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The NZU price dropped NZ$2.65 on Wednesday, amid mass selling that market participants blamed on an overall weakness in the market.

Even small amount of exposure to minute soot particles – known as PM2.5 – raises the risk of cardiovascular disease

The sooty air pollution spewed out by cars, trucks and factories is causing widespread harm to people’s hearts and lungs even with the smallest amounts of exposure, with government regulations still routinely allowing for dangerous risks to public health, two major new studies have found.

There is no safe amount of a microscopic form of airborne pollution known as PM2.5, consisting of tiny particles of soot measuring less than the width of a human hair, for heart and lung health, US researchers found, with even small amounts raising the risk of potentially serious problems.

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Forestry asset manager New Forests on Thursday announced it had made its first investment from its Tropical Asia Forest Fund 2 (TAFF2) by establishing a peatland conservation and restoration project in Thailand that could generate around 500,000 carbon credits per year.

People in areas of high PM2.5 concentrations had higher amounts of amyloid plaques in brain

Air pollution from traffic is linked to some of the more severe forms of dementia, and could be a significant cause of the condition among those who are not already genetically predisposed to it, research suggests.

Research carried out in Atlanta, Georgia, found that people with higher exposure to traffic-related fine particulate matter air pollution were more likely to have high amounts of the amyloid plaques in their brains that are associated with Alzheimer’s.

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Numerous obstacles persist on the way to a green recovery across the EU, according to the European Commission’s mid-term evaluation of the financial tools put in place after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hydrogen electrolyser manufacturers are staring into the valley of death, as the hype-fuelled valuations of 2021 come crashing down around their years. Some are still optimistic.

The post Hydrogen hopefuls stare into valley of death as electrolyser bubble pops appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The veteran ERS-2 Earth observation spacecraft dives to destruction 2,000km west of California.

Dozens of green groups, think tanks, and industry associations submitted feedback in response to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)’s guidelines on voluntary carbon credit trading, of which commentators varied in degrees to which the CFTC can establish standards regarding underlying carbon credits in derivatives contracts.

A US-based startup that decarbonises industrial steam production has raised $21 million in Series A financing.

Australian vehicle emissions are even worse than official figures show and are likely to fall even further behind the rest of the world unless much more ambitious policies are adopted. Robin Smit, Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

From sacrificial bark to fire-germinating gumnuts to stealthy buds the eucalyptus has evolved an arsenal of protective measures. Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The impact of meat on the environment is well known, but what about staples such as rice and legumes?

Biodiversity-conscious eaters could consider substituting potatoes for rice, cutting down on beef and lamb and asking where their beans, lentils and chickpeas are grown to reduce their impact on nature, a new study has found.

Scientists analysed 151 popular recipes around the world for their biodiversity impact. They found meat dishes were the worst offenders: recipes including chilli con carne, salsa verde pork and a Spanish lamb dish called lechazo, all had high biodiversity damage scores compared with vegan and vegetarian ones.

The massive environmental impact of eating meat has been well established, and the study reinforced this, with meat dishes scoring more than vegetarian or vegan dishes across almost all locally and globally produced scenarios. Brazilian-raised beef topped the charts. But the study, published on Wednesday in Plos One journal, also had surprising findings about the biodiversity footprint of some grains and legumes.

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Denmark has been advised by a government-appointed expert group to impose a carbon tax on farmers as part of its efforts to meet national emissions reductions objectives and comply with EU climate commitments.

Bilateral sovereign carbon credit trade is rolling forward despite the unravelling of Article 6 negotiations at COP28, a webinar heard Wednesday.

An adjustment by the UK government to the biodiversity net gain (BNG) legislation, meaning local authorities need to justify increasing their minimum net biodiversity improvement level, undermines nature restoration efforts, a consultant has said.

Beef production by Brazil's three biggest meatpackers is fuelling illegal deforestation in the Cerrado region, with an area bigger than Chicago cleared between 2008 and 2019 within ranches supplying the companies, an NGO investigation has found.

The regulatory backbone of compliance mechanisms will help to support and scale the voluntary carbon market (VCM) as the two increasingly overlap, with buyers moving away from individual project assessment to rely instead on the oversight of schemes like CORSIA and Article 6 as a benchmark for credit quality, experts told a webinar Wednesday.

Several improved forest management (IFM) methodologies present a high risk of overstating emissions impacts, according to factsheets released Wednesday alongside a new set of carbon credit quality scores by a German think tank in partnership with NGOs.

South Africa’s treasury on Wednesday proposed increasing the national carbon tax rate from 190 rand to 640 rand per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent after the country's new climate change bill comes into effect.

Attorney general’s attempt to end climate protesters’ use of consent defence is slippery slope, says KC

A government attempt to remove one of the last remaining defences for climate protesters would be a slippery slope to the erosion of the constitutional right to trial by jury, the court of appeal was told on Wednesday.

The attorney general, Victoria Prentis KC, is arguing that one of the last available defences being used by environmental protesters should be removed. Prentis is making the appeal in the case of a defendant known as C, after a string of acquittals by juries of defendants for acts of criminal damage involving daubing paint on buildings.

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