Last month was the world's warmest February in modern times, the EU's climate service says, extending the string of monthly records to nine in a row. (more…)

The new measures aim to make packaging used in the EU safer and more sustainable by requiring all packaging to be recyclable, minimising the presence of harmful substances, reducing the amount of unnecessary packaging, increasing the consumption of recycled content and improving collection and recycling.

Less packaging and restriction of certain packaging formats

The agreement sets packaging reduction targets (5 % by 2030, 10 % by 2035 and 15 % by 2040) and requires EU countries to reduce plastic packaging waste in particular.

Under the agreement, certain formats of single-use plastic packaging, such as packaging for unprocessed fresh fruit and vegetables, packaging for food and drinks filled and consumed in cafes and restaurants, individual portions (e.g. condiments, sauces, cream, sugar), accommodation miniature packaging for toiletries and shrink wrap for suitcases at airports would be banned from 1 January 2030. (More on europarl.europa.eu)

The world's oceans have reached their highest temperature on record, raising fears that coral reefs are on the verge of a massive and potentially deadly heat shock.

New satellite data from European Copernicus  Climate Change Service show that the global average sea surface temperature in February was 21.06°C, higher than the previous record of 20.98°C from August last year.

Maps published by the organization show that vast areas of the world's oceans were much warmer than the long-term average. The Atlantic was particularly warm, including the sea around the United Kingdom.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has warned that sea temperatures are now so high that the world's coral reefs are facing their fourth known mass bleaching event. (Thomas Moore, more at news.sky.com)

As Europe is the largest issuer of green bonds, it was only natural that the EU would introduce the world's first standard defining green bonds. (more…)

A Guardian editorial says Europe's progressive parties must stand up for a "more globally responsible" EU amid growing extremism from conservative parties. It says: "The European centre-left should advocate strongly for levels of investment and support commensurate with the scale of the challenges we face - if necessary through the EU's common lending instruments. created a sulphurous political mood. If, for example, the Green Deal does not fall apart, money will have to be found to reassure voters that they will support them during the transition." (Carbonbrief, more at www.theguardian.com)

Several publications are reporting on a new study that suggests the Arctic could experience its first “ice-free” summer day within the next few years. The Press Association reports that a study in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment found that the earliest ice-free day “could occur between 2020 and 2030, under all scenarios for the amount of greenhouse gases humans put into the atmosphere, and is likely to continue to occur until 2050.” It adds: “The researchers said that all previous predictions for an ice-free Arctic have focused on monthly average conditions in September, but their analysis shows that it could happen on a daily basis, rather than for the month as a whole, years earlier.” The Guardian , Daily Mail a Hill also cover the findings. ( Carbon Brief (He previously published a detailed article on when the Arctic is likely to experience its first ice-free summer.) (More on independent.co.uk)

Join us online for a discussion between European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstrom and the ambassadors of the European Climate Pact to explore how the Pact Community can shape the way forward for EU climate action in practice.

Watch and participate in the online conversation: https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/the-european-climate-pact-community-driving-the-change-breydel-2024-03-05

About the European Climate Pact

The European Climate Pact is a movement of people united around a common cause, each taking action in their own world to build a more sustainable Europe for all of us. Launched by the European Commission, the Pact is part of the European Green Deal and is helping the European Union meet its goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. (More on climate-pact.europa.eu)

“I wish there was no end to animals in the future,” wrote one primary school child on a piece of paper as his contribution to a time capsule his class was making. It was part of a workshop called ‘Hope’ run by Planet and People in schools across Devon. Another added his own design for a school building made entirely from recyclable materials that would grow with each age group as they get older. A third drew an aspirational graph of the carbon footprint created by humans. It was recorded as ‘high’ in 2023 but ‘low’ in 2073. (Anoop Bhuller, more me countryandtownhouse.com)

Climate change research and innovation must be more goal-oriented to ensure Europe reaches net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to a new report.

The report, drawn up by a group of independent experts and published by the European Commission on 4 March, states that achieving climate neutrality for Europe by 2050 requires “an extraordinary effort and mobilisation of all sectors and economic actors, together with all the creativity and brainpower that can be harnessed”.

According to the authors, led by Jerome Kisielewicz of the consulting firm ICF, “every sector must fundamentally rethink the way it operates to ensure it can transform towards this new zero-grid paradigm.” (Nina Bo Wagner, more at researchprofessionalnews.com)

Under carbon sequestration we understand CO transfer₂ or other forms of C from the atmosphere to other, long-term active reservoirs, such as seas and oceans, soil, geological formations and biota (within forest ecosystems, these are their above-ground parts – trees, herbaceous cover, overlying humus) and below-ground parts – roots, humus in the soil), in order to reduce or slow down the rate of increase in CO content₂ in the atmosphere, which, together with other greenhouse gases, affects global warming processes and climate change on Earth (Lal, 2008).

