The Guardian

Study finds carbon credits could raise billions for climate action but only with changes, such as rigorous standards

The carbon-credit market must reform or “go out of business”, leading scientists have concluded in an international review of the offsetting industry.

The market for carbon offsets shrank dramatically last year after a series of scientific and media reports found many offsetting schemes had little environmental impact.

Statutory nuisance complaint lodged by Save Windermere against United Utilities is a first over sewage pollution

Campaigners fighting to stop sewage discharges into Windermere, the Lake District’s largest lake, have made a statutory nuisance complaint against a water company in the first legal action of its kind.

The civil complaints are normally used in noise disputes, or over noxious smells. But the environmental barrister Nicholas Ostrowski has for the first time lodged a complaint on behalf of campaign group Save Windermere against United Utilities over raw sewage discharges into the lake.

Facing accusations from Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young that the approval of a Senex Energy coal seam gas project would threaten koala habitat, Labor senator Penny Wong defended the move, saying the approval comes with 'strict limits on habitat loss'

• Gina Rinehart-backed company gets approval from Tanya Plibersek for coal seam gas project

Global demand for renewable energy is surging so why make solar panels, wind turbines and EVs dearer for western consumers?

With historic heatwaves sweeping across the US and other parts of the northern hemisphere, June is expected to be the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures. The primary cause, of course, is the enormous amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Despite the existential threat posed by rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, emissions continue to increase at a faster pace than previously anticipated.

On one front, however, progress in the fight against the climate crisis has exceeded expectations. Amid the global shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles and the accelerated adoption of solar and wind power, demand for renewable energy is rapidly rising in the US and the EU.

Analysis of high-resolution drone imagery concludes 97% of corals died at a Lizard Island reef between March and June this year

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At least 97% of corals on a reef in the Great Barrier Reef’s north died during one of the worst coral bleaching events the world’s biggest reef system has ever seen, according to new analysis.

Scientists at several institutions used high-resolution drone imagery to track the bleaching and death of corals on a reef at Lizard Island.

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John Podesta, Biden’s top climate official, calls for other big economies to step in to help poorer states

The US will “continue to be a leader” in climate finance, the White House’s top climate official has promised, though without specifying how much it would provide to poor countries.

John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, also defended the large-scale US expansion of gas production, saying the world was fortunate America was strengthening its supply, given the demand for non-Russian sources after the invasion of Ukraine.

The movement is more than double that of east Africa’s renowned ‘great migration’ and has continued despite decades of war and instability

An extensive aerial survey in South Sudan has revealed an enormous migration of 6 million antelope – the largest migration of land mammals anywhere on Earth. It is more than double the size of the celebrated annual “great migration” between Tanzania and Kenya, which involves about 2 million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle.

“The migration in South Sudan blows any other migration we know of out the water,” said David Simpson, wildlife NGO African Parks’ park manager for Boma and Badingilo national parks, which the migration moves between and around. “The estimates indicate the vast herds of antelope species … are almost three times larger than east Africa’s great migration. The scale is truly awe-inspiring.”

Misidentified reptile Ronaldo had not been in contact with any other snakes for at least nine years

The appearance of 14 baby snakes in a vivarium occupied by a Brazilian rainbow boa snake called Ronaldo was surprising on two counts.

First, staff at the City of Portsmouth college had thought Ronaldo was a male; second the 1.8-metre (6ft) long reptile had not been in contact with any other snakes for at least nine years.

Study identifies 16,825 sites around the world where prioritising conservation would prevent extinction of thousands of unique species

Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species, according to a new study.

Analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Science has found that the targeted expansion of protected areas on land would be enough to prevent the loss of thousands of the mammals, birds, amphibians and plants that are closest to disappearing.

Small increase in temperature of intruding water could lead to very big increase in loss of ice, scientists say

A newly identified tipping point for the loss of ice sheets in Antarctica and elsewhere could mean future sea level rise is significantly higher than current projections.

A new study has examined how warming seawater intrudes between coastal ice sheets and the ground they rest on. The warm water melts cavities in the ice, allowing more water to flow in, expanding the cavities further in a feedback loop. This water then lubricates the collapse of ice into the ocean, pushing up sea levels.

