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Canada’s environment ministry on Thursday announced its initial Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) to mobilise the country’s electricity grid to achieve net zero by 2035, including a series of measures that provide exemptions for units with carbon capture and storage (CCS) and can allow for continued, but limited, use of fossil fuels.

We used to focus just on protection of vital ecosystems like the reef. But as climate change and other threats accelerate, we need to actively help nature get ready for the heat. Paul Hardisty, CEO, Australian Institute of Marine Science Line K Bay, Research Program Director, Australian Institute of Marine Science Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The UK government signalled Thursday it will continue to support biomass energy production albeit under stricter sustainability tests, but did not spell out how it would subsidise utility Drax’s BECCS plans.

A standardised way of grading carbon credits can establish transparency and consistency in the market while improving upon the current methods of existing ratings agencies, a US-based alternative asset manager said in a white paper published Thursday.  

Severe cold a million years ago forced our ancestors from the continent, but they adapted and returned.

Wood-burning cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) plants established by Danish energy firm Orsted will begin to have their emissions captured and stored during 2025, as part of Denmark’s first full-scale CCS agreement, the company outlined during its financial results on Thursday.

Team converts polyethylene into fatty acids, soap’s main ingredient, but say it is not panacea for plastic pollution

Scientists have discovered a method to give new life to old plastic – by converting it into soap.

Plastics are chemically similar to fatty acids, which are one of the main ingredients in soap. For Guoliang Liu, an associate professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech and author of the paper published in the journal Science, this similarity suggested it should be possible to convert polyethylene into fatty acids, and then into soap. The problem was size: molecularly, plastics are very large, about 3,000 carbon atoms long, whereas fatty acids are much smaller.

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Hot natural weather pattern will exacerbate heat-related dangers brought about by climate crisis

The return of El Niño against the backdrop of the climate crisis will hurt people’s health in many parts of the world, scientists have warned.

The hot natural weather pattern is back after three years of its cooler sister, La Niña, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed last month. As it grows stronger, scientists fear it will raise the risk in some countries of hunger, drought and malaria.

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Exclusive: Joint chiefs of charity accuse ministers of pursuing culture wars as extreme weather becomes the norm

• ‘You have adopted a bunker mentality’: letter to Sunak
• Cancelling Greenpeace contradicts Tory free-speech pledge

Rishi Sunak’s government will “go down in history” as the administration that failed the UK on the climate crisis while ministers pursued a dangerous culture war, the heads of Greenpeace have said.

The charity’s joint executive directors described government briefings against the organisation in the wake of its oil protest at the prime minister’s Yorkshire home as “really dark stuff”, which revealed a worrying trend towards exploiting environmental protests as a wedge issue.

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Open letter criticises government for stonewalling environmental group after protest at prime minister’s house

• Sunak will go down in history as failing UK on climate, Greenpeace says
• Cancelling Greenpeace contradicts Tory free-speech pledge but suits anti-Labour campaign

The co-executive directors of Greenpeace, Areeba Hamid and Will McCallum, have written an open letter to the prime minister expressing their concern over the government’s ‘reluctance to engage’ with Greenpeace.

Here is their letter in full:

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Kenya will face a shortfall of more than a $1 billion to meet its climate change and forestry strategic plan over the next five years, the Ministry of Environment has revealed.

German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp reported a 13% year-on-year drop in quarterly global sales amid lower prices, though it said it was targeting the upper range of its full-year forecast after a “robust” quarter in its financial results on Thursday.

Physicists believe that an unknown force could be acting on sub-atomic particles known as muons.

The ideal Forester candidate is an accredited RPF in Canada with an enthusiasm for the analytical aspects of forestry management (e.g. forest inventories, forest estate modelling, GIS analysis) and is a excellent communicator.  The Forester will support Ostrom’s exciting portfolio of forest carbon offsets projects across North America.

European power consumption slumped 6% compared to historical averages in July despite an uptick in demand from air conditioning across the Southern countries that were struck by extreme heat, according to analysts.

A leading airline has been testing AI technology to reduce airplane contrails when flying at altitude, with positive results, suggesting that the technology can be a cost-effective way to help to reduce the climate impact of aviation and potentially also generate contrail reduction-based carbon credits.

Germany's energy-intensive companies that are part of the domestic fuel emissions trading system will be partially compensated for any risk of carbon leakage caused by higher fuel prices, as the European Commission approved the €6.5 billion scheme on Thursday.

A weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

The international economic and financial architecture and policy priorities must be aligned with the goal of advancing an equitable, global nature economy for nature markets to have an impact on any significant scale, the Taskforce on Nature Markets (TNM) said in its final report, released Thursday.

As I hear reports of the fire tearing through Maui, I feel utterly depressed. As a fire scientist, I know the unfolding horror is just the beginning in our warmer world. David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.