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The livelihoods of millions of farmers depend on productive Arabica coffee. New research gives further impetus, if we needed any, to urgently cut emissions. Jarrod Kath, Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation, University of Southern Queensland Scott Power, Director, Centre for Applied Climate Sciences, University of Southern Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

There is no mandate for the anti-green agenda of Liz Truss’s government

The latest schism to open up in Liz Truss’s cabinet is less surprising than it might have been, had divisions over tax and welfare policies not already emerged. But the decision by the business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, to oppose her publicly over solar energy plans is still a dramatic one that leaves her looking even weaker and more exposed. Having previously stressed his support for fracking, and oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, Mr Rees-Mogg used an article in the Guardian to deny that he opposes green energy. While Ms Truss wants to restrict new solar installations on farmland, Mr Rees-Mogg’s deregulatory fervour extends beyond fossil fuels to renewables as well.

Ms Truss’s anti-solar scheme is so ill-judged that all voices raised against it are welcome. But Mr Rees-Mogg’s enthusiasm for new oil and gas means that he must never be mistaken for a friend to green causes. He is right to point out that carbon-intensive imports are just as damaging to the atmosphere as UK-based industries. But while his backing for solar and wind may make him a more consistent free-marketeer than the prime minister – who is against red tape except when it blocks something she dislikes – the risks to the environment from all those like him who champion growth at the expense of nature remain huge.

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The EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) has already passed too many regulatory hurdles for any significant policy U-turn, experts at the Carbon Forward conference said on Thursday.

EV Council figures show uptake lags behind other countries with carmakers opting to send stock to faster-growing markets

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New electric vehicle sales within Australia have increased by 65% in 2022 but uptake still lags far behind other countries.

Electric cars now represent 3.39% of all new car sales in Australia according to the latest State of Electric Vehicles report by the Electric Vehicle Council, but the figures pale against those in other nations such as the UK, where one in five new cars are electric.

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Regulators need to send a better signal about the scale of the challenge in expanding carbon removals, with the current policy framework inadequate to keep the world in line with Paris Agreement targets, a conference heard Thursday.

Millions of forestry conservation REDD credits verified by Verra could soon jump up in value by retroactively adding the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) co-benefits standard to the project, it was revealed to Carbon Pulse.

Fylde council, home to Preston New Road shale gas site in Lancashire, unanimously backs motion

A Conservative-led council in Lancashire has voted unanimously to demand the government stick to its manifesto commitment against fracking, and to demand clarity on what constitutes “local consent” for the controversial form of energy extraction.

Fylde council is home to Preston New Road, the only site in Britain which has been fracked, by the energy company Cuadrilla. Operations there caused small earth tremors, breaching the regulated limits and prompting the government to implement a moratorium on fracking in November 2019.

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EUAs tested technical support and resistance levels on Thursday morning as trading activity appeared to pick up, while natural gas prices moved in a wide range as traders reacted to reports of security alerts affecting flows from a major North Sea field.

A Canada-based carbon credit investor on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership to fund the expansion of clean cookstove projects in Africa.

The climate minister says new domestic drilling for oil and gas will help the UK reach net zero by 2050. Is he right?

The UK climate minister, Graham Stuart, has urged Britons to support domestic drilling for oil and gas, which he claimed were green policies that would help the country reach net zero by 2050.

Do his assertions reflect reality?

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Caroline Lucas will table bill which would extend countryside access to woods and green belt

People across England are right to trespass to stand up for their right to roam, Caroline Lucas has said.

The Green MP will table a bill later in October to allow the public to access woodlands and the green belt in the same way they can currently walk on the coast path.

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The EU's frontloading plan will serve two purposes - revenue generation and carbon price reduction - a senior lawmaker said Thursday, but warned that EU Allowances should not fall below €50.

Corporates are increasingly making net zero commitments but their pledges are not being matched by the development and implementation of credible decarbonisation strategies that demonstrate to investors detailed efforts to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement, a survey of 159 companies by a climate investor action group has found.

Natural England chief says pledge to stop biodiversity loss by 2030 will not be met if scheme is cut

The government will not meet its commitments to stop biodiversity loss by 2030 if it scraps new payments to incentivise wildlife-friendly farming in England, the head of its nature watchdog has said.

Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, told the environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, in a letter this week that if the government did not keep its commitment to move from area-based farm payments to “public money for public goods” – rewarding farmers for work to replenish soil, prevent floods and restore pollinators – it will not meet its legally binding target to halt biodiversity decline by 2030.

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ExxonMobil has entered into an agreement with a US hydrogen and nitrogen manufacturer to capture and store up to 2 million tonnes per year of CO2 generated from an industrial facility in Louisiana, the US oil and gas major announced.

Peak body says assurances given and must be upheld or trust with rural Australia ‘will be broken’

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The Albanese government has provided assurances that farmers will not be hurt if Australia signs on to Joe Biden’s global pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30% by 2030, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) says.

Guardian Australia revealed in June that Labor was considering signing the pledge, and the agriculture minister, Murray Watt, on Thursday said he was “comfortable if we sign up to it”, although he said the government had not yet signed off on the commitment.

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The Western Australian state government has launched a technology grant programme for heavy industries to cut their emissions and generate carbon credits, and a separate consultation on a renewable hydrogen target.

A Web3 start-up and a Colombia-based offset registry have announced plans to build the first direct two-way bridge between a carbon offset registry and a blockchain-based trading platform.

Wildlife has an amazing ability to recover – but only if we keep vital legal protections in place

In the latest of what can often seem like the “final nails in the coffin” of biodiversity across Europe, we heard in recent weeks that UK environmental protection is under threat. But while the global scale of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss remain alarming, vital new research, which I helped lead, shows there are also heartening examples of European wildlife bouncing back from the brink.

For the past two years, we at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology, along with colleagues at BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council, have been investigating the fortunes of 50 European wildlife species over the past 50 years, from humpback whales to Iberian wild goats to white-tailed eagles. Each of these species are incredible comeback stories, and researching how they have recovered has been a refreshing and inspiring endeavour – the Eurasian beaver and European bison, for example, have both increased in average relative abundance by more than 16,000% since 1960.

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Photographer Gideon Mendel visited Sindh province in Pakistan after the worst floods in living memory this summer killed more than 1,500 people and left millions homeless.

The portraits, part of his Drowning World project, are a powerful reminder of the impact of the climate crisis on the poorest people on the planet

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