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Rooftop PV sends brown coal output inVictoria to record low, while NSW hits new demand and renewable output records

The post Energy shift in action: Brown coal hits new low in Victoria, renewables hit new high in NSW appeared first on RenewEconomy.

From Eurovision super fans to solar eclipses and star celebrities, here is a selection of the finest work by our photographers

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Alex Batty, who was missing for six years, has returned to the UK, Greater Manchester Police says.

Three hostages were mistakenly killed in Gaza on Friday by Israeli troops in an area of intense fighting.

The UN summit’s deal heralds the end of coal, oil and gas. The real test is whether producers back it up with action

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From the start, Cop28 appeared beyond the reach of satire. About 100,000 politicians, diplomats, lobbyists, business people, investors, activists, scientists, policy wonks and journalists from across the globe registered for a two-week climate summit hosted by an authoritarian oil state in a city, Dubai, known for skyscrapers and extravagant, energy-hungry consumerism.

The president of the summit, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, is the chief executive of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which is planning a US$150bn oil and gas expansion. The United Arab Emirates is also investing in renewables – its Noor Energy 1 concentrated solar thermal plant is bigger than 6,000 football fields – but a more prominent sight in central Dubai is the world’s biggest gas-fired power plant.

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Roy Scholten has been interested in birds ever since he can remember. In his 50 Birds series, the Netherlands-based artist and printmaker has created handmade prints of local species including pied flycatchers, skylarks and blue-headed wagtails. Each print is made using Lego letterpress, combining individual building blocks into stamps to recreate the birds’ shapes and patterns, a technique perfected over the past decade by his frequent collaborator, the artist Martijn van der Blom. “Birds are daily reminders of the richness of our natural surroundings. They can fly! How cool is that!” says Scholten. “Sadly most species are in decline, which makes it all the more worthwhile to really look and appreciate them.”

• Works from Scholten and Van der Blom’s book Print & Play are on show at Grafisch Atelier Hilversum in the Netherlands until 4 February 2024

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From emissions to road deaths, the trend for ever-bigger SUVs is a disaster. We need regulation to turn the car industry back to smaller vehicles

The United States is in the midst of a full-blown size crisis. No, I’m not talking about the mad rush for Wegovy, which is selling so swiftly that Denmark has to remove data relating to manufacturers Novo Nordisk to measure (the rest of) its economy properly. And no, I’m not talking about … something else. I’m talking about the enormous monstrosities filling up its roads. (Yeah, I see you on the streets of downtown Cleveland alone in your $85,000, 7,000lb Dodge Ram and I can tell you’re not a farmer … maybe that actually says something about the “something else”.)

There are lots of trends, ideas, music and films that cross the Atlantic. Some of them are good. This is not one of them. Neither are the 500 Krispy Kreme “points of access” the American chain is planning to open across France over the next year. (One, OK, fine, for the novelty, but 500 in the next year? In a country that exists in a completely different universe when it comes to pastries?)

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist

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Another big solar farm gets planning approval in NSW, despite some strong objections, after agreeing to widen the gap between rows of modules to allow more sheep on the property.

The post Big solar farm in NSW approved after widening gaps in solar rows to allow more sheep appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) is advising regional policymakers and regulators on how to embed a high-integrity voluntary carbon market within national strategies and frameworks.

The military said the three men were shot and killed by troops who were operating in northern Gaza.

Scientists are assessing how exposure to different kinds of air pollution impacts the brain.

Researchers have charted an incentive-lined path to help make forest restoration financially viable in developing countries, overcoming longstanding challenges of high upfront costs and uncertain returns.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday voted to extend the operation of Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) Diablo Canyon nuclear plant through 2030, despite opposition from environmental groups.

California and Quebec will offer fewer carbon allowances at their February auction in comparison to the Q4 2023 WCI sale in November, and lower year-on-year, as the emissions cap in the joint carbon market tightens, according to a government notice published Friday.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $890 million to three CCS projects, while alongside the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $350 mln to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, ramping up its investment in emissions cuts.

The head of carbon trading business group IETA blames the EU for this week’s collapse of COP28 UN climate talks on Article 6 emissions trade, though expects such approaches to continue to develop apace within smaller groups of nations.

Scientists leading the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Subsurface Hydrogen Assessment, Storage, and Technology Acceleration (SHASTA) project outlined progress Friday as part of the project’s pursuit to identify and address technological hurdles, as well as enable public acceptance for underground storage of hydrogen.

Certifier Verra on Friday opened a consultation on a draft clean cookstoves methodology that enables carbon crediting from improved efficiency or switching fuels.

Regulated parties and speculators shed V23 net holdings of California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) for gains in V24 as positions were rolled ahead of end-of-year rebalancing, RGGI market saw speculative interest across vintages as allowance prices hit records, according to US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.