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As another Australian journalist wades into the nuclear culture wars – this time spruiking small modular reactors – it's a good time for a fact-check on this fabled technology.

The post Small modular reactors and the nuclear culture wars appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Conservation research shows humans are ‘loving the dolphins too much’ in Bay of Islands region

The New Zealand government has banned tourists from swimming with bottlenose dolphins in an attempt to save the struggling species.

According to the department of conservation [DoC] research has shown that humans were “loving the dolphins too much” and human interaction was “having a signifiant impact on the population’s resting and feeding behaviour”.

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The conference program for All-Energy Australia, the leading Australian clean and renewable energy event, has been announced for 2019, with over 200 speakers across two days.

The post Australia’s leading clean energy & renewables event announces 2019 conference line-up appeared first on RenewEconomy.

There is undoubtedly a great need for climate science research to be communicated to the public in a manner that is clear, compelling and that cannot readily be captured, let alone dismissed, by partisan politics. Andrew Pitman joins us to discuss whether climate research can be communicated without pandering to the epistemological and political deficiencies of our time.

Victoria Labor government yields to calls to fix troubled rooftop solar rebate, with raft of changes including almost tripling number of applications open for September.

The post Victoria government triples number of home solar rebates for September appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Forecast blackout threats for this coming summer in Victoria could be avoided with a highly targeted, aggressive demand reduction air conditioning upgrade program.

The post Smart use of air-conditioners can avoid blackouts this summer appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Plastic carrier bags were made illegal, so how has the government enforced the ban?

If you rule out everything made by fire, we would not be left with much of an economy at all.

Japanese conglomerate backs solar utility BBOXX to expand service in south Asia and Africa

A British energy firm lighting up homes in Africa with pay-as-you-go solar power has secured £40m to extend its reach to Asia with the help of Japan’s Mitsubishi.

The conglomerate has taken a stake in off-grid solar company BBOXX through the start-up’s latest funding round, which will power the Africa-focused company deeper into Asia.

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The Coalition is deliberately white-anting Australia's electricity governance, and the result will likely be a slower transition, and an increased risk of blackouts.

The post Federal Coalition is white-anting Australia’s electricity governance appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

A standoff over sacred trees in Victoria could derail an ongoing treaty process. RN Breakfast speaks with former Greens MP Lidia Thorpe and Vic Transport Minister Jacinta Allan.

Connecticut sent its revised RGGI regulation to install numerous post-2020 changes to a legislative committee on Monday after the state’s Attorney General’s office found the proposal legally sufficient, a state official confirmed to Carbon Pulse.

The French President has hit back at the Brazilian President for mocking Mr Macron's wife, following a dispute over Mr Bolsonaro's alleged role in the Amazon fires.

The NSW Government is warning of "a potential fish Armageddon", saying low rainfall and high temperatures could make this year's carnage even worse than last summer's.

In Korea they are eaten steamed, but in Britain, where they arrived in 1952, they are seen as a menace

Seaside trippers gazing into harbours over the bank holiday might have wondered about the rather ugly creatures, about 16cm long, commonly seen attached to rocks, ropes and the hulls of boats. This is an invasive species known as the leathery sea squirt, Styela clava.

Styela clava arrived in Southampton in 1952 on the hulls of warships returning from the Korean war and from there, they spread around the UK’s coasts.

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Traditional market transactions ignore the costs of greenhouse gas emissions. An emissions trading scheme is a tool to put a price on emissions and to influence us to choose lower-emission options. Catherine Leining, Policy Fellow, Climate Change, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The California-Quebec current vintage auction settlement dipped from the WCI programme’s all-time high in May as entities sought additional discounts from lower secondary market prices this summer, results showed Tuesday.

Open letter calls for changes to policies sector says threatens to hold green economy back

Boris Johnson’s support for Britain’s “world leading” battery sector risks being undermined by government policy, according to the industry.

A coalition of trade groups and technology firms have written an open letter to the Guardian that calls for urgent changes to policies they say threaten to hold the sector back.

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We grow things, invest, make decisions today to benefit the future. But has the climate emergency put an end to that?

There is an apple in my imagination, a memory. I can still picture the first moment I saw it in the scorching dusk, the first fruit of a tree my partner and I had planted just two years before. The sapling had taken root in the loamy clay of our garden and grown upwards over two hot summers and two dry winters. Now, it was bearing fruit, not yet ripe, and rough to the touch, but an apple nonetheless. The first of many.

We had planted the tree for the children we didn’t yet have, knowing it could come to bear fruit as they grew. It was an investment in our environment for the good of our children, an investment in their future, but we found that apple among the stones of the garden bed not long after. It had fallen, burned on the branch, scorched on one side.

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