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Democrats hailed the Inflation Reduction Act as a climate crisis victory – so why the secrecy over an oil and gas pipelines bill?

As climate change batters America with heatwaves, droughts and floods, lawmakers should be asking a simple question about any bill: does it increase or decrease the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling the ecological emergency?

Somehow, though, that query is still not being asked right now in Washington, even as Democratic leaders are promising to advance a bill to gut environmental laws and expedite oil and gas pipelines.

David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and an award-winning investigative journalist. He is an editor at large at Jacobin, and the founder of The Daily Poster. He served as Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign speechwriter

Julia Rock is a reporter for The Lever

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Australia is at the start of a globally significant investment boom. Its top 5 pure-play lithium firms have a collective market value of more than $A50 billion.

The post Australia’s once in a generation lithium opportunity appeared first on RenewEconomy.

More than a third of children’s clothing tested in a study detected PFAS, which are used to make textiles stain resistant

Toxic PFAS chemicals are frequently used to make children’s clothing and textiles resist water and stains, but exposure to the compounds in clothes represents a serious health risk, a new peer-reviewed study finds.

The study, published in the Environmental and Science Technology journal, detected the chemicals in 65% of school uniforms, rain gear, snowsuits, snowshoes, mittens, bibs, hats and stroller covers tested, and at levels authors characterized as “high”.

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Amazon ecosystem is on verge of collapse, leaders tell brands such as Apple and Tesla as UN gathers in New York

Indigenous leaders from the Amazon have implored major western brands and banks to stop supporting the ongoing destruction of the vital rainforest through mining, oil drilling and logging, warning that the ecosystem is on the brink of a disastrous collapse.

Representatives of Indigenous peoples from across the Amazon region have descended upon New York this week to press governments and businesses, gathered in the city for climate and United Nations gatherings, to stem the flow of finance to activities that are polluting and deforesting large areas of the rainforest.

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The UK government announced a support package for businesses and ETS-covered industrials on Wednesday in which wholesale energy prices will be capped at "less than half" of expected winter levels in a bid to avoid mass demand shutdowns and economic disruption.

Demand for natural gas from energy-intensive industrial companies in Europe has fallen by around 30% in recent weeks as the region grapples with the soaring costs of energy and a worsening economic outlook, Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chairman of utility Engie said on Wednesday.

European demand for seaborne coal is predicted to increase by 14% in 2022 as the bloc struggles to address the energy crisis, but the rise will not trigger any significant investment and global demand is expected to continue to trend downwards, analysts said on Tuesday.

Two fintech firms based in Singapore and France have formed a partnership to promote data-backed carbon credits with end-to-end traceability in a project that will enable greater transparency of the carbon credit lifecycle, with buyers and users able to access attributes and data of carbon credits via a standardised registry, they announced on Wednesday.

Santos loses approval to drill for gas in the Timor Sea after the Federal Court found it had failed to adequately consult with traditional owners.

The post Traditional owners win landmark court battle against Santos Barrossa gas project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

An Australian green group on Wednesday called on major emitters to avoid using carbon credits towards their CO2 targets, accentuating the growing distance between those considering offsets as part of the climate solution and those dismissing them as greenwash.

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Compliance carbon markets have only had mixed success in reducing emissions, as insufficient price levels, uncertainty over cap-setting, and loopholes mitigate their effectiveness, according to a report released Tuesday.

Pakistan continues to pay in loss and damages for the carbon emissions of others. This must change

• Sherry Rehman is Pakistan’s climate change minister

The climate crisis has accelerated at pace. When temperatures crossed 53C in Pakistan, the summer of 2022 turned our southern towns into the hottest places on the planet, melting our glaciers, burning our forests, scorching our crops. But nothing prepared the country for the biblical flooding that saw a third of Pakistan inundated by an ocean of water, surpassing even the 2010 disaster in magnitude and frequency.

Scientific modelling now attributes the extreme flooding in our country to the climate crisis, and the catastrophe presents a clear warning to all those who have set their climate clocks to another few decades. Previously unthinkable doomsday scenarios began to look like the inevitable: Sindh and Balochistan provinces transformed into horizon-free planes of unbroken water, with no land to pitch tents on, no rooftops left to huddle on. More than 33 million people were rendered destitute; 1,500 people died while the country struggled, in shock, to pick up the pieces.

Sherry Rehman is Pakistan’s climate change minister and former ambassador to the United States

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Gas company’s approval set aside after Justice Mordecai Bromberg found the regulator did not consult properly with traditional owners

Tiwi Islanders have won a landmark case against drilling for gas by Santos in their traditional waters after complaining that the company failed to consult them about the impact of the project.

On Wednesday, judge Mordecai Bromberg set aside approval for the drilling, part of Santos’s Barossa project and gave Santos two weeks to shut down and remove its rig from the sea north of Melville Island.

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A Danish startup this week unveiled a data-driven model to significantly fast-track voluntary carbon credit issuances.

Korean consortium agrees to develop a green energy export corridor connecting North Queensland and north-east Asia, with plans to export 1 million tonnes a year of green ammonia.

The post Korea Zinc plans 3GW renewable hub in huge Queensland green hydrogen play appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Member states risk weakening the EU ETS with their proposals on how to bring shipping into the scheme, and in the process could reduce the industry’s compliance costs by as much as €20 billion, an environmental NGO has warned.

Two firms have signed a memorandum of understanding worth 2 million tonnes of CO2 removals from bioenergy capture and storage (BECCS) capacity over a five-year period, which they called the "world's biggest" agreement of its kind.

Spain's Gransolar signs EPC contracts to build two solar plants for Lighthouse bp, including one of the largest PV projects built to date in Australia.

The post Gransolar takes bigger bite of solar EPC market with two new projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

As Labor's energy minister assures that "Australia is back" on climate action, a major new report details just how far behind we are on meeting key benchmarks.

The post Bowen says “Australia is back” on climate, but it’s also still lagging well behind appeared first on RenewEconomy.