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Brookfield plays the climate card as it seeks regulatory approval for its bid for Origin Energy, saying its planned renewable spend could reach $30 billion.

The post “Urgent and daunting:” Brookfield boosts planned renewables spend to $30 billion appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have declined twice as fast on land farmed for crops in the past 30 years, despite funding for more sustainable farming methods

Conservation measures over the past 30 years have failed to stop the decline of insects on British farmland, a new report shows. Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have disappeared twice as fast in areas intensely farmed for crops, according to the paper, which looked at citizen science data on more than 1,500 invertebrate species.

Although there was a push to intensify agriculture after the second world war, since the early 90s more sustainable and wildlife-friendly farming practices have emerged, with EU agri-environment funding made available for farmers to plant hedgerows and wild flowers, alongside better regulation of pesticides. However, these have not managed to stem biodiversity loss.

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Voluntary carbon market firm Nori has replaced its CEO, it announced Tuesday, also revealing that it has raised an additional $6.25 million in funding two months after laying off 40% of its staff.

A Switzerland-based climate solutions investor announced the launch of a biochar company to generate carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits from an industrial-scale biochar facility in Mexico, according to a press release on Tuesday.

Tech giant Meta’s former CTO is launching a new initiative aimed at advancing research into increasing the amount of CO2 the ocean can absorb.

The US EPA plan for power plants to cut CO2 output through technologies like hydrogen or carbon capture runs afoul of a US Supreme Court decision last year, a Republican congressperson and industry lawyer argued during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday.

ESG marketplace Xpansiv on Tuesday launched a renewable fuel certificate that ethanol producers can generate under a new voluntary low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) programme modelled after California’s scheme.

A New York-based startup has netted $3.3 mln to demonstrate the company’s carbon mineralisation technology in Africa, having already pre-sold credits to a removals buyers’ club.

RGGI market participants consistently agreed that the June auction will clear above $13 despite a pre-auction slide in allowance values in the secondary market, given the narrow range that prices had moved through since the March sale and a build-up of supportive speculative interest.

Before their dog was poisoned, these families recognised Australia’s lethal ‘pest’ animal control methods were necessary. But afterwards, they saw 1080 baiting as inhumane and horrific. Here’s why. Adam Cardilini, Lecturer, Environmental Science, School of Life and Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University Alexa Hayley, Lecturer in Psychology, Deakin University Bill Borrie, Associate Professor, Environmental Management and Sustainability, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The EU has been touting South America as a solution to its lithium supply problem, despite the presence of a mine on its doorstep that could supply up to 90% of its needs for the raw material deemed essential for the energy transition while also spurring changes to the bloc's climate policy outreach.

Carbon credit rating service BeZero is introducing scores for yet-to-be-issued units in an effort to cater for companies looking to manage risk in the primary voluntary carbon market (VCM).

The country desperately needs a government prepared to invest big, to catch up with new economic times

Placing a speculative price tag on Labour party spending plans is, of course, a time-honoured pre-election manoeuvre by Conservative governments. In January 1992, as John Major seeded the ground for what turned out to be a fourth successive Tory victory later that year, voters were warned of a “tax bombshell” costing the average taxpayer £1,000. The calculations were spurious but politically damaging.

A year or so away from the next election, the front-page headline in one newspaper on Tuesday read: “Families face £1,000 a year bill for Labour eco plans”. Ministers are warning that the cost of the green strategy outlined by the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, would spook markets and drive up mortgage rates.

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A startup accelerator for innovative carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies has announced its fourth cohort, shortlisting 20 firms to join the programme.

A startup investment company and a specialist analysis firm have teamed up to launch a huge soil carbon project in Lithuania that plans to test new stratification methods and measure thousands of hectares of land to accelerate activity across Europe.

The asset management arm of a Swiss bank has partnered with system transformation analysis firm to launch a dedicated sustainable investment platform.

IPPC chair Hoesung Lee says over-reliance on the technology could mean the world misses 1.5C target

Over-reliance on carbon capture and storage technology could lead the world to surpass climate tipping points, the head of the world’s climate science authority has warned.

Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said using technologies that capture carbon dioxide or remove it from the atmosphere was “no free lunch” and that countries should be wary.

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Delegates from 180 nations set out pathway to binding global agreement on tackling plastic pollution as soon as 2025

Nation-state representatives have taken the first concrete step toward a legally binding treaty to regulate plastic, described as the most important green deal since the 2015 international climate agreement.

The banging of a recycled-plastic gavel, on Friday night at Unesco headquarters in Paris, signalled the end of a fraught process, marked by accusations of exclusion and industrial lobbying. Talks threatened to fall apart, but in the end delegates were able to broadly agree on key elements that the treaty should contain, laying the groundwork for the future agreement.

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Commitments to improve water quality and reduce stress from commercial fishing could mean the reef avoids going on world heritage danger list

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The head of Unesco has praised the Albanese government for making new commitments to protect the Great Barrier Reef, signalling Australia could avoid seeing it being placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger.

Unesco’s director-general, Audrey Azoulay, was commenting on a letter from environment minister Tanya Plibersek that outlined new commitments to improve water quality and reduce the stress from commercial fishing over the reef.

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