Feed aggregator

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

California and US Department of Justice (DOJ) officials are working to finalise a schedule for the remaining summary judgement challenge over the WCI linkage with Quebec, with the state and intervenors in the case focused on responding to the federal government’s latest argument.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices flirted with the WCI auction reserve value this week amid higher compliance buying on the secondary market, while RGGI Allowances (RGAs) dipped after approaching the Emissions Containment Reserve (ECR) trigger price.

A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) committee split on Thursday regarding whether to recommend the RGGI-modelled ETS proposal for a vote this summer, while a bipartisan group of nearly 60 legislators called on Governor Tom Wolf (D) to suspend the cap-and-trade rulemaking in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Canadian environment ministry delayed the publication of regulations for a national offset programme due to the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, as it announced it will seek further input on which project types should be prioritised in the first phase of protocol development.

The former Bank of England governor says countries should invest in a cleaner economic recovery.

In the latest instalment of the Carbon Pulse Conversations podcast, we chat with Kelley Hamrick, policy advisor at US-based environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy (TNC), about coronavirus-related impacts on the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 negotiations and ICAO’s global aviation offset mechanism CORSIA.

Major EU airlines have reported shrinking revenues for Q1 2020 as coronavirus containment efforts ground flights and passengers, with results expected to worsen for the next two quarters as bosses predict the carriers will take several years to recover.

The federal government will fund a trial of renewable methane production in Queensland, that could provide a pathway for a clean, like-for-like replacement to natural gas in the mains supply with renewable alternatives. APA Group will develop a $2.2 million renewable methane demonstration project at the company’s Wallumbilla Gas hub near Roma in Queensland. The...

The post Trial to explore “green methane” as replacement for mains gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.

ARENA chips in $1.7m into feasibility study into the use of renewable hydrogen in the production of ammonia.

The post ARENA funds feasibility study into renewable hydrogen-to-ammonia plant appeared first on RenewEconomy.

EUAs lifted slightly above €19 early on Thursday as auction demand stabilised and Chinese economic data brightened wider market gloom stemming from coronavirus impacts.

German utility Uniper eased its forward power hedging over Q1 following a ramp-up in the prior quarter, though its power sales revenue dropped considerably, it said in its financial results.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission keen to allow material to be disposed of by ‘land burial’ – with potentially damaging effects

The federal agency providing oversight of the commercial nuclear sector is attempting to push through a rule change critics say could allow dangerous amounts of radioactive material to be disposed of in places like municipal landfills, with potentially serious consequences to human health and the environment.

Related: Coca-Cola and Pepsi falling short on pledges over plastic – report

Continue reading...

The filmmaker’s latest venture is an excruciating mishmash of environment falsehoods and plays into the hands of those he once opposed

Denial never dies; it just goes quiet and waits. Today, after years of irrelevance, the climate science deniers are triumphant. Long after their last, desperate claims had collapsed, when they had traction only on “alt-right” conspiracy sites, a hero of the left turns up and gives them more than they could have dreamed of.

Planet of the Humans, whose executive producer and chief promoter is Michael Moore, now has more than 6 million views on YouTube. The film does not deny climate science. But it promotes the discredited myths that deniers have used for years to justify their position. It claims that environmentalism is a self-seeking scam, doing immense harm to the living world while enriching a group of con artists. This has long been the most effective means by which denial – most of which has been funded by the fossil fuel industry – has been spread. Everyone hates a scammer.

Continue reading...

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

City leaders publish ‘statement of principles’ putting climate action at centre of recovery plans

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Mayors from many of the world’s leading cities have warned there can be no return to “business as usual” in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis if humanity is to escape catastrophic climate breakdown.

City leaders representing more than 750 million people have published a “statement of principles”, which commits them to putting greater equality and climate resilience at the heart of their recovery plans.

Continue reading...

Habitat destruction forces wildlife into human environments, where new diseases flourish

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Humanity’s “promiscuous treatment of nature” needs to change or there will be more deadly pandemics such as Covid-19, warn scientists who have analysed the link between viruses, wildlife and habitat destruction.

Deforestation and other forms of land conversion are driving exotic species out of their evolutionary niches and into manmade environments, where they interact and breed new strains of disease, the experts say.

Continue reading...

Climate action is a vital protection against further global shocks, especially as governments plan their post-pandemic stimulus packages. Anna Skarbek, CEO at ClimateWorks Australia, Monash University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A tri-partisan mix of Liberal, Labor and Greens energy ministers show that states and territories are so far ahead of federal Coalition government on climate and energy, it's as though they are in a different industrial era.

The post States so far ahead of Australia government, it’s as if they are in a different industrial era appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Southern California Edison – the primary electricity supplier for much of Southern California – has signed seven contracts for 770MW worth of battery-based energy storage intended to replace ageing natural gas plants set to retire as soon as possible. As one of the largest procurements of its kind, Southern California Edison (SCE) is looking to...

The post California utility secures 770MW of battery storage to replace gas plants appeared first on RenewEconomy.