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Swedish steelmaker SSAB has taken a major step towards plans to convert the entire Nordic production system to fossil free by around 2030.

Investigation involving Guardian shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming in Brazil

More than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation, despite dire warnings about the forest’s importance in fighting the climate crisis.

A data-driven investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and Forbidden Stories shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming.

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The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's aspirations to become a global hub for decarbonisation and sustainable finance will hinge on the construction of more robust market infrastructure and improved transparency on creation and use of carbon credits, concluded a roundtable debate at a conference held in Bahrain.

EU carbon prices climbed on Friday morning after the daily auction cleared at a premium to the spot market for the fourth time in a row, reversing the previous session's slide that had seen prices fall to a four-month low, while energy markets also recovered some of yesterday's sharp decline.

With six months until UN summit in Dubai, can its oil executive president bring unwilling countries into line?

• El Niño may push heating past 1.5C but urgent action could avert catastrophe

Within the next five years, the world is likely to experience at least one year in which the global average surface temperature exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. That was the stark prediction of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) this week, in its climate forecast.

Straying beyond 1.5C could lead to potentially irreversible effects on the global climate system, scientists have warned, including the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, the abrupt melting of permafrost, rising sea levels and bleaching coral reefs. For these reasons, the 1.5C limit is at the heart of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which bound countries to hold global temperature rises “well below 2C” and “pursuing efforts” to 1.5C.

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The Australian government should clarify the purpose of its planned biodiversity market and rule out the use of credits for offsetting purposes for at least three years, according to an umbrella organisation for some of the nation’s biggest conservation groups.

Allowance prices in China’s national emissions market reached year-to-date high this week despite shrinking trading volumes, with analysts expecting price level to remain flat this month amid lukewarm sentiment.

Heatwave continues in southern and eastern Asia as temperatures exceed 40C in vast swathes of region

Shanghai in China has reported a record high May temperature of 36.7C, breaking the previous record by 1C. The new high temperature on 29 May comes amid the heatwave affecting southern and eastern Asia since mid-April. Vast swathes of the region have had temperatures exceeding 40C, with parts of Pakistan reaching almost 50C in mid-May.

South-east Asia has been affected particularly badly, with record high national temperatures in Laos (43.5C), Vietnam (44.2C), and Thailand (45.4C). This is due to low amounts of rainfall over the previous winter resulting in drier soils, which can heat up more quickly than moist soils, thus exacerbating the effect.

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In the context of accusations of widespread over-crediting in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), one emergent accounting approach could tackle some of the challenges with auditing of forestry projects, offering real-time and dynamic monitoring of climate impact via remote sensing technologies.

A Tokyo-listed bank has teamed up with a domestic offset provider to further integrate carbon credit purchase in its services for clients as part of its sustainability strategy.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including owl chicks, a white moose calf and hungry brown bear cubs

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Australian carbon project developers have been given one month’s notice to register new human-induced regeneration (HIR) projects, ahead of the method’s expiration date in September this year, the Clean Energy Regulator said Friday.

Many of Britain’s poorest towns are in areas with greatest potential for renewable energy, says report

A network of underground geothermal plants is being touted as a way to help level up the UK after a report discovered many areas with the greatest geothermal potential lie beneath the towns and cities most in need of investment.

Areas that have been earmarked by the government as part of its levelling up agenda are about three times as likely to be rich in untapped energy from the earth, according to an academic study commissioned by No 10.

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Australian Energy Regulator starts cost and revenue determinations on 1500MW Marinus Link, paving way for early works on the controversial project.

The post Marinus Link gets nudge along as cost determinations begin appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Coal plant owner hit by fines for having the wrong settings on its generating units as regulator investigates why Callide coal explosion had such a big impact on grid.

The post Coal generator fined for lousy response to coal plant explosion that rocked the grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The central Asian country has the worst rate of climate-heating ‘super-emitter’ events in the world

The US is in negotiations with Turkmenistan over an agreement to plug the central Asian nation’s colossal methane leaks.

Turkmenistan was responsible for 184 “super-emitter” events in which the powerful greenhouse gas was released in 2022, the highest number in the world. One caused climate pollution equivalent to the rate of emissions from 67m cars.

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The need to limit output to the grid costs solar panel owners up to $4.5 million a year in South Australia alone. A bill of rights and responsibilities can make connecting to the grid fairer for all. Niraj Lal, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Environmental and climate groups have slammed an Australian gas distribution company’s decision to offer cash incentives to customers who switch from electric to gas appliances, saying it flies in the face of efforts to transition away from the fossil fuel to reduce emissions.  

If the world is to meet the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), governments must act swiftly to put in place regulations that incentivise nature positive investments and penalise nature negative activity, a global asset manager has said.

Regulator sets exit fee for households seeking to quit gas as they electrify, and allows networks to impose higher fixed charges to recoup investments in face of death spiral.

The post Fossil gas death spiral: Regulator caps exit fee to “socialise” cost of mass disconnection appeared first on RenewEconomy.