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AEMO says legacy coal plants may not be fit for purpose for the current energy transition, and has pleaded for faster and more forward-looking decisions on critical rule changes needed to deal with new technologies.

CEFC invests $100m in AMP Capital fund that aims to make its portfolio of Australian buildings net zero emissions by 2030.

Energy minister lashes out as Coalition seizes on Murdoch media's latest anti-renewables beat-up. Meanwhile, solar marches on in the sunshine state.

Tesla’s Ballarat Supercharger station, the first connection from Melbourne to Adelaide, was officially opened today with a ribbon cutting ceremony held at Wendouree. The Tesla Supercharger is substantially more powerful than any existing charging technology, providing up to 120 kilowatts of power and 270 km of range in 30 minutes.

What drove Victoria’s wholesale electricity market prices up 46% in 2016? We put the screws on the historical data to find out.

LG Chem says that solar and battery storage is already beating grid power in most states.

Recently, Adrian Merrick predicted an imminent "inflection point" for big utilities. Now he's about to put his theory into practice.

Led by a record-breaking Q4, US energy storage deployments totaled 336MWh in 2016, doubling the megawatt-hours deployed in 2015.

The sale continues Mills Oakley’s active involvement in the renewable energy sector, having advised on around 15 renewable energy projects over the last 12 months.

Indian regulators want to lower the floor price of RECs – a move that could increase renewables demand and benefit sellers who have huge inventories of unsold credits.

UK CO2 emissions fell by 5.8% in 2016, a drop that, according to new analysis, comes from a record 52% drop in coal use.

The Australian Heritage Council is assessing the Murray Island Group for potential inclusion on the National Heritage List. Comments close 18 April 2017.

How Stockholm is getting smarter by going greener.

The Australian Government has announced an independent review of governance of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The review will focus on the role and composition of the Authority’s Board in supporting the functions of the Authority.

Every year tens of millions of Christmas Island red crabs migrate from the island’s dense forest to the cliffs to spawn. It’s a phenomenon that literally stops traffic and draws tourists from around the world to the tiny Australian territory.

But while there are still tens of millions of red crabs on the island, in recent years their numbers have dipped by around a third as they compete for space with (and struggle to fend off) a recently introduced pest: the yellow crazy ant.

The ants are having a significant impact on the island’s biodiversity, which relies on the red crab to maintain the forest understorey and keep the forest floor clean.

So what can be done to save Christmas Island’s biodiversity from yellow crazy ant supercolonies?

For the past few years a team of scientists have been hatching a plan to introduce a parasitical wasp to the island to cut the ant’s food supply. And in December they got the ball rolling on the delicate process of tipping the scales back in the crabs’ favour.

La Trobe University’s Matt Smith speaks with Peter Green, Head of the Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution at La Trobe, about the impact of the yellow crazy ant and how his team’s plan to save the Christmas Island red crab is working in the first few months of its implementation.

Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio.

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Peter Green receives funding from the Department of Environment and Energy.

Patrick Barkham’s remarks on garden decking and wildlife loss (Notebook, 7 March) chime with research we undertook on the changes to garden vegetation in London over an eight-year period. We found that between 1998-99 and 2006-07, 3,000 hectares of vegetation disappeared from gardens, replaced by hard standing and decking. This loss, equivalent to 2.5 Hyde Parks each year, was compounded by the loss of 1m trees from gardens.  This period of change coincided with Ground Force’s time on television. Whether or not decking is now the culprit in gardens it once was, there’s evidence that artificial lawns – largely made from fossil fuels – are becoming the “new black”, again to the detriment of wildlife and the city’s ability to adapt to climate change.
Mathew Frith
Director of Conservation, London Wildlife Trust

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Move needed to drive orderly transition to low-emissions power sources, Investor Group on Climate Change says

The Turnbull government needs to put a price on carbon to unlock new investment in the electricity sector and drive an orderly transition to low-emissions power sources, according to the Investor Group on Climate Change.

The group, which represents major institutional investors in Australia and New Zealand, has used its submission to the Finkel review to argue that the government’s oft-repeated concerns about network reliability, energy affordability and emissions reductions will be addressed if concrete steps are taken to unlock new investment.

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UK leads Europe for solar growth despite drop in installations after government cut subsidies

The amount of solar power added worldwide soared by some 50% last year because of a sun rush in the US and China, new figures show.

New solar photovoltaic capacity installed in 2016 reached more than 76 gigawatts, a dramatic increase on the 50GW installed the year before. China and the US led the surge, with both countries almost doubling the amount of solar they added in 2015, according to data compiled by Europe’s solar power trade body.

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The Sentinel-2B spacecraft will take pictures to help create a complete map of Earth.

Report warns of catastrophic consequences and blames manufacturers for ‘systematic denial of harms’ and ‘aggressive, unethical marketing tactics’

The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts.

A new report, being presented to the UN human rights council on Wednesday, is severely critical of the global corporations that manufacture pesticides, accusing them of the “systematic denial of harms”, “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics” and heavy lobbying of governments which has “obstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions”.

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