Feed aggregator

Locking my car door from the inside has always represented safety to me, but the low-emission zone put paid to that

Last Monday, I sold my car. This had to be done. Later this month, the mayor of London will extend his low-emission zone; my old VW being a diesel, every journey was about to cost me £12.50. But as I kept telling myself, there were other, more virtuous reasons for this mournful visit to the Shoreditch branch of the Philip Schofield theme park that is webuyanycar.com. Whatever else I might have done wrong in my life, at least I’m now no longer contributing to the city’s congestion and pollution.

Travelling home on the tube, however, I was overcome by sudden sadness. As a teenager, nothing was more important than passing my test; even now, I still feel weirdly proud of the fact that I can drive and weirdly disdainful of those who can’t. I regard driving as a feminist act. It has saved my bacon so many times; locking my car door from the inside late at night has always represented safety to me.

Continue reading...

Project has trained more than 21,000 staff and pupils, aiming for changes on whole-organisation level

The cobbled streets of Coronation Street may not be the most obvious platform for conversations about the climate crisis, but the UK’s longest-running soap opera has increasingly turned its attention to the environment in recent years.

From smaller plot points such as Sally Metcalfe discussing climate change with her partner over dinner, to 10-year-old Liam Connor collapsing on the street from an asthma attack caused by air pollution, environmental issues frequently crop up on the show.

Continue reading...

A Cop26 insider from a developing nation on why the richer world needs to meet its funding targets

One of the biggest issues at Cop26 is climate finance, the funding that is supposed to be provided by the rich world to developing countries to help us cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impact of the climate crisis.

Back at the Copenhagen Cop in 2009, we were promised at least $100bn (£74bn) a year in climate finance by 2020 and every year after that to at least 2025. But that target has been missed. Recently, we saw an OECD report which found that in 2019 only about $80bn was provided.

Every week we’ll hear from negotiators from a developing country that is involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and will be attending the Cop26 climate conference.

Continue reading...

Solar meets up to 106.1 pct of state demand in South Australia on Saturday morning, and later in the day rooftop solar alone reached 88.7 pct.

The post Solar meets all of South Australia demand, and more appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The UK government should consider replacing its raft of climate policies and carbon pricing schemes with a single tax to help it more easily reach its mid-century net zero emissions target, a think-tank said early Saturday.

The White House and Democratic lawmakers have reached agreement to boost the US tax credit for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to $85/tonne, according to media reports, a level that could see more industrial emitters adopting the technology while also providing a boost to the country’s oil and gas sector.

Speculator net length in WCI allowances suffered its largest draw since Sep. 2020, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday, while compliance entities held fast to their net short positions over the past week.

Decision follows lobbying by oil and gas company Santos, who have said they would not start a CCS project without access to carbon credit revenue

The Morrison government has increased support for controversial fossil fuel projects that promise to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions by approving a plan to award them carbon credits.

It followed the oil and gas company Santos saying a proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at its Moomba gas well in South Australia hinged on whether it had access to carbon credit revenue.

Continue reading...

Delayed legislative votes caused by Democrat in-party wrangling are raising questions on how the Biden Administration will move forward with its climate change policies ahead of COP26, with both the Infrastructure and Reconciliation bills crucial for climate action.

A European Parliament resolution to seek restrictions on speculation in the bloc’s carbon market could still be tabled in the coming weeks, EU sources told Carbon Pulse on Friday, despite an initial rejection by political leaders.

UK ‘would be seen as worst hypocrite imaginable’ if plans for deep mine are approved, say environmentalists

Approving a new deep coalmine in Cumbria would stifle international efforts to decarbonise industry and could produce a chain-reaction effect boosting prospective overseas mining projects, the public inquiry into the UK scheme has heard.

Boris Johnson’s aspirations to cast his government as an international climate leader at the upcoming Cop26 summit would be fatally undermined, the inquiry’s closing session also heard, if the mine were given the green light by the Planning Inspectorate.

Continue reading...

The UK’s carbon market faces the prospect of being the third ETS in the world to inject additional permits to try to restrain soaring prices, as the cost of permits in the nascent scheme has risen more than 40% above its Cost Containment Mechanism's current trigger level.

Speaking at a Fridays for Future march in Milan, the environmental activist lambasted ministers for their inaction over the climate emergency. 

Thunberg has been in Italy's financial capital to participate in a Youth4Climate event where environment ministers and young people are trying to figure out a working framework before the Glasgow Cop26 meeting in November

Continue reading...

EUA prices erased two days of losses in moderate trading on Friday morning, while energy prices were flat to firmer as the new quarter began.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including Siberian wolves, a long-tailed hummingbird and a hungry polar bear

Continue reading...

Roundabouts blocked near Heathrow and Brent Cross as climate activists stage 10th day of protests

The climate campaign group Insulate Britain is staging its 10th day of protests in the past three weeks.

The organisation said about 30 activists have blocked roundabouts at junction 3 of the M4 near Heathrow airport, west London, and junction 1 of the M1 at Brent Cross, north London.

Continue reading...

Australian spot carbon offsets rose 10% late on Friday afternoon, as bullish sentiment and scarce supply continue to push the market north, although on small volumes.

Thousands of metres below the ocean’s surface, diverse aquatic species, from octopuses to coral, thrive in extreme darkness and cold. Amid plans to mine the seabed’s mineral riches, experts warn of the threat to lifeforms still to be documented

More in this series
• Race to the bottom: the disastrous, blindfolded rush to mine the deep sea
• ‘False choice’ – is deep sea mining required for an electric vehicle revolution?
• Covid tests and superbug killers: how the deep sea is key to fighting pandemics

Continue reading...

Campaigners hail ruling preventing TTR dredging 50m tonnes of iron-sands from South Taranaki coast, though mining firm says it will try again

• Race to the bottom: the disastrous, blindfolded rush to mine the deep sea

A New Zealand offshore mining company has lost its supreme court bid to overturn a decision preventing it from mining millions of tonnes of iron-sand off the coast of South Taranaki, on New Zealand’s North Island.

Thursday’s unanimous ruling by New Zealand’s supreme court, which upheld previous high court and appeal court decisions revoking Trans-Tasman Resources’ (TTR) permission to mine, was welcomed by environmentalists and the mining company, albeit from opposing perspectives.

Continue reading...