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Is natural gas renewable? Is it a fossil fuel? A casual google search for natural gas gives the impression that these questions are somehow up for debate. And while natural gas has helped reduce carbon emissions as it was widely adopted as a replacement for coal, it is now up against zero-emission energy such as wind and solar. So how did natural gas end up in the same bracket as renewables? Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores the lengths fossil fuel companies have gone to in order to try to convince consumers, voters and lawmakers that natural gas is somehow a clean energy source

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While climate justice is debated at the summit, justice is failing the activist who is six months into a hunger strike

• Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

You probably haven’t heard of Alaa Abd El-Fattah – so let me tell you about him. He’s a British citizen. He’s a father to a 10-year-old son. He’s a dearly loved brother. He’s a writer and a pro-democracy activist in Egypt, whose powerful and emotive blogging played a part in catalysing the nation’s seismic 2011 uprising.

He’s also been unlawfully imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities for more than nine years – that’s a quarter of his life – and he has faced persecution and psychological torture. Now he could have just days to live.

Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

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An Australian pension fund with $44 billion under management has adopted EU and Paris aligned reporting standards, as it released a roadmap on Thursday outlining ways it will cut emissions from its portfolio.

Materials put into domestic compost are failing to disintegrate after six months – the only solution is to use less

Most plastics marketed as “home compostable” don’t actually work, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research.

An estimated 10% of people can effectively compost at home, but for the remaining 90% of the population the best place to dispose of compostable plastics is in landfill, where they slowly break down, releasing methane, researchers say. If compostable plastic ends up among food waste, it contaminates it and blocks the recycling process, the study finds. The only solution is to use less plastic.

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The Devon coastline reveals that Earth was in a near-lifeless state for up to five million years after the last extinction event

Budleigh Salterton, on the south coast of Devon, sits above the most frightening cliffs on Earth. They are not particularly high. Though you don’t want to stand beneath them, they are not especially prone to collapse. The horror takes another form. It is contained in the story they tell. For they capture the moment at which life on Earth almost came to an end.

The sediments preserved in these cliffs were laid down in the early Triassic period, just after the greatest mass extinction in the history of multicellular life that brought the Permian period to an end 252m years ago. Around 90% of species died, and fish and four-footed animals were more or less exterminated between 30 degrees north of the equator and 40 degrees south.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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A global reforestation company on Thursday launched a ‘seed to carbon forest’ accelerator, helping to guarantee high-quality offsets to investors in exchange for early-stage project finance.

British-Egyptian activist says he will cease drinking, raising fears he may die while officials attend summit

A British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist has said he will escalate his hunger strike inside a desert prison, raising concerns he could die while British officials attend the Cop27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a figurehead of Egypt’s 2011 uprising and one of the Middle East’s best-known political prisoners, has spent most of the past decade behind bars. Shortly after gaining British citizenship while in detention last year, he was sentenced to a further five years in a high-security prison on charges of “spreading false news” for sharing a social media post about torture.

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Jake Gilbert, 11, has been reunited with his rescuers a week after he nearly drowned when sucked into flooded drain in Altona Meadows

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An 11-year-old boy who survived being sucked into a flooded stormwater drain has been reunited with his rescuers in Melbourne and gifted a new bike a week after the tumultuous ordeal.

Jake Gilbert was cycling with a friend in Altona Meadows last week when he rode across a submerged drain and was sucked 10 metres underneath a road.

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By 2030, project will help conserve wide range of threatened wildlife in south-west England

A network of flower-filled grasslands sweeping from the fringes of sandy beaches to moorland edges is being created by the National Trust in the south-west of England.

Designed to boost flora and fauna – and be a balm for human visitors – the new grassland is due to cover more than 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land in north Devon by 2030.

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China’s environment ministry is planning to make slightly fewer reductions in the number of CO2 allowances it will hand out for 2021 and 2022 in the national emissions trading scheme compared to the 8% cut it has previously suggested, according to an updated draft released Thursday.

AGL digs into the "blackout" scare campaign to defend the pace of coal closures ahead of a crucial shareholder meeting next week.

The post AGL resorts to “lights will go out” threat as pressure on board builds appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Sunverge and Engie to provide virtual power plant based around EV fleet at Flinders University and vehicle-to-grid technology.

The post Flinders Uni to get virtual power plant based around EV fleet and V2G technology appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A carbon blockchain company is partnering with a New Zealand aviation enviro-tech company to launch a $100 million climate fund.

Many iconic glaciers will melt regardless of the world's actions to combat climate change, the UN says.

Report sponsored by some of the largest food and farming businesses finds pace of shift to sustainable practices too slow

Food companies and governments must come together immediately to change the world’s agricultural practices or risk “destroying the planet”, according to the sponsors of a report by some of the largest food and farming businesses released on Thursday.

The report, from a task force within the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a network of global CEOs focused on climate issues established by King Charles III, is being released days before the start of the United Nation’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.

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Chemicals are likely used in food bags to make them repel grease, creating a potentially dangerous exposure for cats and dogs

Much of America’s pet food packaging could be contaminated with PFAS “forever chemicals”, creating a potentially dangerous exposure to the toxic compounds for cats and dogs.

In a recent study public health advocate the Environmental Working Group (EWG) checked 11 bags of pet food and found that all of them contained the substance, including several at extremely high levels.

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Europe's growing reliance on imported liquefied natural gas is coming at a significant climate cost.

The Australian government has yet to rule on how carbon offsets generated under its Indo-Pacific Carbon Offset Scheme (IPCOS) will be used, and will await the outcome of domestic carbon market review processes before making a decision.

Australian plumbing standards require apartment buildings to have systems designed for three times their actual peak water use. This can lead to costly water damage on top of inflated building costs. James Gong, Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering, Deakin University Brendan Josey, PhD Candidate, School of Engineering, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Implementing a gas reservation policy would reduce electricity prices for all businesses and households on Australia’s east coast. Here's how.

The post A gas reservation policy will cut electricity prices, and still make money for gas companies appeared first on RenewEconomy.