Around The Web

Land clearing, deforestation, emissions, drought and warming oceans are all worsening the attack on Australia’s threatened species

• Read more of our coverage of the issues in Our wide brown land series

Australia’s biodiversity is in trouble. The UN global assessment report painted a stark picture: the decline of the world’s natural support systems means that human society is in danger. According to the report, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 million years. More than a million species are at risk of extinction, natural ecosystems have declined by about 47% and the biomass of wild mammals has fallen by 82%. All of this is largely because of human activity. And the resulting impacts are likely to worsen unless we take action immediately.

As Guardian Australia has reported, Australia’s natural support systems are at breaking point. Increased land-clearing, warming oceans and a drought exacerbated by climate change are taking their toll on our biodiversity. The country is already experiencing rising oceans, marine heatwaves, longer fire seasons and extreme heat patterns. These are consistent with a changing climate.

Continue reading...

Monash University team says it makes "critical" progress on the path to industrial production of green hydrogen fuel by water electrolysis.

The post Scientists edge closer to stable, cheap green hydrogen production appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Local Government Super has a carbon neutral certified property portfolio

How Australia's solar projects have cannibalised their own market by grouping together and causing congestion in the local grid.

The post How the big solar boom saw major PV projects eat their own market appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 16 May 2019 until 17 June 2019.

The public consultation period for assessment for ongoing export accreditation will be open from 16 May 2019 until 17 June 2019.

Tesla big battery at Hornsdale lifts revenues by 20 per cent in first quarter, inspiring owners Neoen to search for more storage opportunities.

The post Tesla big battery lifts revenues 20% in first quarter, Neoen eyes more storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The influx of speculators into the California Carbon Allowance (CCA) market over the past several months will tighten the amount of available permit supply and raise prices going forward, though little change to the WCI programme’s emissions profile is expected, analysts said Tuesday.

This man is growing vegetables in the most northerly major human settlement on Earth.

The US Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal from several fossil fuel and business trade groups that challenged that the Oregon Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) illegally regulates interstate commerce, thereby allowing the state’s low-carbon fuel standard to withstand another legal test.

EU carbon allowances are expected to remain volatile for the rest of the year, analysts said, with prices seen ending 2019 within a wide range that is mostly well above current levels.

Australia hasn’t done much planning to prepare for the shift away from coal. But it’s not too late to learn from international experiences. Chris Briggs, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Elsa Dominish, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Franziska Mey, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Scalloped hammerheads were at the Nausicaá aquarium in the French port of Boulogne, near Calais

Thirty hammerhead sharks captured on the Great Barrier Reef and exported to a French aquarium over an eight-year period have all died in captivity and the federal government says it knows nothing about it.

The deaths, which are the subject of legal action by Sea Shepherd France, could put a spotlight on the trade of threatened sharks caught in Australian waters because of a federal law that allows them to continue to be commercially fished.

Continue reading...

EUAs surged by more than a euro in the final three hours of trade on Tuesday, reversing the previous day’s rapid afternoon loss as a stronger auction and supportive energy prices muted any selling.

California Carbon Allowances (CCA) are expected to clear underneath secondary market levels at Tuesday's WCI auction despite the recent price surge, as compliance entities seek out discounts at the quarterly sale.

Albert Beale says Britain needn’t be in the EU to make environmental progress, Darian McBain says seafood companies are helping to establish regulations, Michael Williams outlines the progress made by fisheries and conservation authorities, and Ursula Holden highlights the Mothers Rise Up climate march

Jonathan Freedland (The secret to stopping Brexit: keep it simple, 11 May) refers to the urgency of climate change and points out, correctly, that this situation “cries out for cooperation with our neighbours”. But his logic is adrift when he links this with his wish for continued British membership of the EU.

Firstly, such cooperation could happen via one of the other Europe-wide bodies of which the UK is a member, or via an intergovernmental group specific to that problem; there is no need for it to happen through the EU specifically or any such top-down supranational body.

Continue reading...

MPs should take inspiration from President Kennedy’s call in 1961 to put a man on the moon within a decade, says Colin Hines. Plus letters from John Stone and Paul Atkin

Your editorial (13 May) correctly states that Britain needs a Green New Deal now, and indeed in your letters page last autumn (10 September) our report detailing what form such a “jobs in every constituency” Green New Deal could take, and how to pay for it, was supported by a cross-party group of MPs, NGO leaders and academics. Since then the idea has gained international traction thanks to the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the support of grassroots movements. The US approach also includes the need to improve economic security for the majority, which has widened its support base. Finally, the scientific data underscoring the need to act in the next 10 years to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss has resulted in unprecedented activist pressure on politicians to respond.

As a result, all opposition parties are calling for the declaration of a climate emergency, but the government’s actual policies – from fracking to the rollback of support for renewables and energy efficiency – are making things worse. Yet all is not lost. At the end of last year more than 60 Tory MPs signed an all-party letter calling on the prime minister to back a net zero-emissions target ahead of 2050. Clearly the disconnect here is the lack of necessary political will. MPs should take inspiration from President Kennedy’s call in 1961 to put a man on the moon within a decade, but this time the priority must be to save the planet, rather than leave it.
Colin Hines
Convener, UK Green New Deal Group

Continue reading...

The boss of Skanska tells 5 Live that companies only calculate carbon emissions.

Listen to the audio book version of the Australian Children's book 'When Water Lost Her Way' by Meg Humphrys.