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Rooftop solar pushes the national grid down to a new low for operational demand, eating further into the traditional fossil fuel market.

The post Rooftop solar takes even bigger bite out of coal market as grid demand slumps to record low appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Indonesia has modestly raised its 2030 climate targets in an enhanced NDC submitted to the UNFCCC, which has also outlined the country’s requirement for finance to meet its “conditional” emissions-cutting goal that is based on receiving international support.

Indonesia has modestly raised its 2030 climate targets in an enhanced NDC submitted to the UNFCCC, which has also outlined the country’s requirement for finance to meet its “conditional” emissions-cutting goal that is based on receiving international support.

Tasmanian government utility hires national network of lobbyists and PR firms to “positively influence perceptions” of proposed Marinus Link with Victoria.

The post TasNetworks’ $1 million covert PR campaign for Marinus Link appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Movement aims to make the mass damage and destruction of ecosystems a prosecutable, international crime against peace

California winemaker Julia Jackson has long grasped the threats posed by the ongoing global climate change crisis, from more intense wildfires and hurricanes to rising sea levels. But for her, those ideas crossed over from the abstract to the tangible when her home was razed by the Kincade wildfire that devastated her native Sonoma county in 2019.

“I lost everything – all my belongings,” Jackson said. “It shook me to my core.”

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The deaths within days of 11 sturgeon, a species unchanged for thousands of years, have puzzled scientists

When the first spindly, armour-clad carcass was spotted in the fast-flowing Nechako River in early September, Nikolaus Gantner and two colleagues scrambled out on a jet boat, braving strong currents to investigate the grim discovery.

Days later, the remains of 10 others were spotted floating along a 100km stretch of the river in western Canada.

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Energy Queensland installs new 4MW/8MWh grid-connected battery in state's central region, to pave the way for even more rooftop solar and a faster shift to renewables.

The post New two-hour battery joins regional grid to soak up rooftop solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Seas are rising in the Torres Strait, swamping crops and graveyards. Friday’s decision by a landmark UN committee is a breakthrough for Indigenous rights and climate justice. Kristen Lyons, Professor, Environment and Development Sociology, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A major overhaul of farm subsidies that would pay public funds for environmental work is in doubt.

Tomago calls for expressions of interest to collaborate in the transition of its NSW aluminium smelter from coal-fired power generation to renewables.

The post Tomago Aluminium smelter seeks partners in shift to 100 pct renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.

State-owned Stanwell Corporation unveils plans to build a 500MW wind farm, as part of a shift from coal power generation to renewables.

The post Queensland coal giant unveils plans for 500MW wind farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The new king helped drive a renaissance in British cheesemaking when the industry was in crisis 30 years ago.

Using hydrogen would add about 70% to home energy bills, according to a report by a renewable energy charity

Ministers’ plans to pin the UK’s energy hopes on hydrogen could nearly double the cost of heating a home by the end of the decade compared with natural gas, research has shown.

Using hydrogen for home heating could prove much a more expensive option than natural gas, according to the leading energy analysts Cornwall Insight. Between now and 2050, when the UK is legally bound to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, using hydrogen would add about 70% to home energy bills compared with using gas, according to the report, commissioned by renewable energy charity MCS Foundation.

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Soaring energy prices after invasion of Ukraine have added almost £10 to cost of charging family-sized car, says RAC

The price of charging an electric car using a public rapid charger has jumped by almost £10 since May because of soaring energy costs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The increased price of wholesale gas and electricity has pushed up the price to charge an average family-size car by 42% to above £32, according to analysis by the RAC. That was £9.60 more than in May, and £13.59 more than a year earlier.

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You’re meant to carry out your poo, if you visit Australia’s alpine backcountry. But not many people do – and it’s leaving plenty of evidence. Pascal Scherrer, Senior Lecturer, School of Business and Tourism, Southern Cross University Isabelle Wolf, Vice Chancellor Senior Research Fellow, University of Wollongong Jen Smart, PhD student, University of Wollongong Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Wind and solar briefly provide two thirds of Queensland's electricity demand as the country's most coal dependent state gears up to announce big leap into green future.

The post Queensland reaches 66 pct wind and solar for first time as it prepares massive green push appeared first on RenewEconomy.

From the time it was created, the mechanism has been subject to obfuscation. Labor is about to try and make it work, but it won’t be smooth sailing

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Climate policy can sometimes seem like it is being spoken in a different language. Take the issue of the moment in Australia: the safeguard mechanism.

For people deeply embedded in the mechanics of how governments plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the safeguard mechanism has become a reasonably familiar subject since it was introduced by the Coalition six years ago – even though the Morrison government and its predecessors didn’t like to talk about it much.

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Whatever we may feel about the man, some things are eternal, and in his work he found the words for them

When, 50 years ago, the Department of the Environment commissioned a poem from Philip Larkin, he produced, as a reader recently pointed out to the Guardian, Going, Going, about felled trees, bleak high-rises, spreading shopping centres and parking lots. It is about the erosion, too, of his previous trust that “earth will always respond / However we mess it about”. If he had lived until this year, when he would have turned 100, he would, one suspects, have been disappointed but not at all surprised that we are still chucking filth in the sea. The poem ends the way many Larkin poems do, with a deceptively conversational profundity: “Most things are never meant.” Which doesn’t change the damage done.

Despite a difficult period in the 1990s – after publication of Andrew Motion’s biography and an edition of his letters that revealed his racism and misogyny, not to mention infidelity, porn use and general puerility – Larkin has never gone away, and the poetry is why. Even the most unpoetic recognise the demotic bluntness of “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” Or, “Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three / (Which was rather late for me) – / Between the end of the ‘Chatterley’ ban / And the Beatles’ first LP.” In recent weeks Keir Starmer in parliament and thousands on Twitter have quoted his lines on Elizabeth II, written for her silver jubilee in 1977: “In times when nothing stood / but worsened, or grew strange, / there was one constant good: / she did not change.”

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Experts say ditching concrete and creating mini wetlands could help water systems cope better with effects of extreme weather

This year has seen one of the driest summers on record, with most of the country still officially in drought. Millions of people in England are under hosepipe bans because of water shortages, and reservoir and river levels remain low.

The solution to this? People should flood their gardens and create bogs in order to stop the effects of drought and reverse biodiversity loss, according to the head of Natural England.

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From fracking to bankers’ bonuses, we know where this government’s interests lie. It must be stopped

The Tory budget on Friday made clear where the party stands: for failed trickle-down economics and for helping the already wealthy get richer.

The cost of living crisis is wreaking havoc, with spiralling energy bills, stagnating wages, and the highest inflation in 40 years. Behind these economic buzzwords are harrowing realities, and families in every city and town having to make impossible choices this winter.

Angela Rayner is MP for Ashton-under-Lyne and deputy leader of the Labour party; Ed Miliband is MP for Doncaster North

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