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Senex Energy says extra fuel will be for domestic use but plans are yet to secure state or federal environmental approvals

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Gas producer Senex, which is jointly owned by South Korea’s steel giant Posco and Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, has planned a more than $1bn expansion to its Queensland gasfields with the bulk of the extra fuel apparently to be earmarked for domestic use.

The company, which is reportedly yet to secure federal environmental approval for the expansion of its Atlas and Roma North projects in the Surat Basin, made the announcement ahead of a speech by the resources minister, Madeleine King. It still has to clear some state regulatory hurdles, Senex said.

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The Australia Institute’s Richie Merzian on the move to overturn the car lobby’s campaign to protect dirty fuels. Plus: The future of the ESB, and the Climate Change Authority.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Australia’s dirty fuel scandal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A bid to amend plans for the final stage of the Barangaroo project would once again favour developers’ interests over the public interest. It shows how badly the planning process has been undermined. Dallas Rogers, Head of Urbanism and Associate Professor of Urban Studies, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney Cameron Logan, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney Chris Gibson, Professor of Geography, University of Wollongong Crystal Legacy, Associate Professor of Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Infinite Green Energy secures all land required for WA green hydrogen plant and refuelling station – and for a potential doubling of production.

The post First commercial green hydrogen plant and refuelling facility a step closer for W.A. appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Why climate scientists are trying to fly through Arctic cyclones in a small aircraft.

The heatwave will make conditions on England's farms worse as experts warn of smaller harvests.

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A Canadian VER investor has agreed to pay roughly €100 (C$130) per tonne to purchase biochar-based carbon credits from a Brazilian steelmaker.

California regulator ARB this week distributed much fewer compliance offsets compared to its prior issuance at the end of July, according to government data published Wednesday, while a surge in WCI allowance prices has widened the discount of offset values.

Next year's WCI-linked cap-and-trade floor price expectations narrowed after July inflation reversed course following months of substantial increases, according to federal data published Wednesday.

Almost 35 years after the US Senate was first warned about climate change, it has passed a bill. Here’s what it means for Australia. Christian Downie, Associate Professor, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Antarctica’s ice shelves have helped insulate it from dangerous levels of ice loss. But this is changing. Alexander Fraser, Senior Researcher in Antarctic Remote Sensing, University of Tasmania Chad Greene, Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Provisions designed to tether fossil fuel leasing with renewable energy development in the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will only slightly undermine the sizable GHG reductions expected from other components of the climate package, analysts said Wednesday.

Australia’s independent Climate Change Authority (CCA) on Thursday recommended ruling out consumption of offsets older than five years and phasing out the use of UN-issued carbon credits for voluntary purposes by 2025.

Time to fix Britain’s broken private utility model, whereby natural monopolies are able to dupe weak regulators

When the water industry was in public hands, it was claimed to work neither for its owner – the state – nor the public. Since being privatised in 1989, water companies have enriched investors and senior executives but failed to adequately invest in infrastructure. Shareholders have been paid £72bn in dividends. The cash came from big debts, with companies borrowing £56bn, and big bills, with prices rising 40%. Private-sector efficiency did not provide better service, but it did allow companies to be milked for cash.

Companies’ pressing concern was to make money rather than think hard about the challenge of the climate emergency. Hence water companies will impose hosepipe bans in record-breaking summer heat despite up to a fifth of water being lost to leaks. Two companies restricting water use – South East Water and Southern Water – have some of the worst environmental records. Thames Water, which will ban lawn watering for its 15 million customers, was fined £20m in 2017 for tipping 1.4bn litres of raw sewage into rivers. Last year the firm was found to have illegally discharged untreated sewage for 735 days.

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AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin among businesses study says not on track to meet global climate goals to limit heating to well below 2C

• Australia should abandon goal to limit global heating to 1.5C, says gas company eyeing Beetaloo Basin
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Nine out of 10 major Australian electricity companies are failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet the goals of the landmark Paris climate agreement, a study has found.

Businesses not acting in accordance with the 2015 Paris agreement goal of limiting global heating to well below 2C since pre-industrial times included the generators and retailers AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin, according to the study led by University of Queensland researchers.

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It is possible to scale the carbon markets fast and well, argues Carbon Growth Partners’ Charles Bedford. To do so, companies must stay focused on project quality, and countries must collaborate better.  

Mining could begin in less than a year after talks fail to produce regulatory framework despite growing calls to halt harm to oceans

The negotiations on opening the world’s first deep-sea mines ended in Kingston, Jamaica, last week with no agreement, meaning that less than a year remains before a legal clause kicks in that could see seabed mining commence without any environmental or economic regulations in place.

Three weeks of discussions on the “two-year rule” at the council headquarters of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) – the UN body that oversees mining in international waters – ended in stalemate on 4 August. The two-year rule was triggered in July 2021 when the Pacific nation of Nauru declared its plan to start seabed mining.

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A Canadian startup crypto company is launching its carbon platform for voluntary carbon market (VCM) projects that will mint non-fungible tokens (NFT) and reward project owners and carbon offset holders with a recurring revenue model. 

Trees are advancing into the Arctic tundra and retreating from boreal forests further south, where stunting and die-offs are expected

Forests from the Arctic to the Amazon are transforming at a “shocking” rate due to the climate crisis, with trees advancing into previously barren tundra in the north while dying off from escalating heat farther south, scientists have found.

Global heating, along with changes in soils, wind and available nutrients, is rapidly changing the composition of forests, making them far less resilient and prone to diseases, according to a series of studies that have analyzed the health of trees in north and South America.

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