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Australian “low-carbon heroes” recognised amid federal climate policy vacuum
RenewEconomy's Giles Parkinson named alongside GFG Alliance’s Sanjeev Gupta, climate policy pioneer Simon Corbell and community energy champion Nicky Ison, in 350.org list of more than 30 low-carbon heroes.
The post Australian “low-carbon heroes” recognised amid federal climate policy vacuum appeared first on RenewEconomy.
'Nature-based' greenhouse gas removal to limit UK climate change
The secret life of fungi: Ten fascinating facts
New edible mushrooms among thousands of recently discovered fungi
Fungi are vital to life on Earth but little studied – new species of mould were found on baby-carrier backpack and an oil painting
New species of porcini, chanterelle and portobello mushrooms were among 2,000 new species of fungi discovered in 2017, which scientists say shows how little is known about the organisms.
More than £30bn of edible fungi are sold each year, according to the State of the World’s Fungi report published on Wednesday by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in the UK. But the lifeforms are even more vital to plants – 90% rely on fungi to thrive – and many human medicines such as penicillin derive from fungi.
Continue reading...Gove hails plans to reward UK farmers for adopting green policies
Payments under EU’s CAP will be replaced by subsidies based on environmental protections
The UK’s biggest landowners will see the payments they receive from the public purse fall sharply from 2021 in what would be the biggest shake-up of farming for decades.
From 2021, a new system rewarding farmers for the public goods they provide will be phased in until 2027 when the last payments based on the amount of land farmed will be made. In place of the £3bn a year farmers currently receive under the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP), farmers will be expected to sign environmental land management contracts detailing their commitments to protecting habitats, improving flood management and enhancing air and water quality.
Continue reading...Environmental groups sue Ontario over cancellation of cap-and-trade programme
Google searches reveal where people are most concerned about climate change
EPA admits scrapping regulations will put more methane into atmosphere
- Obama-era rules targeted climate change gas from oil wells
- EPA: move ‘may degrade air quality and adversely affect health’
The Trump administration moved closer on Tuesday to rolling back Obama-era rules reducing oil and gas industry leaks of methane gas.
Related: Jerry Brown: Trump's 'gross ignorance' main obstacle in climate change fight
Continue reading...GCAS: California’s Brown pitches broader carbon pricing cooperation, slams Trump US methane policy
How much does it cost to power an electric car around Australia? $150
Retired farmer Sylvia Wilson’s husband died before they could do their dream road trip. She decided to go anyway
Sylvia Wilson drove around Australia in an electric car. It cost her $150.90.
Wilson, 70, a retired farmer from near Biloela in central Queensland, had planned the trip of a lifetime with her husband, Rod. One impulsive evening in mid-2016 they went online and, sight-unseen, bought a Tesla S75 electric car for the journey.
Continue reading...Air, Land & Sea: the 50 greatest wildlife photographs – in pictures
National Geographic has created the 50 greatest wildlife photographs exhibition. A pop-up, which starts its global debut in Melbourne zoo’s historic Carousel Park, the Air, Land & Sea exhibition showcases the world’s best wildlife photography from the likes of Paul Nicklen, Beverly Joubert and Steve Winter
Continue reading...Climate poll shows Morrison politically vulnerable as more voters back action
Number of Australians concerned about impact of climate change and wanting coal phased out rises
A growing number of Australians are concerned about the impact of climate change, and more than half of a survey of 1,756 voters believe the Morrison government needs to stay in the Paris agreement, despite Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US.
A study tracking voter sentiment for more than a decade, funded first by the Climate Institute and now by the Australia Institute, finds 73% (up from 66% in 2017) of respondents concerned about climate change, and a clear majority, 68%, believes the government should set domestic targets to comply with our Paris commitments.
Continue reading...EU Market: EUAs sink back from 10-year high as market takes breather
GCAS: Offset developer Bluesource announces new investment from GEF Capital Partners
‘Unclear’ rules leave traders guessing on what triggers EU ETS emergency supply handbrake
Fossil fuel dependence poses 'direct existential threat', warns UN chief
A rapid global shift to clean energy is needed to prevent runaway climate change, says António Guterres
United Nations secretary general António Guterres has warned that the world is facing “a direct existential threat” and must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent “runaway climate change”.
Guterres called the crisis urgent and decried the lack of global leadership to address global warming.
Continue reading...Global hunger levels rising due to extreme weather, UN warns
Progress made in the past decade has been reversed, with climate extremes such as droughts and floods identified as a main cause
Global hunger has reverted to levels last seen a decade ago, wiping out progress on improving people’s access to food and leaving one in nine people undernourished last year, with extreme weather a leading cause, the UN has warned.
Hunger afflicted 821 million people last year, the third annual rise since 2015, with most regions of Africa and much of South America showing worsening signs of food shortages and malnutrition. More than half a billion of the world’s hungry live in Asia.
Continue reading...Air pollution is 'biggest environmental health risk' in Europe
Governments are failing to tackle the crisis that causes 1,000 early deaths a day, says damning EU report
Air pollution is now “the biggest environmental risk” to public health in Europe but governments are failing to adequately deal with the crisis, the EU Court of Auditors has found.
Europe’s air pollution limits are “much weaker” than WHO guidelines – and most EU countries do not comply with them anyway, according to the damning new report.
Continue reading...Western Australia warns of funding crisis for threatened species protection
WA government says federal nature conservation funding fell from $8m in 2009 to $1m in 2016
The premier of Western Australia has expressed concerns about the lack of federal funding for threatened species protection and government inaction on recovery planning. And the Northern Territory government has said it may have just one threatened species with an adequate monitoring program.
In a letter to a Senate inquiry into Australia’s high rate of fauna extinctions, the WA premier, Mark McGowan, writes that conservation work by the state, including control of predators, had enabled the WA government to downgrade the threatened status of some species, but protecting the country’s endemic wildlife was becoming more challenging because of reduced federal spending.
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