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Items such as cables and old tech could contain £266m worth of metal vital for decarbonisation drive, study finds

Scientists have called for people to go “urban mining” after a study revealed that old cables, phone chargers and other unused electrical goods thrown away or stored in cupboards or drawers could stave off a looming shortage of copper.

The research found that in the UK there are approximately 823m unused or broken tech items hiding in “drawers of doom” containing as much as 38,449 tonnes of copper – including 627m cables – enough to provide 30% of the copper needed for the UK’s planned transition to a decarbonised electricity grid by 2030.

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Wasps released on Nightingale Island have protected Wilkins’ bunting by halting spread of mould-causing insects

A tiny parasitic wasp has given a lifeline to one of the world’s rarest bird species by killing off an invasive insect that was threatening its survival.

The Wilkins’ bunting lives on Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha group; the world’s most remote inhabited archipelago. It eats the fruit of the Phylica arborea, the island’s only native tree.

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Victoria is seeking federal environmental approval for a transmission project that will be crucial to the state's target of 2GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2032.

The post VicGrid seeks green tick for transmission line to connect Australia’s first offshore wind farms appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Global deforestation rates are on the rise despite international high-level commitments towards 2030, with a loss of over 6 million hectares of forests only in 2023, according to an annual assessment released Tuesday.

Demand for beef, soy, palm oil and nickel hindering efforts to halt demolition by 2030, global report finds

The destruction of global forests increased in 2023, and is higher than when 140 countries promised three years ago to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, an analysis shows.

The rising demolition of the forests puts ambitions to halt the climate crisis and stem the huge worldwide losses of wildlife even further from reach, the researchers warn.

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The first battery containers have been installed in what will likely be the country's first 2 gigawatt hour (GWh) battery project being built in the Western Australian coal town of Collie.

The post First units installed at Australia’s first 2 GWh big battery project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Food Standards Agency says applications for cultivated steak, chicken and foie gras have already been submitted

Cell-cultivated meat could be on sale in the UK within a few years, the food regulator has said, with applications for lab-grown steak, beef, chicken and foie gras already submitted, while another 15 applications are expected in the next two years.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was awarded £1.6m of government funding on Tuesday to develop an efficient safety assessment process for the novel foods. It said the UK was an attractive market as it had a high number of vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians, a higher openness to new foods than many other European countries and a large financial sector to back startup companies.

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GridBeyond says community batteries offer a range of benefits over home batteries and – with the right software and settings – can deliver significant returns for their owners.

The post A smart community battery in right location could earn $250,000 a year, report says appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Australian government has expanded its protected waters, claiming it now protects more waters than any other nation on earth, it said as host of the first Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney.

First round of a second climate tech fund has closed with some big-name investors and the CEFC leading the charge into the net zero economy.

The post Climate tech fund raises another $100m for electrification, grid and circular economy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The European Union should invest earnings from the carbon market more efficiently towards climate goals, according to a collective call.

Damage from the loss of a New Zealand naval ship in Samoa can be limited if salvage and cleanup crews move fast. But the depth at which the ship now lies will be a challenge. Christopher Battershill, Professor in Coastal Science, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

RGGI Allowances (RGA) in the secondary market continued their descent over the week as prices adjusted in response to programme updates from the administrator, with traders largely projecting the 2025 Cost Containment Reserve (CCR) value as the near-term level of support.

New records over the long weekend underline the fundamental change happening in Australia's energy mix, and the key role of rooftop solar in driving these.

The post Rooftop PV takes biggest bite yet out of coal as fossil fuels and grid demand hit new lows appeared first on RenewEconomy.

An intervenor on behalf of one of the US states enjoined in an emergency petition to stay the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power plant rules drew the attention of the Supreme Court to analyses from the agency showing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology limitations.

Some 85% of banks are open to financing new coal projects, and only 8% of banks are committed to ending project financing of new oil and gas fields, according to research published on Tuesday.

The Sphinx, a patch of snow thought to be the longest-lasting in the UK, has melted for the fourth consecutive year.

The US Supreme Court is asking the Solicitor General to comment on a challenge from Alabama and 18 other conservative states trying to quash Democrat-led states' lawsuits against oil and gas producers, according to a request made on Monday.

UN negotiators should facilitate private sector involvement in Article 6 through measures designed to streamline deal-making, authorisation, and transaction, but should not over-emphasise central infrastructure or interpret the Paris Agreement to preclude REDD projects, according to a carbon trading industry body.

What have global efforts to protect oceans actually achieved? Our study of nearly 2,600 tropical coral reefs around the world is the first to answer that question. Joshua Cinner, Professor & ARC Laureate Fellow, Thriving Oceans Research Hub, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney Iain R. Caldwell, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.