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Campaigners say sudden sale suggests Abrdn’s use of Scottish countryside was ‘get-rich-quick scheme’

A Scottish estate that became a lightning rod for disputes over wealthy “green lairds” buying up the Highlands has been unexpectedly put up for sale.

The Far Ralia estate in the Cairngorms has gone on the market for £12m, three years after it was bought for £7.5m by an investment trust run by Standard Life, now Abrdn, as a way to offset carbon emissions from its properties.

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Credit retirements in the voluntary carbon market fell 10% in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023, while corporates are increasingly wary of adopting ‘carbon neutrality’ claims, according to VCM analysts carrying out a quarterly review of the market.

Government data shows China has already installed more than 100GW of new solar capacity this year, bringing the total to more than 700GW.

The post China installs more than 100GW of solar in first half of 2024 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A massive expansion of solar and wind energy to meet EU climate goals does not require Europe to compromise on food production or nature protection goals, campaigners said on Wednesday.

Data shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F compared with 62.76F on Sunday.

World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests.

Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), compared with 62.76F (17.09C) on Sunday.

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There are major issues with how science-based targets are set by companies and governments alike, including basic misinterpretation and over-simplification, scientists have warned.

A global crop nutrition company and a green fertiliser firm have signed an agreement for the offtake of a calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) fertiliser project in Villeta, Paraguay. 

Researchers uncover ‘remarkable new way in which trees provide a vital climate service’ by reducing emissions

Microbes in the bark of trees play a vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere, scientists have discovered.

The greenhouse gas is a product of agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels and is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time.

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Global consumption of coal will remain unchanged through 2025 due to the rising demand for electricity in major economies, despite a rapid expansion of renewables, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday.

The fossils hold clues as to how mammals that lived in the shadow of dinosaurs evolved to dominate the world.

Clear Sky, an investment company specialising in aviation sustainability, announced two sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) partnerships on Wednesday. 

The new ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week should include a reform of EU electricity market rules, so that heavy industries can benefit from low-cost renewable and nuclear energy, EU trade association Eurofer told Carbon Pulse in an exclusive interview.

The country has long been the world’s biggest market – but the government’s interest is more geopolitical than environmental

When Kenzi, an advertising worker in Shanghai, bought an electric vehicle in November she wasn’t even thinking about the environmental benefits. She had read Elon Musk’s biography and thought the Tesla 3 looked good. She also knew that if she bought an EV she could bypass the long wait and cost of getting licence plates, which are rationed by the government.

“It’s not easy to get a licence plate in Shanghai, but you get a licence for free when you buy an EV,” she said.

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India’s leading carbon credit developer and supplier EKI Energy Services has posted a net profit of 8.4% or INR 348.3 lakh ($0.42 million) in the quarter ending June, on the back of increased income from its venture into power trading, the company announced Tuesday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the country’s landmark Climate Change Bill, imposing emissions caps on major polluters, the government announced on Tuesday.

The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) standard has released a draft version of the Argentina Livestock Protocol, aiming for greater coherence in the accounting and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions in Argentina's livestock sector. 

Australia could mend much of its degraded landscapes by directing A$7.3 billion ($4.8 bln) in funding per year, equivalent to 0.3% of GDP, a group of scientists said in ‘first-of-its-kind’ in-depth investment analysis on Wednesday.

In thrall to the oil and gas industries, wealthy nations are backing calamitous projects. But the tide is turning

• Tessa Khan is executive director of the climate action organisation Uplift

It is a delusion to believe that the world’s climate is being pushed to the brink solely by undemocratic petrostates such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. The truth is that about half of all planned oil and gas developments between now and 2050 will be sanctioned by wealthy governments that position themselves as climate leaders: the US, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK.

It is the countries that like to think of themselves as the good guys that are driving the climate crisis – and not just because of historical emissions and the high-carbon lifestyles of our middle class. It is because our governments refuse to take one of the most obvious actions needed to stop the crisis: keeping oil and gas in the ground. As we have heard time and again, governments are planning to sanction vastly more oil and gas than can be burned in a world with a safe climate.

Tessa Khan is a lawyer and the executive director of the climate action organisation Uplift

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European carbon prices extended their gains from Tuesday, continuing to erase the last four days of losses as traders pursued the technical rally and compensated for the lack of a daily auction, while the weekly Commitment of Traders data showed a sizeable increase in speculative short positions, underpinning the gains as participants looked to test bearish conviction.

Suggestions definition of petrostate is too narrow as many rich countries that could phase out fossil fuels double down

• Wealthy countries lead in new oil and gas expansion, threatening 12bn tonnes of emissions

“Drill, baby, drill!” Donald Trump’s ominous avowal to pump up the oil and gas production of the US has horrified many people around the world about the intentions of the Republican candidate, who has also declared he wants to be “dictator for a day”. Rather than the prospective leader of the free world, the election frontrunner sounds more like the tyrant of a petrostate.

That should not be entirely surprising given the country’s recent record: it has ramped up fossil fuel production to become the world’s biggest producer. As a Guardian investigation reveals, the total number of projected licences by the US for 2024 could lead to an estimated 397m tonnes of planet-heating emissions.

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