Feed aggregator

600MW pumped hydro project proposed for northern NSW

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-11 11:03
A 600MW pumped hydro facility with six hours storage - a $1 billion project - proposed to tap into renewable energy hub in northern NSW,
Categories: Around The Web

Netherlands to close all coal-fired generation by 2030

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-11 10:41
Netherlands decision to close coal plants include those only completed in 2015 - the phase-out combines with rise of renewables and the impact of improved efficiency that put old models at risk.
Categories: Around The Web

Adani signs PPA for Rugby Run solar plant, but won’t say with who

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-11 10:34
Adani Australia says it has a contract with Rugby Run solar farm in Queensland, but does not reveal who.
Categories: Around The Web

'Climate change is real': energy minister hits out at Tony Abbott

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 10:24

Josh Frydenberg brings up former PM’s own record in response to Liberal colleague’s provocative speech to a group of climate-change sceptics

The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has slapped down Tony Abbott and other conservative rebels, declaring that climate change is real and that was why Abbott agreed to join the Paris international climate agreement when he was prime minister.

Asked about Abbott’s provocative speech to a group of climate-change sceptics in London questioning the science of climate change – an outing that has been characterised by Labor as “loopy” – Frydenberg brought up Abbott’s own record in the top job.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Mass extinctions 'offer cautionary tale'

BBC - Wed, 2017-10-11 09:36
Past mass extinctions have the potential to guide modern conservation efforts, say scientists.
Categories: Around The Web

Fatbergs: 90% of London restaurants are contributing to problem

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 09:01

Oil and food scraps are finding their way into pipes and drains as majority of eateries have no grease traps

The vast majority of London restaurants and takeaways are responsible for feeding the fatbergs that are choking the capital’s sewers, according to survey findings that Thames Water called “staggering”.

Ninety per cent of eateries in London are contributing to the problem by failing to install grease traps, the report found. As a result, grease, oil and food scraps washed off plates, utensils and saucepans are finding their way into pipes and drains.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Extending Liddell could be more expensive than solar plus storage

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-11 08:47
RepuTex says extending life of ageing Liddell coal generator would result in higher costs than new large scale solar project with battery storage.
Categories: Around The Web

Leadbeater's Possum population crashes by two thirds in past 20 years: report

ABC Environment - Wed, 2017-10-11 07:18
A new report from the ANU challenges claims the critically endangered Leadbeater's Possum has staged a spectacular recovery in recent years.
Categories: Around The Web

Get smart: AEMO unveils 200MW “virtual power plant”

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-11 07:06
AEMO and ARENA unveil a 200MW "virtual power plant" from demand response initiatives featuring incentives for commercial and household users, battery storage, and a range of Australian monitoring, smart meters and voltage control devices,
Categories: Around The Web

Money can't buy me love, but you can put a price on a tree

The Conversation - Wed, 2017-10-11 05:14
How do you determine the financial benefit of cutting a tree down, versus leaving it standing? Environmental accounting offers some insight. Heather Keith, Research Fellow in Ecology, Australian National University David Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University Michael Vardon, Visiting Fellow at the Fenner School, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

The need to tackle London’s toxic air | Letters

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 03:45
Jeremy Simons of the City of London Corporation wants to see existing diesel private hire vehicles removed from fleets as soon as possible, and Tompion Platt of Living Streets wants more children to be able to walk to school

It is of real concern to read that nearly 95% of London’s population live in areas exceeding WHO limits for particulate matter (Report, 5 October). Inner London’s location, its dense road network and high buildings mean that it suffers from poorer air quality than many parts of the country. We are assisting the mayor of London by developing a low emission neighbourhood, leading a London-wide clampdown on idling engines, and banning diesel from our own fleet. We have created a City Air App, which gives low pollution travel routes to over 20,000 Londoners and use our planning powers to ensure new buildings are energy efficient and low emission.

