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If policies promoting net zero emissions by 2050 are adopted 250,000 jobs would be created and $680bn added to the economy

Australia’s economy will be 6% smaller, there will be 880,000 fewer jobs and $3.4tn in economic opportunities will be lost if the climate crisis goes unchecked for next 50 years, new analysis shows.

On the other hand, the report by consultancy Deloitte Access Economics said policies consistent with a target of net zero emissions by 2050 and keeping global warming to 1.5C could expand the economy by 2.6%, or $680bn to the economy, and create 250,000 jobs.

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Germany’s RWE says outdated regulation is slowing investment in onshore electricity grid

Britain’s bid to build enough offshore windfarms to power every home in the country by 2030 risks being derailed by outdated regulation which is slowing investment in the electricity grid, according to one of the industry’s biggest players.

Germany’s RWE has warned that work to connect the growing number of windfarms off the UK coast to the onshore electricity grid will not keep pace with the government’s goals unless decades-old regulation allows for faster investments.

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With demand and share prices dropping, Europe’s fossil fuel producers recognise that peak oil is probably now behind them

A year ago, only the most ardent climate optimists believed that the world’s appetite for oil might reach its peak in the next decade. Today, a growing number of voices within the fossil fuel industry believe this milestone may have already been passed. While the global gaze has been on Covid-19 as it ripped through the world’s largest economies and most vulnerable people, the virus has quietly dealt a mortal blow to oil demand too.

Energy economists claim with increasing certainty that the world may never require as much oil as it did last year. Even as economies slowly emerge from the financial fallout of the pandemic, the shift towards cleaner energy has gained pace. A sharp plunge in fossil fuel use will be followed in quick succession by a renewable energy revolution, which will occur at unprecedented pace. The tipping point for oil demand may have come and gone, and major oil companies are taking note.

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Labour’s leader is one of millions who should realise that large 4x4s have no place on our cramped city streets

They’re big, they ooze status appeal and they carry with them an unmistakable sense of entitlement – even the driver’s elevated seating is called a “command” position. So is it any wonder that SUVs have transfixed motorists since they started to emerge in the US in the brash 1980s and self-serving 1990s?

Rugged off-roaders, built like tanks and boasting all the subtlety of a Donald Trump meet-and-greet, are hardly new to our roads. It was only a couple of years ago that Land Rover’s bestselling and much-cherished Defender celebrated its 70th birthday. But these are 4x4s that were built to do a proper job of work. A real 4x4 is a prodigious feat of automotive engineering that ensures you can drive into the teeth of the most inhospitable environment on the planet and stay warm, dry and safe.

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The bushfires and the plague are symptoms of something momentous unfolding on Earth – an acceleration of our impact on nature

• This is part of a series of essays by Australian writers responding to the challenges of 2020

What has been the most shocking event of 2020? Was it awakening on New Year’s Day to more news of terror in Australia’s southern forests, to the realisation that the future was suddenly here, that this spring and summer of relentless bushfire was a planetary event? Was it the silent transmission of Covid-19, already on the loose and soon to overwhelm the world and change the very fabric of daily life everywhere at once? Or was it the surging race riots and protests, especially across America, where police brutality triggered grief, anger and outrage about the inequality and injustice still faced by black people? Could we even distinguish them from each other, this overlapping sequence of horrors?

Related: The great unravelling: 'I never thought I’d live to see the horror of planetary collapse' | Joelle Gergis

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Purple patches across Australia are captured in this selection of shots from a ‘secret garden’ to Long Pocket

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Described as ‘gorgeous’ by the man who found it, the great fox-spider has not been seen since 1993

One of Britain’s largest spiders has been discovered on a Ministry of Defence training ground in Surrey having not been seen in the country for 27 years.

The great fox-spider is a night-time hunter, known for its speed and agility, as well as its eight black eyes which give it wraparound vision. The critically endangered spider was assumed extinct in Britain after last being spotted in 1993 on Hankley Common in Surrey. The two-inch-wide (5cm) arachnid had previously also been spotted at two sites in Morden Heath in Dorset. These are the only three areas in Britain, all in the comparatively warmer south, where it has been recorded.

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A full moon at Halloween is a rare event but this year it is a blue moon which is even more unusual.

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The Great Fox-Spider had not been seen since the early 1990s and was feared extinct in the UK.

The iPhone transformed mobile phones in just 10 years. Could green energy see a similar revolution?

Finite Carbon is seeking a Forest Carbon Analyst to support the development of Finite’s growing portfolio of forest offset projects. The candidate will join a team of 18 employees including 13 full-time foresters who provide unmatched technical expertise and implementation capabilities.

*PREMIUM LISTING (viewable by non-subscribers) - This position will provide supporting forest carbon analytics to monitor and grow the portfolio of forest offset projects by implementing, analyzing, and maintaining forest growth and yield modeling, carbon optimization modeling, and carbon data processing efforts.

*PREMIUM LISTING (viewable by non-subscribers) - Finite Carbon is seeking a Forest Carbon Operations Analyst to support the development of Finite’s growing portfolio of forest offset projects. This position will serve as a landowner/customer advocate assisting with technical support which could include product demonstration and training and/or one-on- one technical support.

*PREMIUM LISTING (viewable by non-subscribers) - Finite Carbon is seeking a forest inventory analyst to help build and maintain the inventory data pipeline for Finite Carbon’s online platform, CORE Carbon. The candidate will join a team of 18 employees including 13 full-time foresters who provide unmatched technical expertise and implementation capabilities.

*PREMIUM LISTING (viewable by non-subscribers) - Finite Carbon is seeking a Remote Sensing Analyst to support the development of Finite’s growing portfolio of forest offset projects. The candidate will join a team of 18 employees including 13 full-time foresters who provide unmatched technical expertise and implementation capabilities.

*PREMIUM LISTING (viewable by non-subscribers) - Finite Carbon is seeking a Director of Operations to coordinate Finite’s expansion to Canada and its forest offset development services. The candidate will join a team of 18 employees including 13 full-time foresters which provide unmatched technical expertise and implementation capabilities to support this expansion.

Speculators’ California Carbon Allowance (CCA) length rose across the week as prices dipped, while compliance entities kept their long position relatively stable, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Friday.

Entities regulated by California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) recorded a credit deficit of 124,100 tonnes during Q2, bucking some stakeholders’ expectations that a coronavirus-fuelled plunge in gasoline demand could yielded a surplus.

Tuesday’s US election is primed to have a significant impact on future national and global climate mitigation efforts, with former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump offering starkly different views on environmental policy and clean energy.