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Antarctica’s sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predicted

Antarctica is currently experiencing dramatic changes at unprecedented rates, marked by repeated extreme events. These include circum-Antarctic summer heatwaves and an autumn heatwave last year, with temperatures soaring up to 40C above the average. Moreover, both last summer and this winter, sea ice extent has reached record lows. These changes have happened even faster than scientists predicted.

These changes coincide with a broader global pattern of extreme air and sea surface temperatures, wildfires, floods, disease and other events deeply impacting ecosystems and society. Scientists have warned society about global climate change and its impacts since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s first report in the early 1990s. The Antarctic community has done so repeatedly too. These warnings are now being realised.

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A New Zealand exchange-traded fund tied to the country’s emissions trading market has seen its value fall further by some NZ$12 million ($7.3 mln) as a result of the destabilisation of the NZU price, quarterly figures showed.

Luke Osborne from Stride Renewables on the happy marriage of farming, solar and battery storage, and why community outreach works.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Australia’s biggest agri-solar and battery project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Families worry about where their children will go during the summer as crumbling playgrounds are left in disrepair

• England’s playgrounds crumble as council budgets fall

It’s a warm day in July and Ginette is pushing her grandson on a swing next to the remains of a climbing frame, destroyed in an arson attack last October and still not replaced at the height of summer.

“This is so sad,” she says. “This used to be a beautiful park, now look at it.”

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Children suffering from ‘shameful’ failure to protect play with park budgets falling by £350m in 11 years

• ‘The swings are missing’: Children in Newcastle left with nowhere to play

Playgrounds around England are falling to pieces, missing large pieces of play equipment, or simply being locked up, as councils facing huge budget cuts struggle to maintain them. In some of the poorest parts of the country, family groups are warning that children face a summer spent indoors because of a lack of safe and free spaces to play.

The head of Play England has said that children’s mental health will suffer as a result, and has called for radical change from what he called a “shameful” lack of protection for children and play in planning.

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Exclusive: Deleting national emissions ceiling regulations as part of scrapping EU laws ‘a clear example of deregulation’

The government is ignoring its post-Brexit green watchdog over the removal of air quality regulations, in a move that has been described by experts as “a clear example of deregulation”.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) was set up in 2020 to replace the role the EU had played in regulating and enforcing environmental law in the UK. Campaigners raised concerns at the time that it might not have the same teeth as the EU and that it would not be able to stop the government riding roughshod over environment protections.

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Victorian planning minister gives go-ahead for 350MW wind farm, but only if it agrees to take a five-month break in construction for Brolga breeding season.

The post “Simply not workable:” CEC slams planning conditions on wind and battery project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

BHP marks progress on project that will help supply the entire annual electricity consumption at its Kalgoorlie nickel smelter and Kambalda concentrator.

The post Turbines go up at Flat Rocks wind farm, to power BHP nickel mines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW says its latest tender for wind, solar and long duration storage has received offers of three times more capacity than sought.

The post NSW swamped by bids for new wind, solar and deep storage to replace coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Energy networks commissioner urges action to ease decade-long delay for windfarms and solar arrays

New power lines in Britain should be built more quickly to ease the decade-long backlog of renewable energy projects waiting to connect to the electricity grid, according to a report commissioned by the government.

The government’s first energy networks commissioner, Nick Winser, used his report to warn ministers that without new cables and substations more green energy projects were likely to be rolled out before they could be connected to the grid.

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Exclusive: hundreds of consultants, GPs and others write to Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan over Labour’s position on Ulez

Hundreds of doctors have urged politicians to stand firm on initiatives to tackle air pollution, warning that they see its “devastating health consequences” in patients on a daily basis.

Air pollution is the single largest environmental risk to public health, linked to between 28,000 and 36,000 UK deaths a year. The estimated cost to the NHS and social care of air pollutants is estimated to be £1.6bn between 2017 and 2025.

Keir Starmer and other senior Labour figures have prompted alarm among health professionals after they called on the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, to reflect on the expansion of the capital’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) after the Uxbridge byelection defeat.

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The oceans are a vital regulator for the climate and our weather but are rapidly heating up.

Claims decommissioned wind turbine blades were secretly dumped in a Queensland forest have been thoroughly debunked – but not before being gobbled up Murdoch media.

The post “Turbine graveyard” debunked: Anatomy of a media anti-wind scare campaign appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Papua New Guinea has published its REDD+ safeguard guidelines, designed to enforce and ensure transparent and fair benefit sharing and distribution activities for local communities and stakeholders. 

Over the past decade, thousands have competed to kill some of the planet's biggest serpents in Florida.

Vast arrays of solar panels floating on calm seas near the Equator could provide effectively unlimited energy to densely populated countries in Asia and Africa.

The post “Limitless” energy: How offshore floating solar could power population hotspots appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Commonwealth’s offshore wind scheme makes First Nations’ rights, interests and responsibilities invisible, creating enormous financial and reputational risk.

The post Offshore wind: Perpetuating the myth of ‘terra nullius’ in Australia waters could prove costly appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) experienced a rollercoaster ride in recent days as prices surged on potential cap-and-trade budget cuts and subsequently unwound on profit-taking and auction positioning, while Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) values once again climbed ahead of the programme's permit reserve sale next week.

The equitable and successful implementation of New York’s forthcoming cap-and-invest programme also hinges on the state adhering to its climate plan framework to transition off gas and thereafter retire fossil fuel plants, an environmental justice (EJ) advocate said Thursday.