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Rewiring Aotearoa study shows the rising cost of petrol and gas in New Zealand means electric homes and EVs are now more affordable than fossil fuel alternatives.

The post SwitchedOn Podcast: NZ one of the first countries to reach an electrification tipping point appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Federal government gives environmental approval to 400MW wind farm in central Queensland on the same day it closes the door on a 300MW project proposed for the state's far north.

The post Big Queensland wind farm gets federal green tick, while another is shown the door appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Proposed ‘fast-track’ law could see conservation concerns ignored and projects once rejected for environmental reasons given the green light

New Zealand’s parliament is considering a law that would allow major development projects to bypass environmental approvals – and that should be a cause for extreme alarm.

The proposed Fast-track Approvals Bill emerged from the coalition agreements that enabled a centre-right government to form after last year’s election.

Nicola Wheen and Andrew Geddis are professors of law at the University of Otago.

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Europe was severely impacted by climate change last year, according to data released today by the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organisation, and things seem only to be getting worse.

Europeans are dying from hot weather 30% more than they did two decades ago, report finds

Scorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen.

Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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The federal government has announced 6 gigawatts of new variable renewable energy projects will go out for tender in May, as part of its Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS).

US offshore oil drilling giant and Breakthrough Victoria lead $51m fundraising round for Australian solar and thermal storage hopeful RayGen.

The post RayGen raises $51m in round led by US oil giant and state-owned VC fund appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Federal government to launch Australia's biggest ever tender for wind and solar in May, with more than one third to be reserved for NSW to prepare for future coal closures.

The post Australia’s biggest wind and solar auction set for May, with focus on coal-heavy NSW appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho defends government after watchdog accuses PM of setting the UK back.

From right to roam to anger over polluted rivers, a new breed of activists is pushing back against environmental destruction

Something very interesting is happening in the UK, to do with nature, the expanses of land we think of as the countryside, and where all those things sit in our collective consciousness. The change has probably been quietly afoot for 20 or 30 years. Now, it suddenly seems to be blurring over from the cultural sphere into our politics, with one obvious consequence – the belated entry into the national conversation of issues that have long been pushed to the margins, from land access and ownership to the shocking condition of our rivers.

The prevailing British attitude to nature has long been in an equally messed-up state. From the 1600s onwards, endless enclosure acts pushed people off the land and seeded the idea of the countryside as somewhere largely out of bounds. Britain’s rapid industrialisation only accelerated the process. And despite occasional cultural and political tilts in the opposite direction – the bucolic visions of the 18th- and 19th-century Romantics, the mass trespass movement of the 1930s – most of us now show the signs of that long story of loss and estrangement.

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Fly away home… You can have too much of a good thing

‘Look, a ladybird!’ This was how it started. My family were staying the night in a bed and breakfast near friends in rural England – we had driven through a landscape the colour of butter to park under a hillside upon which the shadows of clouds passed like curtains closing. I was medicated, pleasantly, can you tell, in a hangover from the most painful migraine of my life, and the clouds reminded me of the visual aura that flickers across your vision just before the headache begins. We put our bag on a chair, and there, inside the window frame, was a ladybird. And then, look, there was another one. The children gathered, by the window ready to be enchanted.

A group of ladybirds is called a “loveliness”, which, to me, sounds suspicious. Sounds problematic even. As if they have named themselves. A “conspiracy” of lemurs, that’s a good one, implies darkness, intelligence. A “bloat” of hippos, relatable. A “destruction” of wild cats, you’ve got a whole story there, beginning, middle, end. But a “loveliness”, please. Perhaps it’s my own must-work-on-it tendency towards tall poppy syndrome, perhaps I am inordinately disgusted by the ladybirds’ cloying self-satisfaction – I find the term embarrassing. However, there it was, a loveliness, crawling all over the window frame.

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The government of Cote d’Ivoire has reportedly asked Dutch bank Rabobank to suspend its carbon credit origination activities in the Nawa region of the country, claiming that emissions reductions previously sold to buyers including Microsoft were state property and contracted to another party.

Ark Energy pulls plans for its second wind project in six months, this time over repeated planning delays for a project criticised for being too close to world heritage areas.

The post Major wind farm withdrawn after more planning delays, downsizing, name changes and fierce opposition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

BBC nature presenter delivers eulogy at protest aimed at ‘scaring people a bit’ about the loss of biodiversity in the UK

The BBC nature presenter Chris Packham has joined hundreds of environmental activists in a mock funeral procession for nature to spotlight biodiversity loss in the UK.

The procession aimed to sound “code red for nature” and highlight the UK’s position as “one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world”, organisers said. It was planned to coincide closely with Earth Day on 22 April.

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A Tanzanian project developer has signed an agreement with a local district council to implement a forest conservation scheme covering 250,000 hectares across 14 villages.

Chris Stark, head of the Climate Change Committee, says Tories’ decision to dilute key green policies has had huge diplomatic impact

Rishi Sunak has given up Britain’s reputation as a world leader in the fight against the climate crisis and has “set us back” by failing to prioritise the issue in the way his predecessors in No 10 did, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Chris Stark, the outgoing head of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said that the prime minister had “clearly not” championed the issue following a high-profile speech last year in which he made a significant U-turn on the government’s climate commitments. The criticism comes after Sunak was accused of trying to avoid scrutiny of Britain’s climate policies by failing to appoint a new chair of the CCC.

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Keir Starmer must learn from the Tories’ failures and ensure green projects are well planned and resourced

In the energetic pursuit of net zero, billions of pounds could be squandered needlessly. That’s the lesson from countries as diverse as Italy, the US and UK, where the rush to subsidise green projects suggests vast sums are at risk. Worse, they could be lining the pockets of multinational businesses and City financiers.

In the UK, 14 years of austerity has left the public sector struggling to make coherent, strategic decisions. When a decision is finally made, it is a panic measure that quickly unravels. The fallout could be that voters become disenchanted with green tech, especially if the dash for net zero leads to higher taxes and higher borrowing while early adopters unwittingly pay for costly mistakes.

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Guyana is the first Small Island Developing State to report on its climate action pledge under the Paris Agreement, acting ahead of the Dec. 31, 2024 deadline, the UN’s climate change secretariat announced Friday.

In a BBC interview, Chris Stark says the PM has not made climate change "as much of a priority as his predecessors".

Recordings of healthy fish are being transmitted to attract heat-tolerant larvae back to degraded reefs in the Maldives

An underwater experiment to restore coral reefs using a combination of “coral IVF” and recordings of fish noises could offer a “beacon of hope” to scientists who fear the fragile ecosystem is on the brink of collapse.

The experiment – a global collaboration between two teams of scientists who developed their innovative coral-saving techniques independently – has the potential to significantly increase the likelihood that coral will repopulate degraded reefs, they claim.

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