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'Tsunami' of new renewables to supply majority of electricity in Australia's main grid by 2030, as market share of coal and gas collapses, Reputex predicts.

The post ‘Tsunami’ of renewables to sweep gas and coal out of market, and drive prices lower appeared first on RenewEconomy.

French nuclear giant EDF buys 280MW wind project in central Queensland, the first of a major pipeline of wind, solar and storage projects in Australia.

The post French nuclear giant EDF unveils first wind and battery project in Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Regulator allows gas network to hit customers with higher charges to pay for pipelines before an anticipated mass exodus and a switch to renewables.

The post Gas customers to pay more for pipelines ahead of mass exodus and stranded assets appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Young activists are breathing new life into the long-running debate over how to cut carbon fairly.

Victoria has raised its climate ambition - but has it raised it far enough? There seems to be plenty of low hanging fruit left strangely unpicked.

The post Running the numbers on Victoria’s climate plan – the leader in state climate action appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Humanity can still limit global warming to 1.5°C this century. But political action will determine whether it actually does. Conflating the two questions amounts to dangerous, misplaced punditry. Bill Hare, Director, Climate Analytics, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University (Perth), Visiting scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Research Group Leader, Humboldt University of Berlin Joeri Rogelj, Director of Research and Lecturer - Grantham Institute Climate Change & the Environment, Imperial College London Piers Forster, Professor of Physical Climate Change; Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Global heating is now setting the parameters of political debate

These are heady days to be a German Green. Last month, Die Grünen chose 40-year-old Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for chancellor in September’s federal election. Since then there has been a huge influx of new members excited by the prospect of what is shaping up to be a generational shift in the country’s politics. According to the latest polls, the party is either fighting for first place with or is ahead of the Christian Democratic Union, which is mired in Covid-related difficulties, including a corruption scandal and dissatisfaction at the slow rollout of the vaccination programme.

There have been green awakenings in the past which proved ephemeral. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster 10 years ago, the party enjoyed a historic surge in support, only to slump disappointingly at the 2013 election. This time feels significantly different. The Greens already form part of coalition governments in 11 of Germany’s 16 states. Their poll ratings have comfortably eclipsed those of the centre-left Social Democrats over the past 12 months, and a pragmatic leadership has been careful to court the political mainstream on foreign policy issues such as commitment to Nato. One striking survey for a German business magazine found that more company executives preferred the idea of Ms Baerbock as the next chancellor to the 60-year-old Armin Laschet, the somewhat lacklustre CDU candidate.

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“Huge financial resources” that Poland’s energy sector could be spending on the low-carbon transition are instead ending up “in the accounts of foreign hedge funds” that are driving EU carbon prices to record levels, warned the incoming head of one of the country’s utilities, while another expert said this is creating a "live and let die" situation for ETS participants.

Worried researchers hold ceremony for Clark glacier to illustrate how climate crisis is eroding icepacks

The funeral was a suitably solemn affair. The small casket was placed on a table covered in a black drape, a maudlin yet defiant speech quoted a Dylan Thomas poem, a moment’s silence was held.

Inside the casket, however, was not a body, but a vial of meltwater from Clark glacier in Oregon, once an imposing body of ice but now a shrivelled remnant.

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This was the first night-time landing for Nasa astronauts since Apollo 8's return 53 years ago.

More than 12,000 deaths have already been attributed to glacial lake outburst floods worldwide

An increasing number of people are being threatened by flooding caused by glacial lakes bursting, scientists have warned.

As the planet warms and glaciers recede, meltwater accumulates and forms lakes, often as a result of ice or moraine acting as a dam. Since 1990, the volume, area and number of these glacial lakes has increased by 50% globally. When these lakes become too full there is a risk that they may breach or overflow, releasing huge volumes of water and causing catastrophic flooding.

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Head of the Kunming biodiversity summit asks nations to review destructive support for fishing, agriculture and other industries

Billions of pounds of environmentally harmful government subsidies must be redirected to benefit nature, the United Nation’s biodiversity chief has said, before the restart of negotiations on an international agreement to set new targets for protecting nature.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said states must review and adapt support for agriculture, fishing and other industries that are driving the destruction of the natural world, and adopt policies that meet human needs while also conserving the health of the planet.

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Victoria increases 2030 emissions reduction target to up to 50 pct. The reaction shows the deep gulf between environmentalists, investors and employers.

The post Victoria ramps up climate target, but stays at lower end of recommended range appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Victoria Falls is one of the natural wonders of the world, yet in 2019, it fell silent.

Col Faulkner, 68, owns the only house in Wollar that hasn’t been bought up by US-based miner Peabody

Bev Smiles usually turns up at least an hour before the start of any functions at Wollar’s community hall – a spot for many a dance and committee meeting over the years.

“We have to get in early with leaf blowers to get an inch of dust off the floor – every surface in the hall is black,” Smiles says. “That’s what people’s kitchens are like.”

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Hundreds took part in Extinction Rebellion ‘rebellion of one’ acts on Saturday to protest lack of action on climate emergency

A man has been arrested after gluing himself to Westminster Bridge in London in protest at a lack of government action two years after parliament declared a climate emergency.

Related: ‘I’ll continue to fight’: the prosecuted Extinction Rebellion protesters

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The Green New Deal, formerly seen as radical, is now in mainstream debate. And renewable energy becomes more efficient every day

That we are living in science fiction was brought home to me last week when I put down Kim Stanley Robinson’s superb climate-futures novel The Ministry for the Future and picked up Bill McKibben’s New Yorker letter on climate, warning of the melting of the Thwaites Glacier, “already known as the ‘doomsday glacier’ because its collapse could raise global sea levels by as much as three feet”. Where we are now would have seemed like science fiction itself 20 years ago; where we need to be will take us deeper into that territory.

Three things matter for climate chaos and our response to it – the science reporting on current and potential conditions, the technology offering solutions, and the organizing which is shifting perspectives and policy. Each is advancing rapidly. The science mostly gives us terrifying news of more melting, more storms, more droughts, more fires, more famines. But the technological solutions and the success of the organizing to address this largest of all crises have likewise grown by leaps and bounds. For example, ideas put forth in the Green New Deal in 2019, seen as radical at the time, are now the kind of stuff President Biden routinely proposes in his infrastructure and jobs plans.

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Victoria to offer $3,000 subsidy for electric vehicles from Sunday, in response to criticism over its EV road tax.

The post Victoria offers $3,000 subsidy for electric vehicles, sets 50pct target by 2030 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A novel lawsuit is taking advantage of a local ‘rights of nature’ measure passed in November in effort to protect wetlands

A network of streams, lakes and marshes in Florida is suing a developer and the state to try to stop a housing development from destroying them.

The novel lawsuit was filed on Monday in Orange county on behalf of the waterways under a “rights of nature” law passed in November. It is the largest US municipality to adopt such a law to date.

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A look at the winning entries in the German Society for Nature Photography’s member competition

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