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After several months of handover, Marco Perona and Rachel Ruffle have replaced Jean-Marc Armitano who has stepped down from RES after 20 successful years with the company.

The post RES Group appoints new head for Australia region appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Downward trend continues in the LGC market with liquidity issues along the way, while STCs experience a volatile period on regulatory concerns.

The post Renewable Energy Market: Spot prices hit three year lows appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The EIANZ 2018 Annual Conference is carbon neutral certified

Research suggests first year ‘critical window’ in which toxic air can increase weight gain

Early exposure to air pollution from vehicles increases the risk of children becoming obese, new research has found.

High levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted by diesel engines, in the first year of life led to significantly faster weight gain later, the scientists found. Other pollutants produced by road traffic have also been linked to obesity in children by recent studies.

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While drought insurance schemes have produced mixed results to date, there remains hope for the future. Neal Hughes, Senior Economist, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Opponents say revised definition of fracking will allow energy firms to bypass planning rules

The government is facing a fresh legal challenge to its proposals to fast-track new fracking sites by loosening planning regulations.

Ministers said this summer they would drop the requirement for shale gas wells to obtain planning permission by designating fracking sites as national infrastructure projects.

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Musk hints the next big development in storage from Tesla will be an even bigger battery - maybe the mega-pack is not far off.

The post Megapack? Musk hints at the next big thing in Tesla batteries appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Veteran broadcaster says Dynasties, his new BBC wildlife series, will be gripping, truthful and entertaining but not overtly campaigning

Sir David Attenborough, the world’s most famous wildlife storyteller, believes repeated warnings about human destruction of the natural world can be a “turn-off” for viewers – a comment that is likely to reignite the debate about whether the veteran broadcaster’s primary duty is to entertain or educate.

Ahead of the launch of Dynasties, a new five-part BBC documentary series, the presenter of Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II said the impact of habitat loss, climate change and pollution were evident everywhere, but sounding the alarm too often could be counterproductive.

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Homes and businesses accelerate their uptake of rooftop solar, with Victoria emerging as the latest hot-spot.

The post Solar installations smash new record in October, all eyes on Victoria appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Parts of Australia were built on mining and coal-fired power-generation. Then they lost those industries. Future Tense looks as innovative ways to move forward.

The world is losing plants at an unprecedented rate with around one in five thought to be at risk of extinction. The race is on to store back-up copies in seed banks.

“I wanted to give trash a second chance,” says Cyrus Kabiru, 34, who makes art – including highly decorative eyewear – out of wires, pins, bottle tops and other detritus he finds on the streets of Nairobi and around the world. Kabiru, who grew up in a Nairobi slum, started making glasses as a child. “I tried to get my dad to buy me a pair. He was like, ‘I can’t, maybe you design your own.’” There was no shortage of materials, with one of the largest dumping grounds in Nairobi next door. Kabiru began turning junk into spectacles. This caught people’s imagination; now he travels the world showing his art (he also makes bicycles and masks out of waste material) and giving talks on creativity. None of his “glasses” has lenses. “They’re not for seeing better; they’re for seeing different,” he says.

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Why trees grown in test tubes could be the answer to preserving the world's forests for the future.

The Horseshoe crab outlived the dinosaurs but is no match for medicine’s hunger for its blood

Few people in the world are aware their wellbeing may one day depend on a blue-blooded crab that looks like a cross between the facehugger from Alien and a gigantic louse. Fewer still realise this ancient creature now faces its greatest threat in more than 450m years.

The American horseshoe crab outlived the dinosaurs and has survived four previous mass extinctions, but is now menaced by the pharmaceutical industry, fishing communities, habitat loss, climate change and, most recently, choking tides of red algae off the east coast of the United States.

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Introducing the Guardian’s new series The Age of Extinction, the renowned primatologist describes the dramatic vanishing of wildlife she has witnessed in her lifetime – and how we can all play a vital role in halting its destruction

During my years studying chimpanzees in Gombe national park in Tanzania I experienced the magic of the rainforest. I learned how all life is interconnected, how each species, no matter how insignificant it may seem, has a role to play in the rich tapestry of life – known today as biodiversity. Even the loss of one thread can have a ripple effect and result in major damage to the whole.

I left Gombe in 1986 when I realised how fast chimpanzee habitat was being destroyed and how their numbers were declining. I visited six chimpanzee range states and learned a great deal about the rate of deforestation as a result of foreign corporations (timber, oil and mining) and population growth in communities in and around chimpanzee habitat, so that more land was needed for expanding villages, agriculture and grazing livestock.

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The world has two years to secure a deal for nature to halt a ‘silent killer’ as dangerous as climate change, says biodiversity chief

The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction, warns the United Nation’s biodiversity chief.

Ahead of a key international conference to discuss the collapse of ecosystems, Cristiana Pașca Palmer said people in all countries need to put pressure on their governments to draw up ambitious global targets by 2020 to protect the insects, birds, plants and mammals that are vital for global food production, clean water and carbon sequestration.

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Burden of enforcement will hit poorer nations already struggling to cope, say conservationists

China’s decision to loosen a 25-year ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horn will put pressure on poor foreign nations as well as endangered global wildlife, according to experts on the illegal trade in animals.

Government officials in Beijing say the introduction of quotas for these body parts to be used in traditional Chinese medicine will allow them to manage legal demand, but conservationists say the move will cause more conflict in African and Asian countries that are trying to limit the illegal supply.

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The animal in western India is said to have killed 13 people and evaded capture for two years.

His business card says 'desert walker' and he's not afraid of death.

By use of ionic liquids, Douglas MacFarlane and his team have developed a super-efficient way of producing ammonia using renewable energy. Ammonia is used for production of fertiliser, and as a medium for transporting hydrogen.