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CEFC makes biggest project finance deal for large scale solar as it seeks to help renewables overcome economic headwinds

The post CEFC jumps back into solar market as cost hikes put 82 pct renewable target at risk appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister says country has not agreed to ‘30 by 30’ deal

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister has said her country has not agreed to a deal to halt the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems, prompting behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to keep the agreement alive just hours after it was adopted.

Ève Bazaiba, the DRC’s environment minister, said her country would be writing to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Convention on Biological Diversity to express the DRC’s position on the final text. It comes after the Chinese Cop15 president, Huang Runqiu, appeared to force through the agreement in the final plenary just moments after the DRC negotiator had said did not support the deal, which is typically negotiated by consensus. His interventions prompted further objections from Uganda and Cameroon.

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International cooperation is the only way to halt biodiversity losses. But the action promised so far isn’t enough

The 23 targets in the Cop15 biodiversity agreement announced in Montreal on Monday are insufficient to prevent further irrecoverable losses, including among the many species threatened with extinction. The deal is not legally binding, leading to concerns about the prospects for implementation. The track record of global biodiversity plans is terrible. Every one of 20 targets set at Aichi in Japan in 2010 was missed.

The new agreement was finalised despite complaints from African countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to one of the world’s largest rainforests, which is threatened by oil and gas exploration. The description of the US’s role as “an interesting asterisk” by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was too mild. It is shaming and alarming that the US was at the talks as an “influencer” and not a participant, because the Senate has refused to ratify the UN convention on biological diversity.

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Fixed limits are set for household energy exports because of the uncertain impacts of so many variable generation sources on the network. New energy data and simulation systems may offer an answer. Richard Bean, Research Fellow, Centre for Energy Data Innovation, The University of Queensland Neil Horrocks, Professor and Director, Centre for Energy Data Innovation, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Several of the world’s largest banks are gearing up to enable customers to quickly trade voluntary offsets by early next year after piloting new blockchain fintech that aims to be the carbon market equivalent of the SWIFT network, which links financial institutions around the world.

EU energy ministers reached a political agreement on Monday for a market correction mechanism against excessively high gas prices, ending months of wrangling over how to tackle sky-high values after Russia curbed most of its flows into the bloc.

Bottlenose dolphin, a long-finned pilot whale and a third species found to have markers of the degenerative disease

Three species of cetacean stranded off the coast of Scotland, including a bottlenose dolphin and a long-finned pilot whale, have been found to have the classic markers of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study.

Although types of dementia have been fairly widely detected in other animals, Alzheimer’s disease has not been found to occur naturally in species other than humans.

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Thin demand and the impending roll of nearby standardised nearby futures contracts continued to weigh on the voluntary carbon market over the past week, although project specific fresher issued nature-based credits were still able to command a hefty premium.

EU carbon market analysts expect policy developments and power sector fundamentals to remain the key drivers of EUA prices in the short-term but that the influence of industrials will grow out to 2030, according to a survey conducted by researchers and published on Monday.

Memorable moments from the Montreal meeting that brought a historic deal.

Wasps seen piercing the mouth or other parts of tree frogs with their sharp weapon when being attacked

Kipling might well have believed that the female of the species is more deadly than the male, but when it comes to mason wasps, the latter have quite the weapon.

Researchers in Japan have discovered that male mason wasps use sharp spines on their genitalia to resist being swallowed by predators.

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António Guterres announces a climate ambition summit to confront ‘existential threat’ facing the planet

The goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “gasping for breath”, the UN secretary general has said as he announced a “climate ambition summit” for September.

António Guterres said the summit would challenge leaders of governments and businesses to come up with “new, tangible and credible climate action to accelerate the pace of change” and confront the “existential threat” of the climate crisis.

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Environmental groups and ministers have praised the ambition of the agreement, which also places emphasis on Indigenous rights

Ministers and environmental groups have praised the ambition of the historic deal reached at Cop15, which includes a target to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade and places emphasis on Indigenous rights.

But there were also concerns about the legitimacy of the deal after China appeared to force it through.

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EUA prices were volatile on Monday morning as the market digested the weekend outcome of the EU ETS reform trilogue, while traders looked to complete their trading activity before today's expiry of the December 2022 futures contract.

Investors with combined assets of €1.3 trillion have joined forces with an activist group to call on the world’s biggest oil firms to set more ambitious climate targets that also include Scope 3 emissions.

Exclusive: DfT refuses to publish emission figures, which campaigners say could make new road projects unviable

The UK government is refusing to release the carbon emission figures behind its transport decarbonisation plan, which campaigners say could make proposed road schemes financially unviable.

The Department for Transport (DfT) is blocking academics from seeing the figures, which include data on how much car use would have to be reduced in order to reach net zero commitments.

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Fotowatio Renewable Ventures Australia owned by a Saudi investment fund and a Canadian infrastructure fund, is to build a second big battery with grid forming inverters in Victoria after winning a role in the federal funding round. The 250MW/500MWh Gnarwarre battery energy storage system will be located in Gnarwarre, south west, Victoria, not far from the […]

The post FRV to build two grid forming battery storage projects in Victoria appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Delegates from 196 nations in the early hours of Monday reached agreement on a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, though observers were quick to stress that strong national implementation will be crucial to make up for some weaknesses in the text.

A pumped hydro project promising 810MW of capacity and energy storage of up to 12 hours has received a funding boost from the NSW state government.

The post NSW backs new pumped hydro project promising 12 hours of storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Agreement on ’30 by 30’ target forced through by Chinese president, ignoring objections from African states

• Cop15: key points of the nature deal at a glance

Governments appear to have signed a once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, but the agreement seems to have been forced through by the Chinese president, ignoring the objections of some African states.

After more than four years of negotiations, repeated delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic and talks into the night on Sunday in Montreal, nearly 200 countries – but not the US or the Vatican – signed an agreement at the biodiversity Cop15, which was co-hosted by Canada and China, to put humanity on a path to living in harmony with nature by the middle of the century.

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