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The Australian government has named a former boss of NZ utility Contact Energy and long time executive at Origin Energy to lead its crisis-hit Snowy Hydro.

The post Bowen announces new CEO of crisis-hit Snowy Hydro appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The fossil-fuel induced energy crisis of 2022 has sparked the biggest ever jump in new construction starts for wind, solar and storage projects.

The post Fossil fuel crisis prompts biggest ever switch to renewables and storage in 2022 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Some solar farms are losing half of their output due to grid congestion, as renewable cop the brunt of curtailment and markets fail to provide correct signals to storage.

The post Solar farm output cut by half as renewables cop brunt of grid congestion appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Queensland researchers train artificial intelligence to trawl recordings and help confirm presence of elusive eastern bristlebird

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The fact the eastern bristlebird had not been seen nor heard in south-east Queensland since its Gondwana rainforest home was ravaged in the black summer bushfires of 2019/20 was, in some ways, unsurprising.

For one, there are thought to have been fewer than 40 individual birds in its northern population.

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CEO of one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers believes that turbines are big enough and that the main challenge is to increase output.

The post Wind energy CEO says turbines are big enough for now appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The latest Bureau of Meteorology forecast offers relief from record rain and floods brought about by La Niña. A longer-term outlook for El Niño is still up in the air – but its arrival would be disastrous. Andrew King, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

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US-based developer enters Australian market with eyes on wind, solar and storage projects.

The post Bluestar enters Australian wind, solar and storage market after $US100m capital raise appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A US-based climate biotech company on Tuesday announced it has completed a fundraising round that will accelerate the deployment of some 4 million photosynthesis-enhanced tree seedlings, with the firm’s CEO seeing a need for carbon removals-focused registries as its technological innovations continue.

Data and market infrastructure provider ICE is launching a first-of-its-kind futures index for carbon-neutral power in the US that will include the California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI Allowance (RGA) markets.

Our national research on bushfires since 2003 means we know much more about how they behave – and Australians are safer for it

It has been 20 years to the day since bushfires burst out of the Brindabella Ranges and into the suburbs of our nation’s bush capital. Four lives were lost, many people were injured and more than 500 homes were destroyed.

There had been big bushfires before, and there were bigger bushfires to come, but the tragic day in Canberra of 18 January 2003 marked a pivotal moment in Australian bushfire science.

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Carbon emissions from California's electricity sector through November nearly matched levels for the same period a year earlier, even as natural gas-fired generation climbed and output from renewables and large hydro retreated, data published Friday from network manager California Independent System Operator (CAISO) showed.

Another tool for analysing companies’ impacts and dependencies on nature was launched in Davos on Tuesday, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and sustainability intelligence firm S&P Global Sustainable1 announcing the release of their Nature Risk Profile methodology.

Quebec’s initial free allowance distribution for 2023 increased from the previous year, while data showed the province's environmental ministry handed out more permits for 2021 emissions than it previously disclosed.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for closer ties with the US on clean tech subsidies during a speech on Tuesday, while setting out details about a Brussels plan to ensure the EU gets better at nurturing its own industry while meeting net zero goals.

The climate activist was taken away by police during a protest against the demolition of a German village to make way for a coalmine. Thunberg was detained after sitting near the edge of the opencast Garzweiler 2 mine, about 5 miles from the village of Lützerath. Riot police backed by bulldozers removed activists from buildings in the village, with only a few left in trees and an underground tunnel at the weekend, but protesters including Thunberg remained at the site and staged a sit-in into Tuesday

• Greta Thunberg detained at coal protest in Germany
  

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The Canberra fires showed even urban communities can be in danger if close enough to the bush. Andrew Gissing, CEO, Natural Hazards Research Australia, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The average age of retired carbon credits fell by three years in 2022 as corporates sought fresher vintages, helping to push the primary value of the voluntary carbon market up 30% last year, analysts noted in a webinar on Tuesday.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) prices recovered some ground with increased activity heading into the second week of the year, even as concerns remain over programme review delays and legal challenges to Pennsylvania’s linkage to the market.

Almost two-thirds of sharks and rays living on world’s coral reefs at risk, with 14 of 134 species reviewed critically endangered

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Almost two-thirds of sharks and rays that live around the world’s coral reefs are threatened with extinction with potentially dire knock-on effects for ecosystems and coastal communities, according to new research.

Overfishing was the main cause of the declines over the past half a century, with larger sharks and rays being particularly hard hit.

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