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Other families have spread on to the finest beaches – but how often do you travel an inner-city waterway and happen upon ‘bats, bats, bats, and more bats’?

• This is part of a series in which great Australian writers tell us about their summers away from the beach

My son and I drive 10 minutes from home to the venerable Fairfield Park boathouse. We study a list of river-faring craft and choose a two-seater kayak. He likes sitting at the front, he tells me, so he can pretend he’s alone. I like sitting at the back so I can watch him grow before my eyes.

On the river we make a show of synchronised paddling but, when we’re out of sight, we let ourselves drift downstream. Eucalypts overhang the water and we float through reflections of twisting branches, making them ripple. Ducks come and race us. Parrots skitter through the trees that line the banks. Only the appearance of a bridge connecting the Eastern Freeway reminds us we’re mere kilometres from Melbourne’s city centre.

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China’s State Council on Friday approved regulations for the national emissions trading scheme, adding bureaucratic clout to the scheme, which so far only has been formally backed at ministerial level.

Analysis shows that our ideas of the colours of the planets Neptune and Uranus have been wrong.

European carbon experienced a relatively stable morning on Friday as traders kept an eye on forecasts for colder weather and gas price support, while waiting for US-based investment funds to start their day.

In order to coordinate the implementation of the Agroforestry action, including the advising to the seedling production at community lever, the establishment of Agroforestry System, the training to SHF and other stakeholders and supervise local and international partnership, FAO Mozambique intends to recruit an Agroforestry and Carbon Trading Specialist to support the implementation of these component.

Cost of sugar surges to highest level since 2011 after extreme dry spell in India and severe drought in Thailand threaten crops

The climate crisis has been previously identified as a threat to coffee and beer, and its impact could now be stretching to another of life’s joys: dessert.

The global cost of sugar has surged to its highest level since 2011 following concerns of overproduction rates from India, which has experienced an extreme dry spell that has threatened crops, and Thailand, which is facing a severe drought. The two countries are the largest exporters of sugar, after Brazil.

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Azerbaijan's environment minister, who worked for 26 years at the country's state oil and gas firm, has been appointed as the president-designate of COP29, due to be held in November in Baku.

Sentiment in China's national carbon market is being reset after the market concluded the second compliance period at the end of 2023, with participants expecting more policy updates to be announced later this year.

Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell to the lowest level since around 1950, as a weak economy and high prices caused energy-intensive industry to lower production and coal power fell.

The post Drop in coal power sends German emissions to lowest level in 70 years appeared first on RenewEconomy.

US-based academics say they have found a more efficient way to capture the CO2 emitted from power stations, which may eventually assist the energy transition.

Even under a moderate implementation of the EU’s biodiversity strategy, tens of millions of cubic metres of roundwood production would be moved to countries with lower governance quality and higher risk of species extinction, a study has warned.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

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Climate thinktank says Britain could be left trailing in global race to develop low-carbon energy

Labour’s independent energy advisers have warned the party against watering down its £28bn green spending plans in advance of its promise to create a zero carbon electricity system by 2030.

Experts at the climate thinktank Ember, which provided the independent analysis underpinning Labour’s green targets, said growing international competition for low-carbon investment from the US and EU could leave the UK lagging in the global race for low-carbon energy.

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Stalled growth in electric vehicles comes despite government goal to phase out petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles by 2035

The number of new cars registered in the UK has jumped by nearly 18% but electric vehicle demand is flatlining, prompting the industry to call for a VAT cut to stimulate sales.

Annual figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Friday show 1.9m new cars were registered last year, well up on the previous year’s figure of 1.6m and the highest level since the 2.3m registrations of 2019.

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A US-based consulting and engineering services company has been awarded $24 million by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to preserve biodiversity and natural resources, and promote blue carbon initiatives in Cambodia, it announced Thursday.

The only problem with being a refuse hunter is that once you start, it’s hard to stop – you could find a unicorn

When I was a child, the highlight of visiting my grandmother was being allowed to take her rubbish to the communal refuse room. The room had a chute that you could drop tied bags of household rubbish into, and they would travel down to a furnace somewhere.

My brother and I took it in turns to push the bag in, leaning over to try and watch it travel the length of the silver chute. Sometimes we’d try and pretend we could see the flames as the bag hit the furnace.

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Spider measuring record 7.9cm across is almost as big as largest female collected in 2021, which was named Megaspider by Australian Reptile Park

With fangs that could pierce a human fingernail, the largest male specimen of the world’s most venomous arachnid has found a new home at the Australian Reptile Park where it will help save lives after a member of the public discovered it by chance.

The potentially deadly Sydney funnel-web spider dubbed “Hercules” was found on the Central Coast, about 80km north of Sydney, and was initially given to a local hospital, the Australian Reptile Park said in a statement.

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Washington's Department of Ecology (ECY) presented the volume of current vintage allowances on offer for its first of the four quarterly Washington Carbon Allowances (WCA) auctions of the year, and also published revenue generated following the completion of the first year of the state's cap-and-trade scheme.

California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) plateaued and dipped early during the week following the holiday season before rallying late to near-record highs, while Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs) declined slightly as the market continues to largely languish in stagnation, market participants told Carbon Pulse.