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Young people urged for park-life views
Furniture that destroys forests: crack down on 'rampant' trade in rosewood
Cites summit moves to protect the world’s most trafficked wild product by placing all 300 species of the tree under trade restrictions
Governments have launched a crackdown on the rampant billion-dollar trade in rosewood timber that is plundering forests across the planet to feed a booming luxury furniture market in China.
The Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) summit on Thursday placed all 300 species of rosewood under trade restrictions, meaning criminals can no longer pass off illegally logged species as legitimate.
Continue reading...The Queen, aristocrats and Saudi prince among recipients of EU farm subsidies
At least one in five of the top 100 UK recipients of CAP subsidies were for farms owned or run by aristocratic families, say Greenpeace
Wealthy aristocrats and a Saudi landowning prince are continuing to reap hundreds of thousands of pounds from the European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP).
At least one in five of the top 100 recipients of CAP subsidies in the UK last year were farm businesses owned or controlled by members of aristocratic families, an investigation by environmental campaign group Greenpeace found.
Continue reading...Mini-nuclear reactors could be operating in the UK by 2030 - report
Energy Technologies Institute argues small modular reactors capable of delivering clean power and heat could be in place by 2030 if the right policy framework is put in place, reports BusinessGreen
The first small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could be operating in the UK by 2030 with the right government support, according to a new report from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
The analysis, released today by the government and industry-backed energy research body, examined the steps needed to support the first SMR in the UK and concluded a credible schedule for implementation can be set out - as long as a policy framework is developed to reduce risks for SMR developers and increase investor confidence.
Continue reading...Zimbabwe accused of preparing to ship dozens of young elephants to China
Conservationists say dozens of young elephants being captured by Zimbabwe’s government may be bound for China, rather than nearby national park
Concerns have been raised that Zimbabwe is again preparing to send dozens of young elephants to wildlife parks in China.
The government’s national park authority, ZimParks, began capturing elephants from Hwange national park in August and keeping them in pens at Umtshibi wildlife capture and relocation unit.
Continue reading...Switch disposable coffee cups for reusables, urge campaign groups
International coalition of NGOs is calling for an end to the throwaway culture after the success of a plastic bag charge shows a similar charge on coffee cups could work too
The billions of disposable coffee cups thrown away each year globally should be replaced with reusable ones because they are a waste of resources and harm forests, an international coalition of NGOs has urged.
The call comes as a study by Cardiff University said that the plastic bag charge in England had been so successful that it showed a charge on coffee cups in the UK could work too.
Continue reading...Simon Birmingham on the Adelaide storm, renewables and education funding
Meet Didik: shot and orphaned baby orangutan highlights crisis
Abandoned with a bullet wound in a local shop, an orphaned orangutan named Didik is just one of thousands of victims of the ecological destruction of Borneo
When International Animal Rescue (IAR) staff found Didik, he was emaciated and near death. The 18-month-old orangutan, who had been dumped at a local store in Ketapang, Indonesia, had a bullet in his shoulder and had very likely seen his mother killed by the same people who put it there.
“Our team deals with so many cases like Didik’s in which the baby has ended up as someone’s pet but the true fate of the mother remains unknown,” said Lis Key, communications manager for the IAR, adding that “orangutan mothers are very protective of their babies and wouldn’t let go of them without a fight.”
Continue reading...Renault says new Zoe has longest range of any mainstream electric car
Latest model’s 250-mile range will help ‘psychological barriers’ in drivers who fear running out of power, carmaker claims
Renault has unveiled a new electric car that it claims will overcome psychological barriers among drivers who fear running out of power between charges.
Launched on Thursday ahead of the Paris motor show, the latest Zoe model will have the longest range of any mainstream electric vehicle, the French carmaker said.
Continue reading...Shoppers in England now far more likely to use their own bags
Study finds a rise in the number of people carrying their own bags since the introduction of a 5p charge on plastic bags nearly a year ago
Shoppers in England have become much more likely to take their own bags to the high street since the introduction of a plastic bag charge nearly a year ago, a study has found.
More than nine in 10 people now often or always carry their own bags, up from seven in 10 before the 5p charge came into effect, and the public became much more supportive after it started. The number of plastic bags taken from supermarkets and big retailers in England has fallen by 85%.
Lichens stake their claim, millimetre by millimetre
Kinloch, Skye Though the land is deserted now, the signature of human habitation is deeply imprinted upon it
High about the shoreline, looking across the Sound of Sleat, lie the remains of the township of Leitir Fura. Abandoned by their inhabitants in the early 19th century, the low stone blackhouses have been laid bare by the elements in the subsequent decades, their exoskeletons crumbling as – stone by stone – they return to the earth.
Though the land is deserted, the signature of human habitation is deeply imprinted upon it. Buildings that have entirely subsided linger as ghostly apparitions, their presence announced by changes in the pattern of vegetation: neat oblong forests of bracken, or tough reedy tussocks in tight, straight-edged formation.
Continue reading...First US presidential debate: Candidates spar over solar energy
Baker & McKenzie first law firm to join World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition
Silent electric car for cities – archive, 29 September 1971
29 September 1971: The Electricity Council says that electric cars are clean, silent, reliable, and make a valuable contribution to reducing pollution
Electric city cars could be in mass production and on the streets of Britain by 1973 if manufacturers and the Government gave a lead to their development, the Electricity Council said yesterday when it released details of the Enfield 8000, a vehicle capable of 40 mph and a range of 60 miles on one charge.
But both the council and Enfield, who have been given an order for 80 vehicles, admit that it is unlikely to boost the exploitation of electric cars unless the motor industry drops its obsession with the internal combustion engine.
Coalition launches fierce attack against wind and solar after blackout
What caused South Australia’s state-wide blackout?
