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New Zealand carbon allowances hit record highs for the 14th time this year in Thursday trade, as trader sentiment remains bullish, propped up by recent comments from the government on future allocation.

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee sees lack of direction on how to end reliance on gas

The government is failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions from heating the UK’s homes, an influential committee of MPs has warned, with little sign of a clear plan for ending reliance on increasingly expensive gas.

Home heating is responsible for about 14% of the UK’s carbon emissions, and must be tackled urgently if the government is to meet its carbon reduction targets. Last year, ministers announced a heat and buildings strategy, with the intention of weaning the UK away from gas – which makes up about 80% of domestic heating – and on to lower carbon alternatives, such as heat pumps.

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As cricketers with resources to hand, we have the opportunity to support our sport in making a tangible difference

On Saturday 4 January 2020, my local cricket club was smack bang in the middle of the hottest place on earth, with Penrith in Sydney reaching a scorching high of 48.9C. The devastating bushfires of that summer saw kids’ matches and Big Bash League games alike postponed or even cancelled due to the smoke haze, as players played through toxic air.

I turned up to watch a Sheffield Shield game at the SCG and was unable to see the ball because the smoke was so thick. There was even a concern it could delay the start of Australia’s third Test against New Zealand.

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A new blockchain venture will launch an exchange for tokenised carbon offsets in a bid to focus liquidity in the emerging market, while also offering project developers a route to bring their units into the crypto space.

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has acquired an interest in an Australian company that is researching technology to produce green hydrogen with the use sunlight and water, the green energy subsidiary of iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals Group, has announced.

Multi-billion urea project hailed as example of "clean hydrogen" will be almost entirely dependent on fossil gas as its primary feedstock.

The post Why Strike Energy’s fast-tracked urea plant is latest example of hydrogen greenwashing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The proposal is likely to mean economic and diplomatic costs for Australia, and should ring alarm bells in Canberra. Wesley Morgan, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Government needs to clearly spell out the major changes required in the years ahead, a committee says.

The new year gets off to a slow start, as industry gears up for tighter standards.

The post Solar Insiders Podcast: Will 2022 be as strong as 2021? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Residents of apartment buildings in Victoria will be locked out of renewable energy options now and in the future following a new ruling on embedded networks.

The post Victoria ruling will kill off access to solar and EV charging for apartment buildings appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A student-built rover is being prepared for a launch to the Moon later this year.

Scientists are embarking on the first trial of a vaccine to shield elephants from a deadly disease.

EU carbon prices could approach €200 by the end of this decade should the bloc’s ‘Fit for 55’ climate and energy policy package be implemented as proposed, according to a Polish think-tank.

Energy analysts say their Hunter Valley plan is just ‘an expensive way to avoid a small amount of emissions’ when there are cheaper, greener alternatives

Labor said this week it will back a gas-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley, but only if the gas is mixed with hydrogen.

The rationale for this move, according to Labor, was the Morrison government’s $600m support for the project was “risking taxpayers’ money on a gas plant that experts say will become stranded in an increasingly renewable energy system”.

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The largest holders of California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits continued to slash their holdings through the third quarter of 2021, taking their share of the surplus bank down to at least a four-year low, according to programme data updated this week.

The draft 2022 Integrated System Plan provides a dramatic break between the National Electricity Market as it used to be, and the NEM as it's going to be.

The post What AEMO’s long term plan tells us about prices, and future wind and solar mix appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Government white paper criticised for overlooking opportunities along road to net zero

The need to reach net zero carbon emissions, and the green jobs that could be created in doing so, received scant attention in the government’s levelling-up strategy, an omission slammed by green campaigners and businesses.

The mention of “the green industrial revolution and transition to net zero” came second bottom of the list of 16 priorities in the levelling-up paper published on Wednesday, promising £26bn of capital investment, though green analysts said it was not clear if any of this was new money or how it would be spent.

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With EU ETS carbon prices surpassing the breakeven point for some climate solutions such as carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), experts say that regulatory certainty on at least two fronts of the bloc's ‘Fit for 55’ policy package is still needed to accelerate industrial decarbonisation.

New polling shows voters in Queensland and New South Wales overwhelmingly back clean energy - not coal and gas - to deliver the best economic future.

The post Voters see green energy as key to future prosperity, shun coal and gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.