Feed aggregator

The European Commission is considering the introduction of a minimum carbon price as part of a wider consultation on the revision of the ETS, a senior official said Monday, although he added that the EU’s executive is “hesitant” about the policy.

Swedish state-owned miner LKAB on Monday set out a $46.5 billion plan to shift to emissions free production of iron ore for steelmaking, aiming to secure its future well beyond the country’s 2045 net zero emissions target.

California gasoline consumption dropped in September from the prior month, but the year-on-year trend inched closer to 2019 levels, according to federal data released this week.

The EU’s post-2020 Modernisation Fund will monetise 643.2 million carbon allowances over the next decade to help 10 lower-income member states decarbonise their economies, the European Commission announced Monday.

New York’s draft RGGI regulation to install post-2020 CO2 allowance budgets aligns with climate goals established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), state officials said, rebuking comments from legislators and environmental groups who criticised the proposed cap levels.

Pollutants from farming, heating and vehicles beyond levels needed to ensure breathable air

Governments across Europe are failing to protect their citizens from toxic air pollution, with most Europeans still breathing filthy air in their cities, according to data.

Pollutants from farming, domestic heating and vehicles are beyond the levels needed to ensure breathable air within World Health Organization guidelines, despite EU legislation, government pledges and years of campaigning.

Continue reading...

Group stages debt and tax strikes to expose ‘political economy’s complicity’ in ecological crisis

Extinction Rebellion is launching a campaign of financial civil disobedience aimed at exposing the “political economy’s complicity” in the unfolding ecological crisis.

The group – which has staged some of the UK’s biggest civil disobedience protests over the past two years – is turning its attention to what it says will be a sustained campaign of debt and tax strikes. It is also asking people to “redirect” loans from banks that finance fossil fuel projects to frontline organisations fighting for climate justice.

Continue reading...

Despite the global lockdowns, overall greenhouse gas concentrations have continued to rise.

Drop in emissions this year is a ‘tiny blip’ in buildup of greenhouse gases, UN agency says

Climate-heating gases have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has said.

There is estimated to have been a cut in emissions of between 4.2% and 7.5% in 2020 due to the shutdown of travel and other activities. But the WMO said this was a “tiny blip” in the continuous buildup of greenhouse gases in the air caused by human activities, and less than the natural variation seen year to year.

Continue reading...

The Biden transition team is facing pressure not to hire people with fossil fuel ties, like Obama’s energy secretary Ernest Moniz

It was a deceptively low-key occasion on Capitol Hill: an older man in a dark suit, talking into a TV camera about an energy report.

According to his firm’s 362-page analysis, the fastest path to California’s climate goals included continuing to rely on fossil fuels. The analysis was funded by gas companies and groups related to them, but he wasn’t a lobbyist or industry consultant. Quite the opposite, he was the Obama administration’s well-respected energy secretary, Ernest Moniz.

Continue reading...

Other groups have reported higher protection, but the results are still seen as a triumph.

Former senior official warns of going back to the community unrest of the 70s and 80s over conservation issues

Changes to environment law planned by the Morrison government would spark a return to the “environmental confusion” of the 1970s and 1980s, when there was sustained community unrest over conservation issues, according to a former senior bureaucrat responsible for the legislation.

Gerard Early, now a director with Birdlife Australia, told a Senate inquiry that history suggested a plan to change environment laws to hand greater responsibility for development assessments to the states would just increase risk and uncertainty over proposals, not reduce them as intended.

Continue reading...

The species, mainly caught as bycatch but also prized by sports fishermen, is facing an alarming decline in numbers

Conservationists accused the EU and the US at negotiations of Atlantic fishing nations this week of blocking urgently needed plans to protect the world’s fastest shark species.

The strength and speed of the shortfin mako, which can swim up to 43mph, makes it a target for sports fishermen, particularly in the US, while its highly prized meat and fins have led to the shark being overfished globally – and dangerously so in the north Atlantic.

Continue reading...

Outgoing AEMO CEO Audrey Zibelman delivers a parting message to policymakers: We can't afford to just keep whinging about the state of energy policy.

The post Zibelman: We can’t just keep whinging about the state of energy policy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW energy minister Matt Kean tells summit he is focused on delivering cheaper electricity to households. Angus Taylor says he wants to export the most gas.

The post Matt Kean takes on Angus Taylor: “I’m not on the side of vested interests” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

This role leads a high-quality team of modellers, economists and expert policy analysts whose work is central to the reputation of the Commission.

Green Energy Markets is looking for someone to help with building and maintaining its databases and models which track and forecast large-scale renewable energy projects such as wind and solar farms, the rooftop solar market, the broader electricity market and energy efficiency.

In a bilateral agreement, the federal and Victorian governments will provide up to $200m in underwriting support for the Victoria to NSW Interconnector (VNI) West project.

The post New Victoria to NSW “electric highway” gets kick-along from federal and state funds appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The first trades in China’s national emissions trading scheme are likely to take place early next year, an advisor to the government said over the weekend, meaning the country is likely to miss its 2020 target start date for the market, though compliance obligations are still set to be backdated to 2019.

Denmark's mass mink cull after a coronavirus outbreak at farms leaves the industry in the spotlight.