Around The Web

EU carbon prices tumbled to a two-week low on Thursday after buyers struggled to absorb extra auction supply and amid weakness in wider financial markets.

Our electricity market was never fit for purpose, and the barriers to fundamental change are challenging and deeply ingrained in energy culture.

The post Our energy market was never fit for purpose, because it was obsessed only with price appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Carbon Trust report finds floating wind capacity could increase to 10.7GW by 2030 and to 70GW by 2040, with as much as 3GW being installed annually between 2030 and 2040.

The post Floating wind farms to take centre stage with 70GW planned by 2040 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

‘Questions naturally arise’ about review’s independence, environmental group says

Environment groups are increasingly anxious and frustrated as they wait for the release of an interim report from a review of Australia’s national environmental laws.

The review’s chair, the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel, handed his report to the environment minister, Sussan Ley, almost three weeks ago.

Continue reading...

Germany aims to ensure EU nations agree by year-end on a collective 2030 emissions target of 55%, the country's economy minister told EU lawmakers on Thursday, a level representing the higher end of ambition currently under consideration.

Rising global temperatures could see summers that are too hot to work in.

British Columbia fuel suppliers will face a less stringent Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) benchmark in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the sector will still see the transportation programme’s emissions reduction target double by the end of the decade, the province’s Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources announced Wednesday.

Greta Thunberg has urged European leaders to take immediate action on the climate and ecological emergency in a letter she wrote together with some of the world’s leading scientists.

Thunberg said that the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis could not be addressed as one and the same. She said coronavirus was a ‘tragedy’ and had ‘no positive effects on the climate’

• Pandemic shows climate has never been treated as crisis, say scientists

Continue reading...

Energy experts and investors call for clean energy market reforms to be accelerated in an open letter before COAG energy ministers meeting.

The post Experts and investors call for Energy COAG to accelerate energy market reforms appeared first on RenewEconomy.

TransGrid to prepare plan for network investment and grid connections in newly announced New England Renewable Energy Zone with the aid of a $1m ARENA grant.

The post TransGrid plan to manage New England REZ grid connections receives ARENA backing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Biden’s $2tn green agriculture plan is ambitious but realistic. That’s important, because everything is riding on it

The world’s food supply is imperiled by a climate crisis already upon us, and Joe Biden this week put forward an agenda to address it that’s as bold as you could hope from a man who actually intends to get elected.

Related: Biden unveils $700bn 'buy American' proposal to revive US industry

Continue reading...

Solar Orbiter takes the closest ever pictures of the Sun, just 77 million km from the surface.

Members of the European Parliament’s environment committee are keeping pressure on EU leaders to use ETS funds to finance the EU’s seven-year budget ahead of a key summit on Friday.

So close... and yet so far. Three Tesla Model Y SUVs – not yet available to order in Australia or New Zealand – arrive in Auckland for reasons unknown.

The post Tesla Model Y electric crossover SUVs land in NZ. Is Australia next? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Our client is an international prestigious profit for purpose environmental and social impact company known worldwide for their role in helping organisations offset residual carbon emissions. A rare opportunity has arisen for an outstanding individual to head our client’s Portfolio Team.

Our client is a leading sustainability business looking to add a Sustainability consultant to its expanding team. Our client provides commercially focused sustainability strategy, reporting, risk management, and performance services to some of the UK’s largest organisations.

Letter also signed by Greta Thunberg urges EU leaders to act immediately on global heating

Greta Thunberg and some of the world’s leading climate scientists have written to EU leaders demanding they act immediately to avoid the worst impacts of the unfolding climate and ecological emergency.

The letter, which is being sent before a European council meeting starting on Friday, says the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that most leaders are able to act swiftly and decisively, but the same urgency had been missing in politicians’ response to the climate crisis.

Continue reading...

International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List changes ocean giants’ status to ‘critically endangered’

With their population still struggling to recover from over three centuries of whaling, the North Atlantic right whale is now just “one step from extinction”, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN last week moved the whale’s status on their Red List from “endangered” to “critically endangered” – the last stop before the species is considered extinct in the wild.

The status change reflects the fact that fewer than 250 mature individuals probably remain in a population of roughly 400. While grim, scientists and conservationists expressed hope that this move may help speed up protections for these dwindling giants.

Continue reading...

"Frankly, why should any hospital purchase coal-fired energy when it produces toxic air pollution that harms health?" Anthony Capon, Director, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University Arunima Malik, Lecturer in Sustainability, University of Sydney David Pencheon, Honorary Professor, Exeter UK / Adjunct Professor, Monash Sustainable Development Institute / Visiting Professor, Surrey UK Helga Weisz, Professor of Industrial Ecology and Climate Change, Humboldt University of Berlin Manfred Lenzen, Professor of Sustainability Research, School of Physics, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The NZ government will invest in solar, biomass and heat pump technology as well as electric vehicles as part of a "clean-powered public service" plan.

The post New Zealand turns to clean energy to cut government emissions appeared first on RenewEconomy.