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Emitters saw their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings increase right before the Q2 WCI auction this week, while they offloaded RGGI Allowances (RGAs), according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

There are no durable CO2 removal credits being offered from projects issuing carbon credits in 2021-22 on the voluntary carbon market (VCM), according to a report that assesses trends across the four largest offset registries, and also points out other challenges with carbon offset supply.

‘Clean’ hydrogen and carbon capture and storage head list of funding pledges since net zero promise

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The Coalition has announced more than $1bn in climate funding that could go to fossil fuel developments since setting a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 last year, an analysis has found.

The bulk of the funding promised during the election campaign has been to develop “clean” hydrogen – a term often used to refer to hydrogen made with gas, a fossil fuel – and carbon capture and storage (CCS), which has had little success to date but oil and gas executives say will need to play a massive role if the world is to slash emissions.

$50m in the budget for a “future gas infrastructure investment framework”.

$20m for CarbonNet, a project that aims to capture and store carbon dioxide in an offshore reservoir in Gippsland in Victoria.

$66m in the budget for a “patent box” tax concession for “low emissions technology innovations”.

$200m for clean hydrogen and “low emissions technology partnerships” with Japan and South Korea.

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Researchers say sediment from floodwaters reduced exposure to sunlight and smothered seagrass the animals rely on for food

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Catastrophic floods earlier this year wiped out one of the largest and most important seagrass meadows in eastern Australia, increasing the risk that dugongs and sea turtles will become stranded, according to researchers.

Scientists from James Cook University monitored the health of seagrass meadows across 2,300 square kilometres of Hervey Bay and the Great Sandy Strait in southern Queensland.

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The European Commission should assess and spell out how to enhance carbon dioxide removals (CDR) in a new legislative proposal by no later than 2025, the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) said in a vote on the bloc’s carbon market earlier this week.

The government of right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wants all the country’s economic sectors to set their own emissions goals provided the targets collectively deliver its pledge to the Paris Agreement.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit prices slid closer to falling into the double digits this week, marking a new 4.5-year low for the clean fuels programme.

Rules that allow offsets in five compliance markets, including China, could drive nearly as much demand for carbon credits as were issued under the entire voluntary carbon market (VCM) last year, a bank report found Friday, adding that the trend is likely to rise.

The cross-stakeholder Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) updated its timeline for publishing its long-awaited carbon offset quality standards on Friday, delaying their release by one quarter to Q4, with the public consultation on draft guidelines pushed back two months to July.

Data shows people finding it harder to sleep, especially women and older people, with serious health impacts

Rising temperatures driven by the climate crisis are cutting the sleep of people across the world, the largest study to date has found.

Good sleep is critical to health and wellbeing. But global heating is increasing night-time temperatures, even faster than in the day, making it harder to sleep. The analysis revealed that the average global citizen is already losing 44 hours of sleep a year, leading to 11 nights with less than seven hours’ sleep, a standard benchmark of sufficient sleep.

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A carbon investment vehicle that holds physical EUAs has seen its holdings fall by 17% in the two days after the European Parliament’s environment committee proposed restricting speculative access to EU ETS registry accounts.

Scientists believe site in Guangxi with trees up to 40 metres tall may contain undiscovered species

An ancient forest has been found at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in China, with trees up to 40 metres (130ft) tall.

Scientists believe it could contain undiscovered plant and animal species.

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EUA prices clawed back early losses on Friday morning as traders balanced a cut of 3% in 2022 auction volumes with the prospect of a 200-250 million-tonne injection of additional auction supply in the coming four years.

More than 500 larvae will be released in Hampshire and Cornwall as part of a four-year project to revive the declining species

They once lit up summer nights, people read by their luminescence and they’ve been celebrated by everyone from William Shakespeare to Crowfoot, a 19th-century North American chief.

But glowworms have had their lights dimmed by a cult of tidiness in the countryside, the loss of wild meadows and light pollution.

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Scheme to pay farmers for nature stewardship is seen by some as one of the few positive Brexit dividends

The government’s plans to pay farmers for their stewardship of nature could be delayed or scrapped, it is feared, as hard-right Conservative MPs join the campaign against the environmental land management scheme (Elms).

The rollout of Elms, seen by some as one of the few positive Brexit dividends, is due to begin this year, with more standards beginning incrementally between 2023 and 2025.

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Covid lockdowns in host country frustrate scientists as no date in sight for key UN conservation conference after two years of delays

China has been urged to name a date for a key UN nature summit this year, amid growing frustration with Beijing and concerns among experts that we are “sleeping through this cataclysmic climate extinction”.

After two years of delays, governments had been scheduled to meet in Kunming, China, for Cop15 in late April to negotiate this decade’s targets to halt and reverse the rampant destruction of ecosystems and wildlife crucial to human civilisation. It had been hoped the summit would be a “Paris moment” for biodiversity, with China holding the presidency for a major UN environmental agreement for the first time.

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The Malaysian state of Sarawak will be the Southeast Asian country’s first jurisdiction to establish rules for forest carbon activity with the successful passage in the state’s legislative assembly of a forestry bill on Thursday.

Carbon allowances in China’s national emissions trading market remain unchanged throughout the month of May and volumes have evaporated, as traders begin to expect there will be little regulatory progress this year.

Economists condemn ‘rot’ in system after manufacturer issued billions in stock buybacks despite problems at Michigan factory

A deadly bacteria outbreak in baby formula and an ongoing formula shortage stem from issues some economists characterize as “rot” in the nation’s economic system: prioritization of shareholder wealth and consolidation.

The embattled baby formula producer Abbott used windfall profits to enrich investors instead of replacing failing equipment that was likely injecting the dangerous bacteria into its infant nutritional products, financial records and whistleblower documents show.

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The Green Climate Fund (GFC) has approved $301 million in funding to go towards new climate projects, while adopting a strategy framework for private sector involvement and simplified the project approval process for some host countries.