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The EU should look closer to home when it comes to diversifying its supply of critical raw materials (CRMs) needed for the energy transition by developing sustainable mining within its borders, according to a leading expert, as rising export restrictions are seen hindering global climate ambition.

Inflation and the climate crisis are hitting developing economies hardest. Trade is the key to helping them

• Mia Mottley is prime minister of Barbados. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is director-general of the World Trade Organization

The Covid-19 pandemic derailed economies everywhere, and in most developing countries incomes remain well below pre-pandemic levels. Inflation, made worse by the war in Ukraine, is particularly painful for low-income and vulnerable countries, where essentials like food and energy dominate household budgets. Higher interest rates are exacerbating debt distress across much of the developing world, squeezing public and private investment and paring back growth. To compound this, the climate crisis is hitting the very countries that contribute least to the problem, and which have the most limited means to cope.

Already, we are seeing the reversal of hard-won development gains. The World Bank estimates that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have pushed up to 95 million more people into extreme poverty. The World Food Programme projects that almost 350 million people may be food insecure in 2023, more than double the number in 2020. In the wake of the pandemic, unemployment is higher, gender gaps are wider and the share of young people with neither jobs nor sufficient education has risen, according to the International Labour Organization.

Mia Amor Mottley, SC, MP is prime minister of Barbados. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is director-general of the World Trade Organization

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Dartmoor National Park Authority is preparing to appeal against court decision to overturn right to wild camp

A wealthy landowner has accused Dartmoor National Park Authority (DPNA) officials of “acting like campaigners” as they prepare to appeal against a court decision to overturn the right to wild camp.

Earlier this year, as a result of a court case brought by a local landowner, backpack camping, also known as wild camping, was made illegal on Dartmoor without landowner permission, overturning what campaigners claim was a long-held right to camping on the moor.

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The Greens say a gas tax that “actually works” could raise $94.5 billion in the coming decade, in new push for reform of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax.

The post Green propose gas tax “with teeth” that could deliver $95bn in revenue appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Nordic tech firms including music streaming service Spotify and e-payment company Klarna are set to contribute a further $5 million in 2023 to a fund set up as an alternative to carbon offsetting.

UCLA's Institute for Carbon Management has developed what it’s called a first-of-its-kind ocean-based carbon capture system that removes CO2 from seawater, a process than can then lead to more of the gas being absorbed from the atmosphere.

European carbon prices snapped their two-day losing streak on Friday morning, posting a modest gain in very light trading, while energy markets were once again weaker as the market absorbed the impact of comfortable gas supplies.

‘Exceptional’ super-colony of endangered barbastelles found in path of proposed road near Norwich

The centre of an “exceptional” super-colony of one of Britain’s most endangered bats has been discovered in the path of a proposed road across a chalk stream.

A planning application for the Western Link dual carriageway near Norwich is expected to be submitted this summer despite researchers identifying the UK’s largest known colony of barbastelle bats in the threatened Wensum valley woodlands.

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The price for Chinese carbon allowances bounced back over the past week after the previous week's dip, though only on the back of a handful of largely symbolic transactions, while the offset market saw improving liquidity aided by heated discussions around the relaunch of the national programme.

Slow-moving supercell thunderstorms trigger flooding in Florida and a cyclone hits Australia

Fort Lauderdale experienced a historic rainfall event this week. As low pressure developed across the northern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning, a warm front lifted slowly north across southern Florida, bringing moderate rainfall through the early afternoon.

Multiple slow-moving supercell thunderstorms developed, each following similar tracks across the area. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport provisionally measured 25.91in (65.8cm) of rainfall during the 24 hours to 7am on Thursday, mostly falling within 12 hours. The previous daily rainfall total at the travel hub was 14.59in in 1979.

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Australia's Clean Energy Regulator has published ERF carbon projects' carbon estimation areas (CEAs) as now required by law as part of amendments made to the Safeguard Mechanism legislation, however crucial data that could help determine the effectiveness of the projects have been left out for the time being.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a green forest lizard, gentoo penguins and a wild beaver

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Governments need to work together towards providing greater transparency in defining the emissions intensity of hydrogen to facilitate the market and regulatory signals required at a global level to boost investment in the sector, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged in a report.

Many of these record-breaking climate events go unnoticed because it’s too much for our tiny brains so nobody ‘clicks’ on them any more

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Number of house sparrows spotted has dropped by nearly 60% since 1979, according to RSPB annual survey

House sparrows are the most spotted bird in UK gardens for the 20th year in a row, according to new data. This comes despite the decline of the bird’s population, with nearly 22 million house sparrows lost from the country since 1966.

Roughly 1.5 million house sparrows were spotted in gardens between 27 and 29 January this year, according to people who took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, the garden wildlife survey conducted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

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Sandstorms whipped up from the Gobi desert have spread from northern China to Thailand and South Korea and as far east as Japan, causing a reduction in visibility and an increase in respiratory illness. There have been four sandstorms in the space of a month in China this year

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A better way to "cook" solar cells leads Macquarie Uni researchers to an unexpected recycling benefit for which the group has a patent pending.

The post Macquarie solar breakthrough gives Aussie researchers unexpected recycling win appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Andrew Forrest secures land for proposed battery metals joint venture that seeks to break China's dominance of the key sector.

The post Andrew Forrest grabs land for proposed refinery and big battery metals play appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A new attack on electrification by Australia's increasingly desperate gas lobby has been slammed as a "bad faith exercise" designed to mislead consumers.

The post “Bad faith:” Gas lobby’s desperate attacks on electrification don’t stack up appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The housing crisis coupled with climate change could see more people living in the kinds of shanty towns and tent cities seen around the time of the Great Depression. Kate Booth, Associate Professor of Human Geography, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.