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The vast majority of Australian banks and superannuation funds have yet to set nature-related targets, and only a small minority of them plan to do so, according to a survey released Monday carried out by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).

Major coal and gas outages - despite its capacity markets - has forced AEMO in a first-of-its-kind callout for more demand management in W.A.

The post Coal and gas capacity failures force operator to turn to industrial loads to manage supply appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A group of global institutional investors launched the Nature Action 100 (NA100) at the UN’s COP15 biodiversity negotiations on Sunday, calling on the financial sector to help address nature loss through engagement and decision making which incorporates portfolio companies’ impact on biodiversity.

Breed matters. But dogs are mostly what we make of them, and they repay the effort we put into their behaviour tenfold. Melissa Starling, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

After a 26-day flight around the Moon, Nasa's future astronaut ship parachutes into the Pacific.

But if implemented poorly, it could exacerbate existing problems

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It doesn’t get the attention other issues do, but fixing Australia’s broken environment protection system deserves a place high on a list of the biggest challenges facing the Albanese government.

Last week we got the first substantial look at where the government may be headed. Perhaps not surprisingly, it raised more questions than it answered.

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Moon’s crossing of the Pacific is stark reminder of growing dangers for whales along Canada’s east coast

Over the course of nearly three months, navigating ocean swells and currents, vast expanses of flat water and immense pain, Moon the humpback whale completed a journey of 5,000km (3,100 miles) from the waters of British Columbia to Hawaii – all with a broken back.

Her crossing of the Pacific – and the likelihood that she will soon die – is a stark reminder of the growing dangers for whales along Canada’s east coast, as marine traffic clashes with the gentle marine giants.

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Fishing gear used by Maine lobstermen is killing right whales. Will boosting a $1bn industry trump protecting an endangered species?

President Macron of France may not have realised it, but he walked into another fishing war earlier this month when he and 200 other guests were treated at the White House to butter-poached Maine lobster accented with American Osetra caviar and garnished with celery crisp.

At issue was the lobster, currently subject to a court ruling designed to prevent Maine’s lobstermen from trapping the crustacea in baited pots marked by lines that can fatally entangle feeding North Atlantic right whales. There are now just 340 such whales, with only about 100 breeding females, making the species one of the most endangered on the planet.

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‘Red wall credentials’ suspected at Westminster as real reason for approval by Michael Gove

Senior steel industry figures have rejected claims that their demand for coal has driven the government’s divisive decision to sanction the first new UK coalmine for 30 years.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove’s decision to approve the mine at Whitehaven in Cumbria last week has already faced a backlash in the UK and beyond, with John Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, warning he was closely examining the decision.

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NSW formally declares new Hunter renewable zone that has already attracted interest from seven offshore wind projects and 35 big battery proposals.

The post NSW declares first renewable energy zone with offshore wind in plan to replace coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Lascar volcano, in the north, sends a plume of volcanic ash and hot gases 6,000m into the sky.

Delegates met for the fourth day of official negotiations at the UN COP15 biodiversity talks on Saturday, where the pace of progress is accelerating to agree the text that will form the post-2020 global agreement – but only if "progress" is measured in “bracket count", according to some groups of observers.

A new tool that tracks and rates $31 trillion in global financial flows for their biodiversity impact was launched on the sidelines of the UN's COP15 biodiversity summit on Saturday, touted as a first step for broad-based financial realignment towards nature-positive outcomes.

Every year well-meaning adults tell school students their results don’t matter. I’m taking the longer view …

When I got my VCE results almost one hundred years ago (in 2000), I had two goals: to be imminently drunk, and to do something that would become a “real job”. As the eldest child of university graduates and impressive overachievers, there was no question in my mind of doing anything silly like “something I loved” or “following my dream”.

I wanted to be a writer. Of course I did; I had been writing about my feelings since I was little, and English was the only subject that gave me anything resembling academic pleasure. But writing was, as far as I knew, a pretend job. A good way to spend every month scrounging for coins between couch cushions to put food on the table.

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Justifying approvals of a new coal mine with the promise of CCS is like smoking cigarettes and gambling that a cure for cancer will exist by the time you need it.

The post Empty promises of carbon capture usher through decades more coal from the UK appeared first on RenewEconomy.

US climate envoy says he will publicly criticise UK’s approval of Cumbrian mine if it adds to emissions

John Kerry, the US climate official, has said he is closely examining the UK government’s approval of a new coalmine, over concerns that it will raise greenhouse gas emissions and send the wrong signal to developing countries.

Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, said he was taking a close interest in the mine, the first to get the go-ahead in the UK for 30 years, and that he would speak out publicly against the approval if it did not meet strict criteria.

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High court will rule next week on challenge brought by Alexander Darwall to remove right to wild camp on moor

Wild campers are planning to hold protests against a landowner’s attempts to outlaw sleeping under the stars on Dartmoor.

Rallies attended by those who camp, and those who support the right to, will take place on Dartmoor on Saturday and outside the high court in London on Monday to express fierce public opposition to an attempt to legally overturn the right to camp in Dartmoor national park.

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Experts describe it as a ‘beautiful endemic rainforest species’, one of several that have not been seen for decades

• Marine life hit by ‘perfect storm’ as red list reveals species close to extinction
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The mountain mist frog, a species once found across two-thirds of Australia’s wet tropics, has been declared extinct on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.

The last recorded sighting of the frog, most commonly found near Thornton Peak, north-west of Cairns, was in April 1990. It is believed to have been wiped out by chytrid fungus, a disease that attacks the skin and has destroyed amphibian populations across the globe, though a reduction in its natural habitat due to rising temperatures driven by greenhouse gas emissions may have also played a role.

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While scientists agree on the dire state of life on Earth, they don't always agree on how we should describe it.