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Labor unveils proposed suite of reforms to make the Safeguard Mechanism fit for purpose. Greens say, try again.

The post “Coal truck-sized loopholes” loom as Labor floats Safeguard Mechanism reforms appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The governor of Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province plans to auction carbon credits for emissions reductions that have not yet been compensated for by the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) agreement with Indonesia, local media has reported.

Plan that is key to Albanese government’s 2030 target will focus on emissions intensity to encourage cleaner practices rather than cutting production

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Australia’s big polluting sites will have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 5% a year but will face no limits on the use of carbon offsets under the Albanese government’s plan to deal with industrial emitters.

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, on Tuesday released the government’s plan to revamp the safeguard mechanism, a Coalition policy that was promised to limit emissions from more than 200 industrial facilities, but in practice has failed.

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The first ever satellite mission launched from UK soil has a technical problem on its climb to space.

Utility-scale solar generation notches up biggest month ever in Australia in December of 2022 and helps send NSW black coal output to new low.

The post Big solar smashes Australian generation record, crunches coal, to close out 2022 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

An independent review of Australia’s controversial carbon credit system concluded it is largely sound. How the panel reached this conclusion is hard to fathom.

The post Carbon credit scheme review falls short – and problems will continue to fester appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Engineers are working on building solar farms robust enough to survive in the open ocean.

RGA prices took a sizable step back to start the new year, amid continued uncertainty on the scheme's programme review and as unseasonably warmer weather permeated the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic US states.

A New York senator on Friday brought back legislation that would build support for establishing a carbon price in the state’s wholesale power market, following the finalisation of the state’s Scoping Plan climate strategy that said such a measure may be necessary.

Selling pressure during the second half of the week weakened most standardised carbon credit prices with a return to thin traded volume as many of the gains made during a bullish final week to last year were undone when end of year compliance obligations had caused a jump in demand.

Residents are living with the impacts of climate change and know it’s happening. But leaving their homes would strike at the heart of their identity. Merewalesi Yee, PhD Candidate, School of Earth and Environment Sciences, The University of Queensland Annah Piggott-McKellar, Research Fellow, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology Celia McMichael, Senior Lecturer in Geography, The University of Melbourne Karen E McNamara, Associate Professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A global agreement in 1987 to ban chemicals harming the ozone layer is working, scientists say.

Scientists describe as ‘very alarming’ research that shows severe weather events were made more likely by climate change

Relentless drought in California, extreme rainfall in the UK, record heat in China – some of the most severe weather events that have occurred around the world in the past few years were made far more likely due to the climate crisis, new research has found.

The analysis of extreme events in 2021 and 2022 found that many of these extremes were worsened by global heating, and in some cases would have been almost impossible in terms of their severity if humans had not altered the climate through the burning of fossil fuels.

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Despite a month-long sell-off on European gas prices, it is not likely that there will be a quick return to EUA buying for industrials that have suspended operations amid extreme energy costs, nor a sustained ramping up of coal-to-gas fuel switching, analysts have told Carbon Pulse.

The EU Presidency under Sweden will aim to bring the remaining Fit for 55 climate bill to a close over its six month term through to July, the nation's deputy ambassador to Brussels said on Monday.

Thérèse Coffey’s weak plans will have minimal impact on one of the biggest problems threatening our environment

Two years after the government banned plastic straws, cotton buds and microbeads in some beauty products in England, Thérèse Coffey is set to ban single-use plastic plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups. That means possibly 1.1bn plates and 4.25bn items of cutlery in England will no longer be made each year.

That sounds impressive, as if the environment secretary is getting on top of the plastics that are used only once but last for centuries, breaking down into innumerable tiny pieces and polluting rivers and seas in the process. But the new ban barely scratches the surface of a problem that has been known about for decades and is now out of control.

John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor

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Most of atmospheric layer that protects planet from ultraviolet radiation likely to be fully recovered for most of world by 2040

The hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, once the most feared environmental peril facing humanity, is set to be completely healed over most of the world within two decades following decisive action by governments to phase out ozone-depleting substances, a new UN assessment has found.

The loss of the ozone layer, which risked exposing people to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, is on track to be completely recovered by 2040 across the world, aside from the polar regions, according to the report. The poles will take a little longer – the ozone layer will fully bounce back by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2066 over the Antarctic.

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EUAs rose strongly on Monday as the market appeared to absorb the first auction of the year with ease, despite energy fundamentals which continue to suggest demand from generators should be weak and the prospect of additional auction volumes when the EU signs off on the REPowerEU initiative.

Arena backs UoW study that aims to cut grid connection costs for renewables, while also addressing integration challenges of new grid scale supply.

The post Cheaper, smoother grid connections for renewables the focus of Arena-backed study appeared first on RenewEconomy.