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‘Loss and damage’ finance for developing nations and domestic support for clean energy industries may be politically difficult – but they are necessary investments

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The money conversation is always fraught at the Cop climate negotiations, and this year it is particularly difficult given economic trouble in rich countries. But the global energy crisis works in favour of clean energy transition and achieving more meaningful emissions cuts down the track.

The world is still short of the Paris goal to provide $100bn in climate finance to developing countries. And only a fraction of the money provided is for dealing with climate change impacts, which is what developing countries need most. Financial needs for climate change adaptation in developing countries are estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

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You have to hand it to Neoen Australia. Each time it has installed a big battery in Australia it has effectively changed the rules of the game, and pushed the technology into new frontiers. The latest innovation is the newly announced Blyth battery, which will be used to ensure delivery of “24/7 power” to the […]

The post Neoen finds another game changing use and a new frontier for a very big battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.

At current levels of emissions, there is a 50% chance the planet will reach the 1.5℃ global average temperature rise in just nine years. Pep Canadell, Chief Research Scientist, Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Corinne Le Quéré, Royal Society Research Professor of Climate Change Science, University of East Anglia Glen Peters, Research Director, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo Judith Hauck, Helmholtz Young Investigator group leader and deputy head of the Marine Biogeosciences section at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Universität Bremen Julia Pongratz, Professor of Physical Geography and Land Use Systems, Department of Geography, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Philippe Ciais, Directeur de recherche au Laboratoire des science du climat et de l’environnement, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) Pierre Friedlingstein, Chair, Mathematical Modelling of Climate, University of Exeter Robbie Andrew, Senior Researcher, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo Rob Jackson, Professor, Department of Earth System Science, and Chair of the Global Carbon Project, Stanford University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI Allowances (RGA) prices traded lower through the US midterm election week and shrugged off a cooler US Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading, as market participants geared up for the Q4 WCI auction and look to guidance from Pennsylvania's governor-elect on the state's RGGI future.

Report says sensible – and smart – policies will support the huge new load on the power system as Australia transitions to battery-electric cars. 

The post Will the mass uptake of EVs blow up the power grid? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The French Senate has approved a bill that will require parking lots with a minimum of 80 spaces to be covered with a canopy of solar panels.

The post New French law mandates solar panels on new parking lots appeared first on RenewEconomy.

California regulator ARB on Thursday announced an investigation into a Wisconsin-based livestock project, coming just two years after the agency invalidated offsets from the same dairy digester for non-compliance with state permit requirements.

New ARENA-backed research identifies 1,500 new "water and gravity battery" pumped hydro storage sites where one reservoir is already in place.

The post Batteries of gravity and water: We found 1,500 new pumped hydro sites next to existing reservoirs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The asset management arm of a Swiss bank has launched a new fund to capitalise on “inefficiencies” in the carbon markets.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday at COP27 proposed a GHG emissions disclosure rule for federal contractors that would also require major suppliers to set science-based targets to cut their carbon output.

‘Bleak’ findings come from report at Cop27 that notes ‘no sign’ of urgent cuts needed to stop climate breakdown

Carbon emissions from fossil fuels will hit record levels this year, according to a comprehensive analysis. The finding represents a brutal contrast with the need to cut emissions by half by 2030 to restrict global heating to 1.5C and avoid the most devastating impacts of the climate crisis.

There is no sign of the decline needed, the researchers said, heaping further pressure on the countries whose representatives are meeting at the UN Cop27 climate summit in Egypt to deliver real and rapid action. Other scientists described the news as “bleak” and “deeply depressing”.

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Verra is overhauling internal processes in a bid to clear an “unprecedented” surge of often poorly documented project requests that threatens to stifle the rapid expansion of the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

A global offset project developer and carbon market investor at COP27 on Thursday announced a memorandum with a Senegal government-backed company under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, in what is billed as the world’s first private sector ‘ITMO’ partnership.

A new website, based on workshops with young Australians, outlines practical ways to deal with climate distress. Phoebe Quinn, Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Katitza Marinkovic Chavez, Research fellow, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

To get to 82% renewables by decade’s end means storage - and that’s where we hope our new atlas of sites for pumped hydro storage can help Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University Anna Nadolny, Research Officer, Australian National University Ryan Stocks, Research Officer, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Exclusive: Leader says easing planning curbs would be part of its plan to tap economic potential of wind power

A Labour government would rip up the planning rules restricting the expansion of onshore windfarms as part of a plan to make the UK a clean energy superpower, the Guardian has learned.

Keir Starmer admitted that he would have to “persuade some communities to get on board” after Rishi Sunak reinstated a ban, dropped by Liz Truss, on new onshore projects amid fears of local objections.

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The growing threat of flash flooding as a result of more intense rapid rain bursts means the city needs to update its flood defences. Hooman Ayat, Research Fellow, Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne Jason Evans, Professor, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A rating agency has slightly downgraded its scores for two Verra-accredited hydropower projects in India, although both grades still give a moderate chance of achieving or removing a tonne of CO2 per credit.

Next year’s WCI-linked cap-and-trade auction reserve price is unofficially set as October inflation fell below 8% for the first time since February, according to federal data published Thursday.

Joe Biden is on his way to Egypt and more than 50 poor developing countries are in danger of default

And so we are edging towards the end of the first week. Friday is decarbonisation and industry day, so the events will be themed around that topic.

The US president, Joe Biden, is heading to Egypt and Asia. He is expected to drop into Cop27 on Friday before going on to the East Asia Summit in Cambodia and then the annual G20 in Indonesia. It will be interesting to see how that galvanises the discussions.

Khaled Ali, the lawyer of the imprisoned hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah, has said he went to the prison where his client was being held but was denied access to visit him.

More than 50 of the poorest developing countries are in danger of defaulting on their debt and becoming effectively bankrupt unless the rich world offers urgent assistance, the head of the UN development programme has warned.

There is a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists at Cop this year. There are 600 of them, an increase of more than 25% on last year and they outnumber any one frontline community affected by the climate crisis.

Obviously, protesters are not happy about this and called for the “criminal” fossil fuel representatives to be booted out of Cop.

Some UK politicians made the rounds, with the net zero tsar Chris Skidmore fitting in no less than six events. The business secretary, Grant Shapps, was there too, answering questions about UK oil and gas exploration, and the Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, addressed a couple of panels.

Our colleague Damian Carrington brought us two pieces of good news: first, that Israel, Lebanon and Iraq have teamed up to reduce emissions, and that Norway is shutting down plans for a large oilfield.

The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made some rather extraordinary comments in which she said Republican politicians believe climate breakdown is a “hoax”.

Slovenia is the latest in a long line of European countries to quit the energy charter treaty, which gives energy companies the right to sue governments.

The Guardian reporter Nina Lakhani spent much of the day with protesters, who were wearing white in solidarity with murdered and jailed environment defenders around the world. Egypt is responsible for a few of those imprisonments, notably Abd el-Fattah.

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