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EUA prices were modestly lower in thin Monday morning trading despite significant rallies in energy markets, where record highs in German power and imminent strikes at Norwegian gas production boosted prices by as much as 10%.

The more we automate our farms, the less we understand about our food. Let’s not get too hands-off

After one of my regular 4.30am starts last week, I caught a snippet of a feature on Farming Today about fruit-picking robots. Hearing about the multi-billion-pound mechanical arms and 3D sensors of this new machine, I was filled with something like sadness. Not just because of what this says about our self-inflicted workforce shortage (sigh) due to political foot-shooting and the undervaluing of manual work. But because fruit picking could be so different.

I once spent an interesting few nights in New Zealand, sharing a motel with about 50 apple-pickers from Vanuatu, Samoa and beyond. We listened to reggae, washed our pants in the sink and smoked cigarettes as they told me about thinning out baby apples, and picking pineapples and peaches. It was a hard life, absolutely no doubt. A dawn start in a cramped rented room, sleeping under polyester floral eiderdowns with nothing but a kettle and a juddering shower, before being driven to different farms is not easy work. And, of course, these setups are rife with corruption and exploitation and modern slavery. But are robots our only alternative?

Nell Frizzell is the author of The Panic Years and Square One (published 7 July)

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Japan’s environment ministry has identified another 16 projects under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) that it will subsidise in a bid to earn more carbon credits that will be used towards its Paris Agreement target.

Global corporations have been found lacking in setting viable emissions reduction pathways, with only 2% of 60,000 companies surveyed having made a “climate neutrality” pledge and with only a small share of those applying science-based targets (SBT), according to a survey released on Monday.

A major South Korean industry group is pushing for the government to allow access for emitters covered by the nation’s emissions trading scheme to import Paris-aligned voluntary credits.

Australia’s carbon market is set for a shake up thanks to a combination of the government’s independent review of the market and companies getting up to speed with a soon-to-be enforced compliance market, according to analysts.

Emergency officials said another nine people have been injured, and 19 remain missing.

An in-detail look at why MLFs are important and some of the more notable trends that are driving long-term location signals for wind and solar.

The post Marginal loss factors: Why they matter, and where they bite appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Emergency services rescue more than 80 people while thousands are evacuated in NSW as parts of the east coast expected to receive up to 100mm of rain on Monday

• NSW floods: thousands evacuated from rising waters as Sydney braces for more wild weather
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Bowston is the largest river barrier removal planned for the UK this year and will allow fish and other species to move more freely

Nearly 150 years after it was built for a paper mill, work has begun to demolish a 3-metre-high weir in Cumbria as part of nationwide efforts to improve biodiversity by allowing fish and invertebrates to move more freely along the UK’s rivers.

Bowston weir lies across the River Kent, an internationally important site of special scientific interest, home to white-clawed crayfish and freshwater pearl mussels, as well as water crowfoot, an oxygenating aquatic plant. But the river is in poor condition due to human interference over the centuries.

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New research finds nature restoration only marginally lowers global warming. This pours cold water on the idea of using carbon offsets to solve the climate crisis. Kate Dooley, Research Fellow, Climate & Energy College, The University of Melbourne Zebedee Nicholls, PhD Researcher at the Climate & Energy College, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

‘Deception’ gives false impression firms are addressing climate crisis, says Emma Howard Boyd

Widespread greenwashing by businesses is compromising efforts to prepare for climate impacts such as floods and heatwaves, the chair of the Environment Agency will say in a speech on Monday.

Emma Howard Boyd, addressing the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment Annual Forum, will warn businesses are embedding liability and storing up risk for their investors by giving the false impression they are addressing the climate crisis.

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Spider crabs form huge underwater piles, some as tall as a person. These fascinating crustaceans are on a risky mission – to get bigger. Elodie Camprasse, Research fellow in spider crab ecology, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The demise of fossil fuels could prompt a boom in new green industries, but only if governments back the zero carbon transition.

The post Regional towns could be wiped out by move to net-zero. Here’s their best chance for survival appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Labor welcomes doubling of profits for Australia's coal and gas exporters last year, despite consumers getting slugged, showing little has changed on this front despite change of government.

The post Labor welcomes doubling of coal and gas profits, but no talk of windfall tax appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The new species is also the largest giant waterlily on the planet, with leaves growing up to three metres in the wild

A giant waterlily grown at Kew Gardens has been named as new to science, in the first discovery of its type in more than a century.

Scientists at the south-west London garden suspected for decades there could be a third species of giant waterlily and worked with researchers in its native home in Bolivia to see if their thesis was correct.

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Scientists discover the first new species of giant water lily in more than a century.

Germany ends landmark renewables levy on consumer power prices. The surcharge helped to spur the growth of wind and solar power capacity for more than two decades.

The post Germany stops landmark mechanism that funded renewables expansion via power bills appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Smaller electricity retailers issue joint plea to market regulators to stop "chain reaction" of failures as yet another energy retailer calls in administrators.

The post Small retailers issue plea for help as fossil fuel price surge claims another victim appeared first on RenewEconomy.