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One region in Australia is being shielded from soaring electricity costs because the wind and solar farms that supply it are returning their windfall profits to consumers.

The post Consumers reap rewards of 100 pct renewables as wind and solar farms hand back windfall profits appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A carbon credit ratings agency has awarded high grades to two Verra-accredited peatland restoration projects in Indonesia that are among the biggest credit generators in the market.

EUA prices dipped below a key technical support on Wednesday as the September options contract neared expiry and as the Ukraine conflict appeared set to continue amid a new Russian buildup of forces, while energy prices also jumped as the crisis showed no signs of ending.

The super space observatory returns spectacular imagery of the Solar System's most distant planet.

A study of school uniforms in the US and Canada shows high levels of chemical substances linked to health issues.

One of the big five banks in Canada is backing the country's largest ever private conservation project in exchange for offsets, and is also forming an advisory unit to assist others in carbon market activities, the company announced Wednesday.

A Japanese research project has produced the nation’s first direct air capture (DAC) test device, while regulators on Wednesday also registered a first livestock manure project under the domestic J-Credit scheme.

Democrats hailed the Inflation Reduction Act as a climate crisis victory – so why the secrecy over an oil and gas pipelines bill?

As climate change batters America with heatwaves, droughts and floods, lawmakers should be asking a simple question about any bill: does it increase or decrease the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling the ecological emergency?

Somehow, though, that query is still not being asked right now in Washington, even as Democratic leaders are promising to advance a bill to gut environmental laws and expedite oil and gas pipelines.

David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and an award-winning investigative journalist. He is an editor at large at Jacobin, and the founder of The Daily Poster. He served as Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign speechwriter

Julia Rock is a reporter for The Lever

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Australia is at the start of a globally significant investment boom. Its top 5 pure-play lithium firms have a collective market value of more than $A50 billion.

The post Australia’s once in a generation lithium opportunity appeared first on RenewEconomy.

More than a third of children’s clothing tested in a study detected PFAS, which are used to make textiles stain resistant

Toxic PFAS chemicals are frequently used to make children’s clothing and textiles resist water and stains, but exposure to the compounds in clothes represents a serious health risk, a new peer-reviewed study finds.

The study, published in the Environmental and Science Technology journal, detected the chemicals in 65% of school uniforms, rain gear, snowsuits, snowshoes, mittens, bibs, hats and stroller covers tested, and at levels authors characterized as “high”.

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Amazon ecosystem is on verge of collapse, leaders tell brands such as Apple and Tesla as UN gathers in New York

Indigenous leaders from the Amazon have implored major western brands and banks to stop supporting the ongoing destruction of the vital rainforest through mining, oil drilling and logging, warning that the ecosystem is on the brink of a disastrous collapse.

Representatives of Indigenous peoples from across the Amazon region have descended upon New York this week to press governments and businesses, gathered in the city for climate and United Nations gatherings, to stem the flow of finance to activities that are polluting and deforesting large areas of the rainforest.

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The UK government announced a support package for businesses and ETS-covered industrials on Wednesday in which wholesale energy prices will be capped at "less than half" of expected winter levels in a bid to avoid mass demand shutdowns and economic disruption.

Demand for natural gas from energy-intensive industrial companies in Europe has fallen by around 30% in recent weeks as the region grapples with the soaring costs of energy and a worsening economic outlook, Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chairman of utility Engie said on Wednesday.

European demand for seaborne coal is predicted to increase by 14% in 2022 as the bloc struggles to address the energy crisis, but the rise will not trigger any significant investment and global demand is expected to continue to trend downwards, analysts said on Tuesday.

Two fintech firms based in Singapore and France have formed a partnership to promote data-backed carbon credits with end-to-end traceability in a project that will enable greater transparency of the carbon credit lifecycle, with buyers and users able to access attributes and data of carbon credits via a standardised registry, they announced on Wednesday.

Santos loses approval to drill for gas in the Timor Sea after the Federal Court found it had failed to adequately consult with traditional owners.

The post Traditional owners win landmark court battle against Santos Barrossa gas project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

An Australian green group on Wednesday called on major emitters to avoid using carbon credits towards their CO2 targets, accentuating the growing distance between those considering offsets as part of the climate solution and those dismissing them as greenwash.

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Compliance carbon markets have only had mixed success in reducing emissions, as insufficient price levels, uncertainty over cap-setting, and loopholes mitigate their effectiveness, according to a report released Tuesday.

Pakistan continues to pay in loss and damages for the carbon emissions of others. This must change

• Sherry Rehman is Pakistan’s climate change minister

The climate crisis has accelerated at pace. When temperatures crossed 53C in Pakistan, the summer of 2022 turned our southern towns into the hottest places on the planet, melting our glaciers, burning our forests, scorching our crops. But nothing prepared the country for the biblical flooding that saw a third of Pakistan inundated by an ocean of water, surpassing even the 2010 disaster in magnitude and frequency.

Scientific modelling now attributes the extreme flooding in our country to the climate crisis, and the catastrophe presents a clear warning to all those who have set their climate clocks to another few decades. Previously unthinkable doomsday scenarios began to look like the inevitable: Sindh and Balochistan provinces transformed into horizon-free planes of unbroken water, with no land to pitch tents on, no rooftops left to huddle on. More than 33 million people were rendered destitute; 1,500 people died while the country struggled, in shock, to pick up the pieces.

Sherry Rehman is Pakistan’s climate change minister and former ambassador to the United States

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