Feed aggregator

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has launched a facility to support scaling of international carbon trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and catalyse up to $500 million solely for the transactions of Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) by 2030, it announced Wednesday.

Tech barons are forever predicting some amazing new technology to fix the climate crisis. Yet fixes already exist

There are so many ways to fiddle while Rome burns, or as this season’s weather would have it, gets torn apart by hurricanes and tornadoes and also goes underwater – and, in other places, burns. One particularly pernicious way comes from the men in love with big tech, who are forever insisting that we need some amazing new technology to solve our problems, be it geoengineering, carbon sequestration or fusion – but wait, it gets worse.

At an artificial intelligence conference in Washington DC, the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently claimed that “[w]e’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we’re not organized to do it” and that we should just plunge ahead with AI, which is so huge an energy hog it’s prompted a number of tech companies to abandon their climate goals. Schmidt then threw out the farfetched notion that we should go all in on AI because maybe AI will somehow, maybe, eventually know how to “solve” climate, saying: “I’d rather bet on AI solving the problem than constraining it.”

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility

Continue reading...

The Asia Pacific region will need energy sector investments of around $89 trillion from now to 2050 to achieve net zero by mid century, according to a report released Wednesday.

An environmental legal group has submitted a greenwashing complaint to Australia’s consumer watchdog over airline Qantas’ “fly carbon neutral” product and its broader sustainability claims. 

Chris Bowen questions why gas companies who already produce energy should get windfall gain under opposition’s plan

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

Labor says a Coalition pledge to offer subsidies to existing and new gas power plants makes “no sense” and would ensure fossil fuel plants that are already in the grid receive windfall gains.

In a speech to an Australian Pipelines and Gas Association Convention in Adelaide, the opposition’s climate change and energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, said that gas would be “here to stay” under the Coalition.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Bring in ‘future homes standard’ or leave families at risk of higher bills and emissions for decades, MPs and experts say

Ministers must take steps now to ensure that all homes are built to the most efficient low-carbon standards, or risk locking households into higher bills and greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come, a group of MPs and experts have urged.

The government is mulling changes to the building regulations in England to bring in a “future homes standard” that would require all new homes to be built with low-carbon equipment such as heat pumps and solar panels.

Continue reading...

International Energy Agency says transition to clean energy means there will be a surplus of oil, gas and coal

Fossil fuels could soon become significantly cheaper and more abundant as governments accelerate the transition to clean energy towards the end of the decade, according to the International Energy Agency.

The world’s energy watchdog has signalled a new energy era in which countries have access to more oil, gas and coal than needed to fuel their economic growth, leading to lower prices for households and businesses.

Continue reading...

The UK's burden of waste is disproportionately falling on deprived areas, where residents have spoken to the BBC.

Surfers were seen catching waves near a suspected oil slick off the coast of Coogee in Sydney a day after hundreds of pieces of black debris washed up along the beach. The beach was closed and beachgoers warned not to touch the material, which could be 'tar balls' formed from oil spills or seepage at sea

• Suspected oil slick spotted off Sydney's Coogee beach after mysterious black balls wash ashore

Continue reading...

The Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands has launched a carbon trading policy project with help from the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the New Zealand and Irish governments.

Energy minister Chris Bowen suggests the federal government already knew Equinor and its local partner Oceanex had backed out of Illawarra offshore zone.

The post Federal government says it already knew of withdrawal of key offshore wind project in Illawarra appeared first on RenewEconomy.

UK banks have invested more than £1 billion in companies tied to deforestation risks worldwide since COP26, defying the country’s 2021 Glasgow climate commitments, according to analysis released on Wednesday.

IEA says rapid deployment of low cost wind and solar the key if world is to navigate narrow path to 1.5°C climate target.

The post Solar and batteries steal the show, but world needs more renewables quickly to meet 1.5°C target appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Federal energy minister says Coalition's plan to add even existing gas plants to the Capacity Investment Scheme has "gaping holes" and questions to answer.

The post “Making it up as he goes:” Bowen slams O’Brien’s plan to put existing gas into capacity scheme appeared first on RenewEconomy.

WA approves new four hour 100 MW Wellesley battery in industrial zone.

The post Another four hour battery project gets development approval in W.A. appeared first on RenewEconomy.

There’s a good chance the objects on Coogee beach are not, as some have suggested, tar balls. But in any case, they pose a potential risk and authorities are right to close the beach. Sharon Hook, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australia's biggest utility - without a trace of irony - says renewables not being built fast enough to replace ageing and "unreliable" coal fleet.

The post “Renewables not coming online fast enough,” says utility that didn’t build any while courting state coal deal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

By tapping into observations of Bryde’s whale shared on social media, we found evidence of feeding and “surfing” behaviours possibly never documented before. Vanessa Pirotta, Postdoctoral Researcher and Wildlife Scientist, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The US state’s land board unanimously adopted on Tuesday a proposed management plan for a local forest to earn revenues through the sale of carbon credits.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) prices in the secondary market briefly caught a headwind over the past week to reverse a sell-off since the market administrator released programme updates.