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Elon Musk's Starship rocket to make second flight

BBC - Sat, 2023-11-18 18:51
The vehicle's maiden flight in April ended when it exploded four minutes after leaving the ground.
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A cocktail of toxins is poisoning our fields. Its effect on humans? Nobody can tell us | George Monbiot

The Guardian - Sat, 2023-11-18 16:00

Many of the chemicals being spread as sewage sludge are untested or can’t be assessed. That’s why I’m suing for answers

It’s an experiment with 8 billion test subjects, no controls and no endpoint. What happens when you release thousands of novel chemicals, most of which have not been tested for their impacts on human health or ecosystems, into a living planet? What are the effects on the development of foetuses, on human brains, other organs, immune systems, cancer rates, fertility? What are they doing to other species and to Earth systems? We seem determined to find out the hard way.

The gap between our actions and our knowledge is astounding. Of the 350,000 registered synthetic chemicals, about a third are impossible to assess, as their composition is either “confidential” or “ambiguously described”. For most of the rest, deployment comes first, testing later. For instance, the health and environmental impacts of 80% of the chemicals registered in the European Union have yet to be assessed. And the EU is as good as it gets. Our own government, as one of the benefits of Brexit, has just decided to downgrade the safety information chemical companies have to provide to an “irreducible minimum”.

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CP Daily: Friday November 17, 2023

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 10:45
A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.
Categories: Around The Web

Canadian legal experts mull over constitutionality of federal carbon pricing exemption for home heating oil

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 10:42
A Canadian law professor argued in an op-ed Friday that the federal Liberal government’s carbon pricing carve-out for home heating oil could “imperil” the legality of the carbon price in itself, while other legal experts rebut the arguments.
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Climate change: Is the world warming faster than expected?

BBC - Sat, 2023-11-18 10:35
Temperature records crumbled across the world this year, raising questions over the pace of global warming.
Categories: Around The Web

Emitters, speculators once again favour different CCA vintages, while both drop RGAs, WCAs

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 09:37
Compliance entities preferred current year vintage California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) and increased their length, while financial players opted for next year's CCA vintage and decreased their net length, and both shed RGGI Allowances (RGAs) and Washing Carbon Allowances (WCAs), US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Monday.
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US airline offers SAF and offset credits to passengers

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 09:03
A US airline announced a partnership with with a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firm offering customers the option to purchase credits against flight emissions, in a press release on Friday.
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Wisconsin Democrats introduce suite of proposals to advance climate action

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 08:10
Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly on Thursday introduced a legislative package to accelerate climate action in the state, including energy efficiency measures, sustainable agriculture practices, and considerations for the social cost of carbon (SCC).
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Plants are likely to absorb more CO₂ in a changing climate than we thought – here's why

The Conversation - Sat, 2023-11-18 06:56
Climate modelling that best accounts for the processes that sustain plant life predicts plants could absorb up to 20% more CO₂ than the simplest version predicted. Jürgen Knauer, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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UPDATE – UK government to invest £4.5 bln in green industry grants and subsidies

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 05:11
The UK government on Friday announced it will invest £4.5 billion in subsidies and grants for green industry from 2025, with just under half going to the electric vehicle sector and £1 bln to green energy including hydrogen.
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Loan from German development bank injects new life into South Africa’s JETP

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 04:29
South Africa will receive €500 million in concessional loans from German development bank KfW to undertake a low-carbon transition of its coal-based power sector and promote long-term energy security, the German government confirmed in a statement on Friday.
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Standard sees first biochar carbon credits awarded to an African project

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 03:26
A Namibian biochar project has become the first in Africa to be awarded carbon removal credits under the European Biochar Certificate (EBC) C-Sink Standard, with its Germany-based developer intending to establish six projects in the nation by next year.
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Premature to allow soil carbon credits under UN’s CORSIA aviation offsetting scheme, green group argues

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 02:59
Allowing soil carbon credits to be surrendered during the initial phases of ICAO’s CORSIA scheme for international aviation would be premature due to the project type’s lack of MRV standards and a “realistic, defensible” baseline for estimating emissions, a US-based green group has claimed.
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Attempt to squeeze carbon farming practices into EU’s carbon removal bill likely to be shot down -sources

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 02:21
The European Parliament’s agriculture committee is planning on proposing several farming practices for the EU’s Carbon Removal Certification Framework on Nov. 21 as part of the bill’s full Parliament vote, though several sources don’t expect the changes will be voted through, as the Council of member states adopted its own negotiating mandate on Friday.
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Article 6 body adopts inclusive carbon removals guidance, but pushes significant technical work to future

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 02:10
The UN body responsible for shaping the rules for carbon crediting under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement adopted its carbon removals recommendations on Friday, a day after agreeing wider methodological guidance, with the text described as "general" and "technology-neutral" by observers and leaving a significant amount of additional technical work for the future.
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Energy Charter Treaty risks another reform failure despite national withdrawal moves -think-tank

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 01:41
A further attempt to reform the controversial Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is likely to fail again at its annual meeting next week despite multiple EU nations announcing they will leave the pact due to its incompatibility with the bloc’s climate law, an environmental think-tank warned on Friday.
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UAE project developer exploring blue carbon credit potential in Vietnam

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 01:01
A Dubai-headquartered mangrove restoration firm is exploring the potential for blue carbon in Vietnam, after signing an MoU this week with a jurisdiction in the Southeast Asian country, the company has confirmed to Carbon Pulse.
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FEATURE: Generating biochar credits from bamboo offcuts is next frontier for plantations

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2023-11-18 00:31
The market potential for using bamboo manufacturing offcuts to produce carbon credit-generating biochar is heating up, as an increasingly attractive option for developers already generating nature-based removal credits from fast-growing bamboo plantations with excellent CO2 sequestration ability.
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Euro Markets: Midday Update

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2023-11-17 22:51
European carbon prices rallied modestly after Thursday's steep plunge amid a decline in selling interest as activity calmed ahead of the weekend, while energy markets weakened as the demand outlook remains lacklustre.
Categories: Around The Web

EU agrees to ban exports of waste plastic to poor countries

The Guardian - Fri, 2023-11-17 22:30

Rules, still subject to formal approval, stop exports to non-OECD countries and limit them elsewhere

The EU has struck a deal to stop ships of waste plastic landing in ports of poor countries.

European lawmakers and member states agreed on Friday to ban exports of plastic rubbish to countries outside the OECD group of mostly rich countries from the middle of 2026. The deal comes as diplomats meet in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out a global treaty on plastic pollution.

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Categories: Around The Web

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