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Exclusive: Forestry Act 1967 to change from 1 January to deter people from flattening trees and accepting paltry penalties

Illegal tree felling in England will be punishable by unlimited fines and prison sentences from 1 January, the government has announced.

The current fine for cutting down a tree without a licence, established by the Forestry Act 1967, is £2,500 or twice the value of the timber, whichever is the higher.

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The crew members may have to return to Earth early after their capsule started leaking.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world

Another Canada-headquartered carbon credit investment firm is preparing to go public.

How you can celebrate while doing less harm to the planet

A US-based biochar company has been approved to start selling carbon credits on a major platform for engineered removal units.

Alberta compliance offset values climbed to new heights this week after the provincial government set the CO2 price trajectory and increased credit usage limits under the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regime, as data showed financial players have bolstered their positions since early November.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices continued their end-of-year run up this week, albeit at a slower pace than in 2021, while RGGI Allowance (RGA) values picked up over the last five days after a prolonged stagnation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday tapped a representative from organised labour to sit on the state’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee (IEMAC), filling a nearly two-year vacancy on the carbon market watchdog.

US biofuel credit (RIN) values this week pared back roughly half of their losses that followed the EPA publishing lower-than-expected Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) quotas, with traders attributing the price bump to year-end activity.

The species at risk include flowering plants, moss and lichens, tough invertebrates and breeding seabirds. Jasmine Lee, Conservation biologist, Queensland University of Technology Iadine Chadès, Principal research scientist, CSIRO Justine Shaw, Conservation Biologist, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

In the struggle against aqua nullius, Indigenous people’s right to make decisions about water on Country is a priority. Kat Taylor, Water Justice Hub Research Fellow, Australian National University Anne Poelina, Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Fellow, University of Notre Dame Australia Quentin Grafton, Australian Laureate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Several batches of palm kernel product imported for dairy farms contained certain chemicals above a safe limit – and there’s an ethical quandary in supporting an industry linked with deforestation. Hadee Thompson-Morrison, PhD Candidate in Environmental Science, University of Canterbury Brett Robinson, Professor of Environmental Chemistry, University of Canterbury Sally Gaw, Director of Environmental Science, University of Canterbury Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Finland is likely to fail to meet its net carbon sink target under the EU's land use regulation (LULUCF), researchers said in a report published this week that concluded the country would face massive costs either from fines or from having to buy allowances from other member states.

Environment Agency under fire for extending schedule for tackling pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters to 2063

Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063.

Not one English waterway, including rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters is in good ecological and chemical health at present, with pollution from water treatment plants and agriculture the key sources of the damage. The Environment Agency said on Thursday £5.3bn was being invested for the next five years to stop the further deterioration of waterways.

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ART/TREES and CORSIA must urgently restrict the use of HFLD credits to safeguard environmental integrity, argue several consultants critical of decisions by both bodies to enable HFLD credits to be used to offset fossil fuel emissions.

Even temporarily overshooting the 1.5-2C temperature limit goals of the Paris Agreement could significantly increase the risk of tipping point cascades that lead to irreversible changes to the climate, according to analysis published on Thursday.

Voluntary carbon credit retirements are set to fall below 2021 levels this year due to a massive fall in demand for forestry and land use units, while renewable energy credits poised for a year-on-year rise, according to data from a carbon analytics firm.

Carbon credit certifier body Verra has launched a new review process of its methodologies, prioritising those not been updated for five years while also updating two methodologies with immediate effect involving geological storage and afforestation, reforestation and vegetation (ARR) projects.

The environmental crisis changed the political tide in 2022. There are some reasons to be optimistic about the outlook ahead – but much more to be done

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The year 2022 is likely to be seen as one in which Australians started to act as though the climate and environmental crises are not just abstract ideas that mostly happen somewhere else or in the distant future.

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