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A first global initiative has been launched by marine ecologists in Australia that sets an ambitious target of restoring 1 million hectares of kelp forests by 2040, aiming to reverse the climate change-induced decline of the ecologically valuable seaweed species, it was announced on Sunday.

UK environment secretary calls on business and finance to make meaningful investment in nature-based solutions

The financial sector must be encouraged to invest in nature conservation for the world to meet this decade’s UN biodiversity targets, the UK environment secretary has said.

Thérèse Coffey, speaking at an event at Lancaster House in London to mobilise private finance after Cop15, said the private sector had a critical role to play in meeting this decade’s deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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A train derailed and flooded a town with cancer-causing chemicals. But something larger, and more troubling, is at work

Earlier this month, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in eastern Ohio, exploding into flames and unleashing a spume of chemical smoke on the small town of East Palestine. The train’s freight included vinyl chloride, a chemical known to cause liver cancer and other sicknesses.

In response, government and railway officials decided to “burn off” the vinyl chloride – effectively dumping 1.1m lbs of the chemical into the local community, according to a new lawsuit. Officials said that they did so to avert the vinyl chloride from exploding; in contrast, an attorney for the lawsuit has said that the decision was cheap, unsafe, and more interested in restoring train service and appeasing railway shareholders than protecting local residents.

Steven Donziger is a human rights and environmental lawyer, a Guardian US columnist, and the creator of the Substack newsletter Donziger on Justice

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Green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and CCUS are among 13 activity types that India has said will be eligible to generate credits that can be sold abroad under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

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

The Senior Program Officer, Climate will coordinate and help implement projects that shape climate policy in Asia, including the High Level Policy Commission on Getting Asia to Net Zero. The position supports the Associate Director of Climate. It is a 15-month, grant-funded position, with strong potential for extension.  

Reporting to the IETA EU Policy Director and based at its Brussels office, this full-time position offers you the opportunity to contribute to a highly respected and impactful multi-sector member organisation.

The UK government has issued £8.7 mln in new fines resulting from EU ETS non-compliance.

The Head of Carbon will lead work to ensure that Mafisa is successfully validated in 2023, and that credits are subsequently verified. This requires extensive work to ensure that the program fulfils necessary requirements, and that all activities are adequately reported.

Exchange operator ICE on Friday announced it will list three Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) futures contracts for trading in March, coming several months into the operation of the WCI-modelled cap-and-trade system.

A summary of legislative, regulatory, and policy action on carbon, clean fuel standard, and clean energy markets at the US federal and subnational levels this week, including accelerated clean power targets in New Jersey and Maine.

A US-based carbon offset investor and consultancy this week advanced a strategic partnership that could see the firm eventually acquire tens of millions of offsets from a proposed Canadian improved forest management project, which it said will be the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

Key people are talking but there’s frustration in both camps. The weeks ahead will require maturity and dexterity

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Anthony Albanese believes Australians are suffering from “conflict fatigue” so he’s sought to establish a collaborative tone in the current parliament. Not everybody is on board with that aspiration of course. But thus far, the vibe has skewed towards peace and harmony.

That changed on Wednesday. Labor arrived in the House of Representatives chamber for question time ready to rumble. Albanese and the climate minister, Chris Bowen, held themselves above the fray, but frontbenchers Madeleine King and Tanya Plibersek let rip at the Greens. The trigger was the Greens signalling through media outlets earlier in the day that the next round of climate policy negotiations needed to deliver a ban on new coal and gas projects.

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The ID seeks to recruit carbon market professionals in climate governance and carbon markets to work on project management, technical analysis, and administrative support.  The successful candidate will be part of the team supporting capacity building projects to implement Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The main responsibility of the Carbon Market specialist will be to provide science-based support in the areas of: GHG, SDG, and transformational impact assessment, institutional development for carbon market accounting and reporting of Internationally Traded Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), and transparency for tracking progress of NDCs enabling ambition raising.

Researchers have urged the EU to bolster the market regulator's powers to scrutinise EU ETS trading activity, according to consultation responses this week that revealed others wanting rule changes due this year to only be the first step in a progressive deepening of oversight into the bloc's carbon market.

The International Chamber of Shipping is proposing a fast-starting $50/tonne “fund and reward” carbon levy for governments to adopt at upcoming crunch UN talks to address the maritime sector’s climate impact.

Minette Batters accuses ministers of ‘dereliction of duty’ in failing to ensure safety of agricultural imports

Britain is in danger of a “disastrous” food scandal, owing to lax post-Brexit border controls on agricultural imports, the leader of the UK’s biggest farming organisation has warned.

Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, accused ministers of a “dereliction of duty” in failing to ensure food and other agricultural imports were safe. She warned that the government had failed to learn the lessons of the horsemeat scandal of 2013.

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Companies will soon be on the hook to disclose their full scope of value-chain emissions, but while many are already including these under their own climate targets, the process is riddled with technical complexities that are dampening the incentive to act.

EUAs made a modest move higher on Friday morning, reaching a new six-month high amid very light trading before sinking back as the strength of the recent rally towards €100 appeared to dissipate.