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UK government pledges a 'nature-positive future'
England’s infrastructure projects will be ‘nature positive’, ministers vow
Biodiversity pledge is part of formal response to landmark review of economic importance of nature
The UK government has committed to leaving the environment in “a better state than we found it” in response to a landmark review of the economic importance of nature.
Major transport and energy infrastructure projects in England will need to provide a net-gain for biodiversity, and the government said it would ensure all new bilateral aid spending did not harm the natural world as part of an effort to ensure a “nature-positive” future.
Continue reading...London-based carbon fund dips toe in UK ETS as new market attracts more interest
Germany publishes free EU carbon allocation list for 2021-25, estimates start for this year’s delayed handouts
The rush to ‘go electric’ comes with a hidden cost: destructive lithium mining | Thea Riofrancos
As the world moves towards electric cars and renewable grids, demand for lithium is wreaking havoc in northern Chile
The Atacama salt flat is a majestic, high-altitude expanse of gradations of white and grey, peppered with red lagoons and ringed by towering volcanoes. It took me a moment to get my bearings on my first visit, standing on this windswept plateau of 3,000 sq km (1,200 sq miles). A vertiginous drive had taken me and two other researchers through a sandstorm, a rainstorm, and the peaks and valleys of this mountainous region of northern Chile. The sun bore down on us intensely – the Atacama desert boasts the Earth’s highest levels of solar radiation, and only parts of Antarctica are drier.
I had come to the salt flat to research an emerging environmental dilemma. In order to stave off the worst of the accelerating climate crisis, we need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions. To do so, energy systems around the world must transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Lithium batteries play a key role in this transition: they power electric vehicles and store energy on renewable grids, helping to cut emissions from transportation and energy sectors. Underneath the Atacama salt flat lies most of the world’s lithium reserves; Chile currently supplies almost a quarter of the global market. But extracting lithium from this unique landscape comes at a grave environmental and social cost.
Continue reading...Technical Director (Carbon Markets), Climate Impact X – Singapore
Business Analyst and Platform Manager, Climate Impact X – Singapore
Director of Forest Carbon Origination, Finite Carbon – Eastern US
Director, Corporate Climate Solutions – Arlington, VA
Environmental Scientist, Greenhouse Gas Professional, Ruby Canyon Environmental – Grand Junction, CO
Greenhouse Gas Professional, Ruby Canyon Environment – Grand Junction, CO
Queensland to launch second round of call for carbon projects
China ETS progresses onto legislative work plan
Global carbon price expectations surge as markets prove resilient to pandemic -survey
Illegal sewage discharge in English rivers 10 times higher than official data suggests
Underreporting by water companies and failure to hold them to account have resulted in ecological damage, analysis shows
Water companies are being allowed to unlawfully discharge raw sewage into rivers at a scale at least 10 times greater than Environment Agency prosecutions indicate, according to analysis to be presented to the government.
The number of prosecutions of English water companies for unlawful spills from sewage treatment plants in 10 years are just a tiny fraction of the scale of potentially illegal discharges, the research presented to the environment minister, Rebecca Pow, this week will suggest.
Continue reading...G7 fails on solid coal message but worries are building for Morrison
While the G7 meeting was unremarkable, there are growing signs of action on coal phaseout - particularly among Australia's biggest coal customers.
The post G7 fails on solid coal message but worries are building for Morrison appeared first on RenewEconomy.