in the second quarter of 2025 in London to assess evolving and emerging energy security challenges in the green revolution.

Carbon standard Social Carbon plans to release a methodology for peatland restoration, with separate modules tailored to different areas, the company has told Carbon Pulse.

A newly released document aims to provide guidance for stakeholders looking to implement jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) programmes.