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We blew the whistle on Australia's central climate policy. Here's what a new federal government probe must fix

The Conversation - Fri, 2022-07-01 05:49
Labor has promised a 43% cut in Australia’s emissions by 2030 and a high-integrity carbon credit market is vital to reaching this goal. Andrew Macintosh, Professor and Director of Research, ANU Law School, Australian National University Don Butler, Professor, Australian National University Megan C Evans, Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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The US supreme court just made yet another devastating decision for humanity | Peter Kalmus

The Guardian - Fri, 2022-07-01 05:25

The EPA ruling means it may now be mathematically impossible through available avenues for the US to achieve its greenhouse gas emissions goal

The US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade was a direct attack on women. It will result in countless deaths, especially among vulnerable women, and it set civil liberties in the United States back by half a century. Now, the court has made yet another devastating decision for humanity.

In a 6-3 decision, the openly partisan and undemocratic court ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by fossil-fuel-producing states against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The decision strips power from regulatory agencies and advances the Republican goal to end government oversight. In particular, it eliminates one of the only remaining avenues for systemic federal climate action: using the Clean Air Act to phase out fossil fuel power plants. As a result, it may now be mathematically impossible through available avenues for the US to achieve its goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which is anyway feeling dangerously unambitious in light of recent climate disasters.

Peter Kalmus is a climate scientist and author of Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution

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UK launches tender for platform to host carbon emission auctions

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 05:21
The UK government has launched a tender to select a platform to host auctions for UK emissions trading allowances (UKAs), with a decision expected to be taken in the coming months ahead of the first auction at the start of next year.
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VCM should brace for mass changes on carbon credit credibility -experts

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 05:20
Experts at Sylvera’s carbon market summit on Thursday said that huge changes are coming to the voluntary carbon market (VCM) over the coming months as private and public initiatives shore up guidance to address credibility concerns.
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EU ministers seek automatic EU ETS supply injection to curb price spikes

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 05:05
EU environment ministers want an automatic EUA supply injection to prevent excessive price fluctuations in the bloc’s carbon market, according to a document published on Thursday that suggests legislators are all-but certain to agree to beef-up the market's Article 29a mechanism.
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Cities secure funding for biochar as market backs carbon capture technologies

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 04:38
A philanthropic organisation has announced a multi-million-dollar distribution of funding across seven cities from Europe and the United States for the adoption and scaling of biochar carbon removal.
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New carbon market methodology published for ‘elephant bush’ regeneration

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 04:24
A new crediting methodology was published on Thursday to quantify carbon removals through the regeneration of Spekboom Thicket, known locally as ‘elephant bush.’
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Shipping’s inclusion in EU ETS will further fuel rampant inflation, says expert

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 04:09
EU plans to including shipping in its ETS will fuel further inflation and could change trade flows as vessels try to evade carbon costs, a conference heard on Thursday.
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EU co-legislators to begin trilogue talks on ETS reforms in mid-July – sources

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 03:40
EU legislators are striving to avoid any delays on ETS reforms, with inter-institutional talks set to start as early as July, a senior diplomat told Carbon Pulse on Thursday, just two days after member states reached a unified approach on five key Fit for 55 climate policy proposals.
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Start-up carbon investors in $100 mln “ultra-high quality” credit deal

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 03:32
Two start-up carbon investment firms have inked a deal to develop and sell $100 million worth in “ultra-high quality” credits from emerging markets.
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Denmark’s Covid mass mink cull had no legal justification, says report

The Guardian - Fri, 2022-07-01 02:54

The extermination of 15 million animals and unnecessary shutdown of an entire industry has cost taxpayers billions

The Danish government lacked legal justification and made “grossly misleading” statements when it ordered a mass mink extermination two years ago, according to an official inquiry into Europe’s first compulsory farm sector shutdown, which has cost taxpayers billions in compensation to farmers.

In November 2020, Denmark, the world’s largest mink producer, announced it would kill its entire farmed mink population of 15 million animals, because of fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.

