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The EU on Wednesday released its national allocation tables determining free carbon allowance allocations for 2021-25 after several months of delays, revealing quotas of permits to be given to emitters in most of the countries participating in the EU ETS.

The UK government has opened a consultation into proposed amendments to its emissions trading legislation in order to correct “outstanding technical issues identified during the development and legislation of the scheme”.

Scientists record fin-to-fin contact in gentle giants, most likely part of courtship, for first time

Fin-to-fin synchronised swimming, thought likely to be part of courtship, has been seen in groups of basking sharks for the first time. Video cameras attached temporarily to the sharks gave scientists an unprecedented view of their hitherto secret underwater world.

The gentle giants are usually solitary creatures and virtually nothing is known about their breeding behaviour. The researchers also recorded one shark shooting out above the water, the first time a full breaching has been captured from the shark’s point of view. This may also be part of wooing a mate, perhaps by showing off the fish’s size.

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Brazilian offset developer Biofilica announced its acquisition by a multinational environmental management firm on Tuesday, with the purchase aimed at generating 10 times as many voluntary emissions reductions (VERs) compared to current volumes and expanding into more nature-based project types.

A Texas-based hedge fund opened a RGGI CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS) account on Wednesday, with the firm having been linked to two previous speculative accounts under a different name.

Norway’s Equinor on Wednesday defended its plans to extract more oil and gas, fending off analyst questions about whether the company risked legal action over a lack of climate ambition.

Experiment using caffeine concoction on bees’ nests may help farmers ensure crops are pollinated

The caffeine in the morning coffee that primes many humans for the day appears to inject bumblebees with a similar dose of purpose, helping them pollinate more effectively, a study has found.

The impact of the climate crisis, habitat loss and pesticide use has strained wild pollinator populations, including bees, moths, wasps, butterflies, beetles and birds. As a result, some fruit growers have resorted to relying on “managed pollinators” such as commercial bumblebee colonies to pollinate their crops.

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Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s former press secretary, responds to question on Tories’ ‘unambitious’ climate policies

Boris Johnson’s former press secretary, who is now his spokesperson for the Cop26 climate summit, has said people could join the Green party as a way of saving the planet – while also saying joining the Tories would help as well.

Allegra Stratton, who moved from Downing Street to the Cop26 team in April, after plans were axed for daily TV briefings which she had been expected to front, made her comments to the Independent.

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Hungary-based airline Wizz Air expects its passenger capacity to reach pre-pandemic levels this summer, it said on Wednesday while criticising Brussels' proposals for an EU-wide tax on jet fuel.

This project would rapidly deforest large areas of the Amazon, which would wreak havoc on the planet

Despite increasing global concern, Jair Bolsonaro is determined to expand his exploitation of Brazil’s crucial natural resources. His latest project, one of the most destructive yet, would rapidly deforest large areas of the Amazon.

Bolsonaro’s plan? To construct a 1,000km railway system extending right into the heart of the Amazon rainforest – with trains passing within 500 metres of 726 official environmentally protected areas. The new railway, called Ferrogrão, would also entail construction within 10km of another 18 priority conservation areas established by the ministry of the environment.

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Carbon posted healthy gains in Wednesday morning trade, as a strong auction result coupled with firm energy prices acted to bolster sentiment.

Large oil and gas companies are behind most of the recent increase in demand for Australian carbon credits, which has seen prices rise by more than a quarter this year, according to analysts.

We asked a panelist of experts on when we need to start changing our economies and ways of consuming and producing. Their answer: now

We have zero years before climate and ecological breakdown, because it’s already here. We have zero years left to procrastinate. The longer we wait to act, the worse the floods, fires, droughts, famines and heatwaves will get.

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One company given grants worth $21m for drilling despite not having Northern Territory environmental approvals, senators hear

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The gas companies seeking to frack the Beetaloo Basin have been accused of sharing links to tax secrecy jurisdictions, the Liberal party and Russian plutocrats, a Senate inquiry has heard.

Opening up the Northern Territory to fracking is a key part of the Morrison government’s “gas-led recovery”, and the commonwealth is incentivising exploration through the $50m Beetaloo cooperative drilling program.

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New rules championed by Angus Taylor could benefit coal and stifle the pace of the clean energy transition. "It's terrible," said one insider.

The post Big win for coal generators as ESB pushes for Taylor’s favoured capacity markets appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Seven Chinese provinces will pilot a system that requires governments to take CO2 emissions into account when approving new projects in energy-intensive industries, most of which are on the list to be brought into the national emissions trading scheme.

The Orbital O2, which is anchored off Orkney, has the capacity to meet the annual power demand of 2,000 homes.

Conservation tool will focus on recovery efforts to give a fuller picture of threats to plant and animal populations

A new conservation tool could help put thousands of threatened animal and plant species on the road to recovery, allowing creatures such as the Sumatran rhino and the California condor to flourish once again.

Scientists have typically focused on monitoring how close endangered species are to extinction, regularly updating the severity of the risk on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list, which includes iconic wildlife such as the mountain gorilla and rare flowering plants such as the Bayard’s adder’s-mouth orchid.

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Australian zinc bromine flow battery maker raises just under $15 million in its latest capital raise, launched to help fund its push into the US market.

The post Redflow in “strong” position for US push, despite falling short on capital raise appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The first big battery in Queensland has obtained its registration and will begin delivering services to the grid in next few weeks.

The post Queensland’s first big battery gets registration, to begin charging soon appeared first on RenewEconomy.