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NSW government unveils its $32 billion investment plan for wind, solar, and storage, expected to cut emissions and costs for consumers as coal exits.

The post NSW targets 12GW of renewables and storage under new roadmap that includes auctions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian drivers embrace electrified drivetrains, with figures showing hybrid SUV sales tripling compared to same period in 2019, and passenger EVs up 25 per cent.

The post More Australian drivers embrace electrified cars, as hybrid SUV sales triple appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The royal commission made welcome and necessary recommendations around helping wildlife after hazards. But it's not enough to focus only on response. Ashleigh Best, PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow, University of Melbourne Christine Parker, Professor of Law, University of Melbourne Lee Godden, Director, Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Ed Miliband wants Britain’s ‘green recovery’ plan brought forward ahead of Cop26

Labour is urging the government to seize on Joe Biden’s presidency to redouble Britain’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis by bringing forward a multibillion pound “green recovery” plan in the run-up to next year’s Cop26 summit in Glasgow.

“You can’t overstate the impact a Biden presidency will have on the climate issue,” the shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, told the Guardian. “There are so many issues on which this is going to make such a big difference. Internationally, climate is top of the list.

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Biden’s presidency could help reduce global heating by about 0.1C if plans fulfilled, say experts

The election of Joe Biden as president of the US could reduce global heating by about 0.1C, bringing the goals of the Paris agreement “within striking distance”, if his plans are fulfilled, according to a detailed analysis.

Biden’s policy of a target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and plans for a $1.7tn investment in a green recovery from the Covid crisis, would reduce US emissions in the next 30 years by about 75 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalents. Calculations by the Climate Action Tracker show that this reduction would be enough to avoid a temperature rise of about 0.1C by 2100.

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Boris Johnson pledged to put environment at centre of post-Covid strategy, but report says funding needed is so far badly lacking

Boris Johnson’s government is investing only 12% of the funds needed to tackle the climate emergency and the growing threat to nature, according to a new report that will raise fresh international concerns about the UK’s commitment to the green agenda.

The study – released before an expected major speech on the environment by Johnson – says ministers need to commit £33bn each year of this parliament to green causes. So far only £4bn a year has been pledged.

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Group of leading vets claim research, not published for two years, shows the mammals would have been unlikely to infect cattle

A group of eminent vets claim that the rationale for expanding the badger cull has been undermined by a pair of studies commissioned by the government that ministers have been sitting on for two years.

The government says new cull zones should be introduced where there is evidence that badgers are an important factor in spreading bovine TB to cattle, a potentially ruinous scenario for farmers.

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Tesla and China have stolen a huge march – but the UK’s automotive sector still has the capability to close the gap

Carmakers talk a good game. Even the biggest petrolhead automotive executives are now practised at conjuring images of a zero-emissions future, but that future always seems to be just a bit further off. And even while they increase production of electric cars, many insist that there is a stubbornly long line of consumers who will still want the internal combustion engines that also happen to boost their makers’ profits.

There are obvious exceptions, led by Tesla, the US electric car pioneer, as well as a bevy of Chinese imitators. In the UK, Bentley last week became the first to break ranks. On Thursday it announced that its Crewe factory would stop making internal-combustion-engined cars completely by 2030, making it the first large British carmaker to do so.

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We now estimate that Australia's main grid will be around 45% renewable as early as 2025, and that spells bad news for some coal generators.

The post More wind and solar means early closure of coal plants is more likely appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Tackling climate change will need action right across society and the economy - with a host of new incentives.

The nocturnal, prehistoric Asprete has teetered on the brink of extinction for decades.

Experts say they believe the US president-elect will exert significant pressure on Australia to lift its climate commitments

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• ‘It’s time for America to unite and heal’: Joe Biden wins US elections
• Australia will not be invisible to Joe Biden, especially when it comes to China and climate change | Katharine Murphy

Australia risks becoming an isolated laggard in addressing the climate crisis, without obvious allies to shelter it from rising international pressure to act, as the US takes a leadership role under Joe Biden, experts say.

The president-elect has declared addressing climate change “the No 1 issue facing humanity” and promised $2tn in climate spending and policies to put the US on a path to 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net zero emissions no later than 2050.

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The incoming US president might actually develop a discernible end game with Beijing. But his intentions on climate action could be unsettling for Scott Morrison

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• ‘It’s time for America to unite and heal’: Joe Biden wins US elections
• Kamala Harris makes history as first woman of colour election vice-president

Let’s begin with the good news for America, Australia and the world.

The people of America have voted in record numbers and Donald Trump – a demagogue with only glancing respect for the democratic principles his office is meant to defend – is (recounts and lawsuits willing) no longer president of the United States. There is only one rational response to this development, and that response is thank God.

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Transmitter attached to dorsal fin of shark with Twitter following had not sent a definitive message for a year and a half

Katharine, a 14ft-plus great white shark with a Twitter following, appeared again off the US east coast this week. A transmitter attached to her dorsal fin had not sent out a definitive message for a year and a half.

The transmitter that was attached off Cape Cod in August 2013 is roughly half the size of an iPhone and is meant to ping whenever the shark breaks the ocean surface.

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Action comes after group postponed mass protest due to second England lockdown

A teenage Extinction Rebellion protester has climbed a crane in Norwich after the movement postponed a mass demonstration due to the second national lockdown.

Alex Sidney, who scaled the crane in Duke Street early on Saturday morning while carrying a sleeping bag and supplies, has vowed to stay put until he has “mild hypothermia”.

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Campaigners say visit was ‘media propaganda’ as officials failed to stop at any devastated rainforest areas

Environmentalists have criticised a three-day tour of the Amazon that the Brazilian government staged for foreign ambassadors as a “sham” and “media propaganda” after it failed to stop at any environmentally devastated areas.

The tour ended on Friday and focused on better-protected areas of the northern Amazon. “The government prepared an itinerary that does not show the reality of the Amazon – the abandonment of indigenous peoples, the land grabbing, the illegal mining and the uncontrolled deforestation. It is a sham,” said Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, an umbrella group of environmental NGOs.

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CO2 equivalent to 9,140 people flying return to New York may have been emitted from Mossmorran during October flaring.

Joel Miller filmed the red planet using a telescope and a DSLR camera in his back garden.

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Both compliance and financial entities added to their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) positions this week as prices decreased on the secondary market and the state's interim true-up deadline passed, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.