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Australia’s top economists back government intervention to speed switch to electric cars
Majority support subsidising EV purchases and setting a date to ban import of petrol-powered cars, while others prefer a carbon tax to lower emissions
Australia’s top economists overwhelmingly back government measures to speed the transition to electric cars in order to meet emission reduction targets.
An exclusive poll of 62 of Australia’s preeminent economists – selected by their peers – finds 51 back measures to boost the takeup of electric cars including subsidising public charging stations, subsidising the purchase of all-electric vehicles, and setting a date to ban the import of traditionally powered cars.
Continue reading...Australia will likely adopt a net-zero target by COP26. It will be a bad target
It doesn't matter who's leader of the Nationals – the Morrison government's net-zero greenwashing narrative is already written and is very, very easy to predict.
The post Australia will likely adopt a net-zero target by COP26. It will be a bad target appeared first on RenewEconomy.
PM's research budget to make UK 'science superpower'
China’s efforts to save its wandering elephants are laudable, but let's not forget its bloody conflicts with the giants
Bee-friendly urban wildflower meadows prove a hit with German city dwellers
Countrywide scheme is flourishing after being set up to reverse a 75% decline in insect populations
To escape the Berlin bustle on a summer afternoon, all that Derek O’Doyle and his dog Frida have to do is lap the noisy building site outside their inner-city apartment, weave their way through the queue in front of the ice-cream van, and squeeze between two gridlocked lorries to cross over Baerwaldstrasse.
Bordered by a one-way traffic system lies a bucolic 1,720 sq metre haven as colourful as a Monet landscape: blue cornflowers, red poppies, white cow parsley and purple field scabious dot a sea of nettles and wild grass as armies of insects buzz through the air. Two endangered carpenter bees, larger than their honey bee cousins and with pitch-black abdomens, gorge themselves on a bush of yellow gorse.
Continue reading...UN blasts world leaders for failing to seal £72bn-a-year deal on climate
Financial aid ‘critical’ to help developing countries limit fossil fuels – and make Cop26 a success, says UN
The head of climate change at the UN has warned that world leaders are still “far away” from securing a deal to limit the disastrous effects of global heating, with less than five months to go before a key summit in Glasgow.
Time is now running out, said Patricia Espinosa, who was formerly foreign minister of Mexico but now leads the UN on climate policy. She told the Observer that although advances had been made at the G7 meeting in Cornwall last weekend, progress had not been made on honouring past commitments to find $100bn (£72.5bn) a year to help developing countries invest in green technologies.
Continue reading...New oilfield in African wilderness threatens lives of 130,000 elephants
Exploratory project in Botswana and Namibia is threat to ecosystems, local communities and wildlife, conservationists say
Tens of thousands of African elephants are under threat from plans for a massive new oilfield in one of the continent’s last great wildernesses, experts have warned.
Campaigners and conservationists fear the proposed oilfield stretching across Namibia and Botswana would devastate regional ecosystems and wildlife as well as local communities.
Continue reading...Climate change: How can you make your home eco-friendly?
NSW unveils $490 million support package for electric vehicles, waives stamp duty on new sales
NSW government aims for 50 per cent EVs for new vehicle sales by 2030 as part of an ambitious $490m incentive package that will abolish stamp duty.
The post NSW unveils $490 million support package for electric vehicles, waives stamp duty on new sales appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Students protest at Science Museum over sponsorship by Shell
Student Climate Network planning more demonstrations over oil firm’s funding of climate crisis exhibition
A group of activists who were threatened with arrest on Saturday evening after staging an “occupation” of the Science Museum in London have vowed to renew their fight on Sunday.
The London branch of the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN) organised a demonstration at the museum in protest at its decision to accept sponsorship from fossil fuel giant Shell.
Continue reading...‘From denial to delay’: a forehead-slapping week in Australian climate policy
Australia sees a high-profile show of political backing for gas even as world leaders and investors exert pressure to shift away from fossil fuels
It took a major international investment group with $279bn under its control to break through the climate-laden rhetoric of geopolitics last week.
You may not have heard of Robeco Institutional Asset Management, but on Thursday the Netherlands-based asset manager made a stunning declaration, singling out Australia as a country with a “particularly high-risk profile” that it wants to pressure to transition out of fossil fuels.
Continue reading...NSW waives stamp duty on EVs and spends $171m on chargers throughout the state
Industry says New South Wales is ‘up there with best global practice’ as environment minister aims for 52% of new car sales by 2030-31
The New South Wales government will waive stamp duty on electric vehicle purchases and provide subsidies for 25,000 new purchases as part of a $490m strategy to drive uptake of EVs.
Under the plan announced on Sunday, people buying battery and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles priced under $78,000 from 1 September will pay no stamp duty, and $3,000 rebates will be available on the same day for the first 25,000 private purchases of electric vehicles priced under $68,750.
Continue reading...Eton v the sea trout: college’s land sale sparks fears of river pollution
Controversial plan to build 3,000 houses in Sussex will have ‘catastrophic impact’ on environment, say wildlife campaigners
Two of the UK’s oldest institutions – Eton College and trout fishing – are heading for an unexpected, watery confrontation. The battle has been sparked by an announcement by the £42,000-a-year boarding school that it plans to sell off 500 acres of East Sussex for a massive housing development. The move has triggered widespread anger, with infuriated members of the fishing community arguing that the proposal is a threat to one of the most important spawning grounds of the sea trout in England.
The proposed 3,000-house new town would be built at North Barnes Farm, near East Chiltington, at the edge of the South Downs National Park. The Bevern stream, part of the River Ouse catchment area, runs through the land and is a nationally important spawning ground for sea trout.
Continue reading...CP Daily: Friday June 18, 2021
Can old traditions and tech help Singapore reach zero waste?
British Columbia forestry offset protocol would render projects unviable -stakeholders
The whale sentinel: two decades of watching humpback numbers boom
After more than 20 years watching from the cliffs of Botany Bay, Wayne Reynolds’ passion is having tangible results
He may have seen it tens of thousands of times before but when Wayne Reynolds spots a whale emerging from the water, he reacts with the excitement of a child pointing out a rollercoaster at an amusement park.
“Oh wow, there’s a minke and her calf,” he yells out with boyish enthusiasm from the rocky cliff at Potter Point in Kurnell, in Sydney’s south. “I just go into auto-mode, I can’t help it.”
Continue reading...Net zero by 2050? Over our dead body, bolshie Nationals tell Scott Morrison | Katharine Murphy
The ‘new energy economy’ unfolding all around us is once again hostage to Australia’s gruesome, internecine climate change politics
On Thursday morning, shortly after the resources minister, Keith Pitt, finished his “net zero by 2050: not on your nelly” sortie on the ABC, the governor of the reserve bank, Philip Lowe, touched down in Queensland Nationals country.
Lowe went to Toowoomba to deliver a keynote address at the Australian Farm Institute conference. The speech was principally about household debt, house prices and whether Australians could ever expect a pay rise. But during the questions that followed the presentation, the RBA governor was asked about decarbonisation in the agriculture sector.
Continue reading...WCI auction volume edges down slightly for August auction, with further reductions expected for Q4
High greenhouse gas emitters should pay for carbon they produce, says IMF
Companies should be subject to globally agreed carbon floor price to reach Paris climate goals
Companies with high greenhouse gas emissions should be subject to a carbon price of $75 a tonne of carbon dioxide, the International Monetary Fund has said, as a way of reaching the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
A carbon floor price would mean that companies, including energy generators and heavy industries, would have to pay for the carbon they produce. At present, many countries and regions have their own carbon pricing systems, but there is no globally agreed carbon price.
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