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UK utility SSE saw its ETS-covered thermal power output rise 16% over the six months through September as the company’s gas plants were called on more often to balance the grid, the company said on Wednesday.

Could Australia's conservative federal government replicate the UK's slowly-increasing climate ambitions? One key problem needs to be solved first.

The post Could Australia adopt a UK-style conservative position on climate? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Most energy produced when fossil fuels burned is wasted. The transition to electricity and renewables will change this.

The post Graph of the day: Most emissions from fossil fuels come from wasted energy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A federal low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) is unlikely to materialise unless Democrats can win both Georgia Senate seats up for grabs in a January run-off election, a conference heard Wednesday.

Stakeholders drew competing views of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) proposed policy statement last month on CO2 pricing, with wholesale power grid operators supporting the move and fossil-fuel heavy states encouraging a more cautious path forward.

More than 35 million additional carbon allowances left over from Phase 3 of the EU ETS (2013-20) could be auctioned next year, the European Commission confirmed on Wednesday.

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Poland’s utility PGE posted a 3.2% year-on-year fall in CO2 output over the first nine months as its carbon costs weighed on the company’s coal generation.

The European Commission on Wednesday adopted its annual report on the functioning of the EU ETS, which covered the market’s developments in 2019 and into 2020, as well as summarising measures proposed or agreed this year.

A vibrant, buzzy stock market for tech companies is very useful if you’re planning a green revolution

Right on cue, here comes a £4bn stock market listing of a young and exciting UK electric vehicle company – a mini Tesla, if you wish. It’s just the thing for ministers to crow about, you might think: evidence that the UK possesses a few fast-growing tech innovators capable of injecting oomph into the government’s loose 10-point sketch for a green revolution.

There’s just one drawback. Arrival, with its head office in London and operations in Oxfordshire, will not be arriving on the London Stock Exchange. It is listing in New York on Nasdaq, via injection into one of those special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that are all the rage on Wall Street this year.

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The prime minister has correctly identified the challenge, but his record invites doubt that he can turn his rhetoric into reality

Boris Johnson’s comfort zone is the future. He is weak at managing the day-to-day business of a government and bad at making hard choices quickly. For that reason, he is poorly suited to the role of prime minister during a pandemic, but better at the job of selling a “green industrial revolution” for the recovery phase.

The launch on Wednesday of a 10-point plan for net zero carbon emissions allowed Mr Johnson to indulge his predilection for hyperbole. He wants Britain to be the “world’s number one centre for green technology and finance” and “the Saudi Arabia of wind”. Those are fine aspirations. Regular readers of Mr Johnson’s rhetoric know to check the small print.

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Victoria's $800 million energy efficiency plan promises to lower power bills, make homes more comfortable and help meet our climate goals. It's high time other states picked this low-hanging fruit. Alan Pears, Senior Industry Fellow, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) jurisdictions are evaluating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed fuel sector cap-and-trade scheme, but regulatory sources do not believe support for the regional US programme is wavering.

Firm says investment in low-carbon infrastructure will help UK emerge from Covid impact

SSE has set out plans to triple its renewable energy generation by 2030 as it prepares to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm off the north-east coast of England.

The energy firm told investors that it was days away from a final investment decision on the 3.2GW Dogger Bank offshore windfarm, which could generate enough clean electricity to power 4.5m homes by 2026.

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A huge amount of effort and planning will be required to fulfil Boris Johnson’s 10 pledges to tackle the climate emergency

• Rebecca Newsom is head of politics at Greenpeace UK

After many weeks of speculation, the prime minister has finally announced his “10-point plan” for a green industrial revolution. This is essential because the UK has a massive gap between its current actions to tackle the climate emergency compared with what is needed to meet its legally binding climate commitments. A recent analysis by Green Alliance showed that the UK is on course to reduce its emissions by less than a fifth of what’s required for its next round of climate targets.

Related: Is £12bn enough to get UK on track for net zero carbon emissions?

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Denmark has already launched a nationwide cull of its farmed mink herd after concerns for vaccine efficacy

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Seven countries are now reporting mink-related Sars-CoV-2 mutations in humans, according to new scientific analysis.

The mutations are identified as Covid-19 mink variants as they have repeatedly been found in mink and now in humans as well.

Uncertainty around the implications of the discovery of a Covid-19 mink variant in humans led Denmark, the world’s largest mink fur producer, to launch a nationwide cull earlier this month.

The cull was sparked by research from Denmark’s public health body, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which showed that a mink variant called C5 was harder for antibodies to neutralise and posed a potential threat to vaccine efficacy.

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• Photographers captured unusual event off California coast
• Sea otter non-profit reports that ‘they prey was not consumed’
  

A sea otter off the coast of California caused a splash when it was photographed apparently trying to eat a shark – though it appears it did not manage to complete its meal.

Related: Furry engineers: sea otters in California's estuaries surprise scientists

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As the UK government unveils new environmental targets, what about the previous ones?

We are now in the last four weeks of the Dec-20 EUAs' reign as the front-year futures contract. There are fewer than 25 daily auctions left this year, and yesterday (Nov. 17) we were told that the European Commission won’t be starting 2021 EUA auctions until the end of January or even early February.

The long-awaited emissions plan leave some policies untouched, says the BBC's Environment Analyst.