Around The Web

First production delivered from Murra Warra wind farm near Horsham in Victoria, that will deliver cheap electricity to Telstra and other corporate buyers.

The post First production delivered from Murra Warra wind farm in Victoria appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A closer look at Extinction Rebellion's demands and how the government might try to achieve them.

Supporters say they can make it easier for people in rural areas to get around.

The Norwegian Government backed company Equinor wants to drill in the Great Australian Bight but one global oil and gas expert is questioning the proposal.

The Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) is looking for a Green Growth and Natural Capital Research Consultant to provide substantive and programmatic support to the GGKP research programme and, particularly, the Natural Capital Expert Working Group. 

The Manager of the Climate Finance Tracking workstream is responsible for the development and management of new and existing initiatives, projects, products and analytical approaches related to climate finance tracking and measuring progress toward a zero carbon and climate resilient transition.

Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) is seeking an experienced candidate to manage CRS state policy outreach and contribute to our international policy and technical assistance team. This position will play a key role in supporting the organization’s goals of advancing the growth of renewable energy in the U.S. and internationally.

Victoria has some of the most carbon rich native forests in the world. And we're cutting them down for short-lived wood products. Chris Taylor, Research Fellow, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University David Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Environmental group The Nature Conservancy (TNC) will acquire a southeast US forestry project that has already generated several million California Carbon Offsets (CCOs) through the WCI cap-and-trade programme, with the organisation accumulating a majority of those credits in the process.

Swedish activist says world faces ‘existential crisis’ and must achieve goals of Paris deal

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, has given her support for a general strike for the climate, saying the student movement she inspired needs more support from older generations to ensure politicians keep their promises under the Paris agreement.

Speaking at a public event in London as Extinction Rebellion protests continued in the capital, the initiator of the school strike for climate movement was typically frank about the scale of the problem the world faces and the impact her campaign has made. “People are slowly becoming more aware, but emissions continue to rise. We can’t focus on small things. Basically, nothing has changed,” she said.

Continue reading...

The US news media devotes startlingly little time to climate change – how can newsrooms cover it in ways that will finally resonate with their audiences?

This article is excerpted from an piece published by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation. The Guardian is partnering with CJR and The Nation on a 30 April conference aimed at reframing the way journalists cover climate change. More information about the conference, including a link to RSVP, is here.

Last summer, during the deadliest wildfire season in California’s history, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes got into a revealing Twitter discussion about why US television doesn’t much cover climate change. Elon Green, an editor at Longform, had tweeted, “Sure would be nice if our news networks – the only outlets that can force change in this country – would cover it with commensurate urgency.” Hayes (who is an editor at large for The Nation) replied that his program had tried. Which was true: in 2016, All In With Chris Hayes spent an entire week highlighting the impact of climate change in the US as part of a look at the issues that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were ignoring. The problem, Hayes tweeted, was that “every single time we’ve covered [climate change] it’s been a palpable ratings killer. So the incentives are not great”.

Continue reading...

UK sees longest continuous period without generating electricity from coal as temperatures soar.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) awarded zero emissions certificates (ZECs) last week to three nuclear plant reactors, bolstering the renewable energy source ahead of the state’s entry into the northeast US RGGI carbon market in 2020.

Police say than 1,000 arrests made in eight days of Extinction Rebellion protests

Scores of environmental activists lay on the floor at the Natural History Museum in London as part of the eighth day of protests by Extinction Rebellion, which have brought chaos to the capital.

As many as 100 of the group’s protesters participated in the “die-in” on Monday afternoon to raise awareness of the mass extinction of species.

Continue reading...

Campaigner and barrister attempted to create a law to criminalise ecological damage

Polly Higgins, one of the most inspiring figures in the green movement, has died aged 50.

Higgins, a British barrister, led a decade-long campaign for “ecocide” to be recognised as a crime against humanity. She sold her house and gave up a high-paying job so she could dedicate herself to attempting to create a law that would make corporate executives and government ministers criminally liable for the damage they do to ecosystems.

Continue reading...

The Prime Minister spent the day fielding questions over a controversial $80 million dollar water purchase.

Mushrooms are wonderous, magic or not, because they taste so good in a soup or a sauce or or sautéed with some garlic. But they are so much more than that. Richard Gray takes us through the more extraordinary things that are happening with mushrooms right now.

Westpac becomes 4th Australian company – 3rd major bank – to sign up to global RE100 movement, starting with major solar offtake deal with 120MW Bomen Solar Farm.

The post Westpac taps NSW solar farm in shift to 100% renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Arrests made after police urge activists to move to Marble Arch, where Greta Thunberg spoke to protesters on Sunday

Police have cleared the remaining Extinction Rebellion activists from Waterloo Bridge in London, despite earlier calls on social media for people that were willing to be arrested to “go there and save it”.

The roads around Parliament Square were cleared of protesters earlier on Sunday, with the northbound carriageway of Waterloo Bridge reopened to traffic by the evening. On Sunday night, police continued their operations, moving to remove the last activists, who had glued themselves to the bridge and to each other.

Continue reading...

Shops that minimise the environmental impact of our consumer habits are springing up across Britain. Could they help us avert catastrophe?

The smell in Natural Weigh, a zero-waste shop that opened a year ago in Crickhowell in mid-Wales, is lovely. The shop – filled with pasta, grains, seeds and dried fruit served from hoppers to avoid plastic packaging; washing-up liquid and laundry products that customers pump into their battered old squeezy bottles; fair-trade coffee and chocolate, plus an array of environmentally friendly products, such as bamboo toothbrush holders, plastic-free dental floss and vegan leather snack pouches – looks lovely. The little town itself, which prides itself on having the best high street in Britain, is lovely, too. I am captivated.

Natural Weigh is part of a quiet revolution. Over the past two years, well over 100 of these stores have sprung up across the UK. Precise numbers are hard to come by, but some in the business say there are almost 200, many in environmental hotspots such as Brighton, Bath, Bristol and north-east London, but also in plenty of other less obviously fertile areas. Zero-wasters are in touch with each other on Facebook, and have their own bible in Bea Johnson’s book Zero Waste Home.

Continue reading...