Feed aggregator

Robotaxi service recovering from gruesome collision with pedestrian that triggered suspension of California license

General Motors on Tuesday named a veteran technology executive with roots in the video game industry to steer its troubled robotaxi service Cruise as it tries to recover from a gruesome collision that triggered the suspension of its California license and the removal of all its robotaxis from the state’s roads.

Marc Whitten, one of the key engineers behind the Xbox video game console, will take over as Cruise’s chief executive nearly nine months after one of the service’s robotaxis dragged a jaywalking pedestrian – who had just been struck by a vehicle driven by a human – across a darkened street in San Francisco before coming to a stop.

Continue reading...

Increasing coral bleaching will be worst for the most biodiverse reefs along the equator, impacting the livelihoods and nutrition of the people who depend on them. Camille Mellin, Senior Lecturer and ARC Future Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide Damien Fordham, Associate Professor of Global Change Ecology, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Our purpose-built “frog saunas” allow amphibians to warm up in winter and bake off chytrid infections. You can even DIY and build a frog sauna for your own backyard with our step-by-step guide. Anthony Waddle, Schmidt Science Fellow in Conservation Biology, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Project developer C-Quest Capital (CQC) on Wednesday revealed it has uncovered wrongdoing by its founder and former CEO Ken Newcombe that resulted in the over-issuance of millions of voluntary carbon credits, and has subsequently reported the matter to US authorities and has fired a number of senior executives and staff at the Washington DC-based firm.

Days of flooding have submerged homes and farmland across South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota

At least two people have died as a result of devastating floods in the US midwest. Flood warnings remain in place across South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota as more rainfall and storms are expected to hit the region this week.

More than 3 million people have been affected by days of flooding that washed away homes and submerged vast swaths of farmland. On Sunday, a railroad bridge connecting Iowa and South Dakota collapsed from flooding.

Continue reading...

North Herefordshire candidate and chef also call for water industry overhaul and more support for farmers

The Green party and the celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are calling for a “protection zone” to be placed around one of the UK’s most beautiful but threatened rivers and have demanded “drastic” nationwide changes to the water industry’s management and regulation.

At a wild-swimming event on the River Wye on Wednesday, Fearnley-Whittingstall and the Green party’s candidate for North Herefordshire, Ellie Chowns, both took dips, but only after measuring the level of pollution in the water.

Continue reading...

The densely forested country of Suriname plans to exploit its newly discovered oil reserves and remain a net remover of carbon at the same time, by requiring oil companies to buy Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) to cover their Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Companies are struggling to meet regulatory requirements for carbon projects in developing countries, according to experts speaking on an online panel at London Climate Week.

The Canadian subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell announced Wednesday it has reached a final investment decision (FID) to proceed on two carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Alberta, with one having an approximate annual capture capacity of 650,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

Europe’s leading energy exchange EEX will not be taking over Nasdaq’s Nordic power trading and clearing business, the company announced on Wednesday.

How can Australia get to net zero by 2050 while approving projects that will run for decades beyond that date?

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The sham of Australia’s climate change policy has been made clear in the past two weeks. No, not nuclear power. Last Friday, while everyone was racing down nuclear-powered rabbit holes, the environment department (led by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek) approved a coal seam gas pipeline in Queensland. This approval “has effect until 30 June 2069”. And on Tuesday the department approved the Atlas stage 3 gas project in Queensland out to June 2080.

Those dates are rather beyond 2050 when we’re supposed to be at net zero emissions. They are also when temperatures will be well over 2C above the preindustrial average.

Continue reading...

Paper outlines different legal theories that could help governments pursue accountability for harms

Companies have spent decades obstructing efforts to take on the plastics crisis and may have breached a host of US laws, a new report argues.

The research from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) details the widespread burdens that plastic pollution places on US cities and states, and argues that plastic producers may be breaking public-nuisance, product-liability and consumer-protection laws.

Continue reading...

Climate campaigners and scientists disturbed over claims about global warming found in document obtained through Gipa laws

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The New South Wales government is facing criticism over a review of how to cut emissions from coalmines that claims the goal of limiting global heating to well below 2C will not be met – a position at odds with the state’s laws and policies.

Climate campaigners and scientists said the claim in the report, prepared for the planning department, is inconsistent with state legislation that commits to pursuing efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5C.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

When the new European Commission takes office later this year, it will have a tricky question to answer – how to find €1.5 trillion per year to finance the EU’s net-zero transition. As EU governments tighten their belts, revenues from carbon trading could provide a much-needed source of income, experts say.

A group of 204 investors have joined forces to back an initiative on nature stewardship, seeking to pressure 60 companies to improve biodiversity-related risk management and help shape better environmental policies.

Forest conservation and restoration “have a solid scientific basis for mitigation in which we should have full confidence”, according to a group of leading scientists in a new report funded by Verra.

World’s first emissions tax on agriculture will require farmers to pay for greenhouse gas pollution from livestock

Farmers in Denmark will have to pay for planet-heating pollutants that their cattle expel as gas, after the government agreed to set the world’s first emissions tax on agriculture.

The agreement – reached on Monday night after months of fraught negotiations between farmers, industry, politicians and environmental groups – will introduce an effective tax of 120 kroner (£14) per ton of greenhouse gas pollution from livestock in 2030, which will rise to 300 kroner per ton in 2035.

Continue reading...

Ukrainian industries risk incurring financial losses from the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), unless the two sides can quickly agree to recognise a 'force majeure' and exempt the war-torn country from incoming carbon fees, according to a Ukrainian think-tank.

Boom in air cargo due to shoppers’ expectations of speedy delivery and shift in post-pandemic economy, researchers say

Air freight operators have increased their greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared with 2019, analysis has found.

In 2023, air freight operators ran about 300,000 more flights than in 2019, an increase in flight volume of almost 30%. The US accounted for more than 40% of global air freight emissions, according to the report by campaign group Stand.earth.

Continue reading...

Ageing gas fired power station to have one of its units converted into a syncon to help accommodate more solar on the Top End grid.

The post Fuel-free spinning machine to help ease more solar into Top End grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.