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The world’s biggest oil producers are starting to take electric vehicles seriously as a long-term threat.

Imagine a future in which every one of Australia’s 537 local government areas, achieve net zero greenhouse emissions. It might sound like a pipe dream, but it could be closer than you think.

Water pours through a sea wall in the Cornish village of Coverack on Tuesday after the area was hit by flash flooding. Emergency workers attempt to clear debris to allow water to flow back down to the ocean. Six people were trapped in a house in the village due to the flood waters but no injuries have been reported

• Homes evacuated as Cornwall hit by flash floods

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The City of Sydney is aiming to get 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. HjalmarGerbig/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Imagine a future in which every one of Australia’s 537 local government areas, including all our capital cities and major regional centres, achieve net zero greenhouse emissions. It might sound like a pipe dream, but it could be closer than you think.

A new Climate Council report, released today, tracks the climate action being taken at the local government level. It gives myriad examples of cities, towns and local shires, in Australia and abroad, setting and achieving ambitious goals for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable transport.

In a 2016 Climate Institute survey of attitudes to climate change, 90% of respondents indicated that the federal government should shoulder the bulk of responsibility for action, with 67% saying Canberra should take a leading role. Yet given the current policy paralysis at Commonwealth level it is little wonder that some states seem determined to go it alone on setting ambitious clean energy targets.

Meanwhile, it’s at the local government level where enthusiastic action to embrace a more sustainable future is really taking off.

For some, the inspiration for action was a pledge by more than 1,000 mayors, local representatives and community leaders to move to 100% renewable energy. The promise was made on the sidelines of the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, at an event called the Climate Summit for Local Leaders.

Since then, US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement seems simply to have strengthened this resolve. More than 350 US mayors responded to Trump’s decision by pledging to reach 100% renewable energy for their communities by 2035.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that transforming the way energy is used and generated in cities and towns worldwide has the potential to deliver 70% of the total emissions reductions needed to stay on track for the 2℃ global warming limit set by the Paris Agreement. The IEA has described cities as the key to decarbonisation.

The leaders of some of Australia’s own major cities are certainly no slouches when it comes to climate aspiration:

• Canberra is on track to source 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, with zero net emissions by 2050 at the latest.
• The City of Adelaide is aiming to be carbon-neutral by 2020
• The City of Sydney aims to source 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2030
• The City of Melbourne is aiming for 25% renewable electricity by 2018 and net zero emissions by 2020
• The City of Brisbane aims to make council operations carbon-neutral by 2017.

Ambitions are also high at regional and local council levels. One in five councils surveyed by Beyond Zero Emissions indicated they were aiming for “100% renewable energy” or “zero emissions”. Examples detailed in the Climate Council report include, among others:

• Yackandandah, Vic: 100% renewable energy by 2022
• Lismore, NSW: 100% renewable energy by 2023
• Uralla, NSW: 100% renewable energy in 5-10 years
• Newstead, Qld: 100% renewable energy by 2017
• Darebin, Melbourne: zero net emissions by 2020.

Power to cities

To coincide with the report, the Climate Council is also today launching its Cities Power Partnership, a free nationwide program that aims to transform Australia’s energy future from the ground up.

Thirty-five councils, representing more than 3 million Australians (12% of the population), signed up to the program even before it was launched. To join, councils identify five items in the “Power Partners pledge” that they will strive to achieve. These items include increasing the proportion of renewable energy generated within the local area; improving energy efficiency; providing sustainable transport options; building community sustainability partnerships; and engaging in climate advocacy.

The new Cities Power Partnership.

Participants will then complete a six-monthly online survey on progress. In return, the Cities Power Partnership will provide incentives for councils to deliver on their selected targets and to work together to help each other. Members of the partnership will have access to a national knowledge hub and an online analytical tool to measure energy, cost and emissions savings of projects. They will also be buddied with other councils to share knowledge; receive visits from domestic and international experts; be connected to community energy groups; and be celebrated at events with other local leaders.

Ultimately, the CPP is designed to help local communities sidestep the political roadblocks at national level, and just get on with the job of implementing climate policies.

These may be only small projects when considered individually, but the idea is to link them into a network that, together, can make a big difference to one of our most significant challenges. After all, the only way to eat an elephant is to take one bite at a time.

