Feed aggregator

The risk of significant heavy industry capacity reduction in Europe is increasing, as major metal and chemical producers warned this week that output cuts due to extreme energy prices may soon become permanent, with experts suggesting that this may not be fully priced into the carbon market.

Downing Street announcement follows UK prime minister’s promise to prioritise environment

Rishi Sunak will not attend the Cop27 climate summit, Downing Street has said, despite the new British prime minister having promised this week to prioritise the environment.

His predecessor, Liz Truss, had reportedly planned to go to at least one day of the summit, but Sunak’s spokesperson said he had “other pressing domestic commitments”.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Removing incentives due to replace EU scheme would leave rivers in ‘even more degraded state’

Weakening or scrapping the nature-friendly farming payment schemes could increase river pollution by up to 20%, an analysis has found.

The payments are due to replace the EU’s area-based payments scheme, in which farmers are paid for the amount of land they manage. The new system would instead pay land managers to provide “public goods” such as enhanced nature and clean rivers.

Continue reading...

A group of companies announced on Thursday a multi-year trial of carbon capture technology in the steel sector, with an eye to support full scale deployment through a design and feasibility study.

EU carbon resumed its upward march on Thursday morning, erasing Wednesday's losses and setting yet another seven-week high as short covering resumed, while energy markets stabilised as traders kept a watching brief for news of the EU's plans to cap energy costs.

The past 12 months have been a "wasted year" on climate change says the UN Environment Programme.

Utility Vattenfall reported a slight cut in its ETS-covered generation over the first three quarters of 2022 on Thursday, while nuclear powerhouse EDF forecast a €32 billion hit to profits due to multi-year lows for its reactor availability that has driven demand for coal and gas even higher across Europe.

Failure to cut carbon emissions means ‘rapid transformation of societies’ is only option to limit impacts, report says

There is “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place”, the UN’s environment agency has said, and the failure to reduce carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.

The UN environment report analysed the gap between the CO2 cuts pledged by countries and the cuts needed to limit any rise in global temperature to 1.5C, the internationally agreed target. Progress has been “woefully inadequate” it concluded.

Continue reading...

NSW has redefined how we can achieve the energy transition. Its first renewable and storage auction will usher in a new wave of assets at an unprecedented scale.

The post First NSW renewables tender signals the start of a new energy transition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A group of four organisations have collaborated to set up a first of its kind agri-tech startup that aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of rice growing in Southeast Asia and the broader Asian region, they announced on Thursday.

Global Warming Policy Foundation is a lobbying organisation, says complaint submitted to Charity Commission

A cross-party group of MPs has joined calls for a climate sceptic thinktank to be stripped of its charitable status.

The complaint, which is also being supported by the Good Law Project, claims the Global Warming Policy Foundation does not meet its aims as a charity and is in fact a lobbying organisation.

Continue reading...

Indonesia’s requirement for each sector of the economy to draw up and meet NDC targets before they can resume selling carbon credits could interrupt project funding and create structural challenges for issuances in one of the voluntary carbon market's biggest host nations, according to market experts.

China’s environment ministry on Thursday said it will soon release for public consultation the plan for post-2020 emissions allowance allocation, a long-awaited regulatory document for market participants.

Research suggests visits to places with birdlife could be prescribed by doctors to improve mental wellbeing

One swallow may not make a summer but seeing or hearing birds does improve mental wellbeing, researchers have found.

The study, led by academics from King’s College London, also found that everyday encounters with birds boosted the mood of people with depression, as well as the general population.

Continue reading...

One of the world’s biggest car manufacturers has teamed up with a leading carbon solutions provider to join the voluntary carbon market, opening a major call for submissions to develop offset projects and to buy credits from existing ones. 

Working in Antarctica is a wildlife enthusiast’s dream, but seeing the reality of the climate disaster up close will be brutal

Antarctica holds an almost mythical appeal. Detached from the rest of the world, its beauty is unique. It is a continent that has never seen a war, and where testing military capabilities is strictly forbidden. It is, as the Antarctic Treaty reminds us, “a natural reserve devoted to peace and science”.

And this impressive wilderness is the place I will be calling home for the next five months, as I embark on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) at Port Lockroy, Antarctica. As a conservation biologist, I’m drawn to Antarctica for lots of reasons, not least my interest in the major role it plays in our climate system, and the opportunity to monitor the gentoo penguin colony that calls Port Lockroy home.

Continue reading...

Rooftop solar reaches new milestone, meeting all domestic network demand in South Australia for the seventh time this month, and for the longest period.

The post Rooftop solar meets all local network demand in South Australia for more than five hours appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Energy bills are set to rise - and rise again. The government’s efforts so far have done very little. Time for a stronger approach. Samantha Hepburn, Professor, Deakin Law School, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission fines Tlou Energy for misleading statements about green credentials

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The corporate regulator has issued its first penalty for greenwashing, fining Australian company Tlou Energy $53,280.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) said Tlou, which was developing power projects in parts of Africa, had paid the total for four infringements for making alleged false or misleading sustainability-related statements to the ASX in October last year.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter and afternoon email to get your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Issuance of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) has crept up this week, while airline Qantas announced it would invest in GreenCollar reef credits and an energy company was fined A$53,000 ($34,000) by the market authority over greenwashing statements.