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The US Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant a request to reconsider an Obama-era ban on potent heat-trapping gases, aligning with the Trump administration’s position on throwing out the appeal.

Matt Wheeler, Chris Osman, Pam Laurance and Bill White on the changes that need to be made to road regulations and driver habits in order to avoid climate catastrophe

Following the UN’s report concluding carbon emissions need to be reduced massively and rapidly to prevent an average increase in global temperatures of more than 1.5C (Global warming must not exceed 1.5C, landmark UN report warns, 8 October), one quick and simple way in which the UK could make a start is by cutting the top speed vehicles can travel on motorways from 70 to 60mph. All cars operate most efficiently at a speed between 50 and 60mph. At the stroke of a pen we could ensure all vehicles on motorways are running far closer to their most efficient levels. It won’t save the world on its own, but it’s a cost-free and easy step to take that gets us moving in the right direction.
Matt Wheeler
Bushey, Hertforshire

• It is increasingly evident how difficult it will be to stop global warming; the need is pressing, obvious and requires strong leadership from governments. But, incredibly, our government is planning to build a major road (the so-called expressway) between Oxford and Cambridge. Painful as it might appear, the time has come when we have to stop building new major roads altogether, anywhere. We have to slash use of roads and fossil fuels, not encourage them.

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We are calling for the adoption of a third pact, enshrining a new generation of fundamental commitments, write Yann Aguila, Antonio Herman Benjamin, Laurent Fabius and 128 others

On 10 April 2018, the United Nations general assembly adopted a resolution that paved the way for negotiations on a global pact for the environment. This international treaty would combine the guiding legal principles for environmental action into one single and far-reaching text. In 2015, the adoption of the sustainable development goals and the Paris climate agreement represented major progress. However, environmental damage persists and is more serious than ever before. The years 2017 and 2018 have seen record-breaking temperatures. Biodiversity continues to decline at a rapid pace.

With the global pact for the environment, the international community would be equipped for the first time with a treaty of a general nature that covers all environmental areas. It would be the cornerstone of international environmental law, therefore overseeing the different existing sectoral agreements (climate, biodiversity, waste, pollution, etc), filling the gaps and facilitating their implementation.

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EU environment ministers on Tuesday were unable to agree on raising the bloc’s 2030 emission reduction goal this year, though 15 of the 28 called for an increase before the end of the decade.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will auction off 13.4 million allowances at the Dec. 5 auction, regulators announced Tuesday.

Robots with novel seafloor mapping capabilities will demonstrate their skill in a Greek showdown.

The Australian government has backed coal-fired power despite the recommendations of a major report on climate change.

Denmark will cancel 8 million EUAs next decade by applying a provision that allows a club of richer EU member states to help meet their non-ETS goals more cheaply, according to a report released Tuesday.

Exclusive: Claire Perry says level at which operations must be halted could be raised

Rules designed to halt fracking operations if they trigger minor earthquakes could be relaxed as the shale industry begins to expand, the UK energy minister, Claire Perry, has said.

A series of small tremors seven years ago prompted tough regulations that mean even very low levels of seismic activity now require companies to suspend fracking.

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Dutch scientists say they can create millions of bee-like drones to take over if the insects die out

Intensive modern farming methods and the unravelling consequences of global climate change are said to have put the future of the common bee under threat like never before.

But in Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands a group of scientists working on long-term solutions to some of the world’s thorniest problems have developed a solution that could have come straight from a sci-fi novel: robotic bees.

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Netherlands ordered to increase emissions cuts in historic ruling that puts ‘all world governments on notice’

A court in The Hague has upheld a historic legal order on the Dutch government to accelerate carbon emissions cuts, a day after the world’s climate scientists warned that time was running out to avoid dangerous warming.

Appeal court judges ruled that the severity and scope of the climate crisis demanded greenhouse gas reductions of at least 25% by 2020 – measured against 1990 levels – higher than the 17% drop planned by Mark Rutte’s liberal administration.

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Threats to the rainforest and its people and an end to the Paris agreement are among the promises of Brazil’s presidential hopeful, reports Climate Home

No more Paris agreement. No more ministry of environment. A paved highway cutting through the Amazon.

Not only that. Indigenous territories opened to mining. Relaxed environmental law enforcement and licensing. International NGOs, such as Greenpeace and WWF, banned from the country. A strong alliance with the beef lobby.

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A Netherlands court on Tuesday rejected the government’s appeal against a 2015 ruling that ordered it to set a deeper emission reduction goal, a judgement that potentially establishes a global precedent in holding a state responsible for taking necessary steps to prevent dangerous climate change.

Palaeontologist and conservationist, Tim Flannery, has been looking back over the past hundred million years of the flora and fauna of Europe.

Five photographers follow the challenges facing small-scale farmers, and their pioneering solutions for a farming system that does not cost the planet

• The We Feed the World exhibition runs at the Bargehouse Gallery, Southbank, London, 12-21 October
  

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Whale was freed but marine charity says proposed new laws would have made it illegal to highlight the distress of the animal

Extraordinary photographs that revealed a baby humpback whale caught in a shark net on the Gold Coast could not have been taken under new laws proposed by the Queensland government, two environmental groups have said.

The baby whale is seen entangled in the shark net in photos and video released by the Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society on Tuesday.

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Australia installs another 125MW of rooftop solar in September, taking the grand total to more than 7.5GW.

The post Australia rooftop solar installations pass 7.5GW milestone appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 11 October 2018 until 13 November 2018.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 11 October 2018 until 13 November 2018.

IPCC report ‘underestimates potential of these key dangers to send Earth into spiral of runaway climate change’

• World leaders ‘have moral obligation to act’ after UN climate report

Key dangers largely left out of the IPCC special report on 1.5C of warming are raising alarm among some scientists who fear we may have underestimated the impacts of humans on the Earth’s climate.

The IPCC report sets out the world’s current knowledge of the impacts of 1.5C of warming and clearly shows the dangers of breaching such a limit. However, many scientists are increasingly worried about factors about which we know much less.

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