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Energy giant denies accusation and says its submission to public hearing was made in good faith

Energy giant Santos’ claim that its proposed coal seam gas development at Narrabri would lower gas prices misrepresents the evidence presented by government authorities, a thinktank analysis has found.

A last-minute submission by Santos to the state independent planning commission said gas from the $3.6bn development in north-west New South Wales would be cheaper than had been estimated, lead to a reduction in gas prices in the state and greater economic and employment benefits than previously believed.

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Thirty years ago we were warned. Now is our last chance to listen

Thirty years ago this week, the population of Earth was given official notification that it faced a threat of unprecedented magnitude. Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, spewed into the atmosphere from factories and vehicles burning fossil fuels, were pinpointed, definitively, as triggers of future climate change. Melting icecaps, rising sea levels and increasing numbers of extreme weather events would be the norm for the 21st century unless action were taken, warned the authors of the first assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The scientists had been charged by the IPCC, which had been set up two years earlier, with establishing whether climate change was a real prospect and, if it was, to look at the main drivers of that threat. They concluded, in a report released in August 1990, that the menace was real and that coal, gas and oil would be the principal causes of global heating. Unless controls were imposed on their consumption, temperature rises of 0.3C a decade would be occurring in the 21st century, bringing havoc in their wake.

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‘Stunned’ scientists say there is little doubt global heating is to blame for the loss

A total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. That is stunning conclusion of UK scientists who have analysed satellite surveys of the planet’s poles, mountains and glaciers to measure how much ice coverage lost because of global heating triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The scientists – based at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London – describe the level of ice loss as “staggering” and warn that their analysis indicates that sea level rises, triggered by melting glaciers and ice sheets, could reach a metre by the end of the century.

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Americans face existential challenges. The president has done nothing to help and much to make things worse

• The climate crisis has arrived. Just look to California’s fires

My wife and I have been warned we may need to evacuate our cabin in the hills north of San Francisco, because of fires ravaging the Bay Area.

Related: How Donald Trump canceled the Republican party

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A selection of pictures from our readers on the theme of "garden creatures".

Could human challenge trials speed up the development of a coronavirus vaccine?

Conservationists say legal action and industry certification failures should send a clear message to government forestry agencies

Forestry agencies owned by the Victorian and Tasmanian governments have both conceded something they have been avoiding saying: that their logging of native forests isn’t considered up to scratch.

In the space of three days earlier this month, VicForests and Sustainable Timber Tasmania – the former Forestry Tasmania – revealed they had not achieved Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, considered the international gold standard for forest management.

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And yet the Morrison government remains focused on a gas-led recovery, which is no recovery at all

Whenever confronted with a tragedy in your life, one of the hardest aspects to deal with is that life goes on – work continues, other events occur, bills need to be paid, the world keeps on turning. It can actually be a struggle to realise that even though you are feeling dreadful, other problems and tasks remain to be addressed.

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Sir Mark Walport says, unlike smallpox, coronavirus will not be eradicated by vaccination.

Today is Earth Overshoot Day, when scientists say we've used all the resources the planet can produce in 12 months.

Cheshire-based facility will be world’s first to use bacteria-based recycling processes

The UK is to get its first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from electronic waste, which will also be the world’s first to use bacteria rather than cyanide-based processes.

A New Zealand startup, Mint Innovation, plans to open the facility within 12 months in Cheshire, in the north of England, after delays caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

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A potential electric car buyer is first rebuffed, then talked down, by two separate dealerships, highlighting the need for more dealer support in selling electric vehicles.

The post “Why do you want to go electric?” Some Australian car dealers only want to sell ICE appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

Compliance entities and speculators slightly boosted their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) positions in the lead-up to Tuesday’s quarterly auction and as blistering temperatures covered the Golden State, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

We are looking for an economist with a strong analytical track record and great communication skills, with a passion to work on one of the Government’s top policy agendas. The role is instrumental in steering the department’s building safety and climate change policies, including regular contact with senior officials and Ministers, both here and in other government departments (notably Number 10 and HM Treasury).

The Climate change Specialist will work under the overall supervision of the OCB Director, the OCB Team Leader and/or the direct supervision of a relevant Officer.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) on Friday approved a $250 million loan to an EBRD-sponsored project to spur climate action in industry across seven developing nations, a sum equivalent to around 10% of the UN climate finance initiative's annual budget.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s (D) administration would support a market-based CO2 pricing mechanism for electricity generation along with a Midwestern Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) for the transportation sector, according to a strategy document published Friday.

EUAs slipped towards €25 on Friday as another weak auction and economic fears further dampened the remaining prospects for a monthly gain as the end of August's half-volume auctions moves closer.

This year’s virtual convention gave the party’s presidential nominee an opportunity which he took with skill and stubborn decency

There have never been two campaign gatherings like this week’s US Democratic convention and next week’s Republican one. Stripped to their essentials by the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 conventions cannot match the energy of normal years. Yet the big speech by the presidential candidate at the convention remains a defining campaign moment, and this year is no different. The greater severity imposed by the virtual convention is also appropriate. For this is not a normal US election year. It is one in which the central contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will define the future of the United States and the world like few others.

Because of the constraints, the Democratic convention lacked true razzmatazz. In that respect it was tailor-made for Mr Biden’s decent, stubborn but markedly unexciting political message. And yet the lack of glitz had certain advantages. It meant that the nightly coverage offered to American voters this week was more serious-minded. The televised broadcasts were full of ordinary people’s video accounts of what they are going through as a result of the pandemic, recession and racism. The format also meant that Mr Biden could use his acceptance speech to cut to the chase about the issues at stake in November’s election, rather than play up the rhetoric that would have been expected in a packed hall. In any case, Barack Obama had powerfully supplied that form of oratory the previous evening.

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