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Solar exceeds coal output as renewables set new record share of demand in Australia's main grid.

The post Solar exceeds coal for first time, as renewables set new records on Australia’s main grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

National Electricity Market could be fractured by the split among states and industry over the design of reforms designed to bring it into 21srt century.

The post Market fracture looms as states and power industry split over “Coal-keeper” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Higher than average rainfall and growth of the bees’ two favourite flowers could account for the larger than usual colony

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Thousands of fluffy native bees are emerging from the clay pans in Western Australia in bumper nesting colonies, after a year of above-average rainfall has wildflowers blooming.

Dawson’s burrowing bees, or Amegilla dawsoni, emerge from the ground from a few weeks every spring to breed and dig new burrows, which they will line with wax and fill with pollen and eggs.

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More than 100,000 tonnes of solar panel waste are forecast to enter Australia’s waste stream by 2035

The first time Dr Pablo Diaz set foot in an Australian recycling facility to see how the nation’s e-waste was processed he was struck by disappointment.

Until that moment the now 31-year-old had romanticised Australia. As a young engineering student in Brazil he had been working to develop methods to safely recycle old photovoltaic (PV) solar cells but when he tried to take it outside the lab, he found himself hamstrung.

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Government body Natural England is considering move in response to Glover report on protected landscapes

Cities in England could be granted national park status – affording urban areas the same level of environmental protection as natural landscapes – as part of a new review of open spaces.

The government is considering the proposed status, which would also entail management of the areas to maintain their biodiversity, in response to the Glover review of protected landscapes.

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Peer at odds with Priti Patel over climate activists on eve of more protests

A government extremism adviser has admitted during a private meeting that it is wrong to label Extinction Rebellion (XR) supporters as “extreme”, despite the home secretary, Priti Patel, condemning the group as “criminals” who threaten the nation’s way of life.

John Woodcock, the former Labour MP who was asked by the Home Office this year to examine disruption and violence by extreme political groups, sought to reassure XR activists that he did not regard the movement as uniformly extreme during a Zoom video conference call last month. “You’re worried that I want to label everyone who supports XR as extremists and that is certainly not the case,” he said.

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The idea of net zero has licensed a recklessly cavalier “burn now, pay later” approach to climate action which has seen carbon emissions continue to soar.

The post Climate scientists: Net zero concept is a dangerous trap appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Entities regulated in the California-Quebec cap-and-trade scheme unloaded California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) in the days leading up to the Q3 WCI auction, while financial firms kept their holdings nearly unchanged, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Rainforest lost 10,476 sq km between August 2020 and July 2021, report says, despite increasing global concern

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has hit the highest annual level in a decade, a new report has shown, despite increasing global concern over the accelerating devastation since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.

Between August 2020 and July 2021, the rainforest lost 10.476 square kilometers – an area nearly seven times bigger than greater London and 13 times the size of New York City, according to data released by Imazon, a Brazilian research institute that has been tracking the Amazon deforestation since 2008. The figure is 57% higher than in the previous year and is the worst since 2012.

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A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in Pennsylvania and California.

A new study asks if lifestyle changes including an end to flying will be necessary to reach net zero?

US biofuel credits (RINs) markedly declined for the second consecutive day on Friday, as market participants said refiners were on the offer and that the EPA might soon propose lower biofuel volumes for this year under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Metropolitan police vow to tackle ‘wilful obstruction’ in spite of supreme court’s Ziegler judgment

Police preparing for a new campaign of Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in London have said they will not be deterred by a recent supreme court ruling that obstruction can be a legitimate and lawful form of protest.

The Ziegler judgment, handed down by the supreme court in June, had ruled that the exercising of protest rights could constitute a “lawful excuse” for obstructing the highway, even if the protest is considered disruptive.

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Demonstrations shut down Gwadar, where Chinese are blamed for lack of water and electricity and threat to local fishing

Protests have erupted in Pakistan’s port city Gwadar against a severe shortage of water and electricity and threats to livelihoods blamed on the Chinese. It is part of a growing backlash against China’s multibillion-dollar belt and road projects in the country.

This week, demonstrators including fishers and other local workers blocked the roads in Gwadar, a coastal town in Balochistan. They burned tyres, chanted slogans, and shut down the city, to demand water and electricity and a stop to Chinese trawlers illegally fishing in the nearby waters and then taking the fish to China. Two people were injured when the authorities cracked down on the protesters.

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We are in an emergency. Wildfires are raging across the world as scorching temperatures and dry conditions fuel the blazes that have cost lives and destroyed livelihoods.

The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.

But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains

• Heat, drought and fire: how climate dangers combine for a catastrophic ‘perfect storm’

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Carbon stabilised after two days of extreme volatility, as traders assessed the outlook for prices into the autumn and energy markets consolidated.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including wild horses, hungry cats and Wally the walrus

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Experts question credibility of environmental claims made by UK restaurant chain

The environmental credentials of Leon’s “carbon-neutral” burgers have been questioned after it emerged the fast-food chain was using controversial carbon offsets to make the claim.

In January, Leon announced it would become the first restaurant chain in the UK to serve carbon-neutral burgers and fries at more than 60 locations by reducing and offsetting the emissions they produce.

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Allowances in China’s national emissions trading scheme fell 9% over the week, with traders waiting for access for all market participants and clarification from the government on when the offset programme will be back up and running.