Around The Web

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices rose to a nearly six-week high this week despite continued expectations that future quarterly sales will go undersubscribed, while RGGI Allowances (RGAs) stagnated above the 2021 Emissions Containment Reserve (ECR) trigger price.

A New York-based hedge fund opened a new CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS) account in the Northeast US RGGI market this week amid rising prices in the power sector ETS, data shows.

Scientists and the community are building nests to help save the stunning green carpenter bee from extinction. Katja Hogendoorn, University of Adelaide Remko Leijs, Researcher, Flinders University Richard V Glatz, Associate research scientist, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The County of San Diego's Board of Supervisors voted this week against challenging a court ruling that banned a voluntary offset programme for rural housing developments, leaving the jurisdiction to forge a new plan.

EU carbon traders have found humour in a pair of fake tweets that have been circulating in the market over the past week or so, though some voiced unease at the possibility that they were genuine attempts to influence EUA prices.

The absence of corresponding adjustments on voluntary carbon credit transfers over the next decade risks double counting emission reductions and obscuring climate mitigation progress, environmental organisations argued Thursday.

Environment minister Matt Kean says the push to build 8,000 megawatts of wind and solar is part of a plan to replace coal-fired power

The New South Wales government aims to back renewable energy plants in the New England region with the capacity to power 3.5m homes, with the state’s environment minister saying enough will be built to replace most of the state’s coal-fired power stations earlier than scheduled.

Matt Kean, the minister for energy and the environment, will on Friday announce a second renewable energy zone for the state, following a previously planned designated area in the state’s central west.

Continue reading...

The European Commission adopted on Thursday rules for the operation of the bloc’s Modernisation Fund, an ETS-funded financing instrument supporting mainly eastern EU nations to upgrade their energy systems.

Free allocation of EUAs for energy-intensive industries has prevented these sectors from enabling the technological innovations needed for their decarbonisation and should be reconsidered, an advisor to a Europe-wide industry trade union said on Thursday.

As Britain eases out of its Covid-19 lockdown, nitrogen vehicle emissions look to be going back up.

Fish and Wildlife Service had sought to strip safeguards, which would have allowed a limited number to obtain hunting licenses

In a stunning victory for wildlife conservationists and indigenous tribes – and for bears – a US court ruled on Wednesday that grizzly bears living in the vast Yellowstone ecosystem will remain federally protected and not be subjected to sport hunting.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service had sought to strip Yellowstone-area grizzlies of safeguards conferred by the Endangered Species Act. This would have allowed the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to permit a limited number of people to obtain hunting licenses, though sport hunting would have remained prohibited within Yellowstone itself.

Continue reading...

The UN Secretary-General tells a meeting that it is "vital" the world moves towards clean energy.

An all-electric construction vehicle from the Staffordshire firm wins this year's MacRobert Award.

EUAs fell back below €29 on Thursday, maintaining distance from this week's year-high as news that lawmakers were considering measures to curb the market's volatility or limit speculative activity spooked some traders.

A future software update could activate full "level-five" autonomy in cars, the Tesla founder says.

Update to IUCN red list warns of hamster’s falling birth rate and high demand for fungus

Hamsters and fungi may not be poster species among those threatened with extinction but are no less important in ecosystems, according to an updated list of the world’s most fragile species.

The European hamster once scurried across much of Europe and Russia but has now vanished from most of its original range and on current trends will go extinct within 30 years, according to the update of the IUCN red list, the global database of species on the brink.

Continue reading...

A third of all the lemur species on Earth are "one step from extinction".

Danish renewable power juggernaut inks record offtake deal with world’s largest semiconductor foundry and world leader in green manufacturing.

The post Ørsted signs world’s largest corporate renewable PPA in Taiwan appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Obsession with 4WD vehicles is derailing gains from the switch to electric as the big car makers pursue profit and sacrifice emissions.

The post Four-wheel drives are killing climate gains – bring on the Cybertruck appeared first on RenewEconomy.