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In the past 12 months I have learned that the mass extermination of the Amazon is a climate catastrophe – and much more

I thought it was a blood moon at first. The dark orange glow appeared at dusk on the far side of the shimmering silver band that is the Xingu River. It was just before 8pm, after the parrots had squawked back to their nests and the insects and frogs were noisily starting the forest nightshift. A flash of lightning from a cloud appeared above almost the same location but the rest of the sky was clear. How could there be a storm? I peered more intently and took a photograph that I could magnify. And there was the answer – a fire, which grew fiercer as I watched, the flames spreading sideways and upwards, flickering red and yellow, billowing smoke into the sky, sparking flashes of lightning every couple of minutes.

I felt sick to the stomach. The Amazon rainforest was being destroyed in front of my eyes. I have been writing about the climate crisis for 16 years, always with a sense of horror but until now, mostly with a sense of distance. This was the first time I had seen it from my home, and it was stranger than I expected. I had not realised until that moment that fire can create its own lightning storms, by creating pyrocumulonimbus, which scientists describe as “the fire-breathing dragon of clouds”.

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EUAs were headed for their first weekly loss in a month on Friday as traders sold in advance of political negotiations over the ETS reform package and the expiry of the front-December futures contract on Monday, while energy prices were lower.

Norwegian Air Shuttle will have to pay NOK 400 million (€‎38 mln) for failing to surrender 373,000 carbon allowances for 2020 and 2021, in addition to having to procure the quantity of units it failed to turn in for those years.

Australia to fund eight big battery projects with advanced "grid forming" inverters that will help close coal and narrow the gap to 100 pct renewables

The post Australia backs $2.7bn of big batteries to narrow gap to 100 pct renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Carbon allowances in China’s national emissions trading market dropped over the past week despite a rebound in trading volume, with little regulatory progress seen likely to continue weighing down carbon prices next year.

EU Member States are obligated to spend at least 37% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF, totalling €750 billion in 2018 prices) launched to recover from the Covid pandemic on climate-related issues, but are only devoting a small part of their budgets to nature, a report has found.

South Korea will make a 20% cut in the number of CO2 allowances that will be available at auctions for ETS participants next year compared to 2022, after only being able to sell around half the KAUs it had planned to sell this year.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including hungry puppies, a snow leopard and migratory birds

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The US and Australia have signed an agreement at COP15 in Montreal, agreeing to work together to better measure the economic value of nature.

A selection of the winning and highly commended images in the British Ecological Society’s annual competition Capturing Ecology, taken by international ecologists and students across the globe. From a hungry mother leopard hunting to the calm of a bird floating on water, the images illustrate the intricacies of nature and our relationship with the natural world

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Conservation groups warn not enough is being done to protect ecosystems as state government data shows more than 400,000ha of land was cleared in 2019-20

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Queensland continues to record the highest rate of land clearing in the country, with more than 400,000 hectares destroyed in 2019-20, according to new government data.

The Queensland government’s annual statewide landcover and tree study shows 418,656 hectares was cleared, a 38% decline from 680,688 hectares the previous year but still the equivalent of about 567 Melbourne Cricket Grounds a day.

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A modest increase in coal demand this year will be enough to reach a new global record high, but its use will plateau after that until at least 2025 as Asian demand proves key to the long term trend in the use of the carbon-intensive fuel, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.

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The spot price for NZUs fell by almost 13% to NZ$75 ($47.66) on Friday in reaction to the government keeping the ETS price settings mostly as is, bar slight adjustments for inflation.

GE's Haliade-X wind turbine receives full type certificate for operations up to 14.7 MW from DNV GL, the world’s largest independent certification body.

The post GE’s monster Haliade-X offshore wind turbine now officially most powerful in world appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The generation of electricity by burning native forest wood waste will no longer be counted as renewable in Australia, as Labor makes good on Climate Bill negotiation promise.

The post Greens hail blow to “ludicrous” practice of burning native forests for energy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A Canadian-headquartered asset manager chaired by UN climate champion Mark Carney oversaw the clearing of thousands of hectares worth of tropical forest in Brazil and then opted to sell the land rather than reforest it, a campaign group has claimed.

Gabon and Mongolia have allied with conservation collaboration initiative Enduring Earth to protect large areas of land, oceans, and freshwater resources as part of their commitments to meet the 30x30 global natural protection target that is being negotiated at COP15 in Montreal.

Free market mechanisms have been used for years to tackle the environmental crisis – with disastrous results. It’s time for some new ideas

“When [a] crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the idea that are lying around.”

Nowhere has Milton Friedman’s dictum applied with more force than in respect of the environment. When scientists first raised the alarm about global warming in the late 1980s, the ideas “lying around” all pertained to neoliberalism. As a result, mainstream climate action has prioritised free market mechanisms, with disastrous results.

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