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More than 16 million people under heat alerts on Friday, with Las Vegas on 102nd day of temperatures above 100F

Brutal heat continues to plague the south-west US, with excessive heat alerts lingering long into September as parts of the region set grim new records for deaths connected to the sweltering temperatures.

Autumn has offered little reprieve for cities that have already spent months mired in triple-digit temperatures. This week, Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; and Palm Springs, California, are all grappling with severe weather, with highs that have pushed over 100F (38C). More than 16 million people in the US were under heat alerts on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, mostly clustered in the southern tips of Nevada, Arizona and California.

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A buyers’ club for jurisdictional REDD (J-REDD) credits announced a R$1 billion ($180 million) offtake agreement with a Brazilian state at Climate Week NYC despite its government’s ongoing bias toward mining and agribusiness, Indigenous leaders have said.

The European Commission will apply a 25% cap on sourcing electrolyser stacks from China in the next auction of its Hydrogen Bank, but local content requirements remain controversial, participants heard at the EU's cleantech summit this week.

Iceland-based International Carbon Registry (ICR) is about to launch consultations for its biodiversity credit framework, planning to onboard 10 pilot projects within a couple of months, the initiative's chief scientist told Carbon Pulse.

Record floods propel aggressive Mozambique tilapia throughout Mary River, compromising efforts to save ancient fish and endangered turtles

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Record floods have propelled an aggressive invasive fish species across a south-east Queensland river catchment, compromising efforts to save endangered and ancient fishes and turtles.

The Moonaboola (Mary) river catchment is home to several threatened species, including the Mary River turtle, the white-throated snapping turtle (known for breathing through its bottom), the Mary River cod and the Australian lungfish, which has survived for 150m years and is considered a living fossil.

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Norway on Friday released its nature action plan ahead of next month’s COP16, but drew ire from environmentalists as it stopped far short of making national commitments aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

A global maker of construction materials would like the EU to scrap a regulation that will only allow sustainably sourced CO2 in the production of e-fuels after 2041, saying it will constrain the ability to decarbonise maritime and aviation.

Domesticated creatures feature heavily in contemporary contributions to Guardian column compared to diaries of 1920s

In the early 1920s, the British countryside was a place where blackbirds sang, rabbits scurried and the summer skies were animated by swallows and house martins. A century on, blackbirds still sing and ancient oaks stand proud but the landscape is dominated by sheep, cows and dogs – according to Guardian country diarists.

A study of the most-featured species in the Country Diary column from 2021-24 and a century earlier reveals a surprising dominance of domesticated creatures in the mind’s eye of the contemporary contributors.

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Phoebe Plummer, 23, receives two-year prison term while Anna Holland, 22, given 20-month sentence over incident

Two Just Stop Oil activists have been jailed for throwing tomato soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers after one of them told a judge she would “accept whatever sentences I receive with a smile”.

Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced to two years in prison for causing an estimated £10,000 worth of damage to the artwork’s frame at the National Gallery in London in 2022. Her codefendant, Anna Holland, 22, received 20 months for the same offence, but will serve only half in custody.

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Governments face a complex task in setting the price of ITMOs while still staying on track to meet their own climate goals, according to two NGOs, which have teamed up to release a “Ministry Playbook” guide to selling the international carbon credits.

European carbon prices eased lower on Friday morning during relatively quiet trade, after they had dropped after the Thursday settlement following a dramatic fall in TTF gas, while UKAs struggled again following heavy losses seen during the previous session.

The European Parliament has decided not to oppose a hydropower project on the Danube that could threaten protected areas (PAs) and the survival of critically endangered species, according to a group of environmental organisations.

The association has had to run spot checks on farms using its label amid welfare concerns.

Laos, which is chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, held an event Thursday to consult on Article 6, while it also hosted a meeting of ASEAN energy ministers.

Taiwan's environment ministry has released a set of operational guidelines for companies to declare carbon neutrality that includes the proper use of offsets, in the hope of avoiding corporate greenwashing.

Findings come amid growing concerns about overuse of medicines in farm animals and rise of superbugs

None of the UK’s large supermarket chains are ensuring their suppliers use antibiotics in the most responsible way, an assessment by campaigners has found, despite heightened concerns about their overuse in farm animals.

Supermarkets play an important role in the fight against superbugs, because most of the world’s antibiotics are used on livestock and retailers can enforce strict standards on the farm suppliers they use. Resistant bacteria known as superbugs are rapidly developing, posing an increasing risk to human health.

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Rail services and roads disrupted in parts of England and Wales with further downpours forecast

The Environment Agency has warned drivers their cars can be swept away in just 30cm (12in) of water as more than 60 flood warnings were issued in England after heavy rain overnight, with further downpours to come.

Flooding disrupted rail services in England and Wales on Thursday morning and caused the M5 motorway to be closed in both directions in Gloucestershire.

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The Chinese emissions market saw more fluctuations over the past week, with the permit price climbing back to the 100 yuan ($14.26) level amid growing compliance demand.

Three-quarters plan to invest solely in continued fossil fuel production between now and 2030, research shows

North Sea oil and gas companies are failing to switch their investments to renewable energy, research has shown.

Three-quarters of the offshore oil and gas companies operating in the UK plan to invest solely in continued fossil fuel production between now and the end of the decade, according to data compiled by the analyst company Rystad.

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Australia has pledged more cash towards creating its own supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with funding of A$36.8 million ($25.3 mln) coming from Canberra and ground zero for jet-zero Queensland.