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In a new poll, run in conjunction with BirdLife Australia, we want you to tell us your best-loved native bird

• Vote here for Australia’s bird of the year 2017

Birds. From the glorious king parrot to the much-maligned white ibis, Australians are passionate about them.

But is there one bird that reigns supreme in the hearts and minds of the public?

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From the promiscuous willy wagtail to the magnificent but slightly terrifying cassowary, Australia has an abundance of wonderful native birds. Vote here to determine the bird of the year 2017. A shortlist of 51 species has been selected – if your favourite is not included, you can add it. The poll is open until 9 December. You only get one vote – use it wisely.

• Photographs and descriptions courtesy Sean Dooley and BirdLife Australia.

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Report finds combination of wind power, smart controls and energy efficiency would cost $2.2bn over five years, while keeping Liddell coal plant open would cost $3.6bn.

COP23's “Talanoa dialogue" will put pressure on major economies – like Australia – to upgrade their commitments to limit global warming to "well below" 2°C.

Indigenous women hand paint religious crosses for sale around the world; endangered rock wallabies make a comeback in APY lands; we go in search of rock lobsters; and cook a carrot cake.

It's been a busy year for start up energy pioneer Energy Renaissance and it's latest appointment makes it clear things are ramping up. This week sees former head of UGL's national power business Mr. Mark Chilcote formally join as Managing Director.

Australia solar research leader Martin Green says solar heading to a price of 1c/kWh before 2020 after latest record auction result.

A clean energy package will have a zero pollution outcome compared with 40m tonnes under Coalition’s plan to extend the NSW plant, UTS modelling reveals

• Renewables could reliably contribute 50% to power grid, Finkel report finds

Replacing the Liddell coal power station with clean energy technologies would slash pollution and be at least $1.3bn cheaper than the Turnbull government’s plan to extend the life of the New South Wales plant by five years, a new analysis has found.

A second report released on Monday also found Australia has the potential to lead the world in developing large and home-scale energy storage systems if public uncertainty can be overcome.

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International Energy Agency likes to present itself as a climate champion, but it is in fact steering the energy system towards catastrophic levels of warming,

Australian health experts have written to all State and Territory leaders ahead of the COAG meeting this week, strongly urging them to reject the National Energy Guarantee, and establish national energy policies that will reduce the alarming rates of sickness and deaths across the nation.

20 November 1917 The few leaves which still remain upon the branches hang like soiled and tattered rags

The wonderful colouring of a few weeks ago has vanished, and the few leaves which still remain upon the branches hang like soiled and tattered rags; the litter below the trees is full of moisture, blackening with decay. For once the wood is positively untidy. Windfall boughs and twigs, green and red with fungoid growths, lie everywhere, the larger branches holding the withered leaves; the healthy, living tree is the first to shed its foliage. A red campion here and there and a few thistles are the only visible flowers; the latter are bravely open, though their stalks, wilting slightly, are without a single living leaf. The osiers stand a foot deep in water, for the ditches have overflowed, converting the withy bed into a lake from which the willows rise, many islands.

Related: Why we should celebrate winter woodland – not just the Christmas tree

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Emma Tristram says the legislation to protect ancient woodland may have the perverse effect of causing the most damaging option to be chosen

Thank you to Patrick Barkham for highlighting the destructive insanity of the Arundel bypass scheme (The road to rural oblivion, 14 November). He mentions ancient woodland and says it needs legal protection. Actually ancient woodland (ie, wooded since 1600) already has legal protection, and “compensation planting” is required – the ratio is decided by English Nature, but may be a multiple of seven or even up to 30 times the area taken.

The legislation to protect ancient woodland may have the perverse effect of causing the most damaging option to be chosen. Highways England has run a public consultation, which blatantly favours the route through Binsted woods, 100 hectares of superb quality semi-natural broadleaved woodland. The woods have been here since the Domesday Book – huge, mysterious, unmanaged, full of fallen trees that have regrown from horizontal, and an incredibly rich hotspot for rare wildlife. But some parts have had a cleared period in the last 400 years, so are not designated as ancient woodland.

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India's capital New Delhi has been plunged into smog, a year after suffering a similar crisis. Without an end to crop burning, the problems with smog will only continue. Vijay Koul, Honorary fellow, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A telegram obtained by Greenpeace shows that Greg Hands met a Brazilian minister to discuss relaxation of tax and environmental regulation

Britain successfully lobbied Brazil on behalf of BP and Shell to address the oil giants’ concerns over Brazilian taxation, environmental regulation and rules on using local firms, government documents reveal.

The UK’s trade minister travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo in March for a visit with a “heavy focus” on hydrocarbons, to help British energy, mining and water companies win business in Brazil.

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New Finkel report says energy storage important, and represents a huge opportunity for Australia, but there is no reason to panic. Even at 50% wind and solar the need for storage is modest, and much could come from households.

It was great news for fish and chips fans when North Sea cod was certified sustainable. Steady on though, there are still things to worry about at sea

Here’s a food truth: most Britons are happy to say “cod and chips, please” without even thinking about the sustainability impact of our favourite Friday night supper. Our love of white flaky fish has been a nightmare for fish campaigners. North Sea cod stocks plummeted from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to 44,000 tonnes in the early 2000s.

North Sea cod stocks plummeted from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to 44,000 tonnes in the early 2000s

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The Balkan country has the world's second highest death rate caused by air pollution.

Floods have been a deadly staple of 2017. But can you protect yourself against the natural disaster?

Crocodiles have entered the fray in the Queensland election campaign with fear of crocodile attacks being blamed for a drop in membership numbers at Surf Life Saving Clubs in Far North Queensland.

Remote Willis Island, in the middle of the Coral Sea, is home to colonies of seabirds, green sea turtle nests and four staff from the the Bureau of Meteorology