Feed aggregator

Pacific island nations have shaped the international response to climate change. At the United Nations summit in Glasgow, they’ll draw a line in the sand. Wesley Morgan, Researcher, Climate Council, and Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Most public oil and gas companies have not set emissions reduction targets that align with the Paris Agreement’s objective to limit the rise in the global temperature to below 1.5C, new research has found.

Researchers say findings in Mozambique demonstrate impact of human interference in nature

Ivory poaching over decades has led to the evolution of tuskless elephants, researchers have found, proving that humans are “literally changing the anatomy” of wild animals.

A previously rare genetic mutation causing tusklessness has become very common in some groups of African elephants after a period in which many were killed for their tusks, according to a study published in the journal Science.

Continue reading...

EU leaders are expected to postpone a deal on bloc-wide measures to tackle surging energy prices this week, as several snubbed pleas from poorer nations to delay climate action and draft text deferred a decision to ministers.

Greater oversight by the federal government is necessary to ensure voluntary emissions reductions (VERs) provide significant environmental and economic benefits, with proposed Congressional legislation on a carbon offset certification system serving as a model, according to a right-wing think-tank study published Wednesday. 

Oxford English Dictionary found between 2018 and 2020 use of ‘climate crisis’ increased nearly 20-fold

When people spoke of a “climate refugee” in the 19th century, they would be describing someone who had moved to a place where the climate is healthier or more congenial.

But in modern parlance, the meaning has shifted to reflect current global crises – now climate refugees are those who are forced to move in response to extreme weather or rising sea levels.

Continue reading...

A parliamentary inquiry is set to begin, triggered by a Guardian Australia investigation that exposed multiple, serious flaws

• Download the free Guardian app; get our morning email briefing

Problems that have long flown under the public radar will finally be aired in the New South Wales parliament when an inquiry into the integrity of the state’s environmental offsets scheme begins.

It is a significant inquiry that follows an investigation by Guardian Australia.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

A leak of government inputs into part III of the UN-backed IPCC scientific panel’s upcoming landmark climate report shows how several nations are pushing for a prominent role for CCS and carbon trading in global mitigation efforts.

Retirement of Najin, 32, leaves her daughter Fatu as the only egg donor in embryo implantation scheme

One of the world’s last two northern white rhinos is being retired from a breeding programme aimed at saving the species from extinction.

Najin, 32, is the mother of Fatu, who is now the only donor left in the programme, which aims to implant artificially developed embryos into another more abundant species of rhino in Kenya.

Continue reading...

Officials from fossil fuel firms may attend fringe events but campaigners hail lack of official role

Fossil fuel firms will have no official role in the Cop26 climate summit, it can be revealed, amid growing concern among UK officials that big oil’s net zero plans do not stack up.

Private emails from civil servants in the Cop unit, seen by the Guardian, show doubts about one oil major’s net zero plans, with an official saying BP “[does] not currently fit our success criteria for Cop26” and another noting “it’s unclear whether [its net zero] commitments stack up yet”.

Continue reading...

The owners of Australia’s ageing and increasingly decrepit coal generators have known for some time what a duck curve looks like. They may never have imagined, however, that it would grow this steep this quickly (see red line in graph above). AGL admitted this year that it had been caught by surprise by the growth […]

The post Dead ducks in the middle of the grid: Coal output pushed to record lows by solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

AEMO's latest quarterly energy report highlights more negative pricing events, and an average daytime price in Victoria of zero over two months.

The post Rooftop solar sends Victorian power prices to zero every day for two months appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Scientists say they have precisely dated a camp in Newfoundland, Canada, thanks to a new technique.

Nasa's next-generation spaceship is attached to the rocket that will launch it to the Moon.

EUA prices consolidated on Thursday morning after moving in an average daily range of €3.43 over the previous three days, with sharply weaker energy prices amid mild weather depressing heating demand.

States with large meat and dairy industries also attempted to amend IPCC’s report, documents say

Countries that produce coal, oil, beef and animal feed have been lobbying to water down a landmark UN climate report, according to a leak of documents seen by Greenpeace’s investigation team.

Days before Cop26, the international climate change negotiations taking place in Glasgow, the leaks show fossil fuel producers including Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Japan are lobbying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to remove recommendations that the world needs to phase out fossil fuels.

Continue reading...

Activist says countries such as UK, US and China use ‘creative carbon accounting’ to augment green credentials

• There are no real climate leaders yet – who will step up at Cop26? | Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg has accused countries including the UK of being in denial over the extent of the climate and ecological crisis and using “creative carbon accounting” to augment their green credentials.

In an opinion piece for the Guardian, the Swedish activist says world leaders have been responsible for several years of inaction in reducing emissions which she has termed “their decades of blah, blah, blah”.

Continue reading...

Like other rich nations, the UK is more talk than action on the climate crisis. Something needs to change in Glasgow

• Greta Thunberg accuses world leaders of being in denial over climate crisis

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, called the recent IPCC report on the climate crisis a “code red” for humanity. “We are at the verge of the abyss,” he said.

You might think those words would sound some kind of alarm in our society. But, like so many times before, this didn’t happen. The denial of the climate and ecological crisis runs so deep that hardly anyone takes real notice any more. Since no one treats the crisis like a crisis, the existential warnings keep on drowning in a steady tide of greenwash and everyday media news flow.

Continue reading...

Several Chinese provinces on Thursday moved to cancel fixed power prices for business and industrial customers in response to last week’s power market reforms aimed at easing ongoing electricity shortages, a move experts say is crucial for the market’s ability to accommodate a carbon price.

Barnaby Joyce says demands were not a captain’s call but most MPs were not given a copy of documents

• Download the free Guardian app; get our morning email briefing

The federal resources minister, Keith Pitt, has declared solar panels don’t function in the dark when asked if he still believed renewables don’t work as the junior Coalition partner finalised its demands for potentially agreeing to net zero by 2050.

The Nationals party room met on Thursday evening to consider structural adjustment principles to put to Scott Morrison in exchange for supporting a net zero emissions reduction target.

Continue reading...