Around The Web

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

The New Zealand environment ministry is looking to hire two climate change analysts in permanent, full time roles.

The top CO2-producing nations all have plans to tackle global warming - but what progress are they making?

Recriminations have followed the July floods and the alleged failure to alert residents.

The Queen cancelling her appearance and a climate pledge delayed - what do they mean for COP26?

Rio Tinto and Bluescope team up to use renewables to make green steel, while Fortescue buys another hydrogen technology company.

The post Bluescope and Rio in renewable steel venture, Fortescue buys green hydrogen tech appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Queensland Liberal senator suggests to CSIRO boss that zero net emissions targets could they spell an end to all plant life on earth. (Probably not).

The post Liberal senator tells CSIRO boss that net zero target will “destroy our plant life” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Glasgow is likely to produce a decision on the implementation modalities for market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement. However, those expecting that such a decision would lead to a flurry of investments into Article 6 transactions may see their hopes frustrated by governments’ and corporates’ lack of appetite for such transactions. But closing the Paris Rulebook will still be important, if only to put voluntary carbon markets on stable ground.

The Canadian Liberal government’s climate plan could allow the country to meet its enhanced Paris Agreement target, but this depends on the speed of the regulatory trail and other administrative processes, according to independent modelling released Thursday.

Former US Vice President Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management has launched a new subsidiary aimed at helping limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C by catalysing and scaling capital towards the most impactful climate solutions.

South Australia has made a major leap towards its 100 per cent renewables target this week after constraints relaxed on wind and solar.

The post South Australia makes big leap towards 100 pct renewables as wind and solar set free appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia has pledged to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, but is it enough to prevent disastrous global heating? Guardian Australia's resident experts on all things climate change - editor Lenore Taylor, environment editor Adam Morton and environment reporter Graham Readfearn - chat with off-platform editor Antoun Issa on Instagram Live, answering audience questions on Australia's climate policies ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

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• Scott Morrison refuses to release net zero 2050 modelling amid condemnation of climate policy
  
• ‘Hollow’: how the Morrison government’s 2050 net zero pledge was reported around the world
• We’ve spent a year waiting for this 2050 climate plan and it’s actually just the status quo with some new speculative graphs | Katharine Murphy
• Australia’s net zero emissions ‘plan’: the five things you should know
• How does Australia’s response to the climate crisis compare with the rest of the world?

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NSW seeking gigawatts of wind, solar and storage proposals in new REZ, and is also looking for load changes, and innovative network solutions.

The post NSW seeks gigawatts of wind, solar and storage proposals in South-West REZ appeared first on RenewEconomy.

US biofuel credit (RINs) prices fell to a one-month low on Thursday as market participants said refiners were absent from the market as stakeholders wait for the EPA to publish two years’ worth of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volumes.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI Allowance (RGA) prices both registered new all-time highs this week, though the records proved short lived as the bull run cooled off in the WCI programme and Pennsylvania’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate signalled hesitancy about participating in the Northeast US power sector scheme.

Germany-based utility RWE, the EU’s top corporate emitter, reported a 23.5% jump in its ETS-covered thermal power output for the first nine months of the year, it said late Thursday.

Large British companies will be forced to report their climate-related risks from next year, according to government plans unveiled on Thursday that would make the UK the world’s first nation to impose detailed mandatory disclosures.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney likens oil company bosses’ responses to those of tobacco industry at historic hearing

The chief executive of ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, was accused of lying to Congress on Thursday after he denied that the company covered up its own research about oil’s contribution to the climate crisis.

For the first time, Woods and the heads of three other major petroleum companies were questioned under oath at a congressional hearing into the industry’s long campaign to discredit and deny the evidence that burning fossil fuels drove global heating. When pressed to make specific pledges or to stop lobbying against climate initiatives, all four executives declined.

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Labor is not due to announce its full climate plan until after international climate talks in Glasgow. Rebecca Pearse, Lecturer, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The White House released its compromise deal for its deadlocked spending package on Thursday, with President Joe Biden confident that substantial cuts to key climate and social provisions mean the measure can pass Congress after months of testing negotiations.