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China Climate Lead, World Resources Institute – Beijing
Associate Director, Global Resilience Practice North America, 100 Resilient Cities – New York
Tasmania’s Battery of the Nation plan only makes sense when coal retires
Scott Morrison should be careful what he prays for: fast-tracking the Tasmania battery of the nation project only makes sense if Australia fast-tracks the exit of coal generation and lifts emission cuts to 50% by 2030.
The post Tasmania’s Battery of the Nation plan only makes sense when coal retires appeared first on RenewEconomy.
The plastic problem
Botswana elephant poaching 'no hoax'
Morrison puts lipstick on Tony Abbott’s pig of a climate policy
Scott Morrison re-badges Tony Abbott's Direct Action policy and calls it something which it is not: A Climate Solutions package.
The post Morrison puts lipstick on Tony Abbott’s pig of a climate policy appeared first on RenewEconomy.
If the Coalition has had a climate epiphany, I'm Beyoncé | Katharine Murphy
Call the emissions reduction fund a ‘climate solutions’ fund if you like, but it doesn’t mean it is
Let’s start with the good news. Scott Morrison is talking constructively about climate change because he is intelligent enough to understand that failing to do that renders the Coalition unelectable in parts of the country, and with parts of its own base.
Compared with where we’ve been, a Liberal prime minister standing up at a podium, accepting the science of climate change and making the case for action, is progress.
Continue reading...The Driven Podcast: Robert Llewellyn’s electric transition from Red Dwarf to Fully Charged
Robert Llewellyn is a comedian an actor who was best known for his role as the “mechanoid” Kryten in the iconic series Red Dwarf, but is now telling millions about the transition to electric vehicles.
The post The Driven Podcast: Robert Llewellyn’s electric transition from Red Dwarf to Fully Charged appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Alinta commits to 212MW wind farm, biggest in Western Australia
Alinta commits to building Yandin wind farm, which will be the biggest in W.A., and have a "capacity factor" of around 50 per cent.
The post Alinta commits to 212MW wind farm, biggest in Western Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Life after coal: Lincoln Gap wind farm powers up, battery to be installed soon
Former coal town of Port Augusta continues transformation into a major renewable energy hub with "powering up" of the 212MW Lincoln Gap wind farm, and its associated battery.
The post Life after coal: Lincoln Gap wind farm powers up, battery to be installed soon appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia pledges A$200m annual boost to carbon offset fund
Emissions reduction fund to pay for fossil fuel plant that would be built anyway
Exclusive: miner Gold Fields to get $1m from Coalition fund for gas power plant for its Western Australian mine
The Morrison government’s emissions reduction fund – rebadged as a “climate solutions” policy and to be boosted with an extra $2bn – is being used to help one of the world’s biggest gold miners pay for a fossil fuel power plant the company concedes it would have built anyway.
Fund opponents say it is the latest evidence that design flaws in the scheme are leading to taxpayers’ money being wasted on projects that are commercially viable even without public support. In some cases, the climate funding is going to new fossil fuel projects on the grounds that they are cleaner than the dirty projects they replace.
Continue reading...China is killing the world using imported coal
China's insatiable demand for property development and to add floor space is causing it to turn to imported coal that it - and the world - can barely afford.
The post China is killing the world using imported coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Decline in bogong moth numbers leaves pygmy mountain possums starving
Exclusive: climate change linked to ‘astonishing’ drop in bogong moth numbers, the key food source for possums while breeding
Numbers of unique Australian moths that migrate in their billions to alpine areas have crashed, ecologists say, putting extra pressure on the endangered mountain pygmy possum.
Scientists believe the “astonishing” drop in bogong moth numbers is linked to climate change and recent droughts in areas where the moths breed.
Continue reading...British Steel, other UK firms face hefty ETS compliance bills linked to Brexit ‘shield’
Victoria's recycling crisis just the tip of Australia's waste iceberg
Grouse estates investigated over heather burning
Evidence collected by Friends of the Earth allege estates have continued practice despite voluntary commitments to stop
An official watchdog is investigating five grouse-shooting estates for allegedly damaging the environment in a practice that they had pledged to stop.
Natural England is looking into allegations that the estates have repeatedly burned heather on their land to maximise the number of grouse for shooting. The watchdog launched its investigation after being passed evidence in the form of eyewitness accounts that the environmental group Friends of the Earth had collected.
Continue reading...Ban Ki-moon tells Britain: stop investing in fossil fuels overseas
Former UN secretary-general says country must live up to Theresa May’s commitment
Ban Ki-moon has urged Britain to stop funding fossil fuel projects overseas, in what he said would mark a test of Theresa May’s commitment to act on climate change.
The former UN secretary general said he was deeply concerned that the UK’s export credit agency had provided billions of pounds in recent years to support businesses involved in oil and gas schemes around the world.
Continue reading...Badgers, stoats and otters stage ‘incredible’ revival
They must survive government culls, gamekeepers, poisoning, persecution and increasingly busy roads but, in modern times at least, Britain’s carnivores have never had it so good: badger, otter, pine marten, polecat, stoat and weasel populations have “markedly improved” since the 1960s, according to a new study.
The otter, polecat and pine marten have bounced back from the brink of extinction, and the country’s only carnivorous mammal now in danger of being wiped out is the wildcat, with the dwindling Scottish populations hit by hybridisation with domestic and feral cats.
Continue reading...Kew’s tree library leads hi-tech war on illegal logging
New techniques will help customs officers identify and seize wood that came from endangered species
The wooden blinds that lie crumpled in Peter Gasson’s laboratory in Kew Gardens are chipped and forlorn-looking. Their manufacturers had claimed they were made of pine but customs officers were wary. And their suspicions were well-founded. Gasson, Kew’s research leader on wood and timber, found the blinds were not made of pine but ramin.
“All ramin trees, which grow in south-east Asia, are endangered and trade in their wood is illegal,” said Gasson. “On this occasion, we got lucky and stopped people profiting from this trade.”
Continue reading...