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Simplistic comparisons are misleading. Calculations based on the mix of electric and fossil-fuelled cars actually on our roads show any difference in mass is too small to be significant. Robin Smit, Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Ruth Davis named special representative for nature ‘to put climate and nature at the heart of our foreign policy’

The government has appointed the UK’s first envoy for nature, a role that a former campaigner called “the environmentalist’s environmentalist”, who will be charged with forging global agreement on halting the precipitous decline of species.

Ruth Davis, the new special representative for nature, is in Colombia for the start of two weeks of vital talks that will decide the global response to the biodiversity crisis. The UK has played a leading role in such efforts in the past and Davis helped draw up a global pledge on deforestation that was one of the main outcomes of the UN Cop26 climate summit hosted in Glasgow in 2021.

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It has been a nightmare season for farmers, with England said to have had its second-worst harvest on record

Giant orange pumpkins with ghoulish grins have become a Halloween doorstep tradition but this year trick-or-treaters may be greeted with even spookier green-tinged jack-o-lanterns after a nightmare season for growers.

In Asda, pumpkin displays have signs telling shoppers “don’t worry if I’m slightly green, I will ripen at home and turn orange”.

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We need to deal with the climate effects of global capitalism the way we deal with inflation – by applying the brakes

The impact of the climate crisis is evident everywhere. Finance ministers meet in Washington DC this week for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund in the wake of two devastating hurricanes in the US within a month. Parts of the Sahara have been flooded for the first time in half a century.

Scientists attribute the growing number of extreme weather events to a planet that continues to get hotter as the result of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases linked to human activity. Global temperature records are being broken with every year that passes and the idea that this can continue indefinitely is a fantasy.

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Australia's main grid reached 75 per cent renewables for the first time on Sunday, propelled by rooftop solar which also sent coal power and grid demand down to record lows.

The post Rooftop PV propels renewables to 75 pct share for first time, sends coal and grid demand to record lows appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Experts say UN event will be critical for world’s declining wildlife population as host nation pushes for inclusivity

World leaders, environmental activists and prominent researchers have begun to arrive in Cali, Colombia, for a biodiversity summit that experts say will be decisive for the fate of the world’s rapidly declining wildlife populations.

The host nation is also hoping that the summit, which formally opens on Sunday evening, will be the most inclusive in history.

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Rooftop solar smashes its previous peak in Australia's most renewable state, setting a new record share of 112.9 per cent of state demand.

The post Rooftop solar reaches stunning new record of 112.9 per cent of state demand appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Toxic emissions, health risks and leaching pollution – better management of landfill sites is a matter of urgency

Last summer, people living around the perimeter of Pilsworth South landfill in Bury, Greater Manchester, couldn’t open their windows because of the elevated levels of hydrogen sulphide in the air. Referred to as “sewer gas”, its rotten-egg stench can be particularly unbearable at night. Even driving past with the windows closed on the M66, as I do regularly to drop my child at a local play centre, I have gagged at the overpowering smell.

Including Pilsworth, there are 15 odorous landfills across the UK. Hafod landfill in Wrexham is the latest to hit the headlines. Another in Northern Ireland was so noxious before its decommissioning that it was subject to a supreme court ruling and now an appeal. Meanwhile, several others have breached their licences through overtipping, odour issues or poor management, forcing them to undertake engineering solutions to rectify the problems. These remedial works can make things worse in the short term, with smells created when rubbish is disturbed.

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They were closed earlier this week after thousands of mysterious black tar-like balls washed ashore.

World Without End topped bestseller lists but was criticised for embracing nuclear power

In 2019, France’s best known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist. The result? Perhaps the most terrifying comic ever drawn.

Part history, part analysis, part vision for the future, World Without End weaves the story of humanity’s rapacious appetite for fossil fuel energy, how it has made possible the society people take for granted, and its disastrous effects on the climate.

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Financial players cut their holdings across the board of North American carbon in the most recent report from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while emitters also reduced their exposure to California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) but built net length in RGGI allowances (RGAs) and Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs).

Washington state's considerations for changes to the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) to facilitate linkage with WCI partners California and Quebec must resolve ambiguity surrounding electricity imports and address varying offset protocols, comments to the draft amendments showed.

Up to $41 billion in World Bank climate finance, almost 40% of the total funds the institution has disbursed over the past seven years, is unaccounted for, according to a new report by Oxfam published on Thursday.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $58.5 million in funding on Friday to develop commercially viable CO2 removal (CDR) technologies.

A reforestation group announced Thursday that it is beginning a land reclamation project in Northwest Pennsylvania this month, kicking off a larger 2,800-acre reforestation project across the Appalachian region, to be financed by the expected sale of nearly 400,000 carbon credits.

Improvements need to be made in the precise quantification of different organic carbon (OC) sources in mangrove sediments to ensure proper allocation of blue carbon credits, a new study argues.

Carbon emissions from forest fires have risen by 60% over the past two decades, driven largely by climate change and the heightened sensitivity of temperate and boreal forest fire regimes, according to a new study.

Austria's National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) still has room for improvement, particularly when it comes to provisions aimed at alleviating the social impact of carbon pricing policies on households, according to recommendations published on Friday by the European Commission.

Global CO2 emissions from forest fires have increased 60% since 2001, according to research published Friday.

Leveraging future EU ETS revenues, de-risking low-carbon investments, and advancing CBAM should all be part of an EU Clean Industrial Deal, the former chair of the European Parliament’s environment committee told an industry event this week, pointing at potential compromise in the EU.