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Exclusive: New documents reveal NSW government division over controversial program as data reveals death toll

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More than 90% of marine animals caught in shark nets off New South Wales beaches over the summer were non-target species, with new documents revealing division within the government over the controversial program.

More than half of the 208 non-target species – such as turtles, dolphins and smaller sharks – that were caught in the nets over the past eight months were killed, data obtained by conservationists show.

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Gold Standard has published clarifications and procedural revisions to boost its chances of supplying voluntary carbon credits for Phase 1 of CORSIA, the UN international aviation offsetting scheme. 

Grim news about the Rimba Raya REDD project last week, as well as signs that corporates are focusing on cheap voluntary carbon credits, undermined a more upbeat tone for the market, fuelled by decent liquidity and stronger buying interest.

One of the world’s poorest, most indebted, and most climate-vulnerable countries is turning to carbon markets to secure foreign exchange, as countries prepare to debate a new climate finance target amid crushing debt burdens at the COP29 UN climate conference this autumn.

The world’s largest business association has written to the European Commission’s director general for taxation and customs union to call attention to the “severe” challenges companies have faced in complying with the first reporting period of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

The rate of decarbonisation across UK businesses decelerated significantly last year, posing a potential setback to achieving net zero goals, finds a new report.

EU steel association Eurofer has lowered its 2024 consumption forecast for the 27-nation bloc, citing worsening geopolitical tensions, growing economic uncertainty, high energy prices, inflation, and interest rates as factors that are adversely affecting demand.

The European Commission has called on two EU states to raise their climate ambitions in line with the agreed targets for 2030, in an assessment of the draft updated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) published on Friday.

Ministers from the G7 nations agreed on Monday to shut down coal plants by 2035, British Minister for Renewable and Nuclear Energy Andrew Bowie said following a meeting in Italy.

The Scottish government's collapse on the heels of a shelved emission target highlights the need for policymakers to back their targets with concrete action in the near term - or risk losing public backing both from supporters and opponents of climate action, according to analysts.

Nearly half of countries' policy pledges for nature made in the National Biodiversity Strategies and Actions Plans (NBSAPs) before 2020 were not supported by evidence of actions taken by governments, a paper has revealed, sounding the alarm over the reporting gaps ahead of this year's COP16 UN biodiversity summit.

The Biodiversity Credits Alliance (BCA) on Monday released an issue paper delineating the process of developing a review mechanism for the emerging biodiversity credit market in a bid to quell concerns over nature risks related to credited projects.

European carbon prices slumped on Monday morning in line with weakening energy markets, as warmer weather and a predicted rise in renewable power generation raised the prospect of reduced demand for thermal ouput.

Taxing the domestic extraction of coal, oil, and gas in the world's richest economies could raise as much as $720 billion by 2030 to help with climate adaptation in vulnerable nations, by way of the Loss and Damage Fund, finds a report backed by dozens of climate organisations.

Motion sets out worldwide target in alignment with Paris agreement to limit global heating to 1.5C

Countries are for the first time considering restrictions on the global production of plastic – to reduce it by 40% in 15 years – in an attempt to protect human health and the environment.

As the world attempts to make a treaty to cut plastic waste at UN talks in Ottawa, Canada, two countries have put forward the first concrete proposal to limit production to reduce its harmful effects including the huge carbon emissions from producing it.

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Some crops completely wiped out and dramatic falls in yields being predicted in county which reflects crisis in rest of UK

With his farm almost entirely surrounded by the banks of the River Severn in north Shropshire, Ed Tate is used to flooding on his land – but this year, the sheer level of rainfall is the worst he’s ever seen.

He points to a field where about 20% of wheat crops have failed as they have been covered with rainwater that has pooled in muddy puddles, in areas which would usually be a sea of green by now.

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In a first, researchers were able to compare records of people who drank polluted water in Veneto, Italy, with neighbors who did not

For the first time, researchers have formally shown that exposure to toxic PFAS increases the likelihood of death by cardiovascular disease, adding a new level of concern to the controversial chemicals’ wide use.

The findings are especially significant because proving an association with death by chemical exposure is difficult, but researchers were able to establish it by reviewing death records from northern Italy’s Veneto region, where many residents for decades drank water highly contaminated with PFAS, also called “forever chemicals”.

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The UN global plastic treaty could be as important as the 2015 Paris accords, if negotiators can stand up to industry lobbyists

Last week, in an enormous convention centre in downtown Ottawa, I joined delegates who have been negotiating over the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.

The global plastic treaty has a mandate to agree on a legally binding, international agreement to tackle plastic pollution across the entire plastics life cycle, from the initial extraction of fossil fuels for plastics production to the end-of-life disposal of plastic waste. The current meeting is the fourth of five scheduled negotiations and is critically important – without agreement on the objectives, structure and key measures, the prospect of agreeing on the final treaty text by the end of 2024 seems ambitious.

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China's top legislature is reviewing a draft energy law that could give additional clout to the development of renewable energy and hydrogen in the country. 

A regional director at project developer South Pole has left the company to found his own carbon market firm.