Feed aggregator

A carbon credits ratings agency on Monday said that only less than 10% of voluntary offset projects that it has evaluated to date are of the highest integrity, while VER undertakings that issue large batches each year also warrant more scrutiny.

A group of countries are likely to push for formal recognition of pre-2021 efforts to conserve and enhance global forests, hoping to mainstream the topic beyond technical negotiations at this year’s UN climate talks after seeing little success in initial offerings to the voluntary carbon market. 

The European Parliament's budgets committee (BUDG) voted on Tuesday largely in line with their MEP colleagues on the bloc's REPowerEU proposal, seeking to part-finance the package with €20 billion worth of carbon allowance sales sourced from frontloaded member state auctions over three years.

The financial troubles at New Zealand’s most famous North Island ski fields are a warning of what lies ahead for many ski resorts – and snow sports in general. Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Gender, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Freezing relations between the US and China threaten this year’s crucial Cop27 summit

Less than two weeks before Cop27 opens in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, an outline of what to expect from the negotiations is becoming more distinct. The issue of loss and damage is expected to dominate – as it should. Wealthy countries have broken the promise made in 2009 at Cop15 in Copenhagen. An annual climate finance budget of $100bn was agreed then to help the countries most dangerously exposed to global heating to adapt. But contributions have fallen short. The group of countries known as the V20, which includes the Philippines and several small island states, are justifiably angry and determined to ensure that past failures are confronted.

So is Pakistan, which is not part of V20 but suffered catastrophic losses during recent floods. With one-third of its landmass under water and valuable crops destroyed by what one senator, writing in the Guardian, called a “monster monsoon”, the country now faces an immediate crisis as well as a longer-term, existential threat from melting glaciers. Pakistan, with its population of around 220 million people, is responsible for just 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, G20 countries between them produce 80%.

Continue reading...

EU energy ministers discussed the merits of a bloc-wide gas price cap on Tuesday, agreeing to meet again later next month to decide on a measure aimed at blunting the impact of sky-high prices ahead of winter.

Birds featured in March of the Penguins film face almost complete annihilation by end of century as Antarctic sea ice is lost

The emperor penguin, the tallest and bulkiest of all the world’s penguins, has been officially declared a threatened species by the US government due to the existential risk posed to the birds by the climate crisis.

The penguins, which are endemic to Antarctica, face almost complete annihilation from the loss of sea ice over the course of this century, a situation that has prompted the US Fish and Wildlife Service to place it on the endangered species list, it announced on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

A scientist says his recordings of 53 marine species changes what we know about the evolution of sounds.

A total of 318 financial institutions and multinational firms collectively worth $37 trillion in assets and spending power have urged 1,000 of the world’s highest emitters to set climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C warming limit, as part of an annual corporate climate disclosure campaign.

They name one of the new species "resistencia" (resistance) in honour of killed environmentalists.

New Unicef report finds that in even best-case scenario 2 billion children will face four to five dangerous heat events annually

The climate crisis is also a children’s rights crisis: one in four children globally are already affected by the climate emergency and by 2050 virtually every child in every region will face more frequent heatwaves, according to a new Unicef report.

For hundreds of millions of children, heatwaves will also last longer and be more extreme, increasing the threat of death, disease, hunger and forced migration.

Continue reading...

A climate tech startup this week announced plans to expand from mainly evaluating forest carbon projects to origination earlier in the value chain, aiming to drive supply that it says is in need of scaling.

Uzbekistan on Tuesday became the 24th nation to sign up to the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), Japan’s bilateral mechanism designed generate carbon credits aligned with the Paris Agreement.

EUA prices extended their three-day rally and jumped to the highest in seven weeks on Tuesday morning, as traders boosted covering of short positions, though some suggested that that market had been spooked by news that Germany was buying member-state level allowances.

Battery storage to get funding boost from funds previously allocated by Angus Taylor to his failed UNGI scheme.

The post Battery projects to gain funds from Angus Taylor’s failed gas support scheme appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A Hong Kong-headquartered tech firm is in talks with a number of banks and pension funds in the Asia-Pacific over Paris-aligned smart contract-based carbon credits attached to green bonds.

Labor ploughs funds back into the Climate Change Authority, and efforts to restore Australia's international reputation - and to host annual climate talks.

The post Labor spends big to restore defenestrated Climate Authority and international diplomacy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Germany has struck deals with three other EU nations to buy intergovernmental EU carbon units to cover its shortfall in meeting its non-ETS emissions obligations built up over 2013-20, the government said on Monday.

Climate and environment programs in 2022-23 partly funded by redirecting $746.9m from those promised by Coalition

• Follow the latest federal budget 2022 reaction
• Explore all of our 2022 Australia federal budget coverage
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Labor has revamped Australia’s response to climate change and environmental degradation, redirecting nearly $750m in Coalition commitments, including some spending on gas and carbon capture and storage.

As revealed by Guardian Australia, the first Albanese government budget scrapped a Scott Morrison-era electricity generation underwriting scheme that was promised, but failed, to build up to five new gas-fired power generators and six hydro plants. It also reduced and “realigned” support for CCS away from new fossil fuel developments.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter and afternoon email to get your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Singapore will aim to peak its GHG emissions at a lower level than previously planned and before 2030, the island-state’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced at a conference on Tuesday.