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Top Australian solar retailer snapped up by Japanese giant – offering major vote of confidence in solar market, and sign of new competition in W.A. retail electricity.

The post Infinite Energy acquired by Sumitomo, promising shake-up of WA power market appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Plants can find it tough to get all the nitrogen they need, especially from Australian soils. But summer storms can provide an added boost. Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University Jason Reynolds, Research Lecturer in Geochemistry, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

BNEF report says Australia on track to become biggest, "most attractive" home battery market in world in 2019, thanks to state government subsidies and huge rooftop solar uptake.

The post Australia tipped to add 70,000 home batteries in 2019, lead global demand appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Climate change re-draws map of the Arctic Ocean

When blue-green algae blooms on the river, everyone is told not to touch it. But in drought, there may be no other water

On the nearly 900km of the Darling River from below the Bourke weir to just above Wentworth, farmers on remote properties are dealing with a water crisis that would usually only be experienced in third world countries.

While there is some water treatment in the small towns along the river, the farmers often have no choice but to ignore the warnings about using the river water.

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California will kick off a series of workshops over the next year and a half to develop a strategy for becoming carbon neutral by mid-century, officials from regulator ARB said Wednesday, with the state still to figure out what role offsetting might play in that target.

The gas industry of the future could manufacture and deliver renewable fuels, rather than mining and processing natural gas.

The post How 100% renewables can create jobs and even save the gas industry appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Barents Sea is shifting from an Arctic climate to an Atlantic climate, and is now said to be at tipping point as its waters heat up.

Letter to Shinzō Abe signed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry attacks decision to leave IWC

Celebrities and environmentalists are demanding Japan reverse its decision to resume whaling, condemning the “cruel and archaic practice which has no place in the 21st century”.

An open letter to the Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe, criticises Tokyo’s decision to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC), as campaigners plan a peaceful protest march on the Japanese embassy in London on Saturday.

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Vermont is unlikely to hits its long-term climate goals under existing policies, but the US state could reach near-term targets with minimal economic impacts by using a variety of carbon pricing and investment initiatives, a study found on Wednesday.

A Virginia legislative committee will once again consider a bill to enable the state’s full participation in the northeast US RGGI programme, although the Republican-led legislature is likely to scuttle that effort for a second straight year.

California regulator ARB issued more than 600,000 California Carbon Offsets (CCOs) this week, with the majority coming from the ozone-depleting substance (ODS) protocol for the second consecutive time.

EUAs retreated nearly 2% back below €25 on Wednesday, falling after extending a three-week high as traders grew wary about the bearish impact of Germany’s coal phaseout plan.

A new pathway for the global energy transition shows how the world can meet the Paris Agreement's 1.5C warming goal without relying on carbon capture and storage, by creating a renewable gas industry. Sven Teske, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Ancient species lives at depths of 200 to 800 metres, where key commercial fishing species are found

Species as old as the dinosaurs are swimming around in tropical waters at depths accessed by commercial fishermen, according to a world-first study conducted by Australian researchers.

The study, published in the journal Nature on Thursday, examined data on brittle sea stars pulled from 1,500 research voyages in the southern hemisphere from the equator to Antarctica.

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Embattled California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) signed a financing agreement with four banks this week to provide the company with a $5.5 billion lifeline during its pending bankruptcy, according to public documents.

My father, Peter Le Mare, who has died aged 95, was a soil scientist, woodworker, yoghurt maker, occasional needleworker, environmentalist and all-round good egg.

He worked on the Tanganyika groundnut scheme at Kongwa (now in Tanzania) in the 1940s, initially living and working in tents until houses were built.

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Experts say some members of ‘enormously important’ myrtle family could be extinct within five years, with others to follow

Australia must roll out an emergency national response to an invasive plant disease that is rapidly pushing at least four plant species to imminent extinction, experts have told Guardian Australia.

A draft emergency action plan for the fungal disease myrtle rust proposes that a rapid collection of seeds and plant material needs to be mobilised before several species disappear altogether.

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My colleague John Lanchbery, who has died suddenly of sepsis aged 71, was a physicist and climate change expert.

A veteran of international climate change negotiations, John attended the Rio Earth summit in 1992, and every UN summit on climate change since, representing the RSPB and BirdLife International since 1998.

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