Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets has exceeded its funding target by raising €1.6bn for investment in renewable energy projects by the Macquarie Green Investment Group Renewable Energy Fund 2. The fund, which will invest in wind and solar power projects in western Europe, the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand, received commitments from 32 investors including private and local government pension schemes, insurers and sovereign wealth funds.

The Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance has called on asset managers to create blended finance vehicles to enable increased investment in climate mitigation and related business models. It has requested proposals for vehicles that de-risk investments in solutions and market segments that currently do not have the appropriate risk-return profiles for institutional investors.

Denmark has approved construction of an artificial island in the North Sea that will be dedicated to producing and storing renewable energy. Planned to span 18 football fields, it will be linked to offshore wind turbines to provide enough power for 3 million homes. The island is a key element of Denmark's strategy to achieve a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030.

European Investment Bank president Werner Hoyer says Europeans must recognise that the future no longer lies in fossil fuels, including natural gas, often presented as a relatively clean fuel. Hoyer argues that without major change, the EU will not be able to achieve its climate targets. The union has promised to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and is set to adopt a new carbon reduction target of 55% below 1990 levels by 2030, but the European Commission says gas will still be needed to assist the transition of coal-reliant member states away from fossil fuels. The EIB's climate bank roadmap envisages using 50% of its lending to support climate and environmental sustainability, unlocking €1trn for green funding by 2030, and intends for all its activity to be aligned with the Paris Agreement goals.

Following the passage through Poland's parliament of legislation authorising the construction of offshore wind energy facilities, Danish company Ørsted has concluded a deal with Polish energy group PGE to develop two sites in the Baltic Sea with a combined generating capacity of 2.5 GW. The legislation is designed to help Poland shake off its dependence on coal, which provides more than 70% of the country’s power. The system offers wind projects a subsidy scheme to guarantee a stable revenue stream, and authorises the country's power market regulator to approve up to 5.9 GW of projects eligible for support by the end of June, followed by a second phase involving auctions that could add another 5 GW.

American cities are under-reporting their carbon footprint by an average of 18.3%, according to a study in which researchers used Vulcan, an emissions model, to analyse the emissions from 48 cities. The unreported carbon equals 129,000,000 tonnes. The study also finds that different cities have varying approaches to emissions accounting, with little standardisation on how data is collected, leading to discrepancies in the information they publish.

China's success in eliminating s surge in chlorofluorocarbon emissions has been hailed as an example of how international co-operation can lead to effective action to resolve environmental challenges. In 2018, researchers detected a sudden increase in emissions of CFC-11, which is often used for manufacturing of foam insulation and is 7,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Further study revealed that most of the emissions were coming from eastern China, prompting Beijing to crack down on clandestine production facilities, after which emissions immediately subsided.

The global food production system is the main cause of biodiversity loss and contributes to habitat destruction and species extinction, according to a research paper from the UK's Chatham House think-tank. To reduce losses, the authors call for greater encouragement of plant-based diets, the setting aside of land for nature or integration of natural habitats into farmland, and the promotion of sustainable farming practices on a larger scale.

IKEA's parent company Ingka Group has purchased 11,000 acres of forest in the US state of Georgia as part of the Swedish furniture group's strategy to become climate-positive by 2030. The group bought the land from the non-profit Conservation Fund, which acquires forest land and resells it after placing permanent legal protection on its conservation. The Ingka Group now owns 136,000 acres of land in five US states, and the annual growth rate of its forests is larger than the volume of harvested timber.

Norway's Climate and Environment Ministry has unveiled a satellite imagery programme tracking the destruction of tropical forests. Available free to anyone online, the five-metre resolution enables users to witness the removal of individual trees. The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project will use the system to improve its monitoring programme, enabling more detailed co-ordination with field partners.

Groups such as Switzerland's Syngenta are turning to partnerships with biotech firms and deploying AI to help develop sustainable weedkiller and pesticide products. The impetus has come in part from growing awareness of legal liability risks, following Bayer's $11bn settlement with cancer victims who claimed that glysophate herbicides had caused their conditions. Syngenta has been investing in biological solutions involving microbes and insect sex pheromones to combat fungal infections and pests. CEO Erik Fyrwald says the company is aiming to shift away from conventional chemicals to products that are less toxic to humans and more resilient to climate change.

The German cabinet has approved legislation that will impose a complete ban of glysophate-based products from 2024, with farmers required start phasing out their use over the next four years. Farmers have criticised the measure, saying it puts livelihoods at risk, and arguing that a ban would be less effective in fostering biodiversity than co-operation between farmers and conservationists. The legislation, which must be approved by the two chambers of parliament, also provides for a ban in certain areas on the use of herbicides and insecticides that could harm bees, and measures to curb light pollution.