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The decluttering movement is gaining pace. But a house full of secondhand finds or inherited furniture allows you to tell your own story – and keeps them from landfill

‘Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can / No need for greed or hunger / a brotherhood of man.” When John Lennon died, nine years after writing Imagine, the anthem for minimalism, he was living in a 430 sq metre apartment in the Dakota building in New York. He also owned three other apartments in the block, including one for storage, a large part of which was given over to the temperature-controlled care of his and Yoko’s furs.

But it is minimalism that is expensive now. If we look at the places John Pawson, the British architect generally credited as Mr Minimalism, designs for his private and institutional clients, they look distinctly expensive. Rather like Dolly Parton’s brilliant insight that “it costs a lot of money to look this cheap”, wags could reasonably say it costs a lot to have a house that looks that bare.

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Andrew Forrest strikes another MoU for a massive green hydrogen project, this time with Egypt in the lead up to the UN climate talks.

The post Fortescue looks to build 9.2GW wind and solar green hydrogen project in Egypt appeared first on RenewEconomy.

WA scrambles to control polyphagous shot-hole borer, which has spread to 200 locations in state’s capital

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A new, invasive insect that has caused the removal of hundreds of trees in Perth could attack much-loved species such as Moreton Bay figs if it escapes quarantine zones, conservationists say.

While the east coast has been responding to the incursion of the varroa mite in bees, Western Australia has been managing another invasive insect known as the polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB).

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Paris-born photographer Martine Perret documented conflict zones for the United Nations before moving to Margaret River in WA. Enthralled by the grandeur of the state’s vast and ancient landscapes, she set about capturing its wide open spaces from high in the sky.

She is one of 168 artists participating in this year’s Margaret River Region Open Studios event (10 to 25 September), in which art lovers are invited into the private spaces of painters, sculptors, photographers and milliners.

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Conservationists hail success after first chicks in two centuries hatch in Leicestershire

“I’m over the moon. We’ve waited a long time for this.” Beth Dunstan, environmental project manager at Belvoir Castle is celebrating the birth of the first osprey chicks in Leicestershire for two centuries this summer, one of a series of recent successes in bringing the osprey back across the UK.

The birds of prey were at one time extinct across the country, which makes the recent hatching of the two osprey chicks cause for celebration. “It’s such a rare thing,” said Dunstan. “There are only around 30 breeding pairs of ospreys in England, so to have a pair on our land breeding and raising chicks is so exciting.”

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Emitters continued to widen their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) net length this week, while financial players slightly decreased their position as a bill to increase the Golden State's 2030 GHG reduction target floundered, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

A California-headquartered direct air capture (DAC) systems developer has announced a project partnership with a carbon storage firm that they said will permanently remove 5 Mt of atmospheric CO2 annually by 2030.

A New York livestock project registered under the California offset programme has applied for listing in the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) via a biomethane pathway, according to documents posted by regulator ARB on Thursday.

EU energy ministers gathered in Brussels on Friday to hash out a set of emergency measures aimed at taming the effect of soaring energy prices, while making only limited headway on deciding whether to endorse a plan to sell €20 billion worth of MSR-held carbon allowances. 

Several million forestry carbon credits are primed to enter the market after the UN published the results of a technical evaluation of emissions reductions calculations by two nations, with far greater potential volumes waiting in the wings.

RGGI compliance-oriented entities scooped up their highest share of RGGI allowances (RGAs) on record at the Q3 auction this week, though this was not enough to continue a 1.5-year streak of record settlement prices, according to results published Friday.

Demand for luxury goods is driving global trade in hawksbill and green turtles, researchers say, adding to calls for more protection

More than 1.1 million sea turtles have been illegally killed in the past 30 years, according to new data.

Despite laws to protect them, scientists at Arizona State University estimate that about 44,000 turtles across 65 countries were illegally killed and exploited every year over the past decade.

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EUAs rallied in mid-morning after dropping to yet another six-month low early on Friday as traders covered short positions ahead of the weekend, while energy prices slipped as EU energy ministers meet to discuss emergency interventions to moderate soaring energy costs for consumers.

Instead of home insulation and cheap renewables, ministers have given us fracking. This crisis is just the start of the pain

As the full horror of the gathering energy crisis takes shape and the party of austerity prepares to borrow £150bn just to pay the bills, government ministers are desperate for you to remember one thing: it is all Vladimir Putin’s fault. Although the terrifying spike in gas prices is driven by the economic war Putin is waging on Europe, the emergency we face this winter is not simply a product of those high prices. It’s also a product of successive Conservative governments wilfully dismissing policies that would have reduced our reliance on gas in the first place.

Take insulating homes and buildings. The past decade has been a period of dismal neglect for one of the most economically obvious policies. Report after report, campaign after campaign, year after year, governments have been reminded of the prudence of investing to make our buildings cheaper and cleaner to heat. Direct grants for those on low incomes, financial support for households and private firms, and properly funded schemes for the public sector could have ended the UK’s reign as the least insulated country in western Europe. Adopting these policies would have cost less than £5bn, and returned money to the Treasury over time through myriad economic benefits, even before gas prices skyrocketed.

Max Wakefield is director of campaigns for the climate action group Possible

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The maritime industry will need additional annual investments of $8-28 billion on ships using clean fuels if it is to reach full decarbonisation by 2050, according to a report from Norway-based classification society DNV released this week.

Weekly trading volume in China’s national emissions market fell below 10,000 units over the past week, the lowest level since July, as market participants see little chance of policy progress in the near future.

Australian resources company South32 has set a new goal to reach net zero Scope 3 GHG emissions by 2050, the company announced Friday in its annual sustainable development report.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including helpful blue-banded bees, a recovering vulture and a drumming chimp

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The bird photographer of the year winners for 2022 have been unveiled. An image of a rock ptarmigan in winter plumage taking flight above the snow-covered mountains of Tysfjord, Norway, has taken the grand prize in the world’s largest bird photography competition, which saw more than 20,000 entries from all over the world

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