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Two sectors have been doing the bulk of the effort when it comes to emissions reductions. But their work has been undermined by fossil fuel production.

The post The four big takeaways from Australia’s latest climate assessments appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Leading the charge towards clean energy would bring some much-needed positive momentum to international climate policy

When Australia announces its 2035 emissions target to the world, there will be a unique opportunity to promote Australia’s ambition to help other countries decarbonise through exports of renewable energy-based commodities, while coal and gas exports will fall.

Coal and gas exports from Australia are equivalent to well over a billion tonnes of CO2 when burned in other countries. That is around 3% of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions – far more than Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions at home that the national emissions target applies to.

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Dispute emerges over Vales Point demand for fast ruling on using cash as credit after banks refuse facilities, but small energy retailers say they are the real victims.

The post Generators clash over Vales Point cash demand, but small retailers say they are the real victims appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The price of an Australian carbon credit is set to more than double in the next decade, a majority of business owners surveyed believe.

The Emissions Trading Scheme would have been a better tool to reshape the energy market and cut emissions than an outright ban – and most new exploration had largely dried up already. David Dempsey, Associate Professor in Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The findings are simply unacceptable for a natural asset so fundamental to Australia’s environmental, cultural and economic wellbeing. Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Negotiators in South Korea have failed to reach an agreement on a first-ever global treaty aimed at tackling plastic pollution, with countries deciding to resume talks next year due to unresolved divergences between parties.

Worcestershire town has been flooded seven times in past four years and shop owners can no longer afford insurance

In the aftermath of its latest flood, the town centre of Tenbury Wells was a scene of chaos. The main street was caked with a layer of mud, shop windows were smashed and piles of sodden furniture and wares, all ruined, were heaped in the street.

“On Monday when we came in we wanted to leave, lock the doors and just disappear,” said Richard Sharman, the owner of Garlands Flowers. “We’ve lost about £6,000 and we won’t get a penny back. Six weeks ago we lost about £4,000 in a flood.”

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Chair of talks in Busan says progress has been made but ‘a few critical issues’ are unresolved

Negotiators have failed to reach agreement on a landmark treaty to curb plastic pollution, the diplomat chairing the talks has said.

Nearly 200 nations are taking part in a meeting in Busan, South Korea, which is intended to result in a landmark agreement after two years of discussions. A week of talks has failed to resolve deep divisions between “high-ambition” countries seeking a globally binding agreement to limit production and phase out harmful chemicals, and “like-minded” nations who want to focus on waste.

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Environmentalists say marine park waste regulations need updating to limit grey water and exhaust chemicals as passenger cruise numbers rise

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Environmentalists and tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef say authorities must enforce stricter pollution standards on cruise liners visiting the world heritage area amid growth in passenger cruise numbers and concern that ships are dumping toxins into the water.

The Whitsunday Conservation Council says the definition of “waste” used to prevent marine discharge on the reef – which dates back to the 1970s – does not restrict discharge from sulphur “scrubbers” that have become commonplace in the shipping industry.

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Table to seat 60 being built by local artists and craftspeople in woodland on edge of Dartmoor

A community in Devon has raised £22,555 to turn a 500-year-old oak tree into what they believe will be the longest table ever crafted from a single English oak tree.

The 18 metre-long (59ft) Great Oak Table, capable of seating 60 people, was being built in a small patch of private woodland near Chagford, on the edge of Dartmoor.

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Legal petition filed by 170 groups pushes environmental agency to tackle pressing health threat of pollution

A new legal petition filed by more than 170 top environmental groups demands that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin monitoring for microplastics in drinking water, an essential first step to reining in pollution viewed as one of the nation’s most pressing public health threats.

The scale of microplastic water pollution, the extent to which the substance is lodged throughout human bodies, and the many health implications have come into sharp focus in recent years, but the EPA still has not taken meaningful action, public health advocates say.

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Policymakers must act as extreme weather events put more pressure on food inflation and production worldwide

Your morning – and afternoon – coffee is the latest staple threatened by climate chaos: the price of quality arabica beans shot to its highest level in almost 50 years last week amid fears of a poor harvest in Brazil.

It follows warnings that orange crops have been wiped out by the catastrophic floods in Valencia, Spain; and the soaring cost of olive oil in recent years, as the southern Mediterranean has sweltered.

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Report calls for course correction to avoid land abuse ‘compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing’

Land degradation is expanding worldwide at the rate of 1m sq km every year, undermining efforts to stabilise the climate, protect nature and ensure sustainable food supplies, a study has highlighted.

The degraded area is already 15m sq km, an area greater than Antarctica, the scientific report says, and it calls for an urgent course correction to avoid land abuse “irretrievably compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing”.

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Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says there is ‘no route to net zero’ that ignores concerns of businesses after wave of closures

• Jonathan Reynolds: If we delay the UK’s drive for electric vehicles, our rivals will overtake us

There is “no route to net zero” that ignores the real concerns of businesses, a cabinet minister has warned, as the government prepares to reduce financial penalties handed to carmakers not selling enough electric cars.

Ministers are also looking at how cheaper loans could be introduced to help people buy an electric vehicle (EV), after a wave of job losses and closures in which carmakers blamed the onerous fines they were facing.

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The government is determined to work with the car industry to increase take-up, boost jobs and hit emissions targets

• Cheaper loans on table to drive UK motorists to electric, plus cuts in EV fines for firms

The push to electric vehicles is not about a culture war. It is a simple choice. Do we set UK industry up to take advantage of the changes that are coming? Or do we sit it out, allowing our competitors to lap us while we decide whether to change our tyres or not?

The previous government, including the current leader of the opposition, might have been content to play politics with people’s jobs by delaying the deadline for ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. But this government is not.

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Nature is going to solve the problem by eliminating the modern human

In response to Ashish Ghadiali’s story last week (“Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown”, Comment, last week), nearly 70 years ago Gilbert Plass coined the term “climate change” in a paper in the journal Tellus.

Most of that 70 years has been spent arguing over the reality of climate change, an argument by vested interests that continues to this day. Meanwhile, global warming has continued to rise due to the burning of fossil fuels. Now, polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, causing sea level rises and threatening the survival of over half the world’s population living on islands and in coastal zones near sea level.

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Tasmania's state owned energy utility signs off take deal for what will be the state's first big solar farm, built on one of its oldest grazing properties.

The post Hydro Tasmania signs off-take deal for $500 million solar project, the first in island state appeared first on RenewEconomy.

CSIRO says its innovative, potentially lower cost green hydrogen technology has completed 1,000 hours of trial at Port Kembla steel plant without incident.

The post CSIRO hails successful road test of lower-cost green hydrogen technology at steel plant appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Long duration vanadium storage technology being trialled in Kununurra, it could be rolled out across Horizon Power's microgrids and other systems.

The post Eyes of the energy world on Australian vanadium battery tech appeared first on RenewEconomy.