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Cases of a mutated strain of Covid-19 have been detected that may undermine future vaccines.

The electoral turmoil within the world’s second highest emitter of greenhouse gases (number one for oil and gas, by a decent margin) is going to last a few weeks even after a winner is declared, so it’s worth taking a moment to pause and thinking about how Australia’s climate future is closely interlinked with the...

The post It’s Scott Morrison versus the world about his gas-fired fantasy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Increasingly, it seems gas is becoming the main focus of global climate debates, as coal enters a structural decline around the world (albeit one that is too slow). With that in mind, today’s graph of the day is the contribution of fossil gas to Australia’s National Electricity Market into the future, as modelled by the...

The post Graph of the day – Without a big government stick, gas power will decline in Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Smoke from the Black Summer fires likely caused more than 400 deaths. A national set of air quality categories is long overdue. Gabriel da Silva, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Waste-to-energy incinerators could help Australia deal with its mounting waste crisis, but burning rubbish may come with risks to public health. Thomas Cole-Hunter, Research fellow, Queensland University of Technology Ana Porta Cubas, Knowledge and Translation Broker- Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research (CAR), University of Sydney Christina Magill, Senior Natural Hazards Risk Scientist, GNS Science Christine Cowie, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Air Quality & Health Research and Evaluation, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney; Senior Research Fellow, South West Sydney Clinical School, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

EU carbon allowances rose for a third straight day on Thursday, topping €26 for the first time in a month as short-covering, compliance and speculative buying, and looming supply curbs helped reverse more of the recent downtrend and lift prices further from this week’s four-month low.

Study calls for more focus on farming and food waste, behind a third of greenhouse gas production

Our diets and agricultural production around the world are so carbon-intensive that emissions from the global food system alone would be enough to put the Paris climate goals out of reach, even if all the other major sources of emissions were closed down, research has shown.

Farming and food account for about a third of global greenhouse gas production at present. The world’s food systems produced about 16bn tonnes a year of CO2 from 2012 to 2017.

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Some 311 large low carbon projects will be competing for €1 billion from the first call of the ETS-financed Innovation Fund, with over half of the initiatives for industry decarbonisation.

The distribution of free EU carbon allowances for 2021 will be delayed due to slow progress in setting ETS emissions benchmarks and calculating allocation quotas, according to a government announcement.

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal reported a bounce back in its output for Q3 after a sharp downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis, according to quarterly results on Thursday that detailed preparations for its first supply of ‘green steel’ through a CO2 savings certification system.

US biofuel credit (RIN) prices surged by 10% on Thursday morning as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) market took a favourable view of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s prospect of winning the presidential election.

Spanish power producer Iberdrola unveiled plans on Thursday to invest €75 billion in its renewable energy, grids and retail business by 2025, while rival Endesa reported a massive drop off in coal use.

Mutations in mink herds and wildlife such as weasels, badgers, ferrets may pose risk to human health and vaccine development

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A Danish vaccine specialist has warned that a new wave of coronavirus could be started by the Covid-19 mink variant.

“The worst-case scenario is that we would start off a new pandemic in Denmark. There’s a risk that this mutated virus is so different from the others that we’d have to put new things in a vaccine and therefore [the mutation] would slam us all in the whole world back to the start,” said Prof Kåre Mølbak, vaccine expert and director of infectious diseases at Denmark’s State Serum Institute (SSI).

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The Guangdong provincial government has approved a pilot project to award carbon credits to companies, groups, and individuals that sell or donate used clothing, the first jurisdiction in the world to do so.

Hungarian carrier Wizz Air expects its passenger capacity to decline in Q4 due to a surge in coronavirus cases and new lockdown measures, undoing a Q3 recovery that saw its capacity reach 80%.

Plan includes home insulation and replacing gas boilers to ensure country reaches its climate targets

A decade-long rollout of home insulation and heat pumps to replace gas boilers is urgently needed to enable the UK to meet its climate obligations and recover from the Covid-19 recession, campaigners say.

A government scheme to insulate homes, requiring households to apply for green grants, began in September and is due to finish next March. That will leave tens of millions of homes still leaking energy and relying on fossil fuel heating, which must be phased out for the UK to meet its net zero carbon goal.

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The Prints for Nature sale features some of the world’s finest photographers working to protect people, wildlife and the environment. This is a chance to collect inspiring images while supporting conservation work.

One hundred per cent of net proceeds will support core Conservation International initiatives

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Queensland’s largest electricity generator is looking for a general manager for energy and carbon markets.

A republican controlled senate will not be a barrier to a likely Biden presidency undertaking a massive shake-up of American and international climate action.

The post Biden inches towards presidency and overhaul of global climate action appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Powerlink announces “strategic partnership” with Bureau of Meteorology to better inform planning and decision-making on its increasingly renewable grid.

The post Queensland utility teams with BoM to boost solar and wind forecasting appeared first on RenewEconomy.