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The Minister for the Environment, the Hon Sussan Ley, announced the release of the new 10 year Threatened Species Strategy 2021-2031.

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

The “inefficient”, illiquid, and relatively small UK carbon market has yet to attract much investment in the six weeks since trading launched, experts said this week.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices stormed higher this week with rising demand from financial firms in the WCI market, and RGGI Allowances (RGAs) also ticked up to a 6-month high as compliance entities and speculators sought out new positions.

A 1600MW coal generator closes for good after just six years, and will now be repurposed to produce green hydrogen from wind energy.

The post German coal plant closes after just six years, to produce green hydrogen from wind appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW offers grants to help secure 3GW of pumped hydro projects in time for next wave of coal fired power station closures.

The post NSW offers grants to secure 3GW of pumped hydro to replace coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Sacred trees are a cornerstone of our national identity. They transcend simple economics and sit at the centre of the sacred — sentinels in ceremony, birthing and burials. Rob N. Williams, Archaeologist & PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Politicians must respond to the latest warnings that climate science has underestimated risks

Last week’s shockingly high temperatures in the northwestern US and Canada were – and are – very frightening. Heat and the fires it caused killed hundreds of people, and are estimated to have killed a billion sea creatures. Daily temperature records were smashed by more than 5C (9F) in some places. In Lytton, British Columbia, the heat reached 49.6C (121F). The wildfires that consumed the town produced their own thunderstorms, alongside thousands of lightning strikes.

An initial study shows human activity made this heat dome – in which a ridge of high pressure acts as a lid preventing warm air from escaping – at least 150 times more likely. The World Weather Attribution Group of scientists, who use computer climate models to assess global heating trends and extreme weather, have warned that last week exceeded even their worst-case scenarios. While it has long been recognised that the climate system has thresholds or tipping points beyond which humans stand to lose control of what happens, scientists did not hide their alarm that an usually cool part of the Pacific northwest had been turned into a furnace. One climatologist said the prospect opened up by the heat dome “blows my mind”.

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Climate Investments Analyst to identify and form opinions on investment opportunities and to work within the Climate Investment Team on direct investments of all kind.

Responsible for overseeing, further developing, embedding and reporting on Tullow’s sustainability strategy and key initiatives across the group including the delivery of the Net Zero Plan.

Senior Policy Officer to work on analysis, development and implementation of climate change policy, including strategies and action plans.

The voluntary carbon market should have an important, if marginal, role in corporate climate action, UN climate finance envoy Mark Carney said Thursday while setting out credible offsetting buying strategies.

The European Commission will launch its second call for large-scale projects under the EU ETS-funded Innovation Fund in October, the EU’s executive announced Thursday.

Global carbon emissions from energy use dropped by the most in a single year since World War 2, as the Covid pandemic hit economic activity and fossil energy demand dropped, oil major BP said in its annual survey of the global energy sector.

EU carbon prices dropped by as much as 3.3% on Thursday to a three-week low, while UK Allowance prices slumped to a new nadir on more profit-taking and supply-related concerns.

The private sector Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) largely kept intact its plan to ramp up offset trade in final recommendations released Thursday, although the proposed governance body will now see the inclusion of active market participants in making key recommendations and decisions on core carbon principles (CCPs).

Commission imposes €875m fine for breaching antitrust rules by delaying cleaner emissions technology

The EU has fined Volkswagen and BMW €875m (£750m) after finding that the German carmakers colluded with another rival, the Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler, to delay emissions-cleaning technology.

The European Commission said that the carmakers had “breached EU antitrust rules by colluding on technical development in the area of nitrogen oxide cleaning”.

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What has not been melted, incinerated or damaged beyond repair has been compromised to the point of being unsafe

• We are republishing in its entirety the open letter written by the mayor of Lytton after the village was destroyed by wildfire

On June 29, the small village of Lytton, in Canada, became one of hottest places on Earth. Temperatures reached an astounding 49.6 °C (121.3 °F). The next day, a wild fire destroyed most of the town. In this open letter, the Mayor of Lytton describes the situation on the ground.

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The city of Yueqing in China’s Zhejiang province has announced the launch of a small-scale local carbon market for small enterprises and households that provincial governments in the Yangtze River Delta region want  to develop into a network of interconnected so-called “inclusive” markets across the region.

In Canada, almost every policy to help wean us off fossil fuel has been watered down by oil and gas lobbyists

After recording the country’s highest ever temperatures of 49.6C, the town of Lytton in British Columbia, Canada, burst into flames. Residents had minutes to flee a “wall of fire” with nothing but the clothing on their backs. Like people in many other places in the world struggling with heatwaves, fires, droughts and strange extreme storms, BC residents now know what it feels like to live in a changing climate on an increasingly inhospitable planet.

It’s the helplessness you feel as a mother when your son is throwing up from heat exhaustion. It’s the fear you feel when your asthmatic niece struggles to breathe because of the dense smoke from wildfires. It’s the panic you feel when you know that your oldest son is out in northern British Columbia tree planting and that there are now 180 wildfires raging across the province, caused by unprecedented “fire weather” – 710,000 lightning strikes in a 24-hour period.

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