Floods could leave coastal communities in states like Florida and California unlivable in two decades

Sea level rise driven by global heating will disrupt the daily life of millions of Americans, as hundreds of homes, schools and government buildings face frequent and repeated flooding by 2050, a new study has found.

Almost 1,100 critical infrastructure assets that sustain coastal communities will be at risk of monthly flooding by 2050, according to the new research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The vast majority of the assets – 934 of them – face the risk of flood disruption every other week, which could make some coastal neighborhoods unlivable within two to three decades.

Items containing ‘forever chemicals’ linked to cancer risk, lower fertility and developmental delays

A new law coming into effect in Colorado in July is banning everyday products that intentionally contain toxic “forever chemicals”, including clothes, cookware, menstruation products, dental floss and ski wax – unless they can be made safer.

Under the legislation, which takes effect on 1 July, many products using per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – or PFAS chemicals linked to cancer risk, lower fertility and developmental delays – will be prohibited starting in 2026.

Disruptive demonstrations are decried by the press, but given acres of coverage. This is the new conundrum of public protest: the only way to be talked about is if you’re demonised

When Just Stop Oil covered Stonehenge with orange cornflour last week, Keir Starmer was called upon to decry the act, which he dutifully did, even though anyone with even a very slight knowledge of geology will know that the marks won’t last. But that wasn’t what the Labour leader was being asked. Rather, the question was whose side was he on, between “respectable” people and disruptive ones?

A respectable person, who cares about the environment – and this, in theory, is all respectable people, because to not care about the survival of everything you love would make you unhinged – shouldn’t throw things in protest, they should peacefully march. Happily, they did: 100,000 of them at the weekend, fighting for nature. It made some news reports; it didn’t make the bulletins. No radio host gave over their phone-in to the question of whether or not this sort of thing should be allowed. This is the new conundrum of public protest; the only way to be talked about is if you’re demonised. Grab yourself a “hate march” moniker because one person got arrested, and you’ll get all the coverage of your wildest dreams, but it will be unjust, because that one person was actually a counter-protester, and there are more arrests at your average football match.

The opposition claims Australia is an outlier in the developed world in not having nuclear, yet Germany and Italy have closed their plants

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So much has been said by the Coalition about what nuclear energy could do for Australia, with so little evidence to back it up, that it can be hard to keep up with the claims.

The key assertion by Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien is that nuclear would lead to a “cheaper, cleaner and consistent” electricity supply. None of this has been supported.

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Reef escapes being classed ‘in danger’ for now but the government must submit a progress report to World Heritage committee by February 2025

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Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.

The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.

For generations the Gurung community in Taap, about 175km (110 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, and other villages in the districts of Lamjung and Kaski, have scoured the steep Himalayan cliffs for honey. The villagers say the proceeds, split among them, are drying up as the number of hives has declined over the past decade, although some also earn a living from growing crops of rice, corn, millet and wheat

Almost a third of installers surveyed say finding skilled fitters is a barrier for customers, while 40% note lack of interest

The UK’s drive to replace gas boilers with heat pumps is being stymied by a lack of consumer demand and a shortage of skilled installers to fit heat pumps where they are wanted, according to an industry survey.

The most comprehensive poll of heat pump installers to date found that the biggest barrier was the low number of households choosing to get one fitted.

Adult cats were released into national park last year after British population had come close to extinction

The birth of wildcat kittens in the Cairngorms national park has been hailed as a “major milestone” in efforts to rescue the secretive mammals from extinction in the UK.

In footage exclusively shared with the Guardian by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), two of the kittens can be seen playing in grassland with their mother and leaping on to a fallen tree branch.

Former NSW Liberal MP spoke out against the lack of climate action by the Morrison government during the 2019-20 black summer bushfires

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The federal Labor government has appointed prominent New South Wales Liberal Matt Kean as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority.

Here’s a short explainer on Kean and the agency he will chair.

Exclusive: French survey of 26 countries finds fewer Australians than global average agree that climate change is the greatest health threat facing humanity

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Australians are among the most sceptical around the world that “climate disruption” is being caused by humans and that the costs of tackling it will be less than that of its impacts, according to polling across 26 countries.

Just 60% of Australians accept that “climate disruption” is human-caused, a fall of six percentage points from the previous poll 18 months earlier and well behind the global average of 73%, according to the results from French polling company Elabe.

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