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Dr Yoriko Otomo on the difficulty of not buying any plastic for a week, and Carol Taylor on a brilliant mobile shop in Derbyshire

Re John Vidal’s article (The solution to the plastic waste crisis? It’s not recycling, Journal, 15 January), after his earlier article on plastic (The plastic polluters won 2019 – and we’re running out of time to stop them, 2 January) I pledged not to buy any plastic for a week. This was eye-opening, as my family discovered that all the apples (and most of the other loose fruit) in our supermarkets had plastic stickers on every piece of fruit. Milk bottles were out (plant milk cartons have plastic tops); as was bread, salt, pasta, cereal (plastic inners) and tofu (entirely encased in plastic). On our second trip out we finally hunted down non-plastic-wrapped yeast to make our own bread. It opened our eyes to what a mountain of plastic we normally cart home in our eco-friendly cloth bags.

This inspired some changes around the house, which has reduced our consumption dramatically. It has had the added benefit of our food being healthier and cheaper. We now shop at Unboxed, a local store selling most essentials – including herbs and spices – without packaging. We make our own plant milk in the blender and bread in the bread maker (this all takes an average of 15 minutes every evening), and tofu with soy beans grown by a local farmer. We now stop before buying anything, and consider the packaging options.

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We are looking for a Spot Trader to join our Asset Optimisation team in Stockholm. The Asset Optimisation team is part of Physical Trading unit which is responsible for optimizing Fortum’s Hydro, Nuclear and Wind portfolio and trading them on the day-ahead, intraday and ancillary services markets.

The successful candidates will work on European Union (EU) advocacy issues and play a supporting role to the the energy team in APPLiA.

The successful candidate will work on a full-time basis in the Europex Secretariat in Brussels and will be part of a small, dynamic team.

The Senior Business Developer will be responsible for developing and selling Kinect Energy Group’s sustainability and compliance services to new and existing corporations throughout the UK.

Scientists have identified 3,000 ash trees with suspected resistance to a deadly disease.

EUAs strode to their highest so far this year well above €25 on Friday, bolstered by very solid auction demand and a buoyant energy complex.

A team of scientists discounts the idea that large-scale volcanism drove the demise of the dinosaurs.

Bird is one of six released on Isle of Wight as first residents in England for 250 years

It is one of the country’s top predators, with a 2.4-metre (8ft) wingspan and a preference for plucking fish from the ocean.

So a young sea eagle’s choice of landlocked Oxfordshire as its home is unexpected. More surprising still is that the bird has lived for four months almost completely unnoticed by the public close to the M40 and the commuter belt.

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Project: EU Support for Climate Action in IPA II Beneficiaries – Transition towards the Low Emissions and Climate-Resilient Economy in the Western Balkans and Turkey

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

After a bumper start to the year, Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator this week only handed out some 60,000 new offsets this week, while the government launched a public consultation on some proposed changes to the carbon credit programme.

Fears grow companies may use it to get around temporary fracking moratorium

Campaigners have warned that the fracking moratorium announced by the UK government does not apply to acid fracking, a process that involves injecting acid into the earth to dissolve and fracture rock.

More than 500 academics, politicians and campaigners have signed an open letter initiated by Brockham Oil Watch calling on the government to ban the practice over fears companies may use it to get around the moratorium.

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Australia's Kangaroo Island has been likened to Noah's Ark - but its unique wildlife is under threat.

New plan to encourage NSW drivers to adopt electric vehicles to be released soon by the NSW Liberal government, while federal Coalition ignores EVs in new auto industry report.

The post NSW flags imminent release of EV strategy, as feds ignore electric in auto transition report appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Solar monitoring company Solar Analytics has found that rooftop PV systems in Sydney and Canberra saw PV output plummet by 15 – 45% on heavy smoke haze days.

The post How much does smoke haze affect rooftop solar production? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Just four days into the New Year, the City of Newcastle reaped the benefits from the resilience created by its 100 per cent renewable energy plan.

The post Newcastle builds local energy resilience with its 100 per cent renewable plan appeared first on RenewEconomy.

AEMO convenes meeting with wind and solar project developers frustrated by constraints and connection delays in western Victoria and NSW.

The post AEMO to meet wind and solar industry over NSW, Victoria grid blockages appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rain falls across drought and fire-ravaged parts of Australia, drenching cities and giving firefighters a chance to get fires under control

• Drought-stricken NSW and Victoria celebrate the rain

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Microsoft pledges to go 'carbon negative', investing $1 billion to research tech to remove company's historical greenhouse gas emissions from atmosphere.

The post Microsoft pledges to go ‘climate negative’, and remove 45-years of company emissions appeared first on RenewEconomy.