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As the world’s energy crisis intensifies, there’s renewed interest in uranium and nuclear power. Erik Eklund, Professor of History, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A Canadian offset investment firm that prioritises community benefits has struck a deal to supply an oil major with carbon credits, with delivery expected to begin in late 2023, it announced on Monday.

EU countries are getting to grips with generating energy savings in time for winter while ensuring their industries and end-consumers aren't hit too hard, after the Council rubberstamped gas-cutting plans last week.

More than half of human diseases caused by pathogens have been aggravated by hazards associated with climate change, study finds

More than half of the human diseases caused by pathogens have been worsened at some point by the sort of impacts associated with the climate crisis, a new and exhaustive study of the link between disease and climatic hazards has found.

Diseases such as Zika, malaria, dengue, chikungunya and even Covid-19 have been aggravated by climate impacts such as heatwaves, wildfires, extreme rainfall and floods, the paper found. In all, there are more than 1,000 different pathways for these various impacts to worsen the spread of disease, a cavalcade of threats “too numerous for comprehensive societal adaptations”, the researchers wrote.

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The market turned a corner at the end of the week, with standard offsets prices jumping higher to close the gap on a bespoke market that has been more successful in resisting the bearish trend.

Trees that have been standing for hundreds or thousands of years are entitled to special treatment – just like precious buildings

Efforts to increase the level of protection available to ancient – or simply old – trees in the UK have been building for some time. In 2019, Janis Fry, an artist and yew expert living in Wales, launched a petition calling for new laws that would prevent the destruction of about 157 ancient yew trees at least 2,000 years old. Since then, the chorus of disapproval about current provision has grown steadily louder (if not exactly deafening: tree enthusiasts not generally being the noisiest protesters).

The launch of the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year competition this week – in which five venerable oaks dominate a shortlist of 12 – offers another chance to focus minds. The wider problem goes beyond the lack of protection for individual trees, and includes issues relating to the conservation of nature more broadly. While tree cover in the UK is increasing, woodland wildlife is not, and more diverse planting, including a larger proportion of native species, is needed if that is to change. The consensus among experts and charities such as the trust is that government proposals recently sent out for consultation did not go far enough. Pressure must be applied to ensure that existing protections are not only maintained but strengthened as the risks from unchecked global heating and fossil fuel production continue to increase.

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The conditions for dry lightning, responsible for devastating California wildfires, have been identified.

Parched Greenwich Park, drought-stricken Berlin and wildfires from Spain to Belgium – Europe is feeling the heat this summer

• How Europe is being hit by climate-driven drought crisis

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Water shortages across the continent, from France through Italy, Spain and beyond, are creating a critical situation

• Europe’s worst ever drought in pictures

Europe’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages will become “the new normal”.

The EU European Drought Observatory has calculated that 45% of the bloc’s territory was under drought warning by mid-July, with 15% already on red alert, prompting the European Commission to warn of a “critical” situation in multiple regions.

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Roads closed in borough of Islington as video shows streets under more than a metre of water

Thames Water is facing criticism and anger from customers after one of its water mains burst, causing street flooding at the height of a drought crisis.

The burst 91cm (36in) water main prompted many road closures around Hornsey Road, north London, as video of the incident showed streets submerged in more than a metre of water.

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CEFC pledges another $200 million to provide discounted loans to ANZ customers for solar panels, recycling, energy efficiency and electric vehicles.

The post CEFC commits $200m to help small business take up solar, efficiency and EVs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Exclusive: plant at Suffolk port is slated to produce 100megawatts a year of fuel from 2026

ScottishPower is planning to build a £150m green hydrogen plant at the Port of Felixstowe to power trains, trucks and ships, the Guardian can reveal.

The energy company has drawn up proposals for a plant at the Suffolk port to produce the fuel using renewable electricity from 2026, in quantities equivalent to 100megawatts a year – enough to power 100,000 homes.

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The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is hosting auctions of voluntary carbon market (VCM) credits for the first time, starting with sales of half a million US reforestation offsets, it announced Monday.

EUAs opened the week on a quiet note on Monday morning, with prices little changed from Friday's settlement as volume and price volatility fell near to year-to-date lows, while energy markets were mixed as traders braced for another week of high temperatures across the region.

EnergyAustralia posts big loss and receives $1 billion cash injection from parent after coal problems cripple results, but hope lies in battery and pumped hydro plans.

The post Coal failures cripple EnergyAustralia, but future hope lies in storage projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The US Senate passed a $430 billion climate change, healthcare, and tax bill late on Sunday, paving the way for a major uptick in the nation's climate action following a House vote due this week.

England’s water and sewage chiefs awarded themselves £27m amid leakages of 2.4bn litres a day

Water company bosses should be banned from giving themselves bonuses until they fix their leaky pipes, the Liberal Democrats have demanded.

New figures uncovered by the party found that England’s water and sewage company bosses have awarded themselves about £27m in bonuses over the past two years.

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A Chinese hydrogen company has teamed up with the country’s biggest state-owned wind power producer and main carbon exchange to register a new hydrogen baseline and monitoring carbon crediting methodology under the CDM.

Americans throw away an estimated 2.5m plastic water bottles an hour. We need international cooperation to protect our planet and our health

Every great movie has at least one scene that stays with you.

In the 1967 classic The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols, that scene could be when Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft) first seduces our protagonist, young Ben (Dustin Hoffman), a newly minted college graduate. Or when Ben, crazy in love, pounds the glass walls of a church. What haunts me, though, is the earlier scene in which one of Ben’s parents’ friends offers him some unsolicited advice. The man tells him that a “great future” awaits him in one word: “Plastics.”

Kim Heacox is the author of many books, including The Only Kayak, a memoir, and Jimmy Bluefeather, a novel, both winners of the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Alaska

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The Guangdong provincial government has asked local departments to collaborate on the introduction of carbon futures, though timelines for a potential product launch remain unclear.