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In Brazil’s presidential elections that kick off this Sunday, pitting far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro against far-left former president and current front runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the country’s path forward on climate policy – including the fate of a carbon market – hangs in the balance.

For too long we’ve dismissed Indigenous knowledge of the natural world. At Sydney’s botanic garden, signage is starting to reflect Aboriginal names

Like all botanic gardens, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is a classic artefact of the activities that took place during the colonisation of Australia in the 18th and 19th century.

It was established to create a patch of landscape that mirrored those found in the United Kingdom, with the aim of “discovering” and documenting the floral biodiversity of New South Wales (in itself a name reflecting the perspective of those holding power).

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EU nations lack the legal means to apply corresponding adjustments for carbon projects on their territories, a report commissioned by the Finnish government pointed out on Friday, complicating matters for companies seeking to buy carbon credits across the bloc.

A Canada-based voluntary carbon investment firm has agreed to buy around 2.5 mln VCUs from a Indian rise farming project.

Major clips of VCS-certified REDD credits lacking CCB co-benefit certification were being offered at a $5 discount to VCS-CCB units on Friday, highlighting a hefty premium for nature units that can meet the specification requirements for delivery into futures contracts on the CME exchange.

The 27-nation EU rapidly sealed a “political agreement” on an emergency package aimed at mitigating spiralling energy prices on Friday, in what was only the first - and arguably least important - part of a meeting largely dominated by differences on how to intervene in the gas market.

Australia's Quinbrook has locked in big profits from the sale of a US wind, solar and storage company it bought as a start-up five years ago.

The post Quinbrook bags huge profit on sale of US wind, solar and battery company appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Some European carbon retailers and consultancies have started to request prices for voluntary carbon market credits in euros rather than dollars after the Eurozone's common currency sunk below the greenback.

Airlines head up the list of companies by sector that have bought and retired credits in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), according to analysts that nonetheless encountered considerable information gaps.

Photos and videos of sharks and other marine life swimming in suburban flood waters make for popular hoaxes during heavy storms. But a mobile phone video filmed during Hurricane Ian’s assault on south-west Florida isn’t just another fishy story. 

A large, dark fish with distinct dorsal fins was filmed thrashing around an inundated Fort Myers backyard. Experts were divided over whether the clip showed a shark or another large fish. Nevertheless, some Twitter users nicknamed the hapless fish the 'street shark'

• Shark tale? Video of large fish in flooded Florida yard goes viral

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Sphagnum moss found to drastically slow down rainwater runoff in Peak District ‘outdoor laboratory’ study

A “superhero” moss can significantly reduce the risk and severity of flooding for communities living in downstream areas, researchers have found.

Scientists from the conservation group Moors for the Future Partnership who conducted a six-year study into sphagnum moss found that planting it in upland areas could dramatically slow the rate at which water runs off the hillsides, preventing river catchments being inundated with water downstream.

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EUAs extended gains into a second day on Friday as traders continued to cover short positions after prices had tested support levels, while energy markets eased as the EU ministers agreed on a package of measures to address energy costs, but failed to agree on a price cap on natural gas imports.

A Japanese oil and gas company has become the first to release a third-party verification report of its handling of “carbon neutral” LNG, while announcing that from the current financial year it will use domestic J-Credits instead of international units for such purposes.

Targeting the distribution of revenues directly to households and users most in need of financial support is the most effective means of defending carbon pricing in the face of mounting political and social pressure to reduce energy costs this winter and beyond, according to research published Friday.

The city joins a growing number across the US in limiting the use of artificial turf made with dangerous PFAS compounds

Boston’s mayor, Michelle Wu, has ordered no new artificial turf to be installed in city parks, making Boston the largest municipality in a small but growing number around the nation to limit use of the product because it contains dangerous chemicals.

All artificial turf is made with toxic PFAS compounds and some is still produced with ground-up tires that can contain heavy metals, benzene, VOCs and other carcinogens that can present a health threat. The material also emits high levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and sheds microplastics and other chemicals into waterways.

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The allowance price in China’s national emissions market edged down over the past week with a slight rebound in trading volume, though doubts linger as to whether the market will see any regulatory progress before year-end.

Ian is one of the five worst hurricanes in America’s recorded history. That’s not a fluke – it’s a tragic taste of things to come

Climate change once seemed a distant threat. No more. We now know its face, and all too well. We see it in every hurricane, torrential rainstorm, flood, heatwave, wildfire and drought. It’s even detectable in our daily weather. Climate disruption has changed the background conditions in which all weather occurs: the oceans and air are warmer, there’s more water vapor in the atmosphere and sea levels are higher. Hurricane Ian is the latest example.

Ian made landfall as one of the five most powerful hurricanes in recorded history to strike the US, and with its 150 mile per hour winds at landfall, it tied with 2004’s Hurricane Charley as the strongest to ever hit the west coast of Florida. In isolation, that might seem like something we could dismiss as an anomaly or fluke. But it’s not – it’s part of a larger pattern of stronger hurricanes, typhoons and superstorms that have emerged as the oceans continue to set record levels of warmth.

Michael E Mann is presidential distinguished professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

Susan Joy Hassol is director of the nonprofit Climate Communication. She publishes Quick Facts on the links between climate change and extreme weather events

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The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including an injured pangolin, a trapped dragonfly and a sneaky pig

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The prime minister’s ideology encourages the extraction of as much income as possible from nature before abandoning it

The ecological destruction Liz Truss plans to unleash on this country is not collateral damage. It is not a byproduct of her economic programme. It’s a mark of true faith, a sign that she is following her ideology to the letter. For fundamental to this doctrine – neoliberalism – is the belief that everything on Earth can and should be turned into something else.

The founding father of neoliberalism is Friedrich Hayek. His frankly deranged tract The Constitution of Liberty enjoys almost biblical status among his disciples. Margaret Thatcher was perhaps the book’s most famous advocate, and Truss now carries the flame. It inveighs against the protection of the living world. Rather than seeking to protect the soil – the delicate ecosystem from which 99% of our calories are produced – Hayek says it makes sense to extract as much value as it can produce, exhaust it “once and for all”, then abandon the land. The role of soil is to create a “temporary contribution to our income”, which we can then invest in other moneymaking schemes. For “there is nothing in the preservation of natural resources as such which makes it a more desirable object of investment than man-made equipment”.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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The price for New Zealand carbon allowances has slipped in recent weeks, as the government continues its consultation on ETS reform, and the market has attracted criticism that it will fail to adequately cut GHG emissions in its current form.