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Matter Technology, one of Australia’s first solar start-ups to target rented households, has gone into voluntary administration, and is seeking buyers.

Monash commits to wind offtake deal that brings the university into powerful consortium of corporate buyers, and closer to target of 100% renewables.

Crook, County Durham: Pholcus has a reputation for preying on other spiders, by entering their webs and vibrating, imitating struggles of a snared fly

When I leaned the steps against the conservatory wall and climbed, my brush loaded with paint, it could so easily have ended in tragedy.

A daddy-longlegs spider, Pholcus phalangioides, hanging upside down in her flimsy web, came within an inch of being submerged in a tide of Apricot Blush emulsion.

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Impact Investment Group announces "first close" on Solar Asset Fund after notching up $55 million in commitments.

Eighty years on from the first commercial production of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle and it looks like the once popular ‘people’s car’ is going electric.

As more and more wind and solar is added to the grid, the shape of their output is also changing, and in a way that should give confidence about a clean energy future based around a high level of variable renewable energy sources.

Transgrid seeks to buy 40MW of demand management - at a fraction of the price that it would need to spend otherwise on network upgrades in inner Sydney.

Europe's Sentinel satellite tasked with tracking dirty air maps the major emissions of sulphur dioxide.

In illustration of "how fast the transition to EVs is happening," Australia's Tritium to supply its "world's fastest" EV charge technology for 100 new stations across Europe.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 6 July until 7 August 2018.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 6 July until 7 August 2018.

Australian Industry Group urges electrification as way to avoid expensive gas, and joins growing number of groups suggesting write-down of network valuations to reduce energy costs.

Australia has seen an unprecedented number of widespread, catastrophic transformations in response to extreme weather events. Rebecca Harris, Climate Research Fellow, University of Tasmania David Bowman, Professor, Environmental Change Biology, University of Tasmania Linda Beaumont, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

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

EU carbon prices reached their highest in almost three weeks on Wednesday as a strong auction stirred hopes that EUAs could climb back above €16.

Ruth Chalmers of Greener UK supports George Monbiot’s call for better environmental protection

George Monbiot is right to argue that much of our wildlife is in peril and that independent environmental bodies need enough money to do their job (As the state is dismantled, who will save Britain’s wildlife?, 4 July). Declines in wildlife have coincided with significant funding cuts to organisations such as Natural England. The government has recently pledged to set up a new environmental body, a green watchdog, to “hold the powerful to account” on maintaining protections and standards. While this is welcome, there remain questions over its independence and funding. The watchdog will fall at the first hurdle if its budget is not protected from ministerial meddling, especially as much of the new body’s focus will be on holding the government to account. A ring-fenced budget, provided and held by parliament and not government, will help, as well as ensuring operational independence. Only then can we be assured that government is truly committed to enforcing green laws after Brexit.
Ruth Chambers
Senior parliamentary adviser, Greener UK

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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The loss of the endangered northern white rhino could be reversed by IVF, say scientists.

The northern white rhino is essentially extinct – just two females remain – but new research paves the way for its resurrection

The first rhino embryos have been created in a test tube and could help save the northern white rhino, which is essentially extinct.

There are just two northern white rhino (NWR) females left alive. The last male, called Sudan, died in March in Kenya, meaning the subspecies is doomed to die out unless the new IVF techniques bear fruit.

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‘Striking association’ found between nine-year-old’s hospital admissions and local spikes in air pollution

A report into the death of a nine-year-old girl following a fatal asthma attack shows a “striking association” between her repeated hospital admissions and spikes in illegal levels of air pollution around her home in London.

Ella Kissi-Debrah, from Hither Green, near the capital’s busy South Circular Road, experienced seizures for three years prior to her death in February 2013. Her family have been calling for an investigation after a narrative conclusion by the original coroner, Phillip Barlow, ruled that Ella had suffered a severe asthma attack followed by a seizure.

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Two former Barclays trading colleagues called upon as market experts have effectively been pitted against each other in a £160 million ($210 mln) lawsuit over RBS’s alleged 2009 role in EU carbon trading tax fraud.