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‘Perverse’ payments must be redirected to measures such as capturing carbon, report says

The public is providing more than $1m per minute in global farm subsidies, much of which is driving the climate crisis and destruction of wildlife, according to a new report.

Just 1% of the $700bn (£560bn) a year given to farmers is used to benefit the environment, the analysis found. Much of the total instead promotes high-emission cattle production, forest destruction and pollution from the overuse of fertiliser.

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Billions of bogong moths are setting out from Queensland, but not reaching Victoria. We need citizen scientists to help figure out where they're ending up. Sally Sherwen, Director Wildlife Conservation and Science, Zoos Victoria, University of Melbourne Therésa Jones, Lecturer in Evolution and Behaviour, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Tesla Model 3 price in Australia has jumped, just two weeks after the first deliveries of the long awaited electric sedan commenced in the country.

The post Tesla Model 3 prices jump as Australian dollar falls against greenback appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Zero carbon by 2050 is code for “ we aren’t going to do anything to decarbonise today”. And Labor should stick to its interim targets.

The post Setting only long term zero carbon targets is code for “we’re doing nothing now” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Another solar farm joins Queensland's electricity grid as day-time wholesale prices remain at or below zero for lengthy periods.

The post Another solar farm starts up in Queensland as daytime prices stuck near zero appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The purpose of the role is to support local government in overcoming key barriers to implementing clean energy and other emissions reduction projects.

Eight years after the triple disaster, Japan’s local industry faces fresh crisis – the dumping of radioactive water from the power plant

On the afternoon of 11 March 2011, Tetsu Nozaki watched helplessly as a wall of water crashed into his boats in Onahama, a small fishing port on Japan’s Pacific coast.

Nozaki lost three of his seven vessels in one of the worst tsunami disasters in Japan’s history, part of a triple disaster in which 18,000 people died. But the torment for Nozaki and his fellow fishermen didn’t end there. The resulting triple meltdown at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant forced the evacuation of more than 150,000 people and sent a plume of radiation into the air and sea.

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The UN has convened has urged countries to “come with a plan” for ambitious emissions reduction, but Australia is not expected to propose any significant new actions or goals.

The post Australia to attend climate summit empty-handed, despite UN pleas to ‘come with a plan’ appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The UK should advance its climate targets by 10 years, says the UK’s former chief scientist.

Jordan is one of the countries most affected by rising temperatures – and it’s predicted to get worse.

The competition watchdog says households are paying lower energy bills, following the introduction of federal laws aimed at driving down costs.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack says at least a dozen dams can be built under the new National Water Grid Authority.

The UN has asked world leaders to bring concrete climate action plans to this week's summit - and Australia is likely to cop heavy criticism. Frank Jotzo, Director, Centre for Climate and Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Readers give their views on what needs to be done to combat climate disaster and save the planet

Fiona Harvey is surely right when she says “adaptation alone won’t save us from climate disaster” (Journal, 12 September). She gives an apt metaphor that adaptation “while continuing to burn fossil fuels is like trying to mop up an overflowing sink while the taps are still running”, but she still talks of mechanisms for “better economic growth”.

Political leaders worldwide need to recognise the causal connection between economic growth and global heating, manifest in fossil fuel consumption. To save the planet, fossil fuels need to stay underground – unused by the greed of humankind. Our energy must come from wind, wave, hydraulic and solar sources, but this will be insufficient to maintain many of our industries and, consequently, many jobs will be lost.

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The Guardian’s comic artist Susie Cagle draws some conclusions from a major CBS News poll released today as part of Covering Climate Now

• Read the full poll results: ‘Americans are waking up’

CBS News surveyed a representative sample of more than 2,000 Americans earlier this month and found that…

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Major CBS News poll released as part of Covering Climate Now, a collaboration of more than 250 news outlets around the world to strengthen coverage of the climate story

Two-thirds of Americans believe climate change is either a crisis or a serious problem, with a majority wanting immediate action to address global heating and its damaging consequences, major new polling has found.

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The Guardian joins The Nation and Columbia Journalism Review in launching a new partnership among more than 200 news organizations to improve coverage of the climate crisis.

Hundreds of newsrooms around the world are banding together this week to commit their pages and air time to what may be the most consequential story of our time: the climate emergency.

As world leaders descend on New York for the UN Climate Action Summit on 23 September – and millions of activists prepare for a global climate strike on 20 September – the media partnership Covering Climate Now is launching its first large-scale collaboration to increase climate coverage in the global media and focus public attention on this emergency.

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An IPCC report says two-thirds of glaciers on the largest ice sheet after the Arctic and Antarctic are set to disappear in 80 years

Many moons ago in Tibet, the Second Buddha transformed a fierce nyen (a malevolent mountain demon) into a neri (the holiest protective warrior god) called Khawa Karpo, who took up residence in the sacred mountain bearing his name. Khawa Karpo is the tallest of the Meili mountain range, piercing the sky at 6,740 metres (22,112ft) above sea level. Local Tibetan communities believe that conquering Khawa Karpo is an act of sacrilege and would cause the deity to abandon his mountain home. Nevertheless, there have been several failed attempts by outsiders – the best known by an international team of 17, all of whom died in an avalanche during their ascent on 3 January 1991. After much local petitioning, in 2001 Beijing passed a law banning mountaineering there.

However, Khawa Karpo continues to be affronted more insidiously. Over the past two decades, the Mingyong glacier at the foot of the mountain has dramatically receded. Villagers blame disrespectful human behaviour, including an inadequacy of prayer, greater material greed and an increase in pollution from tourism. People have started to avoid eating garlic and onions, burning meat, breaking vows or fighting for fear of unleashing the wrath of the deity. Mingyong is one of the world’s fastest shrinking glaciers, but locals cannot believe it will die because their own existence is intertwined with it. Yet its disappearance is almost inevitable.

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Animal Rebellion’s actions highlight the impact of meat eating on the planet’s future

In 1991, 17-year-old Alex Lockwood was flipping through the Guardian Weekend magazine in his family’s car, en route to a family Sunday roast, when he spotted an image that changed his life. A harpooned whale, its body bloodied and lifeless, drew him to a feature about its killing.

“That picture just shook me; it seemed so wrong. When I got to my nan’s house it hit me that the roast on the table was an animal that had also been killed.” He became vegetarian, then vegan, and nearly three decades later is one of the founding members of Extinction Rebellion’s new sister organisation, Animal Rebellion, which formed in June and plans to blockade London’s Smithfield Market – Britain’s largest meat distribution market – in October.

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Latest data ‘not released until Defra announced 60,000 animals would be killed in 2019’

Tuberculosis levels in cattle have risen in the original two areas of the country where the badger cull has been piloted over the past five years, raising questions about the merit of expanding the scheme.

The figures are confirmed in official data quietly released last week as the government announced plans to expand the controversial cull in England, which campaigners say could see more than 60,000 badgers killed this year.

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