Around The Web

The UN released this week data on GHG emissions from forestry for Indonesia in 2018-20, reporting that the forest-rich Southeast Asian nation had been able to achieve annual average GHG emissions savings in that sector of nearly 200 million MtCO2e for the three-year period.

The global palm oil industry should contribute to the recovery of past harm made in oil palm-rich landscapes, regenerating nearly 1 million hectares (ha) of forest, according to a non-profit report released on Wednesday.

New National Reconstruction Fund to allocate up to $3 billion to support manufacturing of wind, solar, battery and hydrogen components in Australia.

The post Can Australia make solar panels? Renewable manufacturing to share $3bn in new funding appeared first on RenewEconomy.

One of Japan’s biggest power companies is considering capturing and shipping up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 annually to be stored at a floating CCS hub off the coast of Australia.

The New Zealand government has announced it will bring all “scientifically robust” forms of carbon sequestration, including native forestry, into its emissions trading scheme from 2025, in a bid to placate the agriculture sector.

With digital bioacoustics, scientists can eavesdrop on the natural world – and they’re learning some astonishing things

Scientists have recently made some remarkable discoveries about non-human sounds. With the aid of digital bioacoustics – tiny, portable digital recorders similar to those found in your smartphone – researchers are documenting the universal importance of sound to life on Earth.

By placing these digital microphones all over Earth, from the depths of the ocean to the Arctic and the Amazon, scientists are discovering the hidden sounds of nature, many of which occur at ultrasonic or infrasonic frequencies, above or below human hearing range. Non-humans are in continuous conversation, much of which the naked human ear cannot hear. But digital bioacoustics helps us hear these sounds, by functioning as a planetary-scale hearing aid and enabling humans to record nature’s sounds beyond the limits of our sensory capacities. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers are now decoding complex communication in other species.

Continue reading...

Nestle has partnered with a New Zealand dairy farming company to develop a commercially viable net zero carbon emissions dairy farm by 2032, as the wider dairy sector has urged the government to ditch its proposed split-gas farm-level GHG pricing scheme.

Woodside secures traditional landowner agreement for first 50MW solar farm in Pilbara, with up to 500MW planned depending on customer demand.

The post Woodside secures landowners agreement for first 50MW solar project in Pilbara appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A submersible off the coast of Western Australia chanced upon an 45-metre-long deep-sea siphonophore arranged in a feeding spiral, trailing its deadly tentacles

In 2020, about 600 metres (2,000ft) down in an underwater canyon off the coast of Western Australia, scientists encountered a long gelatinous creature suspended in a giant spiral. “It was like a rope on the horizon. You couldn’t miss it,” says Nerida Wilson from the Western Australian Museum. “It was so huge.”

It was a deep-sea siphonophore, a relative of the portuguese man o’ war, or blue bottles, that bob like party balloons on the sea surface, trailing deadly tentacles through the water. This one was probably a new species from the genus Apolemia, a group that generally look like tangled feather boas.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Fatih Birol says claims that limit is dead are ‘factually incorrect and politically very wrong’

The world can still limit global heating to 1.5C, and to claim that the target is now out of reach is to play into the hands of fossil fuel proponents, the world’s leading energy economist has warned.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, the global authority on energy, slammed scientists and activists who have claimed that the recent Cop27 UN climate summit killed off hopes for the crucial 1.5C limit.

Continue reading...

Fossil fuels, fisheries and farming: the world’s most destructive industries are protected – and subsidised – by governments

In every conflict over the living world, something is being protected. And most of the time, it’s the wrong thing.

The world’s most destructive industries are fiercely protected by governments. The three sectors that appear to be most responsible for the collapse of ecosystems and erasure of wildlife are fossil fuels, fisheries and farming. In 2021, governments directly subsidised oil and gas production to the tune of $64bn (£53bn), and spent a further $531bn (£443bn) on keeping fossil fuel prices low. The latest figures for fisheries, from 2018, suggest that global subsidies for the sector amount to $35bn a year, over 80% of which go to large-scale industrial fishing. Most are paid to “enhance capacity”: in other words to help the industry, as marine ecosystems collapse, catch more fish.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

Rio Tinto kick starts $3 billion renewable plan in Pilbara with two 100MW solar farms and 200MWh of battery storage.

The post Rio Tinto plans another two large solar farms and 200MWh battery storage in Pilbara appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Australian government has introduced legislation to parliament that would create Safeguard Mechanism Credits (SMCs), designed to reward regulated facilities that stay below their emissions baselines.

Two new guides aim to help renewables projects avoid the mistakes of the fossil fuel past and get the best outcomes for First Nations communities.

The post First Nations Clean Energy Network: How renewables can avoid the mistakes of the past appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A pathway exists for the world to get on track to less than 2C of global warming, but this will require determined action from both governments and the private sector to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon global economy with a significant ramp-up of investment, a report released on Wednesday has found.

Wind and solar must account for 75 per cent of global electricity generation if the world has any chance of capping global warming below 2°C, new report says.

The post Wind and solar only hope if world is to cap global warming at 1.77°C appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The 227MW Collector wind farm has celebrated its official opening in the New South Wales Tablelands. Local MP Angus Taylor did not attend.

The post Huge wind farm that Angus Taylor rejected marks its official opening appeared first on RenewEconomy.

New bill creates credits under the Safeguards Mechanism, but the devil will be in the design, which could pose problems for getting the legislation passed.

The post Safeguard credits bill lands in parliament, but devil will be in design and baseline appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia must start planning now to ensure it can meet the huge labour and skills needs of its ambitious plans for renewables and green hydrogen projects.

The post Australia faces critical skill shortages for wind, solar, storage and hydrogen projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

We hear a lot about how humans eating meat is bad for the planet. But if every animal only ate plants, Earth would look dramatically different. Mitchell G. Nye-Wood, Research Fellow, Edith Cowan University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.