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A successful effort to introduce a carbon charge in New York’s wholesale electricity markets separate to RGGI would take nearly three years to take effect, according to the state’s grid operator NYISO.

The EU will from Thursday impose measures aimed at curbing a surge of steel imports diverted from the tariff-setting US, quelling fears that ETS-covered domestic production could be affected.

Government-owned company has back-pedalled on its pledge to cycle-proof the line, say campaigners, locking out cyclists for generations to come

The company building the HS2 high speed rail line is accused of watering down commitments on cycle crossings along the route, in a move campaigners say will endanger lives and lock out cycling for generations to come.

The government-owned company, HS2 Ltd, was accused of back-pedalling on its legally-binding assurance that it would “cycle-proof” phase 1 of HS2, from London to the West Midlands, earlier this year by Cycling UK, the national cycling charity. The assurances, which became legally binding when they were incorporated into the High Speed Rail Act, stated HS2 Ltd would have a dialogue with the Cycle Proofing Working Group (CPWG), a government advisory body, with the assumption that they would include high quality design standards.

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New research has identified the species of shark currently found in hotter parts of the world that could migrate to UK waters by 2050 as the oceans warm

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The impact of European settlers on the country is preserved in a detailed soil record, researchers have found.

A Netherlands carbon price floor would have a minimal impact on cutting emissions, a study commissioned by the Dutch government found, while rapidly-increasing EU Allowance prices suggest the effect of the floor, as it is currently designed, may never be felt.

Algae is the new ‘green gold'. On Big Ideas, an expert panel describes the potential of algae as a game-changing sustainable resource for numerous industries.

The floor of the Central Valley is slumping, and there is arsenic in the tap water. Now it seems the two problems are connected

Isabel Solorio can see the water treatment plant from her garden across the street. Built to filter out the arsenic in drinking water, it hasn’t been active since 2007 – it shut down six months after opening when the California town of Lanare went into debt trying to keep up with maintenance costs.

Related: ‘Nothing to worry about. The water is fine’: how Flint poisoned its people

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The Cornwall community achieved this status last December, by uniting against straws, bottles, takeaway boxes and disposable forks. Now 330 other towns aim to follow them

Emily Kavanaugh is standing in her skincare-product shop, Pure Nuff Stuff, on Chapel Street. The narrow lane leads down towards the Jubilee pool, the triangular lido that juts like a ship’s prow into the sea from Penzance. “Here, try one,” Kavanaugh says, handing me a piece of packing material. The little white cloud looks and feels like a polystyrene packing “peanut”, but, Kavanaugh assures me, “it tastes exactly like a communion wafer”. After a wary nibble, I pop the whole thing in and notch it up as a snack.

Kavanaugh’s packaging is made not of plastic but corn starch. If eating it feels like an act of faith, it is because there is a growing fervour in this Cornish seaside town. Last year, Penzance became the first town in Britain to receive “plastic-free” status from Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). The former single-issue movement, founded in Cornwall in 1990, has become a national marine conservation charity with plastics in its sights. But, rather than target shopping bags or plastic-lined coffee cups, SAS is attempting to unite whole communities against single-use plastic of all types, including straws, bottles, packaging, takeaway boxes, cotton buds, clingfilm and forks.

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The overall purpose of the assignment to develop a policy brief on climate change in the light of development planning; Moving from integration to implementation. The assignment will be undertaken through consultancy services under the direct supervision of the National Planning Authority.

New Zealand carbon allowances rose to record highs again on Wednesday as emitters continued to lift every available offer.

New Zealand is home to more seabirds than any other country, and many species are already under pressure from climate change and over-fishing. Plastic pollution could push some closer to the brink. Stephanie B. Borrelle, Conservation Ecologist, Auckland University of Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Despite a cold blast and gas shortages, the UK has gone without coal for 1,000 hours – and only midway through the year.

Mark Diesendorf urges those who care about climate change to go further than installing solar panels and voting and join pressure groups.

AEMO says two South Australian regions could add 2GW of renewables without any transmission upgrades, and suggests Roxby Downs could emerge as major solar energy region.

By resurrecting a proposal to allow trophy hunters to shoot 250 hippos annually, Zambia stirs controversy.

The hippo — really? That’s the common response when tour guides in Africa tantalize travelers with this question: “What’s the most dangerous animal on the continent?” Lion? Rhino? Elephant? No, no, no. Eventually, the tour guide delivers the answer with a twinkle in their eye: the hippo, yes, that water-loving, one-tonne mammalian oddity. Despite their hefty and somnolent appearance, hippos are fast and aggressive — a dangerous mix — and may kill several hundred people a year (of course the most dangerous animal in Africa is not really the hippo at all, it’s the mosquito — but no one likes a know-it-all).

Despite being one of the most unusual animals on the planet — their closest relatives are whales and dolphins — hippos don’t get a lot of love. They tend to be overshadowed by the continent’s other remarkable mega-mammals. Who can compete with elephants and giraffe and lion? Perhaps, that’s why it’s not exactly surprising that the announcement of a hippo cull in Zambia didn’t exactly make global news.

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Rooftop solar on Australian homes and businesses could account for 22 per cent of national demand and overtake the combined output of black and brown coal at that time.

Another European deal for Australia's Tritium, this time to supply 12 of its Veefil DC fast chargers for an EV network in Hungary.

ISP details reveal that the pressure is on coal, solar is assumed to be cheaper than wind, small solar is cheaper than big solar, and transmission for many renewable energy zones won't be available before 2040.

Rombalds Moor, West Yorkshire: We can’t blame the heatwave for this desiccated landscape – we’ve spent decades deliberately drying out our peatland habitats

The moors are a tinderbox. Parched and crisped by weeks of dry summer heat, the heather is a burnt brown-to-burgundy, the moorland grass yellowed. The bracken looks all right – still a deep pea-green (it takes a lot to bother bracken) – but finger-wide cracks have opened in the colourless peat of the footpath. It’s early morning; the day hasn’t yet been fully cranked up, and the broken sky is a messy palette of blues and greys. A loose flock of a dozen meadow pipits forages for caterpillars.

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