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Spanish energy giant unveils two huge battery storage projects in Australia
The post Spanish energy giant unveils two huge battery storage projects in Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.
New data shows Labor fuelling NT election campaign kitty with gas cash
The post New data shows Labor fuelling NT election campaign kitty with gas cash appeared first on RenewEconomy.
POLL: Analysts lift EU carbon price forecasts, but expect enduring bearish factors to cap any gains
Labour told it will need to defeat ‘net-zero nimbys’ to decarbonise Britain
Opposition in wealthier areas is likely and overcoming it is essential, says Resolution Foundation
The government will need to “take on net-zero nimbys” and ramp up public investment to decarbonise Britain’s homes, transport and electricity system, a leading thinktank has said.
With Keir Starmer promising a rapid transition to decarbonise the power system by 2030, a report by the Resolution Foundation said achieving the target would require more government spending and private investment.
Continue reading...Olympics sponsor Toyota emits much more CO2 than host nation, says think tank
Sodium-ion batteries are set to spark a renewable energy revolution – and Australia must be ready
The Guardian view on GB Energy: a good idea turns up just in time | Editorial
Ed Miliband has won the argument that his party must go big to cut carbon emissions. But he will need to go bigger still
Sir Keir Starmer’s legislative plan to green Britain has arrived not a moment too soon. Last week, the government’s advisers warned that only a third of the carbon reductions required by law would be met under existing plans. The Climate Change Committee said that, for the first time since setting itself carbon-reduction targets, the UK is not on track to meet its goal. It is supposed to reduce emissions in 2030 by 68% compared with 1990 levels, to meet net zero by 2050.
The UK should, says the committee, now be in a phase of rapid investment and delivery. But the Tories’ turn against net zero policies has meant little progress on the rollout of low-carbon technology. That is why Labour’s king’s speech, which put the environment at the centre of policymaking, was so welcome. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, won the argument that the urgency of the climate emergency needed a bigger, more interventionist state.
Continue reading...Real-time water quality monitors installed at wild swimming spots in southern England
AI-based system designed to help people assess immediate risk of getting ill from water polluted with bacteria
Real-time water quality monitors are being installed at wild swimming spots and beaches across southern England to help people assess their immediate risk of getting ill from polluted water.
Wessex Water is installing sensors at three freshwater sites in Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire, plus two coastal sites in Bournemouth, after a successful pilot study at Warleigh Weir near Bath. Here, the artificial intelligence-based system correctly predicted when bacteria in the water were high 87% of the time.
Continue reading...Bowen signs deal to treble large scale wind and solar capacity, and double storage in the West
The post Bowen signs deal to treble large scale wind and solar capacity, and double storage in the West appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Florida grasshopper sparrow: scientists hail resurgence of endangered bird
Sparrows were taken into captivity after numbers dwindled – and this week experts released 1,000th bird back into wild
Scientists in Florida are hailing the landmark release this week of a tiny bird only 5in tall as an oversized success in their fight to save a critically endangered species.
Numbers of the Florida grasshopper sparrow, seen only in prairies in central regions of the state, dwindled so severely by 2015, mostly through habitat loss, that authorities took the decision to remove remaining breeding pairs into captivity. Their wager was that a controlled repopulation program would be more successful than leaving the birds to their own devices.
Continue reading...New wind and solar remain stalled at the gate, but battery starts are charging to new records
The post New wind and solar remain stalled at the gate, but battery starts are charging to new records appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Yes, five years in jail is too harsh, but the Just Stop Oil Five shouldn’t have done it | Sonia Sodha
The urgent needs of the road users they held up were ignored during this climate crusade
It was “a dark day”, according to a UN special rapporteur. Others lamented “a gross miscarriage of justice” and “a farce” marking “a low point in British justice”. Such language would not have been hyperbolic had they been talking about the review highlighting the failings that left Andrew Malkinson jailed for 17 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Or a recent travesty of the single justice procedure, the expedited closed-door process that saw a woman dying from stage 4 breast cancer convicted for non-payment of a TV licence. But it was actually referring to the handing down of five- and four-year prison sentences to five Just Stop Oil activists for their role in masterminding four days of serious motorway disruption: if we are to believe them, a grave affront to the right to protest.
There are certainly questions about whether the sentences for their offences are proportionate or appropriate in the context of the wider criminal justice system. But to suggest that freedom of conscience creates an unlimited right to cause other citizens harm is to fail to engage with the nature of their offence. And, more broadly, to misunderstand what it means to live in a democracy where we enjoy a right to noisy protest, but are also bound by obligations to each other that are framed by the rule of law that applies to us all equally.
Continue reading...Where are all the bats? – alarm as numbers fall in England
Decline blamed on washout summer driving down population of insects, butterflies and moths they feed on
Conservation groups across England are seeing more malnourished bats, as wildlife experts warn the washout summer is driving down the insects, butterflies and moths they feed on.
Groups across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Worcestershire, Essex and South Lancashire said they are seeing an increase in the number of “starving” or “underweight” bats, often juveniles, who need to be rescued and cared for by volunteers. In some places, they are seeing fewer bats than they usually do in the summer.
Continue reading...Czech nuclear deal shows CSIRO GenCost is too optimistic, and new nukes are hopelessly uneconomic
The post Czech nuclear deal shows CSIRO GenCost is too optimistic, and new nukes are hopelessly uneconomic appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Former Tilt boss to head newly emerging Australian renewables player
Australian renewable energy developer names former head of Tilt Renewables as executive chairman.
The post Former Tilt boss to head newly emerging Australian renewables player appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Colorado proposes rules to facilitate trading between industrial, EITE facilities under in-state carbon market
The great pylon pile-on: can councils’ opposition scupper Labour’s ‘clean power’ revolution?
The energy secretary’s plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoiled rural areas is facing a huge backlash
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has been warned he faces battlegrounds across the country over plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoiled rural areas to deliver a “clean power” revolution. Council leaders and communities oppose proposals for a vast new network of pylons across large parts of several counties, including Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
There are calls for community compensation of “hundreds of millions of pounds” if the schemes are pushed through.
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