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Two of out three of Australia’s independently ranked safest cars are electric vehicles, and both of those are Teslas.

The post Telsa Models X and 3 ranked among Australia’s Top 3 safest cars for 2019 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The family had brought the tree to their home and decorated it before they spotted the bird, who initially didn’t want to leave

A Georgia family got a real hoot from its Christmas tree: more than a week after they bought it, they discovered a live owl nestled among its branches.

Katie McBride Newman said on Friday that she and her daughter spotted the bird on 12 December. They had bought the 10ft-tall tree from a Home Depot, brought it back to their Atlanta area home and decorated it with lights and, coincidentally, owl ornaments.

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California and Quebec will auction off 65.7 million current and future vintage allowances on Feb. 19, as the quarterly sales fall significantly from 2019 levels.

European carbon closed a little lower on Friday, ending a four-day streak of gains, but EUAs recovered from a gas market-induced intraday sell-off earlier in the day to notch a better than 10% rise for the week.

The government has an opportunity to pivot in 2020 – to actually do something rather than pretending to

It’s hot as I write this final column for 2019, the day is creeping towards 40C. It’s dry. The ground is like concrete, and dust is obscuring yellowed grass on my parched suburban block. Bushfire smoke has rolled in and out of Canberra. Smoke is the last thing I smell before going to sleep and the first thing I smell as I wake up.

With the summer stretching out in front of us and no significant rain forecast before April, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, December and January promises extreme weather, burning bushland, eerie blood-red sunsets. Towns are on the brink of running out of water. Instead of resting and recharging with their loved ones, emergency services workers are spending their days toiling in a hellscape.

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An estimated 120-150 million EU carbon allowances that remain to be auctioned by the UK before it formally exits the bloc and its ETS at the end of 2020 are most likely to be spread evenly across 10 months of sales next year, experts predict.

The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, from fighting sloths to rescued orangutans

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The US EPA finalised its biofuel quotas under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on Thursday, with the rule containing small tweaks from the draft released earlier this year.

Court rules Dutch government has duty to protect citizens’ rights in face of climate change

The Netherlands’ supreme court has upheld a ruling ordering the country’s government to do much more to cut carbon emissions, after a six-year fight for climate justice.

The court ruled that the government had explicit duties to protect its citizens’ human rights in the face of climate change and must reduce emissions by at least 25% compared with 1990 levels by the end of 2020.

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The top court upholds a ruling requiring 1990 levels to be cut by at least 25% by the end of 2020.

Christmas is peak time for blockages and consumers are urged to be more careful about what they put down pipes

It looks like a 5ft-long grey sausage made of hundreds of scruffy pieces of fabric. On closer inspection, brightly coloured plastic, condoms and rubber bands can be identified in the bizarre-looking mass.

This is known in the water industry as “rag”, the technical term for items that do not degrade once they have been flushed down the toilet. The greyish material that dominates the mass is wet wipes, now the scourge of the UK’s sewers. Combined with fat and grease that has been tipped down sinks, it is already starting to build up into a fatberg.

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The test flight has a dummy on board but, if successful, astronauts are due to start using the craft from 2020.

The Dutch Supreme Court on Friday ruled to order the country’s government to set deeper emissions reduction targets, in a ground-breaking decision that could help establish a global precedent in forcing states to act to prevent climate change.

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

Research shows underground storage can create new form of element which could affect groundwater

A new form of uranium has been discovered which is likely to have implications for current nuclear waste disposal plans, say scientists.

Many governments are planning to dispose of radioactive waste by burying it deep underground. However, new research has found that in such storage conditions a new chemical form of uranium can temporarily occur, while small amounts of uranium are released into solution. If uranium is in solution, it could make its way into groundwater.

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Airport blames Civil Aviation Authority for denying its request to quadruple spending

Heathrow has said its controversial plan to build of a third runway will be delayed by at least a year after the aviation regulator denied its request to quadruple spending before gaining planning consent.

Heathrow had asked the Civil Aviation Authority for permission to boost spending from £650m to £2.4bn despite the fact it has not yet gained permission to expand. Heathrow said the decision not to greenlight the amount it had requested would delay a third runway being completed until between “early 2028 and late 2029”.

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The species is being forced into deeper waters by a disease that locals believe is exacerbated by pollution and global heating

There’s an account of a fifth-century marker that stood on the border between what is now Algeria and Tunisia. On it was recorded the taxes levied on the different kinds of goods that passed its way: dates, grain and, critically, sponges.

Sponges continue to be harvested in Tunisia. Sailing from the Kerkennah Islands and the southern fishing town of Zarzis, Tunisian sponge fishermen have been plying the high-risk trade carried on by their families for as long as anyone can remember.

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MidCoast council tells residents, who are on level-four water restrictions, that water may be trucked in, if necessary

Residents in the New South Wales community of Gloucester have been told there is a risk the river that supplies their drinking water could run dry in the coming weeks – for the first time in recorded history.

Gloucester’s town water supply comes from the Barrington River, which flows from the typically fertile Barrington Tops national park.

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