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Victoria’s first waste-to-energy project is going ahead but these projects threaten recycling and could pose health concerns

It’s the controversial scheme that’s attracting attention across the nation but as more waste-to-energy facilities get the green light, critics fear the opportunity to improve Australia’s recycling industry is going up in smoke.

Waste-to-energy, also called bioenergy, has been used in Europe, east Asia and the United States for decades to destroy garbage that would otherwise go to landfill. The trash is burned as feedstock at high temperatures to create fuel, gas or steam that drives a turbine and churns out electricity.

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ASX-listed Australian flow battery maker says it can boost production of its ZMB2 batteries to 30MWh a year, and cut costs by 30% by 2020.

The post Redflow says on track to cut flow battery production costs by one-third appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

Britain has a new order of insects - thanks to stowaways setting up home in the warmth of a glasshouse.

The first British-led expedition to gather space rocks in the Antarctic returns with 36 objects.

Simec Energy’s Marc Barrington on the Gupta company’s plans for clean energy, the PUB battery at Port Augusta, and trying to make sense of the Coalition energy policy.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Simec Energy and ScoMo’s big hydro pump appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the state’s Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) after an industry trade group had argued that a regulatory agency improperly implemented the low-carbon fuel standard several years ago.

France could move to a floating carbon tax linked to oil prices in an attempt to calm unrest and allay consumer concerns, modifying the government's current and highly-divisive approach of fixing a schedule of steep annual rises, President Emmanuel Macron said this week.

NSW Labor says will target at least 50% renewables by 2030, and 100% of state government electricity needs by 2025.

The post NSW Labor aims for “at least” 50% renewables by 2030 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The first quarterly WCI current vintage auction of 2019 sold out at the higher end of traders' predictions, according to results released Wednesday, despite the absence of embattled California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).

California regulator ARB gave out more than 2.5 million carbon offsets (CCOs) this week, with forestry projects bringing in nearly the entirety of that amount.

European carbon prices surged 8% on Wednesday, extending its recent recovery rally to erase the losses posted over the past two weeks.

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will start formal high level talks in Hanoi today, with denuclearisation at the top of the agenda.

Too much recyclable packaging is still finding its way into landfill - and plastic is the biggest culprit, with two-thirds going unrecovered, according to a new analysis. Ben Madden, Senior Research Consultant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Nick Florin, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund made further divestments from coal and agricultural businesses in 2018, furthering its climate risk strategy, it said in its annual report on Wednesday.

On Instagram, the congresswoman said millennials are choosing to be childless because of the climate crisis. But that approach risks overlooking systematic factors

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, freshman congresswoman and social media sensation, has taken time out from baiting Donald Trump and establishment members of her own party to raise a profound moral question for us all: in light of the escalating climate emergency, should we still be having children?

During a recent Q&A live-streamed on Instagram, apparently shot while she was pottering in her kitchen, the rising star of the Democratic party – and one of the few frontline politicians to get the scale of the environmental emergency – pulled no punches in telling viewers that unless we take urgent, radical action on emissions, there is no hope for the future. “It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult, and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?”

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Move to evict protesters who have squatted site since 2010 comes days before judicial review of third runway plans

Bailiffs have moved in on a community of environmental protesters who have been camping near Heathrow for almost nine years, following an eviction order to remove the men and women occupying part of the land.

Related: Charity calls for court to livestream Heathrow third runway challenge

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Protesters glued themselves to windows of central London hotel hosting industry event

Nine activists from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion have been arrested after they glued themselves to the front of a central London hotel to demand that the petroleum industry end its “deeply immoral” behaviour in driving climate change.

Specialist police officers spent about two hours unsticking the protesters from windows next to the entrance of the InterContinental Park Lane hotel in Mayfair, which was hosting an oil and gas industry conference.

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A standalone UK ETS would be large enough and liquid enough to be viable, UK climate minister Claire Perry said on Wednesday, reiterating that the government’s preferred post-Brexit option remains linking with the EU carbon market.

What is causing the multiple February wildfires and is this the new normal?