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Part of the key to collective action may be to overcome the ‘false social reality’ that makes us assume no one else cares about the climate

America is polarized, but a new study has revealed one issue on which the nation is surprisingly united: mitigating climate change.

Yet Americans themselves underestimate the US population’s concern for the state of the climate and support for major climate mitigation policies – by a whopping 80–90%, according to researchers from Boston College, Princeton University and Indiana University Bloomington.

Adrienne Matei is a freelance journalist

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The world's largest completed wind farm, the 1.3GW Hornsea 2 project off the coast of Yorkshire, is now in full operation,

The post World’s largest wind farm begins full operation off the coast of Yorkshire appeared first on RenewEconomy.

China saw a record 8% fall in CO2 emissions in the April-to-June quarter, as the economy is being dragged down by an embattled property sector and Covid disruptions, according to an analysis published Thursday. 

Japan on Thursday opened a second registration window for companies that want to participate in its planned domestic voluntary carbon market.

He risks ruining his legacy for a project that will bring more pollution to some of London’s worst-hit areas

‘I am the first green mayor of London,” Sadiq Khan proclaimed last year during the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Labour party mayor has built a reputation for tackling air pollution. In 2019, he introduced ultra-low emission zones in the nation’s capital. New cycle infrastructure has appeared throughout the city, alongside cycling training courses, and London is brimming with electric buses. It’s no surprise that since 2016, the year Khan was elected, air pollution in London has plunged dramatically.

So it makes little sense that Khan has refused to reverse the Silvertown tunnel. The 1.4km twin-bore road tunnel under the Thames is due for completion in 2025 and will connect the boroughs of Greenwich and Newham. The project is a Johnson mayoral-era solution to the severe delays at the Blackwall tunnel that links Greenwich to Tower Hamlets. TfL claims that the Silvertown tunnel will “help reduce the environmental impact of traffic congestion on some of London’s most polluted roads”, but Greenwich and Newham locals argue that it will do the exact opposite, bringing more pollution to the area.

Diyora Shadijanova is a journalist and writer

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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NatureCo is currently looking for an experienced General Manager of Commercial Development to drive growth through stakeholder engagement and working with clients to address their climate change needs.

George Monbiot criticised ‘chefs and foodies’ like me for focusing on regenerative grazing. But alternative, lab-grown foods, could have terrible consequences

I have huge admiration for George Monbiot, a columnist of this newspaper. His work has highlighted the urgent need to reduce our CO2 emissions and switch to greener energy. He has also shown intensive farming’s role in the dramatic levels of species decline and biodiversity loss. Much of what he writes I wholeheartedly agree with – but when it comes to the solutions we need to change our farming and food systems, we have radically different takes.

It is indisputable that the farming “revolution” of the 1950s, with its widespread use of ammonia fertilisers and herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, has waged war on nature. These intensive, monocultural ways of producing food are not only contaminating our land and waterways, but are heating up our planet and contributing to a crisis in human health (more people die of diet-related disease globally than smoking, according to a study published in the Lancet). The animals in factory farms don’t have a great time either. The decline of insect life is incredibly worrying: without the earthworm, beetle and bee, life as we know it could cease. Topsoils, which we use to grow 95% of the world’s food, are depleting at an astonishing rate. We need to change the way we eat and produce food, and we need to do it quickly.

Thomasina Miers is a cook, writer and restaurateur

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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A joint venture (JV) led by Australian oil and gas operator Woodside has been awarded a permit for the potential development of an offshore CO2 storage site in Western Australia, it announced on Thursday.

By embracing renewables, Australia's miners could lead the world in extracting "green minerals" needed to power global decarbonisation.

The post Australian miners seen in top spot to lead global sector green appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Is carbon capture and storage a realistic climate solution, or a subsidy harvesting exercise to extend the life of fossil fuel assets? We review 13 projects to find out.

The post Carbon capture remains a risky investment for achieving decarbonisation  appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia's energy market rule maker has bowed to pressure to lift price caps on the wholesale electricity prices in one of the biggest reforms to the market in years.

The post Energy price caps lifted in major market shift to accommodate expensive fossil fuels appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Highly commended images from the wildlife photographer of the year contest. Winners will be announced on 11 October and an exhibition of the 100 award-winning shots will open at the Natural History Museum on 14 October

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The technology, put forward as part of the UK’s net zero strategy, could extend the life of fossil fuel infrastructure

Carbon capture and storage schemes, a key plank of many governments’ net zero plans, “is not a climate solution”, the author of a major new report on the technology has said.

Researchers for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found underperforming carbon capture projects considerably outnumbered successful ones by large margins.

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Prices in France and Germany and across Europe have again jumped to unprecedented levels thanks to soaring cost of gas and massive nuclear shortfalls.

The post Gas prices and nuclear outages put European grid at breaking point appeared first on RenewEconomy.

AEMO's latest assessment of reliability generated the predictable "blackout" headlines, but the details tell another story.

The post The strangely invisible energy projects that led to all those “blackout” headlines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Extreme weather conditions in China starts to have impact on solar and battery supply chains, plus all the local news.

The post Solar Insiders Podcast: China drought to hit solar, battery supplies appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Electric vehicles were around long before their fossil fuel rivals. They are also set to outlast them because of advantages their advocates noted as early as a century ago. Timothy Minchin, Professor of History, La Trobe University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australia's emissions jumped again, and scientists are not happy with new oil exploration acreage and Labor minister's description of CO2 as "bubbles in your soda water."

The post “Bubbles in your soda water:” How Labor justifies LNG boom behind emissions jump appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Researchers unveil new battery made from abundant, low-cost materials that could compete with lithium-ion to support the shift to renewable energy.

The post Is an aluminium-sulphur battery the way out of the lithium quagmire? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The deputy Liberal leader has been taken to task over the ‘totally wrong, wholly incorrect’ claim that no one is making electric utes

Once upon a time in the former Morrison government, policies to promote electric cars were going to “end the weekend”, while the vehicles themselves wouldn’t be able to tow your boat or trailer.

Now in opposition and with Scott Morrison consigned to the backbench, the Liberal party’s deputy leader, Sussan Ley, has continued the EV bashing.

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