Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions
The failure of carbon offsets to cut planet-heating pollution is “not due to a few bad apples”, a review paper has found, but down to deep-seated systemic problems that incremental change will not solve.
Research over two decades has found “intractable” problems that have made carbon credits in most big programmes poor quality, according to the study. While the industry and diplomats have made efforts to improve the system, it found much-awaited rules agreed at a UN climate summit last year “did not substantially address the quality problem”.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/06/2025 - 12:00
10/06/2025 - 11:16
Marineland’s warning comes after Canadian official blocked the transfer of the beluga whales to a theme park in China
Marineland has threatened to euthanize 30 beluga whales if Canada’s federal government does not provide financial support for the embattled Niagara Falls amusement park. The warning comes after the country’s fisheries minister blocked the transfer of the captive whales to a theme park in China.
Marineland, an amusement park, zoo, aquarium and forest occupying nearly 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of land in Ontario, has endured mounting scrutiny over allegations the animals are living in poor conditions. The park, which once saw millions of visitors, did not open for the summer season and is winding down its operations in anticipation of a sale. In February, a lawyer for the park said it was planning to “expeditiously” remove the remaining animals still on the grounds.
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10/06/2025 - 09:00
‘The trajectory is only up, in terms of insured costs,’ professor of climate risk warns
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The costs of extreme weather events such as floods, bushfires and storms have nearly tripled in Australia since the 1990s, insurers have warned, with poorer communities disproportionately burdened.
The climate crisis, ageing infrastructure and growing populations in increasingly affected regions have left the country more vulnerable, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Insurance Council of Australia.
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10/06/2025 - 06:00
Critics say move to axe Bill Clinton’s ‘roadless rule’ that protected key old-growth forests will be devastating to environment
In 1999, Bill Clinton ascended one of the highest summits in Virginia to announce that “the last, best unprotected wild lands anywhere in our nation” would be shielded by a new rule that banned roads, drilling and other disturbances within America’s most prized forests.
But today, this site in George Washington national forest, along with other near-pristine forests across the US that amount to 58m acres, equivalent to the size of the UK, could soon see chainsaws whir and logging trucks rumble through them amid a push by Donald Trump to raze these ecosystems for timber.
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10/06/2025 - 04:00
The insects’ brilliant hues evolved in lush ecosystems to help them survive. Now they are becoming more muted to adapt to degraded landscapes – and they are not the only things dulling down
Photographs by Roberto García-Roa
The world is becoming less colourful. For butterflies, bold and bright wings once meant survival, helping them attract mates and hide from prey. But a new research project suggests that as humans replace rich tropical forests with monochrome, the colour of other creatures is leaching away.
“The colours on a butterfly’s wings are not trivial – they have been designed over millions of years,” says researcher and photographer Roberto García-Roa, who is part of a project in Brazil documenting how habitat loss is bleaching the natural world of colour.
Amiga arnaca found in a eucalyptus plantation, where scientists observed butterflies were less colourful than in native forests
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10/06/2025 - 02:07
Local community group says whatever the cause ‘kids shouldn’t be in the water’ with dead fish
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Queensland authorities are investigating the deaths of thousands of fish that washed up on a popular Gold Coast beach.
The state environment department said dead baitfish had been observed at The Spit, at the northern end of the Gold Coast since last Wednesday, but no obvious source of pollution had been found.
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10/05/2025 - 19:05
You can now vote in the 2025 Australian bird of the year poll. Guardian Australia's Matilda Boseley explains how voting works, while remaining surprisingly neutral about her bird of choice
2025 bird of the year: vote for your favourite now
‘Baudin’s or bauxite?’ Stark warning black cockatoo won’t survive mining expansion
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10/05/2025 - 09:00
It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I realised birds could have a powerful significance even for people who weren’t bird-nerds like me
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For a long time, I thought that I and my fellow obsessive twitchers were the only ones for whom birds made life worth living. The sheer delight birds brought to my life was both the remedy for – and perhaps instigator of – the social awkwardness of my teen years. But then in my tumultuous 20s, when everyone I knew seemed to be going through some sort of painful, emotional turmoil, it dawned on me that birds could have powerful significance beyond the bird-nerds.
One day I got a lift with a friend who was really struggling. As she sped through inner city streets sobbing uncontrollably, things started resembling that scene from Vanilla Sky when Cameron Diaz drives Tom Cruise off a bridge. I persuaded her to pull over, and we parked beneath some trees. As I sat, clueless about how to ease her distress, a white-plumed honeyeater flitted down and started hopping around in front of us, searching for insects.
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10/05/2025 - 09:00
Over 80% of Wayne national forest classified as suitable for logging, drawing concern from locals
In the Appalachian foothills outside Athens, Ohio, more than 20,000 acres of forest land was mined for coal in the early 20th century, destroying miles upon miles of pristine woodlands.
By the 1930s, the federal government had to step in, taking it out of private hands and establishing the Wayne national forest in an attempt to prevent further degradation. In the decades since, maple, oak and other hardwood trees have taken over, returning to nature a region previously better known for extraction.
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10/05/2025 - 08:30
Exclusive: Differences over changes to environmental and legal provisions to prompt economic growth hint at chaos at heart of government
Rachel Reeves is set to announce a round of planning changes before the budget as a way to kickstart Britain’s sluggish economic growth, but ministers are at odds over how radical to be.
The chancellor will announce a number of moves designed to make it easier for developers to build houses and infrastructure projects, in the hope that they will fill about £3bn of her estimated £30bn black hole.
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