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Kew study reveals areas with at least 100,000 undiscovered plant species – most likely to be under threat of extinction

Botanists have identified 33 “dark spots” around the world where thousands of plant species are probably waiting to be discovered, according to new research.

From a palm tree in Borneo that flowers underground to a Malagasy orchid that spends its life growing on other plants, researchers are still making dozens of new species discoveries every year.

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The StB Giga Factory has started making the equivalent of about 30,000 lithium iron phosphate home battery systems a year, with plans to scale that to 2GWh a year by 2030.

The post St Baker battery giga factory starts commercial production in the Philippines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A scorecard ranking private equity firms on their climate impact paints a grim picture, with most major players receiving near-failing grades.

The proposed updates from RGGI states could divide the regional power market into trading zones each with a different emissions cap and separate allowance types, a panel of experts discussed at Climate Week NYC last week.

Wind farms proposed for development in Queensland will have to meet a number of new environmental, logistical and acoustic criteria, as part of an ongoing review of the state's renewable energy planning rules.

The post Nature, noise, rehab: Queensland tightens wind farm planning rules in renewables regulation overhaul appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The instantaneous share of renewable energy in Australia’s main grid has reached new highs for the second day in a row, steadily nudging out fossil fuels in preparation for the day that coal generation might be switched off completely, as occurred in the earlier today. As Joshua Hill writes here, the last coal-fired power generator […]

The post Renewable records tumble for second day in a row, pushing fossil fuels to new lows appeared first on RenewEconomy.

When compared to fossil fuel and nuclear options, solar PV’s global costs in 2023 were 56 per cent lower, while onshore wind’s costs were even lower.

The post Solar and wind less than half the cost of fossil fuels as price falls continue appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The New Zealand government has announced the next steps it intends to take on emissions trading, forestry, and agriculture-related measures, in its latest quarterly action plan published Monday.

The UK was the first country to build a coal fired power station and has now become the first major economy to exit coal power.

The post Last coal power station in UK shuts down, bring coal era to end after 143 years appeared first on RenewEconomy.

European carbon prices will continue to face bearish “headwinds” that will extend into next year, but will start to see a turnaround by 2026, analysts said Monday.

RGGI Allowances (RGAs) in the secondary market continued to slide through the week after the release last Monday of the long-awaited Third Program Review proposed changes, with traders expecting further pressure on prices.

The number of entities registered with active accounts in Washington’s cap-and-trade programme once again increased in an early look at Q3 data, despite the lack of clarification from the regulator regarding the worth of allowances if the scheme is repealed through the ballot initiative.

The US has a pathway to cut emissions by 65% from 2005 levels by 2035 and meet its climate goals under the Paris Agreement if there is an “all-of-society” approach, according to a new study.

It’s difficult to overstate how rapidly Australians have embraced solar power – there’s now more rooftop solar than coal-fired power. The key question is what policymakers can learn from its success

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Australia was a different place in 2011. Julia Gillard’s Labor government, the Greens and a couple of country independents were rewriting the country’s climate policies, including introducing a world-leading carbon pricing system and creating three agencies to back it up.

Those organisations – the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Climate Change Authority – have survived and help shape the investment and policy landscape. The carbon pricing system – falsely described as a tax – famously didn’t.

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Natural gas will remain important to bridge the gap in energy demand for "many decades" as the US grid expects greater additions of solar and wind power, but carbon capture technology is not yet commercially competitive, according to a study published Monday by a US public policy think tank.

Bethany Beach firefly, found in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, faces dangers to habitat because of climate change

The US government is seeking to consider a firefly species as endangered for the first time, according to a proposal from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Bethany Beach firefly, found in coastal Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, is facing increasing dangers to its natural habitat because of climate change-related events. They include sea level rise, which is predicted to affect all sites within the known distribution by the end of the century, and the lowering of groundwater aquifers.

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The Vermont chapter of a New England-focused environmental group filed a lawsuit against the state agency, alleging failure to comply with greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction-related requirements under its climate law.

If left unchecked, artificial intelligence will harm animals. Experts in law, ethics and animal welfare call for AI to be included in the revised Australian Animal Welfare Strategy, coming soon. Lev Bromberg, PhD Candidate and Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Christine Parker, Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne Simon Coghlan, Senior Lecturer in Digital Ethics, Centre for AI and Digital Ethics, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management announced Monday that it closed its climate-targeted private equity fund at $750 million after attracting investments from firms in Europe, North America, and Japan.

A capsule sent to bring back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station has docked.