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

Three US legislators this week asked a government body to study what federal agencies could do to increase transparency and prevent fraud in nature-based voluntary carbon offset markets.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices exacerbated a two-week slide on Thursday as Golden State lawmakers turned down an enhanced 2030 climate bill, as RGGI Allowance (RGA) values counteracted a pre-auction dip on news that Virginia will not immediately exit the programme.

Indonesia will need to almost triple energy investment by 2030 from today’s level, or by around $8 billion per year compared with a business-as-usual pathway, if the Southeast Asian economy is to reach net zero emissions by 2060, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) released on Friday.

Spanish group Naturgy to build first of its kind solar and storage project in Australia as it seeks to boost its renewables capacity nearly 10-fold over three years.

The post Spanish energy giant buys big solar-battery project in first move into Australian solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Brussels is seeking to rein in soaring electricity prices but it is yet to decide how without hitting legal hurdles or generating perverse effects such as increased power and gas demand, which could send prices further higher and worsen the bloc's energy security outlook as a result.

Coal plants are exiting the grid faster than expected. We’ll need to redouble efforts to add flexibility into our energy systems and build renewables and storage. Bjorn Sturmberg, Research Leader, Battery Storage & Grid Integration Program, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The World Bank is going ahead with a programme to protect rainforests in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after key milestones were achieved including the finalisation of a benefit sharing plan, a source close to the process told Carbon Pulse this week.

Warnings of grave impacts on children’s health from energy price rises should prompt anger as well as practical support

Adding to existing worries about the cost of living, the implications of the latest report from the Institute of Health Equity are deeply alarming. Its author, Prof Michael Marmot, spells out the links between rising fuel poverty and various forms of illness, and warns that the threat is greatest for those who are already least well-off. By January next year, 55% of UK households, or 15 million, are expected to be fuel-poor (though a change in the way this is officially defined in England, and differences with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, make comparisons difficult).

Warnings of surging demand at food banks, and a backdrop of acute concern about the growing gap between incomes and prices, make the picture drawn by the report all the bleaker. It predicts worsening respiratory and mental health for children in affected homes, and highlights the increased circulation of viruses and infections, including bronchiolitis, associated with colder temperatures. The contribution of damp and mould to asthma is also pointed out. So are links between poverty, cold, poor housing and mental illness.

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Temperatures this summer tied with 2018, according to data stretching back to 1884.

A carbon price of £149 ($171.85, €172.90) or greater would likely mean wind-powered processing of oil and gas production in the UK becomes more economical than the current gas-burning approach, researchers calculated in a paper released Thursday as the country's incoming leadership eyes more drilling.

Every additional tonne of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere costs society nearly four times more than the US government's central estimate currently used under President Joe Biden's administration, according to a multi-year study published Thursday.

Judgment is huge victory for campaigners concerned about effect of seismic waves on marine life

A South African court has upheld a ban imposed on the energy giant Shell from using seismic waves to explore for oil and gas off the Indian Ocean coast.

The judgment delivered in Makhanda on Thursday marks a monumental victory for environmentalists concerned about the impact the exploration would have on whales and other marine life.

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The European Commission is considering additional measures to help shield the bloc’s heavy industry from soaring energy prices, a senior official told parliamentarians on Thursday, admitting that regulation is falling short of providing the needed level of support to energy-intensive manufacturers.

The head of business development at a Dutch trading firm has joined the staff of a North American carbon hedge fund, while a California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) market participant is joining a New York-based commodity and energy trader, Carbon Pulse has learned.

The skeleton of a long-necked Mbiresaurus raathi is believed to be more than 230 million years old.

EUAs made a robust recovery late Thursday morning after sliding to a one-month low as the market nervously awaited the resumption of full auction volumes, before a better-than-expected sale rallied sentiment, while energy markets slid as reports emerged suggesting industrial energy consumption has fallen sharply.

New border controls on travellers bringing in pork, in bid to keep out African Swine Fever.

The California Assembly on Wednesday night declined to approve a bill to increase the stringency of the state’s 2030 GHG goal, though lawmakers passed a suite of other climate and energy-related bills as the legislative session came to a close.

Amid mounting energy and climate crises, the would-be prime minister is burying her head in an eternal culture war

How best to describe wilfully vandalising the planet and threatening human life to satisfy ideological bloodlust? Liz Truss – already a plausible contender for the “worst prime minister ever” gong before she even assumes office – apparently intends to issue up to 130 drilling licences for oil and gas firms. If the purpose of this is to confront the looming social catastrophe of energy bills, to describe it as an exercise in futility would be generous: it takes the best part of three decades to pump fossil fuels out of the ground and put them onstream.

As Russia switches off Europe’s flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – it implausibly cites maintenance work as the reason – the need for drastic, swift action could not be more obvious, yet our soon-to-be prime minister has nothing meaningful to offer.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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