Around The Web

Areas of Australia have burnt during the recent bushfire season that used to be too wet to burn. In this first episode of The Frontline, a new series that shows how everyday Australians are already experiencing the climate crisis, we go inside the new fire zone

Continue reading...

The IEA will gather ministers and energy industry leaders this summer with the aim of accelerating clean energy deployment this decade and building momentum ahead of the start of the Paris Agreement.

Acting Lib Dem leader Ed Davey calls for action as he lambasts ‘shambolic’ approach to talks

A cross-party committee of MPs, green campaigning groups, business leaders and climate experts is needed to advise the government on crunch UN climate talks later this year to put the UK’s hosting of the COP26 talks back on track, the Liberal Democrat acting leader, Sir Ed Davey, is expected to say.

His call, which will form part of a speech on climate delivered at Birkbeck College in London on Thursday, comes after the energy minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, told a meeting of ambassadors that the UK could not afford to allow the talks to fail because of the additional pressures of Brexit.

Continue reading...

Readers discuss the psychological impact of the climate crisis and suggest ways to tackle it

As a parent of two children, aged nine and 12, I read with deep concern, though not surprise, your article on the rise of climate anxiety among young people (Take action to reduce anxiety, psychologists advise, 10 February).

I remember vividly the Guardian’s coverage of the Earth Summit in 1992 and the prof ound impact that had on me at the age of 26. Many climate marches and lifestyle changes later, I find myself also at a point of near despair when I look around at the abundance of poorly equipped, scientifically and socially illiterate leaders we have around the globe. They are not fit for the enormous task of beginning to fix our world – they are certainly not looking out for the next generation – and yet people my age seem to be voting for them in ever greater numbers.

Continue reading...

Oil major BP set a new voluntary 2050 climate goals on Wednesday, pledging to achieve zero emissions from its operations and to halve the carbon intensity of its products.

MEPs support €29bn schemes, ‘locking Europe into burning fossil fuels for generations’

The EU has given its formal backing to 32 major gas infrastructure projects in a move critics say will lock Europe into burning fossil fuels for generations.

MEPs voted to support the European commission’s proposal by 443 votes to 169 on Wednesday, with 36 abstentions, provoking environmental groups to lament Brussels’ “hypocrisy” over the climate emergency.

Continue reading...

Dams between Scotland, Norway, France and England ‘a possible solution’ to problem

A Dutch government scientist has proposed building two mammoth dams to completely enclose the North Sea and protect an estimated 25 million Europeans from the consequences of rising sea levels as a result of global heating.

Sjoerd Groeskamp, an oceanographer at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, said a 475km dam between north Scotland and west Norway and another 160km one between west France and south-west England was “a possible solution”.

Continue reading...

Jonathan Watts breaks down the oil company’s statements on its plans to cut carbon emissions in the coming decades

BP’s new chief executive, Bernard Looney, has announced plans to make it a net zero company by 2050, and outlined its strategy in a document. The Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, examines what it says – and what it means:

BP today set a new ambition to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero.

The ambition is supported by 10 aims.

Continue reading...

The Virginia Senate passed a clean energy bill Tuesday night that would implement the state’s RGGI-modelled power sector ETS regulation with state-run allowance auctions, following the House’s approval of its own version earlier in the day and setting up a signature from Governor Ralph Northam (D).

A US research ship is the first vessel to encounter Antarctica's giant new iceberg.

Johnson told MPs figure was £350m but sources say he made error in ‘car crash of an announcement’

The government has earmarked £1bn for safe cycling and walking routes in the next five years – not £350m, as Boris Johnson mistakenly told parliament in what one expert called “a car crash of an announcement”, the Guardian has learned.

But £1bn is still not enough to even build Greater Manchester’s 1,800-mile Bee Network of safe paths, according to its architect, Chris Boardman, a former Olympic cycling champion who is the region’s walking and cycling commissioner. He has asked Johnson for £1.2bn and says he will continue to do so.

Continue reading...

EUAs leapt higher on Wednesday on a strong showing at Poland's bumper auction and as the energy complex made gains on signs that the coronavirus, now officially known as Covid-19, could be waning.

EUREC, the association of 36 European renewable energy research centres, is looking to fill the position of Secretary General for its Brussels-based representation office. We are looking for a proactive manager with leadership skills, a strong sense of responsibility and a good understanding of strategic issues, who is keen to work in the friendly and motivated environment.

You will be part of a team of three in Brussels and coordinate the shipping policy campaign with our partners at national level. Candidates with degrees in one of the following areas are strongly encouraged to apply though anyone with the relevant skills and interests will be considered: European law, EU governance, (EU or maritime) economics, environmental science.

Transport secretary’s disclosure of earlier target likely to rattle carmakers

The government could ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars in 2032, three years earlier than previously suggested, the transport secretary has said.

A consultation launched last week suggested all cars with internal combustion engines could be banned from 2035 but Grant Shapps told BBC radio on Wednesday the ban could come within 12 years.

Continue reading...

The Guangdong carbon exchange has postponed a CO2 allowance auction under its emissions trading scheme originally scheduled for Wednesday, with a new date yet to be set.

South Korean spot CO2 allowances rose to their highest levels since Dec. 26 on Wednesday, with prices reaching even higher in the monthly auction in the afternoon, pushing the 40,000 won threshold.

New Zealand carbon allowances have shed 4.3% this week, dipping below NZ$27 in Wednesday trade as emitters sold off permits, preparing to pay the NZ$25 fixed price option at the May compliance.

A report shows that when bike lanes are built, people cycle more and drive less

If you took a time machine back to John Dobson Street in central Newcastle in 2013, you’d be struck by its transformation in the years since.

An inhospitable dual carriageway has been replaced by a single carriageway with wider pavements and a 400m bike lane. The result: a fourfold increase in people cycling along the route.

Continue reading...

An expansive drilling plan has lured companies to pristine lands in the American west, despite a surplus in US oil supply

The Trump administration has offered oil companies a chunk of the American west that’s four times the size of California – an expansive drilling plan that threatens to entrench the industry at the expense of other outdoor jobs, while locking in enough emissions to undermine global climate policy.

Energy companies have leased 9.9m acres from the unprecedented 461m acres put up for rent by the Trump administration, according to a new analysis from the Wilderness Society.

Continue reading...