Victoria’s days of gas dependence are fading
2 GW solar project in China will be world’s largest
Farm subsidies: Payment to billionaire prince sparks anger
What caused South Australia's state-wide blackout?
Power is gradually returning to South Australia after wild storms blew across the state last night, but some areas could be offline for days.
The storm - associated with heavy rain, lightning, and severe winds - damaged transmission lines that carry electricity from power generators to people, causing a state-wide blackout.
South Australian premier Jay Weatherill told ABC radio, “the system operated as it was meant to operate”.
However senator Nick Xenophon, in calling for an independent inquiry, said “there are key questions that need to be asked”. He has also questioned whether more gas-power stations would have prevented the power failure. Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce pointed the finger squarely at the state’s reliance on renewable energy.
So, what did cause South Australia’s blackout?
Was it because of wind or wind turbines?Dylan McConnell, Research fellow, Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne
It has everything to do with wind - because that’s what blew over the transmission lines. But it has nothing to do with South Australia’s wind turbines. Transmission lines are large power lines that take electricity from generators to the smaller distribution lines that bring power to our homes.
South Australia’s energy generation mix is mixture of wind, gas and some solar, and as of this year, zero coal. The state is connected to the rest of eastern Australia’s electricity market through two inter-connectors, one of which is down for service.
Where the transmission lines, managed by ElectraNet, came down is south of Port Augusta. In May this year South Australia closed its last coal-power station at the port. If those coal-power stations were still operating, they still would have dropped offline and seen the cascading failure that tripped the generations. Having those thermal generators there wouldn’t have helped at all.
A lot of generation capacity was lost because of the transmission failure. Because of that there was a voltage drop, which triggered safety protection measures that tripped the Haywood inter-connector that connects South Australia with Victoria. This could have happened in any state or with any generation technology.
Roger Dargaville, Deputy Director, Energy Research Institute, University of Melbourne
These kinds of failures in the National Energy Market (NEM) which covers the five eastern states) are extremely rare. The NEM experiences a range of extreme weather on a regular occurrence and a vast majority of the time copes well.
The system contains multiple levels of redundancy and safety mechanisms, however it is impractical if not impossible to build any complex system that is completely 100% reliable. Providing additional redundancy to insure against such events would be extremely costly, and would still not completely guarantee against further extreme events.
That being said, as we find out more about the incident it may become apparent that there are weaknesses in the grid that need addressing. However it is hard to imagine how the high penetration of renewable energy in the state could be implicated in this incident.
Just under 1,000 megawatts of wind power was dispatching onto the grid at the time of the blackout with another 400 megawatts from gas plant and 300 megawatts supply from the Victorian inter-connector making up the total. Had either of the brown coal generators still been in operation the system would not have been any more resilient to this event.
Why is South Australia vulnerable?Hugh Saddler, Honorary Associate Professor, Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, Australian National University
Wide-area blackouts like that in South Australia this week are rare, but by no means unknown. For example, between 1998 and 2012 there were no less than six major blackouts in the US, each affecting many more consumers for much longer than the South Australia blackout.
In each case damage caused by extreme weather was the primary cause, exacerbated in some cases by poor management of the unfolding event. Whether that was also the case in South Australia will undoubtedly emerge from the investigations not the event.
Regardless of that, as a generalisation the electricity supply system in South Australia is at higher risk of blackouts occurring than other areas with mature electricity grids such as Europe or North America, Victoria, New South Wales and south east Queensland. This is a simple consequence of geography and population density, not of the quality of the grid per se.
In western Europe if one transmission line is knocked out, as appears to have happened in South Australia, the dense network of nearby transmission lines is usually able to supply demand by alternative pathways without any over-loading.
By contrast, the National Electricity Market grid as a whole is widely-recognised as being amongst the most the most spread-out or “skinny” interconnected electricity grids in the world. This means that there is a much lower density of alternative transmission pathways for electricity to flow, in the event of a failure on one major line.
The consequence is that the few alternative transmission routes are more likely to become over-loaded, and then tripped out, by the automatic protection systems designed to prevent further and more severe damage to the grid as a whole.
South Australia, being at the extreme end of the grid, and north Queensland at the other end, each have a relatively small share of total NEM demand for electricity, and are particularly vulnerable. Generation on one side of the failure event is cut off from customers on the other side of the failure, and customers are blacked out. On this occasion there appears to have been plenty from windfarms operating at the time.
Of course, if there were more alternative transmission lines available, the blackout may have been avoided. Equally obviously, however, transmission lines are very expensive. Whether such redundancy should exist comes down to how much electricity consumers would be prepared to pay to further reduce the risk of another supply disruption as rare, though very severe, as occurred on Wednesday.
Was it climate change?Andrew King, Climate extremes research fellow, University of Melbourne
The role of climate change in the storm that hit South Australia yesterday is unclear. With these types of storm systems it is much harder to see the human fingerprint than it is for heatwaves for example.
For intense rainfall events like yesterday’s you need two main ingredients: a lot of moisture in the atmosphere and a trigger, such as a deep low pressure system. We know that climate change is increasing the amount of moisture in the air, but the human influence on the frequency of the triggers is far less clear.
In general the storms that track across southern Australia are moving southwards with climate change. For very intense storms like the one that hit South Australia yesterday we don’t have enough data to make a definitive statement on how they’re changing in this region.
We can’t say that climate change was to blame for this storm without a full analysis of the event.
More to come.
Andrew King receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science.
Dylan McConnell has received funding from the AEMC's Consumer Advocacy Panel and Energy Consumers Australia.
Hugh Saddler is a member of the Board of the Climate Institute and Principal Consultant in the Climate Change Business Unit of Pitt & Sherry and also the Managing Director of Sustainability Advice Team
Roger Dargaville has received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
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