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Criticism of South East Water mounts as local people accuse it of failing to invest in infrastructure

Four schools in East Sussex have been closed because of water shortages across the area as criticism of South East Water mounts.

The company was communicating with customers in the affected areas by text message, according to some residents in Wadhurst. Three primary schools and one secondary school that had been forced to shut earlier in the week remained closed, East Sussex county council said.

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World Bank says subsidies costing as much as $23m a minute must be repurposed to fight climate crisis

Trillions of dollars of subsidies for fossil fuels, farming and fishing are causing “environmental havoc”, according to the World Bank, severely harming people and the planet.

Many countries spend more on the harmful subsidies than they do on health, education or poverty reduction, the bank says, and the subsidies are entrenched and hard to reform as the greatest beneficiaries tend to be rich and powerful.

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European carbon rose for a seventh day on Thursday, setting a new two-month high as natural gas prices roared higher amid continued short covering after the Netherlands announced that a major gas field will be closed later this year.

The European Parliament's environment committee (ENVI) narrowly defeated a move to fully reject the highly disputed nature restoration bill on Thursday, but its full position is yet to be established because the voting process was suspended after several hours due to a lack of time.

Australia's biggest coal generator signs contract to take nearly half the output of what will be the biggest wind farm in NSW.

The post AGL signs 15-year purchase deal with biggest wind project in NSW appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Centre-right group fail to win enough support to defeat proposals after knife-edge voting

The EU’s flagship environment law to restore biodiversity on land and rivers is hanging by a thread after a rebellion mounted by a centre-right group of MEPs failed to block the proposed legislation from going to the next stage in the parliamentary process.

In a dead heat, 44 MEPs voted in favour and 44 against the nature restoration law that was proposed last year as a fundamental part of the EU’s green deal.

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A weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

The European Commission has included biodiversity offsetting in its taxonomy of what counts as a sustainable investment, against the recommendations of the body advising the EU executive on green taxonomy rules.

Growth in China’s thermal power generation accelerated in May, outpacing the growth of total power output amid expanded coal production, despite the slower-than-expected economic recovery, government data showed Thursday.

The global steel industry could achieve net zero emissions by the early 2040s without risking stranded assets from existing coal-based blast furnaces, according to a new study by two European think-tanks. 

Early data shows June temperatures hitting record highs ahead of El Niño that experts say will have significant heating effect

Global temperatures have accelerated to record-setting levels this month, an ominous sign in the climate crisis ahead of a gathering El Niño that could potentially propel 2023 to become the hottest year ever recorded.

Preliminary global average temperatures taken so far in June are nearly 1C (1.8F) above levels previously recorded for the same month, going back to 1979. While the month is not yet complete and may not set a new June record, climate scientists say it follows a pattern of strengthening global heating that could see this year named the hottest ever recorded, topping 2016.

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As climate policy is weakened, extreme weather intensifies and more refugees are driven from their homes – and the cycle of hatred continues

Round the cycle turns. As millions are driven from their homes by climate disasters, the extreme right exploits their misery to extend its reach. As the extreme right gains power, climate programmes are shut down, heating accelerates and more people are driven from their homes. If we don’t break this cycle soon, it will become the dominant story of our times.

A recent paper in the scientific journal Nature identifies the “human climate niche”: the range of temperatures and rainfall within which human societies thrive. We have clustered in the parts of the world with a climate that supports our flourishing, but in many of these places the niche is shrinking. Already, around 600 million people have been stranded in inhospitable conditions by global heating. Current global policies are likely to result in about 2.7C of heating by 2100. On this trajectory, some 2 billion people may be left outside the niche by 2030, and 3.7 billion by 2090. If governments limited heating to their agreed goal of 1.5C, the numbers exposed to extreme heat would be reduced fivefold. But if they abandon their climate policies, this would lead to around 4.4C of heating. In this case, by the end of the century around 5.3 billion people would face conditions that ranged from dangerous to impossible.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Marine life known as zooplankton might be the biggest problem with getting carbon cycling right in climate models. The potential variations in carbon uptake are greater than global transport emissions. Tyler Rohr, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Modelling, IMAS, University of Tasmania Anthony Richardson, Professor, The University of Queensland Elizabeth Shadwick, Team Leader, Oceans & Atmosphere, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Urban rivers and creeks have bounced back from early colonial use as convenient waste dumps. But the restoration work isn’t done yet, as Melbourne’s Darebin Creek shows. Oliver A.H. Jones, Professor, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

German study finds global steel industry could achieve net zero emissions by the early 2040s, but will need firm policy and cheap green hydrogen.

The post Global steel industry can quit coal, reach net-zero by early 2040s, study finds appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Western Australia raises $1.9 billion to help fund the state's decarbonisation plans, including big batteries, wind farms and standalone power systems.

The post WA raises $1.9bn from state’s first ever green bond to fund 50GW transition appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The Africa Climate Mobility Initiative (ACMI) and the Mozambique government this week launched a scheme aimed at integrating the country into global carbon markets and fostering sustainable economic growth.

Form Energy says it will move forward with the deployment of a 15MW/1500MWh iron-air battery system in a deal with a US utility.

The post US utility backs iron-air battery project promising 100 hours of storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Big batteries were first built next to wind and solar farms. Now they are found within massive coal and gas compounds, eating the fossil fuel industry from the inside out.

The post Big batteries storm the fossil fuel citadels, and spell the end for coal and gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.