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Nationals guarantee that Coalition can lower power prices ‘in the short term’ met with scepticism

The Guardian - 4 hours 17 sec ago

Energy expert Tony Wood says there is no evidence to support the policy pledge

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has declared energy prices will be cheaper under a first-term Coalition government that plans to increase gas supply, without providing modelling and acknowledging significant “capacity constraints”.

The Coalition has announced it will fast-track the approval of Woodside’s North-West Shelf gas project and offer subsidies to existing gas plants. Unspecified red tape will be removed and the “national interest” test in the environmental approval process would also be amended to give greater weight to economic and social benefits.

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Giving rivers room to move: how rethinking flood management can benefit people and nature

The Conversation - 5 hours 5 min ago
Restraining rivers through stop banks and channels transfers and heightens flood risks downstream. Allowing them to roam free limits flooding and delivers other ecological benefits. Christina McCabe, PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Ecology, University of Canterbury Jonathan Tonkin, Associate Professor of Ecology and Rutherford Discovery Fellow, University of Canterbury Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

Rising temperatures could boost carbon capture by peatland microbes -study

Carbon Pulse - 5 hours 25 min ago
An increase in global temperatures could stimulate microbial photosynthesis in peatlands, boosting the wetland ecosystems' CO2 sequestration ability by up to 14%, a new study has found.
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Estonian parliament backs PM’s call to halt EU ETS2 launch

Carbon Pulse - 6 hours 16 min ago
The Estonian parliament (Riigikogu) has joined the country's prime minister in calling for the repeal or postponement of the launch of the EU ETS2 for buildings and road transport, citing cost concerns.
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Rwanda launches reforestation drive with focus on carbon offsetting, seed systems

Carbon Pulse - 7 hours 53 min ago
Rwanda on Friday launched a national initiative aimed at planting 30 million trees this year, part of efforts to boost climate resilience and create new income opportunities for farmers through an expanding carbon offset market.
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Adelaide Hills water crisis: a local problem is a global wake-up call

The Conversation - 11 hours 15 min ago
Water is being trucked into the Adelaide Hills and surrounds to fill empty rainwater tanks and dams. Is there a better way to cope with future water shortages? Kate Holland, Principal Research Scientist, Water Security, CSIRO Craig T. Simmons, Pro-vice-chancellor, University of Newcastle Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

The Guardian view on China's EV breakthrough: helped by the kind of strategic state Elon Musk despises | Editorial

The Guardian - 11 hours 56 min ago

BYD, a Chinese carmaker once dismissed by Tesla’s CEO, claims to have outpaced western rivals with charging tech that’s as fast as filling petrol engines

Tesla’s boss, Elon Musk, once thought the idea that China’s BYD could compete with his company was laughable. In 2011, he smugly dismissed the Chinese carmaker as unimpressive, its products unattractive and its technology “not very strong”. He’s not laughing now – and not just because Tesla’s stock has plummeted amid a boycott by motorists protesting against his embrace of far-right politics. More pressingly, Mr Musk, like other western carmakers, has been outpaced by BYD.

Last week, the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer unveiled new charging technology that, it says, is capable of delivering 400km (249 miles) of driving range in just five minutes – as quick as filling up a petrol car. The system, released next month, will be fitted in two EVs, priced from 270,000 yuan (£29,000) – comparable to Tesla’s most affordable model in China. Yet BYD claims to quadruple Tesla’s kilometres-per-minute charging rate. Technological supremacy at a competitive price may help to explain why BYD now sells seven times as many cars in China as Tesla.

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‘Apoplectic’ environment groups halt Coalition attack ads to take aim at Albanese over species’ ‘death warrant’

The Guardian - 16 hours 26 min ago

Exclusive: Australia’s top green organisations suspend anti-nuclear power ads to fund campaign against Labor’s move to protect salmon industry

Australia’s leading environment organisations have abruptly suspended advertising campaigns attacking the Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power and are instead funding ads accusing Anthony Albanese of signing “the death warrant” of an endangered species.

The shift from criticising the Coalition to Labor on the cusp of an election campaign was agreed by the bosses of green groups – including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, the WWF Australia and the Climate Council – at what campaigners described as an emergency meeting on Saturday.

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California transportation fuel emissions nudge down in 2024, despite December diesel rise

Carbon Pulse - Sun, 2025-03-23 06:10
Transporation fuel emissions in California nudged down just over 1% year-on-year (YoY) in 2024, even as diesel consumption increased in December, state data published Friday showed.
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Footage shows coral bleaching on Ningaloo reef as Great Barrier Reef hit at the same time – video

The Guardian - Sun, 2025-03-23 05:00

Australia’s world heritage-listed reefs – Ningaloo on the west coast and the Great Barrier Reef on the east – are being hit by simultaneous coral bleaching, with teams of scientists on both coasts monitoring and tracking the event across thousands of kilometres of marine habitat. On Western Australia’s Ningaloo reef, waters have accumulated the highest amount of heat stress on record during an extended marine heatwave that has hit coral reefs all the way along the state’s vast coastline

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Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reef hit by ‘profoundly distressing’ simultaneous coral bleaching events

The Guardian - Sun, 2025-03-23 05:00

Scientists say widespread damage to both world heritage-listed reefs is ‘heartbreaking’ as WA reef accumulates highest amount of heat stress on record

Australia’s two world heritage-listed reefs – Ningaloo on the west coast and the Great Barrier Reef on the east – have been hit simultaneously by coral bleaching that reef experts have called “heartbreaking” and “a profoundly distressing moment”.

Teams of scientists on both coasts have been monitoring and tracking the heat stress and bleaching extending across thousands of kilometres of marine habitat, which is likely to have been driven by global heating.

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‘Imagine if it died on my watch?’ The fight to save one ‘ancient’ Adelaide tree

The Guardian - Sun, 2025-03-23 05:00

Cities lose thousands of mature trees a year. On Overbury Drive, neighbours were determined to protect a solitary giant dying red gum – stuck right in the middle of their road

It’s a striking image; in a suburban landscape where nature has been largely pushed aside to make way for roads, houses and driveways, the thick craggy trunk of a towering river red gum tree stands defiantly in place, forcing the bitumen to squeeze and buckle around it. Bang in the middle of the street.

Barely a day goes by without the residents of Overbury Drive noticing a carload of tourists or curious locals pulling up in their quiet cul-de-sac, cameras at the ready.

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