Around The Web

Fracking ban and new environment act among influential group’s suggestions

Fracking should be banned, the UK must take global leadership on the climate emergency and a royal commission should decide how to build homes in an environmentally sustainable manner, an influential group of Conservative MPs has said.

The Conservative Environment Network (CEN) set out a manifesto on Tuesday that they said must govern the UK’s policies to prevent climate catastrophe and allow for greener economic growth. Among the 41 MPs who signed up to the pledges, which include a call for a new environment act, are senior figures such as Sir Nicholas Soames, Sir Oliver Letwin, Greg Hands, Caroline Spelman, Richard Benyon and Zac Goldsmith.

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Alberta-based offset project developer and consultancy Carbon Credit Solutions has acquired fellow advisory firm and green technology company Cap-Op Energy, with an eye to supplying more than 1 million provincial offset credits this year, the companies announced Tuesday.

Liquefied natural gas developments on a collision course with Paris agreement, Global Energy Monitor says

The booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry will play at least as big a role as new coal investments in bringing on a climate crisis if all planned projects go ahead, US-based energy analysts and campaigners say.

The report by the Global Energy Monitor appears at odds with comments by Australia’s emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, who has said the country could be proud that the rapidly expanding LNG export industry was displacing coal power overseas.

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A wildlife group says the future of bird of prey chicks is at risk after one parent is shot.

Searing heat shows crisis is ‘here and now’, say scientists, and worse than predicted

The record-breaking heatwave that struck France and other European nations in June was made at least five – and possibly 100 – times more likely by climate change, scientists have calculated.

Such heatwaves are also about 4C hotter than a century ago, the researchers say. Furthermore, the heatwaves hitting Europe are more frequent and more severe than climate models have predicted.

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A US photographer captures a black skimmer bird feeding its chick a cigarette filter in Florida.

Investigation exposes how Brazil’s huge beef sector continues to threaten health of world’s largest rainforest

The cows grazed under the midday Amazon sun, near a wooden bridge spanning a river. It was an idyllic scene of pastoral quiet, occasionally broken by a motorbike growling on the dirt road that cuts through part of the Lagoa do Triunfo cattle farm to a nearby community.

But this pasture is land that the farm has been forbidden to use for cattle since 2010, when it was embargoed by Brazil’s government environment agency Ibama for illegal deforestation. Nearby were more signs of fresh pasture: short grass, feeding troughs, and salt for cattle.

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The EU-Mercosur trade deal is good news for Brazil’s huge beef industry but devastating for the rainforest and environment

European leaders have thrown the Amazon rainforest under a Volkswagen bus in a massive cows-for-cars trade deal with Brazil and three other South American nations.

The EU-Mercosur agreement – the largest in Europe’s history, according to officials – will make it cheaper for Brazilian farmers to export agricultural products, particularly beef, despite growing evidence that cattle ranching is the primary driver of deforestation.

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How the strange case of a former president secretly taped by industry executives revealed where power lies in Brazil

In Brazilian financial circles 17 May 2017 is dubbed “Joesley Day”. It’s the date when the power and influence of Brazil’s meat industry was exposed in all its ugly glory and gave the stock market a sucker punch.

It was the date that Joesley Batista, at that point one of the controllers of the world’s biggest meat-packing company, family-run JBS, went to meet then-President Michel Temer, and secretly recorded him endorsing payments to a notoriously corrupt politician imprisoned for political corruption.

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A panel of Antarctic experts stresses the importance of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C.

The record heat experienced across Europe last week was made much more likely by rising temperatures say researchers.

Dutch plans for a carbon tax on heavy industry could soon spread to other EU nations, with governments seeking economy-wide GHG reductions starting to target the sector after years of flat emissions levels.

EU Allowance prices rose on Tuesday morning, extending the previous day's rebound as aggressive auction bidding supported.

Organisers say Penpont project will create blueprint for how youth action and conservation can bring change

Twenty young people are embarking on an ambitious conservation project across 2,000 acres of the Brecon Beacons to help tackle the decline in British wildlife.

The volunteers are part of the Penpont project, which organisers say is the biggest youth conservation attempt in the world. They will work with tenant farmers, landowners and local people to enhance habitats in order to protect the local flora and fauna.

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Four of the five new species, which are only a few millimetres in diameter, are from Queensland and one is from NSW

A Queensland Museum arachnologist has helped identify five new species of tiny brushed jumping spiders the size of a grain of rice.

The group includes a spider with large black eyes like sunglasses and black and white front legs, which led to it being named after late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

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Emissions from dead trees were eight times higher than those from the healthy trees

Mangrove forests that died along a 1,000km stretch of coastline in northern Australia have been emitting methane at rates eight times higher than live trees, according to new research.

Scientists from Southern Cross University have used the site of the mass dieback along the Gulf of Carpentaria to measure methane emissions from mangrove tree stems for the first time.

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With a “rulebook” for the Paris Agreement largely settled, the focus was on hammering out some contentious issues and laying the groundwork for the upcoming COP25.

The post Bonn climate talks: Key outcomes from the June 2019 conference appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Stanford University researchers find simple technique of "wake steering" – or slightly tilting wind turbines – can boost performance and reduce variability of output.

The post Tilting of windmills could lead to performance gains, study finds appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW green lights stage one works for expansion of Origin Energy's Shoalhaven Pumped Hydro Storage Scheme as Snowy pushes for interstate support on new transmission line.

The post NSW plays to its pumped hydro strengths, with green light for Shoalhaven appeared first on RenewEconomy.

TAI report says latest federal government data confirms two things: 1) Australia's emissions are definitely still going up; 2) The Morrison Coalition government is "contemptuous" of its obligations to prevent dangerous climate change.

The post Delayed greenhouse data confirms rising emissions, “contemptuous” government appeared first on RenewEconomy.