Feed aggregator

This is AEMO’s sunshot - an ambitious plan to develop and deploy the systems and technologies that will make 100 per cent renewables happen.

The post From coal to inverters, AEMO’s engineering vision is ambitious and necessary appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The vast majority of Australians are yet to engage with or be exposed to new ways of thinking about and using energy.

The post Breakthrough! AEMO acknowledges energy transition needs social licence appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

The government-commissioned review lays out the damage our diet and farming system wreaks on the environment

The new food strategy for England, commissioned by the government, lays out in stark detail the damage the current food and farming system wreaks on the environment, as well as our health. It is the biggest destroyer of nature and a major source of climate warming, it says.

The report takes aim at overconsumption of meat. “Our current appetite for meat is unsustainable,” it says. “85% of farmland is used to feed livestock [and] we need some of that land back.”

Continue reading...

AGL's next CEO says energy policy should be guided by customers – and says one-third of the coal generator's customers are "strong green."

The post Australia’s biggest emitter and coal generator says its customers are “strong green” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The fossil fuel industry has long used its influence on education to downplay climate threats. It's getting worse, and is even turning up at Questacon.

The post Climate denial still features in fossil fuel-funded education materials appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A possible cause is identified for the Hubble telescope's worst glitch in years.

California regulator ARB distributed the largest volume of compliance offsets since December this week as a new forestry initiative took home the vast majority of the new credits, according to agency data published Wednesday.

Palladium is hiring an Associate, Project Development into its Nature Based Solutions (NBS) platform. The Associate, Project Development will work closely with the NBS leadership on the design of commercially attractive NBS projects / ventures and the establishment of external partnerships essential to the success of the global platform.

The former director of emissions and clean energy analytics at S&P Global Platts has taken a director position at Washington DC-headquartered Rapidan Energy Group.

India is expected to overtake China this decade as the world’s most populous nation. That puts it at the heart of the global challenge to beat climate change. Vigya Sharma, Senior Research Fellow, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

US Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced they will include a clean electricity standard in an upcoming budget resolution, though it is uncertain if the proposal can pass muster in the reconciliation process or gain the support of conservative members of the caucus.

Brazilian academics and activists issue warning amid fresh assault on environmental protections

The collapse of the Amazon rainforest is inevitable if Jair Bolsonaro remains president of Brazil, academics and environmental activists have warned amid a fresh government assault on protections for the forest.

Despite evidence that fire, drought and land clearance are pushing the Amazon towards a point of no return, they say the far-right leader is more interested in placating the powerful agribusiness lobby and tapping global markets that reward destructive behaviour.

Continue reading...

Setting ambitious goals and relying on future technical innovation is not enough

Last month, the Climate Change Committee delivered a withering verdict on the government’s failure to come up with a proper plan to deliver on its admirably ambitious net zero targets. As the committee released two dismal progress reports, which showed Britain behind on its goal of a 78% cut to greenhouse gases by 2035, its chairman, Lord Deben, observed: “The policy is just not there. It’s clear we need to step up very rapidly.”

On Wednesday, ministers were at it again. As they contemplate a societal transition on an epochal scale, affecting all aspects of people’s everyday lives, Boris Johnson and his ministers appear to believe they can get by through a combination of setting dates and making heroic technological assumptions. This time it was the turn of the transport minister, Grant Shapps, to unveil eye-catching net zero pledges. According to the government’s delayed transport decarbonisation plan, polluting diesel and petrol lorries are to be banned in Britain by 2040 at the latest, and all types of transport will be decarbonised by 2050. Yet as the Road Haulage Association pointed out, zero-emissions heavy goods vehicles are still an aspiration rather than a reality, and Mr Shapps has delivered no detail on how the bill for this hypothetical transition will be met. In aviation, where the government has pledged net zero internal UK flights by 2040, there is a similar gap between rhetoric and reality. The notion that hydrogen aircraft and sustainable aviation fuels can obviate the need to fly less, at least in the medium term, is fanciful.

Continue reading...

The EU will force importers of electricity and a number of foreign industrial sectors to pay for emissions covered under a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) from 2026, according to a proposal released by the European Commission on Wednesday, which came as a UN agency urged caution over the divisive policy.

The largest US wildfire so far in 2021 is in the proximity of a California Carbon Offset (CCO) forestry project, with tech giant Microsoft having procured credits from the Oregon undertaking.

EU member states will face tougher targets and goals to increase renewable energy

In 2019 the European parliament declared a “climate and environmental emergency”. In 2020 EU leaders pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of this decade. Now comes the hard part: turning promises into policies to curb dangerous global heating.

Continue reading...

Rising heat and deforestation cause eastern parts of the Amazon to become carbon sources, not sinks.

Cutting emissions is more urgent than ever with forest producing more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year

The Amazon rainforest is emitting a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to a study. The giant forest had been absorbing the emissions driving the climate crisis but is now causing its acceleration, researchers said.

Most of the emissions are caused by fires, many deliberately set to clear land for beef and soy production. But even without fires, hotter temperatures and droughts mean the south-eastern Amazon has become a source of CO2, rather than a sink.

Continue reading...

AEMC unveils new simplified rules for distributed energy resources, and a new 'fast frequency response' to reward batteries for keeping the lights on.

The post New rules to reward batteries for keeping the lights on, and make hybrids a reality appeared first on RenewEconomy.