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Small island countries press for guarantees as rising sea levels risk leaving their citizens stateless

• ‘It’s absolutely guaranteed’: the best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise

Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves.

The Pacific Islands Forum, which represents many of the most vulnerable countries, has invited international legal experts to consider this question and begun a diplomatic campaign to ensure that political statehood continues even after a nation’s physical fabric is submerged.

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Singaporean financial entities have signed MoUs to supply foundational data to the recently established Net Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), they announced Tuesday.

Latest ‘heat dome’ event over Texas and Louisiana, plus much of Mexico, driven by human-cause climate change, scientists find

The record heatwave roiling parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mexico was made at least five times more likely due to human-caused climate change, scientists have found, marking the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world.

A stubborn ridge of high pressure has settled over Mexico and a broad swath of the southern US over the past three weeks, pushing the heat index, a combination of temperature and humidity, to above 48C (120F) in some places.

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China, the world’s largest hydrogen producer and consumer, should map out more strategies to support the development of green hydrogen given that its current hydrogen production is largely grey, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The Australian government has opened up the next round of consultations on its proposed climate-related financial disclosure rules, which lays out the timeline of when the standards would be introduced and which entities it would apply to.

Recent negative media coverage has mainly affected sentiment and prices in the voluntary carbon market rather than the amount of credits retired, and does not seem to have led to an tangible increase in anonymous activity whereby corporates attempt to keep quiet about their market involvement.

Project developer and carbon credit intermediary South Pole has launched a new climate claim with an accompanying label, aiming to help companies cover their residual emissions with carbon credits beyond their own value chains to avoid allegations of greenwashing.

Data shows that cutting down tropical forests increased by 10% in 2022, despite promises made at COP26.

An area of primary rainforest the size of Switzerland was felled last year suggesting world leaders’ commitment to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 is failing

An area the size of Switzerland was cleared from Earth’s most pristine rainforests in 2022, despite promises by world leaders to halt their destruction, new figures show.

From the Bolivian Amazon to Ghana, the equivalent of 11 football pitches of primary rainforest were destroyed every minute last year as the planet’s most carbon-dense and biodiverse ecosystems were cleared for cattle ranching, agriculture and mining, with Indigenous forest communities forced from their land by extractive industries in some countries.

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Fewer trees were lost worldwide in 2022 than a year earlier, according to a report published Tuesday, but only because Russia avoided a repeat of its terrible wildfires while there was still a rise in the loss of  tropical forests in what was Brazilian far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s final year in office.

Government owned utility agrees to pay $30 million after being found to have inflated costs of gas generation and breaking bidding rules.

The post Utility to pay $30m for breaking wholesale bidding rules and abuse of market power appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Price rises imposed on electricity consumers are reaching absurd levels. The energy industry appears to have lost the plot in its latest lunge for short term profits.

The post Energy industry loses plot again as greed trumps strategy and regulator fails consumers appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A software system using artificial intelligence to prevent birds from colliding with wind turbines has won an award for its technology.

The post Artificial intelligence tech gets gong for stopping wind turbines hitting birds appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Powercor will use federal grant funding to build its first regional grid-side community battery, in a town where 37% of households have solar.

The post Goldfields town to mine rooftop solar as community battery gets green light appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia’s peak scientific body has launched a new tool for farmers and land managers to analyse and compare different soil types across the country, as the Clean Energy Regulator credits more human-induced regeneration projects.

California's grid demonstrates that the need for clipping peak demand while absorbing the mid-day glut of renewables has never been more pressing.

The post It’s official: California must clip peak demand as it wrestles with solar duck appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with several international organisations to develop a new global methodology for clean cookstoves, in an effort to strengthen that beleaguered segment of the voluntary carbon market.

Local mayor hails "turning point" for coal dependent shire at opening of first solar farm in region.

The post “Turning point:” First big solar farm opened in heart of coal-rich shire in Queensland appeared first on RenewEconomy.

New species named Pinanga subterranea as Kew botanists admit they have no idea how its flowers are pollinated

A new-to-science palm species has been discovered in Borneo with the remarkable ability to flower and fruit underground. How the rare palm – named Pinanga subterranea – has survived is a mystery, as most plants have evolved to develop their flowers and fruit above ground to facilitate pollination and the dispersal of seeds.

“Pinanga subterranea is the only known species of palm to flower and fruit below ground,” said Dr Benedikt Kuhnhäuser, a future leader fellow at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who was part of the research team that collected specimens and ascertained that it was a new species. “Flowering and fruiting below ground is mind-boggling and seemingly paradoxical because they appear to prevent pollination and dispersal. We now know bearded pigs eat and disperse Pinanga subterranea’s fruits, but we’ve yet to find out how and by whom the flowers are pollinated.”

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The Senior Scientist, Global Methane will play a key role in leading, coordinating, and supporting science projects related to methane emissions from fossil fuels (i.e., oil, gas and coal). Minimizing methane emissions from fossil fuels is a core part of EDF’s energy and climate work.