Lesley Hughes is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia and one of the authors of the report "Local Leadership: Tracking Local Government Progress on Climate Change".

The European Space Agency turns off one of its most successful ever missions - LISA Pathfinder.

Elephant Action League’s sting operation shows how horns are trafficked from Africa and enter into China via Vietnam, alleging official complicity

Rhinoceros horn can be easily bought in China despite it being illegal since 1993. The rhino horn products in antiques shop are far from antique. They are new and most likely been illegally trafficked from Africa to Vietnam and then into China.

A new report from Elephant Action League (EAL), Grinding Rhino: An Undercover Investigation on Rhino Horn Trafficking in China and Vietnam, shows how rhino horn makes its way into shops in China, the largest illegal market for rhino horn in the world. EAL’s 11-month investigation, called Operation Red Cloud, targeted the supply chain, exposing the players, the networks, and the means by which rhino horn is trafficked into China.

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Demand for cheaper food and lower production costs is turning green fields into industrial sheds to process vast amounts of meat and poultry

• UK has nearly 800 livestock mega farms, investigation reveals
  

Since the days of the wild west frontier, the popular image of American farming has been of cowboys rounding up steers on wide open ranches, to whoops, whips and hollers. Today, the cowboys on their ranches under wide open skies have been replaced by vast sheds, hulking over the plains, housing tens of thousands of animals each, with the noises and smells spreading far beyond their fences.

The US has led the world in large-scale farming, pioneering the use of intensive livestock rearing in hog farms, cattle sheds and sheep pens. There are now more than 50,000 facilities in the US classified as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), with another quarter of a million industrial-scale facilities below that threshold.

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Heavy rain in Turkey’s biggest city have caused substantial flooding on its roads and Metro network. Commuters attempting to get to work captured the scenes as rainwater invaded the city’s underground transport system, submerging rail tracks and rushing down flights of stairs. Rainfall is expected to decrease in the next 18 hours

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The birds were collected under licence for translocation to a part of Spain where they have not bred for years.

New research suggests the dinosaur could go no faster than a very brisk walking pace.

Legislators vote to extend a programme that charges firms for releasing pollutants to the year 2030.

Federal Cabinet has approved the biggest overhaul of Australia's national security architecture in 40 years.

More than 140 products including crisps and popcorn put in smaller, redesigned packets with reduced air pocket, but same amount of food

A major UK supermarket has slashed the amount of packaging used for its popular snacks such as crisps and popcorn by reducing the pocket of air at the top of the bag.

As a result of so-called ‘Project Thin Air’, more than 140 of Marks & Spencer’s best-selling products have been redesigned and repackaged in smaller, less bulky packets containing the same amount of food as before.

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Air pollution is ‘the tobacco of the 21st century’ says report, which calls on government to introduce radical measures to improve air quality

Dangerous levels of air pollution in towns and cities across the north of England are threatening the health of hundreds of thousands of people and stifling economic growth, according to a new report.

The analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North describes air pollution as “the tobacco of the 21st century” and says that while there has been a growing concern about the problem in London, many residents in regional towns and cities are unaware of the threat to their health.

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New South Wales issues set of home battery storage guidelines, as industry warns against "jumping to an endgame" on safety.

Sydney start-up Everty launches P2P platform allowing electric vehicle owners to rent out their parking space, and home charger, to others.

Blackwater, Norfolk Pollinated flowers means more plants next year – and more thistles means more bees

After explaining to a visitor the lengths to which I go to encourage marsh and spear thistles on my fen, I was amused to hear her describe the troubles she takes to keep them from her garden. I know they’re prickly customers, but why do people dislike them?

What I cherish most is the sheer architectural grandeur of the summer plant. Each fully open flowerhead has a kind of declarative beauty – a blend of spine-fringed awkwardness and inner sensuous velvet. No wonder nations have hitched their wagons to the thistle’s star-like bloom. Even in autumn, when they are desiccated and devoid of seed floss, and possibly enwrapped in old spider’s web, they retain an aura of dignity.

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Deputy PM says Sydney blackout could be end of road for renewables, although NSW Coalition minister earlier praised role of wind and solar in preventing blackout.

GE says some regions in Australia will soon get all their electricity from renewables - at least for a few days a year - and utility business models will be severely disrupted.

AGL adds pressure to Turnbull government, saying CET needs to be adopted, and needs to reflect Paris climate targets.