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The “perfect storm” of bullish factors that drove EU carbon prices to a record high last month has lost momentum, analysts said Wednesday, but warned that any correction would likely be temporary.

I look at fragments of the Earth's mantle under a microscope to learn how fast molten rock moves from deep in the Earth to the surface. This can help us prepare for future volcanic eruptions. Heather Handley, Honorary Associate Professor in Volcanology and Geochemistry, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have nudged up their long-term EU carbon price forecasts, but they are expecting allowances to pull back during the second half of this year.

EUAs lost nearly 2% on Wednesday as the market again struggled to absorb the day's two auctions, though they avoided the sharp sell-off triggered by the UK's inaugural sale two weeks earlier, while trading data on UKA holdings was published for the first time ever.

Commitments to a greener and healthier environment would have been a reasonable price to ask

When the government reacted to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 with unprecedented rescue funds, ministers were urged to attach strings before the money disappeared out the door.

The strings would have forced employers to adopt policies they had resisted for years, most obviously cutting carbon emissions and promoting a healthier environment.

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US biofuel credit (RIN) values rose this week on the back of higher agricultural commodity prices, while market participants questioned whether other refiners besides a Delta Air Lines subsidiary were trimming back on Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) purchases amid near-record high levels.

Duck hunting has been practised as a recreational sport in Australia since colonisation. In Victoria alone, an average of 400,000 birds are killed during hunting season. South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory are also yet to ban the practice. But recent changes in Victoria, including a cut to the season’s length, have made the hunt less accessible for shooters, and with growing community dissent the hunt could soon come to an end

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The European Commission and Bill Gates’ climate venture Breakthrough Energy Catalyst will mobilise $1 billion (€820 million) to scale up clean energy technology, the EU’s executive announced on Wednesday.

The upcoming revision of the EU’s renewable energy directive will not include any measures to promote low-carbon fuels, a European Commission senior official said Wednesday, partly as a result of pressure from green groups and progressive EU lawmakers.

The Q2 RGGI auction is expected to settle closer to the secondary market after notching a wide discount in March, with some market participants foreseeing the quarterly sale settling at a premium due to deferred compliance demand.

Falling oxygen levels harming already struggling wildlife and drinking water supplies, say scientists

The climate crisis is causing a widespread fall in oxygen levels in lakes across the world, suffocating wildlife and threatening drinking water supplies.

Falling levels of oxygen in oceans had already been identified, but new research shows that the decline in lakes has been between three and nine times faster in the past 40 years. Scientists found oxygen levels had fallen by 19% in deep waters and 5% at the surface.

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The head of European power and carbon analytics at ICIS is leaving for a boutique consultancy, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Tulip-shaped ‘eco-art’ turbines address common complaints about noise, danger to wildlife and ugliness

Tulips and flowers could help harness the power of the wind, after a green energy company came up with its own spin on wind power in an “eco-art” design.

Flower Turbines, based in the US and the Netherlands, has installations across Rotterdam, Amsterdam, parts of Germany, Israel and Columbia. The company aims to democratise green energy for everyone and make small windfarms a leading player in the green energy industry.

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Eight major government agencies and institutions have encouraged Beijing to set up an offset trading platform in its pilot free trade zone to act as the centre for the Chinese carbon credit market.

The £150m project to build a 50m deep pool would be used for deep sea and space research.

A major project aims to overcome a barrier to electricity grids wholly supplied by renewable energy.

Vessels primarily from China switch off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in possible illegal fishing

Giant distant-water fishing fleets, primarily from China, are switching off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in a possibly illegal hunt for squid and other lucrative species on the very edge of Argentina’s extensive fishing grounds, according to a new study by Oceana, an international NGO dedicated to ocean conservation.

Every year, vessels crowd together along the limits of Argentina’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to take advantage of the lucrative fishing grounds.

Related: Cat and mouse on the high seas: on the trail of China's vast squid fleet

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South Korea on Wednesday announced it has cancelled plans to auction off 5.1 million CO2 permits next week with no plans to make those available before the June 30 annual compliance deadline, after the spot price in the secondary market has collapsed by nearly 20% in the past two days.

Parties that back schemes such as low-traffic neighbourhoods outperformed critics in mayoral election

• The evidence is in: low-traffic neighbourhoods are popular

Schemes to promote cycling and walking condemned by some critics as controversial and unpopular actually appear to be welcomed by many voters, according to analysis of last month’s election results in London.

Examination of the London mayoral election on 6 May on a ward-level basis showed that votes for parties that support such projects tended to rise in areas where they had been introduced, while parties that opposed them were more likely to shed votes.

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The London election proves that measures to make streets safer are a vote-winner, says a former Labour leader of Ealing council

• Cycling schemes popular with London voters, finds analysis

Are measures to make streets safe for walking and cycling unpopular? Are they vote-losers? Have we failed to take communities with us – and will we, as local politicians, pay the price?

As a former Labour leader of Ealing council in west London, I was at the heart of this debate. The low-traffic neighbourhood schemes we installed in my borough, using cameras to stop rat-running in more than a hundred streets, caused a row noisy even by the standards of cycling scheme rows. Demonstrators marched to the council offices with “Julian Bell – end this hell” placards. The “Bell” and the “end” were placed together to make a further well-loved phrase.

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