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Arnd Drossel one of many travelling to the summit attempting to raise awareness of the climate crisis

Arnd Drossel has spent the past three months rolling around inside a 160kg steel ball.

The German environmental activist left his home in Paderborn on 30 July in the giant contraption resembling a hamster ball that he made with his son.

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If we are to reverse the destruction of our planet, it will take more than ‘heroic’ words from ministers in Canberra

Countries and corporations have been falling over each other to claim they are doing more than any other in the world to stop climate breakdown.

Now Australia has added to the throngs of climate pledges. One of the world’s biggest coal exporters grandly announced an aim to reach net zero by 2050 and said it was doing more than others to address the climate crisis.

Eleanor Salter is a writer and climate campaigner

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EUAs rallied steadily on Thursday morning after a sharp drop at the open, as energy markets reacted to reports that Russia may boost natural gas supplies to Europe from early next month.

Massive 400MW solar component of the Western Downs green energy hub has been connected to the grid in south east Queensland.

The post Biggest solar farm in Queensland connected to the grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Oil major Shell will target a 50% absolute cut in its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, the company said in Q3 results on Thursday, adding that part of the goal would be met by a "limited amount" of offsets.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is recruiting a Climate Change Specialist/Senior Climate Change Specialist to support operationalization of Paris Alignment commitment through road testing and distilling lessons from project level work.

Australian carbon credits jumped another 4.4% to a new record high in Thursday trade, as a lack of available spot supply continued to underpin the recent bull run.

Requiring carbon certificates could lead African producers to sell in markets with lower standards

The EU could inadvertently “sabotage efforts” to limit global heating to 1.5C or 2C as a result of a controversial carbon border levy, a thinktank has said.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said the EU’s proposed “carbon-border adjustment mechanism” (CBAM) – which would require importers of energy-intensive goods to pay a price for environmental damage – could lead to African producers selling into other markets with lower standards, hindering climate action.

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Japan is eager to scale up offset generation under its Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), and this week proposed at the Japan-ASEAN Summit to open the scheme up to CCUS projects, with intentions to study possibilities for a large-scale JCM CCUS facility in South East Asia.

A sample of the Native American leader's hair confirms the identity of his great-grandson.

The heads of top US oil companies will answer accusations that their firms have spent years lying about the climate crisis

The heads of major oil companies will make a historic appearance before Congress on Thursday to answer accusations that their firms have spent years lying about the climate crisis.

For the first time, the top executives from the US’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, as well as Shell, Chevron and BP will be questioned under oath about the industry’s long campaign to discredit and deny the evidence that burning fossil fuels drove global heating.

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Major fossil fuel exporters can accelerate the energy transition by mastering future growth in the global hydrogen trade, a report from an energy consultancy released on Thursday claimed.

Achim Steiner says failure by UK hosts to recognise developing nations’ concerns could lead to breakdown of talks

Developing countries, many of which are deeply indebted following the Covid-19 crisis, must be the focus of the Cop26 summit if the UK hopes to make it a success, the UN’s development chief has said.

Achim Steiner, the executive director of the UN development programme, said: “For developing countries at this juncture, a sense of recognising their dilemmas is extremely important. They do not need to be told that climate change is important, that everybody has to do more.

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Toymaker’s instructions for a better world target policy chiefs ahead of global climate summit

Lego is touting it as its most ambitious build to date, but rather than many pages of instructions, the toymaker’s latest handbook offers only 10 steps.

The booklet is not for a physical model, however. Instead it offers “building instructions for a better world” ahead of the crucial Cop26 climate talks that start in Glasgow this Sunday.

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To successfully emerge from Covid into a fairer, greener future we need to recognise nature as an essential piece of the puzzle

Nearly two years after the first reported case of Covid-19, the world is still facing the repercussions. At the same time, the extent of our planetary emergency – of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and inequality – has become evident. As we rebuild our societies and economies, we are faced with a unique opportunity to build a nature-positive future that we must not let slip away. It is time for all of us to chart a planetary response to our planetary crisis – a response that puts nature at the centre.

Our shared global experience with Covid-19 has underlined the interconnectedness of our different systems. The science is clear: climate, biodiversity and human health are fully interdependent. Yet, within discussions around post-Covid recovery, nature is not yet recognised enough as an essential piece in the puzzle of a resilient future for all.

Frans Timmermans is executive vice-president for the European Green Deal, Achim Steiner is administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Sandrine Dixson-Declève is co-president of the Club of Rome

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From climate crisis to anti-racism, more and more corporations are taking a stand. But if it’s only done because it’s good for business, the fires will keep on burning

In early 2020, bushfires raged across Australia. More than 3,000 homes were destroyed, reduced to ash and rubble by the unrelenting onslaught of flames. Tragically, 34 people died in the fires themselves, with an estimated 445 more dying as a result of smoke inhalation. More than 16m hectares of land burned, destroying wildlife and natural habitats. Nearly 3 billion animals were affected. So massive were the fires that the smoke was visible over Chile, 11,000km away. The record-breaking inferno that engulfed Australia was described as a “global catastrophe, and a global spectacle”. As reported in the New Statesman, Australia had come to symbolise “the extreme edge of a future awaiting us all” as a result of the climate crisis. The Australian government’s inquiry into the bushfires unequivocally reported that “it is clear that we should expect fire seasons like 2019–20, or potentially worse, to happen again”.

If we turn the clock back to less than a year earlier, 15 March 2019 marked the day that 1.4 million children turned out at locations around the world, on “strike” from school in support of action against the climate crisis. In Australia, the strikes were especially targeted at the government’s dismal record of inaction, with many politicians being climate-change deniers. The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, was vocal in his criticism of the strikes. He wanted students to stay in school instead of engaging in democratic protest. His public statement said: “I want children growing up in Australia to feel positive about their future, and I think it is important we give them that confidence that they will not only have a wonderful country and pristine environment to live in, that they will also have an economy to live in as well. I don’t want our children to have anxieties about these issues.”

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Australia’s southwest is a biodiversity hotspot - and it’s also a climate change hotspot. Something has to give. Jatin Kala, Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA felllow, Murdoch University Belinda Robson, Associate Professor, Murdoch University Joe Fontaine, Lecturer, Environmental and Conservation Science, Murdoch University Stephen Beatty, Research Leader (Catchments to Coast), Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems, Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University Thomas Wernberg, Professor, The University of Western Australia Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The so-called "prosperity doctrine" of Scott Morrison's Pentecostal church now seems to be part of Australia's climate policy.

The post Prosperity doctrine: Australia rejects global push to cut potent methane emissions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Queensland gives green light for development of one of the Sunshine State’s biggest wind farms yet, the 372MW Boulder Creek project.

The post Epuron’s Boulder Creek wind farm wins state government approval appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Fortescue says the gigawatt scale solar PV manufacturing facility planned for Queensland would service mostly its own needs.

The post Fortescue will be biggest customer of its proposed gigawatt scale solar factory appeared first on RenewEconomy.