Feed aggregator

European gas employers have rejected a draft agreement with trade unions to wind down the EU’s industry, highlighting the difficulties in managing the social aspects of the green transition.

Australia’s Clean Energy Financing Corporation (CEFC) has for the first time invested A$75 million ($49.2 mln) in the forestry sector, according to the group's annual report published this week, which details tens of billions of dollars of clean investments.

Researchers found 38,000 fewer people – 10 times number of murders – would have died if atmosphere was not clogged with greenhouse pollutants

Climate breakdown caused more than half of the 68,000 heat deaths during the scorching European summer of 2022, a study has found.

Researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) found 38,000 fewer people would have died from heat if humans had not clogged the atmosphere with pollutants that act like a greenhouse and bake the planet. The death toll is about 10 times greater than the number of people murdered in Europe that year.

Continue reading...

Taiwan has given the green light to two new offset methodologies for nature-based projects, which can create carbon credits from forest and bamboo management activities.

Iceland’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs submitted a bill to parliament last week proposing a new mileage tax on fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

Australia’s opposition climate spokesperson has refused to say whether a future Coalition government would support the reformed Safeguard Mechanism, as the lack of certainty continues to be a headache for investors and emitters, according to conference attendants.

New economic stimulus measures to prop up household consumption could bring greater uncertainty to China’s emissions outlook, even though the country's annual emissions may fall this year thanks to the massive additions of renewables, analysts said.

Deluge of delegates at biodiversity conference has led some to impromptu accommodation

Robert Baluku, a Ugandan delegate to the UN’s biodiversity summit in Colombia, found himself between a rock and hard place when his team’s accommodation was abruptly cancelled, leaving them stranded before the start of Cop16 in Cali.

The city’s hotels were packed to capacity with thousands of country leaders, scientists, government ministers and UN negotiators, and Baluku was left scrambling for options – until the Motel Deseos (Desires) came to the rescue.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Linked accounts on X push petrostate’s posts about climate summit and drown out criticism

Scores of apparently fake social media accounts are boosting Azerbaijan’s hosting of the Cop29 climate summit, an investigation has revealed.

The accounts were mostly set up after July, at which time seven of the top 10 most engaged posts using the hashtags #COP29 and #COP29Azerbaijan were critical of Azerbaijan’s role in the conflict with Armenia, using hashtags such as #stopgreenwashgenocide. By September this had changed, with all of the top 10 most engaged posts coming from the official Cop29 Azerbaijan account.

Continue reading...

Eight governments on Monday pledged a total $163 million in new funding for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), taking the total amount committed to the fund to just below $400 mln, less than 2% of what developed nations have promised to contribute by the end of next year.

Australia’s first commercial concentrated solar thermal heat plant will be built at the Mars Petcare facility in Wodonga, joining the recently installed "thermal battery."

The post Australia’s first commercial solar thermal heat plant to slash gas use at Mars factory appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian silicon anode technology that promises to reduce battery storage costs and enable longer EV driving ranges awarded Arena funding.

The post Arena backs homegrown battery tech that promises to cut storage costs, boost EV range appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian gravity storage company wants to use mine shafts in one of the country's biggest mining regions to deploy its technology as vast new wind and solar resources are opened up.

The post Gravity storage technology mooted for Mount Isa mine shafts to back up vast wind and solar projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rooftop PV pushed grid demand and coal output to new record lows, as NSW prepares to join other states in introducing a household solar switch off mechanism.

The post Rooftop PV pushes grid demand and coal output to new lows as NSW gets ready for solar switch-off appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rising global temperatures are likely to increase inequalities between wealthy and low-income nations by exacerbating disruptions in the carbon and nitrogen cycles of the world’s forests, placing critical ecosystem services and economic assets in jeopardy, a new study has warned.

RGGI states released feedback on proposed programme review changes, with compliance entities questioning modelling inputs, leakage considerations, and consumer impacts of higher ambition, while investors and environment justice groups pushed back against cost containment plans and delayed implementation.

RGGI allowance (RGA) dipped downwards over the last week as activity remained muted, with the market continuing to await clarity on proposed programme review updates.

California regulator ARB’s second 15-day notice for Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) amendments remains contentious ahead of the upcoming vote in November, as it falls short of addressing concerns laid out in prior drafts, commenters said, with opposition further fuelled by residents’ fears that the programme would raise retail gas prices.

It seems reasonable to call the Coalition’s policy what it primarily is: a proposal to expand fossil fuels

Some news you may not have clocked last week while the focus was on important things like a royal tour: 44 of the world’s top climate scientists, including four decorated Australian professors, released an open letter warning that ocean circulation in the Atlantic is at serious risk of collapse sooner than was previously understood.

They said a string of studies suggested the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body backed by nearly 200 countries, had greatly underestimated the possibility that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation – or Amoc, a system of ocean currents that brings heat into the northern Atlantic west of Britain and Ireland – could in the next few decades reach a point at which its breakdown was inevitable. The cause? Rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue reading...

Windrose, a newly emerging maker of electric heavy trucks, has just completed a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney and has its eyes on the Australian market. Advisor Jason Roycht explains why it might not just be Chinese EVs on our roads.

The post The Driven Podcast: The Chinese electric trucks are coming appeared first on RenewEconomy.