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Critics call cattle-raising project on Hawaii ranch ‘a billionaire’s strange sideshow’ and bad for the environment

The social media tycoon Mark Zuckerberg’s latest business venture raising “world-class” beef cattle on his sprawling luxury Hawaiian hideaway has been derided as out of touch and environmentally irresponsible.

The Meta billionaire posted a picture of himself on Wednesday eating a steak – medium rare, no sides – from his Ko’olau ranch, a 1,400-acre compound on Kauai, Hawaii’s oldest island.

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The Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi), considered the gold standard of voluntary emissions target-setting, is provoking divided reactions from industry, NGOs, and academia as actors across the board contest the future of Paris-aligned corporate emissions targets.

A US infrastructure technology company announced Tuesday the first commercial deployment of its proprietary hydrogen technology in the production of low carbon ammonia that captures over a million tonnes of CO2 in the process.

The impacts of record heat on the global water cycle were severe and wide-ranging – and the trend will continue in 2024. Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Oil major Shell has continued to retire high numbers of carbon credits this week, maintaining the market-leading pace it set in December that was enough to see the year's total on major registries top the levels of the previous year.

An unlikely alliance of Germany industry, trade unions, and conservation organisations released a joint statement Wednesday proposing several “theses” to shape Germany carbon capture policy in the lead-up to an anticipated, far-reaching EU decision on this topic.

North America’s largest forest carbon offset developer has promoted two employees to the roles of co-CEO.

Shipping companies will likely focus on covering their EU ETS obligations defensively in the first couple of years rather than actively managing their positions, while a variety of purchasing strategies will surface depending on the industry, commercial agreements, and size of their operation.

Targeting the world's top methane-emitting oil and gas fields could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by tens of millions of tonnes within a year, according to new analysis.

A UK-based 1GW blue hydrogen production plant, to be constructed alongside an oil refinery that will see some of its captured CO2 also buried at sea, has received planning permission from local authorities.

The impacts of climate change and nature loss dominate the top risks over the next decade for experts across the private and public sectors, as the world approaches climate tipping points that could trigger further socio-environmental crises, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

A new carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project has opened in Texas, capturing some 180,000 tonnes of CO2 per year while producing 130,000 tonnes of methanol.

Climate Council finds average Australian car needs more petrol to travel same distance as more efficient models common overseas

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The average Australian car needs more petrol to travel the same distance as more efficient models common overseas, with climate advocates saying inaction from the government on fuel efficiency standards is adding hundreds of dollars to the cost of road trips.

Analysis from the Climate Council has found that while drivers of battery electric vehicles charging their cars pay only a fifth of the cost of fuelling an internal combustion engine car, there is still a large discrepancy between how much it costs to run petrol-reliant vehicles of varying efficiency.

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The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a government-funded agency dedicated to granting international aid programmes, has decided to terminate a Vietnam-focused forest fund that can generate carbon credits, local media reported.

We are hiring a Science Lead based in London. Together with our sister NGO, Rethinking Removals, we collaborate with the entire carbon removals ecosystem, across suppliers, buyers, policymakers, and narrative setters, together to develop and invest in future projects to make sure there are enough carbon removals in 1, 5, 10 and 25 years time.

European carbon prices extended their losses for a third day as bearish sentiment gathered momentum amid reports of compliance selling and utility fuel-switching from coal to gas, while the weekly Commitment of Traders report showed that commercial participants had added a hefty 40 Mt of short positions last week.

The construction sector's CO2 emissions could be reduced by up to 75% by 2050 by establishing a circular economy, which would also boost profits substantially, according to a report published on Wednesday that called for more scalable solutions.

Norway has given the go-ahead to open up for deep sea mining in the Arctic region after a vote in parliament Tuesday, making it the first country to open up its seabed to the controversial activity.

James Meadway, once a Labour adviser and now a podcast host, says the separation between climate and economy has to end

James Meadway is an economist who is not at all impressed with economics. Formerly an adviser to John McDonnell when he was Labour shadow chancellor, Meadway has plenty to say about what mainstream economics gets wrong. But one of his central gripes is the way it treats the environment. “We cannot simply pretend that … the entire ecological crisis is a separate and distinct thing from what’s happening in the economy,” says Meadway, who now works on climate finance. And yet that is precisely what happens.

This critique informs the podcast, Macrodose, which Meadway presents and which has recently turned one year old. Its tagline is “Your weekly fix of climate economics”. Every Wednesday, in 15 minutes or so, Meadway analyses the key economic stories of the week. Part of the aim is to make economics more accessible because, he says, it is often thought of as something so difficult that “you have to be really clever to do it”.

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While the Coalition conjures nuclear as a "non-left" alternative to wind and solar, Australia is establishing itself as a world leader in variable renewables.

The post Australia’s task is clear: build more wind and solar. LNP’s task? Anything but wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.