Bit of a rogue one, but wondering if any of my network on here have access to the EU's new agrifood strategy that seems to have leaked?

*New fund launch* Today, Mirova has launched the second iteration of its Land Degradation Neutrality Fund. It aims to raise $400 million in blended finance, for land use projects in emerging markets Read more: www.environmental-finance.com/content/news...

Just want to shoutout @carolecadwalla.bsky.social new podcast Stalked, which launched earlier this week. While quite a unique story so far, it's pretty relevant to us all given how easily accessible we all are online podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

And here we go - as expected, Reeves has approved a third runway on Heathrow. Will be interesting to see whether key opponents in the cabinet and wider party - esp Ed Miliband and Sadiq Khan- handle this and the wider criticism that will likely come on environmental/climate grounds

Today the government has approved new reservoirs - which has been a key blocker to many housing developments across the country. The last reservoir was built in the UK in 1992 so this is a key step forward in addressing our out-dated nature infrastructure. Although at odds with the wider rhetoric

Reeves has also announced that environmental regulations will be loosened to allow for more developments - although not clear what ones yet

Reeves announces that developers can 'forget about the bats and newts' if they invest in a nature recovery fund. Essentially legislating nature offsets. Blaming nature for slow infra development is going to get a lot of people's backs up - especially when the UK is so off course on nature recovery

Recent gov rhetoric on nature is a bit of a shock given their stated aim to tackle the UK's mass nature depletion and crisis. Housing is understandably a priority, but there's concern that nature protection is going to become a scapegoat for why there hasn't been more building

As ESG wilts, could nature investing be set to blossom under a Trump presidency? While it might be too late for ESG and climate finance to avoid the "woke, liberal agenda" brush, nature could avoid the same fate - with the right communication Read here: www.environmental-finance.com/content/anal...

Look, you can buy your way into places of power (the inauguration) but these outfits prove that you clearly can't buy style and class

Not positive news coming out of COP29 on Article 6 or funding - very much looks like we’ll be ending the conference without a deal

Bridgerton or Bog Hall? A few weeks back I headed up to York to see Castle Howard, the new home of one of England's biggest nature restoration sites, and voluntary biodiversity credit generator. Read the full story on the mass regeneration www.environmental-finance.com/content/anal...

After a re-assessment of its financial priorities, Federated Hermes has left the UK nature impact fund it led with Finance Earth. The latter has told me it is working with DEFRA on the future of the fund and remains “optimistic” about nature investing www.environmental-finance.com/content/news...

Today, France has formally approved the launch of a voluntary biodiversity credit market. It will allow credits to be generated from 'natural sites of compensation, restoration and renaturation' but all projects will need to be approved by the state. www.environmental-finance.com/content/news...

Perhaps unsurprising that one of the key topics between Keir Starmer and President Xi today was climate. With the election of Trump and the expected impact this is going to have on the US' direction on sustainability, the UK is inevitably going to need to tap into other relationships on climate.

News out of the G20 this morning (yes, relating to the Biden forest meme): the US has launched a coalition to raise $10 billion for bioeconomy and conservation projects in Brazil Its also investing $500m in the Amazon Fund www.environmental-finance.com/content/news...

Somewhat funny after seeing a ton of unbearable posts about Badenoch's joining being the death of Twitter/X. I feel for political journalists who are trying to manage the growth of this platform and track genuine MP arrivals - I'd point anyone towards @zoecrowther.bsky.social very impressive effort

This a big story which hasn’t had as much pick up as it should. Nissan and other UK car manufacturers urgently lobbying govt to change policy on EVs…say production is at risk with current regime which increasingly penalises them for non-EV manufacture.

My recommendation this morning is for 'The English Disease' podcast, looking at why people got into football hooliganism and what this has morphed into. Particularly relevant given the riots over the summer. big fan @samdiss.bsky.social lnk.to/englishdisease

A German finance minister told COP29 that he still has doubts over the biodiversity credit market - alleging that demand just won’t materialise. Instead he called for BD improvements to be further integrated into the carbon markets Read more here: www.environmental-finance.com/content/news...

As someone whose formative years were on Twitter, it is somewhat sad to lose that archive of your thoughts growing up. Perhaps a necessary reminder that the internet isn’t real and we all need physical media in order to not lose our memories

As ever, please do get in touch if you want to speak about these amendments and its delay. Particularly looking to hear from companies and investors

Chaos today in the European Parliament as the right pushes through amendments to its Deforestation Law. Seems as though many countries will be able to achieve 'no-risk' status, meaning their products will come straight through whilst others will have to prove they're not linked to deforestation

Over night at COP29 the UK also said that it will support a new initiative on illegal deforestation. It's also chucking £100m at BII's new fund, aiming to raise around £500m in private finance for developing countries' transitions. Somewhat against what it suggested the other day on new funding

Looks like Keir Starmer is set to announce new UK guidance on nature credits today at COP29 as well as a framework for carbon credits - not sure how this will differ from DEFRA-linked guidance on nature credits launched last week. Will update when we have more info

Finance day today at COP29 so will be covering closely and adding to this thread (if it’s called that) throughout the day

Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is quite the pick! I think will raise alarm for many people who feared Trump would use the judicial system to push out any so-called enemies. Some *incredible* choices made so far - a tech billionaire, a news anchor and a far-right senator walk into the White House…

This app genuinely feels like an early Twitter (although maybe less funny so far). But it’s exciting to see it take off. As a journalist, the decline of Twitter has felt like such a loss to our industry particularly in getting stories out there. So I’m deffo crossing my fingers for this one

One of the major developments at COP so far has been the movement on carbon markets (Article 6). But whilst it's been lauded by many as a huge positive step, NGOs have hit back that it undermines the whole COP process (although some might suggest the COP president is doing that for himself) (1/2)

Now seems like a good time to come on over and join BlueSky - and looks like I'm not the only one making the shift today. I cover all things nature and biodiversity for Environmental Finance but also report on politics over on TikTok (EasyPoliticsUK). Will be posting a mix of both on here I presume