Around The Web

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

Compliance-oriented entities increased their RGGI allowance (RGA) holdings after the Northeast US ETS' first quarterly sale of 2020 and as the coronavirus pandemic caused prices to briefly crash on the secondary market, according to a report published Wednesday.

Nasa's Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are a week away from their flight to the space station.

How fast can an animal run? How intense was the fire? Picking which species to help after a bushfire tragedy is no easy task. John Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin University Dale Nimmo, Associate Professor in Ecology, Charles Sturt University Rachael Gallagher, Senior Lecturer/ARC DECRA Fellow, Macquarie University Sarah Legge, Professor, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) will stay tethered to the WCI floor price through the end of the year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic curtailing economic activity and emission output in the linked ETS, analysts said Wednesday.

UK businessman Sir Richard Branson is looking to Saturday to debut one of his new space systems.

Survey by Shenhua environmental consultant shows decline of 87% in koala numbers since 2012-13, as campaigners plead for impact of bushfires to weigh on mine conditions

Koalas on the site of the planned Shenhua Watermark coalmine in New South Wales are heading towards localised extinction “even before the mine commences”, according to company documents.

Meeting minutes for the mine’s koala technical working group say there has been a steep drop in koala populations at the mine site in the Liverpool Plains.

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Exclusive: The report does not consider alternatives to gas, or mention climate change and the financial risk of investing in fossil fuel as emissions are cut

Australian taxpayers should underwrite a massive expansion of the domestic gas industry – including helping open new fields and build hundreds of kilometres of pipelines – according to a group advising on Covid-19 recovery.

A leaked draft report by a manufacturing taskforce advising the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) recommends the Morrison government make sweeping changes to “create the market” for gas and build fossil fuel infrastructure that would operate for decades.

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Rapidly rising water overwhelmed dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan, where flooding struck communities along rain-swollen waterways and the governor said downtown could be 'under approximately nine feet of water' by Wednesday

• Michigan: thousands evacuated after 'catastrophic' dam failures

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Massachusetts electricity generators reduced emissions under the Global Warming Solution Act (GWSA) programme in 2019 as a result of milder weather and increased imports, but allowance prices still remained high due to illiquid conditions, a new report showed.

The European Commission will propose next year a new initiative to compensate farmers and foresters for CO2 emissions sequestration, opening the door to including market-based measures.

EUAs climbed 5% to top €21 early on Wednesday, further extending their May high as prices leapt once the market had absorbed Poland's large auction, the last sale for several days in a supply-starved holiday period.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has released a draft mechanism for clean energy consumption that would expand its power market reform, an announcement coming days before the annual National People’s Congress meets to address COVID-19 recovery and the next 5-year plan.

In the short term, the answer for North Queensland might be doing more of the same, but swapping the coal out for renewable energy and redeploying the coal work force.

The post Powering North Queensland: How to swap coal for renewables in LNP heartland appeared first on RenewEconomy.

New strategy to protect nature includes far-reaching habitat protections, and restrictions on pesticide use – but campaigners warn enforcement is key

The European Commission has committed to protecting 30% of the EU’s land and oceans by 2030 as part of the European Green Deal, in a plan tentatively welcomed by environment groups who warned far-reaching ambitions must not only exist “on paper”.

The 10-year plan, published on Wednesday, includes commitments to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50%, plant 3bn trees by 2030 and reverse the decline in pollinators. Within the 30% protected areas, a third of land and sea will be under “strict protection”, meaning there should be no human intervention besides minimal management to keep the area in good condition for wildlife.

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Doug Loverro steps down the week before the US's first crewed launch to orbit in almost a decade.

UK scientists create the first wide-area maps of microscopic algae growing in coastal Antarctica.

Under the leadership of William Perry Pendley, the Bureau of Land Management is failing to fulfill its most basic duties of safeguarding America’s public lands, his critics say

In July 2017, William Perry Pendley, a crusading conservative attorney, delivered a speech to a group of rightwing activists in North Carolina in which he was completely candid about his ideological commitments.

He accused “the media” of selling “their soul to the greens”. And after criticizing the Endangered Species Act, he made light of killing endangered species.

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US study identifies statistically significant trend in line with climate scientists’ predictions

Tropical cyclones have become more intense around the globe in the past four decades, with more destructive storms forming more often, according to a study that further confirms the theory that warming oceans would drive more dangerous cyclones.

Analysis of satellite records from 1979 to 2017 found a clear rise in the most destructive cyclones – also known as hurricanes or typhoons – that deliver sustained winds in excess of about 185km/h.

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India-based solar contracting giant lands contracts for Australia's biggest solar project.

The post Sterling and Wilson lands EPC contract for Australia’s biggest solar farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.