Feed aggregator
Satellite images show lightning strikes surrounding Tropical Storm Idalia
NZ slashes climate spending, as IMF report urges govt price agricultural emissions
Offshore wind readies for take off in Australia and Asia, despite near term problems
Offshore wind installations fell sharply in 2022, but the industry confidently predicts a big rebound - with Australia and Asia at the heart of the market.
The post Offshore wind readies for take off in Australia and Asia, despite near term problems appeared first on RenewEconomy.
CP Daily: Monday August 28, 2023
RGGI Market: RGAs reach 4-week high on low volume before Q3 auction
Government to use Ulez expansion to attack Labour over ‘war on motorists’
Ministers hope anti-green message will impress voters, as London mayor says he is ‘a doer, not a delayer’
The government is to use the expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to go on the attack over what it has called “Labour’s war on motorists”, part of a wider battle against green policies it hopes could prove popular with voters.
With the extension of the clean air scheme to every London borough beginning at midnight on Monday, Sadiq Khan, the capital’s Labour mayor, said that while the decision was difficult, the devastating health effects of toxic exhausts trumped other considerations.
Continue reading...England’s rivers at risk as Michael Gove rips up rules on new housing
Exclusive: Announcement set to anger environmentalists, but builders say nutrient neutrality laws are exacerbating housing crisis
Michael Gove is planning to rip up water pollution rules that builders have blamed for exacerbating England’s housing crisis but which environmental groups say are essential for protecting the country’s rivers.
The housing secretary, alongside Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, will announce the move on Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the plans, alongside hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of extra funding to mitigate the potential impact on England’s waterways.
Continue reading...Canada-based carbon offset developer finalises majority stake in tree-planting company
The Guardian view on London’s low emission zone: doing the right thing | Editorial
Sadiq Khan deserves credit for pressing ahead with a scheme to improve the capital’s air
Everyone who cares about public health and environmental regulation should welcome the expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), which launches on Tuesday. Air pollution is estimated to cause 4,000 premature deaths each year in the capital, with nitrogen dioxide from exhausts being the main danger, along with particulate matter whose effect is likened by scientists to inhaling tiny particles of tar. Air pollution causes disproportionate harm to low-income families, who are most likely to live on main roads and least likely to own cars. It is particularly damaging to children’s growing lungs. That the mayor, Sadiq Khan, has defied pressure to delay or weaken the scheme is to his credit.
In France, vehicles that do not meet new limits have been banned from urban areas. In London, drivers of non-compliant vehicles – mostly petrol ones dating from before 2005, and diesel before 2015 – must pay a daily charge of £12.50, with higher charges for lorries and coaches. While no scheme is flawless, the improvements to air quality achieved by the existing scheme, covering inner London, mean that Londoners can be confident of the extension’s health benefits.
Continue reading...VCM Report: Avoidance credit prices remain depressed to put pressure on developers
Dramatic climate action needed to curtail ‘crazy’ extreme weather
Heatwaves, wildfires and floods are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, leading climate scientists say
The “crazy” extreme weather rampaging around the globe in 2023 will become the norm within a decade without dramatic climate action, the world’s leading climate scientists have said.
The heatwaves, wildfires and floods experienced today were just the “tip of the iceberg” compared with even worse effects to come, they said, with limitations in climate models leaving the world “flying partially blind” into the future.
Continue reading...Today’s bushfires are off-the-scale bad. The only safe option is to leave before they start | Calla Wahlquist
In the early 2000s, our safety plan was to stay and defend. But catastrophic fires since have drastically changed the thinking
- Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
- Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community
I’ve spent every night for the past few weeks trawling classified ads for horse floats. For our budget there are not many available that are big enough for my ridiculously large horses, but we’re on a deadline: the fire season is approaching and we need a way to get the horses to safety. I couldn’t live with myself if I left them behind – and I don’t rate our chance of survival if we stay.
It will be the first bad fire season since we bought the place. After three wet La Niña years, the Australasian Fire Authorities Council is predicting an “increased risk” across much of eastern and central Australia this year. We’re not in the areas coloured red on the map, but the risk remains. As the Victorian and New South Wales fire chiefs told reporter Emily Middleton this month, it’s best to be prepared early.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Continue reading...Climate crisis means quarter of European ski resorts face scarce snow
Comprehensive analysis calls into question whether such resorts have a future as global heating intensifies
A quarter of European ski resorts will have scarce snow every other year with 2C of global heating, a comprehensive analysis has found. It calls into question whether such resorts have a future as the climate crisis intensifies.
The study took into account artificial snowmaking, without which half the resorts would have scarce snow every other year at 2C. Current action and policies mean the world is on track for 2.7C of global heating.
Continue reading...Hundreds more high-speed electric car chargers installed across UK
Fast charging points that allow for longer journeys are being installed in regions beyond London
Charging companies are plugging the gaps in the UK’s high-speed charger network, with hundreds added this year outside London in a shift that will help end the “range anxiety” that holds back some would-be electric car buyers.
The capital and the south-east still have far more chargers of all speeds – ranging from slow to rapid and ultra-rapid – than the rest of the country. But the presence of high-speed chargers, generally used for quick recharging on longer journeys, is increasing in other regions as electric car sales surge.
Continue reading...Birds – and ornithologists – flock to huge rubbish dump in Spain
Storks, black kites and vultures feed at Los Barrios before migrating to Africa – but many now decide to stay
A vast rubbish dump in southern Spain has become a magnet for ornithologists as thousands of storks, black kites and vultures make a stopover to feed on food waste before beginning their journey across the Strait of Gibraltar.
“It’s especially useful for carrying out a census, as with so many birds in one place it’s easy to count them and to read their rings,” said Jesús Pinilla of SEO/Birdlife in Andalucía.
Continue reading...Tata Steel boss says India should change approach on CBAM
Another giant battery proposed for Upper Hunter, 11km up road from Liddell
The first project for Maizewood is a 400MW/800MWh big battery in Aberdeen, just up the road from the shuttered Liddell coal fired generator and planned battery.
The post Another giant battery proposed for Upper Hunter, 11km up road from Liddell appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Climate change threatens the rights of children. The UN just outlined the obligations states have to protect them
Children’s voices must be heard on climate crisis, says UN rights body
The Committee on the Rights of the Child urges governments to respond to young people’s concerns about environmental threats
Governments must respond to growing concerns expressed by children about the effects of the climate crisis and other environmental emergencies on their lives and futures, a UN body has said.
In a strongly worded formal opinion published on Monday, the Committee on the Rights of the Child concludes that the triple planetary crisis – the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution – “is an urgent and systemic threat to children’s rights globally”.
Continue reading...