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Farmers across France have been using tractors to create road blocks in a wave of protests. Major French motorways were blocked near Paris and Bayonne, close to the Spanish border. Farmers said anger was growing for several reasons. Many feel abandoned in the face of the climate crisis, with droughts and severe weather conditions, but there is also fury at impossibly low prices for their products, the difficulty of red tape, complex environmental norms, and green policies – such as on water use – which they say are affecting profits. Further protests took place in Germany and Romania ahead of the European elections in June

• French farming protests: mother and daughter die after car hits road blockade

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Elements of the EU nature restoration bill need resolving if the provisional legislation is to succeed, the deputy head of the European Commission’s biodiversity unit has said.

A forest carbon partnership programme in Mozambique, issuing large volumes of carbon credits to a project in the country, has experienced above-baseline deforestation at the site, with the nation's engagment in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) also subject to regulatory roadblocks, according to local and international sources.

Researchers have identified the countries most likely to the support the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), and therefore which governments are most willing to accept it amid an objective of securing the policy’s survival and broader adoption globally.

The European Union's executive body, the Commission, should recommend an ambitious climate target for 2040, said the ministers of 11 member states on Friday, following a leak of the draft proposal seen by Carbon Pulse.

Companies that must comply with the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism are facing difficulties in submitting their reports less than a week before the first reporting deadline, multiple national EU registries have said.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has launched a new biodiversity standard for supporting organisations in assessing their impacts on biodiversity, as stakeholder demand for nature-related disclosures gains traction.

Investor appetite for climate tech deals in industry and carbon was particularly strong last year, even as overall investment dropped 30% on the year prior, say analysts.

Exclusive: Head of government taskforce calls for evidence not anecdote in debate over the beaver, white-tailed eagle and others

Culture wars by ministers over the reintroduction of animals such as the beaver and the lynx must end if we are to restore nature in England, the head of the government’s taskforce on the issue has said.

Dr Andy Clements, an ornithologist who helped establish the government regulator Natural England, runs the species reintroduction taskforce, and he’s well placed to do so. He was one of those behind the hugely successful reintroduction of red kites into England.

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A fresh expose this week about over-crediting in cookstoves projects has been met with a muted voluntary carbon market (VCM) reaction, although the sector is ‘well offered’, according to sources.

Oil and gas companies that have signed up to a COP28 sectoral decarbonisation pact are set to use over 60% of the world’s remaining carbon budget under a 1.5C warming scenario, according to an NGO.

A nature scientist clashed with a farming industry representative about how agriculture should address biodiversity loss, during an Ireland-focused webinar.

European carbon allowance prices posted modest gains on Friday after early weakness was erased by an unusually strong auction result that sparked a sharp rise in prices, even as traders continued to try to establish the market's overall direction with EUAs beginning to find a short-term level.

Claims that Icon of the Seas, the vast new ship described as ‘human lasagne’, runs on clean fuel have been labelled greenwashing as LNG’s methane emissions are a more potent climate gas than CO2

The largest cruise ship in the world, which embarks on its first commercial voyage from Miami on Saturday, was launched amid a fanfare of superlatives. Longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, the Icon of the Seas towers 20 decks above the waves, can accommodate more than 7,000 passengers and crew, and, at a quarter of a million gross tonnes, could swallow five Titanics for breakfast.

Coloured slides on its upper deck mark out “Thrill Island”, the largest waterpark at sea, and it boasts a 17-metre (55ft) indoor waterfall. The president of Royal Caribbean, Jason Liberty, told reporters it was the “biggest, baddest ship on the planet”, though it quickly became known on social media as “human lasagne”.

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A startup based in Singapore focused on delivering data on biodiversity and carbon credits has closed its seed funding round.

Allowances in the Chinese carbon market rose slightly over the past week amid lukewarm demand, while the national offset market saw liquidity remain sluggish even after the official restart of the national voluntary programme.

A fresh initiative is spearheading the idea of compensating resource-rich nations for leaving oil reserves untapped, with potentially significant benefits for climate mitigation and the carbon markets.

Japan’s J-Credit certification committee on Friday registered 32 new projects to start earning credits under the scheme, while issuing some 75,000 units to existing programmes.

Exclusive: Actors and musicians condemn ‘harsh deportation’ of Dartford Crossing protester Marcus Decker

Leading actors and musicians including Bob Geldof, Olivia Colman and Emma Thompson are calling on the Home Office to reconsider the “harsh deportation” of a climate activist who is serving one of the longest prison sentences in modern British history for peaceful protest.

Along with the musicians Brian Eno and Jacob Collier, they are among about 600 artists who are urging James Cleverly to withdraw the deportation order issued to Marcus Decker.

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Cyclone downgraded after dense fog hits parts of the US and India while drought affects Philippines and southern Africa

Tropical Cyclone Kirrily made landfall on the coast of Queensland on Thursday night (local time). Kirrily originated as a tropical low over the Coral Sea, and gradually intensified over several days. The tropical cyclone then quickly intensified on Thursday, reaching a category 2 system by 10am AEST, and category 3 by 3pm, producing gusts of 170 km/h (105mph). As Kirrily moved inland five hours later, it left more than 34,000 homes and business without power in Townsville. However, the cyclone was quickly downgraded back to a category 1 by midnight.

Earlier in the week, dense fog developed from Montana all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico, reducing visibility on Tuesday to less than a quarter mile for many. The combination of last week’s arctic blast, followed by the introduction of warmer air from the south this week, allowed water vapour to condense closer to the surface, which is also known as advection fog. Dense fog reappeared on Thursday morning, affecting just under 99 million people from North Dakota across to central Pennsylvania, and as far south as New Orleans.

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