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New reports from market operator and market regulator show that - despite the politics - Australia's grid is getting cleaner, cheaper and smarter.

The post Cheaper, cleaner, smarter – how wind, solar and batteries are changing Australia’s grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Resources minister Matt Canavan has revived proposals for carbon capture and storage projects to help justifiy government backing of new coal projects.

The post Canavan revives carbon capture in new effort to underpin coal generators appeared first on RenewEconomy.

As the engineering sector turns its attention to the climate crisis, UNSW Engineering has taken the lead in being the first university to commit to a movement steering the profession towards a low carbon future.

The post UNSW first engineering school to sign declaration to reduce harmful carbon emissions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Price for carbon offsets - yes, Australia does have a carbon price - hit record high and will likely rise further.

The post Australian carbon offset price hits 4-year high, more increases ahead? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes teams up with the CEFC in fund seeking investments to cut emissions and boost innovation in agri-business.

The post CEFC and Cannon-Brookes partner in agrifood tech venture appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Spanish energy giant unveils plans to tap Australia's “tremendous” renewables potential, starting with 320MW hybrid wind and solar plant.

The post Iberdrola enters Australia market with big plans, including 320MW wind solar hybrid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Sharan Burrow wants to find alternative livelihoods for coal miners and therefore help protect our climate.

Emergent has recently been incorporated as a new not-for-profit entity (a US-registered 501(c)(4)) and has appointed a board and an executive director. It is now beginning to build the team able to rise to the REDD+ challenge.

The Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank and advocacy organization that works to promote an open society, is seeking an entry-level Policy Analyst to join our growing climate department.

We’re currently hiring for positions in multiple locations across the country. If you’re flexible, you can apply for multiple locations. We accept applications on a rolling basis. Positions start in August 2020.

Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM) and Qantas are looking for a highly motivated Corporate Partnerships Manager to manage the service delivery of the business sustainability program Qantas Future Planet Program in conjunction with the Qantas team.

TEM is looking for a highly motivated Head of Corporate Solutions who can lead the engagement with existing and new clients to help develop and implement their approaches to climate neutrality and carbon offsetting.

University student Courtney Lucas on facing up to the climate crisis and listening to young people

As a millennial, a university student and a human, I thank you, Guardian, for your 2019 environmental pledge (It’s time to act, 17 October). Yours is a news outlet that many of my generation are sharing all over social media. You speak the truths we speak and believe in. We young people sometimes feel unheard and brushed away or simply ignored when we speak our minds. So thank you for pledging to use language that recognises the severity of the crisis we’re in; it is something that is rarely done. With the current fires surging through our precious lands, it is a time of stress, loss and sadness, and one that we are not accustomed to. We are angry. Listen to our generation more, hear our voices and follow our movements. We are the future, after all; one day everyone will have to listen, so why not start now.
Courtney Lucas
Tarragindi, Queensland, Australia

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Conservative policies since 2010 have been characterised by confusion and mixed messages

• Scientists and climate advisers condemn Tory record
• How do the parties propose to tackle the climate crisis?

Just after calling the general election, Boris Johnson’s government made two almost simultaneous policy announcements that encapsulated the longstanding contradictions of environmental policy over the past decade.

His decision to announce a moratorium on fracking – which the Labour party pointed out was a temporary commitment rather than a ban – made headlines and was heralded as a signal of green intentions, but the go-ahead for a new deep coalmine in Cumbria was slipped out to little fanfare.

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Party under pressure on climate crisis as Corbyn says Johnson can not be trusted

• The Tories’ green commitments
• The parties’ climate proposals

The Conservative party’s record on tackling the climate crisis was condemned by leading scientists and former government advisers on Sunday, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned that the forthcoming election was the last chance to halt the escalating emergency.

Experts accused the Conservatives of copying rightwing politicians in the US by deliberately weakening environmental protections. Meanwhile, new analysis by Labour reveals that environmental policies put forward since 2017 and opposed by the Tories would have led to emissions reductions of over 70m tonnes a year by 2030 – more than the annual emissions of Portugal.

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70 warnings issued as rivers Severn and Avon burst banks, but drier weather forecast

Large parts of Britain remain flooded and experts are warning the chaos could continue until Tuesday.

The Environment Agency (EA) had issued 70 flood warnings as of 6.49am on Sunday, meaning flooding was expected and immediate action was required.

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A diverse band of river communities, activists and academics are meeting in the heart of the rainforest to fight for the planet’s future

On the six-hour boat ride down the Iriri river to Manolito, there is almost no other traffic and only a handful of small homes. At its widest and calmest, the vast expanse of water is a flawless mirror of blue sky and green canopy. At its narrowest and roughest, the water churns around boulders eroded into the shapes of battlements and breaching whales. Parrots fly above the treetops. Fish feast on fallen blossoms. Kingfishers perch on riverside branches while herons await their prey on midstream rocks with their wings outstretched. White and yellow butterflies stumble across the river at remarkable speeds.

It is in this idyllic setting, deep inside the Amazon rainforest, that a nascent alliance of traditional communities, climate activists and academics is re-imagining what the world’s greatest forest was, what it can be and who can best defend it.

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Study finds seal and sea otter populations in Alaska hit by killer infection that migrated from North Atlantic

A potentially deadly disease affecting marine mammals, including seals and sea otters, has been passed from the North Atlantic Ocean to the northern Pacific thanks to the melting of the Arctic sea ice.

Experts have long been concerned that sea ice melting in the northern oceans, caused by global climate heating, could allow previously geographically limited diseases to be transmitted between the two oceans.

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Exclusive: Newly elected QFF head promoted tour by controversial scientist Peter Ridd and said reef regulation was based on ‘dodgy modelling’

The Queensland Farmers’ Federation’s newly elected president once called Great Barrier Reef science “unsubstantiated scaremongering”, which has prompted calls for the suspension of the organisation’s reef foundation grants.

The peak body for Queensland farmers, the QFF manages water quality improvement grants from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation totalling $4.6m – among the most awarded to a single organisation under a controversial $443m federal funding deal.

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Trees are the latest green battleground in the election campaign, writes BBC Science editor David Shukman.