Around The Web

As the UN sits down for its annual climate conference this week, many experts believe we have passed the point of no return

On Sunday morning hundreds of politicians, government officials and scientists will gather in the grandeur of the International Congress Centre in Katowice, Poland. It will be a familiar experience for many. For 24 years the annual UN climate conference has served up a reliable diet of rhetoric, backroom talks and dramatic last-minute deals aimed at halting global warming.

But this year’s will be a grimmer affair – by far. As recent reports have made clear, the world may no longer be hovering at the edge of destruction but has probably staggered beyond a crucial point of no return. Climate catastrophe is now looking inevitable. We have simply left it too late to hold rising global temperatures to under 1.5C and so prevent a future of drowned coasts, ruined coral reefs, spreading deserts and melted glaciers.

Continue reading...

Coles and Woolworths have prevented an estimated 1.5 billion bags being introduced into the environment

The ban on single-use plastic bags by Australia’s two largest supermarkets prevented the introduction of an estimated 1.5 billion bags into the environment, and the retail industry is hopeful this is only the beginning.

Coles and Woolworths’ decision to stop offering single-use disposable plastic bags midway through the year was initially met with swift public backlash.

Continue reading...

Renewables reach 9GW for first time on Saturday, and wind and solar do that without hydro on Sunday.

The post Milestone – Australia renewables output hits 9GW for first time appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Chile has banned stores from handing out free plastic bags to shoppers and it is a headache for some.

The squirrel, named Horatio, was acting "really confused" when found by the side of the road.

As representatives gather in Poland for talks on climate change, we look at how hot the world has got and what can we can all do to tackle global warming.

A cross between a bus and light rail promises better transport; humans are sounding more like bots online; and solar panels on roads might deliver more hype than energy.

Official minimize warnings and say government report considers only the highest possible levels of greenhouse gas emissions

The Trump administration has a new strategy for deflecting concerns about the warming planet.

Related: Why no US region is safe from climate change

Continue reading...

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

The UK's herbaria are great scientific collections that must be safeguarded for the future, say scientists.

A technique used to study earthquakes have been adapted to track elephants in the wild.

Zanzibar’s Masingini Natural Forest Reserve provides drinking water for much of the island and habitat for dozens of rare and endangered species, but its forests are being illegally clear-cut. Meanwhile, in the Brazilian Amazon, the “lungs of the planet”, recent satellite images show 7900 square km of illegal deforestation in just the last year. Isolated transgressions? Hardly.

The 2018 Emissions Gap Report released this week by UN Environment shows global emissions have hit an historic high and are showing "no signs of peaking".

A growing number of Canadian provinces and organisations are taking sides and requesting to intervene in the legal fights against the federal government’s carbon tax.

Scientists in Wales are looking at how slag heaps can be used to remove CO2 from the air in the fight against climate change.

Sam Gyimah says a row about the EU's Galileo sat-nav system shows any deal will be "EU first".

Companies that exceed their emissions limits set under South Africa’s upcoming climate laws will be forced to pay a penalty of at least five times the country’s carbon tax.

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Environment has outlined 25 targets across five areas to complement the province's climate change strategy and reduce the impacts of global warming.

Adani’s plans to get started quickly on a scaled-down version of its Queensland mega-mine still face numerous obstacles

The Indian mining giant Adani could be left in limbo until September – well after the federal election – before learning whether its controversial Carmichael coal project will be allowed to access the Queensland freight rail network.

Adani announced on Thursday it would self-finance the Carmichael mine and that construction would begin “imminently”. But the company still has to gain several regulatory approvals and negotiate access for its coal trains to use the Aurizon network.

Continue reading...

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected calls from refiners to lower its conventional renewable fuel quota from 15 billion gallons in 2019, while finalising a modest 3% increase to its total biofuels requirement for next year, the agency announced Friday.