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Exclusive: shadow energy security secretary vows to fill ‘vacuum’ left by Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on net zero

Labour will promise to take the lead on global efforts to tackle the climate crisis, filling a “vacuum of leadership” on the world stage and proving Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on net zero has been a “historic mistake”, Ed Miliband has said.

The shadow energy security and net zero secretary said the UK needed to change course and was “off track”.

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The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has published final regulations set to take effect in July for the state's forthcoming voluntary offsets programme.

Carbon credit retirements towards Colombia's national CO2 tax remained weak in Q1, per figures presented at a climate summit in Cartagena last week, as domestic supply and demand struggled after media scandals and a volume cap was introduced in late 2022.

A New York-based fintech startup has launched a blockchain-based carbon trading instrument for voluntary REDD+ credits, with all projects assessed by a ratings agency and prices published on its exchange platform.

As the UK battles climate change impacts such as flooding, overheating, and more frequent storms that can derail vital infrastructure, the country can learn from other nations like Japan and Australia on developing effective emergency response strategies and disaster resilience.

Allegations of fraud against one of the heavyweights in the voluntary carbon market shattered a quiet week, with activity already suffering due to the start of the summer holiday season.

Multinational technology company Amazon, in collaboration with Verra, has finalised work on a new voluntary carbon market quality standard focused on ARR forestry offsets, according to Reuters, that may provide an alternative to the work being done by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM).

The cost of switching to renewable energy remains a significant barrier for suppliers who are under growing pressure from their big brand-name customers to cut emissions and help to decarbonise wider supply chains, according to a consultancy that is looking to help companies make that change. 

The spectre of a $100 lamb roast helped the Coalition win the 2013 election. Will ‘foreign-owned swindle factories’ have a similar effect in 2025?

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Tongue twisters were a staple in my childhood home. Fox in Socks by Dr Seuss was a favourite. My grandmother taught us “she sells seashells by the seashore” and “around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran”.

It was probably too early when she recited “I’m not a pheasant plucker but a pheasant plucker’s son”. She delivered it anyway, much to our delight.

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Most rats, like most people, try to distinguish themselves

“You must go to the rats,” the Great Owl tells Mrs Frisby in the Rats of Nimh.

Mrs Frisby, a mouse, needs help: her son is sick and she has to move out of her house at the edge of a field, because the field will soon be ploughed.

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An outlook on Australia’s carbon market has forecast credit prices to rise above A$40 ($26.71) by the time the first surrender period under the reformed Safeguard Mechanism rolls around next year and that the scheme means demand will structurally increase as time goes on.

Britain's electricity flows may be the most impacted by the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as imports sent to the EU are set to become more expensive, with the Western Balkans also poised to be hit hard.

Agency rejected FOI request about potential conflicts of financial and business interests held by regional directors

The Environment Agency is refusing to provide campaigners with details of potential conflicts of interests with water companies held by its directors across England.

The refusal to provide the information comes after the head of the agency, Philip Duffy, admitted that freedom of information requests have been buried by the regulator because the truth about the environment in England is “embarrassing”.

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The European Union could end up being “paralysed” if the far-right Rassemblement National party is able to form a government in France, with potentially significant consequences also for energy and climate policy across the region, according to policymakers and analysts.

Companies with validated science-based targets increased by 102% during 2023 alone compared to all previous years, with Asia leading as the region with the highest number of such companies, a report released Monday has found.

Our selective engagement with nature stops humans from seeing animals clearly – and that’s not good for them or for us

One of my most annoying traits, I have been told, is my tendency to puncture others’ casual enjoyment of nature with brutal and unsolicited pieces of trivia. Chalk it up to the influence of my hobbyist herpetologist father, who instilled in me not only a passion for less cuddly animals but also a rigorous attention to the facts.

If your favourite animals are sea otters, which mate for life and hold hands so they don’t drift apart? I will inform you that they also sometimes rape baby seals to death. Oh, you prefer chimps? Have you seen that David Attenborough footage of a group of them hunting a monkey that was apparently too disturbing to broadcast with close-up detail?

Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist

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A recently developed metric for tradable biodiversity credits has the potential to optimise resource allocation to species conservation efforts, a paper has said.

The EU and UK must rejoin their carbon markets in order to scale cross-border CO2 transport and storage projects, according to researchers from the University of Oxford, who also underlined the political challenges of relinking the two systems.

EU carbon allowances started the week brightly as Europe's energy and equity markets rallied in relief at the outcome of the first round of France's parliamentary elections, before tailing off slightly later in the morning as the recent daily pattern appeared to be repeating.

Scientists from a UK research centre have verified the feasibility and potential scalability of a new ocean carbon removal technique, they said Monday.