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Two recent reports on the state of the world’s coral reefs appear to contradict each other. But which is right?

Over the last six weeks, scientists have published two major reports on coral reef resilience that appear to contradict each other. The first - “Bright spots among the world’s coral reefs” was produced by 39 scientists led by Professor Josh Cinner of James Cook University in Australia and drew on data from 6000 reef surveys from all over the world. Cinner et al concluded that those reefs that were sustainably managed had a much better chance of withstanding bleaching impacts related to global warming and periodic climate events like El Niño. The second however suggested remote coral reefs not subject to human stressors like overfishing or pollution were faring no better than those close to populated areas and that ecosystems management made no real difference to the overall health of reefs. So which is right?

“Coral reef degradation is not correlated with local human population density,” by Professor John Bruno and co-author Abel Valdivia of the University of North Carolina was published on 20 July. It suggests that contrary to prevailing scientific opinion, local pressures do not act synchronously with global stressors (most notably warming) and that their impact on reefs is negligible. According to Valdivia “Widespread arguments that coral reef degradation is mostly caused by local factors are unsupported. We found the problem is better explained by global impacts such as climate change.”

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Oscar-winning actor among 214 signatories of an open letter demanding cancellation of oil firm’s new five-year arts sponsorship deal

Hundreds of figures in the arts and science, including Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance, artist Conrad Atkinson, composer Matthew Herbert and author Naomi Klein, have called for BP’s new five-year sponsorship deals with some of Britain’s leading cultural institutions to be cancelled.

Rylance, who is the former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and star of Steven Spielberg’s new film The BFG, heads a list of 214 signatories to a letter in the Times claiming that BP uses art sponsorship to help develop its interests in oil extraction, which must be reduced to avoid rapid climate change.

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Telstra's chief scientist says driverless cars are coming, and that they'll force a rethink about how we design our roads.

Dramatic footage from Channel Nine shows a widening sinkhole swallowing a good portion of a back yard in Ipswich, Queensland. The house is owned by a retired couple. A century-old mine shaft has been blamed for the sudden emergence of a six- to eight-metre hole filled with water. The mayor of Ipswich, Paul Pisasale, told AAP he had assured Lyn and Ray McKay that their house would not disappear overnight and engineers were confident of fixing the sinkhole. ‘It’s an exploratory shaft that goes down about 100 metres and there’s no need to panic about a neighbourhood falling in, and we will take all the steps to get Lyn and Ray back in their house’

• The science behind sinkholes: terrifying and relatively unpredictable incidents

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South Australian government to take on networks over grid charges, meaning it is now challenging the market dominance of generators, retailers and network providers as it defends its support of wind, solar and battery storage.

Blackwater Carr, Norfolk If not wealth for cuckoos, the flowers are indisputable riches for bumblebees

As I write I have a small canvas bag of yellow-rattle seed on my desk. It bulges now like a full purse and the disk-like flattened seeds jangle a little like cash when shuggled about. In fact, if I bought it commercially, it would be the equivalent of £30, which is not bad for two hours’ work.

I find it intriguing to discover how a suite of old names once did link yellow-rattle to manmade coin. In Somerset Rhinanthus minor was known simply as “money” and in Leicestershire as “money-grass”. I love most, however, a wry Lanarkshire coinage: “gowk’s sixpences” – “cuckoo’s sixpences”. It was probably intended to suggest the idea of fool’s gold, but for me it carries a different set of associations.

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Ocean waste is a serious problem for companies emotionally and physically connected to the sea, but that connection also gives them a strong incentive to find solutions, said the founder of outdoor clothing company Finisterre in a recent Guardian debate. Here we profile some of the companies doing just that

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Newly released survey data suggests we may have dramatically underestimated the take up of battery storage in Australia.

Our cost of energy charts for battery storage suggest Tesla is now in the middle of the pack, Enphase looks relatively cheap and none of them is cheap enough.

Federal environment department says Unesco sought and was granted heavy redactions in freedom of information documents

The United Nations has tried to cover up its involvement in the Australian government’s successful attempt to have all mentions of the country removed from a report on climate change and world heritage sites, freedom of information documents show.

In May, Unesco published a report with the UN’s environment program, Unep, and the Union of Concerned Scientists about the impact of climate change on world heritage sites, which were also major tourist attractions.

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SolarCity agrees to Tesla offer of $2.6bn, but opinions are divided over Musk's plan to create a "sustainable energy and transport" powerhouse.

EnergyAustralia earnings jump on "favourable" gas market conditions as parent company warns of “long-term challenges” from renewables.

Electricity companies around the world will begin to go bankrupt by 2018. Sounds absurd? Just hear me out.

The World Music Festival, Womad, hosted a science pavilion this year, but are such initiatives successful?

Emissions Reduction Fund Beef cattle herd management method variation released for public consultation. Consultation period closes 15 August 2016

Emissions Reduction Fund Beef cattle herd management method variation released for public consultation. Consultation period closes 15 August 2016

One of the last known populations of woolly mammoths became extinct because of a lack of drinking water, a study concludes.

Slow-motion replays of crimes in courtrooms may be distorting the outcomes of trials, according to US research.

