Feed aggregator

Two former prime ministers, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, write the world shouldn’t give up hope on Australia just yet

It was always expected that Joe Biden’s election would be a massive shot in the arm for international climate action, but the scale of that boost has been genuinely surprising.

The new president has now invited 40 world leaders to a virtual climate change summit coinciding with Earth Day this Thursday. China’s Xi Jinping will be there, following productive face-to-face talks last week between Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in Shanghai. Even Vladimir Putin is attending, despite divisions between Washington and the Russian leader over new sanctions.

Continue reading...

Treasury review will help determine whether UK meets climate goals, and experts say radical change is required

The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must radically overhaul the Treasury’s response to the climate crisis, reforming the department’s longstanding hostility to green spending and resetting its priorities, experts said.

The Treasury is poised to introduce its long-awaited review of the government’s net zero strategy, and its recommendations will help determine whether the UK meets stringent targets on greenhouse gas emissions in the next 15 years.

Continue reading...

If the EU’s carbon market is to be expanded to road transport and buildings, it would take the shape of an “adjacent system, maybe with linkages” to the existing ETS that would be increased over time, a senior European Commission official said Tuesday.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit prices fell back towards a year-low this week on thin demand, while more US fuel providers announced plans to build a renewable diesel (RD) plant that could supply the transportation sector programme.

Analysts at Refinitiv have upped their forecast for EUA prices this year as greater climate ambition at EU level, rising investor interest in the ETS, and other factors combine to translate into more demand for allowances.

The International Space Station is nearing the end of its life and Russia is working on a new module.

Scientists found remains of the sauropod in rocks from what is today the Atacama desert.

The discovery in the Cairngorms is only the eighth time a cow wheat shieldbug has been recorded in Scotland.

New Zealand’s environment ministry on Tuesday launched its annual consultation on settings in its emissions trading scheme, and included proposals from the independent Climate Change Commission (CCC) that would see major increases in the price floor and ceiling at NZU auctions.

The EU carbon market’s supply-adjusting MSR intake rate would need to at least be maintained at its current 24% or even increased if the 27-nation bloc is to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, an NGO-commissioned report released Tuesday found.

Many psychologists say they feel unequipped to handle a growing number of patients despairing over the state of the planet. A new contingent of mental health professionals aims to fix that

Andrew Bryant, a therapist based in Tacoma, Washington, felt helpless the first time climate change came up in his office. It was 2016, and a client was agonizing over whether to have a baby. His partner wanted one, but the young man couldn’t stop envisioning this hypothetical child growing up in an apocalyptic, climate-changed world.

Related: ‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to confront the climate crisis?

Continue reading...

Every job lost to Covid pandemic could be replaced in upcoming recovery years, Green New Deal UK finds

A stimulus programme focused on green and digital infrastructure, research and development, energy and care work could create more than 1.2m jobs within two years and more than 2.7m jobs during the next decade, according to research.

Such a strategy alongside additional government investment could mean every job lost to the coronavirus pandemic would be replaced during vital upcoming recovery years, a report by Green New Deal UK non-profit group has found.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson needs a coherent approach to meeting green targets that goes beyond Cop26

It’s been a rollercoaster couple of years for anyone interested in the future of the planet. From thinking we’d forever shout from the sidelines at politicians who’d never listen, to 4 million of us, spurred on by schoolchildren, taking to the streets across the world to demand climate action. Then a pandemic that has reminded us how fragile and interwoven with nature our global communal life can be. And now to a government that has pledged to “build back greener” – putting the climate crisis front and centre of its story. But how far should we trust Boris Johnson’s ambitions for Cop26, dubbed the “green games”, this year? Well, in this case, it’s the raw data we should look to – and it tells a deeply alarming story.

Green Alliance’s latest tracker of government climate policy shows that, following a decade of hard-won carbon reductions (which should rightly be celebrated), unless there’s a serious step-change in climate action, the UK’s emissions may start to creep up again. It takes time for policy to take effect and, even on a generous reading of recent government initiatives, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions will still be nearly 40% higher in 2030 than where we need them to be to give us the best chance of meeting the legally binding 2050 net-zero target. In essence, the data shows that the UK has been coasting for a while, living off the benefits of its highly successful decision in 2015 to kick coal off the electricity grid. But power is just one of many sectors that make up the loud thrum of the country’s economy, all with climate impacts. Every policy to a degree now will be shaped by concerns around climate change, and the hard truth is that the prime minister needs the unreserved support of all his cabinet colleagues to meet his green ambitions.

Continue reading...

This year should see the second-biggest-ever rise in CO2 emissions as economies rebound from Covid.

Albanese says the opportunities created through action on climate change would have a wide-reaching benefit for the Australian economy.

The post Albanese promises “clean energy jobs revolution” in rebuke of Morrison cafe jibe appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Global economies forecast to pour stimulus money into fossil fuels as part of Covid recovery

Carbon dioxide emissions are forecast to jump this year by the second biggest annual rise in history, as global economies pour stimulus cash into fossil fuels in the recovery from the Covid-19 recession.

The leap will be second only to the massive rebound 10 years ago after the financial crisis, and will put climate hopes out of reach unless governments act quickly, the International Energy Agency has warned.

Continue reading...

During the European Middle Ages, parts of the world experienced warming similar to that between 1960 to 1990. But the rising temperatures we're observing now are global and exceed the past record. Frédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

We talk to RACQ head of policy Rebecca Michael about the electric vehicle transition in Queensland.

The post The Driven Podcast: The Sunshine state’s plan to go electric appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The latest IRENA data shows that Australia is in the number two spot of new renewables per person and number one spot for installed solar PV.

The post Solar and wind are leading fastest energy transition the world has seen appeared first on RenewEconomy.

UK and Norwegian companies to build first huge "solid sails" that could slash fossil fuel consumption in the shipping industry by nearly a third.

The post Huge solid sails could cut fossil fuel use by 30 per cent for shipping industry appeared first on RenewEconomy.