BP and Spotify were among companies who bought carbon credits at risk of being implicated in potential Uyghur forced labour, an investigation has found. The credits were sourced from the Bachu carbon project, which was developed by South Pole, the world’s largest carbon consultancy. The project focussed on a biomass power plant in Xinjiang, China, which said it would lower global carbon emissions by using waste cotton stalks from nearby fields to generate electricity. South Pole, whose chief executive, Renat Heuberger, stood down on Friday, marketed credits for their employment…
Tag: Environment
China’s carbon emissions set for structural decline from next year
China’s carbon emissions could peak this year before falling into a structural decline for the first time from next year after a record surge in clean energy investments, according to research. Emissions from the world’s most polluting country have rebounded this year after the Chinese government dropped its Covid restrictions in January, according to analysis undertaken for Carbon Brief. However, this rebound in fossil fuel demand emerged alongside a historic expansion of the country’s low-carbon energy sources, which was far in excess of policymakers’ targets and expectations. Beijing’s solar and…
A New Law Supercharged Electric Car Manufacturing, but Not Sales
President Biden’s signature climate law has stimulated a surge of investment in electric vehicle production across the country, including tens of billions of dollars on battery plants across the South and new assembly lines near the Great Lakes. Based on early evidence, it is succeeding at a goal that economists have long considered difficult and costly: using the power of government to rapidly grow a new industry. That growth could prove crucial for the other side of the electric vehicle equation: enticing more consumers to buy them. That’s because Mr.…
China releases methane plan as hopes rise for new climate agreement with US
China has published a long-awaited methane reduction plan, in a sign that the country is moving closer towards a new climate agreement with the US. Beijing first committed to reducing its methane output at Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, as part of a joint agreement with the US. But for two years the reduction plan failed to materialise. Its publication on Tuesday, as the US and Chinese climate envoys wrapped up four days of talks in Sunnylands, California, signalled that the two countries may soon break ground on a new…
Weather Tracker: unseasonal cold air brings widespread snowfall to China
Low pressure developed across eastern China on Sunday, tracking across the northern coast of the sea of Japan on Monday. On the west side of this low, an unseasonably cold air mass was drawn south across north-eastern China, resulting in a broad area of significant snowfall. More than 30cm of snow is expected across higher parts of the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Clear skies accompanying the widespread snow cover will lead to temperatures significantly below normal on Tuesday. For example, Shenyang is expected to experience subzero…
Banks pumped more than $150bn in to companies running ‘carbon bomb’ projects in 2022
Banks pumped more than $150bn last year into companies whose giant “carbon bomb” projects could destroy the last chance of stopping the planet heating to dangerous levels, the Guardian can reveal. The carbon bombs – 425 extraction projects that can each pump more than one gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – cumulatively hold enough coal, oil and gas to burn through the rapidly dwindling carbon budget four times over. Between 2016 and 2022, banks mainly in the US, China and Europe gave $1.8tn in financing to the companies…
Aukus will ‘get done’ despite jitters in Congress, Biden tells Albanese at White House meeting
Joe Biden has played down congressional jitters over the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal and has revealed he assured Xi Jinping that the countries involved are not aiming to “surround China”. The US president welcomed the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to the White House and insisted he was “confident that we’re going to be able to get the money for Aukus because it’s overwhelmingly in our interest”. “So the question is not if, but when,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Albanese in the rose garden on Wednesday…
Europe and the US should work with China. Joint climate action could be a win-win
Our polarised world is failing to tackle the climate crisis at the required speed. The only way to reverse this catastrophic situation is to get the three largest historical emitters – the US, Europe and China – to join forces, directly or indirectly, to accelerate the global shift to green energy. After months of rising tensions, the possible visit to Washington of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, later this month could pave the way for a highly anticipated but still unscheduled summit between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping,…
How Chinese water deer found a home in the English countryside
A long, thin, pearly white tusk found while walking in Bedfordshire was identified (with the help of a warden from the local country park) as having fallen from the jaw of a Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis). The deer is a shy Asian species that is firmly established in the east of England. Like the slightly smaller muntjac, it escaped almost a century ago from the Duke of Bedford’s collection at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. The species does not have antlers but long canine teeth that males use for seeing off…
Japan to release second batch of wastewater from Fukushima nuclear plant next week
Japan will begin releasing a second batch of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant from next week, its operator has said, an exercise that angered China and others when it began in August. On 24 August, Japan began discharging into the Pacific some of the 1.34m tonnes of wastewater that has collected since a tsunami crippled the facility in 2011. “The inspections following the first release have been completed … The (second) discharge will start on 5 October,” Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said on Thursday. China banned all Japanese…