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Recycling rates soar in Christchurch after council rewards the best households and confiscates bins of laggards

A recycling scheme in New Zealand modelled on rewards familiar to kindergarten children has seen tonnes of additional recycling head to the sorters every week, instead of landfill.

Following the coronavirus lockdown in March and April, Christchurch city council saw recycling rates plummet, with material from only 48% of recycling trucks able to be processed in June due to frequent contamination issues, the result of poor sorting by residents.

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Origin looks at huge green hydrogen project in Tasmania, using hydro and wind resources to produce both ammonia and hydrogen.

The post Origin looks at massive renewable hydrogen project in Tasmania appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Victoria commits nearly $800m to kick gas appliances out of homes, improve efficiency and fast-track roll out of household solar and battery storage.

The post Victoria fast-tracks rooftop solar and battery rollout, part of $800m energy savings package appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW government locks in $50 million in recoverable grants to accelerate the construction of new pumped-hydro energy storage projects across the state.

The post NSW budget delivers $50m to accelerate pumped hydro storage projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW's coal-heavy Hunter Region to be declared host of the next Renewable Energy Zone, as the Berejiklian works to legislate its energy transition strategy.

The post NSW to transform Hunter coal region into state’s next renewable energy zone appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Fossil fuels keep losing out in Europe, even as energy demand returns to normal.

The post Graph of the day: As EU demand recovers, zero carbon takes the lions share appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Victoria to spend $20 million to kick off three-year trial of electric and other zero emissions buses.

The post Victoria to spend $20 million on three-year trial for zero emissions bus fleet appeared first on RenewEconomy.

It was meant to be the year of gas, but a drumbeat of news has made it the fuel to forget.

The post From bridge fuel to background noise: Another blow for gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) values will rise off the WCI auction reserve price in the first half of the decade, with the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and COVID-19 pandemic playing a critical role in the linked cap-and-trade programme’s future supply-demand balance, a conference heard Monday.

Emitters slashed their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) position last week ahead of the Nov. 17 WCI auction and as prices increased on the secondary market, while speculators kept their holdings nearly unchanged, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Monday.

California’s cap-and-trade programme should play a central role in the state reaching its carbon neutrality goal, with more stringent CO2 allowance budgets necessary to hit this long-term abatement target, business group IETA said in a report published Monday.

The Quebec government on Monday announced that it will phase out the sale of gasoline-powered new vehicles on the same timeline as WCI partner California, as the province’s environment ministry handed out more than 4 mln additional V19 permits.

Traders anticipate the California-Quebec cap-and-trade auction on Tuesday will sell out after the last two consecutive sales went undersubscribed, with the current vintage price expected to settle at a discount to the secondary market.

Cleaner, safer cities are one good thing that could come out of the pandemic – if politicians hold their nerve

Some good can come of even the worst disaster. Amid all the suffering and difficulty of the pandemic, environmentally minded people spied a chance. Could the enforced immobility of life under Covid-19, the rediscovery of neighbourhood shops, parks and walks brought about by the closure of workplaces and schools, lead to a longer-term adjustment – a new car/life balance?

For decades, green thinkers and politicians have advocated for a less automobile-centric culture. Transport policy unites two big themes of environmental politics: the idea that many people need to be reconnected with local geographies, both physical and human; and opposition to pollution. This means greenhouse gases, of course, but also particulate matter and noise. An altered transport hierarchy, it has long been argued, is beneficial to health, since more walking and cycling means less obesity, respiratory illness and heart disease; reduced road traffic also means fewer injuries and deaths caused by collisions.

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It's high time the international shipping industry radically curbed its emissions. The industry must set a net-zero target and adopt a realistic plan to meet it. Christiaan De Beukelaer, Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Fern is looking for a Brussels-based Forest and climate campaigner to lead the NGO's work on forest biomass for energy.

Two Pacific Island nations urged the UN to advance carbon pricing plans for shipping on Monday, as nations were poised to endorse a global maritime deal that would allow the sector’s emissions to rise for another decade.

US biofuel credit (RIN) prices fell to a one-week low on Monday after EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler suggested credit values were “out of control” and as market participants wait for details on next year’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) biofuel quotas and pending compliance waiver applications.

Recent carbon neutrality and net zero pledges by some of the world’s most industrialised nations could render the EU’s proposed carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) "less" necessary, the European Commission’s climate chief said Monday.