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Australia's fossil fuel-based electricity oligopoly is being slowly broken down by the influx of wind and solar, regulator says.

The post Australia’s electricity oligopoly is being slowly broken down by wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

CSIRO to lead a $5 million international research collaboration to advance emerging technologies crucial to low emissions hydrogen industry.

The post CSIRO to lead new international collaboration on “low emissions” hydrogen appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Group of 300 climate-concerned lawyers seek judicial review of the processes Climate Commission used to calculate carbon budgets.

The post Lawyers challenge NZ’s proposed emissions budgets as inconsistent with 1.5℃ goal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Remote renewables specialist says plan to power an Antarctic research station on Ross Island with 100% wind and battery storage "looks feasible."

The post Antarctic base could be powered by wind and batteries alone appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Maoneng hopes to build a 225MW big battery with two hours storage near Adelaide as the state races towards net 100 per cent renewables.

The post Maoneng plans to trump Hornsdale with big two hour battery near Adelaide appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

It's not the new record temperatures that concern the BBC's Roger Harrabin - it's the way they were smashed.

A high-profile direct air capture (DAC) technology developer and a carbon offsets ratings and solutions provider have teamed up to offer removal credits to retail voluntary buyers.

WCI regulated entities increased the number of allowance transfers into their compliance accounts over the second quarter, with nearly half these permits coming from the most recent May current vintage auction, data released Tuesday showed.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit values last week stepped down to lows not seen since the spring, as multiple traders questioned the reason for the price movement.

Despite their good intentions, cities rarely have the full set of skills and capabilities to turn their plans into a reality. Our research looks at what needs to change. Thami Croeser, Research Officer, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Consider Ireland. Like New Zealand, it has high agricultural emissions and a poor climate track record so far, but it has adopted much stronger targets to cut emissions by 51% between 2018 and 2030. Robert McLachlan, Professor in Applied Mathematics, Massey University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

But watchdog warns government that costs will double if it delays action to cut emissions

The UK’s climate targets will cost the government less over the next 30 years than the price of battling the Covid-19 pandemic if it acts quickly, according to the UK’s fiscal watchdog.

Forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show that ending the UK’s contribution to the global climate crisis would add 21% of GDP to the national debt by 2050, or £469bn in today’s terms. But those costs could climb twice as high if the government delays action to cut emissions.

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EUAs plummeted along with gas prices on Tuesday, falling below technical supports to suffer the second largest absolute drop ever as oil slid and an improved French nuclear outlook and dire German economic data also weighed on carbon.

A green jobs revolution can deliver a fair transition to carbon neutrality

In the lead-up to November’s crucial Cop26 climate change conference, the government has been rather better at setting eye-catching CO2 reduction targets than taking the necessary actions to meet them. This month, however, there have been signs of an overdue sense of urgency kicking in when it comes to creating and safeguarding green jobs.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Vauxhall’s owner, Stellantis, will manufacture electric vans at Ellesmere Port, saving the site’s future. The carmaker has been promised substantial government support for its investment. That followed Nissan’s decision last week to build a £1bn electric vehicle hub in Sunderland, which will include a new battery plant, or gigafactory, with five times the capacity of the only existing facility in the United Kingdom. The government is rumoured to have pledged in the region of £100m as a sweetener. The UK still lags far behind its European competitors in developing the scale of battery capacity that will be needed for the domestic electric car industry to flourish. But having brought forward a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 to 2030 last year, Boris Johnson and his business minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, are at last backing up rhetoric with a modicum of hard cash and the beginnings of a green industrial strategy.

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Research has shown community opposition to GM foods is broader than just health concerns

New South Wales lifted its ban on genetically modified crops this month, after an 18-year moratorium. It follows the repeal of a similar moratorium in South Australia last year, making Tasmania the last Australian state with a blanket ban on GM crops.

The move has been welcomed by GM proponents as helping farmers become more resilient to the effects of climate change, but opposed by organic farming representatives.

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Environment minister calls for ‘due process’ to be followed before 21-country United Nations committee rules on the reef

Australia is demanding world heritage experts carry out a monitoring mission to the Great Barrier Reef before an international committee decides if it should be placed on a list of global sites in danger.

The Australian government on Monday night briefed international ambassadors and Paris-based delegates to Unesco as part of lobbying efforts to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the in-danger list.

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This is a desperate quick fix to try to rescue power station owners from an onslaught of renewable energy they should have seen coming

Largely unnoticed by much of the press, the federal government and its Energy Security Board have dreamed up a plan to bail out the owners of coal-fired generators, and it’s you who will be paying the bill.

Most of the private-sector owners of these coal-fired generators bought these power stations for a song, at prices well below the replacement cost of the power plants. One of them, Trevor St Baker (number 149 on the Financial Review Rich List 2021 with a net worth of $727m), picked up his power plant – Vales Point – for less than the price of the average Sydney home at $1m. AGL, which paid a fair bit more than $1m for Liddell and Bayswater, nonetheless still boasted to investors that it had paid so little for these power plants that it could shut Liddell immediately and the deal still made fantastic money.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will not delay consideration of finalising its RGGI-aligned carbon market rulemaking at a committee hearing next week, as a Republican legislator said the item should be postponed until the fall.

Threat to health of five-year-old triggers proceedings over fumes from Walleys Quarry landfill near Newcastle-under-Lyme

A five-year-old boy from Staffordshire has begun legal action against the Environment Agency over fumes from a landfill site that a medical expert has said is shortening his life expectancy.

Campaigners said a letter to begin legal proceedings had been sent on behalf of Mathew Richards, who was born prematurely and has significant respiratory health problems that have been worsened by fumes from a landfill site near his home in Silverdale, near Newcastle-under-Lyme.

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