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Rating agencies should expand into assessing letters of authorisation for Article 6-aligned projects, a carbon market veteran said on Thursday.

UK-based investment manager Ninety One has launched the Sovereign Biodiversity Index to help investors assess national-level nature risks.

Over 190,000 new marine protected areas (MPAs) must be established if the world is to meet the 30x30 marine protection target under the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), equivalent to 85 MPAs created every day until 2030, according to a study published Thursday.

China’s environment ministry has released the final carbon allowance allocation plan for the years 2023 and 2024, marginally easing the settings for coal-fired power plants compared to the previous draft as some 68 million additional CO2 permits are now set to be handed out in each of the two years.

The government of Cote d’Ivoire has formed a specialised office to accelerate the development of country’s carbon market regulations and bring investments for project development in the country, it has announced.

The United Nations climate chief is calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to take bigger steps to shore up climate finance and alleviate debt for developing countries during their annual autumn meetings next week.

European carbon prices were marginally firmer at midday on Thursday, tracking fluctuations in natural gas closely in a very narrow range as traders awaited new direction, as well as news of the European Central Bank's expected reduction in its key interest rates.

Funds focused on companies with apparent solutions to nature loss have been the only biodiversity-related investors in the sector to attract net new money this year, as inflows to the strategies so far have plummeted, said a report published on Thursday.

Flexible, non-prescriptive approaches are staple features of the carbon crediting methodologies and removals standards, adopted by a UN body last Thursday, in a bold move that experts see as a major step forward towards carbon crediting under the Paris Agreement’s Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM).

A group of Japanese companies and academic institutions have teamed up to develop a new offset methodology and create carbon credits by utilising forests in Tokyo's Tama region, they announced Thursday.

An increasing number of the world’s largest airlines are retiring voluntary carbon credits, according to data from the Verra, Gold Standard, ACR, and Climate Action Reserve (CAR) registries.

The water crisis could jeopardise more than half of food production by 2050, with global GDPs also threatened in both high- and low-income countries, a new report has said.

A frequent flying levy across Europe would increase aviation tax revenues to €64 billion and reduce sectoral emissions by over one-fifth, according to a report published Thursday.

A cohort of economists, think tanks, and non-profits have called for all domestic emissions and half of international emissions to be included in the UK ETS as the government continues to mull reforms to the country's compliance carbon market.

Japan is likely to emerge as the lead trading hub for captured CO2 by 2050 in the Asia-Pacific region, but at least $10 billion in government support is needed for carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) deployment, analysts said. 

Australia’s second-largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project has started up in the remote desert of the Cooper Basin and is set to earn 250,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by the end of the year.

Financial institutions can mobilise finance for nature-based solutions (NbS) by introducing more innovative credit risk methodologies and business models, a report has suggested. 

A UK-based rewilding company has raised £40 million ($52 mln) in a seed funding round, with investors including insurance giant Aviva, it announced Thursday.

This week, unusually widespread thunderstorms are expected to bring rain, hail and intense winds to swathes of southern Australia. Here’s why – and what threat they can pose. Andrew Brown, Research Fellow in Climate Science, The University of Melbourne Andrew Dowdy, Principal Research Scientist in Extreme Weather, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Some of Sydney's most popular swimming spots including Coogee and Gordons Bay beaches will remain closed after thousands of mysterious balls washed ashore. Preliminary test results identified the dark spheres as 'tar balls' – which are formed when oil comes into contact with debris and water, usually as a result of oil spills or seepage. Addressing reporters on Thursday, Randwick council mayor Dylan Parker said the beaches will stay closed while further investigations are carried out by government agencies. Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte beaches had also closed 'out of precaution', Waverley council said in a statement on Thursday

• Mysterious tar balls washing ashore force closure of seven beaches in Sydney including Bondi

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