Feed aggregator

Uluru, the Daintree and Bondi beach among iconic Australian locations that could be impacted if planet hits even 2C of warming by 2050

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

South Australia’s wine regions shrouded in bushfire smoke, the Daintree rainforest cut off by flooding and tourists marooned at major airports because of violent storms. This snapshot is the potential chaotic future for Australia’s tourism industry, a new report has warned.

At least half of 178 tourism assets around the country – from national parks to city attractions and airports – are already facing major climate risks, the analysis showed. And as the heat rises, so do the disruptions. Many of the country’s 620,000 tourism jobs will be under threat, according to the report from insurance group Zurich and economic analysts Mandala.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Government warned ‘unobtainable targets’ being used to dismiss migrant fruit pickers at short notice

• Sacked fruit picker tells of treatment on Kent farm

The number of farm workers seeking help with dismissal after travelling to work in British fields and orchards has soared over the past year, according to research.

The trend is thought to be in part because of pressure to meet picking targets, the challenges faced by farmers trying to stay profitable and an unintended consequence of new laws guaranteeing minimum hours.

Continue reading...

Environment minister lambasts opposition leader over vow to overturn her rejection of tailings dam at McPhillamys goldmine

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Tanya Plibersek has accused Peter Dutton of planning to ignore evidence of historical Indigenous cultural practice and trash heritage protection laws to greenlight certain mining projects and companies based on “the vibe”.

The environment minister told Guardian Australia that Dutton’s vow to overturn her determination rejecting the proposed site of a tailings dam at the $900m McPhillamys goldmine development in central-western New South Wales showed he had no respect for research or official advice.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

China will add several major industrial sectors to its national emissions trading scheme by the end of this year, its environment minister told a conference in Beijing on Saturday according to state media.

National species list expands, with orb spider named after Tom Hardy’s Marvel character, Venom, also included

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A laughing frog and an intertidal marine worm named after Sir David Attenborough are among 750 animals, plants and other organisms that have been newly recognised on Australia’s list of species.

The western laughing tree frog Litoria ridibunda, which laughs rather than croaks, the David Attenborough worm Marphysa davidattenboroughi, and the cracking-clay Pilbara marsupial Planigale tealei were added to the Australian National Species List in 2023.

Continue reading...

If coal and gas were extended to 2040 for Peter Dutton's nuclear plan, the extra emissions created would be the same as having the nation's most polluting plant - Hazelwood in Victoria - run for 106 years.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the government was working to

The post Like running Hazelwood for 106 years: Labor says Dutton’s nuke plan will be akin to a carbon bomb appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Experts say the state’s approach could provide a template for what can be achieved elsewhere

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Eight years ago, South Australia’s renewable energy future was in doubt as an extraordinary statewide blackout saw recriminations flow.

On 28 September 2016, a catastrophic weather event sent the entire state into system black. Around 4pm, some 850,000 homes and businesses lost power as supercell thunderstorms and destructive winds – some travelling up to 260km/h – crumpled transmission towers, causing three major power lines to trip.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

The problem: a fence that protects eastern quolls threatens long-necked turtles in Booderee national park at Jervis Bay. The solution? Turtle tunnels. Nine water-filled tunnels were built beneath a 82-hectare fence that surrounds the botanic gardens which keep out feral predators, providing a safe passage for the reptiles to go between watering holes. Over a period of 123 days, conservationists recorded 73 successful instances of the turtles using the tunnels

• ‘A symbol of our nation’: waratah among 20 more species added to Australia’s threatened wildlife list

Continue reading...

Burning with unquenchable resentment, Restore Trust is making another attempt at taking over the institution

The leaves are starting to change and there’s autumnal coolth in the air. Which means that the opaquely funded private organisation called Restore Trust is once again making its annual attempt to take over one of the country’s most successful and best-loved institutions, the National Trust. Burning with unquenchable resentment about a 2020 report that truthfully stated that Winston Churchill opposed Indian independence; armed with inflated stories about mushroom bans, cancelled Easters and vote-rigging; and furious about a single disco ball in one room of one of the National Trust’s 230 historic houses, Restore Trust has once again put up a slate of candidates for the National Trust’s council, with a view to turning their grievances into policy. If you’re a member of the National Trust, and you’d rather not see it turned into a platform for an angry minority, vote now for its recommended candidates.

Continue reading...

Big River Watch scheme asks general public to help monitor state of rivers after years of deregulation

Rivers will be checked for sewage and other pollution by the general public this month in an attempt to assess the health of British waterways.

Cuts to the UK regulators and a change in the law to allow water company self-monitoring of pollution in England mean there is little independent monitoring of the state of rivers in the UK.

Continue reading...

Financial entities continued to boost V25 California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings at the expense of V24 net length, while emitters cut holdings across North American carbon markets over the week ahead of third quarterly RGGI and Washington permit sales, according to data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

A US forest management company reported that its forests removed nearly seven times more CO2 than it emitted in 2023, although overall removals decreased in comparison to previous years.

An annual report by a network of US oil and gas companies detailed results from the group’s methane emissions reductions measures, revealing that participation was not identical across its membership.

A US company developing a method for converting CO2 into green methanol closed a $4.5 million seed financing round this week that will help the company accelerate its technology to pilot stage.

Researchers this week raised concerns about the efficacy of current carbon crediting methods for high-forest, low-deforestation (HFLD) jurisdictions, suggesting that a shift towards more predictive models is necessary to better safeguard these critical forested areas.

Fluctuations in foreign exchange (FX) markets affect emerging economies engaged in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), and can threaten proponents’ access to finance, even as sustainable development projects continue to rely on outside hard currencies.

The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has rejected 215,000 tonnes of new emissions reduction certificates from eight upstream oil and gas projects in China due to "irregularities", it  announced on Friday.

Attempts at corporate greenwashing will eventually hurt the financial bottom line of companies in the long run, but offenders are still getting away with it in too many jurisdictions, according to research published this week.

Boeing's troubled spacecraft is to return empty - while Nasa astronauts stay in space until February 2025.

The US EPA on Friday issued a new enforcement alert, stepping up efforts to combat illegal imports and usage of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems.