Feed aggregator

Ed Miliband has won the argument that his party must go big to cut carbon emissions. But he will need to go bigger still

Sir Keir Starmer’s legislative plan to green Britain has arrived not a moment too soon. Last week, the government’s advisers warned that only a third of the carbon reductions required by law would be met under existing plans. The Climate Change Committee said that, for the first time since setting itself carbon-reduction targets, the UK is not on track to meet its goal. It is supposed to reduce emissions in 2030 by 68% compared with 1990 levels, to meet net zero by 2050.

The UK should, says the committee, now be in a phase of rapid investment and delivery. But the Tories’ turn against net zero policies has meant little progress on the rollout of low-carbon technology. That is why Labour’s king’s speech, which put the environment at the centre of policymaking, was so welcome. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, won the argument that the urgency of the climate emergency needed a bigger, more interventionist state.

Continue reading...

AI-based system designed to help people assess immediate risk of getting ill from water polluted with bacteria

Real-time water quality monitors are being installed at wild swimming spots and beaches across southern England to help people assess their immediate risk of getting ill from polluted water.

Wessex Water is installing sensors at three freshwater sites in Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire, plus two coastal sites in Bournemouth, after a successful pilot study at Warleigh Weir near Bath. Here, the artificial intelligence-based system correctly predicted when bacteria in the water were high 87% of the time.

Continue reading...

Funding deal between federal and state governments will take share of renewables in W.A. to around 70 per cent - the most of any isolated grid of its size with no hydro.

The post Bowen signs deal to treble large scale wind and solar capacity, and double storage in the West appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Sparrows were taken into captivity after numbers dwindled – and this week experts released 1,000th bird back into wild

Scientists in Florida are hailing the landmark release this week of a tiny bird only 5in tall as an oversized success in their fight to save a critically endangered species.

Numbers of the Florida grasshopper sparrow, seen only in prairies in central regions of the state, dwindled so severely by 2015, mostly through habitat loss, that authorities took the decision to remove remaining breeding pairs into captivity. Their wager was that a controlled repopulation program would be more successful than leaving the birds to their own devices.

Continue reading...

Wind and solar remain stalled at the gate, with no new registrations in June, but the backlog of prospective projects is growing rapidly - many fishing for a deal with the Capacity Investment Scheme.

The post New wind and solar remain stalled at the gate, but battery starts are charging to new records appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The urgent needs of the road users they held up were ignored during this climate crusade

It was “a dark day”, according to a UN special rapporteur. Others lamented “a gross miscarriage of justice” and “a farce” marking “a low point in British justice”. Such language would not have been hyperbolic had they been talking about the review highlighting the failings that left Andrew Malkinson jailed for 17 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Or a recent travesty of the single justice procedure, the expedited closed-door process that saw a woman dying from stage 4 breast cancer convicted for non-payment of a TV licence. But it was actually referring to the handing down of five- and four-year prison sentences to five Just Stop Oil activists for their role in masterminding four days of serious motorway disruption: if we are to believe them, a grave affront to the right to protest.

There are certainly questions about whether the sentences for their offences are proportionate or appropriate in the context of the wider criminal justice system. But to suggest that freedom of conscience creates an unlimited right to cause other citizens harm is to fail to engage with the nature of their offence. And, more broadly, to misunderstand what it means to live in a democracy where we enjoy a right to noisy protest, but are also bound by obligations to each other that are framed by the rule of law that applies to us all equally.

Continue reading...

Decline blamed on washout summer driving down population of insects, butterflies and moths they feed on

Conservation groups across England are seeing more malnourished bats, as wildlife experts warn the washout summer is driving down the insects, butterflies and moths they feed on.

Groups across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Worcestershire, Essex and South Lancashire said they are seeing an increase in the number of “starving” or “underweight” bats, often juveniles, who need to be rescued and cared for by volunteers. In some places, they are seeing fewer bats than they usually do in the summer.

Continue reading...

Newly announced deal in Czechia shows GenCost nuclear estimates are too optimistic. Even in established nuclear countries, new nuclear power is hopelessly uneconomic.

The post Czech nuclear deal shows CSIRO GenCost is too optimistic, and new nukes are hopelessly uneconomic appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian renewable energy developer names former head of Tilt Renewables as executive chairman.

The post Former Tilt boss to head newly emerging Australian renewables player appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Colorado has unveiled recommendations to broaden its embryonic, in-state carbon market by facilitating trading between the largest industrial manufacturing facilities and energy-intensive and trade-exposed (EITE) sectors such as cement and steel.

The energy secretary’s plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoiled rural areas is facing a huge backlash

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has been warned he faces battlegrounds across the country over plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoiled rural areas to deliver a “clean power” revolution. Council leaders and communities oppose proposals for a vast new network of pylons across large parts of several counties, including Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

There are calls for community compensation of “hundreds of millions of pounds” if the schemes are pushed through.

Continue reading...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday unveiled $100 million to decarbonise the Empire State Plaza, targeting a 20% GHG reduction in its operations.

A US federal appeals court on Friday rejected another request for a temporary pause on controversial Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) power plant standards as they are being challenged on merit.

Stakeholders shifted their California Carbon Allowance futures and options holdings to vintage 2025 in the aftermath of ARB’s cap-and-trade workshop fallout, while the month-long trend of strong compliance demand for RGGI Allowances (RGA) continued, weekly data from the Commitment of Traders’ report released Friday showed.

Iowa state Republican lawmakers, counties, and landowners filed separate motions on Monday requesting the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to reconsider its issuance of a construction permit to a proposed CO2 pipeline.

Canada’s ministry of natural resources on Friday announced more than C$71 million ($51.7 mln) in additional funding to support its 2 Billion Trees (2BT) initiative, which was previously deemed unlikely to meet its target without significant changes.

Algeria’s government and private sector are looking to carbon capture and storage (CCS) to counterbalance emissions from oil and gas production, with an eye to minimising the impact of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), according to local media sources.

The steel sector has potentially turned a corner on net zero, says a new report, after years of being considered a laggard in emissions reduction pathways.

Michel Forst, UN special rapporteur, joins growing chorus of voices criticising jail terms handed to five defendants

The lengthy multi-year sentences handed to Just Stop Oil activists are “not acceptable in a democracy”, a UN special rapporteur has said, as the government faced growing pressure to reverse the previous administration’s “hardline anti-protest” approach.

Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, joined a growing chorus of voices condemning the sentences handed down to the five defendants for planning non-violent protests on the M25.

Continue reading...

Azerbaijan has today announced the launch of the Climate Finance Action Fund (CFAF), initially targeting $1 billion in financing from fossil fuel producing countries and companies, and half of the capital to go towards climate projects in developing countries.