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A drone pilot captures footage of a humpback whale following a kayaker near Bondi beach. Up to 50,000 whales are expected to pass Australia’s east coast during the annual migration from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef. Humpback whales were removed from Australia's threatened species list last year after a significant increase in numbers, from just 1,500 at the height of the commercial whaling industry to an estimated 40,000

• Young humpbacks ‘full of beans’ as whale-watching season takes off in Sydney

• Humpbacks spotted having whale of a time at underwater ‘day spa’ off Gold Coast

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Energy storage hopeful edges closer to demonstrating "Perth-built" vanadium flow redox flow battery using "cutting edge" technology from South Korea.

The post Vanadium flow battery hopeful edges closer to Australian manufacture appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Siemens Energy says the bill to fix its troubled wind division could pass the €1 billion mark, as it scrambles to get on top of high turbine failure rates.

The post Siemens scraps profit guidance as wind turbine problems generate $1.6bn bill appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Seawalls are causing intertidal habitats to vanish as ocean levels increase. But eco-entrepreneurs say artificial rockpools and crevices can save wildlife

• ‘It’s absolutely guaranteed’: the best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise

The rain has just stopped falling when Nigel George walks down to the beach in Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight. He crosses the coastal road and descends a concrete stairway, a sheen of sand covering its lowest steps. The place is quiet, with only a few walkers animating the shoreline.

He’s here to inspect a wooden groyne – a kind of jetty, designed to prevent erosion – which stretches out into the sea and towards France. The groyne has been fitted with a series of small, basin-like, rough concrete, structures. George peers inside one: a congregation of limpets, barnacles, seaweed, and a single sea snail peer back at him.

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Australia’s beloved billabongs are filling up with eroded soil from farms, leaving little room for the aquatic animals that depend on these vital drought refuges. John Tibby, Associate Professor in Environmental Change, University of Adelaide Jonathan Marshall, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The lack of consensus among major developed market economies on phasing out coal may hinder cooperation and the effectiveness of Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) and other emerging market climate financing initiatives,  a report has found.

The price of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) has reached its lowest point this year, one week from the reformed Safeguard Mechanism taking effect, as the market is swamped with supply amid low demand.

Industry experts warn new rules imposed on wind and solar projects will force developers to re-assess their projects and consider taking their investment elsewhere.

The post The “nonsense” rules that threaten to scupper dozens of wind and solar projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Most technologies for CO₂ removal are expensive. But New Zealand could be doing this cheaper than other countries, taking advantage of existing geothermal and forestry industries. David Dempsey, Senior lecturer, University of Canterbury Karan Titus, PhD Student, University of Canterbury Rebecca Peer, Lecturer, University of Canterbury Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

ACT 2023-24 budget sets aside major new funding for home energy upgrades, to get gas out of government operations, and to support electric vehicle uptake.

The post Electric homes, cars and government buildings: ACT budget boosts bid to quit gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.

"We are past 10MW pilots" says one expert, as others worry about perpetuating gas dependency with hydrogen.

The post New 10MW electrolyser to feed gas into homes, experts shake their heads appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Residents seek respite from the heat as temperatures above 40C (104F) have been recorded for a third consecutive day in Beijing for the first time

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Wind energy output records blown away by wintery conditions over the weekend, as well as records for large scale solar and wind combined.

The post Wind blows down more output records on Australia’s main grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Government’s buyout scheme is meeting fierce resistance from farmers in Netherlands

Veal farmer Wim Brouwer sits on his terrace, an “emergency” red flag flying outside and his laptop open on a page revealing he is one of the Netherlands’ peak polluters, due to the nitrogen excreted each year by his 1,360 calves.

His business sits in one of the most intensively farmed parts of Europe’s most intensively farmed country, a huge exporter with more than 110 million livestock, including cattle, chickens and pigs.

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Plans for the world’s first commercial octopus farm are well advanced – just as science discovers more about this curious, intelligent and affectionate animal. Can it be done ethically?

The sterile boardroom, much of it taken up by a lengthy white table, is at the heart of the sprawling building in northern Spain. The corporate chatter that fills this room these days, however, is dominated by the scene playing out one floor below, where about 50 adult male octopuses are in a tank the size of a budget hotel room.

A handful of the octopuses – the fifth generation to be born in this Spanish multinational’s concrete-and-glass office and research centre – skim through the shallow waters, some brushing up against each other while others tuck into the tank’s barren corners. A low-intensity light casts a pale glow as researchers lay the groundwork for one of the world’s most controversial endeavours: the first commercial octopus farm.

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Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t want to look like a man who makes grandiose-sounding pledges to change the world only to retreat when he encounters resistance

They’ve talked the bold talk. Sir Keir Starmer regularly claims that a government led by him will transform the UK into “a clean energy superpower”. Rachel Reeves declares that she will be “Britain’s first green chancellor”. Ed Miliband, the shadow cabinet’s most ardent champion of the green industrial revolution, proclaims that Britain can be a winner in “the biggest transformation of the global economy in 300 years”.

Talking is a whole lot easier than doing. When the crunch comes, when a Labour cabinet faces the horribly tough choices that are going to confront them in power, will their fine words turn out to be little more than hot air?

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We might be scared and not know what to do. But as a new film reveals, that can help

It doesn’t matter which week we choose. There is always a climate emergency; an emergency we can close our ears and eyes to. Two weeks ago, it was the blanketing of New York in a cloud of smoke from Canada. Last week, Beijing recorded the hottest June since records began. All over the world, sea levels rise. Drought or flooding ensues. And the loss of habitats and species. We can get frightened and find it hard to hold the knowledge of what is occurring.

As filmmaker Josh Appignanesi shows in his new film My Extinction, which will be released on 30 June, allowing himself to feel the real-time effects of climate change is uncomfortable. Appignanesi, who recycles yet makes car commercials, turns the camera on himself as his climate concerns start to make him feel disgruntled. He feels put out and inconvenienced. And he ends up getting far more involved in climate work than he’d ever thought possible.

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The successful quest to find a species last seen more than 50 years ago has added to the urgency of protecting the vanishing grassland habitat of a lizard that had been feared extinct. Brendan Wintle, Professor in Conservation Science, School of Ecosystem and Forest Science, The University of Melbourne Sarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

International trade practices have significantly impacted CO2 emissions by relocating production activities, creating emissions disparities between regions of production and consumption, a new study has found.

Nature restoration projects in Southeast Asia could help the region confront climate change, but these initiatives could cost an estimated $200 billion per year, says a new study.