Around The Web

A Japanese spacecraft is set to deliver its precious sample cache to the Australian outback.

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

Guangdong province continues to tighten ETS settings for companies while Fujian has again declined to reveal its total handouts, according to 2020 allocation plans released Friday that include coal power plants, raising questions about whether the facilities will be excluded from the national market. 

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has terminated contracts with two projects that had been expected to deliver almost 550,000 offsets to the ERF, while new credits issuances rebounded after a couple of quiet weeks, data showed.

It takes thousands of years for soils to form, meaning protection is needed urgently, say scientists

Global soils are the source of all life on land but their future looks “bleak” without action to halt degradation, according to the authors of a UN report.

A quarter of all the animal species on Earth live beneath our feet and provide the nutrients for all food. Soils also store as much carbon as all plants above ground and are therefore critical in tackling the climate emergency. But there also are major gaps in knowledge, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) report, which is the first on the global state of biodiversity in soils.

Continue reading...

The corporate race for cultured protein rests on a view of human beings as greedy and incapable of change

The stuff of science fiction has landed on our plates. Meat grown in a lab, instead of inside the body of an animal, has been approved for sale for the first time. The Singapore Food Agency has given regulatory approval to Eat Just’s “chicken bites”, grown from the cells of a chicken that’s still flapping its wings. The US startup took a biopsy of cells from a live chicken, bathed them in a nutrient medium and grew them in a bioreactor, where they grew exponentially until the meat was harvested, encased in batter and turned into nuggets. The ruling means that, for the first time, cultured meat can be sold to the public.

Eat Just, Inc – and the dozens of other cultured meat startups racing each other to get lab-grown meat on to the menu across the globe – are selling the promise that carnivores will be able to eat meat with a clean conscience. Flesh without the blood, meat without murder and the beginning of the end of the environmental damage caused by intensive animal agriculture. The news was met with a sigh of relief from meat eaters across the world, and with good reason: it will allow us to carry on as before, eating what we like while clever technology sidesteps the problems caused by our appetites.

Continue reading...

Proposals cite climate change as most severe threat to US reefs, which may be in danger of disappearing in some places

In a long-awaited move from the Trump administration, the US has proposed critical habitat protections for twelve coral species in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. The rules would protect over 6,000 sq miles (nearly 16,000 sq km) of critical coral habitat.

The rules cite climate change as the most severe threat to all 12 coral species across their range. Impacts of the climate crisis include ocean acidification, which hinders the ability of corals to grow, and ocean warming, which causes corals to expel the algae living in their tissues in a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Fishing and land-based pollution have also contributed to the species’ decline.

Continue reading...

New Zealand carbon allowances have risen 2.2% over the past three trading sessions as demand has returned to the market ahead of the far-reaching ETS reforms entering into force next month.

Watchdog finds UK is projected to fail to meet targets aimed at achieving climate goal

Boris Johnson’s commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2050 is a “colossal challenge” that can only be achieved with a radical reassessment of priorities, according to Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the UK is projected to fail to meet the government’s targets for the years 2023 to 2027 and 2028 to 2032, which were set to establish a trajectory for reducing emissions by 80% over the next 30 years.

Continue reading...

The big shift by NSW from coal to renewables is all too much for the Nationals and Sky News.

The post Murdoch and the Nationals join forces against NSW and “renewable energy stuff” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

After a long delay, the first of 35 wind turbines has been completed at Acciona Energy’s 157.5MW Mortlake South wind farm in Victoria’s Western District.

The post First giant turbine finally installed at Victoria’s Mortlake South wind farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

ACT announces it has overachieved its 2020 emissions target, reducing emissions by 45 per cent, thanks to a shift to 100 per cent renewable electricity.

The post ACT beats 2020 emissions target, achieving 45 pct cut since 1990 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The primary purpose of this Project Officer role is to support CMI key membership related initiatives, contribute to CMI’s membership management, CMI’s Soil Carbon Taskforce and support in the coordination and delivery of other CMI projects and events.

Angus Taylor says there is nothing that 'terrifies' him about climate change, as he resists calls for Australia to set a 2050 zero emissions target.

The post ‘I’m not terrified of climate change’, Angus Taylor resists calls for zero carbon targets appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Battery storage is emerging as a technology "no brainer", but it is creating headaches for regulators trying to decide who can own and operate them.

The post Battery storage is challenging the very structure of Australia’s energy market appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The US space agency has awarded two American and one Japanese firm contracts to pick up lunar soil.

At the start of 2020 forecasts were predicting the year would end with an LGC surplus in the millions, but current trends mean we could easily wind up with a deficit.

The post Wind and solar delays create roller-coaster market for renewables certificates appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Breeding in captivity is expensive, and means the animal's gene pool will be sorely depleted. Using sperm and egg freezing and IVF techniques can reduce that. Lachlan G. Howell, Casual Academic and PhD Candidate | School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle John Clulow, Associate Professor, University of Newcastle Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australia has identified five new offset project methods it will fast-track over the next four months to further boost the supply of domestic carbon credits, Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said Friday.

A combination of corporate and state government demand rescued many wind and solar projects in 2020. Chris Briggs explains why.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: How companies and states rescued wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.