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A major conference examines how to limit the more damaging impacts of intensive farming systems.

Deputy premier brands Australia ‘deforestation hotspot’ after a 45% jump in her state’s reef catchment clearing

Queensland underwent a dramatic surge in tree clearing – with the heaviest losses in Great Barrier Reef catchments – in the year leading up to the Palaszczuk government’s thwarted bid to restore protections.

Figures released on Thursday showed a 33% rise in clearing to almost 400,000 hectares in 2015-16, meaning Queensland now has two-thirds the annual rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

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Australia maintains strong pace of rooftop solar installations in September, and is now set to break through the 1GW annual instal milestone for the first time in 2017.

The public consultation period will be open until 22 November 2017.

WWF report finds 60% of global biodiversity loss is down to meat-based diets which put huge strain on Earth’s resources

The ongoing global appetite for meat is having a devastating impact on the environment driven by the production of crop-based feed for animals, a new report has warned.

The vast scale of growing crops such as soy to rear chickens, pigs and other animals puts an enormous strain on natural resources leading to the wide-scale loss of land and species, according to the study from the conservation charity WWF.

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Crook, County Durham Within a day of uploading a picture of what I thought was one species of harvestman, I was told it was a more interesting alien

We may be living in a golden age for natural historians. The old naturalists’ field clubs, rooted in the Victorian passion for collecting and sharing knowledge of flora and fauna, may be in decline, but, thanks to social media, it has never been easier to correspond with a helpful expert when you need one.

Post a picture of, say, an unfamiliar spider on the internet and it’s likely that someone out there will identify it for you.

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Men in late 20s and early 30s with alcohol or drugs in their system the most frequent victims of fatal river drowning

Risk-taking young men who drown trying to swim Melbourne’s Yarra river are making it the deadliest inland river per metre in Australia.

New data shows alcohol, drugs, tourists and young men who dare each other to swim the river are contributing to regular drownings.

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Another page in Queensland’s renewable energy boom story has been turned with Queensland Government-Owned generator - CS Energy - entering a 10 year-agreement with the 60 megawatt Kennedy Energy Park.

The world’s renewable electricity capacity is set to rise sharply over the next five years, the IEA says, expanding 43% on today’s levels.

Saudi solar tender attracts stunning low bid of $US17.9/MWh, as even the conservative IEA hails a "new era of solar." And while Australia currently enjoys an investment boom, a new report by Climate Council says "politics" is the only major barrier to a high penetration renewable grid.

Samsung batteries to be used in new 30MW battery storage project next to create reenables-based micro-grid in South Australia.

Gullen Range solar farm is the first to be paired with a wind farm, but is just one of a number of wind-solar hybrids planned for Australia.

At most, the current orthodoxy – despite its renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy efficiency – will result in flat or gently declining emissions. It's time to stick it up the orthodoxy!

Rick Perry's plan to require increased payments to some coal plants is part of a global trend as the coal lobby desperately tries to rescue failing coal plants.

The Turnbull Government today welcomed the discovery of the wreck of SS Macumba, sunk during the Second World War by Japanese air attack in the Arafura Sea north-east of Darwin.

The remains of a passenger liner torpedoed by a U-boat just hours into the war may have been found.

Coupled with anticipated risk to employee and customer safety and physical assets, unprepared distribution utilities must act now to improve cybersecurity capabilities.

Romilly Madew, CEO of GBCA, has been awarded the prestigious WorldGBC Chairman’s Award for her work to advance sustainable building globally.

From heatwaves to intense rainfall and severe cold weather, Europe experiences its fair share of weather extremes.

In an open access study, published in Environmental Research Letters, David Karoly and I have found that without limiting global warming, Europe is likely to see even more severe heat, less frequent extreme cold, and more intense rain events.

The Paris Agreement of December 2015 aims to limit the global temperature increase to “well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃”, so as to “significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.

