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Preventing pandemics could be more than 100 times cheaper than tackling their deadly effects.

Halting destruction of wild places could slow frequency of deadly outbreaks, say scientists

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The world is in an “era of pandemics” and unless the destruction of the natural world is halted they will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, kill more people and affect the global economy with more devastating impact than ever before, according to a report from some of the world’s leading scientists.

The emergence of diseases such as Covid-19, bird flu and HIV from animals was entirely driven by the razing of wild places for farming and the trade in wild species, which brought people into contact with the dangerous microbes, the experts said.

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Norway’s utility Statkraft has seen its ETS-covered gas power generation rise 39% over the first nine months of 2020 amid improved profitability, the company said in quarterly results on Thursday.

The European Commission’s work on reforming the bloc’s carbon market will put a strong emphasis on adding shipping and adjusting the MSR, according to documents the EU executive published on Thursday.

The phenomenon results in the large scale cooling of ocean surface temperature.

Climate crisis exacerbates extreme weather during natural events, say experts

La Niña climate event is under way, heralding a colder and stormier winter than usual across the northern hemisphere, but 2020 remains likely to be one of the warmest years on record.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has declared La Niña event – a cooling of surface ocean water along the Pacific coast of the South American tropics – to help governments and humanitarian agencies plan for extreme weather events around the world.

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Australia's foreign minister refuses to 'welcome' zero carbon pledges from Japan and South Korea, says Australia will not be influenced by other countries on carbon targets.

The post Foreign minister refuses to ‘welcome’ zero carbon pledges, as Australia goes it alone appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Removal of millions of tonnes of material from Goodwin Sands, the watery grave of hundreds of ships in the English Channel, would make a mockery of marine protection pledges, critics say

Six miles off the coast of Deal, in Kent, lies Goodwin Sands, a 10-mile sandbank known as the “ship swallower”. Seals bask there at low tide, belying its reputation as one of the most treacherous spots in the Channel and a graveyard for centuries-old shipwrecks, as well as downed aircraft from the second world war.

Now the site has become central to another battle, by conservationists and campaigners, to safeguard Britain’s seas from damaging activities and to hold the government to account on its “30 x 30” pledge to protect 30% of marine habitats by 2030.

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NSW environment minister says he does not support his federal counterpart, even though his government recommended environmental approval for quarry expansion

The New South Wales environment minister, Matt Kean, has said he is disappointed by the decision of his federal counterpart, Sussan Ley, to approve the expansion of a rock quarry in koala habitat in Port Stephens, despite the state government previously recommending environmental approval for the project.

The Brandy Hill quarry expansion will clear 52 hectares of koala habitat after it was approved this week by Ley, despite a high-profile grassroots campaign.

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Places hollowed out by deindustrialisation could be at the forefront of an environmental revolution

Here are two news stories which may not seem linked, and yet they are. The first: a letter written this week to the prime minister by the newly formed Northern Research Group. Representing 50 Conservative MPs in northern seats – including those wrested from Labour control after generations – they rightly point to how the pandemic “has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our own communities”, and express fear that the cost of the crisis “could be paid by the downgrading of the levelling-up agenda, and northern constituencies like ours will be left behind”.

Related: Investors and graduates flock to UK's burgeoning windfarms

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Southern right wales have been hunted to near extinction. Now their genome has been sequenced to help biologists track their recovery and understand the impacts of climate change, past and future. Emma Carroll, Rutherford Discovery Fellow, University of Auckland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Entire city dims its streetlights, enabling scientists to measure light pollution from space.

Nexport’s Luke Todd on plan to import four electric vehicle models from China’s BYD, and creating a platform for more EV makers to import directly into Australia.

The post The Driven Podcast: Direct imports to lift EV choice for Australian consumers appeared first on RenewEconomy.

China has set a net zero emissions target, which ultimately means the closure of the biggest coal fleet in the world. China coal expert Ryna Yiyun Cui from the University of Maryland explains how this might be done.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Can China wean itself off coal? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

BP CEO says the oil and gas supermajor will “probably” bid on offshore wind rounds in next six months, as part of pivot into renewables and hydrogen. 

The post BP hints at near future moves into offshore wind and hydrogen appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Last of 31 turbines completed at Tasmania’s 112MW Granville Harbour wind farm, a project that promises to deliver a one-third increase to state’s total wind power capacity.

The post Final turbine completed at Tasmania’s Granville Harbour wind farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Lao agriculture and forestry ministry is looking for a capacity building fund management consultant for its Forest Protection Fund.

ANZ invokes a frenzied response from Coalition ministers for suggesting its largest customers should probably start preparing for a transition to zero emissions.

The post Federal ministers urge boycott of major bank proposing climate risk in lending decisions appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Tesla is already the market leader in EVs, but it is beating the legacy car makers on revenue growth, margins and cash flow. And then there is software.

The post Can the world’s big legacy car makers catch up with Tesla? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

South Australia Liberal government unveils details of hydrogen plan, including new green hydrogen hubs that could support more than 12GW of new wind and solar capacity.

The post South Australia names hydrogen hubs to foster “epic” growth in wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.