Feed aggregator

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

Climate campaigners dismiss government argument that controversial move will improve food security

Rishi Sunak plans to restrict the installation of solar panels on swathes of English farmland, which climate campaigners say will raise bills and put the UK’s energy security at risk.

Last year, then prime minister Liz Truss attempted to block solar from most of the country’s farmland. The plans were deeply controversial and unpopular, and were dropped when she left office.

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In the high-stakes world of forest carbon markets, robust MRV has long been the cornerstone of perceived accuracy and integrity, but new research calls into question the very possibility of achieving reliable measurements in the sector.

Oil major ExxonMobil will not be buying any of Guyana’s forest-generated carbon credits, opting instead to invest in other climate change-mitigating measures in the country, the government said this week.

The climate’s changing and so is the terminology

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Washington's Department of Ecology (ECY) reduced the volume of current vintage allowances on offer at its December auction compared to the Q3 sale, while also tendering future vintage allowances, according to a notice published Friday.

Regulated parties saw historic weekly gains in V23 net holdings of California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) and RGGI Allowances (RGAs), while financial players favoured additions in V24s CCAs, but reduced net length in both V23s CCAs and RGGI, and both parties added to their Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) holdings, according to US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

The BBC finds that there have been a record number of days in 2023 that breached the 1.5C temperature limit.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday unveiled a series of actions to accelerate the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – the potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

The European Commission confirmed on Friday that its carbon management strategy will be published early next year, defying some stakeholder expectations that the plan would be unveiled as soon as next month.

The world’s largest carbon credit standard will ramp up use of digitisation and technologies such as remote sensing, in order to improve transparency for market participants and monitor projects on an ongoing basis, a conference heard this week. 

Former Gabon environment minister Lee White and three other officials of the previous Ali Bongo-led government have been placed under house arrest, according to state media agency Agence Gabonaise de Presse (AGP), heightening current uncertainty around the forest-rich nation's carbon policy.

Sustainable alternative fuels (SAF) should be included on a list of 'strategic technologies' to be given priority treatment as part of the bloc’s clean technology industry bill, a group of EU industry associations said in a joint letter published on Friday.

UK-based Biodiversity Futures Initiative (BFI) aims to provide scientific robustness to biodiversity credit projects and certifications, so buyers have confidence in outcomes and the projects have a greater impact on nature.

Voluntary carbon credit projects in India do little to help local people or the climate and may even lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said in a report published this week following extensive site visits and stakeholder interviews.

Dale Vince says he will concentrate his efforts on getting Tories voted out of government at next election

• Dale Vince: I helped fund Just Stop Oil, but no more

Dale Vince, the green energy magnate, has said he is to stop funding direct action climate groups such as Just Stop Oil and instead funnel money towards getting the vote out for Labour at the next general election.

The Ecotricity founder, who has funded a string of disruptive environmental protest groups, has supported Just Stop Oil since its inception, and has previously said his funding for the group has totalled “some hundreds of thousands”.

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Biodiversity credits have a slim chance of becoming a global market larger than the voluntary carbon markets, according to an executive at a global carbon and biodiversity credit firm.

The oil firm run by the head of COP28, Sultan Al-Jaber, is on course to increase emissions from its oil and gas operations by more than 40% by the end of the decade compared to 2023, an international NGO has calculated in a report published this week.

EUAs traded flat across the morning in a thin range as they remain on course to chart a weekly loss, with gas cited as the main driver, while UK prices gained in response to the government's auction schedule publication.

Government challenged to explain claim that UK will need 25% of energy to come from fossil fuels in 2050

UK politics live – latest updates

The UK government has “misrepresented” the Climate Change Committee (CCC) by wrongly claiming it said we would need a quarter of our energy to come from fossil fuels by 2050, scientists have said.

In order to justify signing off new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, ministers have said the country will still require a quarter of its energy to come from gas in 2050, the year the UK is supposed to meet net zero.

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