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The Competitive Grant Round is open until 2pm Canberra time (AEST) 30 April 2019. Grant guidelines and further information on how to apply is available on the Government’s GrantConnect website at: www.grants.gov.au. (The Grant Opportunity ID on...

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

Victoria’s former centre for car manufacturing, Geelong, will host a turbine assembly and testing hub for global wind giant Vestas.

The post Vestas brings winds of change to Victoria manufacturing, with turbine plant in Geelong appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Every Friday morning, 13-year-old Holly Gillibrand skips school for an hour to demand more is done over climate change.

A detailed review of Australia's main grid for 2018 shows a big increase in renewables, gains in efficiency, lower demand, and a substantial fall in emissions.

The post NEM Review 2018: More renewables, greater efficiency, less emissions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Greta Thunberg spoke to the BBC in September, but since then she's become a global phenomenon.

We can't make it rain. But you are already helping if you don't use more water than you need. And you can talk to your parents about the planet getting warmer, because the heat makes drought worse. Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan and its allies on Wednesday argued that Ottawa’s carbon tax mandate is unconstitutional and violates the principles of federalism, kicking off the first of two lawsuits this year against the federal ‘backstop’ carbon pricing plan.

Companies will be able to show emission mitigation efforts for future economic developments under a new programme launched Wednesday by California-based offset registry Climate Action Reserve (CAR), a departure from traditional offset activities that award credits after achieving reductions.

California regulator ARB issued nearly 425,000 new California Carbon Offsets (CCOs) this week, with a majority of the credits going to two existing forestry offset projects.

France may resume raising its domestic carbon tax if it modifies how the revenues are spent, despite the ongoing violent protests that led to last month’s scheduled increase being suspended, the country’s environment minister said this week.

Greece’s state-owned utility PPC is targeting another attempt to sell its lignite assets in May after cancelling this month's initial tender because of lacklustre interest.

A new report has found the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is failing to meet its environmental objectives with no improvement in water flows since its implementation.

EU carbon prices fell below €20 for the first time in over two months on Wednesday, before bargain-hunters stepped in to attempt to reverse this week’s bearish slide.

Recognising animals as sentient means welfare laws must consider animals' feelings as well as their physical conditions. Bronwyn Orr, Veterinarian and PhD candidate, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The 15-year mission of "Oppy" the robot is declared over after repeated failed attempts to contact it.

Readers respond to an article and editorial on the use of agricultural pesticides and the alarming decline in insect numbers

It is not just the insects that are in serious decline, but also the entomologists who study them (Plummeting insect numbers threaten collapse of nature, 11 February), both in terms of promoting and conserving beneficial species and combating pests. In 2016, I had an article published in the scientific literature entitled Insect biology – a vulnerable discipline?, highlighting the good that insects do as well as the bad, and how necessary research is on insects, but also how this has been eroded for many years by reductions in both government and industrial funding.

For example, Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, where I spent most of my career, used to have a thriving entomological research community working on various aspects concerning the role of insects in the agroecosystem. However, especially since the early years of this century, most of this vital work has been terminated due to severe cutbacks in funding, with very few projects surviving. In my view, considering the importance of insects as described in your article, renewed funding is urgently required to continue such essential exploration of insect science in all its diversity.
Hugh Loxdale
Honorary visiting professor, School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff

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The UK faces "an incredibly tight timetable" for setting up its own ETS by 2021 and will likely need to rely on the EU’s goodwill should the government want to ensure minimal disruption for its emitters by linking to the bloc's carbon market post-Brexit, experts said on Wednesday.

When you think about bees you probably thinking about honey, hives and yellow and black stripes, but these traits aren’t present in the majority of Australian bees. The bee you usually think of is the European honey bee. Yet Australia actually has more than 2,000 species of natives bees. In this episode of Look at Me we find out about the amazing life of a hardworking single mother, the blue-banded bee

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Urging political action on pesticide use is another way to help stem ‘collapse of nature’

Buying organic food is among the actions people can take to curb the global decline in insects, according to leading scientists. Urging political action to slash pesticide use on conventional farms is another, say environmentalists.

Related: Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'

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