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M25 protests: Protesters 'may cause serious injury or death'
President Biden urges unity in first UN speech amid tensions with allies
Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack warns a flat ‘no’ on net zero could threaten trade
The ex-deputy PM tells Guardian Australia the next phase of climate policy must not ‘smash our regional economies’
The former federal Nationals leader Michael McCormack says his party has to consider signing up to a commitment to net zero emissions because a flat “no” could threaten Australia’s trade relationships and export income.
McCormack’s public overture ahead of Cop26 in Glasgow comes as the New South Wales minister for energy and the environment, Matt Kean, will also tell an event organised by the British high commission on Wednesday that Scott Morrison has pulled off a “stunning coup” in negotiating a nuclear submarine deal with the US and the UK, but now needs to take the next step.
Continue reading...One in five carbon credits under Australia’s main climate policy are ‘junk’ cuts, research finds
‘Avoided deforestation’ projects do not represent genuine abatement, say researchers who liken the Coalition policy to ‘cheap tricks and hot air’
About 20% of carbon credits created under the federal Coalition’s main climate change policy do not represent real cuts in carbon dioxide and are essentially “junk”, new research suggests.
The report by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and the Australia Institute found “avoided deforestation” projects do not represent genuine abatement as in most cases the areas were never going to be cleared.
Continue reading...COP 26: How much is the developing world getting to fight climate change?
Junk credits: One-fifth of Australian carbon offsets could be “hot air”, report finds
One-fifth of carbon offset units issued through federal government's Emissions Reduction Fund may have no basis in emissions reductions, new research finds.
The post Junk credits: One-fifth of Australian carbon offsets could be “hot air”, report finds appeared first on RenewEconomy.
*Senior Research Analyst, Carbon Markets & Climate Change, Zulu Forest Sciences – London
Manager/Expert sur les Solutions Technologiques en Matiere de Carbone, EcoAct – Paris
Britain’s energy crisis has been years in the making, thanks to the Conservatives | Ed Davey
Since 2015 policies to insulate Britain’s homes and diversify our energy supply have stalled
- Ed Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats and former energy and climate change secretary
Rocketing heating bills owing to dramatic gas price rises are just the latest chapter in Britain’s mounting cost of living crisis. From food price-hikes to increasing transport costs, this new bout of inflation is hitting essential goods – and that means the poorest people will be hit the hardest. So no one should be surprised that Boris Johnson has dismissed these problems. He wants us to think it’s all a global problem, with nothing unique to the UK. And he wants us to think it will all be over quickly.
Of course, the reality is somewhat different. While rising gas prices are a global phenomenon, British consumers will be hit hard because energy policy in the last six years has been an unmitigated disaster – with fewer homes being insulated and with measures for diversifying the UK away from overdependence on gas needlessly stalled. Within the last 18 months alone, the Conservatives have launched, mismanaged and then scrapped a Green Home Grant scheme; their flagship policy to help people cut their heating bills failed totally, and nothing has been put in its place.
Continue reading...‘Earth looks fragile from space’: Jeff Bezos pledges $1bn to conservation
Donation from $10bn Bezos Earth Fund will go towards biodiversity hotspots in Congo Basin and Andes
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has said he realised just how fragile the Earth was when he looked back down at it from space, while committing $1bn to conservation projects around the world.
The money , made through the $10bn Bezos Earth Fund that he formed last year, will go towards the conservation of nature in biodiversity hotspots such as the Congo Basin, the tropical Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It will help finance a goal to protect 30% of the world’s oceans and land by the end of the decade, a draft target in Paris-style UN agreement on nature being negotiated.
Continue reading...Johnson says he has changed his mind on the climate – but he’s still dragging his feet | Adrienne Buller
Outright denial has been replaced by something that may turn out to be even worse: delay
As he flew to New York yesterday to speak to the UN general assembly about the Cop26 climate conference, Boris Johnson was asked to defend old comments made by his newly appointed trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Trevelyan had made statements on Twitter in the past decade promoting climate-denial literature, denying climate change was happening at all, and denigrating climate scientists and activists as “doom-mongers” and “fanatics”.