Read more: What is a pre-industrial climate and why does it matter?

Our analysis compares temperature and rainfall extremes under the 1.5℃ and 2℃ levels of global warming, with these same events in the current climate (with global warming of just over 1℃) and a pre-industrial climate.

Hotter, and more frequent, heat extremes

As the world warms up, so does Europe, although more in the Mediterranean and the east and less over Scandinavia and the British Isles.

We studied changes in a few different heat events, including hot summers like the record of 2003 in Central Europe. A blocking high pressure pattern led to persistent sunny hot weather across much of the continent, which dried out the region and enhanced the heat. Temperature records tumbled across the continent, with new national records for daily maximum temperatures in France, the UK and other countries. Previous work has already found a clear human fingerprint in both the event itself and the excess deaths associated with the heat.

Our study projects hot summers like 2003 will become more frequent at 1.5℃ and 2℃ of global warming. At 2℃ of global warming, Central European hot summers like 2003 would very likely occur in most years.

Hot European summers like 2003 become more frequent at higher levels of global warming. Bars show best estimates of the chance of an event per year, with the black lines showing 90% confidence intervals. Author provided

We also find an increasing likelihood of events like the recent record hot year in Europe in 2016 and the record hot year in Central England in 2014 under the Paris Agreement’s targeted levels of global warming.

… But fewer, and less intense, cold extremes

The December of 2010 was exceptionally cold across the British Isles, as a lack of weather systems crossing the Atlantic allowed air from the north and the east to frequently cross the region. There was a new cold temperature record for Northern Ireland and persistent cold weather across the UK and Ireland, with long runs of sub-zero days. Heavy snowfall caused widespread disruption for days at a time.

A snowy scene at Worcester Cathedral in December 2010. David King

Our analysis finds that such a cold December was already very unlikely to occur in the current climate, and would be extremely unlikely under either 1.5℃ or 2℃ of global warming. Future cold weather events would still be associated with similar weather patterns, but the background warming in the climate system would make them less intense than in the world of today or under pre-industrial conditions.

When it rains, it pours

We also studied extreme rain events, in particular the heavy rain that led to large-scale flooding in England and Wales in May, June and July of 2007. Low pressure systems passed over the British Isles almost continually for that three-month period, so the rain was falling on already saturated ground. On July 19 and 20 more than 100mm of rain fell on a broad swathe of the English Midlands. This record-breaking rainfall resulted in some of the worst floods in British history.

The River Teme near Worcester, England in flood in July 2007. David King

Extended rainy periods like May-July 2007 are very rare, and not projected to become more frequent at 1.5℃ or 2℃ of global warming.

However, extreme rainfall days like we saw during that period are projected to become both more frequent and more intense in a warmer world. In a 2℃ world we would expect very heavy rain days to be at least 70% more frequent than in the current climate over the UK and Ireland.

Clear benefits to keeping a lid on global warming

Many of the most costly extreme weather events in Europe, in particular extreme heat and intense rainfall events, are projected to become more common, even at the relatively low levels of global warming that are being targeted under the Paris Agreement.

More frequent heat extremes expected as the globe warms up. Best estimates of the likelihood of extreme events are shown (with 90% confidence intervals in parentheses). T means average temperature and R means total rainfall. TXx and TNn mean the hottest daily maximum and coldest daily minimum, respectively, while Rx1day means the wettest single day. Author provided

The worst impacts of these events can be avoided through improving the planning and responses for such events, whether it is increasing support for the elderly in France during summer heatwaves or improving flood protection on major rivers in Britain.

However, limiting global warming to 1.5℃, rather than 2℃ or more, would reduce the frequency with which these extreme event responses would need to be implemented.

Put simply, to prevent a more extreme future for Europe’s weather, we need to keep the lid on global warming.

Disclosure

Andrew King receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science.

Spot market jumps to highest levels since May as staged transition unveiled to changes in credits for lighting upgrades.