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Fridays for Future ‘strikes’ in about 450 places demanded rich countries pay for damage from global warming

Thousands of young people have staged a coordinated “global climate strike” across Asia, Africa and Europe in a call for reparations for those worst affected by climate breakdown.

From New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo, activists walked out of schools, universities and jobs to demand rich countries pay for the damage global warming is inflicting on the poor.

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A ratings agency has placed three Uruguayan forestry projects “on watch” for a potential ratings change, alongside a methane recovery project in the Netherlands.

Pacific Island nation makes world-first call to halt the expansion of new fossil fuel projects through the establishment of an international treaty.

The post Vanuatu makes historic call for global treaty end fossil fuel era appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Czechia is proposing the EU raise most of a €20 billion RePowerEU revenue target from selling carbon allowances earmarked for the bloc’s Innovation Fund amid member state objections to solely exploiting units held in the MSR, an official told Carbon Pulse on Friday.

The Swiss executive governing body has approved three bilateral agreements with Morocco, Malawi, and Uruguay, creating the framework conditions for the country to trade international carbon emissions reductions units to count towards Paris Agreement climate goals.

The tiny South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has been making waves at the UN this week, calling for an international mechanism to stop the expansion of all new fossil fuel projects.

The newly-installed UK government made a major energy security push on Friday, announcing plans to fast-track both low-carbon and fossil fuel projects even as it submitted a revised climate pledge to the UN detailing a pathway towards its binding 2050 net zero emissions target.

In my group, Nanas Against Fracking, we know community organising is not easy. But we are a force to be reckoned with

Hysterical “luddites” funded by Russia was how Jacob Rees-Mogg, in parliament yesterday, described concerned residents opposed to fracking in England. What a slap in the face for those of us who have spent more than a decade trying to protect our communities from the dangerous, polluting shale gas industry. We have never received so much as a rouble or a vodka shot for our efforts.

Here in Lancashire, we actually believed we had won this fight – twice. Our first victory was in 2015, when Lancashire county council rejected planning applications from the fracking firm Cuadrilla for two large sites between Preston and Blackpool. This decision was overruled by Westminster in 2016, and work began in 2017 to transform the Preston New Road site from a field where cows graze into a shale gas site. Nanas Against Fracking, a group I co-founded, started protesting at the site that day too, and continued for more than 1,000 days.

Tina Rothery is a Blackpool resident, campaigner and co-founder of Nanas Against Fracking

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UK allowances will maintain their premium to EUAs in the coming years as the British market remains structurally tighter than its European counterpart, even as forward hedging demand for UKAs declines over the rest of the decade, according to an analyst.

Participants view Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy as campaigners bemoan restrictions on right to roam

“Welcome to the night,” beamed a right to roam campaigner welcoming a coach load of city dwellers to the pitch dark stillness of remote Northumberland countryside on a chilly September evening.

The passengers had been attracted by a secretive offer spread on Instagram and by old-school posters pinned up in Newcastle.

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Wind could be more productive way than fracking to boost electricity supplies and bring down prices

Kwasi Kwarteng looks likely to lift a de facto ban on new onshore windfarms after the UK government said it would bring planning consent into line with that for other infrastructure.

It has been very difficult for onshore windfarms to get planning permission since David Cameron put in place a tough consent regime in 2015. Earlier this year, Kwarteng pushed for the restrictions to be lifted but he encountered cabinet opposition.

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EUAs tumbled as much as 5.5% on Friday morning as traders reacted to news that Germany is mulling an idea for a larger revenue target for allowances sales under the RePowerEU plan, while energy markets were marginally weaker as forecasts showed windy conditions and temperatures above seasonal norms.

The business secretary has been filmed trying to convince staff at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy that ‘domestically’ produced gas is green, adding that this is why ‘we must get every cubic inch of gas out of the North Sea’. Jacob Rees-Mogg made the comments on Thursday at an internal meeting in which he gave his first address to BEIS staff since taking on the role

• Factcheck: is Jacob Rees-Mogg right that fracking is safe and vital?
  

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Studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples over the past five years in ‘disturbing’ findings

Toxic PFAS chemicals were detected in every umbilical cord blood sample across 40 studies conducted over the last five years, a new review of scientific literature from around the world has found.

The studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples, and many linked fetal PFAS exposure to health complications in unborn babies, young children and later in life. The studies’ findings are “disturbing”, said Uloma Uche, an environmental health science fellow with the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed the peer-reviewed studies’ data.

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Cost of safely clearing waste from ageing power stations is soaring, says Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The cost of decommissioning the UK’s 20th-century nuclear waste could rise to £260bn as the aged and degrading sites present growing challenges, according to analysis presented to an international group of experts.

As the government pursues nuclear energy with the promise of a new generation of reactors, the cost of safely cleaning up waste from previous generations of power stations is soaring.

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Singaporean stakeholders are calling for greater clarity over the eligibility criteria for securing international carbon credits, a released government document shows, as respondents filed comments to proposed changes to Singapore’s carbon pricing scheme.

Mark Menzies challenges business secretary to ‘lead by example’ and start drilling in North East Somerset

Jacob Rees-Mogg should “lead by example” and make his the first constituency to be fracked, a Conservative MP has said.

Mark Menzies, the MP for Fylde, challenged the business secretary to start drilling in North East Somerset before imposing fracking on other constituencies.

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Trading activity in China’s national emissions market was lacklustre again this week amid deep-seated pessimism about the policy outlook, as the offset market recorded an uptick in demand over the past week although volumes remain modest due to limited supply.

Campaigners say revoking of post-Brexit protections amounts to ‘legislative vandalism’

Hundreds of Britain’s environmental laws covering water quality, sewage pollution, clean air, habitat protections and the use of pesticides are lined up for removal from UK law under a government bill.

Environmentalists accused Liz Truss’s government of reneging on a commitment made after Brexit to halt the decline of nature by 2030. They say the revoking of 570 environmental laws that were rolled over from EU law after Brexit amounts to a deregulatory free-for-all leaving the environment unprotected.

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Issuances for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) have slid down to its lowest amount in recent months, while the Australian and US governments have signed a clean energy investment agreement, and Woodside Energy has joined a methane emissions reduction initiative.