Feed aggregator

Emitters added to their North American carbon net holdings as California Carbon Allowance (CCAs) prices traded through a volatile stretch into next week’s WCI quarterly auction, while speculators closed out of net positions in both the California and RGGI Allowance (RGA) programmes, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed Friday.

Continue reading...

Critics concerned energy department decision on fledgling technology will undermine efforts to phase out fossil fuels

The US energy department has announced it is awarding up to $1.2bn to two projects to directly remove carbon dioxide from the air, a fledgling technology that some climate experts worry will distract and undermine efforts to phase out fossil fuels.

The process, known as direct air capture, does not yet exist on a meaningful scale, and the move was being seen as the US government taking a big bet coming after July was confirmed as the hottest month ever recorded on its surface.

Continue reading...

Unprecedented wildfires burning on the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed at least 53 people, displaced thousands of residents and destroyed parts of a centuries-old town. The disaster is one of the deadliest US wildfires in recent years. The fast-moving fires, fanned by the winds of a distant hurricane, exploded overnight and moved so quickly that some residents jumped into the ocean to escape the flames and smoke. Crews are continuing to battle the blazes, which have burned through multiple neighbourhoods, including the historic town of Lahaina

Continue reading...

At least 55 people have died after wildfires engulfed the historic town of Lahaina on Maui island, Hawaii. Experts say rising global temperatures and drought have fanned the flames in one of the deadliest fires in modern US history. The devastation was exacerbated by strong winds from a nearby cyclone. Wildfires in Hawaii are burning through four times the area of previous decades, studies show

• Devastating Hawaii fires made ‘much more dangerous’ by climate change

• Hawaii fires – latest updates

Continue reading...

Oil major Shell and the Korea National Oil Corporation are among a batch of companies that on Friday joined an ongoing carbon capture and storage partnership between South Korea and Malaysia.

Her withdrawal from the Edinburgh book festival was a blow to the event, and raises questions about how best to demand change

The Edinburgh international book festival opens on Saturday. I will be there, but it will go ahead without its headline event, one that would have seen 3,000 climate activists and readers gather to hear Greta Thunberg speak. The environmental campaigner cancelled just over a week before she was due to appear, after a piece in the Scottish online investigative journal the Ferret pointed out that the festival’s main sponsor, fund manager Baillie Gifford, invests in companies connected with fossil fuels. “Greenwashing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social licence to continue operating,” she said in a statement.

It points to a wider narrative: the story of many cultural organisations across the UK over the past decade has been an increasing reliance on sponsorship and donors – especially in England, where private funding has been touted by Tory ministers as the answer to the ideologically motivated austerity cuts of 2010 onwards, a situation that has become more acute since the depredations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The result, though, has been problem piled upon ethical problem. Some organisations have found themselves rapidly untangling themselves from Russian money. (Tate, for example, severed ties last March with sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, removing the former donor from an honorary position after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.)

Continue reading...

Figures reveal capacity has fallen to an average rise of 4.45% in past three years, compared with 9.67% globally

The UK’s investment in renewable energy has lagged significantly behind the rest of the world in recent years, according to an analysis of global data.

The latest government figures reveal the UK’s renewable capacity has fallen to an average increase of 4.45% in the past three years, compared with an average 9.67% annual increase globally.

Continue reading...

US President Joe Biden's administration revealed on Friday that it will provide $1.2 bln in funding to advance the development of the nation's first commercial-scale direct air capture (DAC) facilities.

European carbon permit prices rose to their highest in eight days on Friday, bringing the benchmark contract level with prices at the end of July amid a resumption of buying activity based on technical and fundamental indicators.

A global nature-related data facility accessible for the public should be created to support governments, businesses, and civil society stakeholders in drawing up policies, setting targets, and making investments to combat the global nature crisis, according to a study released Friday by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

CO2 allowance prices in China’s carbon market reached almost 70 yuan ($9.68) in the past week, the highest level seen since the market started in 2021, with a significant increase in trading activity after regulated entities completed their annual emissions verification work, while the offset market also saw improved liquidity despite the limited supply.

Humans have failed to keep numbers down. Reintroduce these predators, and let them get on with the job

What’s missing from this picture? I mean the picture of rural Britain many of us hold in our heads, whether it be a thatched and mullioned idyll, or the bare hills fetishised by naive nature writers? Well, quite a lot. Trees in the uplands; soft boundaries between habitats (ecotones) that are crucial for thriving food webs; dead wood, of which there’s a dearth in this country; scrub (a vital but derided habitat); undrained wetlands; and wild, healthy rivers. But there’s something else, something whose absence is less visible but just as important. Wolves.

Not just wolves, but any large or middling terrestrial predators. We talk here of wolves and lynx as “top” predators. But our native top predators, until modern humans finished them off, were lions, hyenas, bears and scimitar cats. Wolves and lynx would better be described as mesopredators. The wolf that didn’t howl helps solve the mystery of how this country, for all its love of nature, remains one of the most ecologically barren places on Earth.

Continue reading...

Extreme weather fuelled by climate crisis and bacterial disease have led to ‘dramatic decline’ in orange crops

Orange juice prices are expected to rise further in the US after a bacterial disease and extreme weather intensified by global heating ravaged this season’s crop of the citrus fruit.

Last year Florida, which produces more than 90% of the US’s orange juice supply, was hit by Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Nicole and freezing conditions in quick succession, devastating orange producers in the Sunshine State.

Continue reading...

Participants in China's carbon offset market see a potential comeback for the long-suspended national programme later this year, with a recent policy document shedding some light on how one of the world's largest voluntary schemes will proceed in the Paris era.

North of continent records unusually wet and windy summer conditions while Portugal and Spain battle flames

Floods struck northern and central Europe last week. Some areas of Slovenia recorded more than 200mm of rain in 12 hours on Thursday and Friday, causing extensive flooding across two-thirds of the country. Many buildings and roads were damaged, at an estimated cost of €500m (£432m), and six deaths were reported.

Storm Hans hit the Baltic region a few days later. Hans originated as an area of low pressure over eastern Europe, but quickly deepened as it travelled northwards towards the Baltic Sea. The low was unusually deep for a summer storm, and led to daily rainfall totals of 80 to 100mm in parts of southern Norway and Sweden earlier this week.

Continue reading...

New Zealand sustainable business and climate groups have backed the intent of the government’s review of the ETS, but in consultation submissions called for “urgent” clarification on some of the key policy options proposed and Wellington’s desired outcomes for the review.

DNA technology confirmed Talpa hakkariensis and Talpa davidiana tatvanensis as distinct from other moles

Scientists have identified two types of mole that they believe have been living undiscovered in Turkey.

DNA technology confirmed the creatures were biologically distinct from other moles. Both inhabit mountainous regions in eastern Turkey and can survive in temperatures of up to 50C (122F) in summer and under 2 metres (about 6ft) of snow in winter.

Continue reading...

Carbon Growth Group offers the opportunity for a Carbon Market Advisor to help realise and sustain the group’s ambitious growth plans.

We need a croc in every pool. An orca in every marina!

• Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published
• Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints

Continue reading...