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Restricting EU ETS access could have ‘undesired consequences’ -Commission official

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 02:16
Restricting the access of speculators in the EU ETS would achieve little and could lead to undesired consequences, a senior European Commission official told a conference Thursday in remarks that reinforce the EU executive's scepticism about lawmaker efforts to curb carbon market access.
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UPDATE – US Supreme Court dramatically weakens EPA ability to regulate CO2 emissions

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2022-07-01 00:56
The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday the EPA cannot pursue generation shifting and cap-and-trade as a means to reduce power sector CO2 emissions, in what critics described as a massive blow for President Joe Biden’s climate change mitigation efforts. 
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Burning ban failing to protect England’s peatlands, say conservation groups

The Guardian - Thu, 2022-06-30 23:10

Ministers urged to toughen law to help restore carbon sinks, as figures point to illegal burning

The government is failing to protect peatlands in England, conservation groups have warned, with the country at risk of losing more of its most efficient carbon sinks.

Figures obtained by Wildlife and Countryside Link suggest illegal burns of the areas, which are important for biodiversity and carbon sequestration, are likely to have taken place.

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Euro Markets: Midday Update

Carbon Pulse - Thu, 2022-06-30 22:08
EUAs clawed back much of Wednesday's late decline amid continued steady buying while energy prices advanced on reports of a possible government bailout for a major German gas supplier.
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EUAs to suffer €10 hit if current industrial demand destruction continues -analyst

Carbon Pulse - Thu, 2022-06-30 22:02
European carbon prices for 2022 and 2023 will suffer downside in the region of €10 if current levels of industrial demand destruction in the face of soaring energy prices were to continue, an analyst told a conference on Thursday.
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Environmental regulator approves 50-year extension for Australia’s North West Shelf with net zero conditions

Carbon Pulse - Thu, 2022-06-30 20:38
Western Australia’s (WA) EPA has recommended that the life of the giant North West Shelf (NWS) LNG and gas project, Australia’s largest carbon-emitting establishment, be extended for a further fifty years provided that its operator, Woodside, and its project partners commit to staged net reductions in GHG emissions until reaching net zero in 2050.
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Former Australian chief scientist to head review of carbon credit scheme after whistleblower revelations

The Guardian - Thu, 2022-06-30 19:59

Climate change minister to announce Prof Ian Chubb will lead six-month probe of scheme labelled ‘largely a sham’ by one expert

The former Australian chief scientist and senior academic, Prof Ian Chubb, has been appointed to head a thorough review of Australia’s carbon credit scheme as experts escalate calls for a complete overhaul of the system.

Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, will announce on Friday that Chubb, a neuroscientist and former vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, will lead the six-month review of the scheme, after a respected whistleblower described it as a fraud and waste of taxpayer money.

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Bee industry confident varroa mite can be contained after 600 hives destroyed in NSW

The Guardian - Thu, 2022-06-30 19:30

Producers and apiarists remain concerned about future almond harvest and potential for mites to carry deformed wing virus

As 600 beehives were destroyed in New South Wales, the industry remained confident the varroa mite incursion could be contained, even as the emergency zone expanded, because cases of the deadly parasite were linked.

But concerns remained around almond harvest as well as the threat of the mites having a virus of their own, compounding problems for the state’s bees after the mite was discovered last week at hives near the Port of Newcastle.

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Why are we feeding crops to our cars when people are starving? | George Monbiot

The Guardian - Thu, 2022-06-30 17:00

Modern biofuels are touted as a boon for the climate. But, used on a large scale, they are no more sustainable than whale oil

What can you say about governments that, in the midst of a global food crisis, choose instead to feed machines? You might say they were crazy, uncaring or cruel. But these words scarcely suffice when you seek to describe the burning of food while millions starve.

There’s nothing complicated about the effects of turning crops into biofuel. If food is used to power cars or generate electricity or heat homes, either it must be snatched from human mouths, or ecosystems must be snatched from the planet’s surface, as arable lands expand to accommodate the extra demand. But governments and the industries that they favour obscure this obvious truth. They distract and confuse us about an evidently false solution to climate breakdown.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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