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Workers face being targets in what could be Environmental Protection Agency’s biggest upheaval since its founding

After several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump’s last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House.

When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a “little bit of the EPA” left “because you can’t destroy business”, prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency’s 50-year history.

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A proposed wind and solar green hydrogen hub in Western Australia will match the country's entire main grid in terms of capacity. Will it get environmental approvals?

The post Australian wind and solar project sized at remarkable 70 gigawatts – as big as the country’s main grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The state-owned oil company (SOCAR) of COP29 host Azerbaijan has made some $8 billion of deals with foreign firms in the year leading up to the talks, according to analysis published Monday.

Chinese legislators have passed the country's first energy law, giving additional legal clout to the development of renewable energy and hydrogen.

The EU does not have a single operational CO2 storage site, but the ambition of storing 50 million tonnes of CO2 a year from 2030, and while oil and gas operators are likely to be responsible for delivering the target, they have less than a year, until June 2025, to confirm how many tonnes they will store and where. 

Voluntary standards proposed at Cop16 focus on local like-for-like habitat projects, while critics call the issue a ‘distraction’

International biodiversity offsetting “doesn’t work”, according to experts aiming to create a nature market that avoids the pitfalls of carbon offsets.

The biodiversity sector has been circling the idea of a credits market that would allow companies to finance restoration and preservation of biodiversity, deliver “net-positive” gains for nature, and help plug the $700bn (£540bn) funding gap.

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Zen Energy lands a new equity investor that will provide capital for two Australian battery storage projects and give it a launchpad into the north Asia market.

The post Garnaut’s Zen plans to supercharge battery storage projects after landing new Taiwan investor appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Two investors on Monday announced they had put an additional $100 million into a Colombian project to earn carbon removal credits from restoring degraded land.

Finance at top of agenda as developing nations call for funding to build protection against extreme weather impacts

Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, has called a protest tonight in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she has been for some time.

It is the closest that the Swede is able to get to Baku, since Azerbaijan has closed its land borders, posing an insurmountable barrier to those who wish to attend the climate talks but do not wish to fly there, due to the carbon impact of aviation.

Join us as we rally against the wave of authoritarianism and exploitation sweeping through the Caucasus. Azerbaijan, using COP29 as a façade, is ramping up control under a false “green” agenda, tightening its grip on power, and escalating regional tensions.

For over 20 years, Azerbaijan’s regime led by Aliyev have kept people oppressed, fostering poverty, fear, and silence. This authoritarian trend isn’t isolated–across the region, people like Ivanishvili, Putin, Erdogan, theocratic regime in Iran are deepening control, stifling dissent, oppressing their own people and using war and ethnic cleansing against Armenians, Ukrainians, Kurds and other ethnic minorities to justify brutal policies. Those who speak out–journalists, activists, scholars–are often met with imprisonment and violence. Under this system, climate action is reduced to corporate profit schemes, leaving people’s needs ignored and communities devastated.

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It is Day 1 at COP29 as some 50,000 diplomats, observers, and other stakeholders descend on Baku, Azerbaijan. In our daily running blog, Carbon Pulse will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (GMT+4).

UN’s top climate official warns ‘no country is immune’ from climate disaster as conference begins in Azerbaijan

Businesses in the private sector must stump up cash for the developing world to invest in a low-carbon economy or face the consequences of climate breakdown, the president of the UN climate summit has said.

Mukhtar Babayev, the environment minister of Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s climate conference, wrote in Monday’s Guardian: “The onus cannot fall entirely on government purses. Unleashing private finance for developing countries’ transition has long been an ambition of climate talks.

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This emergency will cost trillions of dollars, and is beyond the reach of developing nations. Private investors have to step up

• Mukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conference

To avert climate catastrophe, the world needs more climate finance. At Cop29, the UN climate summit in Baku that begins today, agreeing a new climate finance goal is the top priority of Azerbaijan’s Cop presidency.

Developing countries require assistance to tackle their emissions and build resilience against growing climate threats. The $100bn annual target, set in 2009, was intended to be fulfilled by 2020. It is now outdated and falls far short of what is needed for countries at the sharp end of the climate crisis.

Mukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conference

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The Bahamas envoy to the COP29 UN climate summit has called out Europe for seeking “business as usual” commercial relationships in bilateral green development talks, saying cooperation with China has yielded more results, particularly in areas like electric mobility.

Meanwhile, unseasonable heat will continue across parts of Australia this week

The northern Philippines is experiencing its fourth tropical cyclone in three weeks. Typhoon Toraji, also known as Nika, is passing westwards over the island of Luzon, with winds equivalent to a category 1 hurricane. Toraji follows cyclones Trami, Kong-rey, and Yinxing, which combined left 159 people dead and more than 700,000 displaced. The ongoing recovery efforts are being frustrated by the repeated onslaughts of dangerous weather.

The Philippines is no stranger to cyclones, with about 20 hitting the nation each year, but it is unusual for the same region to experience so many in such a short space of time. The main concern for authorities is the sheer amount of rainfall in recent weeks, with torrential rain from Toraji falling on to soils that are saturated and waterways that are already full. About 2,500 villages have been evacuated, mainly due to the extreme risk of landslides, while dams are carrying out controlled releases of water in an effort to counteract flood risks.

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The ‘theme’ chosen for Cop29 must be some kind of dark joke. This summit, like those before it, is a mere act of greenwashing

During rapidly escalating climate and humanitarian crises, another authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights is hosting Cop29 – the UN’s latest annual climate summit that starts today and is being held after the re-election of a climate-denier US president.

Cop meetings have proven to be greenwashing conferences that legitimise countries’ failures to ensure a livable world and future and have also allowed authoritarian regimes like Azerbaijan and the two previous hosts – the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – to continue violating human rights.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish activist and international climate crisis campaigner

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Producing something ‘living, fresh and green’ for astronauts to eat on the moon and Mars among ultimate aims but first test is whether plants can survive

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An Australian-led project to grow plants on the moon has secured a ride on a lunar mission scheduled for takeoff in 2025.

Plants and seeds ensconced in a carefully engineered capsule will make the 380,000km trip aboard an Intuitive Machines lunar lander.

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A huge solar and battery project near Tamworth gets IPC approval despite Barnaby Joyce putting out a call for objections.

The post Huge solar farm farm and big battery project gets IPC approval in New England, despite food concerns appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan and MP Keith Pitt both spoke out about the party’s climate policy in the wake of Donald Trump’s win

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Nationals leader David Littleproud, shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie and Senate Liberal leader Simon Birmingham have all rejected a backbench push to use Donald Trump’s election in the US to abandon support for net zero by 2050.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has said he is completely committed to the target, attempting to fight the next election on the Coalition’s vague taxpayer-funded nuclear plan that will likely extend the use of coal and gas rather than the 2050 target.

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Global solar PV capacity has reached 2 terawatts, and is forecast to quadruple by 2030.

The post It took 68 years for the world to reach 1 terawatt of solar PV capacity. It took just two years to double it appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Government and industry are pushing consumers to join virtual power plants, but our energy system is full of roadblocks and disincentives.

The post SwitchedOn Podcast: Why virtual power plants will fail unless the energy system changes appeared first on RenewEconomy.