Feed aggregator

The federal government has added four part-time board members to Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator (CER), it announced Thursday.

An Amsterdam-based carbon finance company has raised €1 million to scale fertiliser-related insetting to decarbonise the agri-food sector, it announced on Thursday.

South Korea has cancelled this month's carbon permit auction, as activity in the national emissions market remains relatively slow.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has established a global financial platform to directly connect sustainable aviation projects with investors worldwide.

Call for means-tested grants or loans to cover upfront costs that prevent poorer households from benefiting

Poorer households could cut their energy bills by a quarter if solar panels were installed on their rooftops, a report has found.

However, the upfront costs mean that those who stand to benefit most from decreased energy bills are prevented from getting panels installed, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank.

Continue reading...

Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets

The world’s peatlands are “dangerously underprotected” despite the colossal amount of climate-heating carbon dioxide already being emitted due to their destruction, a study has warned.

Peatlands occupy just 3% of all land, but contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests. However, farmers and miners are draining the peatlands, releasing so much CO2 that if they were a country, they would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India.

Continue reading...

The technology is new, chargers are expensive and regulations hard to navigate – but all that could soon change

Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step you could take. If you have a bidirectional charger, you can set it to sell power back to the grid when demand is high.

Fewer than 10 people across Australia actually do this, because the technology – known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) – is very new. To date, it only works with a single car model (Nissan Leaf) and a single charger (Wallbox Quasar 1). We’ve estimated the number of users based on sales of this charger. The chargers are expensive and there’s a thicket of regulations to navigate.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

You originally think of it as a car you can also use to power your house. [But actually] it’s a house battery you can drive around.

Continue reading...

Greens get busy "Dutton-proofing" federal Labor's flagship clean energy policies to stop them being tweaked to support coal, gas or nuclear by a Coalition government.

The post No coal, gas or nuclear: Greens cut deals to “Dutton-proof” Labor’s flagship renewable policies appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW agrees deal for crown land to be used for massive wind and battery storage project in south-west of state.

The post NSW strikes land deal for massive new wind and battery storage project in south-west appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Companies join forces to bring cutting edge floating solar technology to the Australian market, to meet demand for renewable energy and sustainable water supply.

The post Floating solar tech that harvests clean power and water heads to Australia under new deal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A move by the Northern Territory government to strip two environmental groups of funding and push through sweeping reforms to expand fossil fuel extraction is a sign of what’s to come under any future Dutton government, those groups say. The NT Environment Centre (ECNT) and the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) were stripped of $100,000 […]

The post NT strips funding from green groups, boosts fossil fuels, in foretaste of Dutton administration appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Plans to install a big battery energy storage system outside a small regional town in Queensland queue for federal environmental approval.

The post Plan for very big battery near very small town joins queue for federal approval appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A US-based forest carbon fund spent nearly C$70 million ($48.5 mln) to acquire more than 10,000 hectares of private forest in British Columbia, according to an announcement Tuesday.

Experts say latest results show clean energy investment is getting back on track, with $9bn committed in 2024

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Investment in large-scale wind and solar in Australia has reached its highest level in six years, with $9bn in capital committed to projects in 2024, new industry data shows.

According to the Clean Energy Council, financial commitments were made for 4,346MW of new renewable capacity last year. This was the highest level of investment the sector had seen since 2018, when industry was delivering on the bipartisan Renewable Energy Target.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Footage from the International Space Station as it soars above an aurora dancing over Canada

The Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) on Wednesday proposed amendments to the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) protocol under the cap-and-trade offsets rule, which the agency said would increase project variety within the programme.

Germany starts multi-year campaign to measure wind speeds around 280 kms off the North Sea coast to prepare the expansion of wind farms in the area.

The post Germany to viability of building wind projects up to 280 kms off the coast appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A parliamentary report has called on for a second icebreaking vessel and more reliable funding for Antarctic research. Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Ambae islanders combine their ecological observations with scientific data to develop an early-warning system to predict where and when fish become contaminated. Meg Parsons, Associate Professor in Historical Geography, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Allan Rarai, PhD Candidate in Environmental Management, The University of the South Pacific Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Origin focused on new big battery projects and some renewables, but is also looking to gas as it negotiates its way through the accelerating transition to green energy.

The post Origin eyes wind, solar, batteries – and new gas plants – as higher cost of coal clips energy earnings appeared first on RenewEconomy.