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World’s desire to wean off over-reliance on China could be a boon for local producers, according to the Australian PV Institute

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Australia has a golden opportunity to expand its solar energy manufacturing capacity as the industry booms and nations scramble to cut their over-dependence on China, a report by the Australian Australian PV Institute Institute says.

The country is installing 4GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity a year already but meeting just 3% of that from a local supplier, Adelaide’s Tindo Solar. That annual installation tally, though, is predicted to triple by 2050, particularly if Australia becomes a major supplier of hydrogen produced by renewable energy for export.

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The launch of the American space agency's big new Moon rocket is being delayed for the third time.

RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and National Trust criticise plans to create 38 ‘investment zones’ across England

The government has been accused of launching an “attack on nature” with its mini-budget, which conservationists warn could roll back environmental rules.

Groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust have criticised plans, announced on Friday, to create 38 “investment zones” across England.

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Defra accused of ‘all-out attack’ on environment by wildlife groups

The government is to scrap the “Brexit bonus” which would have paid farmers and landowners to enhance nature, in what wildlife groups are calling an “all-out attack” on the environment, the Observer can reveal.

Instead, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sources disclosed, they are considering paying landowners a yearly set sum for each acre of land they own, which would be similar to the much-maligned EU basic payments scheme of the common agricultural policy.

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Boris Johnson was far more eco-conscious than recent Conservative predecessors. But this mini-budget is a reversion to type

The dash for growth by Kwasi Kwarteng means unshackling City bankers and property developers from the taxes and regulations that prevent them from paving over what’s left of Britain’s green and pleasant land.

The humble concrete mixer will be elevated to exalted status. There will be more executive homes built on greenfield sites. More distribution sheds dotted along busy A-roads. And more urban renewal of the kind that involves tearing down buildings in a plume of dust and carbon emissions to replace them with something not much better, at least not in environmental terms.

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Huge $1.7 billion copper and nickel mine in remote part of Australia will feature world's biggest off-grid renewables plant, delivering low cost and low emissions minerals.

The post Huge new nickel mine aims for 100 pct renewables, with world’s biggest renewable micro-grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Bee bus stops first appeared in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Now the UK is planning for more than 1,000 and there is growing interest across Europe and in Canada and Australia

Butterflies and bees are getting their own transport network as “bee bus stops” start to pop up around UK cities and across Europe. Humble bus shelter roofs are being turned into riots of colour, with the number of miniature gardens – full of pollinator-friendly flora such as wild strawberries, poppies and pansies – set to increase by 50% in the UK by the end of this year.

Leicester is leading the charge with 30 bee bus stops installed since 2021. Derby has 18, and there are others in Southhampton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Derby, Oxford, Cardiff and Glasgow. Brighton council installed one last year after a petition was signed by almost 50,000 people.

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

The government is committed to extracting more oil and gas in the North Sea.

Emitters padded their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) net length for the fifth week in a row, while financial players kept their positions mostly steady, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday. 

The South African Treasury has rejected a plea from business groups to decelerate the government’s proposed trajectory of national carbon tax increases.

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) on Friday voted to increase the stringency of the GHG targets under the province’s low-carbon fuel standard, giving the state the deepest carbon intensity (CI) reduction goals in any North American programme.

A senior European energy and carbon analyst from a French bank has joined a London-based clean energy fund management company, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Countries from the Global North and South are diverging on the stringency of the post-2023 emissions baseline for the CORSIA global aviation offset mechanism, as UN body ICAO’s Council puts forth a compromise ahead of a decision next month.

Fridays for Future ‘strikes’ in about 450 places demanded rich countries pay for damage from global warming

Thousands of young people have staged a coordinated “global climate strike” across Asia, Africa and Europe in a call for reparations for those worst affected by climate breakdown.

From New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo, activists walked out of schools, universities and jobs to demand rich countries pay for the damage global warming is inflicting on the poor.

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A ratings agency has placed three Uruguayan forestry projects “on watch” for a potential ratings change, alongside a methane recovery project in the Netherlands.

Pacific Island nation makes world-first call to halt the expansion of new fossil fuel projects through the establishment of an international treaty.

The post Vanuatu makes historic call for global treaty end fossil fuel era appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Czechia is proposing the EU raise most of a €20 billion RePowerEU revenue target from selling carbon allowances earmarked for the bloc’s Innovation Fund amid member state objections to solely exploiting units held in the MSR, an official told Carbon Pulse on Friday.

The Swiss executive governing body has approved three bilateral agreements with Morocco, Malawi, and Uruguay, creating the framework conditions for the country to trade international carbon emissions reductions units to count towards Paris Agreement climate goals.

The tiny South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has been making waves at the UN this week, calling for an international mechanism to stop the expansion of all new fossil fuel projects.