Johnson insisted that these views – despite coming from a minister whose role has serious climate implications – weren’t really such a big deal. In fact, he was himself guilty of similar statements not so long ago. He reminded the public that were we to “excavate some of [his] articles from 20 years ago”, it wouldn’t be difficult to find sentiments that “weren’t entirely supportive of the current struggle”, as he generously put it. “Facts change,” he added, “and people change their minds.”
Continue reading...GWSA September auction sets new all-time high as prices surge above RGGI levels
UPDATE – RWE in line for windfall EUA profit if coal closures are advanced -report
Euro Markets: Midday Update
Voluntary offset taskforce names governance board, promises indigenous representation
National oil companies join pledge to reach net zero operational emissions
Do you have a glossy green front lawn? What is this, the 1950s? | Tayo Bero
Green lawns are terrible for the environment. They’re also embarrassingly old-fashioned and out of style
Americans love front yards with big, carefully manicured lawns. In fact, homeowners spent a record $47.8bn in lawn and garden retail purchases in 2018 alone. Then there’s the water usage: 9tn gallons a year nationwide just on gardening. We consume this water even as parts of the American west are in the grip of a horrific drought that has paralyzed farmers, triggered huge wildfires, and has some states considering water cutbacks.
The reason we spend so much time, money and natural resources on our lawns, as Kristen Radtke recently noted in the Los Angeles Times, is that decades of television and popular culture have cemented in our brains a certain image of the American dream: house in the suburbs, white picket fence, two-car garage, glossy green lawn. The problem isn’t just that that image is difficult to attain for a lot of Americans. It’s that it’s embarrassingly dated.
Continue reading...Insects are vanishing from our planet at an alarming rate. But there are ways to help them | Dave Goulson
In Germany, flying insects have declined by 76% in 26 years. In the UK, common butterfly populations have fallen by 46% since 1976. We should be alarmed by this insect apocalypse
Insects have been around for more than 400m years, their ancestors crawling from the oceans to colonise the land long before dinosaurs appeared. They have been enormously successful, evolving into a staggering diversity of more than 1m known species, with perhaps as many as another 4m yet to be described by science. There are more than 300,000 different types of beetle alone. I have been obsessed by insects for all of my life; they are amazing, are often beautiful, and lead fascinating, peculiar lives.
What’s more, the world would not function without these tiny creatures: they pollinate our plants; control pests; recycle all sorts of organic material from dung to corpses, tree trunks and leaves; keep the soil healthy; disperse seeds, and much more. They are a vital source of food for many larger creatures such as birds, bats, lizards, amphibians and fish.
Continue reading...Urgent climate action is getting lost in the heat of Germany’s election campaign | Hanna Gersmann
Despite the summer’s floods, frontrunner Olaf Scholz’s ‘moderate’ climate message is holding out against the Greens
Forty years ago, Germans loved to make fun of eco-types who ate muesli, wore shapeless knitted sweaters and packed their groceries in jute bags. Back then, the German Green party was just getting started. Today, things are different: every supermarket has organic food, every fashion chain sells sustainable T-shirts in its stores, and the coronavirus crisis has accelerated the trend towards cycling to get around. The Green party itself has become a viable political force.
Related: The Guardian view on Angela Merkel: farewell to a bulwark of stability | Editorial
Continue reading...‘Pay me my worth’: restaurant workers demand livable wages as industry continues to falter
Low wages and poor working conditions – as well as unruly customers – combine to keep the food service labor shortage going
After the traumas of widespread economic shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, America’s restaurant industry is largely open for business again as eateries ranging from high-end bistros to fast-food chains are serving hungry customers.
But behind the full tables and busy kitchens is a story of a sector still in trouble amid the impact of the pandemic, marked by staff shortages, low wages and fears that safety protocols are still not enough to cope with a virus that is still a threat as the more contagious Delta variant spreads across the US.
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