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New report ranking the climate risk of every state, province and territory in the world puts parts of Australia in the top 10 per cent.

The post Australian states among world’s most at risk from climate change, extreme weather appeared first on RenewEconomy.

On the sixth anniversary of its announcement, we look at six unenviable records the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project has set.

The post Snowy 2.0: The making of one of Australia’s most spectacular infrastructure debacles appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Research investigates the potential to mix the light-emitting abilities of plants with a plasmonic current to spark more efficient solar electricity generation.

The post Plant power promises to shrink solar panel size, grow output, in new research appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Victoria government orders start to early works on transmission upgrade, including stakeholder and community engagement, engineering design, and cost estimation.

The post Victoria moves to fast-track controversial VNI West transmission link appeared first on RenewEconomy.

MGA founders spent a decade on the tech and now they're launching the first pilot to see what it can do in the real world.

The post Australian experimental storage play MGA wins grant from oil giant Shell appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rewilding is risky but we can learn from past attempts to use it as an effective tool for conservation Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Every trick that features in the climate plans of the planet's worst emitters features in the Safeguard Mechanism. 

The post Labor’s Safeguard policy is a mirror image of fossil industry greenwashing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australians are in New Zealand to help out in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. After multiple big floods in Australia, our neighbours have learned a lot about resilience in the face of disaster. Iftekhar Ahmed, Associate Professor, University of Newcastle Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Report setting path to rapid industrial decarbonisation says road must be paved with massive amounts of new big wind, solar and storage.

The post Heavy industry needs 250GW new wind and solar to go green and hit 1.5°C target appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Report finds that supply chains for major industries, including iron and steel, could cut annual CO2 to 17m tonnes by mid-century

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Some of Australia’s largest heavy industrial companies have backed a report that says they could cut direct greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains by more than 90% by 2050, and not have to rely heavily on carbon offsets.

The report, by the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI), prepared over three years by Climateworks Centre and the CSIRO, found the industrial transition would cost the equivalent of $21bn a year over three decades if Australia were to play its part in trying to limit global heating to 1.5C.

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A US-based venture capitalist group has acquired a stake in an Australian carbon finance organisation to ramp up its data and analytics offerings.

New research inverts past climate summit narratives and has important consequences for the phase-out of oil and gas production.

The post For developing world to quit coal, rich countries must eliminate oil and gas faster appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Flood and cyclone damage shows why turning Auckland and other urban parts of New Zealand into ‘sponge cities’ is the right idea. But overseas experience from China and beyond shows it won’t be cheap. Alex Lo, Senior Lecturer in Climate Change, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Faith Chan, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of Nottingham Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Work on HS2 was halted after a mysterious five-metre square pool of bubbling foam appeared above an area where tunnelling was being carried out in Ruislip, west London. Locals spoke of a 'sinkhole' but an HS2 spokesperson said it was a 'slurry pool'. HS2 said the foam had been cleared, but white foam was seen 24 hours later. Tunnelling has now resumed but the area has been cordoned off and an investigation is under way

• Work halted on HS2 after mystery pool of bubbling foam appears

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Authorities have blamed the growing of coca – the base ingredient of cocaine – for clearcutting, but a recent study shows otherwise

Cattle-ranching, not cocaine, has driven the destruction of the Colombian Amazon over the last four decades, a new study has found.

Successive recent governments have used environmental concerns to justify ramping up their war on the green shrub, but the research shows that in 2018 the amount of forest cleared to cultivate coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, was only 1/60th of that used for cattle.

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Legislation could see companies fined millions of pounds for making unproven environmental assertions to sell their products

When the hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo car was launched in the UK in the spring of 2019, it was described as “so beautifully clean” that it “purifies the air as it goes”.

Hyundai Motor UK claimed that if 10,000 of its cars were on the road, carbon emission reduction would be “equivalent to planting 60,000 trees”.

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NSW Coalition promises an extra $323 million on storage, rooftop solar and small batteries, while Labor proposes new $1 billion state body modelled on CEFC.

The post “Clean energy arms race:” Coalition and Labor trade promises to accelerate NSW switch from coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A first global initiative has been launched by marine ecologists in Australia that sets an ambitious target of restoring 1 million hectares of kelp forests by 2040, aiming to reverse the climate change-induced decline of the ecologically valuable seaweed species, it was announced on Sunday.

UK environment secretary calls on business and finance to make meaningful investment in nature-based solutions

The financial sector must be encouraged to invest in nature conservation for the world to meet this decade’s UN biodiversity targets, the UK environment secretary has said.

Thérèse Coffey, speaking at an event at Lancaster House in London to mobilise private finance after Cop15, said the private sector had a critical role to play in meeting this decade’s deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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A train derailed and flooded a town with cancer-causing chemicals. But something larger, and more troubling, is at work

Earlier this month, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in eastern Ohio, exploding into flames and unleashing a spume of chemical smoke on the small town of East Palestine. The train’s freight included vinyl chloride, a chemical known to cause liver cancer and other sicknesses.

In response, government and railway officials decided to “burn off” the vinyl chloride – effectively dumping 1.1m lbs of the chemical into the local community, according to a new lawsuit. Officials said that they did so to avert the vinyl chloride from exploding; in contrast, an attorney for the lawsuit has said that the decision was cheap, unsafe, and more interested in restoring train service and appeasing railway shareholders than protecting local residents.

Steven Donziger is a human rights and environmental lawyer, a Guardian US columnist, and the creator of the Substack newsletter Donziger on Justice

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