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Morrison government's new vehicle strategy rehashes a collection of old anti-renewable tactics to slow the decline of fossil fuels in Australia. It's bad.

The post Taylor rehashes old climate delay tactics with new hybrid vehicle plan appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Overwhelming evidence shows noise pollution from human activity is damaging the ocean, scientists say.

Perth's bushfires have destroyed 81 homes. It provides important lessons as we face a future of worsening climate. Joe Fontaine, Lecturer, Environmental and Conservation Science, Murdoch University Lewis Walden, Research associate, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Work on the Woodhouse Colliery due to begin this year pits climate protection against jobs

Plans for the country’s first deep coalmine in more than 30 years have led to local divisions in Cumbria, even as it becomes an international issue over the country’s climate change commitments.

James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost voices on climate, this week took the unusual step of sending Boris Johnson a strongly worded letter warning that if the mine was allowed to proceed it would lead to “ignominy and humiliation” for the UK.

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Major assessment concludes that ocean soundscape is being drowned out by human activity

A natural ocean soundscape is fundamental to healthy marine life but is being drowned out by an increasingly loud cacophony of noise from human activities, according to the first comprehensive assessment of the issue.

The damage caused by noise is as harmful as overfishing, pollution and the climate crisis, the scientists said, but is being dangerously overlooked. The good news, they said, is that noise can be stopped instantly and does not have lingering effects, as the other problems do.

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Utility RWE has filed an arbitration claim against the Netherlands, seeking more compensation for the forced closing of its coal-fire power plant under the country’s coal phaseout law.

Ministers’ refusal to stop a mine being dug in a marginal seat shows a tension between the environment and ‘levelling up’

Something is stirring deep beneath the earth. Or rather, someone. The veteran eco- warrior Daniel “Swampy” Hooper, alongside his teenage son, the daughter of a Scottish laird raised on an off-grid island and an undisclosed number of other protesters have spent weeks secretly excavating a honeycomb of underground tunnels beneath Euston Square Gardens in north London. Now they’re refusing to leave their muddy burrows in protest at the building of the HS2 high-speed train route, due to terminate nearby.

To the protesters, the project is a monstrous scar on the landscape, destroying ancient woodlands and wildlife habitats in its path. But to northern Tories in particular, it’s a potent symbol of “levelling up” between north and south, bringing jobs to places and people neglected in the past. And this particular muddy standoff symbolises a rather bigger political conflict.

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Swedish utility Vattenfall’s EU ETS-covered power output dropped 28% year-on-year in 2020, outpacing an overall drop in generation as a major coal unit closed and hydro power flourished, the company said in its full-year results on Thursday.

Research showing severe flood threat caused by global heating could set legal precedent in climate litigation

Human-caused global heating is directly responsible for the threat of a devastating flood in Peru that is the subject of a lawsuit against the German energy company RWE, according to groundbreaking new research.

The study establishes links from human-made greenhouse gas emissions to the substantial risk of a dangerous outburst flood from Lake Palcacocha, high in the Peruvian Andes. The resulting flood would trigger a deadly landslide inundating the city of Huaraz, and threatening about 120,000 people in its path.

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Thanks to an inter-party agreement, the clean energy hub in the North Sea is set to be the largest construction project in Danish history

Denmark’s government has agreed to take a majority stake in a £25bn artificial “energy island”, which is to be built 50 miles (80km) offshore, in the middle of the North Sea.

The island to the west of the Jutland peninsula will initially have an area of 120,000 sq metres – the size of 18 football pitches – and in its first phase will be able to provide 3 million households with green energy.

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EUAs extended the previous session's all-time high above €38 early on Thursday, before a much weaker auction caused prices to tumble.

CEP, chaired by former NSW premier Morris Iemma, plans 1200MW big battery at Kurri Kurri, right where the Morrison government wanted to build a gas plant.

The post CEP plans “world’s biggest battery” at Kurri Kurri, to deflate Morrison’s gas dreams appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Well, this has been an interesting week. In the space of 72 hours carbon has risen 14%, reached a new all-time record and if things keep going like they have been, it’s just a matter of time before the EU ETS starts becoming the subject of $GME-type memes. There have been a number of explanations for the nearly €5 spike in EUA prices; I’ll list them and if I missed any, please shout.

Gina Rinehart is going solar, so is a BHP nickel refinery, and most of the rest of Australia. But there is still the question of standards.

The post Solar Insiders Podcast: Solar’s cracking start to 2021 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Astronaut Alan Shepard famously claimed he hit his ball "miles and miles and miles" on the Moon in 1971 - 50 years on modern technology reveals how far he really hit it.

Shanghai on Thursday released the 2020 allocation plan for its municipal emissions trading scheme, with the overall CO2 cap shrinking by a third as more than 20 coal-fired power plans will exit the local scheme to join the national market.

Patricia Espinosa says fulfilling $100bn-a-year promise must be top priority to support developing world

Rich countries must step up with fresh financial commitments to help the developing world tackle the climate crisis, the UN’s climate chief has said.

Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said fulfilling pledges of financial assistance made a decade ago must be the top priority before vital climate talks – Cop26 – later this year.

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Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) rose past A$17/t this week, with a slight shift in messaging on climate change by Prime Minister Scott Morrison sparking greater voluntary interest, according to analysts, as depicted by a bump in voluntary cancellations driven by Qantas Airways.

Proposals to accelerate electric car rollout also call for grants towards buying secondhand electric vehicles

Oil companies should be required to install rapid chargers for electric cars in all their petrol stations above a certain size by 2023 in order to speed up the rollout of vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions, according to thinktank Bright Blue.

Bright Blue’s report also calls for a reversal in cuts to government grants for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), a new grant to help low income households buy secondhand BEVs, and for the lower lifetime costs of BEVs compared with those of petrol and diesel cars to be made clear at the point of sale.

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Queensland Audit Office cites falling prices and growing renewables for $1B cut to value of state's fossil fuel plants, including one that's now worth zero.

The post More than $1 billion wiped off value of Queensland coal and gas power stations appeared first on RenewEconomy.