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To meet Paris targets, world must phase down existing fossil fuel production. Happily, renewables are more than ready for the challenge.

The post The stunning potential of wind and solar, essential to meet 1.5°C climate target appeared first on RenewEconomy.

To eat an oyster raw is to eat it alive

On the oyster’s edge, under the sea, on a rock, a tree root, a bamboo pole, a pebble, a tile or another shell, the bivalve’s cilia – from the Latin for eyelash – are waving. Together, they move water over the oyster’s gills – its shell is open, its muscles are relaxed. The oyster has lungs. It has a three-chambered heart. An hour passes; the oyster has filtered five litres of water. The oyster has listened to the breaking waves: it opens and closes according to the tides.

One valve is the cupped half of the shell, the other is the flat half. A cargo ship sounds its horn. The oyster shuts in fright.

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Renewables achieved record share of global electricity production in 2020, but fossil fuels still supply 80% of world's energy needs – the same as 10 years ago.

The post “Empty words:” Record renewables fail to shift fossil fuels in global energy mix appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

Biologists have uncovered the genetic secrets of water shrews, the world's smallest diving mammals.

As demand for electric cars grows, giant battery factories are being built across Europe.

Allied members have agreed to "significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from military activities".

Yallourn coal generator forced to close three out of its four units over the weekend due to flooding at its brown coal mines in Victoria.

The post Too wet for coal power: Yallourn units shut down due to flooded mines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Providing a uniform standard of coverage for emissions sources and aligning large emitter programmes is necessary to improve the short- and long-term effectiveness of Canada’s patchwork landscape of carbon pricing systems, a report said Monday.

An Idaho-based California Carbon Offset (CCO) project is the most recent dairy digester aiming to generate credits under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) instead, according to documents published Friday.

A massive gas industry conference marks an acceleration in efforts to create weak, ineffective climate 'targets' to mask huge fossil expansion.

The post Faking climate action will be the main game at major gas conference appeared first on RenewEconomy.

For phascogales, tree hollows are getting harder to find. I venture into forests and study how well artificial hollows made with chainsaws can replace them. William Terry, PhD Researcher, Southern Cross University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Voluntary emissions reduction (VER) values largely extended their record highs over the past week, even as voluntary carbon market (VCM) participants thought some corporate buyers still weren’t accounting for upside risk in the rapidly expanding area.

The Low Carbon Trader will trade carbon emission credits and options within the Low Carbon Trading (LCT) Team and will be integral to the success of bp’s low energy transition. This trader will manage compliance and entrepreneurial positions, as well as be responsible for pricing and supporting the low carbon origination activity in Trading & Shipping.

EUAs climbed more than a euro early on Monday amid a strengthening energy complex, but reversed course after Germany revealed plans to hand out more free carbon allowances this year than had been expected.

A California heat wave forecast throughout this week is spurring higher WCI carbon allowance prices, with some anticipating higher CO2-emitting generation to occur amid an uptick in electricity demand.

Hot weather bakes in disadvantage. Regenerating natural and living ecosystems will help us all

A century ago the British critic and crime writer GK Chesterton declared that crime fiction is the poetry of the city. Chesterton’s point was that the city is more attuned to the poetry of contemporary life than the country, but his observation also hit upon something no less important, which is that the structures that shape social and economic life are visible in their concentrated forms in the urban environment.

This is especially true when it comes to the impacts of global heating. As our cities get hotter the inequities embedded in them are intensifying rapidly. A 45C day in Sydney’s inner city isn’t fun, but residents of the affluent suburbs close to the centre tend to live in well-appointed, air-conditioned houses and apartments, as well as enjoying easy access to beaches, parks, pools and libraries where they can find refuge from the heat.

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Laurence Tubiana, a key player in 2015 Paris summit, says UK and others must explain how they will achieve climate goals

Rich countries must come forward with detailed plans on how they hope to meet their climate targets, and Boris Johnson must forge much closer relationships with developing countries to bring about the breakthrough needed on the climate crisis this year, one of the architects of the Paris agreement has said.

The G7 summit, which ended on Sunday in Cornwall, achieved much less than campaigners had hoped, with no significant new cash forthcoming for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, on the frontlines of climate breakdown.

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Campaigners say government position is 'a step in the right direction but 'not yet on the money'.

Biodiversity pledge is part of formal response to landmark review of economic importance of nature

The UK government has committed to leaving the environment in “a better state than we found it” in response to a landmark review of the economic importance of nature.

Major transport and energy infrastructure projects in England will need to provide a net-gain for biodiversity, and the government said it would ensure all new bilateral aid spending did not harm the natural world as part of an effort to ensure a “nature-positive” future.

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