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The National Energy Guarantee promises to make electricity supply more reliable, cheaper and less polluting. Michael Hopkin, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation Madeleine De Gabriele, Deputy Editor: Energy + Environment, The Conversation Wes Mountain, Deputy Multimedia Editor, The Conversation Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Cressbrook Dale, Derbyshire These often despised trees took centuries to go native but today they are a welcome addition to the autumn atmosphere – especially in the rain

I find it strange to read in Oliver Rackham’s wonderful Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape that sycamores were probably introduced to the UK in the 16th century, but only went native in the 18th. It seems odd, because it is hard to imagine this restless beast of a tree settling for domestic imprisonment for 200 years.

My experience is that its whirling helicopter-like “keys”, aided only by the slightest breeze, can unpick any attempt to block their escape into the wild. In our Norfolk village I am also astonished how quickly those seeds put down roots and I’ve even taken to using mole grips to wrestle with the saplings’ iron-like purchase on our garden soil.

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The new policy will put the onus on electricity retailers to cut emissions while guaranteeing reliability. And while the scheme isn't perfect, it offers a rare opportunity for bipartisanship. David Blowers, Energy Fellow, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Australian Government is powering forward with a plan that will deliver an affordable and reliable energy system that will also help meet our international commitments. A better energy future for Australia

Conservationists and Indigenous groups hail decision to examine plan to lay rubber matting over middens and heritage sites

The federal government has requested an independent assessment of an application to open four-wheel-drive tracks along Tasmania’s heritage-listed north-west coast, potentially delaying action until the state election.

Conservationists and Indigenous groups have been fighting the Hodgman government’s proposal to lay rubber matting over middens and other Aboriginal heritage sites along the Tarkine coast to allow four-wheel-drive access.

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Anne Cameron’s remains and walking stick found at Craiglie Creek, south of Port Douglas, after 79-year-old went missing from her aged-care facility

Human remains have been found inside a large crocodile police believe killed an elderly woman in Queensland’s far north.

Remains believed to belong to Anne Cameron, her walking stick and other items were located at Craiglie Creek, south of Port Douglas, last week.

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Origin Energy rolls out flexible energy trial in South Australia, allowing commercial and industrial customers to align demand with renewables output.

The Turnbull Coalition government unveils its new energy policy.

With energy policy set to remain a political battleground in Australia, physics, in the form of global warming, will continue to gradually push decarbonization to the top of the policy agenda.

With China, India, Norway, UK, France and California planning to ban manufacture and sales of new internal combustion engine cars, and EVs on the rise, will a solar roof become popular add-on option for plug in EV’s?

A team of Australian researchers is turning the notion of recycling on its head, while also building a new green manufacturing sector.

The buzz might be about batteries, but the mass adoption of solar PV by Australian homes – and the efficient use of this asset – has only just begun, as prices reach levels that appeal to the late majority, and as early adopters look to upsize their systems.

Breaking: Coalition set to unveil an energy policy that supports fossil fuel electricity generators, while putting a handbrake on renewable energy development.

New research casts doubt on the idea that dogs are naturally more tolerant and friendly than wolves.

The amount of atmospheric energy available to thunderstorms will increase in response to climate change, putting the tropics and subtropics at risk of being lashed with more intense storms. Martin Singh, Lecturer, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Instead shop in markets and smaller shops, which are less packaging obsessed and often use paper bags, says Rachel Meredith

The idea of increasing the use of aluminium and steel packaging, as proposed by Andy Clarke (Bring in plastic packaging ban, former Asda boss tells stores, 13 October), is not a sustainable solution. Both materials rely on finite substances and intensive energy to produce them, and there is no guarantee that they will be recycled and will avoid ending up in the sea as well. One possibility would be to increase the use of starch based “plastic”; it’s biodegradable and therefore matters less where it ends up. Obviously another solution is to avoid shopping in supermarkets as far as is possible and to instead shop in markets and smaller shops, which are less packaging obsessed and often use paper bags, as in the good old days.
Rachel Meredith
York

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It's the first time this noise has ever been detected.

Pipeline company downplaying major legal and financial risks of crossing unceded First Nations territory in British Columbia

The controversial expansion of a pipeline that would carry tar sands crude from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast will be doomed by the rising power of Indigenous land rights.

That’s the message that Kanahus Manuel, an Indigenous activist from the Secwepemc Nation in central BC, plans to deliver to banks financing the project as she travels through Europe this week.

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Scientists investigating marine life in the Baltic Sea have found mussels, oysters and clams are emitting greenhouse gases – but cows still trump them

Swedish scientists have found that flatulent shellfish are creating vast amounts of greenhouse gases, leading to a predictable slew of comments about farting cockles and clams. But beneath the schoolboy humour, there is a serious point. The two gases in question – methane and nitrous oxide – are potent agents of climate change, with a warming potential 28 and 265 times greater than carbon dioxide respectively.

Scientists studying the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden have found that shellfish are producing one-tenth of all the greenhouses gases released there – the equivalent to the amount produced by 20,000 cattle. If the same situation is being replicated around the rest of the world’s seas and oceans, we have a serious problem.

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Scientists detect the warping of space generated by the collision of two neutron stars.