Feed aggregator

Exclusive: Disclosure provokes fury as Rishi Sunak accused of betraying populations vulnerable to global heating

The government is drawing up plans to drop the UK’s flagship £11.6bn climate and nature funding pledge, the Guardian can reveal, with the prime minster accused of betraying populations most vulnerable to global heating.

The disclosure provoked fury from former ministers and representatives of vulnerable countries, who accused Rishi Sunak of making false promises.

Continue reading...

Lower tiers of achievement could be added to the VCMI Claims Code over the next few months to broaden its reach and encourage more companies to start climbing the ladder of mitigation, a senior member of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity initiative (VCMI) told Carbon Pulse.

Researchers have calculated that every tonne of carbon released now is four times more costly to the world than it was a decade ago, requiring an upward revision of the appropriate carbon pricing level, among other policies, to meet global climate goals.

My teenage years were spent under the twin threats of drought and bushfire. But on this high cold plateau it never dries out

• Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
• Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community

There is something about growing up in drought that makes having too much water unfathomable. That’s the excuse I’m using for being so unprepared, two winters in a row, for the stinking, ankle-deep mud that has taken over our property.

It should not be a surprise. It was so muddy when we first saw this place that we swung past Bunnings before the second viewing and bought $15 gumboots. We were slipping through the cattle yards and sinking into the back paddock. But central Victoria had just been hit by the worst storm in years, so we figured it was a particularly wet month.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

Continue reading...

Our leaders’ addiction to economic growth and its consumption of environmental resources has me paralysed with fear and solastalgia

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Many of us have experienced grieving after the death of a family member or a long-time friend. We regard it as a form of suffering which we hope will be alleviated with time. Advice from love ones, doctors and therapists may help us to cope by offering the solution that time will heal.

In some, like Queen Victoria, the loss of a partner may cause lifelong grief with self-imposed withdrawal and solitude.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

Researchers use the celestial objects quasars to measure time near the start of the universe.

Team hope sale of block of rare ambergris, used by perfumers, will help victims of 2021 volcano

When a sperm whale washed up dead on a beach in the Canary Island of La Palma no one imagined a valuable treasure was hidden in its entrails.

Heavy seas and a rising tide made it difficult to carry out a postmortem, but Antonio Fernández Rodríguez, head of the institute of animal health and food security at the University of Las Palmas, was determined to find out why the whale had died.

Continue reading...

Methane emissions from Australia's fossil fuel industry are nearly twice as bad as reported, and polluters will have to double their planned emission cuts to make up for it.

The post Australia’s fossil fuel methane emissions are nearly twice as bad as industry reports appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Judge says firm tried to mislead regulator over incident involving millions of litres of undiluted waste polluting water near Gatwick

Thames Water has been fined £3.3m for a “reckless” incident in which millions of litres of undiluted sewage was pumped into rivers near Gatwick, killing 1,700 fish.

Politicians have said this is more proof that the beleaguered company, which was recently revealed to be facing financial collapse, should be reformed.

Continue reading...

European carbon traded largely sideways on Tuesday morning as US markets were closed for Independence Day and as traders were surprised by the early publication of weekly Commitment of Traders data that showed little overall change in positioning.

Power generation covered by the EU ETS fell by almost 100 TWh or around a fifth year-on-year in the first half of 2023, according to figures published by an analytics firm, as much lower output driven by demand destruction and a rise in renewables forced coal and gas out of the mix.

An US forest conservation organisation active in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) is campaigning in favour of two novel project financing concepts that it says would bring a wave of investment to credit-generating forestry projects, and help shift some of the risk burden away from developers, a senior member told Carbon Pulse.

Better farming techniques across the world could lead to storage of 31 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year, data shows

Marginal improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating, new research suggests.

Farming techniques that improve long-term fertility and yields can also help to store more carbon in soils but are often ignored in favour of intensive techniques using large amounts of artificial fertiliser, much of it wasted, that can increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue reading...

The government of South Korea is to auction off 2.15 million KAU-23s at the upcoming monthly auction as planned as a new compliance cycle begins this month, after previous sales were cancelled due to sluggish demand in the market.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has launched guidance to help insurers and long-term savings providers become ‘nature positive’ in helping tackle the decline in the UK’s nature and biodiversity.

World Meteorological Organization warns of record temperatures and extreme heat in environmental ‘double whammy’

The arrival of a climate-heating El Niño event has been declared by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with officials warning that preparation for extreme weather events is vital to save lives and livelihoods.

The last major El Niño was in 2016, which remains the hottest year on record. The new El Niño comes on top of the increasing global heating driven by human-caused carbon emissions, an effect the WMO called a “double whammy”. This can supercharge extreme weather, and temperature records are already being broken on land and at sea across the globe.

Continue reading...

A group of Japanese companies have launched an alliance that aims to remove 30 million tonnes of CO2 by the end of this decade through the utilisation of international carbon credits, targeting the potential of African markets.

The spot price for NZUs fell lower on Tuesday amid weak volumes and high regulatory uncertainty, as a ban on new industrial coal boilers comes into effect later this month.

We are not helpless: we need to do big things quickly, though, to halt the disturbance of nature. And I fear that’s not happening

• John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor

When he bought the pretty little striped field mouse on the internet for $8 to give to his daughter for her sixth birthday, the businessman from São Paulo was told it was free of infection and had been bred by a registered dealer. In fact, it had been sourced from the vast sugar cane fields planted in Brazil to grow biofuels to reduce the use of fossil fuels – and which were swarming with rodents after yet another heatwave.

It nipped his daughter on the finger, but no one thought much of it – and six days later, he left on a trip to Europe. By the time he reached Amsterdam, she had started suffering fevers, muscle aches and breathing problems and had been rushed to hospital, and he too felt unwell. It was the start of one of the worst pandemics in human history, killing more people than Covid-19, Sars or the 1918 flu pandemic put together.

John Vidal is the Guardian’s former environment editor and author of Fevered Planet: How Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature (Bloomsbury, £20). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Continue reading...

Cane toads first crossed into WA from the Northern Territory 15 years ago and have slowly spread through the Kimberley

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Motion sensor cameras have revealed the confronting spread of cane toads across Western Australia’s eastern Kimberley region.

Supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, the Nyaliga Rangers deployed cameras at 141 locations between August 2020 and October 2022.

Continue reading...