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Snowy Hydro admits Snowy 2.0 contractors have made claims on costs, but executives still pocket big bonuses for meeting project milestones.

The post Snowy Hydro admits contractors make claims on Snowy 2.0, but gives out bonuses anyway appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Halloween has become yet another consumption ritual – but you can choose to celebrate it sustainably. Olav Muurlink, Associate Professor, Social Innovation, CQUniversity Australia Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

H&M, Sainsbury’s and Nestlé are among more than 300 companies urging governments to agree to the pledge at Cop15 in December

More than 300 businesses, including H&M, Sainsbury’s and Nestlé, have urged world leaders to make it mandatory for companies to assess and reveal their impact on nature by 2030.

Businesses and financial institutions in 56 countries – including the UK, Canada and China – are pushing for governments to agree to the disclosures at Cop15, the UN biodiversity conference being held in Montreal this December.

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Reliance on oil and gas worsening climate impacts and compounding food, energy and cost of living crises

The health of the world’s people is at the mercy of a global addiction to fossil fuels, according to a study.

The analysis reports an increase in heat deaths, hunger and infectious disease as the climate crisis intensifies, while governments continue to give more in subsidies to fossil fuels than to the poorer countries experiencing the impacts of global heating.

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

The joint venture between a US-based carbon credit originator and its investment firm partner has purchased Michigan forestland to develop a voluntary carbon market project, as the company builds out its portfolio across the country.

Project-specific, nature-based offset prices appear to have aligned with standardised contracts, a carbon market exchange detailed on Tuesday, as VERs continue to suffer losses this year amid corporate disinterest and uncertainty in the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

World's biggest offshore wind projects plans major investment in Australia, starting in Gippsland, as well as onshore renewables and "Power-to-X."

The post World’s biggest offshore wind company enters Australia with big project plans appeared first on RenewEconomy.

US-based food processing and commodities trading corporation ADM is evaluating how to generate voluntary carbon offsets from its regenerative agriculture programme, a company official said Tuesday.

Australia must map out the best sites for generating the most electricity with the least environmental impact. Madeline Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A carbon credits ratings agency on Monday said that only less than 10% of voluntary offset projects that it has evaluated to date are of the highest integrity, while VER undertakings that issue large batches each year also warrant more scrutiny.

A group of countries are likely to push for formal recognition of pre-2021 efforts to conserve and enhance global forests, hoping to mainstream the topic beyond technical negotiations at this year’s UN climate talks after seeing little success in initial offerings to the voluntary carbon market. 

The European Parliament's budgets committee (BUDG) voted on Tuesday largely in line with their MEP colleagues on the bloc's REPowerEU proposal, seeking to part-finance the package with €20 billion worth of carbon allowance sales sourced from frontloaded member state auctions over three years.

The financial troubles at New Zealand’s most famous North Island ski fields are a warning of what lies ahead for many ski resorts – and snow sports in general. Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Gender, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Freezing relations between the US and China threaten this year’s crucial Cop27 summit

Less than two weeks before Cop27 opens in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, an outline of what to expect from the negotiations is becoming more distinct. The issue of loss and damage is expected to dominate – as it should. Wealthy countries have broken the promise made in 2009 at Cop15 in Copenhagen. An annual climate finance budget of $100bn was agreed then to help the countries most dangerously exposed to global heating to adapt. But contributions have fallen short. The group of countries known as the V20, which includes the Philippines and several small island states, are justifiably angry and determined to ensure that past failures are confronted.

So is Pakistan, which is not part of V20 but suffered catastrophic losses during recent floods. With one-third of its landmass under water and valuable crops destroyed by what one senator, writing in the Guardian, called a “monster monsoon”, the country now faces an immediate crisis as well as a longer-term, existential threat from melting glaciers. Pakistan, with its population of around 220 million people, is responsible for just 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, G20 countries between them produce 80%.

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EU energy ministers discussed the merits of a bloc-wide gas price cap on Tuesday, agreeing to meet again later next month to decide on a measure aimed at blunting the impact of sky-high prices ahead of winter.

Birds featured in March of the Penguins film face almost complete annihilation by end of century as Antarctic sea ice is lost

The emperor penguin, the tallest and bulkiest of all the world’s penguins, has been officially declared a threatened species by the US government due to the existential risk posed to the birds by the climate crisis.

The penguins, which are endemic to Antarctica, face almost complete annihilation from the loss of sea ice over the course of this century, a situation that has prompted the US Fish and Wildlife Service to place it on the endangered species list, it announced on Tuesday.

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A scientist says his recordings of 53 marine species changes what we know about the evolution of sounds.

A total of 318 financial institutions and multinational firms collectively worth $37 trillion in assets and spending power have urged 1,000 of the world’s highest emitters to set climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C warming limit, as part of an annual corporate climate disclosure campaign.

They name one of the new species "resistencia" (resistance) in honour of killed environmentalists.