Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an "astonishing rate," scientists have found, raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been underestimated.
Huge amounts of methane lie in reservoirs that have formed over millennia beneath the seafloor around the world. This invisible, climate-polluting gas can escape into the water through fissures in the sea floor, often revealing itself with a stream of bubbles weaving their way up to the ocean surface.
Relatively little is known about these underwater seeps, how they work, how many there are, and how much methane reaches the atmosphere versus how much is eaten by methane-munching microbes living beneath the ocean. But scientists are keen to better understand them, as this super-polluting gas traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere.
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🎥 : Leigh Tate, Earth Sciences New Zealand
The latest cycle of developments in sustainable construction signals an inflection point for the built environment, driven by financial systems and disclosure norms converging on climate and nature risk. More than 700 organisations are adopting the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework, placing natural capital at the centre of environmental sustainability in construction. The integration of nature metrics into financial decision-making will transform procurement and sustainable material specification, reshaping how investors evaluate whole life carbon and embodied carbon exposure across projects.
The upcoming International Sustainability Standards Board recommendations are expected to formalise nature-related risk reporting, aligning with existing standards for whole life carbon assessment. This evolution supports greater transparency in lifecycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis, accelerating the transition toward net zero whole life carbon strategies. Through improved building lifecycle performance and resource efficiency in construction, the industry is being pushed toward evidence-based low carbon design rather than carbon offset accounting.
The proposed Tropical Forests Forever Facility, valued at $125 billion, underlines growing links between forest conservation finance and circular economy in construction. Implications stretch into renewable building materials, sustainable timber sourcing, and eco-design for buildings within fast-urbanising tropical regions. Such measures advance green construction principles aligned with sustainable building practices and breeam certification.
Scrutiny of corporate carbon claims is reshaping marketing narratives as airlines abandon false neutrality statements, as seen when European airlines agreed to drop misleading climate claims. By extension, net zero carbon buildings and low carbon building approaches are expected to prioritise intrinsic mitigation, verifying reduced embodied carbon in materials through environmental product declarations (EPDs). The shift underscores life cycle thinking in construction and the growing expectation of quantifiable carbon footprint reduction across supply chains.
With the World Bank warning that climate impacts could cost some nations up to 30% of GDP by mid-century, infrastructure resilience is no longer optional. Decarbonising the built environment demands integration of low embodied carbon materials, circular construction strategies, and adaptive sustainable building design. The sector faces intensifying pressure to balance energy-efficient buildings with end-of-life reuse in construction, achieving measurable results across the full environmental impact of construction. The momentum now lies where climate meets capital, defining the next chapter in eco-friendly construction and credible net zero carbon advancement.
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