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Restrictions aim to boost US manufacturing, but critics warn they will slow shift to renewable energy and increase consumer costs

The US president, Donald Trump, has announced steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels, giving a boost to Whirlpool Corp and dealing a setback to the renewable energy industry in the first of several potential trade restrictions.

The decisions in the two “Section 201” safeguard cases followed findings by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that both imported products “are a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic manufacturers,” US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said.

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A coalition of experts is asking the government to bring in a new Clean Air Act as ministers prepare to defend current plans in court this week

The government is coming under renewed pressure to introduce a new Clean Air Act to tackle the UK’s toxic levels of air pollution.

Ministers are due back in the high court later this week to defend their current plans which have previously been ruled so poor that they are illegal.

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Officials say they need a faster ship to evade anti-whaling activists

Japan is to defy Australia and other nations with plans to replace its whaling fleet’s ageing mother ship, showing its determination to continue its annual expeditions to the Southern Ocean.

The country’s fisheries agency is planning to replace the 30-year-old Nisshin Maru with either a new ship or a refitted one bought overseas, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.

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The debate over electric cars in Australia has accelerated from a quiet idle to a full throttle political controversy.

Exclusive: Mayor of London announces scheme to reduce packaging waste and improve access to tap water

A new network of drinking fountains and bottle-refill points is set to be rolled out across London this year as part of a plan to reduce the amount of waste created by single-use plastic, the Guardian has learned.

Twenty new drinking fountains will be installed across London in a pilot scheme starting this summer, while a bottle-refill initiative, in which businesses make tap water available to the public, will be set up across five areas of the capital over February and March. If successful, it will be rolled out to the rest of the city in the summer. Plastic cups, bottles and cutlery will also no longer be available at City Hall under the plans.

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UK energy system can cope with rise of battery-powered vehicles if 4-6pm slot avoided, says report

The UK energy system will be able to cope with the extra demand caused by the uptake of millions of electric cars, provided drivers shift their charging to off-peak times, according to new research.

The number of battery-powered cars on Britain’s roads will grow from around 120,000 today to 10m by 2035 and pass the 17m mark five years later, predicted Aurora Energy Research.

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Winter solstice, night lights and interesting islands are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last month

Dust blowing out of the Copper River valley on Alaska’s south coast. The dust plume was likely comprised of fine-grained loess, which was formed as glacial ice moved over the area and ground the underlying rock into a powder. Dust storms in southern Alaska generally occur in late autumn, when river levels are relatively low, snow has not yet fallen, and the layers of dried, loess-rich mud are exposed to the wind. The Copper River - named for ore deposits found upstream - drains an area of more than 24,000 square miles (62,000 square kilometres) and is, by volume of discharge, the 10th largest river in the United States. Its delta forms one of the largest and most productive wetlands on the Pacific Coast of North America.

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Australian grocery giant will join Bunnings to withdraw Yates Confidor from sale

Woolworths in Australia has joined a growing list of companies to stop supplying a controversial pesticide linked to global declines in bee populations.

On Tuesday the grocery giant announced it would join Bunnings in pulling Yates Confidor, a class of pesticide which some international studies have found damage the survival of honeybee colonies.

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MCA publicises report asking governments to commit similar resources to carbon capture and storage as to renewables

The Minerals Council of Australia has stepped up its advocacy for coal power in spite of its biggest member, BHP, saying it will leave the group unless it shifts its stance to become technology-neutral.

On Tuesday the MCA publicised a report by the Coal Industry Advisory Board that called for governments to commit similar resources to carbon capture and storage as they do to renewable energy.

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Allendale chimneys, Northumberland: The flue lines from the smelter in the valley can still be seen, bulging like veins across the frosty peatland

High above Allendale on this frost-sparkling January day, two stone chimneys reach up into a clear blue sky. Built in the 19th century, they exhaled fumes from horizontal flues that ran from a lead smelter more than two miles below on the valley floor. The flue lines can still be seen, bulging like veins across the fields. In places they have collapsed, revealing arched interiors where lead and silver would condense to be intermittently scraped off and recovered.

The Allen valley is far less populated now than it was in the busy lead mining days. From this high point on Dryburn Moor I look out across a quiet dale parcelled up by drystone walls, farmhouses sheltered by Scots pine woods and a drove road that curves over the hillside. There’s a far horizon of uplands and ridges and, in the distance, beyond the long trough of the Tyne Valley, is the white-crested wave of Cheviot. Snow lies on Cold Fell to the west and bleaches the level summit of Cross Fell in Cumbria. It’s an exhilarating near-360-degree view.

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The Tesla big battery has shifted from showing off its different capabilities and is now in the business of making money for its owners. Last week's heatwave and price gyrations presented the perfect opportunity.

New database launched by RenewEconomy and Sunwiz shows 161 large scale solar projects completed or in the pipeline, representing some 19GW of potential capacity.

Australian battery company Redflow Limited has achieved a second manufacturing milestone by successfully producing the first battery electrode stacks from its new factory in Thailand.

The Granville Harbour wind farm will contribute towards plans to double Tasmania’s renewable energy capacity and make it the Battery of the Nation.

Port Augusta solar thermal on track as renewables attract investment and create jobs Port Augusta’s 150 MW solar thermal power plant is on track, with SolarReserve opening its Australian headquarters in Adelaide.

ESCO Pacific and Elliott Advisers (UK) Ltd. ("Elliott") are pleased to announce the successful financial close of the 98MW Susan River Solar Farm and 75MW Childers Solar Farm.

Electric cars might finally be having their moment in Australia, but falling costs alone won’t convert consumer sentiment into actual sales.

At Davos, the world’s economic elite will make much of climate crisis and their desire to green global capitalism; but will ignore one of the most powerful tools.

China installs more solar capacity than thermal capacity in 2017, while in the US Trump slaps tariffs on imported solar in effort to protect American coal.

Miranda Gibson was an unlikely candidate to break the record for Australia’s longest tree-sit. The shy Queenslander had never seen a forest until her early twenties. In 2011 she vowed to live in a tree in the Tyenna Valley until it was protected from logging.