(More on www.enviroportal.sk)

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) failed to win qualified majority support in the final vote of the European Council on Wednesday.

The vote was postponed from the originally planned date of 9 February to deal with opposition from the German and Italian governments. However, the result on Wednesday was that out of the 27 EU member states, 13 abstained and one voted against the current text of the CSDD, leaving the legislation far short of the required approval by the 15 member states, representing 65% of the EU's population.

This is a disappointment for those who have been advocating for the CSDDD for the past four years. The CSDDD aims to introduce a corporate due diligence obligation into national law, which requires companies to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for the negative impacts of their actions on human rights and the environment, including their value chains in Europe and beyond. Supporters of the draft legislation have described it as essential for curbing corporate human rights and environmental abuses. However, a key objection from key members of the European Council has been the breadth of the CSDDD and the level of administrative burden it would impose on companies in its scope, given the ever-increasing complexity of global supply chains. (Catherine Sellars, Angelica Lovell, more at lexology.com)

Climatologist Filippo Giorgi , Director of the ICTP Earth Sciences Section (Centre for Theoretical Physics in Miramar) and member of the IPCC, (more…)

If you aim to cut back on meat a you want to build muscle strength, you are not alone. After our story on foods that help maintain strength, many of you answered our call and told us that you are trying to increase your protein intake with a plant-based diet.

A new study published in Nature Food now she's found that if people swap red and processed meat for plant-based protein a few times a week, it's good for their health — and it can also reduce the carbon footprint associated with their diet.

The study found that cutting red meat consumption in half led to significant changes. For example, eating it twice a week instead of four times a week will reduce your carbon footprint by 25 % and may increase your longevity. (From ALLISON AUBREY , more at northcountrypublicradio.org)

By 2023, the development of El Niño is poised to lead to a global increase in surface air temperatures (SATs), which may result in unprecedented global warming. However, regional patterns of SAT anomalies remain diverse and obscure locations where historical warming records may be broken in the coming year. Our study underscores the significant impact of El Niño and the persistence of climate signals on the interannual variability of regional SAT, both in amplitude and spatial distribution. The probability of global mean SAT exceeding historical records, calculated from July 2023 to June 2024, is estimated to be 90 %, based on annual mean sea surface temperature anomalies in the eastern equatorial Pacific exceeding 0.6°C. Regions particularly prone to record high SATs include coastal and adjacent areas in Asia such as the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, as well as Alaska, the Caribbean Sea and the Amazon. (Ning Jiang , Congwen Zhu, Yuejian Zhu , more at nature.com)

According to the World Health Organization, 23 % of all global deaths are caused by environmental factors, with an additional 250,000 climate-related deaths expected each year by 2030. Doctors are on the brink of addressing the immediate and long-term effects of climate change, from heat stroke to persistent anxiety.

Despite these risks, few medical schools, either in Australia or internationally, incorporate climate education into their curricula.

In a 2019 survey, the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations found that only 16 % medical schools in 112 countries teach climate science.

While the climate is changing rapidly, medical schools around the world have been slow to recognize the training needs of the next generation of doctors regarding the health consequences of a warming planet.

We know that climate change is increasing the frequency, duration and severity of heat waves, floods, fires and droughts. (More on lens.monash.edu)

In connection with air quality, the Trnava Autonomous Region (hereinafter TTSK) is one of the less problematic areas, as the air quality here is not significantly (more…)

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says energy-related CO2 emissions will rise to record levels in 2023, reports Agence France Presse. In its annual emissions update, the IEA says CO2 emissions rose by 1.1 % in 2023, rising by 410 million tonnes (MtCO2) to a record 37.4 billion tonnes – but slowing from a gain of 490 million tonnes CO2 in 2022 , the outlet reports. It notes that "growth has slowed compared to previous years due to the continued expansion of clean technologies." Bloomberg quotes the IEA as saying that "without clean energy technologies, the global increase in CO2 emissions over the past five years would have been three times greater." (Carbonbrief, more at france24.com)

Over the last few years we have spent a lot of time researching new ways to produce green hydrogen using renewable energy – it is a very promising clean fuel with all kinds of applications. Stored as a cryogenic liquid or compressed gas, it can be burned as a hydrocarbon fuel substitute with relatively little modification to normal internal combustion engines. It can also be run through a fuel cell to produce electricity, which acts as a type of liquid/gas battery.

But in general, you need a lot of fresh water to produce it—about 9 L (2 gallons) of water for every 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of hydrogen you produce. And the electrolysis process, although improving, is still lossy. So every time you divert precious renewable energy from the grid to produce hydrogen, you're throwing away a percentage. This is somewhat redundant given the massively increasing energy demands that power grids around the world have to meet while also getting rid of the cheap, simple and dirty energy sources of the past. (Loz Blain, more at newatlas.com)