Feed aggregator

Land reform charities call for better regulation of UK’s carbon market so profits can be shared with public

Nature campaigners have called for taxpayers to take stakes in forest and peatland projects designed to store carbon, to avoid all the profits from carbon credits going to private investors.

A report from the Revive Coalition, an umbrella group for Scottish land reform and conservation charities, says carbon credits also need to be used much more effectively to bolster demand and help the UK meet its net zero targets.

Government-owned banks such as the Scottish National Investment Bank should invest in carbon projects, including on public land.

It becomes mandatory for all large and medium-sized companies to have audited carbon reduction targets to avoid greenwashing.

All carbon offsetting projects must register with the official schemes, the Woodland carbon code and the Peatland carbon code.

A new land tax is set up that is reduced if the land is managed to protect the climate and promote nature recovery.

Continue reading...

The victory of Donald Trump in the US election on Tuesday has cast doubt among observers and negotiators over whether progress is still feasible on Article 6 at COP29 in Baku despite the previous optimism.

Donald Trump's re-election as US president will likely usher in another era of loosening environmental standards in the US and a bigger step-back in climate action internationally -- at a time when the Paris Agreement's 1.5C goal is slipping out of reach and emissions have yet to peak.

An India-based carbon credit developer and supplier has teamed up with a local partner to tap into the US market, targeting potential clients from the aviation sector.

Gold Standard has opened consultations on multiple guiding documents relating to carbon crediting projects this week as the registry builds on recent approval obtained from the UN to supply the current phase of the CORSIA international aviation offsetting scheme.

US e-commerce giant Amazon will support a new voluntary certification programme in Ireland aimed at restoring 700,000 hectares of degraded peatlands that could avoid up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House following the 2024 US presidential election is seen as a setback for global efforts to tackle climate change, just days before the COP29 UN climate summit opens in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Earlier this year, families from the Indigenous Guna people on the tiny island of Gardi Sugdub became the first to undergo a climate-related relocation by the Panamanian government because of the threat of rising sea levels. Hundreds of residents moved to Isber Yala, a new town built on the mainland. But many fear that the relocation has put their traditions and culture in peril

Photographs by Euan Wallace

Continue reading...

Washington voters appear to have decided to retain the state’s cap-and-trade programme by rejecting a ballot measure that sought to dismantle it, preliminary election results showed.

The rightwing regional authorities ignored the climate-crisis science and dismissed the weather forecast – the consequences are their responsibility

• Juan Bordera is a climate journalist and an independent MP for Compromís in the Valencian parliament

It’s almost impossible to describe what we have experienced in the flooded villages and towns around the city of Valencia. Many of those villages and towns are in ruins, with at least 217 dead and others to be pulled out of the mud. There are many areas that still need urgent help. There are towns without water or electricity that have not been able to clean up. There are still flooded garages, buildings on the verge of collapse, and health problems that may result from the accumulated water.

But what also defies belief is the regional Valencian government’s sheer negligence in its pre- and post-disaster management. Let me try to summarise some of the most serious shortcomings.

Juan Bordera is a climate journalist and an independent MP for Compromís in the Valencian parliament. He has donated his fee for this article to a fundraiser for those affected by the storm

Continue reading...

My mother showed me the importance of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in protecting the natural world. Yet they continue to face barriers and discrimination in their work

I learned about the importance of women in small communities from my mother. She was a peasant woman – a campesina as we say in Colombia – in the mountains near Cali, where I grew up. She searched the forest for food and cultivated the earth to grow vegetables to feed me and my four siblings. It is women like her that I try to empower with my work supporting the collective rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In an era of environmental crises, people from such communities have an outsized role in preventing the destruction of nature and slowing the climate crisis. Colombia, where the biodiversity Cop16 was held last week, is home to 10% of all life on Earth, stretching from thick mangrove forest of the Pacific coast to the Amazon rainforest. Many of the communities I work with live alongside this rich nature and have made its survival part of their culture, something increasingly recognised in conservation. This is true from the Arctic Circle to the Indonesian forest. My job is to make sure women in these places receive practical support and a fair share of growing financial assistance.

Continue reading...

To prepare for more intense floods supercharged by climate change, we have to build infrastructure able to tolerate new extremes Conrad Wasko, ARC DECRA Fellow in Hydrology, University of Sydney Andrew Dowdy, Principal Research Scientist in Extreme Weather, The University of Melbourne Seth Westra, Professor of Hydrology and Climate Risk, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions later this century could drastically alter the way oceans absorb and distribute heat, with lasting impacts on climate patterns, a new study has found.

The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) on Tuesday released its latest climate macro-financial scenarios, signalling increased economic risks from climate change by mid-century.

EU member states agree to update urban waste water treatment directive

The UK is falling further behind on sewage pollution regulation as the EU tightens its rules to clean up Europe’s waterways, say critics.

EU member states agreed on Tuesday to update the urban waste water treatment directive to strengthen rules to clean up sewage and chemical pollution from treatment plants. European countries will have to update their sewage systems and treatment plants so that large amounts of human waste and chemicals are removed from rivers by a deadline of 2035. The companies deemed responsible will be required to pay for the infrastructure changes.

Continue reading...

George Craig looked after the 5.5-metre croc for decades. But after the keeper retired from the park, Cassius stopped eating and went into ‘very quick decline’

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Researchers are trying to determine the true age of the world’s largest saltwater crocodile in captivity, who died on the weekend.

Cassius, a Guinness World Record holder thought to be at least 110 years old, died at Marineland Melanesia on Green Island, just off Cairns, where he lived since 1987.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australian long duration energy storage hopeful says it can deliver a grid-scale vanadium flow battery with up to eight hours of storage capacity that can compete, on costs, with current lithium-ion batteries.

The post Vanadium flow battery hopeful says long duration vanadium storage can compete with li-ion on costs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

With the highest quarterly net deficits in programme history, Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) credit surplus increased to just under 1.5 million in the second quarter of 2024, according to state data published Tuesday.

BP is dumping 18 hydrogen projects and pausing two biofuels refineries, as it focuses on more profitable fossil fuels.

The post BP dumps 18 early stage hydrogen projects as it retreats to oil and gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Squadron Energy confirms 15 turbines currently out of action at Murra Warra 1 wind farm in Victoria as part of "staged maintenance" to replace failed bearings.

The post Turbine shut downs at Victoria wind farm part of “staged maintenance,” says Squadron appeared first on RenewEconomy.