Feed aggregator

Indonesia will launch its carbon exchange in June, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said in a position paper, clarifying the details of a closed-meeting on the country’s emerging carbon market last week.

Rooftop solar growth hit a 12 month low in April, according to new data from SunWiz, with total installations for the month slumping 23% compared to March.

The post Rooftop solar slumps in April, but PV system sizes just keep getting bigger appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Queensland dominates the large scale solar rankings in April, while the best performing wind assets were spread around the country.

The post Graph of the Day: Top 20 wind and solar assets in April appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Renewable energy curtailment isn't going away yet grid infrastructure upgrades are years off, so batteries acting as "virtual lines" could be the answer.

The post Big batteries as “virtual power lines” could be quick solution to unleash wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Energy Next will focus on latest renewables and energy management technologies and solutions, from solar, energy storage and EV charging to energy monitoring software.

The post Registrations open for Energy Next, co-located with Australian Clean Energy Summit in July appeared first on RenewEconomy.

In the race to a renewable grid, the household and the energy decisions made there often get overlooked. This needs to change – and fast.

The post We need 100 million new electric machines, and we’ve got 17 budgets to get it right appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The investment in PEP's latest fund is designed to target hard-to-decarbonise infrastructure companies.

The post CEFC sinks $80m into push for private infrastructure to decarbonise appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Now that we finally have a Net Zero Authority, how can it help Australia make the most of this once-in-a-generation economic transformation?

The post Australia finally has a Net Zero Authority. What should top its agenda? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Deep dive into Australia's biggest renewable and storage auction shows projects developed a broad range of revenue strategies, including short-term and long term PPAs.

The post How to deliver one of fastest green energy transitions in the world appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia will contemplate allowing international carbon credits in the Safeguard Mechanism and limiting the use of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) as part of a planned review of the scheme in 2026-27, according to legislative documents.

It’s that “whale-y” exciting time of year! Winter is coming. That means we’ll start seeing whale mums and calves moving along Australia’s east and west coasts. We’ve already had a teaser in WA waters. Vanessa Pirotta, Postdoctoral Researcher and Wildlife Scientist, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A Sydney-based fintech company’s carbon credit and data information platform has started displaying Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) pricing data in a bid to improve transparency in the market, it announced Monday.

Just Stop Oil and Republic activists were arrested for peaceful protests. Unless we act, this will become business as usual

On Saturday morning at 5am, about 18 Just Stop Oil supporters set off to attend the coronation. Underneath their raincoats they were wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, and they carried small orange flags emblazoned with the logo and slogan. None were carrying glue or any lock-on devices. Once in position on the Mall, they had planned to unveil their T-shirts and wave their flags as the royal carriage passed. A move that would have spread our demand to “Just Stop Oil” across the globe.

One was arrested before they managed to meet up with the group. A further 13 were arrested on the Mall, before they had revealed their T-shirts and flags. Four more supporters and an independent journalist following the group were arrested outside Downing Street. The Met confirmed it had arrested a total of 52 people around the coronation for affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.

Chloe Naldrett is a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil

Continue reading...

PFAS are present at ‘potentially dangerous’ levels in widely used chemicals sprayed on food crops destined for Americans’ plates

Some of the United States’ most widely used food pesticides are contaminated with “potentially dangerous” levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new testing of the products finds.

The Environmental Protection Agency has previously been silent on PFAS in food pesticides, even as it found the chemicals in non-food crop products. The potential for millions of acres of contaminated food cropland demands swifter and stronger regulatory action, the paper’s authors say.

Continue reading...

Experts say neighbourhood varieties will suit an area’s pollinators, and that caution is needed when buying generic seed mixes

Gardeners hoping to establish a wildflower patch in their gardens should be wary of generic seed mixes and stick to local blooms to best serve wild pollinators, experts have said.

Conservationists are urging people to source not just native wildflowers but to find out what grows naturally in their neighbourhood by getting out in their area and looking for inspiration in existing meadows, verges and nature reserves. They should then use this as a guide to ensure they are collecting or buying the most suitable wildflowers for their gardens.

Continue reading...

The genus is named Saurona, as marks on the insect's wings look like the all-seeing eye in Tolkien's books.

First, you’ve got to drive a long way before you overcome your EV’s embedded carbon debt. And then there’s the trouble with the minerals in its battery…

So you’ve finally taken the plunge and bought an electric vehicle (EV)? Me too. You’re basking in the warm glow that comes from doing one’s bit to save the planet, right? And now you know that smug feeling when you are stuck in a motorway tailback behind a hideous diesel SUV that’s pumping out particulates and noxious gases, but you’re sitting there in peace and quiet and emitting none of the above. And when the traffic finally starts to move again you notice that the fast lane is clear and you want to get ahead of that dratted SUV. So you put your foot down and – whoosh! – you get that pressure in the small of your back that only owners of Porsche 911s used to get. Life’s good, n’est-ce pas?

Er, up to a point. True, there’s nothing noxious coming out of your exhaust pipe, because you don’t have one; and the electric motors that power your wheels certainly don’t burn any fossil fuel. But that doesn’t mean that your carbon footprint is zero. First of all, where did the electricity that charged that big battery of yours come from? If it came from renewable sources, then that’s definitely good for the planet. But in most countries, at least some of that electricity came from non-renewable sources, maybe even – shock, horror! – coal-burning generating stations.

Continue reading...

Higher rates slow the renewable energy transition and shield oil and gas producers from competition by low-carbon producers

In late 2021, consumer price inflation surged in many countries. Prices shot up again following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In response, central banks drastically tightened monetary policy – raising interest rates from near zero to around 5% or more. Since the interest rate hikes have failed to bring down core inflation to the target rate of 2% favored by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB), the pressure for further rate hikes has been insistent.

We have long doubted that central bank rate rises could control the new inflation at a socially acceptable price. In most countries, wages lag well behind inflation. Too much of the rise in prices clearly reflects the impact of higher profit margins and obvious supply bottlenecks.

Thomas Ferguson is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and director of research at the Institute for New Economic Thinking

Servaas Storm is a senior lecturer at the Delft University of Technology

Continue reading...

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Financial entities built up their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) net length this week as they continued to pare down in RGGI, while compliance players shed length across the board, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed Friday.