Feed aggregator

Wood burning is causing dirty air from the UK to Australia, but a study shows incentives to switch can work

In 2010, air pollution scientists from three of Europe’s biggest cities – Paris, Berlin and London – sat down together. Our data showed a new and consistent pattern. Air pollution from wood burning had returned to our cities. Biomass energy schemes were subsidising new wood burners in schools and offices and wood was being burned in power stations, too, but the additional air pollution in our cities was coming from homes. We wrote a paper warning that biomass subsidies to reduce climate emissions may be leading to increased acceptability and popularity of home wood burning in stoves and fireplaces too.

By 2016, home wood burning was the second-largest source of particle pollution emitted in London. By 2018, it was responsible for nearly half the emissions across Europe.

Continue reading...

Rather than showing leadership, Morrison has allowed the Nationals to dictate the terms of a net zero target. An error that could cost Australia billions.

The post On net zero, Morrison has forgotten that you don’t negotiate with terrorists appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Government purchases of carbon offsets remain low, with the secondary market now offering almost double the price for Australian Carbon Credit Units.

The post Meagre offerings for government’s latest emissions auction, all eyes on open market appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Gareth Ridge from Zenobe energy on the battery needs for mass electric bus charging. Plus: Rio and Forrest big green manufacturing plans.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Grid batteries up for electric buses appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Plans to pilot a UNSW-developed “hydrogen storage” solution across tens of sub-5MW solar farms have been underwritten by the Commonwealth Bank.

The post CBA backs mass rollout of small solar farms with hydrogen battery storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Battery storage to get boost from another landmark reform after AEMC dumps failed "do no harm" rule on system strength.

The post Big win for battery storage in another landmark energy market reform appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Najin, 32, has been part of a programme in Kenya trying to save her species from extinction.

Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund contracted the purchase of 6.8 million offsets at last week’s auction, the Clean Energy Regulator said Friday, with the average price up 6% from the previous auction but far below secondary market levels.

Government advisers express "deep concern" at planned reductions in aid spending before COP26.

Australia's richest person has produced some strange numbers to demonise solar and batteries, as Murdoch media presses nuclear button on renewables.

The post Gina Rinehart needs to re-think her sums on solar and battery storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The speech that Scott Morrison could give in Glasgow, holding a lump of coal in one hand, and a lump of silicon in the other.

The post Coal and silicon: The speech that Morrison can use to wow his Glasgow audience appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

Pilot trading in Russia’s domestic carbon market is expected to start before the end of next year, according to a senior bank official, with at least three regions looking to launch pricing schemes.

Environment groups decry plan to use site regeneration years after operations end at Glencore’s Mangoola mine as offsets

• Get our free news app; get our morning email briefing

Habitat destruction caused by a new coalmine development in the New South Wales Hunter region will be offset through rehabilitation of the coal pit more than a decade after endangered ecosystems are cleared.

Environment groups have labelled the plan to allow future rehabilitation of the mine site to be claimed as part of Glencore’s offsets for its Mangoola mine expansion near Muswellbrook as “cynical and grotesque”.

Continue reading...

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices leapt to a new all-time high this week as speculators kept up purchases and entities continued to roll positions en masse, while RGGI Allowance (RGA) values also notched new records as more financial players opened accounts.

American plastics industry, described by experts as ‘the new coal’, releasing at least 232m tons of gas annually

The plastics industry in the United States is on track to release more greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than coal-powered electricity generating plants by the end of the decade, according to a new report released on Thursday.

The report, by Bennington College’s Beyond Plastics project, found that the American plastics industry is releasing at least 232m tons of GHG annually, the equivalent to 116 average-sized coal-fired power plants.

Continue reading...

As US President Joe Biden’s flagship emissions reduction proposal falters due to the intransigence of a coal-state senator, other Democratic legislators have set their sights on a state-led subsidy package and other alternatives to move the nation’s climate policy forward and build credibility ahead of the COP26 UN summit. 

The Biden administration has released three reports on security and humanitarian disasters that could strike as world heats up

The climate crisis is likely to intensify cross-border clashes, aggravate conflicts over water and migration and cause instability, especially in developing countries, in ways that could threaten global security, the Biden administration warned on Thursday.

A clutch of simultaneously released reports by the White House, the US intelligence community and the Department of Defense paint a grim picture of the raft of security and humanitarian disasters that could strike at once as climate disaster continues to set in.

Continue reading...

Transgrid and Zenobē Energy join forces to deliver Australia's most sustainably advanced, electrified depot in NSW – a critical first step 100% electric buses by 2030.

The post Charging hub: Sydney electric bus depot to lay blueprint for EVs and grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Countries will argue over a response and the poorest will suffer most, US intelligence says.