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Limits on output of wind and solar to be relaxed as the first of a fleet of spinning machines called synchronous condensers join the grid.

The post Wind and solar to get taste of freedom as new syncons join the grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

If the PM’s climate spokesperson is in no rush to go electric, then why should we bother?

‘I don’t fancy it just yet,” said Allegra Stratton, the No 10 press secretary turned prime minister’s climate spokesperson, when she was asked about getting an electric car. She preferred her old diesel, thank you.

If this was merely the most memorable in a series of suboptimal comments from the person hired to communicate the urgency of Cop26, the climate summit, you couldn’t fault it as a summary of Boris Johnson’s position on decisive climate action. He doesn’t fancy it just yet.

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The sculpture, to be unveiled next month, will celebrate the courageous contribution of pit workers to our industrial heritage

They toiled far underground in dark, cramped and dangerous conditions, emerging at the end of their shifts caked in coal dust and often gasping for air.

Towns grew up around the collieries; boys followed their fathers and grandfathers down the pit. In the 19th century, women and children were among the nation’s coal workers. But by the end of the 20th century, miners had mostly been consigned to the post-industrial scrap heap as pit after pit shut down.

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Despite his warning, the Tory climate chief does not rule out future fossil fuel projects in the UK.

Officials warn that the severity of natural disasters is outpacing efforts to prevent their damage.

Judge demands information from PG&E utility as investigators seek cause of blaze spanning 698 sq miles

At least eight people were missing on Saturday as what has become the largest single wildfire in California’s recorded history continued to scorch through northern communities, forest and tinder-dry scrub in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

People in the scenic region were already facing a weekend of fear as the huge Dixie fire threatened to reduce thousands of homes to ashes.

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Josh Frydenberg’s office allowed proposed Queensland development to go to assessment despite legal advice it was ‘unacceptable’

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The Coalition government decided a controversial apartment complex and marina proposed for Queensland’s Moreton Bay should proceed to the next stage of the assessment process, despite legal advice from the federal attorney general’s department warning it was unacceptable because of the risk it posed to internationally listed wetlands.

The government was advised that a development inside the Ramsar site could put Australia in breach of its international obligations before Josh Frydenberg, who was environment minister at the time, recommended his department proceed with an assessment of the Walker Corporation’s long-proposed Toondah Harbour.

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Nearly a century after the extinction of the paradise parrot, a tiny team is trying to protect its cousin – by using land clearing

In 1922, Cyril Jerrard captured the first and only photographs of the paradise parrot, the only Australian bird to be officially declared extinct since European colonisation. Jerrard was well aware he was looking at one of the last of its kind: “The one undisguisable fact [is] that the advent of the white man has spelled destruction to one of the loveliest of the native birds of this country,” he wrote in 1924.

The last accepted sighting of a paradise parrot – also by Jerrard – was in 1927, near Gayndah in the Burnett River district of southern Queensland.

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NSW is now the worst performing state for the first time in the pandemic, with nearly 210,000 jobs gone in just three weeks

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By all economic indicators the current lockdowns are nowhere near as damaging as those last year and yet that small comfort is small indeed, as this week millions of Australians are again put to the test.

Last week’s payroll job numbers showed a sharp drop in the first three weeks of July. Jobs fell 2.6% across the nation, with every state recording falls.

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Alok Sharma’s air miles made the headlines, but missteps by his colleagues may be more damaging to the crucial talks in Glasgow

Alok Sharma stepped off the plane from Brazil on Friday, the latest stop in a punishing travel schedule that has taken him to 30 countries in seven months, and into the eye of a media storm.

“The height of hypocrisy,” screamed the Daily Mail’s headline, slamming the UK president-designate of the Cop26 UN climate talks, to be hosted in Glasgow in October and November. Sharma’s crime? No quarantines, having taken advantage of the rare exemptions offered to ministers, and 200,000 air miles in the pursuit of climate diplomacy.

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Cop26 meeting is last chance, says Alok Sharma as he backs UK’s plan for new oil and gas fields

• Government censured for gaffe after gaffe in run-up to Cop26

The world will soon face “catastrophe” from climate breakdown if urgent action is not taken, the British president of vital UN climate talks has warned.

Alok Sharma, the UK minister in charge of the Cop26 talks to be held in Glasgow this November, told the Observer that the consequences of failure would be “catastrophic”: “I don’t think there’s any other word for it. You’re seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.”

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Thousands of people were forced to flee Thrakomakedones, a suburb of the Greek capital, after strong winds spread wildfires that burned down homes.

More than 50 wildfires are burning across Greece as the worst heatwave in more than 30 years has hit the country. 

Tens of thousands of acres of forestland, homes and buildings have been destroyed and the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has promised a radical shift in the country's approach to the climate emergency.

• Wildfires burn out of control in Greece and Turkey as thousands flee

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Research shows more than a quarter of US population suffered ill health last summer, and it’s likely to get worse

The summer of 2020 brought fear of Covid-19, social distancing – and heat-related health problems that affects tens of millions of Americans.

Related: Last month was worst July for wildfires on record, say scientists

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The IPCC's short scientific summary due out on Monday will be strongest statement yet on climate change.

Soldier in his 20s, who was swimming in croc-infested waters, and friend who went to help, suffer serious injuries

A soldier has head, chest and arm injuries after being mauled by a crocodile that also attacked an army colleague who went to his aid in far north Queensland.

The men, who were reportedly swimming in croc-infested waters north of the Lockhart River on Friday afternoon when the attack occurred, have been airlifted to Cairns with serious injuries.

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234 scientists from 66 countries reviewed over 14,000 research papers. It was gruelling and it was worth it: the report is the most important global assessment of climate change science yet. David Karoly, Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

For some, the17th century "pilgrim fathers" are also real-life ancestors. But for how many?

Environmentally conscious entrepreneurs explain the movement towards zero-waste lifestyles.

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WCI regulated entities increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) cumulative position this week as the July contract expired, while speculators maintained holdings amid rising prices on the secondary market.