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EU carbon resumed its upward march on Thursday morning, erasing Wednesday's losses and setting yet another seven-week high as short covering resumed, while energy markets stabilised as traders kept a watching brief for news of the EU's plans to cap energy costs.

The past 12 months have been a "wasted year" on climate change says the UN Environment Programme.

Utility Vattenfall reported a slight cut in its ETS-covered generation over the first three quarters of 2022 on Thursday, while nuclear powerhouse EDF forecast a €32 billion hit to profits due to multi-year lows for its reactor availability that has driven demand for coal and gas even higher across Europe.

Failure to cut carbon emissions means ‘rapid transformation of societies’ is only option to limit impacts, report says

There is “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place”, the UN’s environment agency has said, and the failure to reduce carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.

The UN environment report analysed the gap between the CO2 cuts pledged by countries and the cuts needed to limit any rise in global temperature to 1.5C, the internationally agreed target. Progress has been “woefully inadequate” it concluded.

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NSW has redefined how we can achieve the energy transition. Its first renewable and storage auction will usher in a new wave of assets at an unprecedented scale.

The post First NSW renewables tender signals the start of a new energy transition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A group of four organisations have collaborated to set up a first of its kind agri-tech startup that aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of rice growing in Southeast Asia and the broader Asian region, they announced on Thursday.

Global Warming Policy Foundation is a lobbying organisation, says complaint submitted to Charity Commission

A cross-party group of MPs has joined calls for a climate sceptic thinktank to be stripped of its charitable status.

The complaint, which is also being supported by the Good Law Project, claims the Global Warming Policy Foundation does not meet its aims as a charity and is in fact a lobbying organisation.

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Indonesia’s requirement for each sector of the economy to draw up and meet NDC targets before they can resume selling carbon credits could interrupt project funding and create structural challenges for issuances in one of the voluntary carbon market's biggest host nations, according to market experts.

China’s environment ministry on Thursday said it will soon release for public consultation the plan for post-2020 emissions allowance allocation, a long-awaited regulatory document for market participants.

Research suggests visits to places with birdlife could be prescribed by doctors to improve mental wellbeing

One swallow may not make a summer but seeing or hearing birds does improve mental wellbeing, researchers have found.

The study, led by academics from King’s College London, also found that everyday encounters with birds boosted the mood of people with depression, as well as the general population.

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One of the world’s biggest car manufacturers has teamed up with a leading carbon solutions provider to join the voluntary carbon market, opening a major call for submissions to develop offset projects and to buy credits from existing ones. 

Working in Antarctica is a wildlife enthusiast’s dream, but seeing the reality of the climate disaster up close will be brutal

Antarctica holds an almost mythical appeal. Detached from the rest of the world, its beauty is unique. It is a continent that has never seen a war, and where testing military capabilities is strictly forbidden. It is, as the Antarctic Treaty reminds us, “a natural reserve devoted to peace and science”.

And this impressive wilderness is the place I will be calling home for the next five months, as I embark on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) at Port Lockroy, Antarctica. As a conservation biologist, I’m drawn to Antarctica for lots of reasons, not least my interest in the major role it plays in our climate system, and the opportunity to monitor the gentoo penguin colony that calls Port Lockroy home.

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Rooftop solar reaches new milestone, meeting all domestic network demand in South Australia for the seventh time this month, and for the longest period.

The post Rooftop solar meets all local network demand in South Australia for more than five hours appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Energy bills are set to rise - and rise again. The government’s efforts so far have done very little. Time for a stronger approach. Samantha Hepburn, Professor, Deakin Law School, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission fines Tlou Energy for misleading statements about green credentials

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The corporate regulator has issued its first penalty for greenwashing, fining Australian company Tlou Energy $53,280.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) said Tlou, which was developing power projects in parts of Africa, had paid the total for four infringements for making alleged false or misleading sustainability-related statements to the ASX in October last year.

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Issuance of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) has crept up this week, while airline Qantas announced it would invest in GreenCollar reef credits and an energy company was fined A$53,000 ($34,000) by the market authority over greenwashing statements.

Agreement between two of the largest supermarket chains in the US could also make prices increase

The proposed $24.6bn merger of Kroger and Albertsons could have dramatic consequences for customers, including higher prices for groceries and more food deserts, experts say.

The agreement between two of the largest supermarket chains in the US – which own brands such as Ralphs, Mariano’s, Fred Meyer, Safeway and Vons – would give the combined company control of nearly one-fifth of the US grocery market, with about 5,000 stores across 48 states. If the deal is approved by regulators, it is expected to close in 2024.

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Experts say crude oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania will produce 25 times host nations’ combined annual emissions

An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations.

The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. The main backers of the multibillion dollar project are the French oil company TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

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The current global energy crisis can prove to be a historic turning point towards a cleaner energy future, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has stated, as the Paris-based energy watchdog projected for the first time that global demand for each of the fossil fuels will either peak or plateau across all the scenarios in its latest annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) released on Thursday.

The extra cash will help the CEFC lead financing and investment in the Rewiring the Nation program.

The post CEFC gets $8.6 billion in new funding to connect renewables to the grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.