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Trials will test ways to block sunlight and slow climate crisis that threatens to trigger catastrophic tipping points

Real-world geoengineering experiments spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Great Barrier Reef are being funded by the UK government. They will test sun-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, brightening reflective clouds using sprays of seawater and pumping water on to sea ice to thicken it.

Getting this “critical missing scientific data” is vital with the Earth nearing several catastrophic climate tipping points, said the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), the government agency backing the plan. If demonstrated to be safe, geoengineering could temporarily cool the planet and give more time to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels.

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Voluntary carbon standard Verra has ruled out incorporating elements of the Clean Cooking & Climate Consortium’s (4C) high-integrity cookstoves methodology into its own standards, with the organisation’s CEO telling Carbon Pulse it is instead proceeding with its VM0050 methodology, which has secured the stamp of approval from the ICVCM.

Feeding the world sustainably is an incredibly complex challenge, yet some people are trying to sell us a bucolic fairytale

The fire that has just destroyed 500 hectares (1,230 acres) of Dartmoor should have been impossible. It should not be a fire-prone landscape. But sheep, cattle and ponies have made it so. They selectively browse out tree seedlings, preventing the return of temperate rainforest, which is extremely difficult to burn. In dry weather, the moor grass, bracken and heather covering the deforested landscape are tinder.

The plume of carbon dioxide and smoke released this week is one of the many impacts of livestock grazing. But several recent films, alongside celebrities, politicians, billionaires and far-right podcasts, seek to persuade us that cattle and sheep are good for the atmosphere and the living planet. This story, wrapped in romantic cottagecore, is now the most active and seductive frontier of climate-science denial. It is heavily promoted by the meat industry, which is as ruthless and machiavellian as the fossil fuel industry. It sows confusion among people desperately seeking to do the right thing in an age of misinformation.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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A major steel company has partnered with a Malaysia-based investment holding company to explore carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies aimed at reducing emissions from its steel operations.

A first project has applied to be registered under the Nature Repair Market (NRM), Australia’s voluntary biodiversity credit scheme.

Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremes

The world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of global heating since 1990, driving droughts and heatwaves in the poorest parts of the world, according to a study.

While researchers have previously shown that higher income groups emit disproportionately large amounts of greenhouse gases, the latest survey is the first to try to pin down how that inequality translates into responsibility for climate breakdown. It offers a powerful argument for climate finance and wealth taxes by attempting to give an evidential basis for how many people in the developed world – including more than 50% of full-time employees in the UK – bear a heightened responsibility for the climate disasters affecting people who can least afford it.

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Standard Chartered sees the convergence of voluntary carbon markets with compliance frameworks driving demand for carbon credits, a senior official at the bank told a conference on Wednesday.

Small farmers account for 30% of global palm oil production, yet lack the initiatives, technical support, and financial mechanisms necessary to maintain a sustainable supply chain, according to a new report.

Around 118,000 hectares of forests could be destroyed by 2050 to meet EU demand for electric vehicles (EVs) unless policymakers implement stronger safeguards for the energy transition, a study released on Wednesday found.

Carbon removal solution provider Climeworks has signed an agreement with one of Japan’s largest shipping companies to remove the latter's residual emissions in the next three years.

A major Japanese trading house has joined a strategic alliance that aims to leverage the transition credits mechanism for the early retirement of a coal-fired power plant in the Philippines. 

Investor confidence in the voluntary carbon market is waning amid geopolitical uncertainty and heightened legal risk, stakeholders warned this week at a conference, even as international institutions advance frameworks aimed at rebuilding trust and clarity in a sector long criticised for fragmentation and opacity.

Inside one of Australia’s maximum-security prisons, inmates and prison officers have created an indoor farm, growing herbs and leafy greens for the on-site café. Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

There are growing divisions with the Coalition over the promotion of nuclear power in the aftermath of the election. Queensland Senator Matt Canavan thinks a split between the parties might be best.

The post Will the Coalition ditch its nuclear power policy? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

What about us?! DNSPs ask NEM Review to consider rule changes to allow them to own and operate medium and big batteries and host large-scale wind and solar.

The post NEM Review: Networks push for fewer fences and more access to batteries and generation appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Decommissioning wind farms can involve blowing up turbines, to bring them down. What happens next is still being nutted out, but Australian developers want to lead the way on best, sustainable practice.

The post Taking down wind turbines can be an explosive issue, but Australia is helping to spearhead solutions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Kane Thornton has announced his resignation as chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, after 10 years at the helm of renewables industry peak body.

The post Kane Thornton calls time on 10 years of “intense leadership” as Clean Energy Council chief appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The oil and gas industry is ignoring millions of tonnes of fugitive methane emissions, despite no extra net cost for abatement, while those from abandoned coal mines are also not being tackled, finds the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Emissions from abandoned coalmines, oil and gas wells globally are larger than any single country except China, the US and Russia

Abandoned coalmines and oil and gas wells are now one of the biggest sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, new data shows, and little effort is being made to clean them up.

The methane emissions from abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure now exceed those from Iran, and if considered as a country would be the fourth biggest source in the world, behind China, the US and Russia.

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Whitehall analysis provides no data or research to support the government argument that environmental legislation holds up building

There is very little evidence that protections for nature are a blocker to development, the government has admitted in its own impact assessment of the controversial new planning and infrastructure bill.

The analysis by Whitehall officials provides no data or research to back up the government’s central argument that it is environmental legislation that holds up building.

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