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Only eight banks are responsible for over half of the $20 bln in direct financing of recent oil and gas activities in the Amazon rainforest, according to a report published Tuesday, as South American nations ready an agreement to stamp out illegal deforestation in the biome by 2030.

A California-headquartered climate tech firm on Tuesday announced it has released a first-of-its-kind methodology where microorganisms remove CO2 from the atmosphere and mineralise it in soil.

Two more speculative players have accumulated positions in the Alberta offset market under the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regime, building on the credit holdings that existing financial entities have accumulated in the programme.

No one plans a European holiday thinking of fleeing from fire or sheltering from intense heat. But the climate crisis is forcing a reckoning – tourism as we knew it will have to change. Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University Johanna Loehr, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Feral honeybees have become a major problem in Australia. It’s time to develop effective and practical control measures. Amy-Marie Gilpin, Research Fellow, Ecology, Western Sydney University James B. Dorey, Adjunct Lecturer, Flinders University Katja Hogendoorn, Research fellow, University of Adelaide Kit Prendergast, Native bee ecologist, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Wildfires have been burning on the Greek island of Rhodes for nearly seven days, after an extreme heatwave hit parts of southern Europe. Local authorities ordered a mass evacuation, prompting thousands of tourists to leave their accommodation. Many were evacuated from beaches by coastguards, and thousands more spent the night in local buildings awaiting flights. Local people have been assisting firefighters in battling the flames, using fire extinguishers and towels. Some are urging authorities and neighbouring countries to provide more planes as high winds could spread the fires further

• Rhodes wildfires are climate wake-up call, says UK minister

• How bad are the wildfires in Greece – and what caused them? A visual guide

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A UAE-based asset management firm plans to launch a $250 million fund to invest in carbon credit and other climate-related projects, the company announced on Tuesday as the first of its kind in the Middle East.

Standard body Puro.earth has listed its carbon units on two exchanges amid increasing demand for engineered removal credits, with an electronic payments firm the latest US-based technology company to have made a hefty purchase on Tuesday.

Footage captured from residents and local firefighters shows wildfires burning in Croatia's Dubrovnik region, a popular area for tourists in the Mediterranean. The country faced strong winds and extremely high temperatures, causing fires to spread quickly. Croatian authorities said up to 16 fire engines and 95 firefighters were deployed to the area, while the country's airforce sent two specialised planes to help extinguish the flames. Parts of southern Europe, including Italy, Greece, Turkey and Algeria are battling wildfires after suffering from extreme temperatures

• Storms and heatwave kill five in northern Italy as wildfires continue in south

• Deadly global heatwaves undeniably result of climate crisis, scientists show

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Corporate biodiversity guidance and regulation is expected to eventually move towards a more sector-specific and granular model, a webinar heard Tuesday, given the highly localised nature of impact and mitigation action.

Wildfires in Sicily have led to the temporary closure of Palermo airport after temperatures in the city climbed to 47C. A motorist captured the moment a blaze engulfed part of the highway, while flames could be seen on both sides of the road. Authorities have closed part of the motorway as more than 55 wildfires were reported on the island. Hundreds of firefighters from other regions are due to arrive to help tackle the flames. Italy is battling two extreme weather events, as violent storms hit the north of the country

• Storms kill four in northern Italy as wildfires continue in south

• Mediterranean is a hotspot for climate change, says Greek PM

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EU member states formally adopted several key bits of climate legislation on Tuesday, to bring the 27-nation bloc closer to completing its mammoth climate policy package designed to ensure the it reaches its goal to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

Touching a tortoise’s shell is like touching someone’s hand through glass or putting your fingertip on a static electricity ball

It is important to remember that the tortoise does not live inside a shell, it is a shell: tortoises walk like they do because the sockets of their hip and shoulder bones are inside their shells, right at the top. They move like we would if we were cars with arms and legs: slowly, and not like cars at all.

Their shells are part of them in another way, too: they have nerve endings, which is why tortoises enjoy being cleaned with toothbrushes or showers:

Helen Sullivan is a Guardian journalist. Her first book, a memoir called Freak of Nature, will be published in 2024

Have an animal, insect or other subject you feel is worthy of appearing in this very serious column? Email helen.sullivan@theguardian.com

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A collapse would bring catastrophic climate impacts but scientists disagree over the new analysis

The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate impacts.

Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years owing to global heating and researchers spotted warning signs of a tipping point in 2021.

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Party’s environment lobby group wants forestry policy focused on restoring native forests, arguing they have more value as a carbon and biodiversity sink

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More than 300 Labor branches have backed a push by the party’s environmental arm for the Albanese government to fund an expanded, publicly owned plantation industry to ensure the country gets the timber it needs and end native forest logging.

A report by the Labor Environment Action Network (Lean), the ALP’s largest internal lobby group, calls for the party’s national conference next month to support an industry policy focused on restoring native forests. It says they have greater value if treated as a carbon and biodiversity sink than if logged to produce mainly low-value products such as woodchips, pallets and power poles.

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Increased public funding for forest protection and restoration, recognising that scientists have estimated $1.69bn a year is needed to arrest species loss.

Training and support for existing native forest industry workers and Indigenous custodians to work in new conservation and plantation roles.

A government-owned national natural capital corporation to manage the national plantation estate and help farmers take part in carbon and biodiversity markets.

A nationwide restoration program focused on 252 ecosystems identified as having less than 30% of vegetation remaining. It says this would require 13,000 workers for 30 years.

Investment in a national landcover database and vegetation mapping, based on the system used in Queensland, which has reported higher levels of land-clearing than reflected in national accounts.

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A plane deployed to extinguish wildfires on the Greek island of Evia has crashed, shortly after dropping water on the blaze. Footage captured on the Greek news channel EPT shows the plane spraying water before turning into a valley and disappearing out of sight. Moments later, the camera catches a ball of fire. Greek authorities said a helicopter had been deployed to assess the crash site and confirmed both pilots died in the crash. Firefighters from several countries have been sent to Greece to fight the wildfires that have spread across a number of islands, including Evia, Rhodes and Corfu, with thousands of residents and tourists evacuated

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India’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday passed an amendment to its 2002 biodiversity act amid concerns the bill weakens regulatory oversight and will make it harder for the mega biodiverse country to meet its targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

Kenyan lawmakers have reportedly advanced a bill outlining how carbon credit revenues earned in the country are to be divided, forming part of their work to advance how the African nation will deploy carbon pricing to help meet its climate ambitions.

Rwanda is to issue a directive that will force afforestation carbon projects to plant at least 40% of their trees using native species, local media in the country reported.

Palermo's airport, on the Italian island of Sicily, was forced to shut for a few hours on Tuesday morning as firefighters battled a blaze at its perimeter. Areas of southern Europe have been hit by another heatwave, with temperatures rising to 47.6C in some parts of Sicily. Fires were visible from residential buildings in Palermo in a video shared on social media. Firefighters said 30 teams were also fighting blazes in Sicily's eastern city of Messina

• Italy wildfires encircle Palermo as temperatures hit 47C

• ‘It’s brutal’: Europeans tell of sleepless nights and dizzy spells in heatwave

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