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The EU will probably seek to add cement and power imports into its ETS as a border carbon adjustment before expanding to other sectors, a think-tank said on Wednesday.

A coalition of fossil-based and renewable electricity generators and trade groups petitioned the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday to host a technical conference on carbon pricing, as more regional grid operators debate the inclusion of a CO2 adder in wholesale power markets.

Fall in wholesale prices - driven by lower demand caused by pandemic and influx of wind and solar - likely to favour "mega" projects over smaller ones.

The post Falling electricity prices could favour shift to “mega” wind and solar projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Stressed animals are more likely to harbour new diseases because their immune systems are compromised. Clive Phillips, Professor of Animal Welfare, Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs have more than halved their forecast for EU carbon prices to €15 in 2021 in light of mounting bearish pressures including the coronavirus crisis, and have said further reforms to the ETS are urgently needed.

Ireland’s potential new government is pushing ahead with plans to raise the country’s carbon tax, calling climate change a more pressing crisis than the coronavirus.

From coyotes in San Francisco to deer in Romford, animals are taking over streets vacated by people

Few are lucky enough to go wild these days. Under lockdown our horizons have shrunk. Beloved nature reserves and glorious national parks must wait until the quarantine is lifted. Yet the wild is coming to us. In Essex, deer roam a housing estate. In Llandudno, goats charge down the streets. In San Francisco, coyotes prowl the Golden Gate Bridge. Inner-city residents may see a bird of prey overhead for the first time, or notice flashes of colour from butterflies which usually shun their gardens.

Animals are moving into the spaces that humans have vacated, and we are unusually receptive to their arrival. When days seem so indistinct, the appearance of a new bird in a backyard suddenly seizes our attention. A morning walk through a quiet park may have replaced a commute on a packed bus. Birdsong is clearer now that the traffic has hushed.

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Emissions in the EU ETS dropped by over 8% in 2019, according to nearly complete compliance data published by the European Commission Wednesday, confirming analyst estimates that last year saw the largest fall since the start of the global financial crisis.

Australian government to back 43 concepts in ambitious $150m research and development program

Brightening clouds with salt crystals and deploying slicks of coral larvae to try and limit the impacts of global heating on the Great Barrier Reef are among more than 40 concepts being backed by the Australian government in an ambitious $150m research and development program.

A two-year feasibility study released by the government on Thursday has reduced about 160 potential ideas to a list of 43 that will be funded for further investigation under the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP).

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Higher Canadian emissions in 2018 continued to take the country further away from its Paris Agreement target, as GHG growth in the oil and gas sector persisted and Ontario bucked its previous abatement progress, according to government data published on Wednesday.

Cloud-free skies played a key role in one of the worst years for Greenland's ice sheet.

EUAs slipped further below €20 on Wednesday, undoing more of the recent rally as wider markets fell.

New Zealand’s only oil refinery will be brought into the nation’s emissions trading scheme after its exemption agreement with the government expires at the end of 2022, the company said, while announcing a strategic review of its role in the domestic fuel market.

Cultural nuance and wider view of supply chain ignored in debate following Covid-19 outbreak, say those proposing regulation over ban

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Attacks and calls to ban “wet markets” because of their potential for spreading diseases such as Covid-19 may be missing the point, say experts.

Earlier this week Sir Paul McCartney, a long-time vegetarian campaigner, called wet markets “medieval” and said that it made sense to ban them. “When you’ve got the obscenity of some of the stuff that’s going on there and what comes out of it, they might as well be letting off atomic bombs. It’s affecting the whole world.”

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An initial $150 million will be invested in the new phase of the government’s Reef Restoration and Adaptation work, following the government’s endorsement of a two-year feasibility study led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science into a...

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has issued almost 240,000 new carbon credits in its latest round of awards, with all of them going to vegetation-based projects in Queensland and New South Wales.

Wildlife conservation efforts are essential to preventing outbreaks, scientists and advocates say

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For more than five years, wildlife conservationists in the US have been clamoring for the government to provide Endangered Species Act protections to pangolins, a group of imperiled ant-eating mammals that are widely, and often illicitly, trafficked for their scales and meat. The Trump administration, however, has refused to act and that refusal has suddenly taken on grave new implications.

Earlier this year, scientists in China identified pangolins, along with bats, as one of the possible animal hosts involved in the transmission of the deadly coronavirus from wildlife to humans.

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WWF has compiled a list of animal species whose social behaviours make them self-isolation experts. Humans are social beings: we rarely go a day without some form of interaction – either in the workplace, at the shops or at home. The coronavirus crisis is forcing people around the world to spend more time than ever alone, prompting many to rely on digital communication to connect to loved ones.

For many species in the animal kingdom, however, self-isolation is not a new concept. It’s in their instinct. From land mammals to ocean species, many choose to live in solitude outside of essential activity: to eat and to breed

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WA energy minister Bill Johnston joins the Energy Insiders podcast to explain his state’s transition plans. “We can make our own rules,” he says.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Why WA could take lead in renewable energy transition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian and Japanese scientists collaborate to design new super flexible, lightweight and efficient solar cells that could be used in wearable fabrics.

The post Australian scientists help unlock potential of flexible and wearable solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.