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South Africa's wealthiest cities are leading the charge toward a net zero future, but coal-dependent provinces remain at risk of being left behind unless targeted support is provided, according to new research released on Wednesday.

Total greenhouse gas emissions in Germany dropped by a record 10.3% in 2023, even as new data showed forests have flipped from net sink to emitter, reported the German environment agency (UBA) on Wednesday.

Recently approved amendments to California’s Low Clean Fuel Standard (LCFS) could be finalised by April, ARB staff told a conference Wednesday, barring potential complications from three ongoing lawsuits.

The German government must transpose the latest reform of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) now, maintain a fixed price on CO2 for an extra year on its national carbon market, and defer a decision on the inclusion of waste incinerators to the EU, a public hearing at Germany’s lower house of Parliament heard on Wednesday.

We’ve had many public awareness campaigns, yet Australia is still nowhere near the federal-government supported goal of zero drownings. Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate, UNSW Beach Safety Research Group + School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Bottom-contact fishing activities, considered harmful to marine ecosystems, continued in EU waters between 2022 and 2023 even after the European Commission's decision to limit the practice, a study has found.

Will water soon be a marketable commodity or a priceless public good?

There’s a scene in the film Mad Max: Fury Road where the evil ruler Immortan Joe, gazing down from a cliff upon his parched, emaciated subjects, turns two turbines, and water gushes from three gigantic sluices. The wretched masses surge forward to catch the deluge in their pots and bowls. And as imperiously as he opened the gates, Joe shuts them. “Do not become addicted to water,” he roars. “It will take hold of you.” But, of course, he already has taken hold of them by withholding, essentially, life.

We don’t have to await the dystopian future for the water wars to begin. The struggle over water, between private interests and the public good, the powerful and the weak, is raging now. From Love Canal to Flint, Michigan; Bolivia to Ukraine to Tunisia; budget-cutting, privatization, corporate malfeasance and climate crises are conspiring to create political violence, mass migration, property damage and death.

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Methane emitted from the Nord Stream pipeline leak in 2022 has been found to be nearly double the initial estimates, according to academic researchers.

Four-fifths of companies that are on track to meet their climate targets also tie their executive pay to meeting green objectives, new research has found.

The EU should create a new fund to stave off the existential threat of Chinese and American competition while moving closer to the bloc's climate neutrality objectives, according to former Polish Climate Minister Marcin Korolec.

Norwegian energy giant Equinor has revised a key claim about its flagship carbon capture and storage (CCS) project after official figures revealed discrepancies with the company’s public statements, an investigative journalism project has found.

A new Finnish law aims to push the construction industry to take into account both the positive and negative impacts of a new building's entire life cycle, as part of an effort to push the sector to reduce emissions and boost circularity.

DNA analysis suggests Iron Age societies in Britain were built around women rather than men.

The programme of the UN Ocean Conference is missing three crucial points on industrial fishing, fossil fuels, and protected areas, a group of NGOs has said.

A study on corporate reporting in the Asia-Pacific region has found that only a quarter of surveyed companies believe biodiversity issues impact their business, with South Korea, Vietnam, and China among the countries with the biggest gaps in nature-related disclosures.

Global heating means atmosphere can drive both extreme droughts and floods with rapid switches

Climate “whiplash” between extremely wet and dry conditions, which spurred catastrophic fires in Los Angeles, is increasing exponentially around the world because of global heating, analysis has found.

Climate whiplash is a rapid swing between very wet or dry conditions and can cause far more harm to people than individual extreme events alone. In recent years, whiplash events have been linked to disastrous floods in east Africa, Pakistan and Australia and to worsening heatwaves in Europe and China.

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Prices for Californian credit allowances (CCAs) and EU ETS allowances will rally 19-20% this year, despite surpluses in the former and balanced fundamentals in the latter, a bank predicted on Wednesday.

An ecological consultancy has endorsed the English government’s proposals for centralising its nutrient credits scheme, while highlighting potential risks with its approach regarding the impact on species.

Expert says the planet parade will be best viewed around 21 January and recommends downloading a sky map app to help spot them

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Stargazers are being treated to a rare “planet parade” this month, with most of the planets visible in the night sky at the same time.

Astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Allen, co-director of Swinburne University’s space technology and industry institute, said it would be a rare opportunity to see so many planets lined up above the horizon, especially outer ones like Neptune.

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Korean researchers believe they may have found a lower cost approach to make hydrogen from natural gas and then liquefy it for export with the same carbon profile than hydrogen made from water and renewable energy.