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Taylor intervenes in RERT market to pay smelter to act like a "big battery", but not in the way that energy experts have been advocating.

The post Taylor intervenes in RERT scheme to pay smelter to act like giant battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Wirsol puts 300 sheep to graze among the panels of its Gannawarra solar farm, as part of a trial to help manage vegetation at the site in Victoria.

The post What are ewes eating? Wirsol adds 300 sheep to Gannawarra solar farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Resources minister Keith Pitt moves to protect the fossil fuel industry from 'blacklisting', calls for parliamentary inquiry.

The post Keith Pitt – after calling for bank boycott – wants inquiry into fossil fuel blacklisting appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Global leaders pledged to protect 10% of the oceans by 2020. We're nowhere close and the goal has proven particularly challenging to achieve in international waters. Natasha Blaize Gardiner, PhD Candidate, University of Canterbury Cassandra Brooks, Assistant Professor Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Paris Agreement desperately needs to be updated. Currently the big exporters take no responsibility for the emissions created when those fossil fuels are burned overseas. Jeremy Moss, Professor of Political Philosophy, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

NZX has created a new role to head up and develop its new emissions trading platform.

Concerns around "random" grid connection issues and unpredictable federal policy dampen renewables investment confidence, CEC finds. Thank goodness for the states.

The post NSW clean shift makes it pin-up state for renewable investors, but grid issues linger appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Morrison's hollow climate rhetoric falls flat with world leaders, as Australia left further behind following new pledges at weekend climate summit.

The post Australia left behind as world leaders brush off Morrison’s empty climate gestures appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Order made by Defra for the first time in four years, as thousands of birds have been culled in Great Britain

Millions of free-range hens and other birds must be kept indoors from Monday under a national government crackdown to try to curtail the spread of a virulent strain of avian flu sweeping across Great Britain.

Keepers have had 11 days to prepare for the strict new lockdown-style measures, including taking steps to safeguard animal welfare, consult their vet and where necessary erect additional housing or self-contained netted areas.

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Plastic in the ocean is eaten by over 700 species, but just a few items are responsible for the most deaths. Lauren Roman, Postdoctoral Researcher, Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO Britta Denise Hardesty, Principal Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, CSIRO Chris Wilcox, Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Qamar Schuyler, Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmospheres, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Rio Tinto's own staff wanted the blast stopped. Andrew Hopkins, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Australian National University Deanna Kemp, Professor and Director, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Wide-ranging review finds whales, dolphins, turtles and seabirds at mortal risk from marine debris

Plastic bags and flexible packaging are the deadliest plastic items in the ocean, killing wildlife including whales, dolphins, turtles and seabirds around the globe, according to a review of hundreds of scientific articles.

Discarded fishing line and nets as well as latex gloves and balloons were also found to be disproportionately lethal when compared with other ocean debris that animals mistakenly eat.

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Homegrown veg and even turkeys are on the menu for people converted to self-sufficiency during lockdown

It’s hard to reuse a chocolate advent calendar, but for Maya Levy it’s one of the best parts of Christmas.

“It’s really cool – it’s in the shape of a gingerbread house. You melt the chocolate and wrap it in some foil,” she said. Each chocolate parcel goes into tiny wooden drawers in the advent calendar – one element of the 24-year-old marine biologist’s attempts to have an entirely sustainable Christmas.

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The Committee on Climate Change has shown that decarbonising is not only affordable but highly desirable

Few crises come with a users’ manual. The government’s official climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, have come close, however, with a new 1,000-page tome setting out a blueprint for how Britain can decarbonise its economy and cut emissions to virtually zero by 2050.

The committee’s green manifesto, published last week, brings to heel the two most pervasive myths that climate deniers have set to stalk Britain’s climate ambitions. The first is a menacing right-wing imagining of economic hardship in which the “eye-watering costs” of green investment collide with a slowdown in productivity and growth. This is a fallacy easily disproved.

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When world leaders get serious about reducing carbon emissions, we can raise families determined to improve the planet’s future

When I had my daughter I felt like the first person to have a baby; now I’ve had my son, I feel like I might be the last. An academic study into how young people factor climate change into their reproductive choices makes for dark reading, with 96% “very or extremely” concerned about their potential children in a climate-changed world. For some the concern is so severe they’ve decided not to have children at all. “I can’t in good conscience bring a child into this world and force them to try to survive what may be apocalyptic conditions,” one 27-year-old woman said.

More shocking even, were the 6% of parents who confessed to feeling remorse about having children. One 42-year-old father painted a Goya-like picture of his children’s adult life, “a hot-house hell, with wars over limited resources, collapsing civilisation, failing agriculture, rising seas, melting glaciers, starvation, droughts, floods, mudslides and widespread devastation”. After reading this, I put the kettle on and had a small cup of tea and waited until my hands stopped shaking. Bloody hell. Literally, bloody hell. Man, I feel for that dad, singing his children to sleep before curling up on the landing and rocking, slowly. As well as pressing upon one of my archipelago of dready bruises, his quote made me consider the intellectual compromises required in order to have a baby.

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Western Power seeks another 50MW of battery storage to avoid network costs and boost penetration of renewables in WA's main grid.

The post Western Power seeks another 50MW of battery storage for WA’s main grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Minister tells more than 80 world leaders that not enough is being done

The world is still not on track to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the UK’s business secretary Alok Sharma warned, after a summit of more than 70 world leaders on the climate crisis ended with few new commitments on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sharma said: “[People] will ask ‘Have we done enough to put the world on track to limit warming to 1.5C and protect people and nature from the effects of climate change?’ We must be honest with ourselves – the answer to that is currently no.”

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At the world’s biggest coal export port in Newcastle, no China-bound ships are waiting or scheduled to load before Christmas

Three years ago, pictures of bulk carriers queued off the coast of Mackay in central Queensland were framed as evidence of a “renaissance” in the coal industry.

There were more than 70 coal ships in the offshore gridlock in December 2017. This year there are just 12 waiting – equalling a record low mark set at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Our Built Environment team is seeking an experienced carbon consultant to join our advisory team in London, although other locations may be considered, to help grow our net zero service offerings to new and existing clients particularly in the healthcare and higher education sectors.

President Xi Jinping announced new, tougher 2030 targets for China’s climate change policy, though the adjustments to its previous Paris Agreement pledge were modest and did not include an absolute cap on greenhouse gas emissions.