Feed aggregator

Fear of being seen as unclean drives overwashing of clothes at expense of environment, Swedish scientists say

How often should you wash your clothes? Doctors don’t really know, but the decision is more cultural than medical, anyway. Worried about leaving the house in sweaty shirts or stained shorts, people often chuck clean clothes in the laundry basket after wearing them just once.

But the urge to avoid whiffy garments carries a climate cost that has largely been ignored. New research shows that feelings of disgust and shame encourage excessive clothes washing even among those who care about their carbon footprint.

Continue reading...

Researchers made 161 sightings of whales – some of them endangered – south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket

An unexpected number of whales is visiting the waters off New England, including an unusually high number of an endangered species, said scientists who study the animals.

A research flight made 161 sightings of seven different species of whale on 25 May south of Martha’s Vineyard and south-east of Nantucket, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday. The sightings included 93 of sei whales, one of the highest concentrations of the rare whale during a single flight, the agency said.

Continue reading...

The Danish parliament has approved two bills that will impose a CO2 tax on parts of industry, including shipping and waste-to-energy companies, from next year.

A Bolivian senator expressed support on Tuesday for carbon projects as a counterpoint to extractive industry, as the lower middle-income country slowly reverses its long opposition to the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

Some 22 organisations from across the private, non-profit, and academic sectors in Denmark have agreed with an alliance’s set of guidelines that recommend halting biodiversity loss by 2030 at the latest.

A Swiss reinsurance firm has signed a multi-year deal to purchase credits from a biochar project in Bolivia, it announced on Thursday.

The UK's first voluntary biodiversity credit scheme is set to expand over the next two months, with 10 projects ready to be added to the newly-established framework, Carbon Pulse has learned.

The European Green Party, which came out weakened from EU elections on Sunday, offered their backing yesterday to join a coalition led by outgoing Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, saying they were ready to back an “industrial Green Deal” in exchange.

A business case for voluntary biodiversity credits is not there yet, as companies prefer to engage in the carbon market with biodiversity co-benefits due to a lack of trust in a stand-alone market, experts have told Carbon Pulse.

Protecting biodiversity while deploying more infrastructure to decarbonise electricity production is possible and desirable, according to a new guidebook released on Thursday.

The full start-up of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is set to drive a battle over who gets to pocket the revenue — a decision that is unlikely to be taken until 2027. 

Almost two-thirds of companies feel confident about their ability to comply with the EU’s newly-adopted Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)  due to start applying this year, according to a new survey.

The European Green Deal looks likely to have survived the EU elections last weekend, but the far-right’s surge in Germany’s coal regions gives reasons for concern, with trade unions warning about a “corrosive cocktail” threatening climate policy in the long term.

A new technology that can store renewable energy for several weeks, longer than batteries, has secured $300 million of investment in a move that could turbo-charge the net zero transition.

European carbon allowance prices remained firmly rangebound for a fourth day, shrugging off a nearly 10% rally in natural gas this week as the weight of open interest in June EUA call options appeared to be acting as an anchor on prices, breaking the long-standing correlation between the two markets.

Threadbare liquidity and a long bear market have sent shivers through many heavyweight players in the voluntary sector, but two stalwarts of the market believe they have picked the opportune time to launch their new advisory and execution service.

The Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI) has agreed to work with a global partnership of vulnerable countries to broaden access to climate finance through the carbon markets.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group has launched a natural capital and biodiversity action plan, planning to embed natural capital more deeply into its operations while scaling biodiversity finance mechanisms.

Howling winds take sea salt from the Southern Ocean and lay it down in Antarctica as snow, then ice. Hidden in these ice cores is a warning about Australian fire seasons. Danielle Udy, Research associate in Climatology, University of Tasmania Anthony Kiem, Associate Professor – Hydroclimatology, University of Newcastle Neil Holbrook, Professor of Ocean and Climate Dynamics, University of Tasmania Nerilie Abram, Professor in Climate Change and Paleoclimatology, Australian National University Tessa Vance, Palaeoclimatologist, Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

UBS has partnered with a nature-focused non-profit to better understand how to limit impacts to nature in clean energy investments, with the findings released on Thursday.