Australia must set targets for amount of CO2 to be removed from our air

Australia must set targets for amount of CO2 to be removed from our air, scientists say
Australia should set targets for the amount of carbon dioxide that could be pulled permanently from the atmosphere using “carbon drawdown” techniques like tree planting and direct air capture, according to a report from the Australian Academy of Science. A national coordinated approach is urgently needed to promote projects that remove carbon dioxide from the air, the report says, with a lack of policies seeing Australia fall behind other countries. In a foreword to the report, the academy’s president, Prof Chennupati Jagadish, said it was clear if the world was to keep global heating to 1.5C, then CO2 removal would need to be deployed at the same time as rapidly cutting emissions.

Carbon emissions from global SUV fleet outweighs that of most countries
The continued global rise in sales of SUVs pushed their climate-heating emissions to almost 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency. The 330m sport utility vehicles on the roads produced emissions equivalent to the combined national emissions of the UK and Germany last year. If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the sixth most polluting in the world. Climate campaigners are increasingly concerned about the impact of SUVs. The increased number of SUVs in 2022 were responsible for a third of the increase in global oil demand.

EU to crack down on greenwashing with ‘proportionate’ penalties
Companies will have 10 days to justify green claims about their products or face “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” penalties, under a draft EU crackdown on greenwashing seen by the Guardian. Inflated claims by firms about their products’ environmental bona fides have grown along with public awareness of global heating in recent years. One EU survey in 2020 found that 53% of environmental product claims were “vague, misleading or unfounded”. Authorities suspected 42% of green product gambits of being “false or deceptive” in another survey the same year.

Woodside accused of not taking carbon emission responsibilities seriously in new climate report
Climate action groups are warning some of the nation's biggest emitters face growing increasingly isolated from shareholders and industry groups if they do not act to reduce their carbon output. Woodside's plans were criticised by Greenpeace, who described the report as a "comprehensive fail". "Woodside is betting the farm on a fantasy future increase in gas use that is utterly at odds with modelling from credible energy analysts such as the International Energy Agency," head of advocacy and strategy Glenn Walker said.

Asic sues Mercer Super for allegedly ‘greenwashing’ fossil fuel and gambling investments
Corporate pension fund Mercer Superannuation misled members by investing in coal and other fossil fuels, along with alcohol and gambling stocks, in a fund that promoted its sustainable credentials, the corporate regulator has alleged. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has started legal proceedings against Mercer in its first court action over alleged “greenwashing”, a term that describes misleading claims made about a product’s environmental and sustainable credentials.

‘One of the most important talks no one has heard of’: why the high seas treaty matters
Almost two-thirds of the world’s ocean lies outside national boundaries. These are the “high seas”, where fragmented and loosely enforced rules have meant a vast portion of the planet, hundreds of miles from land, is often essentially lawless. Because of this, the high seas are more susceptible than coastal seas to exploitation. This week, delegates from 193 member states will begin the final talks at the UN headquarters in New York to conclude negotiations for what scientists have described as a “once in a lifetime” chance to, at last, protect the high seas.

‘It is madness’: Why dozens of people have bought into flood disaster zone
Almost 100 flood-affected homes have been sold in the Lismore disaster zone in the past year, putting lives at risk and undermining the government’s voluntary home buyback scheme. Sales contracts for 88 houses have been exchanged since the record-breaking flood on February 28 last year, government data shows, including 43 in the worst-hit parts of the city.

Research reveals climate crisis is driving a rise in human-wildlife conflicts
From blue whales colliding with ships to African elephants raiding crops in villages, the climate crisis is causing a rise in conflicts that lead to injury or death for humans and wildlife, new research shows. 

‘A war society doesn’t see’: the Brazilian force driving out mining gangs from Indigenous lands
An elite unit is on a mission to expel the illegal miners who devastated Yanomami territory during Bolsonaro’s presidency. For the last four years, Brazil’s rainforests bled. “They bled like never before,” said Felipe Finger as he prepared to venture into the jungle with his assault rifle to staunch the environmental carnage inflicted on the Amazon under the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.