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Opposition from vested interests – including oil refineries and the car dealership industry – has held Australia back on fuel efficiency. The onus is now on the Albanese government to intervene. John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The New Zealand government’s lingering decision on whether to remove exotic plantations from the permanent category in the ETS is causing investor uncertainty in the forestry sector, while fears of the planting type’s impact on rural communities is unfounded, according to the industry. 

Inflation, energy bills and stagnant wages could mean destitution for millions. But Conservative ideology forbids offering answers

Has Boris Johnson ended his holiday? It’s hard to tell. He was never committed to government, even during national emergencies, as his serial absence from Cobra meetings at the beginning of the pandemic revealed. Now, while several national crises converge, he seems to have given up altogether. But his detachment is not just a pathology. It is also a doctrine. Absence is what the party donors paid for.

Whether physically present or not, recent prime ministers and their governments have prepared us for none of the great predicaments we face. They have looked the other way as the water companies failed to commission any new reservoirs since they were privatised in 1989, and allowed astonishing volumes of that precious commodity we call treated drinking water – 2.4bn litres a day on current estimates – to leak away. It’s a carelessness so grand that it feels like a metaphor. Instead of forcing them to stop these leaks, the government has allowed these corporations to pump the rivers dry: the living world, as ever, is the buffer that must absorb failure and greed.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Plug Power, would be partner of Andrew Forrest's green hydrogen plans, says new US tax credit makes green hydrogen lower cost than fossil fuelled hydrogen.

The post “Monumental:” US climate bill eliminates cost gap between green and dirty hydrogen appeared first on RenewEconomy.

AGL-backed RayGen says its solar tower technology is sending power to the grid in Victoria, but the storage component is delayed by global supply chain issues.

The post RayGen connects solar towers to the grid, but storage component will have to wait appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The real operational storage capacity of Snowy 2.0 may be as little as half that advertised, due to constraints on water flows highlighted in latest AEMO report.

The post AEMO market crisis report highlights big constraints on Snowy 2.0 storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Most of the world's chalk streams are in southern and eastern England and are under particular strain.

Some of these trees can be over 30 metres high. Others, can live for centuries or, for the Huon pine, up to an astonishing ten millennia. Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Foreign companies should not be able to sue the government for taking action on climate change

An article in the Conversation with the catchy title “Hey Minister, leave that gas trigger alone” has urged the Labor government not to extend the Turnbull government’s gas trigger, which could be used to compel foreign-owned gas companies to keep gas reserves for use in Australia in some circumstances. It warns that actually using the trigger could inadvertently allow such companies to seek to sue the government under Australia’s existing international agreements.

Many Australians don’t know this but some of our trade agreements give foreign-owned companies special legal rights to sue the federal government if a change in law or policy reduces their profits, even if the change is in the public interest. The mechanism is known as an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).

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The world's oil majors are pocketing record profits from the current energy crisis, but not much of it is going into renewables, despite their marketing spin.

The post “Grotesque greed:” Oil majors’ windfall profits are headed for their pockets, not renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Takeover target Genex has announced the purchase of a massive 2GW battery storage and solar project in Queensland.

The post Genex Power buys massive 2GW battery storage plus solar project in Queensland appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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Canadian oil and gas producers could potentially receive compensation for reducing the same emissions under federal and subnational climate policies that incorporate carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), threatening the environmental integrity of these programmes and deflating credit prices, experts told Carbon Pulse.

Savanna grasslands are burnt early in the dry season to reduce the chance of large fires later. But it’s making air pollution worse. Penelope Jones, Research Fellow in Environmental Health, University of Tasmania David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Fay Johnston, Professor, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Czech utility CEZ reported a lagged hedged position for H1 on Tuesday despite increased coal-fired output and bumper earnings, giving a bullish signal for EUAs for the rest of the year.

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Uncertainty over whether host countries will allow carbon credits to be generated for the international voluntary carbon market (VCM) is only likely to be temporary, according to Dirk Forrister of business group IETA, who noted on Tuesday that governments are still figuring out how to use Article 6 international trade provisions to meet their Paris Agreement emissions pledges. 

Climate research finds modelling used cannot predict localised extreme weather, leading to poor estimations of risk

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Trillions of dollars may be misallocated to deal with the wrong climate threats around the world because the models used by central banks and regulators aren’t fit for purpose, a leading Australian climate researcher says.

Prof Andy Pitman, director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, said regulators are relying on models that are good at forecasting how average climates will change as the planet warms, but are less likely to be of use for predicting how extreme weather will imperil individual localities such as cities, however.

The concerns, detailed in a recent report in the journal Environmental Research: Climate, were underscored by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s release on Monday of its corporate plan 2022-23. Apra plans to “continue to ensure regulated institutions are well-prepared for the risks and opportunities presented by climate change”.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has called for lawmakers to ratchet up the ambition of the state’s 2030 GHG reduction target, according to a document circulated to legislators this week and seen by Carbon Pulse, which sent California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices to a two-month high on Tuesday.

University of Newcastle spin-off promoting graphite blocks as an easy way to store energy for heat and power gains funding from ARENA for a pilot plant.

The post Graphite storage technology gets ARENA funding for heat and power applications appeared first on RenewEconomy.