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National eNews - Do we need emergency action on climate?

Queensland authorities say they have identified the vessel that spilled up to 15 tonnes of oil off Cape Upstart in July 2015

An unnamed foreign ship faces prosecution over an oil spill on the Great Barrier Reef after a 12-month investigation by Queensland government agencies.

Maritime investigators claim they have identified the vessel that spilled up to 15 tonnes of oil in reef waters off Cape Upstart in July 2015, which washed up on mainland beaches and islands north of Townsville and triggered a response costing $1.5m.

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As NSW’s relatively generous solar rates come to a close, 150,000-odd solar homes are looking to make the transition as painless as possible. So what are your options? We break them down for you.

ACT govt-funded installation of 500kW solar array is underway at Canberra Hospital, part of project that will save it $490,000 by 2017-18.

The overall tone of Clean Energy Summit is much more upbeat than last year, and it appears that the political resistance to renewables is fading.

BNEF and Clean Energy Regulator warn renewables market headed for shortfall, RET policy has "fundamental holes in it.”

After 12 years of planning and testing, Solar Impulse has finally completed its epic voyage around the world – all without using a single drop of fuel.

Startups are figuring out ways to beat incumbents in their own game. Virtual power plants may be the answer.

Josh Frydenberg's apparent shift in thinking on renewables is welcome, but his call to end moratoriums on unconventional gas is profoundly out of step.

New technology subsystems enrich 5i energy intelligence platform with real-time, dynamic, human comfort sensing to add how “we feel” to big data analysis.

JOVIAN HEAT: The howling turbulence of Jupiter's Great Red Spot may be superheating the upper atmosphere above the storm, researchers say.

Josh Frydenberg says wind and solar not to blame for recent price spikes, noting that price volatility is "not a new thing". But while he accepts coal is in decline, his messaging was mixed, and wants more gas into the electricity system.

A new class of antibiotics has been discovered by analysing the bacterial warfare taking place up people's noses, scientists report.

Massive increases in fines for riding without a helmet or running a red light are just the latest in the city’s ignoble history of deciding cyclists are a problem

It’s almost five months since fines for various cycling infractions, including riding without a helmet, cycling dangerously or jumping a red light were massively increased in New South Wales. Some fines went up from $71 to $425 (£40 to £240). Riders were also obliged to carry ID. At the same time, a new law spelled out minimum passing distances drivers should give riders when they overtake bikes.

Are cyclists feeling much safer? It’s fair to say the impact has been mixed. In May it turned out that while police had by then energetically handed out 1,500 of the new fines to cyclists, mainly over helmet use, just four motorists had felt the force of the law for close overtakes. There were also reports of overzealous enforcement of the rules, including a dangerous cycling citation for someone trackstanding at a red light.

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Jupiter's giant storm is somehow heating the planet's upper atmosphere - possibly by means of sound waves - astronomers discover.

As Philae, the robotic lander, is finally switched off and the world says goodbye.

George McRobie, who has died aged 90, was the last surviving founding member of Practical Action, an international organisation harnessing technology to help developing countries. He was a close associate of the economist EF Schumacher (my late husband, known as Fritz, who was the author of the influential text Small Is Beautiful) and for many years they worked together, initially at the National Coal Board and then, in 1965, in setting up the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), now known as Practical Action.

When Fritz died suddenly in 1977, George stepped in to become chairman of the organisation, and worked tirelessly to maintain the momentum they had generated. His contribution to both the green movement and the appropriate technology movement as a whole was immense. In 1981 George completed Small Is Possible, the last of Fritz’s trilogy of books, which laid out how the ideas and theories on sustainability in the first two books, Small Is Beautiful and A Guide for the Perplexed, could be applied to everyday life.

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Koalas have quickly learned to use wildlife passageways to cross busy roads in Australia's Queensland state as they move between habitats.

Filipino government body gives 47 ‘carbon majors’ 45 days to respond to allegations of human rights violations resulting from climate change

The world’s largest oil, coal, cement and mining companies have been given 45 days to respond to a complaint that their greenhouse gas emissions have violated the human rights of millions of people living in the Phillippines.

In a potential landmark legal case, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR), a constitutional body with the power to investigate human rights violations, has sent 47 “carbon majors” including Shell, BP, Chevron, BHP Billiton and Anglo American, a 60-page document accusing them of breaching people’s fundamental rights to “life, food, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and to self determination”.

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Over-budget and behind schedule, the €10.5bn nuclear reactor has faced problems that some say could be repeated in the UK

On granite cliffs overlooking the Channel is France’s most famous building site. If all goes to plan, by the end of the decade this rocky outcrop will house the biggest and most powerful nuclear reactor in the world.

The technology behind the European pressurised reactor (EPR) is meant to be safer than anything that has gone before. But the project is more than three times over budget and years behind schedule, and France’s nuclear safety authority has found weaknesses in the reactor’s steel.

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