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Injecting pollutants into the atmosphere to reflect the sun would be extremely dangerous, but the UK is funding field trials

Some years ago in the pages of the Guardian, we sounded the alarm about the increasing attention being paid to solar geoengineering – a barking mad scheme to cancel global heating by putting pollutants in the atmosphere that dim the sun by reflecting some sunlight back to space.

In one widely touted proposition, fleets of aircraft would continually inject sulphur compounds into the upper atmosphere, simulating the effects of a massive array of volcanoes erupting continuously. In essence, we have broken the climate by releasing gigatonnes of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide, and solar geoengineering proposes to “fix” it by breaking a very different part of the climate system.

Raymond T Pierrehumbert FRS is professor of planetary physics at the University of Oxford. He is an author of the 2015 US National Academy of Sciences report on climate intervention

Michael E Mann ForMemRS is presidential distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis

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Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has agreed to reschedule the delivery deadline for carbon abatement contracts (CACs) to the end of the calendar year, as it waits on the government to decide future exit window arrangements.

Campaigners say introduction of feasibility test in England and Wales over bathing status is ‘snub to communities’

Rivers are unlikely to be granted the protections of bathing water status under the government’s changes to the system, campaigners have said.

River activists have reacted with fury as details of the reforms were revealed on Wednesday.

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The infrastructure required to host COP30 in Belém is undermining the cause, campaigners say.

The New Zealand government risks causing confusion should it decide to change how it accounts for methane emissions, an environmental group has warned.

If you don’t believe the scientists, will you believe the insurance companies?

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Market participants and analysts largely expect RGGI’s first quarterly permit sale to clear sub-$20 amid ongoing macro uncertainty from US-Canada tariff-driven volatility and lack of regulatory clarity.

New research finds solar farms managed with biodiversity in mind contain a greater number of bird species, and more birds overall, than surrounding cropland.

The post Solar farms can host up to three times as many birds as crop fields – new research appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Emerging Australian solar upcycling outfit marks "significant milestone" on its mission to mine end of life PV panels for valuable new resources.

The post Pioneering Australian company marks new milestone on “mission” to upcycle end-of-life solar panels appeared first on RenewEconomy.

My homeplace has experienced four natural disasters in eight years. But I’d never seen the like of this bird before, vibrantly green and startlingly beautiful

We were midway through our cyclone preparation when my mother broke her leg. She stepped into her bedroom to retrieve something, tripped and fell, and that was that. My mother is 74 and hardy, so this sudden break took us by surprise. Once I got her home, leg in brace, we’d lost significant time, and my household was down to one functional human: me.

This is the fourth natural disaster I’ve experienced in the last eight years. One-in-100-year floods (2017), unprecedented bushfires (2019), one-in-1,000-year floods (2022) and now Cyclone Alfred. Cyclones are a new threat. I’ve lived in my homeplace, in northern New South Wales, for almost 50 years and we’ve never had a cyclone cross land in our vicinity. We were, as they say, in uncharted waters.

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The administrator of the US EPA announced Tuesday that the agency was pulling $20 billion in awards towards GHG reduction schemes from federal grant recipients following a review into alleged financial mismanagement.

Leading European timber technology companies have made headlines this week with plans for new wooden wind turbine towers that will be capable of supporting turbines from 4.2MW to 6.4MW. Swedish company Modvion announced that its latest wooden wind turbine tower, which had been engineered to support a V162 – 6.4MW turbine from the Vestas Enventus […]

The post Stronger and lighter: Wooden towers to be used for bigger wind turbines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Research shows apex predators are increasing in numbers and excreting important nutrients into Top End waterways

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The growing saltwater crocodile population in the Northern Territory has led to the creatures gorging on nine times more prey than they did 50 years ago, with the apex predators contributing important nutrients to Top End waterways, new research suggests.

Saltwater crocodile populations have increased exponentially in recent decades, from less than 3,000 in 1971, when a ban on hunting was introduced, to more than 100,000 animals today.

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Vermont leads US states working to improve climate outcomes within the transportation sector, but even top performers must accelerate progress to meet decarbonisation targets, according to a report released this month.

Energy Consumers Australia is proposing four rule changes to make gas networks justify capital spending and new customers pay up front to connect to the diminishing fossil network.

The post Gas network death spiral: Pressure mounts to protect consumers from cost of stranded assets appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Creating an electrical charge using water could be the secret to delivering safer fuels and boosting batteries following an Australian lab discovery.

The post Researchers say energy in water could power future battery breakthroughs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

UK skywatchers will see a partial but still hopefully spectacular eclipse before dawn on Friday.

The US EPA has appealed to the Supreme Court against a lower court ruling that denied its request to transfer a case regarding air pollution plans to a different venue.

A US-based international forest non-profit has announced a partnership with Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to support conservation, governance, and forest economies in Indigenous lands across Brazil.

The voluntary carbon market can better address the risk of forest carbon offset leakage – where projects shift harvest activity to areas beyond the credit-generating scheme – experts said on Tuesday.