Feed aggregator
South Korea’s net zero target adds to Australia’s carbon export woes as denial deepens
South Korea's new net zero adds to a drumbeat of death knells for Australia's coal exports
The post South Korea’s net zero target adds to Australia’s carbon export woes as denial deepens appeared first on RenewEconomy.
No emissions target would be worst option for Australian industry -report
Great Barrier Reef: Scientists find reef taller than Empire State Building
Official hints at early access to offsets in China ETS, reaffirms 2019-2020 obligation
UNSW ‘green’ thin-film solar researcher awarded PM’s prize for science
UNSW solar researcher takes out a PM’s prize for science, for work on sustainable thin film solar cells.
The post UNSW ‘green’ thin-film solar researcher awarded PM’s prize for science appeared first on RenewEconomy.
The world's banks must start to value nature and stop paying for its destruction
As a new report spells out how financial institutions contribute to biodiversity loss, the clamour is growing for a new approach
The scientific community has long been unequivocal about biodiversity destruction. Last month, the UN reported that the world had failed to meet fully any of the 2020 Aichi bioiversity targets that countries agreed with fanfare in 2010, even as it found that biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying.
This week’s Bankrolling Extinction report finds that financial institutions provide the capital that is funding over-exploitation of our lands and seas, putting biodiversity in freefall. Last year, the world’s 50 biggest banks provided $2.6tn (£1.9tn) in loans and other credit to sectors with a high impact on biodiversity, such as forestry and agriculture. Bank by bank, the report authors found a cavalier ignorance of – or indifference to – the implications, with the vast majority unaware of their impact on biodiversity.
Continue reading...Exclusive: livestock ships twice as likely to be lost as cargo vessels
Billion-dollar export trade puts lives of animals and crew at greater risk of ‘total loss’ through faulty design and inexperience
Ships carrying live animals are at least twice as likely to suffer a “total loss” from sinking or grounding as standard cargo vessels, the Guardian has found.
In the past year alone there have been two disasters involving animals in transit. Last November, at least 14,000 sheep drowned after the Queen Hind capsized en route to Saudi Arabia from Romania. And last month, Gulf Livestock 1, a carrier transporting almost 6,000 cattle, sank off the Japanese coast en route to China from New Zealand. Forty crew members remain missing and are presumed dead.
Continue reading...500m 'skyscraper' coral reef discovered off Cape York – video
Australian scientists have discovered a massive detached coral reef just off Cape York on the Great Barrier Reef that’s taller than the Empire State Building. The 500m high reef was discovered while a team from James Cook University were mapping the northern Great Barrier Reef seabed.
Continue reading...NSW environment minister urges end to 'pointless, backward-looking arguments' about climate action
Intervention by ‘economically rational Liberal’ comes as Anthony Albanese hedges on 2030 emissions targets
- Australian PM’s office omits net zero emissions from account of Morrison’s talk with Johnson
- Overwhelming majority believe Australia is already experiencing climate change
The New South Wales environment minister, the Liberal Matt Kean, has launched a clarion call for his party to represent “the forgotten people” who “don’t march down George Street” and “don’t have a platform on Sky News” but support meaningful action on climate change.
Borrowing “the forgotten people” from the Liberal party founder, Robert Menzies, Kean told a forum organised by the Australia Institute on Wednesday that the free market was driving an inexorable transition to low-emission energy sources but “politics and ideology” had been getting in the way of market forces.
Continue reading...Scientists discover 500 metre-tall skyscraper reef at Australia's Great Barrier Reef
The detached reef, taller than the Empire State Building, was discovered at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef off Cape York
Australian scientists have discovered a detached reef more than 500 metres high – taller than the Empire State Building – at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
The “blade-like” vertical reef about 130km off Cape York, Australia’s north-eastern tip, was found during a 3D seabed mapping exercise conducted from a ship owned by the Californian non-profit Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Continue reading...South Korea announces 2050 net zero emissions target
How high-cost foreign debt sunk an Australian lithium mining asset
The failure of a lithium mining company highlights why it's time Australia took a strategic interest via a Sovereign Wealth Fund for battery metal mining.
The post How high-cost foreign debt sunk an Australian lithium mining asset appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Matt Kean: Conservatives should embrace wind and solar, not fight it
Matt Kean delivers passionate rebuke of claims that his support for climate action and clean energy is inconsistent with conservative politics.
The post Matt Kean: Conservatives should embrace wind and solar, not fight it appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Huge Wambo wind and battery storage project gets planning approval
Cubico and REP get state planning approval for 500MW Wambo wind farm, to be built with a four-hour big battery in south-west Queensland.
The post Huge Wambo wind and battery storage project gets planning approval appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Super power: Here’s how to get to 100pct wind, solar and storage by 2030
Deep disruption: New report from futurist Tony Seba and RethinkX says transition to 100pct renewables possible by 2030, and the "super" surplus of wind and solar can be used to power transport and industry.
The post Super power: Here’s how to get to 100pct wind, solar and storage by 2030 appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Fish that eat microplastics take more risks and die younger, study shows
Joint study conducted finds that fish fed a diet including plastic were more likely to be eaten themselves
Microplastics can alter the behaviour of fish, with those that ingest the pollutants likely to be bolder, more active and swim in risky areas where they die en masse, according to a new study.
The survival risk posed by microplastics is also exacerbated by degrading coral reefs, as dying corals make particularly younger fish more desperate to find nutrition and shelter, and to venture into waters where they are more likely to be taken by predators themselves.
Continue reading...Australia’s surging industrial emissions the ‘elephant in the room’, Reputex says
Lacklustre climate policies will see Australia's industrial emissions surge for at least the next decade, analysts Reputex have warned.
The post Australia’s surging industrial emissions the ‘elephant in the room’, Reputex says appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Banks lent £1.9tn linked to ecosystem and wildlife destruction in 2019 – report
Lack of policies regulating impact on natural world means finance industry effectively bankrolling biodiversity loss, analysis finds
The world’s largest investment banks provided more than $2.6tn (£1.9tn) of financing linked to the destruction of ecosystems and wildlife last year, according to a new report.
Led by Wall Street giants Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, 50 top investment banks provided financial services to sectors driving mass extinctions and biodiversity loss worth more than the GDP of Canada in 2019, the analysis found.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern to get all-electric Audi e-tron to replace diesel fleet car
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern to ride in clean and green Audi-e-tron electric car, replacing government’s standard diesel BMW 7 series vehicles.
The post Jacinda Ardern to get all-electric Audi e-tron to replace diesel fleet car appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Aussie tech company to develop flexible “self-charging” battery
Australian tech company works with CSIRO and UNSW to develop flexible self-charging battery which creates electricity from humidity in air or on skin.
The post Aussie tech company to develop flexible “self-charging” battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Pages
