Feed aggregator

EU carbon prices stalled on Tuesday morning after their 2.2% jump on Monday, trading in a relatively narrow range as gas prices also stabilised and traders waited for signs of new price direction.

An update on our progress from the Guardian’s head of sustainability

• The Guardian environment pledge 2024
• Support urgent, independent climate journalism today

Five years ago the Guardian made a pledge that we would “play a part, both in our journalism and in our own organisation, to address the climate emergency” with our first annual environment pledge. That commitment reflected our long history of environment reporting and our view that individual companies had to take greater responsibility for their impact on the natural world. We wanted to demonstrate to readers that we were taking the action that our journalism showed was so necessary, and to be transparent about our progress. Today we publish the 2024 pledge.

Since then we have worked hard to measure and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, to understand our impact on nature and to share our results openly with readers. In our latest sustainability report, published last month, we show that our emissions have fallen by 43% since 2020, putting us well on track to achieve our goal of a 67% cut by 2030.

Continue reading...

Project and credit data from Gold Standard will be available on the Climate Action Data Trust (CAD) platform by the end of the year, it was announced Tuesday.

The Norwegian government has pledged an additional NOK 670 million ($60 mln) to the Amazon Fund to help conserve the rainforest region, it announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil.

Senegal’s environment ministry is preparing to leverage Article 6 carbon markets in support of national and international climate goals, according to statements made on Tuesday by a senior official at the COP29 global climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Nearly 40% of food sector lobbyists have travelled to Baku as part of countries’ delegations

• Cop29 climate summit – live updates

Hundreds of lobbyists for industrial agriculture are attending the Cop29 climate summit in Baku, analysis shows.

They include representatives from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies including the Brazilian meatpacker JBS, the animal pharmaceuticals company Elanco, and the food giant PepsiCo, as well as trade groups representing the food sector.

Continue reading...

Singapore and Japan have formulated purchase targets for Paris-aligned carbon credits through 2030.

Have you heard of the 3+30+300 rule for urban forestry? See how Melbourne and Sydney compare to New York, Denver, Seattle, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam and Singapore on trees, canopy and park proximity. Thami Croeser, Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The imposition of tariffs and regulatory barriers on clean technologies may initially benefit countries wanting to protect nascent industries from competition, but they will backfire in the long run and ultimately hurt consumers, warned a senior official at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Refurbishing an old building is subject to full VAT, but it isn’t if you build a polluting new one. The government’s priorities are all wrong

You can damn oil companies, abuse cars, insult nimbys, kill cows, befoul art galleries. But you must never, ever criticise the worst offender of all. The construction industry is sacred to both the left and the right. It may be the world’s greatest polluter, but it is not to be criticised. It is the elephant in the global-heating room.

It’s hard not to feel as though we have a blind spot when it comes to cement, steel and concrete. A year has now passed since the UN’s environment programme stated baldly that “the building and construction sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases”. The industry accounts for “a staggering 37% of global emissions”, more than any other single source. Yet it rarely gets the same attention as oil or car companies.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

Dutch-headquartered bank Triodos announced on Tuesday it will invest a minimum of €500 million in nature-based solutions (NbS) by the end of 2030 as part of its biodiversity strategy.

The G20 reaffirmed a broad commitment to climate finance efforts in a communique following the conclusion of its summit in Brazil, but observers say more is needed from the world’s wealthiest countries to adequately address climate change globally. 

Thousands of projects have already applied to transition to the new Paris Agreement carbon crediting mechanism and hundreds of proponents have signalled interest in developing new activities, and with interim UN registry infrastructure to be ready in a few weeks, the first issuances can be processed in early 2025, according to experts.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has launched a consultation process for a new carbon offset project auditing mechanism, including the option to ease auditing requirements for small projects.

The Norwegian government is signing agreements with four developing countries in Baku through a new Article 6 financing initiative in support of the Nordic country’s national and UN climate targets.

Proposed inheritance tax changes targeted by body for agricultural industry in England and Wales

• Farmers protest in Whitehall – live updates

The head of the farmers’ union has accused UK ministers of betraying the agricultural industry with changes to inheritance tax before a protest in Westminster.

Tom Bradshaw, the president of the NFU, told Sky News that the environment secretary, Steve Reed, promised a year ago that a future Labour government would not change the relief on inheritance tax for farmers.

Continue reading...

G20 communique in Rio contains key lines on climate confirming world set to transition away from fossil fuels

In keeping with previous Cop summits in authoritarian countries, authorities in Azerbaijan appear to have made some limited allowances for civil society interventions during the conference.

Here are some pictures of the activism taking place so far on Tuesday at Cop29.

Brazil has shown leadership during its G20 presidency and this signal could pave the way for unlocking a transformative finance deal at COP29, one that should mobilize at least a trillion dollars per year for climate action. This will be a drop in the ocean compared to what governments are already paying and people are already suffering around the world due to climate catastrophes. However, this funding must come in the form of grants and public money, not private finance. Private finance in its very nature is about making profits, before meeting genuine human needs.

While the joint declaration produced by the G20 on Monday shows some early positive signals–addressing key issues such as the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, a global alliance against hunger and poverty, and discussions on a wealth tax–it remains too broad and lacks specifics. The urgency of the climate crisis demands stronger and more immediate action.

We expect G20 leaders to take the lead on advancing NDCs and mobilising climate finance to send a strong signal to the negotiations taking place here in Baku. Without concrete actions to back these commitments, the gap between ambition and reality will continue to grow, leaving millions of people increasingly vulnerable.

Continue reading...

Albanese government denies media reports it is signing up to collaboration to share advanced nuclear technology

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The UK government has conceded that Australia was mistakenly included on a list of countries that were expected to sign up to a US-UK civil nuclear deal.

The Albanese government flatly denied media reports on Tuesday that it would join the UK and the US in a collaboration to share advanced nuclear technology. The UK and the US announcement said they would speed up work on “cutting-edge nuclear technology”, including small modular reactors, after inking a deal at the Cop29 UN climate summit in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

It is Day 9 at COP29 in Baku - Food Day. As we go deeper into week two, with a matter of days to conclude minister-level talks, a new text is expected on Article 6, and things are turning around on other work streams, including the ambiguous Mitigation Work Programme (MWP). The UK and Brazil have also been tasked with making sure we get over the line in Baku.

Singapore and Zambia Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on carbon credits aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.