How can we get Australian electricity heading down the right road? CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The past three weeks have seen considerable discussion of Australia’s wholesale electricity market, driven largely by severe price spikes in South Australia. Hugh Saddler, writing last week on The Conversation, and the Climate Council, in a report released yesterday, have each done a good job of busting the myth that this is all because of SA’s relatively large share of wind energy.

After outlining the growing lack of competitiveness in the SA electricity sector, Saddler called for “a fundamental rethink" of the National Electricity Market (NEM). What would this involve?

Wholesale prices

Wholesale electricity prices are determined for each half hour, and in the NEM are capped at A$14,000 per megawatt hour. Prices very rarely hit these stratospheric levels and, in any event, the wholesale price spikes do not directly or immediately filter down to households and other small consumers. However, industrial customers are beginning to complain about the strain.

One factor that seems largely to have escaped comment is that temporary high prices are a deliberate design feature of our electricity market. Occasional price spikes are precisely how the market attracts new investment, because in theory high prices represent tightening supply and therefore signal a gap in the market for new generators.

Certainly, this isn’t the only time that prices have spiked. In response to high prices in South Australia in 2008 (before most of the state’s wind farms were built), industrial consumers tried unsuccessfully to introduce rules preventing certain generators putting high price bids into the market. More recently, Queensland saw high prices in the summer of 2014-15, as did Tasmania earlier this year.

A market in transition

But while price spikes are neither unprecedented nor unexpected, there are nevertheless changes afoot in the electricity sector. The falling cost of renewable energy, and policies such as the federal Renewable Energy Target (and similar state and territory schemes), are encouraging new entrants into the market.

With one of the most emissions-intensive electricity sectors in the world and an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations, traditional generators are spending increasing amounts on maintenance, upgrades and closures.

Wind and large-scale solar, meanwhile, are now the cheapest new-build generation technologies. This promises to turn the energy market on its head.

UNSW research on the implications of moving to 100% renewables has shown that to do so we will eventually need to ditch the idea of “baseload generation” (as delivered by 20th-century thermal power stations) in favour of “peaking generation” that is more responsive to changes in supply.

This might mean using a mixture of renewables such as solar and wind, backed up by gas-fired power stations that can be rapidly switched on and off, as well as “dispatchable” energy solutions such as storage, bioenergy and concentrating solar thermal.

As seen in the chart below, sourced from the UNSW report, with enough rapid-response options built into the system, traditional baseload generators would not be needed at all.

Obviously, moving seamlessly to this new approach will require changes to the way the market is run. One option might be to change the pricing window from 30 minutes to five minutes, which could entice a wider range of participants into the market.

Other fundamental changes also need to be made. Three deserve particular consideration:

• incentivising dispatchable energy solutions to enter the market;

• increasing access to markets for decentralised energy; and

• increasing the alignment between energy and environmental considerations.

Dispatchable energy

Besides “traditional” renewables such as wind and solar farms, renewable energy schemes could specifically tender for “dispatchable” solutions such as demand management, concentrated solar thermal, sustainable bioenergy or storage. The SA government last week announced plans to do just this, by targeting these solutions for 25% of the government’s energy use.

If this is to happen more broadly, it should be done in alignment with the outcomes of the reviews that the Australian Energy Market Commission and the Australian Market Operator are undertaking on the security of the market.

Decentralised energy

One of the most exciting areas of investment in the NEM over the past decade has been the hundreds of thousands of homes installing their own solar systems. Technologies such as batteries, smart homes and improved load management mean that individual consumers are increasingly willing and able to get involved with the energy market, rather than just being consumers.

Yet the link to wholesale electricity markets is currently just as tenuous for a small generator as it is for a small consumer. Any market reform must therefore ensure that groupings of such small-scale producers can supply the market’s needs in a meaningful way.

For inspiration we can look to New York state, which is designing an energy market geared towards decentralised options such as solar panels. To encourage decentralised systems, New York is embarking on the Reforming Energy Vision plan to lower the financial and environmental costs of power and make the market more resilient.

Environment and energy

Energy and environment policies have been too separate for too long, which is why the appointment of a single federal environment and energy minister is a welcome move.

However, the National Electricity Objective, which forms the basis of energy policy decisions, does not include an environmental component. It emphasises “price, quality, safety, reliability and security”, but not emissions. This means that regulators cannot consider the climate or environmental implications of their decisions.

Unless the objective is amended, we are likely to see perverse outcomes of energy decisions. One previous example was the four-year delay in introducing the Demand Management Incentive Scheme, despite the fact that it is likely to save money and cut carbon emissions.

With Australia’s electricity at a technological crossroads, it is important that we make sure we are going in the right direction.

Alex Fattal is affiliated with the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures which undertakes paid sustainability research for a wide range of government, NGO, community and corporate clients.

The UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures undertakes paid sustainability research for a wide range of government, NGO, community and corporate clients. Nicky Ison is also a Founding Director of the Community Power Agency, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to growing the community energy sector in Australia.

Emissions Reduction Fund Coal mine waste gas method variation released for public consultation. Consultation period closes 29 August 2016