This is having a positive effect and we welcome the mayor’s decision that from 1 January 2018 all newly registered taxis are zero-emissions capable. But more needs to be done. We want to see existing diesel private hire vehicles removed from fleets as soon as possible to protect the public from exposure to toxic diesel emissions – with current licences phased out by 2020.
Jeremy Simons
Chairman of the environment committee, City of London Corporation

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Why British scientists are watching Iceland's volcanoes

BBC - Wed, 2017-10-11 03:43
A team of British scientists fly around Iceland's volcanoes to find out how to avoid future air traffic disruption.
Categories: Around The Web

Fightback begins over Trump's 'illegal and irresponsible' clean power repeal

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 03:20
  • NY attorney general to sue administration for scrapping Clean Power Plan
  • Major companies including Apple and Google support Obama-era initiative

The US is set for a fresh battle over climate change after the Trump administration moved to tear up the country’s primary policy to lower emissions and stave off dangerous global warming.

Related: 'The war on coal is over': EPA boss to roll back Obama's clean power rules

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Tony Abbott dares us to reject evidence on climate, but reveals a coward | Graham Readfearn

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 03:00

The former Australian prime minister’s misleading speech to a London thinktank was full of climate denial mythology

Tony Abbott titled his London speech on climate change “Daring to Doubt” – a challenge, if you will, to reject mountains of evidence and instead lick your fingers and shove them into the plug socket of denial.

Go on, I dare you.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Woman, 79, supplying tea to anti-fracking protesters forcibly removed by police

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 02:16

Jackie Brookes, who had been providing refreshments at Kirby Misperton camp for past month, accuses officers of bullying

A 79-year-old woman who set up a tea and cake stall at the site of an anti-fracking protest in North Yorkshire has been forcibly removed by police.

Related: Slinging mud: inside (and outside) the UK's biggest fracking site

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Tony de Brum obituary

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 01:17
Climate change campaigner and Marshall Islands politician who was instrumental in securing the Paris agreement

To live on one of the Pacific atolls is to come face to face with climate change on a daily basis. Few people in the world had such personal experience as Tony de Brum of the realities of sea level rises and storm surges, of warmer seas, receding beaches and abandoned land. Fewer still have been able to turn that experience into international action to save the islands, and the rest of the planet with them.

De Brum, who has died aged 72, acted as ambassador on climate change for the Marshall Islands, a sparsely populated group of more than 1,000 tiny islands spread out over nearly 30 coral atolls. In 2015, he was instrumental in securing the Paris agreement on climate change, by which the world’s governments collectively agreed, for the first time, to hold global warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is the limit of safety, and with an aspiration to ensure warming does not exceed 1.5C.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Can we make fashion greener?

BBC - Wed, 2017-10-11 01:05
We continue to buy new clothes at an incredible rate. How can manufacturers reduce fashion's environmental footprint?
Categories: Around The Web

Coffee shops not doing enough to combat huge increase in wasted cups

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-11 00:59

Just 1% of the 2.5bn disposable cups thrown away each year in the UK are recycled, committee of MPs is told


Coffee shops are not doing enough to deal with the billions of disposable cups that are thrown away in the UK each year, an influential committee of MPs has been told.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Ineos compelled to disclose document it used to justify fracking protest injunction

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-10-10 22:57

Petrochemical company backs down after earlier refusal to the Guardian’s request to hand over the legal document

A multinational firm has backed down and disclosed a legal document that it used to justify a controversial sweeping injunction against anti-fracking protesters.

Ineos, which aspires to become one of the UK’s major frackers, had refused to disclose the document after it had been requested by the Guardian under open justice guidelines. However the petrochemical giant has reversed its stance and handed it over to the newspaper.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Siberian blue robin excites bird watchers in Orkney

BBC - Tue, 2017-10-10 20:27
The sighting in North Ronaldsay is believed to be the first time an adult male Siberian blue robin has been seen in the UK.
Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator