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JP Morgan Asset Management on Wednesday announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has acquired US forestland valued at $500 million, which the company will utilise in part for sequestering CO2 emissions.

A UK-headquartered global insurer is investing £38 million to restore Britain’s lost temperate rainforests, the first part of a £100 mln programme into nature-based carbon credit projects in the UK and Ireland.

Sir Richard Kleinwort has not given permission for viable walking and cycling route between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath

An aristocrat is at odds with his local council after blocking plans for a green walkway linking two Sussex towns through his estate, which would give children a safe route to walk or cycle home from school.

Local people complain that to travel between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, they have to use two winding country roads with no pavements and fast traffic. Mid Sussex district council has proposed a “green path” through the lush fields and pretty woodland of the nearby area, where people could walk and cycle.

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The tiny capsule that fell out of a Perth-bound truck captured the world’s attention, but experts say hundreds of radioactive sources go missing each year

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If finding the tiny radioactive capsule that went missing in the vast Australian outback was like finding a needle in a haystack, at least the needle was crying out “here I am!”, Dr Edward Obbard says.

Just 8mm by 6mm – the size of a 10c coin – the capsule fell out of a truck on its way from a Rio Tinto mine site in Western Australia’s Pilbara region to Perth, sparking a six-day hunt across the 1,400km desert route.

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EUAs on Thursday traded slightly below the previous session's five-month high, as energy prices dipped and traders awaited further volatility amid positive technical signals and analyst reports indicating that any delay to the injection of additional EUA auction volumes this year could be bullish for prices.

An online tour is being launched of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live. Other wildlife captured include kingfishers, stoats, roe deer and bull finches, all of which are believed to have benefited from the changes the beavers are making to the area

• Somerset estate offers rare peek into life of beavers with launch of online tour
  

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The growth of carbon pricing mechanisms, such as through the development of voluntary carbon markets with transparent standards, or compliance markets, can be of benefit to developing economies as it would open opportunities for them to develop green supply chains, a conference on emissions markets in Asia was told on Thursday.

A weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

Co-author of paper says results have implications for anyone who has to think hard in polluted areas

Chess experts make more mistakes when air pollution is high, a study has found.

Experts used computer models to analyse the quality of games played and found that with a modest increase in fine particulate matter, the probability that chess players would make an error increased by 2.1 percentage points, and the magnitude of those errors increased by 10.8%.

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Retailer and green groups warn of ‘high environmental cost’ of fish aggregating devices to tuna stocks and other endangered marine life

The EU is under pressure to significantly restrict its huge fleet of fishing vessels from using “fish aggregating devices” that make it easier to catch huge numbers of fish and contribute further to overfishing.

A letter signed by Marks & Spencer and more than 100 environmental groups, including the International Pole and Line Foundation, warns EU officials that the devices (FADs) are one of the main contributors to overfishing of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, because they catch high numbers of juveniles.

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The environment ministers of 12 EU member states have written a letter to environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius, urging him to preserve the protection of the grey wolf.

Japan's GX League has released a set of application guidelines for companies to participate in the first phase of its domestic voluntary carbon trading scheme, with the application open to both corporates and financial institutions until the end of April.

Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalized

The shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.

The death of 26-year-old Terán, who was also known as “Tortuguita” or “Little Turtle”, in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act “people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy”, according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters.

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South Korea on Thursday announced a number of biodiversity initiatives while confirming that its 5th national biodiversity strategy, covering 2024-28, will be finalised before the end of the year and designed to ensure the nation will meet its commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework.

The Australian government has committed A$3 million ($2.1 mln) in grant funding to four blue carbon projects in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as the region looks to financially benefit from preserving and restoring their coastal ecosystems.

The World Climate Foundation (WCF) has launched the World Biodiversity Network, a cross-sectoral, partnership-driven initiative that will support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Record-breaking French freediver Arthur Guérin-Boëri holds five world championship titles. Here, he dives into Kvaenangen Fjord, Norway, to swim with killer whales

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Queensland will install 35 neighbourhood batteries to soak up the excess solar in one of the state’s top 10 rooftop PV postcodes.

The post Energex and Origin to roll out 35 neighbourhood batteries in solar soaked regional city appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Government plan to educate owners and encourage fines not enough to effectively tackle air pollution

• Study links air pollution to mental ill-health

Politicians and campaigners have called for an urgent review of wood-burning stoves, which cause large amounts of pollution in urban areas.

The calls follow the admission by the environment secretary that the government had set weaker air pollution targets than it would like. The admission came as she announced a new environmental plan for England that held back from banning wood-burning stoves and settled instead for “educating” people on their use.

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National Trust project shows family home of ‘nature’s engineers’ and how they have improved the environment for other wildlife

They can be seen chugging around their watery domain like small furry tugboats, gnawing away at saplings or nuzzling up to each other. The sound of babbling water and birdsong provides a pleasing soundtrack.

A new online tour is being launched on Thursday of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live and work.

Continue reading...