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The UK has enormous capacity to increase its energy supply from offshore wind. Australia too has vast potential for wind and solar power

Wherever you are on the planet, the last 12 months have been very difficult.

In seeking the strongest economic recovery from the pandemic, it is understandable that many on the centre-right in particular want to focus on boosting existing industries. But when it comes to the energy sources of the future, investing in coal power would be an expensive mistake, not just for the environment but for the economy too.

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Australian Conservation Foundation calls for reform to tackle Australia’s declining environment funding ahead of this year’s budget

The proportion of federal budget spending on environment and climate programs has fallen by nearly a third since the Coalition was elected eight years ago, according to a new conservation group analysis.

The Australian Conservation Foundation found that for every $100 spent in last year’s budget just 37 cents was spent protecting the environment and 16 cents on addressing the climate crisis.

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Organization: XPRIZE Foundation Position: Carbon Analyst & Project Specialist Duty Station: Los Angeles, CA, US Deadline for Application: until suitable applicant is found

Organization: Rainforest Alliance Position: Manager - Economic and Social Markets Innovations Duty Station: Various locations Deadline for Application: 14 May 2021

Organization: We Mean Business coalition (WMB) Position: Policy Associate Duty Station: Europe or East Coast US/Canada Deadline for Application: until suitable applicant is found

Organization: FEEM Position: Researcher in Environmental Economics and Policy Duty Station: Milan, Lombardia, Italy Deadline for Application: until suitable applicant is found

We are looking for a high energy and passionate individual with a few years of quality sales experience on EU ETS or related markets. We offer the opportunity to become a corporate sales trader for the Romanian market at one of the fastest growing trading companies in Europe.

This is a unique opportunity for a business development manager to join a progressive company based in Greenwich, London.

The industry bemoans benefits, but workers don’t want jobs where pay is low and risks high, say Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, and author Mark Bittman

Among the things Americans say they’re looking forward to most when pandemic-related restrictions ends is “having dinner in a restaurant with friends”. But if the restaurant industry doesn’t support higher wages, there will be fewer restaurants for customers to return to.

There is an unprecedented shortage of job applicants for restaurant jobs. In a new survey this week by One Fair Wage of more than 2,800 workers, more than half (53%) reported that they are thinking about leaving restaurants. More than three-quarters of workers surveyed (76%) said they are leaving restaurants because of low wages and tips – by far the most important reason for leaving – and a slightly higher percentage (78%) said that the factor that would make them stay in restaurants is a “full, stable, livable wage”.

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Most of the Chinese Long March-5b rocket reportedly disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere.

Taps are now shut off two days a week, and worse is to come unless action is taken on climate crisis

Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake is so low that parts of it have dried and turned to grass. Jetties that normally float are sprawled awkwardly on dry land, and tour boats are crowded at the tail ends of pontoons still in the water.

Usually one of the island’s most famous tourist destinations, the lake has recently become a star of a different kind. Following the worst drought in 56 years, it is now famous for all the wrong reasons. These days, Instagram influencers photograph themselves posing in a dust-coloured, dinghy half-buried in a cracked and cratered lakebed.

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A pandemic-inspired bidding frenzy has spurred residents to resist the invasion

As the longer-term psychological and social impacts of Covid begin to reveal themselves, one substantial group is already displaying a mental shift that could inflict lasting damage if only, mercifully, on other people. The pandemic did not merely change this demographic, it inspired in its members an identical quest: they must own property in Cornwall.

With infections subsiding, the fixation has only intensified: searches for property in Cornwall, at 5m in a month, have overtaken those for London. Estate agents struggle with the demand, maybe 60 inquiries per house, with places bought unseen, rival bids, the rental market also soaring beyond local means and ostensibly unalluring properties sold in hours or less. A local headline announces: “Port Isaac bungalow sells in just five minutes as Cornwall housing madness continues.” A bigger, £4.5m house in Polzeath, no matter that its beach is indelibly associated with a glistening David Cameron, secured an offer from buyers who’d only seen it online.

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Scott Morrison’s recent speech to a Christian conference draws fresh attention to Pentecostal churches’ lack of climate evangelism

“We are called, all of us, for a time and for a season and God would have us use it wisely.”

Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister and a Pentecostal Christian, flew in on a taxpayer-funded plane to deliver those words to a church on the Gold Coast.

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After the recent acquittal of climate activists by a crown court jury, it’s clear public sentiment is on their side

In the face of resistance by juries, surely there is a strong case to halt all the pending trials of Extinction Rebellion activists? With nearly a thousand trials still waiting to be heard in the courts, six members of the group were recently acquitted at Southwark crown court in XR’s second trial by a jury.

They had been charged with criminal damage against the oil giant Shell, yet the jury decided that all six were not guilty, despite the judge ruling that only one had any kind of defence in law.

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The first batch of a spirit made with ingredients grown in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is seized.

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

WCI compliance entities and speculators added length in the California Carbon Allowance (CCA) market this week as prices continued on a bull run fuelled by increased financial interest and rising 2022 floor outlooks, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Stakeholders are advocating for a variety of technical tweaks to the Transportation & Climate Initiative Programme’s (TCI-P) draft cap-and-trade regulation, while industry groups claimed the four participating US jurisdictions’ CO2 reduction goals were unachievable.

I’ve seen sea lion populations decimated. I want people to understand how wonderful an unafraid wild creature can be

Eared sea lions, or, as most Australians call them, seals, must be about the sweetest, and most loveable of all sea creatures.

Man is their great enemy. Another is that incredible predator the great white shark, or white pointer, but whereas the white shark normally attacks only sick, old, or very slow sea lions, man in his usual fashion is generally not so discriminating.

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EnergyAustralia says it will build a gas-fired generator in NSW, but only after the government pledged $83m. Is it money well spent? And what are the alternatives?

A new gas-fired power plant will be built in New South Wales with significant funding from taxpayers. The plant will blend some green hydrogen in with the gas, prompting some to describe it as “Australia’s first net-zero hybrid power station”.

Is this a breakthrough that signals the future of the electricity grid, a greenwashing of public spending on fossil fuels or something else? Here’s what you need to know.

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