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The second stage of what was one of South Australia's first large-scale solar farms has been completed, with the commissioning of an additional 87MW.

The post Tailem Bend solar farm doubles in size with completion of stage two – battery to come appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A group of Australia’s past and present politicians and environmental groups have signed on to a pledge urging the state and federal governments to halt the logging of native forests in the country.

Buying back water from irrigators across the Murray-Darling Basin will not be enough to restore river health because we have big problems getting this ‘environmental water’ to where it’s needed most. Avril Horne, Research fellow, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne Andrew John, Research fellow, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Origin says it is looking at partnering in an offshore wind project near Newcastle with Bluefloat as it confirms a special dividend if the bBookfield-led takeover bid is approved.

The post Origin dances an offshore wind jig with Bluefloat as it confirms special dividend appeared first on RenewEconomy.

New Zealand cities grow mostly through building houses on undeveloped land. But this removes fertile soil and undermines the food production and other ecological functions city dwellers depend on. Shannon Davis, Lecturer in Landscape Planning, Lincoln University, New Zealand Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

China could see a structural decline in greenhouse gas emissions next year, as low-carbon energy expansion is expected to reach the scale needed to start driving down CO2 output, a report has found.

A series of factors may be coming together to trigger a big year-end EU carbon price rally, including record short selling by speculators and dwindling auction supply, some experts believe, while others think looming bearish pressures remain too great for prices to see any meaningful recovery from recent lows.

Plug Power, one of the key partners to Andrew Forrest's green hydrogen ventures, crashed on Friday after it raised concerns about its ability to continue business.

The post “Just a bump in the road?” Hydrogen supply and cash crunch hits Fortescue partner appeared first on RenewEconomy.

German and EU officials say the treaty between Australia and the Pacific island country should spur global cut to emissions

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Australia’s residency offer to citizens from the low-lying Pacific country of Tuvalu must spur the world to dramatically cut emissions, two senior European officials have declared.

Germany’s climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, said the deal “puts a very clear pointer on what’s at stake” as the negotiators prepare for next month’s UN climate summit, adding that “all countries have to scale up their ambition for 2030”.

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United Nations efforts to advance a global treaty on plastic pollution echo past multilateral agreements that tackled ozone layer depletion and acid rain. Deborah Lau, Ending Plastic Waste Mission Director, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

This month’s Cop28 climate summit will focus on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Governments need to take note

One of our era’s great and inconvenient truths is that global food production and the climate emergency are intimately linked. Drought, flood and other extreme weather events threaten farming ecosystems across the world. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture play a major role in global heating. We know that the default western diet, with its heavy emphasis on meat and dairy, is harming the planet. Eating habits in wealthy countries will have to change, and livestock numbers be reduced, if climate targets are to be met and vulnerable food systems saved.

At the end of the month, this message will be heard front and centre in the next round of the UN climate negotiations. At Cop28 in Dubai, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization will foreground the need to transform patterns of consumption and production if the goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C is to be met. The emphasis on the impact of food systems is welcome and overdue. For various reasons it has been badly neglected at previous summits.

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Delegates in Nairobi for talks in what experts say could be most important multilateral treaty since Paris accord

Government delegations will gather in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out details of what could be the first global treaty to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

A key focus for the discussions on Monday will be whether targets to restrict plastic production should be decided unilaterally or whether states should choose their own targets; this is, say environmentalists, the “centre of gravity” for the treaty’s ambition.

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The French president has called for action at a climate summit in Paris attended by heads of state and scientists before Cop28

France will spend €1bn (£880m) on polar research between now and 2030, amid rapidly rising scientific concern over the world’s melting ice caps and glaciers.

A new polar science vessel will spearhead the effort, and France is calling for a moratorium on the exploitation of the seabed in polar regions, to which the UK, Canada, Brazil and 19 other countries have so far signed up.

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Cambridge University scientists develop a device to ‘defossilise’ the economy using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide

Automated floating factories that manufacture green versions of petrol or diesel could soon be in operation thanks to pioneering work at the University of Cambridge. The revolutionary system would produce a net-zero fuel that would burn without creating fossil-derived emissions of carbon dioxide, say researchers.

The Cambridge project is based on a floating artificial leaf which has been developed at the university and which can turn sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into synthetic fuel. The group believe these thin, flexible devices could one day be exploited on a industrial scale.

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Renewable energy hit a record high of 72.9 per cent of total generation on Sunday, as a wave of wind and solar across the grid sent coal output and operational demand to new lows.

The post Renewables hit record high in Australia, as green energy transition rolls on appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Once a leader on global heating, Rishi Sunak’s anti-green policies are making Britain look increasingly isolated

Our planet and its inhabitants have endured a grim time over the past 10 months. According to climate scientists’ latest figures, 2023 will almost certainly prove to have been the hottest year ever recorded. Global temperatures are destined to reach 1.43C above those experienced before the Industrial Revolution. The consequences have been striking. Glaciers are disappearing, ice caps melting and deserts spreading at an accelerating rate. On top of these climatic blights, intense rainfall, droughts and wildfires are happening more frequently and violently than have ever been experienced, with disturbing consequences.

Around 2 billion people, almost a quarter of the world’s population, endured at least five consecutive days of extreme heat in 2023, an unprecedented level of meteorological misery that claimed thousands of lives. And forecasters say there is more to come. Next year, temperatures are likely to rise even further thanks to El Niño, a periodic appearance of sea-surface warming in the Pacific, which heats the atmosphere across the planet.

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On Saibai Island in the Torres Strait, homes are already being inundated by king tides, the cemetery has been affected by erosion and sea walls have been built

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“We cannot garden anymore. They have to go far away to get the seafood,” says Aunty McRose Elu of life on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait.

“All of the effects [of climate change] on the islands changes the life of our people.

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Windfarm critics claim projects will harm marine life. Scientists say that’s not backed by credible evidence

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Some pictures show a whale lifeless on a beach. In others, the whale is on fire, jumping from the ocean, as wind turbines loom behind it.

The pictures are shocking – intentionally so. Recently they’ve appeared on posters and placards and in social media posts in New South Wales’ Hunter and Illawarra regions, as part of a growing campaign against an Albanese government plan to open offshore windfarms zones off the coast.

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Mark Barrow returned to the site of an earlier shoot five years later and found aquatic life devastated by sewage

Five years ago, when Mark Barrow started his project to film along the 65-mile River Wharfe in Yorkshire, he captured footage of majestic shoals of grayling, the fish known as “the Lady of the Stream”, some 200 or 300 strong.

Recently, Barrow returned to the same spot, near the historic Harewood House on the outskirts of Leeds, to reshoot some video because he wasn’t happy with the quality of his earlier attempt.

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Deforestation in the Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in five years, according to a report published this week by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), while a fund to support these efforts was strengthened.