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ACCU issuances from Australia’s biggest project type drop to zero
Young humpbacks ‘full of beans’ as whale-watching season takes off in Sydney
Up to 50,000 whales expected to pass Australia’s east coast during annual migration from Antartica to Great Barrier Reef
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Carrie Davis describes seeing her first adult humpback whale of the season launching out of the water off the coast of Sydney last week as magical.
“It’s just this feeling of awe to see this fat whale of that size get all that body out of the water,” said Davis of Go Whale Watching in Sydney. “No matter how many times you see it, it always takes your breath away.”
Continue reading...Abbott hangover? Iberdrola further delays wind farm first sidelined by 2013 RET review
Ten years after being sidelined by Tony Abbott's renewables investment freeze, construction of Woakwine wind farm in South Australia has again been delayed.
The post Abbott hangover? Iberdrola further delays wind farm first sidelined by 2013 RET review appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia to launch A$20 mln carbon outreach programme, as govt, regulator outline market reform progress
Australia’s renewable superpower ambitions could be saved by Biden compact
US-Australia compact promises to massively boost our potential as a global renewables superpower and zero-emissions trade and investment leader.
The post Australia’s renewable superpower ambitions could be saved by Biden compact appeared first on RenewEconomy.
What role will neighbourhood batteries play in the electrification of everything?
Think of a community battery like a bus stop. It is installed in a neighbourhood at no cost to the residents, but should provide benefits for all.
The post What role will neighbourhood batteries play in the electrification of everything? appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Question mark hangs over Marinus Link under Tasmania minority government
A deal between the Tasmanian government and two renegade Liberal MPs does not address concerns over the $3.8bn Marinus transmission link.
The post Question mark hangs over Marinus Link under Tasmania minority government appeared first on RenewEconomy.
A botanical detective story: shedding light on the journey out of Africa for one of Australia's worst weeds
The Guardian view on England’s water companies: a badly broken system | Editorial
Ministers were warned about the risks of private equity entering the sector but did nothing. Now we’re paying the price
The revelation should anger all who care about England’s rivers and beaches. Two decades ago, ministers were warned about private equity firms buying up water companies. In a briefing prepared for Britain’s competition regulator prior to the takeover of Southern Water, researchers raised the alarm that private equity-owned water companies would become “impossible” to regulate. Despite the 20-year transparency rule, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has not released the briefing. Its existence was uncovered by this newspaper. Though its full contents remain secret, its implications are clear: ministers were alerted to the devastating impact that this industry could have on England’s water supply, but they chose not to act.
Since then, a tide of effluent has polluted England’s rivers. Following the privatisation of water companies in 1989, owners have enriched themselves while neglecting infrastructure and dumping vast quantities of untreated sewage. As investors have loaded water companies with debt, they have continued to pay dividends to their shareholders, which totalled £1.4bn last year. The public, meanwhile, have shouldered the costs. Water bills have risen. Last week, the industry apologised for these sewage spills and pledged to invest £10bn in infrastructure – to be paid for by increases in customer bills. Ruth Kelly, the former Labour cabinet minister who is head of the industry’s trade body, Water UK, said more should have been done to address the spillages. She was silent on the subject of dividend payments.
Continue reading...Can we still handle the truth? Journalism, ‘alternative facts’ and the rise of AI | Lenore Taylor
The credo of Watergate is still relevant: find the best obtainable version of the truth. But doing so is only getting more complicated
We all have moments in life when we know something big is happening, that we are stepping into a new and consequential experience, and our mind takes a mental Polaroid, an intensely clear snapshot of what that moment looks like and how it feels, and then stores it away in a file marked “important”.
Well, my mind does anyway, and in my professional life so far there have been three.
Continue reading...Australian industry body marks overall progress in annual carbon scorecard, but warns of challenges ahead
Australia launches offshore CCS consultation on 10 acreage blocks
New Zealand announces major steel emissions reductions project
Green belts once served a vital purpose, but now they are squeezing the life out of cities | Rowan Moore
Imagine a reservoir of wealth, worth very many billions of pounds, a latter-day North Sea oil, lying underneath the country. One that, what’s more, is public property. What government would not want to turn it to the benefit of its favoured policies – for example to ending the nation’s eternally unsolved housing crisis, to returning to young and not-so-young people the degree of access to decent housing that former generations enjoyed?
This reservoir exists. It consists of the potential value of land that is released when planning permission is granted for housing, or other profitable development. Thanks to the postwar government of Clement Attlee, whose nationalisation of development rights is still partly unprivatised, it belongs to government. It could be extremely helpful to a future Labour administration, if it seriously wants to restore, as Keir Starmer put it last week, both economic renewal and the housing security that “working people… desperately need”.
Continue reading...Singapore, Kenya sign Article 6 MoU on carbon trading
Can ‘enhanced rock weathering’ help combat climate change?
CP Daily: Saturday May 20, 2023
G7 endorses more gas investment as “temporary” solution to kick Russian energy dependence
Kuenssberg: Why 'boomer' Schwarzenegger won't wait to tackle climate change
Forest regeneration scheme has created area smaller than Regent’s Park
Just 192 hectares of ‘natural colonisation’ have been established in England under woodland creation offer
A government scheme to support the natural regeneration of trees has in two years created an area of new woodland smaller than Regent’s Park in London.
Just 192 hectares (474 acres) of “natural colonisation” have been established in England through the woodland creation offer, a financial support package launched by the government in May 2021 after natural regeneration was hailed as one of the cheapest, efficient and most wildlife-friendly ways of increasing tree cover and capturing carbon.
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