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Fortescue signs another MoU to produce green steel on a commercial scale without burning fossil fuels.

The post Fortescue signs deal to produce hydrogen-fuelled green steel appeared first on RenewEconomy.

As bans on elephant ivory are tightened, poachers are killing hippos for their teeth, experts warn.

The effect of a weather phenomenon causing cooler temperatures is due to end next year.

UN secretary general, António Guterres, during his final press conference this year said, 'This is not a time to sit on the side-lines, it is a time for resolve, determination, and – yes – even hope.' Speaking to journalists in New York, Guterres said, 'Despite the limitations and long odds, we are working to push back against despair, to fight back against disillusion and to find real solutions.' Despite his outlook on global heating, one positive development, he pointed out, was that on Monday at 3am, 'delegates at the Cop15 UN biodiversity conference in Montreal agreed on a new global biodiversity framework'

• Climate goal of 1.5C is ‘gasping for breath’, says UN head
• The Guardian view on the Cop15 agreement: nations must do more for nature

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The New York Climate Action Council overwhelmingly adopted the state’s final Scoping Plan on Monday, recommending that regulators implement an economy-wide cap-and-invest programme and consider a clean transportation standard in order to hit the state’s GHG reduction targets.

Two more African nations have introduced guidelines and regulations to govern carbon trading, with a view to selling forest credits and other types of offsets to foreign buyers.

The “breathing space” given to emitters in the just-agreed EU carbon market reform package is only set to last until 2027, lawmakers said on Monday, warning that the bloc's industries will face huge difficulties with higher prices if they don’t invest in decarbonisation before then.

CEFC makes biggest project finance deal for large scale solar as it seeks to help renewables overcome economic headwinds

The post CEFC jumps back into solar market as cost hikes put 82 pct renewable target at risk appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister says country has not agreed to ‘30 by 30’ deal

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister has said her country has not agreed to a deal to halt the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems, prompting behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to keep the agreement alive just hours after it was adopted.

Ève Bazaiba, the DRC’s environment minister, said her country would be writing to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Convention on Biological Diversity to express the DRC’s position on the final text. It comes after the Chinese Cop15 president, Huang Runqiu, appeared to force through the agreement in the final plenary just moments after the DRC negotiator had said did not support the deal, which is typically negotiated by consensus. His interventions prompted further objections from Uganda and Cameroon.

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International cooperation is the only way to halt biodiversity losses. But the action promised so far isn’t enough

The 23 targets in the Cop15 biodiversity agreement announced in Montreal on Monday are insufficient to prevent further irrecoverable losses, including among the many species threatened with extinction. The deal is not legally binding, leading to concerns about the prospects for implementation. The track record of global biodiversity plans is terrible. Every one of 20 targets set at Aichi in Japan in 2010 was missed.

The new agreement was finalised despite complaints from African countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to one of the world’s largest rainforests, which is threatened by oil and gas exploration. The description of the US’s role as “an interesting asterisk” by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was too mild. It is shaming and alarming that the US was at the talks as an “influencer” and not a participant, because the Senate has refused to ratify the UN convention on biological diversity.

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Fixed limits are set for household energy exports because of the uncertain impacts of so many variable generation sources on the network. New energy data and simulation systems may offer an answer. Richard Bean, Research Fellow, Centre for Energy Data Innovation, The University of Queensland Neil Horrocks, Professor and Director, Centre for Energy Data Innovation, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Several of the world’s largest banks are gearing up to enable customers to quickly trade voluntary offsets by early next year after piloting new blockchain fintech that aims to be the carbon market equivalent of the SWIFT network, which links financial institutions around the world.

EU energy ministers reached a political agreement on Monday for a market correction mechanism against excessively high gas prices, ending months of wrangling over how to tackle sky-high values after Russia curbed most of its flows into the bloc.

Bottlenose dolphin, a long-finned pilot whale and a third species found to have markers of the degenerative disease

Three species of cetacean stranded off the coast of Scotland, including a bottlenose dolphin and a long-finned pilot whale, have been found to have the classic markers of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study.

Although types of dementia have been fairly widely detected in other animals, Alzheimer’s disease has not been found to occur naturally in species other than humans.

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Thin demand and the impending roll of nearby standardised nearby futures contracts continued to weigh on the voluntary carbon market over the past week, although project specific fresher issued nature-based credits were still able to command a hefty premium.

EU carbon market analysts expect policy developments and power sector fundamentals to remain the key drivers of EUA prices in the short-term but that the influence of industrials will grow out to 2030, according to a survey conducted by researchers and published on Monday.

Memorable moments from the Montreal meeting that brought a historic deal.

Wasps seen piercing the mouth or other parts of tree frogs with their sharp weapon when being attacked

Kipling might well have believed that the female of the species is more deadly than the male, but when it comes to mason wasps, the latter have quite the weapon.

Researchers in Japan have discovered that male mason wasps use sharp spines on their genitalia to resist being swallowed by predators.

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António Guterres announces a climate ambition summit to confront ‘existential threat’ facing the planet

The goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “gasping for breath”, the UN secretary general has said as he announced a “climate ambition summit” for September.

António Guterres said the summit would challenge leaders of governments and businesses to come up with “new, tangible and credible climate action to accelerate the pace of change” and confront the “existential threat” of the climate crisis.

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Environmental groups and ministers have praised the ambition of the agreement, which also places emphasis on Indigenous rights

Ministers and environmental groups have praised the ambition of the historic deal reached at Cop15, which includes a target to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade and places emphasis on Indigenous rights.

But there were also concerns about the legitimacy of the deal after China appeared to force it through.

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